Page 42 of 21 Years of Jane

I pulled away from him and grabbed the phone. I took Dr. Kowalski off speaker and put the phone to my ear.

“How safe would it be for me to have sex?” I asked bluntly.

“Having ESRD doesn’t affect your sex life. I know most people think it does, but it doesn’t,” she responded. “I would check with Dr. Bright about the femur, though.”

“I already talked to him. Thanks Dr. Kowalski and sorry again for bothering you.”

“My patients are never a bother,” she said before hanging up.

I hung up with her and turned, putting my hand to my face for a moment. I was angry that Nolan had taken away my element of surprise, but I understood why he did it.

“Dr. Kowalski said that failing kidneys don’t affect the sex life. Dr. Bright is going to run some tests on me tomorrow to see if my bones are strong enough. I’m gonna go take a nap now. Suddenly I have a massive headache,” I grumbled wheeling past him.

I decided to take my angry nap on the living room couch.

Nolan decided to follow me.

I pulled myself onto the couch and stretched out.

Nolan moved my wheelchair to the end of the couch.

I put an arm over my face.

Nolan grabbed and draped a sheet around me.

“Will you cut it out?” I exploded angrily.

He jumped and looked at me in surprise. I had never, in the entire time we had been together, yelled at him. Any arguments we almost had were always swayed by goofy grins or rock, paper, scissor.

“What did I do?” he asked incredulously.

“You treat me like I’m an invalid. I can’t stand that! I was perfectly capable of moving the damn wheelchair and grabbing the sheet, if I wanted one to begin with,” I said in frustration.

He took a deep, steadying breath and held up a fist with his eyes closed. I sighed. He was right; there was no reason to argue. Unless fate decided otherwise.

We both shook our fists three times and played our hands.

To win by rock—which he did—meant the argument was over. To win by scissor meant separate rooms. To win by paper, meant we slept in said separate rooms that night.

He sat down in his leather recliner across from me and looked at me for a moment. I was expecting another rousing game of RPS when I saw the half-smile starting to creep over his face.

“Why?” he asked curiously.

“Why what?” I asked, putting my arm back over my face.

“You know what.”

I turned my head and looked at him.

“I am under the assumption, albeit possibly the wrong assumption, that you have never had… an encounter. Don’t tell me if you have! I live in a rather glorious parallel universe where you haven’t!” I said, raising a hand. “For some reason, my hormones have been flying out of control lately, and with your birthday being in eight days, I figured it would be an opportune time.”

Nolan was quiet. He had turned his gaze away from me when I was presenting my reasons, maintaining some kind of eye lock on something outside.

“Can I go with you to your appointment tomorrow?” he finally asked without looking at me.

“If you want. I was just going to take the bus there and back.”

He got up from his chair, walked over to me, and kissed my forehead.