I showed up at the hospital to surprise my husband during his shift. But the second one of his coworkers saw me, all the color left his face. Then his eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t said a word to you, has he?” Ben and I had been married eleven years, and for every one of those years, I had shared him with the hospital. He was a remarkably gifted surgeon.

Brian dropped his car keys into the decorative bowl by the door and leaned over to kiss my cheek with practiced tenderness.

“The appendix ended up being way more inflamed than we expected, so I’m absolutely starving.”

I didn’t budge an inch, and I didn’t turn my cheek for him to kiss.

Slowly, I reached under the counter and set the canvas lunch bag on the granite between us.

I unzipped it to show the cold cobbler, the wrapped sandwich, the fork, and my handwritten note.

“So how did your emergency surgery go today, Brian?”