The Day He Came Back

“I don’t know. Can you?”

“Actually, there is one thing I can make pretty well. I’ll have you know, I’m the ramen master.”

“Ah. Ramen.”

“Do you have ramen noodle packets?”

“I do. But I’m not sure that qualifies as cooking?”

“Wanna bet?” he challenged.

“Yeah.”

“What do you want to bet?”

I chuckled. “Oh, that was a literal question?”

“Heck, yeah.” He scratched his chin. “Okay…if I can make ramen interesting enough that you consider it worthy of dinner, then…you come to improv with me again as soon as you’re feeling up to it.”

“Okay. Deal.”

Is it bad that I sort of hoped he’d want to kiss me or something if he won?

“Alright.” He clapped his hands. “Direct me to the ramen.”

“We should have at least one package in that cupboard right there.”

He found it and placed it on the counter. I then watched as he rummaged through our fridge and found various things to chop. He even hardboiled a couple of eggs.

By the time he was finished, what he placed in front of me looked like something you’d get at a fancy Asian restaurant. Inside the large bowl of soup was fresh basil, scallions…a whole smorgasbord of things.

“I have to admit. This is pretty impressive. When you said ramen, I was thinking of the way I eat it, which is usually just the noodles with maybe a little bit of hot sauce. But this is…” I was speechless.

“It’s damn good. Trust me. The only thing missing is Thai chili sauce, but you don’t have that. Eat it before it gets cold.”

I blew on it and took the first bite: the best damn ramen I had ever tasted.

“Where’s your soup?” I asked.

“There was only one package of noodles. I don’t need to eat. I had a lot today.”

“I’ll share with you.”

“No. I want you to eat all of it. You need to eat.”

I took another bite of the savory concoction. It was amazing what a little love could do to spice up such a plain meal.

Gavin came around behind me as I ate and rubbed my shoulders. Between the warmth of the soup going down my throat and the feel of his big, strong hands, this was heaven. It was the first time in days I’d felt anything at all besides numbness or tears. For the first time in a while—at least for the time being—everything really was okay.

He continued to rub my back until I finished every last drop.

I turned around to face him. “Thank you for knowing exactly what I needed.”

He took a seat next to me and scooted it closer. “The pleasure is all mine. I really missed you. I never dreamed you were going through something like this.”

“I’ve been in a state of shock. I haven’t wanted to talk about it or think about it.”

“You don’t have to talk about it.”

“A part of me wants to talk about it. I don’t want to feel the pain, but it sort of needs to come out, too.”

“I’m here if you want to talk, day or night. And if you don’t…that’s okay, too.”

I did really need to talk about it.

“I’d never considered the fact that I could lose my mother. She’s my entire life, my only family.”

“I can’t imagine how scary that must be.”

“To have one parent and no siblings…the thought of losing that person is terrifying. As jerky as your brother can be, I’m sure deep down, you love him. You know that if you ever needed him, he’d be there for you.”

“Yeah.”

“But more than that, I’m just so upset for her to have to go through this. She’s supposed to be in the prime of her life. She was finally starting to listen to me about putting herself out there in the online dating world. We just created a profile for her a month ago.”

He smiled sympathetically. “Really?”

“Yeah. Life had been looking up.”

“Well, life has a way of sneaking up on us sometimes. But you know, when she makes it through this, you’ll appreciate life even more. They have so many options now to fight cancer. She’s gonna pull through, Raven. You have to believe that. You have to stay positive, okay? Promise you won’t worry about things until you have to. I know that’s easy for me to say, because it’s not my parent. But the fact remains, nothing good can come out of dwelling on things that haven’t happened yet.”

“I’m gonna try real hard, Gavin. Because I know she needs me to be strong.”

“I was watching this documentary on cable the other day,” he said. “It was all about how the power of the mind controls the body, how reducing stress can help cure the body of disease.”

“You mean, like, instead of medication?”

“No…in addition to medication. A positive outlook helps people get through things like chemo and other stuff. There’s not a lot we can control in life. But we can control our attitudes.”