The Mafia Bride

Extras : Be My Quarantine : 2/3

I woke up at the middle of the night. It was a nightmare. I saw that I fell off a cliff and died. It was really shocking. The lights of my room were switched on. I saw Leo standing at the doorway. He looked worried as he asked me what happened.

"I died... I fucking died!" It made me think okay, if I would survive this. At night, I had watched some news while having my dinner and saw some statistics on covid. Two hundred died today in this place, three hundred died in some other place today and so many more. It terrified me. I felt as if I would be next too.

"It was just a dream, it is okay you're safe. I'm here okay?"

I noticed that he had brought his gun with him. I knew he slept with his gun for safety reasons and also because old habits from his mafia days.
"I just wonder, what if I die from covid?"

"You won't. Don't you remember what Andrew said? Your test reports say you have a mild infection. You're young, you do not have any blood pressure or diabetes issues so you'll be fine as long as you take your medicines on time and stick to the treatment. There is nothing to worry about. You'll live."

Andrew had very calmly prescribed me medicines and kept tabs on my health. I spoke to him on a video call in evening and he said I was showing progress. Yet, I couldn't help but be afraid.

I glanced at Leo. He looked so tired. His eyes had dark circles. He had been working hard to supply essentials in the city. When I tested positive, he had an added pressure of handling the household too. Normally, we divided the chores between us. My work was cleaning the bedrooms and doing the laundry. Leo maintained the garden and stocked on the kitchen supplies. I'd make the lunch and he'd make the dinner. Ever since I was quarantining, he had added burden of doing my part of the chores too. He had been stressed and tired, I could see it. And I felt bad.

"Give me a minute, I'll be back."

He returned with a futon and his pillow. He laid it outside the door, in the passage.

"What are you doing?"

"Being with you, what else?" He said as he made his bed and laid down. "Clearly you don't want to be alone right now, so I'm here with you. Talk to me till you fall asleep. Do you want to talk about the nightmare?"

"I'd rather not talk of it." I sighed. "Distract me, tell me something else."
I switched off the lights as Leo settled outside my room and I went back to my bed.

"So I spoke to my parents today. They wanted me to convince Gigi to rest a bit. But, I think she's doing a great job, rescuing abandoned pets and giving them shelter." Leo said.

In the pandemic, Gigi started rescuing abandoned pets in the pandemic. She also started a free pet shelter where she temporarily housed pets whose owners were taken to covid centres until their owners got better and returned. She had a video call with me the other day where she introduced me to all the dogs she had. Super adorable.

"I spoke to her the other day and she said one of her clients with three dogs was crying because she searched for hours driving in the whole city for a vet and couldn't find one because many of them had stopped their practice during pandemic. Gigi says her profession cannot afford her the luxury to back out when it gets tough. So she is pretty certain she wants to keep working."

Gigi and Andrew had been so busy in the pandemic. Gigi told me that she hadn't spoken to Andrew for more than a month for ten minutes. Their schedules never seemed to match.

"I agree." Leo sighed. "I'll just ask her to be more careful to assure Mama and Papa."

"Parents always keep worrying endlessly."

"Tell me about it. Since some time they've been subtly asking when they can expect a grandchild."

Eternal newlyweds question. I couldn't help but roll my eye. "Unfortunately for them, it is only a month or so delay."

"Wait, so you're saying if you weren't positive for the virus, you would've considered having a baby?"

"Of course."

As much as I wanted to deny it, I was a clichéd girl. I loved romance and fairytales. I believe in happy endings. Of course I wanted the perfect life, the perfect home, the perfect husband and the perfect children.

"Didn't you say that you were unsure about bringing a life into this cruel world?"

I had told Leo in passing that the world was a shitty place and I didn't want to bring a child in this world. There is too much suffering. But, I'm not so sure. I do love children and I do want to become a mother.

"Yeah but..." I shrugged. "I thought you wanted the honeymoon phase to last longer."

"I do but someday we've got to talk of it no?"

"Someday Leo.... Just not today."

I felt my eyelids droop. Those cough syrups and medicines made me so drowsy. I mumbled a good night as I fell asleep.

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