“Maybe if I feel better.”
“Let’s get some meds and maybe some soup in you. That will help.”
“Ugh…I’m not sure I can eat. I’ve been queasy since I woke up.”
“Have you eaten anything?”
“Not since about four yesterday.”
She nods. “That’s probably why. You need to eat.” She takes her phone and shoots off a text.
“What are you doing?”
“Texting Hutch to bring you back something to eat.”
“You don’t need to do that…”
She smiles, cutting off what I was about to say. “Let the man bring you food.”
“He already tells me I don’t eat enough as it is.”
“You don’t.”
“That’s not true.”
“I’ve barely seen you eat since you’ve been here. You’re never in the kitchen and there’s hardly anything in the fridge with your name on it.”
“I eat when I’m at school and I have a mini fridge up here.”
The look she gives me says she doesn’t believe a word of it.
“I get it. Money is sometimes tight for me too. You eat less and less just to survive. AJ hates that I won’t let him give me money, but I don’t want anyone saying I’m only in it for his money. But if you don’t eat, then you’re going to wear yourself down until you get so exhausted, you can’t work. Have you been able to find a job yet? Jenny said you were looking.”
“Not unless I want to wait tables in establishments that are sketchy.”
“Let me check with Debbie. I think one of our servers quit a few days ago. She might have an opening.”
“Where do you work?”
“A pub about ten minutes from campus, The Den. It’s pretty busy, but we don’t get the business some of the other places do as most of the sports teams hang out elsewhere. I think our food is better, but what can you do? People go where they want.”
“That would actually be great.”
“I’ll ask when I go in for my next shift. Now, why don’t you go shower? I always feel better when I shower after sneezing my head off for hours.”
She waves and lets herself out.
Now this is luck. I’ve been looking weeks for a job. I did start skipping meals to make sure I had enough for the rent through this semester just in case I couldn’t find anything. Which was starting to look more and more likely until Christa came through with the win. Well, with the way my luck has been going, the position might already be filled. The place probably has hundreds of applications on file they can pull from. Still, even a chance is better than nothing.
A shower does sound nice, but the energy to get up and actually do it? Not so much. Just the thought of trying to do it tires me out. I don’t want to.
My brother would tell me to man up and do it because it will make me feel better. Christa is right about that. I wish Robbie was closer, but Robbie is a world away in Afgahnistan. I’m terrified any day I’ll get a knock on my door and it’ll be some uniformed Naval officer standing there all stoic to tell me my brother died in the line of duty.
Nope, not today, Daisy. I’m not going down that rabbit hole of what ifs. Robert Earl is serving his country and doing what he loves. I just have to try and remember that. He’ll be fine.
Instead of focusing on that, I turn my thoughts to Hutch. Why is he so bent on me going to his stupid game anyway? I’m not the magical cure all for his speed. He just needs to not stress. Stress is a killer.
Could it be he really is superstitious? He agreed with Christa hockey players were, but he didn’t specifically say he was. If I go, will it turn into me having to hot foot it to every single game? As cold as it is in there, I’m not gonna do that. Being exposed to it for less than an hour made me sick.
