I nodded because I knew exactly what he was doing. After the disastrous conversation with my aunt and uncle, Alex was doing the only thing he could to cheer me up. He was taking me to see the other half of my family, the ones who loved me by choice and never had a bad word to say about anyone. He was bringing me to Mr. and Mrs. K, who would be happy and full of congratulations when they heard about our marriage.

*  *  *

“Do you think you got food poisoning?” Alex asked later that night, running a washcloth under cold water in our bathroom sink so he could press it against the back of my neck.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, too tired to care if he saw me vomiting.

I’d been in the bathroom for hours, with no end in sight, and I finally came to the conclusion that I’d just have to be mortified later. I was too busy feeling awful now.

“There’s no way Mrs. K gave me food poisoning,” I said, swallowing back the bile that rose in my throat. “She’s so careful.”

“That’s all you’ve eaten today,” he replied with a sigh. “Maybe it’s a virus?”

“I don’t know,” I ground out, laying my head on my arms. “Does it matter?”

“Yeah.” He sat down behind me and began rubbing my back. “I think food poisoning goes away once whatever’s making you sick is gone. A virus could last a lot longer.”

“Great,” I whined, tears threatening as I swallowed again.

“You’re going to get dehydrated,” he said, reaching for the bottle of water he’d put on the floor next to me. “Have a drink.”

“I’ll just throw it up,” I said, not even bothering to take it from his hand.

“Come on, baby,” he tried again, wiggling the bottle from side to side. “Just one small sip.”

I knew before I took it from his hand that the water was going to come right back up, but I couldn’t stand the worry in his voice, so I let him uncap the bottle. I rolled a tiny amount of water around in my mouth for a minute, hoping that somehow it would keep me from gagging as I swallowed it. That didn’t work. Less than a minute after I’d let the cool water run down my throat, I was heaving, bringing it all back up again.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, holding my hair back. “We’ll try again later, okay?”

Later came and went, and I was still vomiting. By midnight, I was completely drained and lying on the bathroom floor.

“Okay, we’re going to the hospital,” Alex announced, stuffing his phone into his pocket as he entered the bathroom.

“Were you looking things up on the internet?” I asked groggily. “You know those doctor websites always make it seem worse than it is.”