What are the odds?

 

Dylan was beginning to think something weird was going on with Tori. When she first called to tell him she was being tested for COVID, he instantly thought she said she was pregnant with Melvin's baby. He couldn't get it out of his head. What if it was true?

"Are you sure that's all it is?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Of course, she wondered how Dylan was doing. Wasn't it too cold to be actually working on-site somewhere with so much snow and there had been a blizzard a week or so ago? "Don't tell me you were working in some building with no windows."

He did his best to stay calm so she would stay calm. He imagined her in new houseshoes crocheting in her room without Frankie nor Melvin around. He hated to admit it, but he was glad Melvin wasn't around her at the moment.

"Relax, I haven't gone anywhere but to Metro where the classes are and it's just me and two other guys." He was lucky to even be doing anything at the school. Besides he was even helping Maisy out. Caitlin hadn't been to the coffee shop in days.

"Do you know if Caitlin is sick?" He'd tried to call her and text, but nothing. "She might get fired."

"I think she's OK," Tori told him she was seeing someone.

"Seeing someone? Who?"

"I don't really know. I think he works at Melvin's."

"Oh." It was the first he'd heard. "Are you sure she's not with Melvin?"

"No, Megan would know," Tori said.

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

"Are you just telling me that?" Dylan pressed on, wishing she was here with him. He felt they'd been lost in the shuffle somehow. "I  wish we'd spent Christmas together. Just you and me. I miss you."

"I really like you, Dylan." Tori told him as if it might be a plea.

"I don't think so," Dylan words were simple. "You'd be here already if you liked me. You'd be with me. You wouldn't have gone Christmas shopping with Melvin. You wouldn't have let Frankie-" Dylan didn't know what to say. "You'd be over him and you would be with me."

"It's just-" Tori's sigh said everything. "I don't think I can love you the way you want to be loved."

Dylan squinted hard feeling devastated. He'd told her too much. If he could do it all over again, he wouldn't have told her the truth about himself.

"Don't tell me-"

"It is me. I don't even take care of myself that well, how would I-" Tori sounded so sad.

"That's just an excuse," Dylan found himself angry. Maybe with himself, but he was angry. "Can you even remember what you really did with Melvin?"

"What are you saying?" Her voice sounded so alarming and Dylan felt as if he needed to alarm her.

"What if he did something to you? You don't even have any memory of."