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over.”
     
    The next hour dragged, as Jen waited for Drew to return to her apartment. She kept busy by scrubbing two potatoes and placing them in the oven with a small filet mignon roast, before sautéing some mushrooms and making a salad. When the prep work for dinner was done, she poured herself a glass of cabernet sauvignon, and wandered over to the living room window to take in the skyline view. As she sipped her wine, she reflected back on the afternoon she and Drew had just spent together, her heart aching for him and his family.
     
    She was immersed in a silent prayer for Drew’s father when the doorman rang to let her know he had arrived. When she opened the door a moment later, Jen smiled when she noticed he had brought his suitcases with him.
     
    “I thought about it, and realized you were right, Jen. I really don’t want to be alone tonight,” he said after he walked through the door. He placed his bags down in the foyer, and continued, “Next stop, San Francisco.”
    “I’m glad you’re here,” Jen said, as she moved towards Drew and took him into her arms. She snuggled her cheek against his neck for a moment, then looked up at him and asked, “Are you hungry? Dinner should be ready any minute.”
     
    Drew spoke with his mother and sister a few times during the evening, getting updates on his father’s condition. “The quadruple bypass surgery went as well as could be expected, but it’s going to be very long road to recovery,” he said, after a lengthy conversation with his mother.
     
    “Thank goodness he came through the surgery,” Jen offered, not knowing what to say.
     
    “Yeah, thank goodness”, Drew agreed, as he stared at the floor. Barely able to look at Jen, he continued, “My mom asked me to take over my father’s business, at least for the time being, until he is well enough to go back to work.”
     
    Jen’s stomach churned as she digested Drew’s news. “How long will you be gone?”
     
    Drew shook his head. “I have no idea.”
     
    “But what about your job? And your apartment?”
     
    “I can’t think that far ahead. I have to see what I’m facing when I get back home, and figure out what has to be done at my father’s office.”
     
    As the hands on the clock inched towards midnight, Jen’s eyelids grew heavy and she stood up. “I’m exhausted. I’m going to turn in for the night.”
    “I’m going to stay up for a while, just in case there are any further updates on my father’s condition,” Drew said. “With the three hour time difference, my mother or sister might call again, so I’ll just stay out here. I don’t want to wake you up when I’m ready to go to sleep.”
     
    “I wish you would join me,” Jen suggested, tentatively. “Who knows when we’ll have the chance to be together again?”
     
    Drew just looked at her, and shook his head. “I don’t know when, or if, I’ll make it back here, Jen. It all depends on my father’s condition, and his recovery.”
     
    “Then come into the bedroom with me,” Jen pleaded with him.
     
    “Jen, I just don’t think tonight is the right night. I’m just not in the right frame of mind to, you know…” his voice trailed off as he stared at the floor.
     
    “Of course, Drew, you’re right. But we don’t have to…umm…we don’t have to be together in the physical sense. We can just hold each other, and fall asleep in each other’s arms. I just want to be close to you tonight.”
     
    After what seemed like an eternity to Jen, Drew nodded his head in agreement, and followed her into the bedroom.
     
    Jen disappeared into the bathroom to wash up. When she emerged a few minutes later in a camisole and plaid flannel pajama bottoms, she found that Drew was already under the covers, and had changed into a faded San Francisco 49ers t- shirt . She sat on the edge of the bed and set the alarm clock, before crawling under the covers and snuggling up next to him.
     
    “You smell so good,” he