“HOW WAS YOUR TRIP? Tell me everything!” Lucy exclaims when I enter our grandmother’s house for Sunday lunch.
“It was great, only thing I would have changed was having Megan with me,” I tell her, squeezing Megan’s hand as we both come to a stop in the living room, where Lucy and my grandmother are sitting.
“Glad you had a good time,” my grandmother says, smiling up at me as I drop down to give her a hug and kiss her cheek. “Nice to see you again, Megan.”
“Nice to see you again, Alice. Thank you for having me,” Megan says to her. She insisted Megan call her by her first name after they met at the gala, and I still can’t get over it. Knowing that my grandmother wants her so comfortable around her is very telling and makes me know that she very much approves of our relationship.
“So, no shark attacks or other crazy stories from your trip?” Lucy asks, pulling the topic back to my trip once all greeting is over.
“Nothing crazy. I hiked a lot, spent some time on the beach and in the water, bummed it around the island. It was nice to just unplug for the most part and enjoy the fresh air and time away.”
“Sounds like a good week then.”
“It was, exactly what I needed to come back refreshed and focused on what’s ahead of me.” After getting home late and our little escapade in the middle of the night, we both slept in late this morning, leaving little time for Megan and me to talk once we did get up, before heading this way.
“What’s ahead for you?” Grandmother asks.
“Mostly work-related things, but all will work out how it’s supposed to,” I tell her vaguely. “Once I know more, I’ll gladly share with all of you, but until then, I’ve got to keep some things close to the chest, so to speak,” I tell her and flash Megan a reassuring smile that I hope she can read as ‘we’ll talk later’.
The afternoon passes in a blur between the conversations and all the food that is set out for lunch. Megan and I finally are able to cut out around three and head back to my place so I can get started on some laundry before having to return to work tomorrow morning.
“So, what did you mean by your comment this afternoon with having some work-related things in the works?” Megan asks once we’re settled on the couch for the evening.
“That’s something I wanted to talk to you about. I don’t have full details yet, but I was contacted by Doctors Without Borders. They’re trying to plan a trip in the springtime, probably March, to Rwanda. They’re specifically looking to add a pediatric cardiologist with surgery credentials to their roster. I’d reached out to them a few years ago, wanting to work with their organization, but it’s never worked out with my schedule. That is, until now. I think that I can pull this one off. I’d be gone probably six, maybe seven weeks and would be out of contact for much of that time.”
“Wow, that’s amazing, and scary… and amazing,” she says.
“It is. But I’d need to know that you’d be okay with it, with me being gone for that long and not just a phone call or FaceTime away. I’d, at most, have email access occasionally and that’s still not guaranteed. From the information they gave me in the email, the areas they want to send the team are very remote and have little to no outside communications available.”
“While it would suck to not be able to talk to you, or know that you’re safe on a daily basis, I think that it’s an amazing opportunity and you should jump on it if it’s something that you’ve always wanted to do. Think of all the people that you could help in that amount of time. All the people who have never even seen a doctor, but probably need one badly.”
“You’d still be here when I get back?” I ask, the worry evident in my voice.
“Drew, if you really think that I’d leave you because you’re going to go away for six weeks to donate your time and talents, I’d really like to know the kind of women you’ve dated in the past, because for you to be worried that this would break us up is a little concerning.”
“Women that were only interested in my bank balance, last name, and what kind of clout that could earn them.”
“And have I ever once cared about any of those things?” she asks.
“Nope, if anything, you’ve been the exact opposite.”
“Exactly. If you haven’t noticed, I’m not into the socialite scene. Hell, I wouldn’t even know where to go to be in that scene. I don’t care if you have two dollars or twenty-million dollars in your bank account. As long as you’re a standup guy—which, the last time I checked, you were and you help those in need, which is the entire point of a trip like this—then I think you’re living life the best way you can. Does that make you perfect? No, but no one is perfect.” She pauses for a few moments, letting her words sink in. “When will you find out more information on the trip?”
“I haven’t replied to the first email yet, they asked for a reply by Wednesday. I wanted to think it over, talk to you. I’ve got to talk to the hospital and my department to make sure the coverage would be available.”
“If you reply that you’re interested, that doesn’t one hundred percent commit you, does it?”
“No, but before I get too far into the process, I want to make sure that I can make it work. No sense getting anyone’s hopes up if it won’t work out with the hospital.”
“I get that, but I can’t imagine they’d say no to this kind of a trip, could they?”
“I’m sure the PR department will have a heyday with it. Anything charitable is always good PR. And if they really pressed me, I’d be willing to take the time off unpaid. It’s not like I can’t afford to do so.”
“I think you should do it,” Megan tells me, reassuring me about it.
“I’ll definitely be looking into it more. I’ve always wanted to participate in one of their trips and this would be a big one.”
“You have my complete support,” she says, and I kiss her hard.
“Thank you, I can’t tell you how much that means to me,” I say against her lips.
“HELLO,” I greet Simon as he takes the seat across from me at the restaurant we decided to meet at tonight for dinner.
“Good to see you, mate,” he greets as he accepts the menu from the hostess before she walks away from the table. “How was the trip?”
“Good, just what I needed,” I tell him, then go into detail about my hikes and time on the island until our waitress approaches the table and takes our order.
“So, you mentioned needing to chat about some things, what’s going on?” he asks, taking a drink of his beer that was just delivered.
“Everything. I’m at a real impasse in my life and need some guidance. I know your situation with Bridget was different than mine, but how’d you know she was the one? That it was time to settle down?” I ask, diving right in to the heart of matters that have been plaguing me.
“Ah,” he says. “Someone’s in love and doesn’t know what to do with those feelings,” he muses.
Love, is that what this was? I knew that I missed Megan when I was away from her, and my mind now goes directly to thinking about what she’d think about something, but did that mean that this was love? It makes me think back to how I felt when I got home the other night to find her there waiting for me. How I felt when I sunk inside her body. Home. I felt like I was at home.