To Be — Or Not To Be - Chapter 19

For a long time Ari lay awake, starting at every real or imagined noise and rehearsing with painful clarity the evening’s debacle. So often during these past years he’d heard the reassuring sound of key grating against lock signaling that Nicole had returned safely from a late night at the hospital. Now he listened in vain. If only he’d been more sympathetic, more sensitive!At last, sometime after midnight, he fell asleep. At three o’clock he awoke with a start. In a panic he realized that her side of the bed was still empty. She’d be sleeping on the couch, of course. But when he tiptoed quietly into the living room, it was empty.