More worried about missing time with Cate than about her reaction to him, he squares his shoulders and steps inside, across the tile floor, and to the elevators on the left. At this rate, he’ll barely get half an hour with her. Back and forth, the doors rasping out and in. He holds a cupcake in a plastic container and paces just outside the front doors, setting off the automatic sliding doors as he crosses the centre point. They’ve always gotten along, but James worries they might blame him for Cate’s illness, as if he told her to lose those extra pounds or to tone her muscles. They’ll come later today, and he’s not sure he wants to run into them. He settled on the first visiting slot because it’s in the middle of the morning and he doesn’t think anyone else will be visiting this early. All night he agonised over the best time to come, weighing the pros and cons of earlier or later visits, the duration. He has a forty-minute window to see her this morning and has already paid for parking at the hospital. James’s eyes caught mentions of Wren’s new love interest and he thought ‘good for her’ and ‘thank god she didn’t think we were anything serious.’ Cate’s schedule found, visiting hours highlighted in purple, he forwarded the image to himself, then deleted evidence of sending that message on Wren’s phone and replaced her cell on the table while veggies and noodles simmered around the corner. He didn’t mean to read any of their exchanges he didn’t have time to analyse their conversations while Wren cooked a stir-fry last night. Wren’s phone uses a swipe-pattern as a lock-a simple ‘Z.’ Easy to grab the phone from the coffee table in their living room, unlock it, and scroll through her messages with Cate to find the image. Instead, he located the schedule on Wren’s phone. And then he would have to follow through and he really isn’t sure if he’s actually up for visiting Cate. James thought about asking Wren for a copy of the schedule, but that would mean speaking his plan out loud. After the doctors agreed she needed more time in their care.

After Cate was supposed to be cured and back home. Not at the very beginning, but about two weeks after being admitted to hospital. Wren has a copy of Cate’s schedule, a photo Cate messaged her.

Want by Barbara Langhorst