We Don't Have to Feel Alone

Chapter 4

A few weeks later.

"Okay, Nova, you need to go to bed," Chris says through FaceTime.

Nova pouts as she holds Sariah's iPad, "But I miss you."

Chris smiles, "I miss you too, honey, but I'll be home tomorrow night! The faster you go to sleep, the faster tomorrow will get here."

Nova huffs, "Okay."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Nova hands the iPad back to Sariah. Sariah smiles down at Nova.

"Goodnight, Nova."

"Night, Sariah."

Sariah shuts off the lights, then shuts Nova's door and walks off.

"Sorry about that; she's hard to get to sleep sometimes," Chris says.

Sariah laughs, "Hard? Try putting six kids to bed with a cochlear on low battery."

Chris laughs, "I suppose that would be a bit harder."

Sariah walks into her room, sits on her bed, and sits the iPad in front of her.

"Are you excited to get home?"

"A part of me doesn't want this tour to end, but yes. Once I see Nova again, I think all of my anxiety will just melt away," Chris says, "I just can't thank you enough for how amazing you've been. You've definitely earned some time off before I leave again."

Sariah laughs, "I barely know what time off means anymore."

"Go do something fun with your brother or something."

"He has been begging me to come see him at work, so I definitely will have to do that."

"Cool, what's he do?"

"Um..." Sariah starts, "He owns the drag bar in the city."

"Dockside? He owns that place? Dude, that's awesome."

Sariah smiles, "Yeah, it is."

"You're not used to that response, are you?"

Sariah shakes her head, "I couldn't even tell the last family I worked for that my brother is gay, let alone that he's a drag queen."

"That's dumb."

"Thank you!"

The two of them laugh a moment, and Sariah's relief was obvious. She supposed she should have known that Chris wouldn't care what her brother did; she just wasn't entirely used to everyone having such a positive response to it. It was refreshing, to say the least.

"Well, I'll let you get some rest - especially because Nova's probably gonna be up your ass all day tomorrow until I get back."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Chris smiles, "Night, Sariah."

"Night."

They hang up.

Sariah groans, then removes her cochlear and sets it on the nightstand before flopping down on her bed. It wasn't bad enough that Chris was attractive, he just had to be a sweetheart too, didn't he?

When Chris finally gave an interview about what his life had been like since Nova's mom died, it came out a couple of days later and Sariah had watched it. Chris had said in the interview that when Abbey, Nova's mother, had died, the two of them had been broken up for several years, but had maintained a good relationship and friendship for Nova's sake. So even though Chris hadn't lost a girlfriend or a wife when Abbey had died, he did lose a friend, and the mother of his child, which was still horrible.