I was sitting at my desk the next morning when the phone rang.
“Shawn, it’s Nita. How are you?”
“I’m fine. How are you?”
“Good, good,” she said. There was a pause on her end, and for a second I thought something was wrong.
“What’s going on?” I said.
“Well, you seemed a little out of sorts last night,” she said, “And I was worried about you. I just wanted to see if there’s anything you needed to talk about.”
“No,” I said, “I’m fine. I’m just sitting here, working.”
“Are you su-ure there’s nothing you need to talk about?”
“I’m positive,” I said, “Is there anything you need to talk about? You did call me.”
Silence.
“No, I was just worried about you, that’s all,” she said. “Lindsay and I really care about you and we hope you’re doing alright.”
“I’m fine,” I said, “I’m just fine.”