“I went online this afternoon and booked a cruise for the family.” The doctors warned us that there might come a time when Alyssa experienced bouts of confusion, but this is ridiculous!
“What do you mean you booked a cruise?” I ask, trying very hard to stay calm. I am the idiot who told her I would listen to what she had to say. Had I known it involved spending thousands of dollars on a trip we can’t possibly take, I might not have been so quick to agree.
“Do you remember how we always said we were going to take Jacob on a Disney cruise when he got older?” she asks softly. Tears fill her crystalline eyes as she regains her composure. We might be talking about cruises right now, but I know damn well that’s not what has her choked up. “If we don’t go now, I won’t be there when you take him. So, I booked it when we got home. We leave two weeks from today.”
“Alyssa, I love you, but there is no way we can make this trip. What happens if you get sicker?” I feel as if I’ve been punched in the stomach. And then kicked in the kidneys. I don’t want to tell her that we can’t do this because it’s something she’s been talking about since Jacob was two and developed an obsession for boats.
“They have medical facilities on board,” she informs me. I watch as my wife sits a bit straighter, pushing her shoulders back. “Melanie and I looked into it this afternoon. I will need my passport in case I have to be evacuated, but those are all in the safe. It’s no different than if we were going on any other trip.”
“Melanie helped you plan this?” I look into the kitchen and see Braydon and Melanie sitting on the counter looking at something on his phone. I’ll deal with her later because if I call her in right now, I have no doubt she will team up with Alyssa and there will be no way of talking her out of this ludicrous idea. “Look, Alyssa, I know how much you’ve always wanted a Disney trip. And I know we said we would go when Jacob was older, but--”
“NO!” Alyssa bolts out of her chair, placing her hands on my shoulders. “You are not going to take this away from me. I’m dying, Xavier! Don’t you get that? I want to go on this trip because I’ll be lucky to be here two months from now. Every fucking day, I wake up wondering if it’s the day I start feeling worse. I. Don’t. Have. Time.”
In the five years I’ve known her, Alyssa has never gotten in my face the way she is now. There’s no way she’s going to let this go. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Al, but if Melanie walks me through everything I need to do for you while we’re gone and I know exactly what happens in different situations, we’ll go.”
“Why would Melanie go to all that trouble?” Satisfied that she’s getting her way, Alyssa sits back down, reaching for my hand.
“So I can take care of you,” I say, brushing my fingers along her cheek. “I can’t go into this trip unprepared. I don’t want to do it at all, but you’ll probably sneak off without me if I refuse.”
Alyssa bites back the smile threatening to split her face in half. “We booked a room big enough for all four of us. I know it’s supposed to be a family trip, but Mel is like family at this point. Plus, having her with us will give you some peace of mind when it comes to keeping track of Jacob and me.”
I lean back in my chair as Alyssa tells me all about the four nights we’re going to spend between Florida and the Bahamas. By the time she’s finished, it’s impossible to keep from getting excited. I’ll worry every second from the time we leave until the time we get home, but the smile on her face will be worth it.
Chapter 6
Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any weirder, it did. I’m not sure what I was expecting for our stateroom, but this surely wasn’t it. It’s day two of sharing a tiny room with my wife, four year-old son, and the woman I once thought I would spend the rest of my life with. And just in case that wasn’t enough to take the gold medal in the awkward moment Olympics, Alyssa is pushing for me to spend part of tomorrow with Melanie.
“This is supposed to be a family trip,” I remind Alyssa as I get Jacob ready for bed. With the exception of late last night and a few hours this afternoon, Melanie has been nowhere to be found. Since Alyssa has been careful to not over-exert herself, Melanie figured we would be fine without her. What she fails to realize is that all of us are becoming dependent on her presence, not just Alyssa.