There was silence for a long moment. Then Vicky’s voice came back on the line. “I just thought… but it’s your business.”
“Yes, it is.” Cathy was bothered. She couldn’t imagine why Vicky would even wonder about such a thing. Then the probable reason burst on her brain, and she mentally smacked herself. As far as Vicky was aware, she and Michael were developing a lasting relationship. Guilt nudged her. She wasn’t used to keeping things from her best friend. She was actually lying by omission, and it wasn’t the first time she had done it since meeting Michael. Also, Vicky’s query had made her see that her arrangement with Michael was suddenly fraught with difficulties. Some of her giddy happiness left her. She felt uncomfortable and strangely upset. “Vicky, I don’t want to talk about Michael, okay?”
“Sure, I understand. Well, I don’t, but it’s okay.” Vicky’s voice rallied. “So, do you want to hit the stores after work? Besides everything else, you’ll need cleaning supplies for this massive cleaning spree.”
Cathy was relieved by the change in subject. She pushed any thought of Michael out of her head, determined to deal first with her primary priorities. There wasn’t time to bend her mind to the large problem of their relationship, such as it was, and what would happen to it now. “I’d appreciate your help, Vicky. Unless you have other plans?”
“Cathy, I’m a single woman with a cat. I’ll meet you in the parking lot.”
After getting off the phone, Cathy took a legal pad and started to make a list of things as they occurred to her. With her daughter home, it would mean a substantial reshuffle of her life in more ways than she had anticipated. It didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered. It would be worth it. But she had to make some plans, build in a safety net for herself. She would have to hire a home nurse to stay with Chloe whenever she needed to do the grocery shopping or run other errands or come in to the office when it became necessary, so she would need to find a professional whose schedule was flexible. Cathy decided to get in touch with the head nurse on Chloe’s floor at the hospital. Surely Barbara Beasely might know of someone, she thought hopefully.
Her work was such that, with some minor adjustments, it would not be a trial to do from home. Much of what she did was on the computer. Spreadsheets and grant proposals lent themselves well to electronic communication. It would just require organization and time management, which she was already good at.
Even as she was making her list, the question she kept asking herself was what she was going to do about Michael. Like it or not, her relationship with him was part of the equation. Cathy frowned abstractedly, tapping her pencil on the tablet. She still couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to her to think about the impact of Chloe’s homecoming on her and Michael’s relationship until Vicky brought it up.
She did not know how she was going to fit Michael into her new life. She had not confided in him about Chloe and her need to be with her daughter before. She certainly wasn’t going to change that decision now. With Chloe at home, her time would become doubly impossible to dovetail with Michael’s schedule. She honestly did not see how she was going to be able to continue to see him.