Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

Author:Lisa Genova
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Finished with his morning shift, Bill walks into the sunlit but chilly living room, leaving the door to the den wide-open. Cuddled under a blanket on the couch and draining the last still-hot sip of her second cup of coffee, Karina is distracted by this, bothered even, as if she’d witnessed someone leave a bed unmade or the cap off a tube of toothpaste, nagging her like an aggressive itch she can’t yet scratch. She doesn’t keep the den door wide-open. She can’t shut it entirely as she would prefer, as Richard would be trapped inside, but there needs to be some physical, visible barrier between them. She keeps the den door positioned open only a crack, creating at least a semblance of separation and privacy. She feels safer that way. Not wanting to reveal this probably diagnosable compulsion to Bill, she’ll close the den door to an inch shy of shut after he goes. Then she’ll finally take a shower.

Karina anticipates their daily good-bye as Bill checks a text on his phone. Done, he looks up at her, but instead of offering his usual cheery hug and a kiss on the cheek, he stands there with his arms crossed, studying Karina as if she were a math problem he can’t quite figure out or a piece of art that sort of offends him but he’s not sure why.

“Okay, girlfriend, my one-thirty just canceled. Kensia will be here with Richard then. You’re meeting me for coffee.”

“I can put on a pot here if you want some coffee.”

“No. You’re getting out of this house, and we need to chat.”

“About what?”

“About you,” he says, assertive and concerned.

“Me?” She’s suddenly self-conscious about her bedhead and sweatpants, that she’s not wearing a bra under her T-shirt or any makeup, and that she doesn’t smell so good. “I’m fine.”

“You are so not fine. Ryan Gosling in The Notebook is fine. You’re Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.”

Mortified, she wants to pull the blanket she’s wrapped in up and over her head.

“I’m just tellin’ it like I see it.”

“I haven’t showered yet,” she confesses, as if this weren’t obvious. “And I’ve already had two cups of coffee and can’t have any more caffeine or I won’t sleep at all tonight.”

“You can order decaf.”

“Honestly, I’m okay, Bill.”

“Decaf coffee at one thirty, or we’re going for martinis after I get off work tonight at six thirty. And don’t throw any more excuses at me ’cause I have a really big bat, and I’ll just keep hitting ’em back at ya.”

“I’m good.”

“You’re bad.”

“I can’t leave at six thirty. Kevin’s only here until six.”

Bill squints at her through his black-rimmed glasses as if he were contemplating his next move in a game of chess. “You’re driving me nuts.” He checks his phone again. “Okay, my next visit lives nearby, so let’s do this now. Come.”

He marches into the kitchen, a man on a mission, and not knowing what else to do, Karina follows him. They sit opposite each other at the square breakfast table.

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