Page 32 of Brooklynaire

Another tear leaks out of Becca’s eye as she smiles at the doctor. “I can’t wait to getstarted.”

“The day after tomorrow.” He claps a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll set you up with a trainer. Sessions are ninety minutes. In the meantime, you’re going to take good care of yourself. You can be as active as you wish, but you need a good eight or ten hours of sleep. And limited screen time. No blue light after sundown. Set your phone to the warm light setting, and don’t look at it much until you’re seeing some improvement in your symptoms.” The doctor turns to me. “If you two have a TV in your bedroom, it needs to stay off for a few weeks. Most couples can usually find better things to do with the time,anyway.”

Then the doctorwinks, and my brain glitches out at the idea that he thinks we’re acouple.

“Um…” I don’t know what to say. A quick review of the last two minutes is illuminating, though. I’d walked in here and grabbed Rebecca like my favorite teddy bear and began wiping away hertears…

“…Three sessions a week for ninety minutes.” The doctor has already moved on. “We’ll take baseline measurements first, and then we’ll get right to work. Pleasure meeting youboth.”

I shake the doctor’s hand once more, and then he’sgone.

“Wow.” Rebecca leans against the wall and sighs. “I amsorelieved. You have noidea.”

“It’s great news, Bec. You ready to head home?” Hearing the way that sounds, I mentally kick myself.Home. I obviously need to do a better job of keeping my distance from Rebecca. I gave the doctor the wrong idea within five seconds of showing up here. I wouldn’t want her to think I had some kind of ulterior motive when I’d asked her to stay at myhouse.

“Are you going into the office?” she asks as we ride the elevator back down to the lobby. The doors part and we move toward the exits. It’s a nice spring dayoutside.

“No. It’s Sunday. I’ll take the day off for a change. Besides, it’s time for lunch. I’mstarving.”

Rebecca straightens. “Let’s find you some lunch. Sushi?” She’s snapped into business mode. Preventing my starvation is something Rebecca does on a regular basis. And while it’s good to see her looking like her old self, I sure as hell don’t need her fussing overme.

“Let’s walk a ways,” I suggest. “Find a food truck, maybe? It’s a nice day and I’ve been on a plane all morning.” I steer her toward CentreStreet.

“Where’s yourstuff?”

“In the car with Ramesh. Hey—look.” I’ve spotted a take-out window. “How do you feel aboutfalafel?”

“Let’s see how it looks,” she says. “A good falafel is heaven. An indifferent falafel is a waste ofcarbs.”

This makes me smile. Rebecca is a bit of a foodie in a fun, unfussy way. In the old days, she scoured the neighborhood, looking for joints we’d missed. She’d found the Cantonese place that became an office legend. And our favorite sushijoint.

Under the springtime sunshine I feel strangely sentimental for those simpler days. My job was more fun back then. We were underdogs. It was me, Rebecca, and a dozen programmers against theworld.

If we edit out Juliet’s betrayal, it was a really nice time in mylife.

Rebecca pronounces the falafel acceptable, and I buy two of them and a couple bottles of water. “Want to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge?” I haven’t done that in a longtime.

“Sure!” She smiles, tipping her face up to the sky. “Walking and eating, though. I have enough trouble with coordination as itis.”

So I find her a bench, and we sit down to eat,first.

“Don’t you have to tell Ramesh where you’ve gone?” sheasks.

My mouth full, I grunt in agreement. Ramesh is supposed to keep tabs on me, so when I wander off, it’s probablyannoying.

She slips her phone out of her pocket to text him ourplan.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to usescreens?”

“Much,” she corrects me. “But now I’m not following the concussion protocol, so it’s a little different. Reading books is okay again. Blue light after dark is the only thing I can’thave.”

Our eyes meet for a split second, and I see a hint of amusement in her expression—as if she just remembered the doctor’s advice about TVs inbedrooms.

We both look away at the sametime.

“Hey—thanks for the audiobooks,” she says brightly. “That was a lovelyidea.”

“You’rewelcome.”