"I'm going to go outside for a bit," I say.
Margaret glances at me, then toward the back door. "Take a sweater, it's chilly outside."
"I will."
The air outside is indeed cool. I sit on the low step near the garden, wrapping my arms around myself.
I don't know how long I sit there, but I hear footsteps crunch behind me sometime later.
"Elaine."
Aaron's voice sounds like a whisper, I sigh guessing he's heard the news too.
"You don't have to whisper," I say. "I'm not that fragile."
He stops a few feet away. "Didn't say you were."
I glance back at him. He looks uncomfortable in that way men get when they want to help but don't know how.
"Margaret said you were up," he says.
"I am."
He shifts his weight. "Do you... want company."
I consider lying, but I don't .
"Yeah," I say. "For a bit."
He sits on the step below me, close but not touching. We watch the garden in silence. Birds hop along the fence. Somewhere, a lawn mower hums.
"I'm sorry," he says after a while.
