The surprise had worked so well that the next day Catherine decided to repeat it. Once again she caught the tram from her work to Brent's; once again by the time she got to Brent's work she'd used up just about half of her lunch-break. This time, though, it was her who was surprised: Brent wasn't there. He wasn't stacking the shelves, he wasn't behind the counter, and when she decided to ask, it turned out that he wasn't in the back room either: "He's at home" said the fifty-ish woman behind the cash register. "He's taken the day off. Called in sick."

Catherine didn't have enough time to go over to his house to check up on him, though she dearly wanted to. She had to settle instead for calling him while she was on the tram back to her work.

"Hello?" he answered, and immediately Catherine could tell that he wasn't well: his voice was croaky, and hoarse, like he'd been coughing a lot - or worse.

"Brenty, you sound awful!" she exclaimed. She'd never quite got hang of converting his name into a pet name.

"I feel pretty bad, too" Brent confirmed.

"Yeah, I went to see you at the shop and they said you'd called in sick! You never call in sick!"

"You went to the shop? Again?"

"Yeah. That's not a problem, is it? I'm not gonna get you in trouble, am I?"

"No, it's not a problem. I'm just surprised you went two days in a row."

"That was the idea" Catherine said. "I don't understand what's wrong. You were fine yesterday!"

"Actually I wasn't, really."

"You weren't?"

"I've been feeling a bit crook all week. Thought I could tough it out. Then I woke up this morning and just . . . No. No good."

"Aww, honey! Listen, I have to go to work now but I finish at five tonight. I'll come right around."

"Oh, no, you don't have to . . ."

"Of course I do! I'm your girlfriend, it's part of the deal! And even if I didn't have to, I still would. So deal with it. I'm gonna come over, and I'm gonna take care of you!"

"Well . . . okay, then" Brent said. What else could he say? "But I'm probably not gonna be very good company" he added. For some reason he couldn't stop thinking of 'in sickness and in health.'