Copyright Oggbashan February 2021
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.
When Rebecca tested positive, but symptomless, for Covid, it was very hard for both of us while she had to isolate. We had been hugging and kissing every evening and now we couldn't.
I did what I could for her but we both knew what we really wanted to do was be in each other's arms.
I lived in a small flat on part of the ground floor of a badly maintained Victorian building. The other floors were occupied by six single people who could only afford the low rents for sub-standard accommodation.
Rebecca was also on the ground floor, She was a nurse at our local hospital working with Covid patients until she tested positive and had to self-isolate. I am, or rather was until recently, a trainee manager on a trainee's pay but I had just finished my training and been made a manger on a drastically increased pay. I could now afford somewhere better to live. I hadn't started to look because I knew Rebecca needed me.
When Rebecca's period of isolation ended she couldn't return to work. She was in the last month of her pregnancy and the father had been a hospital administrator who was already married but had been deceiving Rebecca (and his wife). He hadn't admitted to Rebecca that he was married until she was six months pregnant and expecting to marry him in a couple of weeks. His wife started divorce proceedings and he was dismissed from his job. He didn't want to marry Rebecca who he abandoned.
When Rebecca found out that she had been abandoned, she cried all over me, the person who had shown more care and consideration for her than anyone.
That Friday had been great for me. The family solicitor had told me by letter than I had a substantial inheritance and some personal items from my grandmother who had died two months ago. I had just been told my training had been successfully completed and I would be a manager on Monday, on a manager's pay. I was about to go out to celebrate when there was a knock at my flat's door. I opened it. As soon as I saw Rebecca's face I just opened my arms. She accepted the hug and sobbed against my shoulder. Eventually over a cup of weak tea, while sitting on my lap she showed me the email she had been sent. Daryl, who she had been expecting to marry in two weeks' time, had told her he was married, had been fired and was already at his parents' house two hundred miles away. Although he would probably be divorced, he didn't want to see Rebecca again.
"Harry? I loved him," Rebecca said. "We were to be married. But he betrayed me. I'm six months pregnant. When the baby is born, I won't be able to work. I was going to be a housewife and now I'm going to be an unemployed single mum. I wanted to get away from this grotty place but now I'm going to be stuck here for years..."
What could I say? It was true. Rebecca might not even be able to afford the low rent on her present flat. I just hugged and kissed her while she raved and ranted about Daryl.
Rebecca patted her growing bump.
"Daryl fucked me," she said. "Now he has really fucked me up. I suppose I can claim maintenance but he will be an unemployed and disgraced person who probably can't get a job that would pay him enough to support me and the baby. My parents are in Scotland and they have not got much, certainly not enough to afford to look after me and the baby. All I have is one friend, you, Harry, and that's all you are - a friend."
"But as a friend, Rebecca, I won't abandon you. Whatever I can do? I will, even if that's not much."
Rebecca snuggled against me.
"Harry, just having you next door, knowing that if I want to cry, you will be there for me? You seem to be the only sane thing in a depressing world."
"Rebecca? I was going to move out soon..."
Her face fell.
"...but not now. You need me far more than I need to find somewhere better. I'm staying - for you."
"You'll do that for me, Harry? Just as a friend? I wish I could say I love you for it. I can't. My love died today with that email. I feel nothing, nothing at all, except your arms around me. I'll be back on duty tomorrow. I hope I can get through the weekend without breaking up too much but can I come to see you each evening?"
"Of course you can, Rebecca." I said.
+++
From that evening on, until Rebecca tested positive for Covid and had to isolate, every evening I had a delightful woman sitting on my lap with her bump growing. We just hugged most of the time but sometimes she would kiss me. I enjoyed her company but I knew I was her emotional support. Whenever one of her Covid patients died, Rebecca would cry all over me. I knew she needed me, far more than I needed her, but I was enjoying the physical contact every day.
