Fix My Feet When They're Stumblin'

Chapter 61

    The faint, sweet chittering of songbirds woke Tana late the next morning, and she opened her eyes to find that she had firmly entangled herself around her husband in the night. She smiled, gently nuzzling Brandon's neck and sighed, relaxing into him. Only a few minutes passed before a nagging little voice inside her head disturbed her: Get up, you've got things to do.

    Tana wrinkled her nose, reluctant to leave the warmth and peace of their bed, but finally extricated herself from Brandon, careful not to disturb him. She sat up, running a hand through her tangled hair, and retrieved her phone from the bedside table. She had made a list of things to do over the last few days, and she blinked blearily at it on her phone's glowing screen, then looked back at Brandon regretfully.

    Suck it up and get out of bed, he needs help. We can cuddle more later, he won't go anywhere. She pulled her slippers on, wiggling her cold toes gratefully inside them, and padded into their closet, grabbing her label maker from the shelf.

    Methodically, Tana checked each of Brandon's drawers and made labels for each one's contents in the largest size print she could, carefully sticking each label to the drawers, then did the same for their various bottles in the showers and the drawers in the bathroom vanity.

    She padded into the kitchen and labelled every drawer and cabinet with their contents as well, and finally returned to their bedroom to put her label printer away. As she emerged once more from the closet, she started and grinned: Brandon lay in bed, watching her in silence.

    "Morning, Brandon!" she said brightly, crossing to the bed and leaning down to plant a kiss on his cheek. He offered her a little smile in return, and reached out to touch her hand.

    "W-What are you...?" he trailed off, nodding behind her at the closet. She shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed beside him.

    "Just labelling everything for you. The doctors suggested it, said it would help you keep everything straight and help you remember what's in your drawers, you know?"

    He nodded slowly, glancing at the massive oak dresser against the wall with its dozen drawers neatly labelled. "Oh."

    "Did you want to take a shower, honey? Now that you're up?"

    He shrugged, ambivalent, but swung his legs over the edge of the bed obediently. Tana moved out of the way and gave him room to stand, watching as he made his way to the closet and stood staring at his shirts, his eyebrows creased in apparent confusion.

    Tana watched for a few seconds, then rose to her own feet and came to stand behind Brandon, watching curiously as he examined his shirts. Back and forth, over and over, his bemused hazel eyes travelled across the neat row of hanging shirts.

    "What's wrong? Are you looking for something?"

    He shook his head, dropping his eyes to his bare feet. "I don't - I c-can't...I don't know," he mumbled, blinking morosely at the hardwood floor.

   She tilted her head, watching him, and then suddenly a realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

    "I'm sorry, honey, that's too many choices, isn't it? I'm so stupid, I should've realized." He nodded at his feet, biting his lip, and she felt her heart jump at the mistiness in his eyes.

    "Brandon, baby, it's okay. It's my fault. I should've...I should've known. It's okay," she repeatedly softly, tentatively touching his shoulder. He didn't react, just continued staring blankly at his feet, his eyes bright with unshed tears, and she sighed and dropped her hand, guilt squirming unpleasantly in her gut.