Page 30 of Locked Down In Watch Hill
The dominoes fell in my head like a neat little row of pain-in-the-neck fallout. I’d have to close Watch Hill Pizza for a least a few days. We’d need to notify the customers on our email list and our social media following. Seth, Tyler, and I would all get tested, along with Seth’s friends who’d helped us the day before. These were non-negotiables. I didn’t hesitate on those things.
But...
My gaze fell on Ashley, still asleep on the other side of the bed. She’d just been cleared, finally able to know some freedom again.
Distaste caught in my throat.
She’d been so excited about that, so happy that she’d soon have the chance to move more freely, that that she wouldn’t have to shelter inside this apartment much longer. I’d heard the hopefulness in her voice and saw it in her eyes. She was going to be devasted when she woke up to this news. I didn’t know her well enough to know how badly she’d take it, but I figured she’d be crestfallen.
Squaring my jaw, I tapped her on the shoulder a few times.
“Ashley?”
She shifted in the bed but didn’t open her eyes.
“Ashley,” I said a little louder. “I know it’s early but I need you to wake up. It’s important.”
She twisted in the sheets a second time and opened her eyes at my command. “Hey there.” As faint smile crossed her lips. “What’s going on?”
“I got a text from Tyler.” I wasn’t good at delivering news like this, but I also felt like I had no other way to do so. I took a deep breath. “He wanted me to know that he’s been exposed to COVID, and therefore, the staff and I have too, along with all the people we have come in contact with over the last few days.”
She sat straight up in bed. “What?”
“Yeah, he said one of his roommate’s family members came down with it, and they’d had that person over for dinner recently.” I gulped. At least I’d said it. “So, I feel like you need to know this, because that means—”
“You’ve exposed me too.”
I nodded.
“And that I have to get tested again.” She stared at me. “And quarantine. Again.”
“Maybe. Yes. No. I don’t know.” I struggled, thinking this through. She didn’t know Tyler, and hadn’t been in direct contact with him, so maybe... “I mean, if I don’t have it, then you don’t, right?”
“But what if youdo?” Ashley got out of bed, pulled on underwear, and strode to the closet where she pulled a robe off the back of the door and tied it around her body. “I don’t think I can do these quarantines anymore, I really don’t. I’m just...” Her voice broke into a sob. “I’m tired. So darn tired.”
“We’re all tired.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Say it like what?”
“Like I should somehow be okay with all this. Like I’m fortunate or something.”
I stared at her, unable to find a decent reply.
“I’m not sure I can take this anymore. I’m not sure I can keep doing this.” Ashley braced her arm on the closet doorknob. “I am sick of all this. Just freaking sick of it.”
“Me too.”
We stared at each other for a moment and then something hardened behind her eyes. “We shouldn’t have done this.”
“Shouldn’t have done what?”
“This.” She motioned between us. “If we hadn’t... if I hadn’t let you in that night, and by God, if I hadn’t been stupid enough to let you stay—” She shook her head. “This was a mistake.”
“I don’t think it was.”
“What do they keep saying on the news? What do they keep telling us repeatedly? They’ve said it for months. We need to stay away from each other to limit the spread. We need to keep social distance.”
