Julie the Nurse

Copyright Oggbashan May 2020

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

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I heard the key in the front door and went out into the hall.

Julie didn't have to say anything. The expression on her face was enough. I opened my arms and she accepted the hug while crying against my shoulder.

"Another one?" I asked.

"No, Andrew. Two, and I thought we had saved one of them," Julie sobbed.

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Julie is a nurse at our local hospital, normally delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients but now working in intensive care with those on ventilators for Covid-19.

Since October, I had been renting part of her house while studying part-time for a sponsored MBA. I had been living with my parents in Nottinghamshire and working for a local branch of an insurance company. I had been promoted and sent to their London office where they sponsored me for an MBA at the university near Julie's house. I couldn't commute from Nottinghamshire but I could catch a high speed train from Julie's town to go to the London office three days a week.

All that changed drastically with the Covid-19 lockdown. The university shut down. My London office was closed. I couldn't go back to my parents because my father, a former miner, had damaged lungs and was self-isolating in their small two-bedroom house. I had to stay with Julie.

She was grateful because the rent I was paying was enough to cover her mortgage. I could, and did, work from her home in the small dining room which I had equipped with state of the art computing equipment and fibre broadband. I was now working at home five days a week and trying to continue my studies remotely.

I was useful for Julie. I could do her shopping and act as a house husband, maintaining the house and doing the cooking whenever she came home, exhausted by a long day in full protective equipment.

When I started my MBA I was staying in a hotel, not ideal, while I looked for a one-bedroom flat but they were too expensive locally. Rachel, one of the women on the course with me, had suggested Julie. Julie was just divorced from David, who worked at an estate agent. He had found the neglected house that they could buy at a low price because it needed modernisation. At first he had worked at improving it but he started drinking too much and abusing Julie. When he emptied their joint account to pay for his drinking Julie had had enough and divorced him. She had to buy him out of the house and had increased the mortgage to do it -- to a level she couldn't really afford.

Rachel had introduced me to Julie. Although Julie was depressed and hurting, a business arrangement between us seemed sensible. I would pay her rent and help with the continued modernisation. The amount I was paying was slightly less than for a local one-bedroom flat but I would have more room.

I helped with decoration of the exterior and interior of the house and was able to install a new bathroom suite before starting on the kitchen. I paid for materials as part of my rent and provided the labour. Six months after I had come to stay with Julie the house had been rewired, re-plumbed, had a new bathroom and kitchen. A month before the lockdown I had received a large Christmas bonus based on the 2019 company results. The bulk had paid for the kitchen to be done months earlier than I had anticipated. Some of the rest had gone on an impulse purchase that I thought I might need sometime. My relationship with Julie had still been that of landlord and tenant -- a friendly one but no more than that.

The Covid-19 lockdown began to change that. She was working hard in a very stressful environment and I was in the house almost all the time. Even around working and studying at home I had been able to do more work on the house and because I could go to the supermarkets I could keep us supplied. Julie was grateful but the strain of caring for very sick people was distressing her.

When her first Covid-10 patient died she came home in tears. I couldn't let her sob alone so I just opened my arms, without a word. That changed everything. We were no longer landlady and tenant but two people there for each other. Gradually Julie began to rely more on me, emotionally as well as for the basics of living.

A few weeks of lockdown and I knew I loved Julie and she loved me. I was more supportive than her former husband David had ever been yet I didn't ask her for anything. I was just there for her whenever she wanted.

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I sat her down in the kitchen with a cup of coffee while I went to run a bath with her favourite bath salts. It had taken me a week of searching before I had found some more of those bath salts. Julie hadn't said anything but I knew she appreciated the effort I had made.

I called downstairs to say that her bath was ready.

"OK, Andrew, I'm on my way," she called back.

When she came into the bathroom she was shaking, almost like a shivering fit. I had to help her to undress. That was more physical contact than we had ever had. I knew I was handling a very attractive body of someone I loved. I stayed to wash her back and to help her wash her hair. I had an erection from seeing so much of her but Julie just accepted my actions as a carer.

"We need to talk, Andrew," Julie said as I helped her to put on her nightdress and dressing gown.

"OK," I said. "The casserole will be ready in twenty minutes. We can talk over the meal."

I suspected that I knew what she wanted to talk about. I gathered up her clothes for washing and went into my bedroom to fetch the impulse purchase before I went downstairs.

I had the casserole ready to eat by the time Julie had dried her hair. I pulled out a chair at the kitchen table for her.

"Andrew, one of the people who died today was a female colleague, a nurse."

"I'm sorry. Julie, did you know her?"

"Not really. She had retired four years ago and had come back to help out. I was a nurse before she retired but she was in a different department then."

"And?"

"Her death started me thinking about the risks of Covid-19 to me -- and to you, Andrew,"

"Risks? Yes, there is a risk but we are both young and healthy with no underlying issues. If we get the virus it isn't likely to be life-threatening, Julie."

"I know. But I think you should find somewhere else to live, Andrew. I could easily bring Covid-19 home and infect you."

"Or you could catch it and have to self-isolate. If so, you'll need me more than ever, Julie."

"But that would be unfair on you, Andrew."

"No, it wouldn't. I'm here for you, and I will be here for you whatever happens, Julie."

"But you are just my tenant, Andrew. That doesn't give me the right to put you at risk."

"We haven't said it in so many words, Julie, but I'm not just your tenant."

I got up from my chair, moved around the table and dropped to my knees beside her. I took hold of her hand.

"I haven't said it but you know it. I love you, Julie."

Julie's other hand stroked my hair.

"Thank you, Andrew. I know you do. I love you too."

"Then will you marry me, Julie, when we can?"

Her hand went from my hair to her mouth. She gasped.

"You mean it, Andrew?"

"Of course I do, Julie. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't mean it. So, I repeat: Will you marry me, please?"

With her free arm she pulled me to rest against her body.

"Yes, Andrew, when we can, I will marry you."

I reached in my pocket an pulled out the impulse purchase of a couple of months ago. I held it out to Julie. It was a small black box. She took it, opened it and revealed an engagement ring. I took it from her and slid it on her finger.

"It fits!" Julie said in surprise.

"Of course it does. I bought it in your size."

"How?"

"I traced around your old engagement ring and took the tracing to the jewellers," I replied.

"But they haven't been open for over a month, Andrew." Julie objected.

"So what? I bought it more than a month ago."

"You've known that long?"

"No. I knew I was in love with you then and that it might become enough to propose eventually, but the lockdown has brought us closer together, faster. You need me. I need you."

"It's more than need, Andrew, isn't it? You want me..."

I nodded.

"And I want you." Julie finished.

She threw her arms around me and hugged fiercely.

"Together we can face anything, Andrew."

We will -- whatever comes. Soon, when we can, we'll marry.

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