“Wow,” he said. “That’s… not great.”

I waited for the rest.

Are you okay?

How are you feeling?

Do you need anything?

None of it came.

Instead, he frowned as if I had inconvenienced him.

“Well,” he said, “that’s really bad timing.”

I stared at him.

“Bad timing?”

He waved a hand around the living room.

“My birthday weekend. Twenty people coming. I told everyone you were making that roast. The house isn’t ready. How are we supposed to do this now?”