Since leaving the hospital, I’ve thought a lot about my family. When my sister, Sadie, handed me the flowers outside of the hospital I wanted to reach out and grab her and never let her go. But I wasn’t in a place to take care of them although I wish I was. My mind continued to wander, wondering which parent drove her there. Or had she gotten one of her friend’s parents to bring her? Were my other siblings there too? Checking Facebook constantly for messages, even a simple like on one of the pics I had posted would be enough to let me know they missed me, and I wasn’t forgotten.
This week was physically and mentally draining. Chef had a stool placed at my workstation so I could sit while I cooked. The other students had to help me with some of the prep work like grabbing all the ingredients I’d need from the pantry and refrigerator. In order to make up for that, Chef had me recite every step out loud as I worked so he knew I not only understood the directions but to verify I was keeping up with the rest of the class. Jordan gave me another week off and insisted on paying me for it. I felt awful taking the money but with rent due on the first, I wasn’t left with much of a choice.
The stitches came out easier than I expected, although the doctor had to tug on a couple of them. I’d already seen the wounds when we changed the dressings and the bruising associated with my injury, so none of it was a surprise when the doctor removed the bandages. My insides still felt like they got their butts kicked. The doctor assured me that was normal and that I was healing well. Just the inside would take longer because of the muscle and tissue damage incurred. He said if the internal pain worsened to call him immediately or return to the emergency room. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but I’d give it another week or so before deciding. Nothing was unbearable so that was a good sign. He offered more pain pills if I needed them, but I’d already switched to Tylenol so I politely declined. Walking away with an addiction wasn’t gonna happen. From the doctor’s office, we headed over to Rhone’s mom’s house to take her out for a bite to eat. Katy had been texting and checking in with me daily, and I loved her for that. Her kind words meant more to me than she could imagine.
By Saturday, I was wiped out and slept for most of the day. I had let Rhone know ahead of time so he wouldn’t worry. He immediately went into protector mode when he knew I wasn’t at work or school and hadn’t heard from me. It was one of many things I loved about him. To think me, Ely Pearcy, the talk of the small town I grew up in was in love boggled the mind — and it was reciprocated. Rhone was everything I always wanted, but never knew I needed and now I couldn’t imagine life without him. Seemed putting my career first kept the door to my heart closed until the right man came along, opening it. The way his family welcomed me, I almost think it would hurt worse to lose them than it had my parents considering I’d been treated as nothing more than a hired, unpaid hand at the farm. Thinking about Rhone had me itching, needing a fix. Around four o’clock, I packed an overnight bag, threw my hair up in a ponytail, grabbed my keys and high tailed it over to his new place.
Even though I knew where I was going, courtesy of Siri, the nice guard at the gate shack still provided me with directions after I checked in with him. Depressing the doorbell a couple of times, I gave up when no one answered. A quick press of the front door handle showed it was unlocked so I let myself in. “Hello?” I called out, walking through. They probably didn’t hear me over the music. When I rounded the corner into the kitchen there they sat. “Wow,” I said, spinning around, taking in the expansive view. Rhone turned at the sound of my voice, bounding over.
“Babe, when did you get here? I didn’t hear the doorbell,” he said, greeting me with a kiss. Something I would never grow tired of.
“I rang it a couple of times. The door was unlocked, I hope it’s okay that I came in?” The guys waved at me with their free hands while stuffing their faces full of pizza.
“Of course it is. Here, let me take your bag. I hope this means what I think it does?” Rhone asked, holding up the overnight bag I’d packed.
Shyly I asked, albeit after the fact. “If that’s okay with you?”
“Ely, if I had my way you would have been moving your stuff in today too,” Rhone said. “Come on, let me show you which room is mine.” When I didn’t move, he stopped. “What? Too soon?”
I felt like Hermione had performed the petrificus totalus curse on me and I was concreted in place. “I–I– I don’t know?” Was it? Is it? Was there some sort of relationship timeline we were supposed to abide by?
“Ely,” Rhone said, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go upstairs and talk. You’re thinking too hard.”
“That bed is huge.” I swear it was the size of the room I shared with Leo, yet it took up minimal space in Rhone’s. “Your bedroom is the size of our apartment.”
He sat my bag on top of a nearby stack of boxes. “Come here.” He patted the bed beside where he sat. “Ely. There are no rules, no boxes to check off in our relationship. If something feels good and works for both of us, then it doesn’t matter what other people think. This is our relationship, not theirs.” I nodded. “You want to move in, then move in. You want to wait, then wait. I just hope you don’t wait too long cause I already hate sleeping without you.”
“What about Seltzer?”
“Seltzer asked when the chef was moving in. He loves with his stomach, not his heart,” Rhone laughed.
I wasn’t completely opposed to the idea, but really needed to think it through and not make a rash decision. What happened if it didn’t work out and the guys had already rented out my bed? I’d have no place to go unless I was making enough to get my own place. There were too many ifs to jump into this.
“How about we talk about it again after I’m done with school?” That would give us basically three months of dating. Didn’t seem very long in the grand scheme of things. Considering we’ve already exchanged I love you’s, it seems to fall right into place with how things are moving along for us. It didn’t feel rushed to me, but there were still a lot of moving components to work out.
“That’s fair. I really like this place. Moving sucks ass, but this house has great space. I like that Seltzer’s on the opposite side from us,” Rhone said, waggling his brows. I already knew what I wanted for Christmas from him, or better yet, the gift I had to give him. I wanted the moment to be special, right. Which reminded me.
“I have a housewarming gift for you in my trunk.”
“What? You didn’t need to get us anything,” Rhone said, kissing me again. “Keys! Keys! Keys!” he chanted, bouncing up and down. I may not have needed to get him something but seeing his excitement over doing so made me want to find a way to give him something every day. If only my bank account would allow for it. I handed him the keys and he was down the stairs and out of the house before I even got to the landing.
“What’s going on?” Seltzer asked.
“I got you guys a housewarming gift and you would’ve thought—” Before I could finish, Seltzer bounded out the door after him. Their childish antics had me grinning from ear to ear. I hoped they weren’t disappointed when they opened it.