Then he turned and walked away. He even opened the car door for Maud.
I watched the car pull out and disappear down the rain-slicked street, its taillights shrinking to nothing.
Only then did I take a deep breath and plunge into the rain.
The next day, whether from drinking too much or something else entirely, I woke in the middle of the night with a searing pain in my stomach.
My first instinct was to call Alfred. I'd already dialed the number before I caught myself and hung up.
I'd already made up my mind to leave.
No reason to bother him if I could help it.
I called an ambulance instead.
At the hospital, the doctor told me there was a small cyst on my ovary. I needed surgery.
I also needed someone to sign the consent form.
In all of Cloudvale, the only person I knew was Alfred.
After going back and forth with myself, I finally picked up the phone and called him.
The line connected, and the first thing I heard was Maud's laughter, bright and teasing, somewhere in the background.
"Alfred, I can't believe it. After all these years, you haven't lost your touch in the kitchen! You're actually making garlic butter shrimp for me."