Now she was back again, gawking. “What is that?” she asked, pointing to the apparatus.
“This is a special way of feeding Grammy that we have to do right now,” Arianna said.
“Does it hurt?” Sophie wanted to know.
“No,” said Mia. “Only my pride,” she added sadly.
Arianna had barely gotten her mom taken care of when Sunny called to tell her not to worry about making dinner. “We’ve got it covered.”
“Thank you,” Arianna said. What would she have done without her friends?
Ava showed up at six o’clock with a Costco lasagna, French bread and a salad. “I figured if you have leftovers, you can freeze them,” she said to Arianna.
“It’s only Sophie and me eating, so I’m sure we will,” Arianna told her. “Thank you.”
They did, indeed, have leftovers, and Molly added to the food pile by bringing over mac and cheese and a salad the next day. “This and what Ava brought yesterday will probably last us for a while,” she said to Molly.
“Are we smothering you in food?” Molly asked.
“A little.”
“Okay, I’ll tell Sunny. She’s taken over as Food General. You look awful, by the way. I don’t suppose you’re sleeping.”
“Sleep’s overrated.”
“Yes, until you collapse. Use those pills Sunny bought you,” Molly instructed.
“I will,” Arianna lied.
The next day Sunny brought over a baby monitor. “This way you can sleep and you won’t have to worry about not hearing Mia if she needs something.”
Arianna thanked her. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”
“Probably because your brain is fried.”
“My everything is fried,” Arianna said.
Molly and Sunny weren’t their only visitors. Alden came over later the next evening after Sophie was in bed and was happy to eat some of the leftover lasagna. He’d also brought his computer, loaded with a selection of rom-coms for Arianna and Mia to choose from.
“Thought you might need some distraction,” he said.
“Thanks. That was really nice of you,” Arianna said.
He shrugged off her compliment with a joke. “That’s me, Mr. Nice Guy.”
“You are,” said Arianna.How is it you’re still single?She wanted to come right out and ask but didn’t let herself. She wasn’t looking and he wasn’t interested, just being kind.
With his arrival, Mia insisted she was ready to go to bed. “You’re a good neighbor,” she said to Alden before leaving them.
“Not really. I just got bored over there by myself,” he told her. As if he had no life.
“And you lie beautifully,” Mia said, before starting up the stairs.
His only response to that was a chuckle.
“I bet you haven’t been sleeping much,” he said to Arianna as he connected his computer to her TV.
“What was your first clue?” she cracked.
