“I’m sure it’s fine,” he said, forcing a smile, and after pouring himself some more wine, changed the subject and continued eating.
But later he was horribly sick and was awake for most of the night. Ellen eventually went to sleep in the guest room, “I’ll be right here if you need me, sweetheart,” she said. “I just have to get a few hours of sleep. Here, you poor thing,” she added as she moved a bucket to the bedside. “Just in case you don’t make it to the bathroom.” He was too miserable to respond with anything more than a raised hand.
When she checked on him in the morning, she was glowing with good health. So much for the dinner being bad. But he had the strangest feeling, for just a minute, that she looked pleased.
“You must have come down with some awful bug,” she told him. She eff
