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“Ah! So my uncle exonerated himself?”
“Ha! Completely. And I have to give credit where credit is due; he probably would have ignored me if it wasn’t for you.”
“Get out of here,” she said, pleased. “I’m sure I had nothing to do with it.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Ryan said, sincerely believing that she had everything to do with John Saint’s interest. “After I’m finished up, will you meet me for lunch?”
“I can manage that. I have an interview today with a sixty-year-old guy who rides a unicycle, but I’m free after that.”
“I’ve seen him around,” Ryan said, laughing. “Okay, I’ll text you when I’m finished with Uncle John and the head of the anesthesia department. Wish me luck!”
“Best of luck,” Sofia said, so happy that her uncle had offered his help.
After a memorable interview with the unicycle rider, Sofia and Ryan made plans to meet at Barnacle Ben’s. “My old hangout,” he called it.
Taking her by surprise, he grabbed her in a bear hug and kissed her cheek.
“It’s so great to see you,” he said, holding her by the shoulders and searching her face. “I feel like it’s been a year.”
“I can’t believe we never ran into each other at Ben’s,” Sofia said, looking around the bar as she caught her breath. “I practically grew up here.”
“Remember, I’m eight years older than you are,” he said, releasing her. “When I was hanging out here, you were still in elementary school. Let’s sit.”
He led her to a table on the deck overlooking the ocean. The wind had picked up, blowing her hair into her eyes. Fall had arrived, and although it was still sultry, the holidays were just around the corner. The thought depressed her, but she shook it off for now.
“I’m sorry I fell off the radar,” he said, pulling a chair out for her. “It was the only way I could accomplish all I had to do. Even the job was a test, as nice as they have been to me. You were too much a distraction.”
“I was?”
“I really like you, Sofia. But I’m a realist. If our friendship stood a chance at growing into a relationship, I couldn’t burden it with all of my baggage.”
“Thank you, Ryan. I thought you weren’t interested. Even my dad said you had a full plate. I figured out on my own that having a relationship might be too much for you with everything else you had going on, but it’s nice to hear it from you.”
“Well, that’s not all. There’s another issue. Something I didn’t mention before because it was just too difficult to talk about. But if it’s not too late and you want to hear it, I’ll tell you about it now.”
There was something else that Ryan hadn’t shared with Sofia, something so painful, so gut wrenching he’d buried it so deeply that he’d almost forgotten. Almost. Now that he was back to work, now that he’d climbed over to the other side of the addiction, it was something he needed to face immediately. And it was something he needed to share with Sofia because he really liked her. He really wanted to pursue a relationship with her.
After Caroline’s surgery, they had a final year together that he referred to as their year of magical thinking. They’d packed a lifetime into that year, almost able to forget about the cancer altogether.
After the first surgery, she immediately felt better for a short period. A promising new drug had just been approved, and she qualified for the trials.
“I’m starving all the time,” she told him after the last infusion. “Right now I’d kill for a lobster taco.”
“Well, let’s get one!”
Anything Caroline wanted to eat, they’d find.
A month later, she noticed something was missing. “I wonder if the assault on my body made my period stop.”
“Did you miss one?”
“I can’t remember the last time I had one,” she said, going to the calendar on her phone. “I don’t remember having one since before we left for Hawaii.”
“Do they do a pregnancy test as part of the pre-op testing?” he asked, his blood pressure rising.
“Someone must have asked me if I could be pregnant before the bazillion X-rays I’ve had, before the CAT scans and MRIs. Before the radiation.”
“Come on. We’re going to the drugstore to get a test.”
