“I know.”
“You’re very sick.”
“Yes.”
“We barely know each other.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
“I know enough.”
“Enough for marriage?”
“Enough to know you’re the kind of person who stays. My last wish is to leave this world as a husband, not as a nameless file.”
“We barely know each other.”
***
Two days later, a chaplain married us in Thomas’s hospital room.
I wore a yellow sweater because Thomas said it made the room look less tired.
He wore the same cardigan with one missing button.
A nurse asked me if I was sure. She said Thomas was old enough to be my grandfather.
I just said yes.
Because my heart had answered before my mind could.
Thomas was old enough to be my grandfather.
When the chaplain asked for rings, Thomas lifted his soda can, worked the pull tab loose with thin fingers, and slid it onto mine.
