Page 37

Story: The Day Love Died

But knowing that person was always waiting outside her room didn’t help at all. The nurse had been telling Lena, things like an enthusiastic spy.
After that day, Kellen didn’t try to get inside her room again when she didn’t want to talk to him. Instead, he came every day and sat outside her room during visiting hours, which annoyed Lola and Ryan. Lena noted, nevertheless, that Damien had become indifferent to Kellen’s presence for some reason.
Lena wanted to talk to Damien and find out what was wrong if anything, but Damien always opted to ignore Kellen, who was a difficult topic for some reason. Then, she would change the subject to make things more comfortable again.
She had just finished her boring lunch that afternoon and was proud of herself for not throwing up once. At that point, the nurse came in with a bouquet of calla lilies and sparkling eyes.
“Look,” the nurse said, dropping her voice as if she were telling a secret. She pointed to the bouquet and said, “The guy who sits outside your room every day asked me to give this to you.”  “But I know you don’t like him, so if you don’t want to keep it, I’ll just go back and give it back to him.”
Kellen.
Lena let out a low sigh.
She remembered the days when he used to bring her this similar flower. Those were beautiful, love-filled days. Kellen used to tell her that she was as pretty as flowers. Easy and straightforward. Kellen liked things simple, and maybe that’s why he lost his cool so quickly when things got difficult.
Lena’s recollections were broken by the door’s loud noise as it moved. Damien stood at the doorway with his hands securely gripped behind his back. And it looked like he understood what the nurse had said. He took a deep breath and smiled at Lena after looking at the flowers that were still in the nurse’s hand for a long time.
“Why are you still standing there?” Lena said with a smile. “Come in.”
Damien was the next person to stay with her. And she had been so thrilled about discussing arrangements with him for their shops’ new business that she couldn’t sleep. But Damien started to change his mind, which confused her. She saw that his hands were still behind him.
He responded quickly, “I’ll be back in a minute,” and his smile faded a little. “I just remembered that I have to call someone.”
Lena scowled as he went away without turning his back to her. She thought he was hiding something in his hands behind him on purpose. Strange.
Lena turned to gaze at the nurse when she cleared her throat. She waved the bunch of flowers. Lena moaned since she didn’t know what to do with them. Kellen may get the wrong idea if she kept them, and if she didn’t, he would definitely be wounded. She realized she had to confront him and have that chat to put an end to the issue once and for all. But the truth was that she still wasn’t ready. To face Kellen would mean addressing her marriage, her emotions, and everything else that was and wasn’t in between.
Lena sighed and looked back up at the nurse, who had been waiting for her response patiently. “Please give them back to him,” she pleaded. “And tell him not to bring me anything else, especially not lilies.”
The nurse smiled and nodded to show she understood. “Should I throw them at his face to make it worse?”
Lena lifted an eyebrow. “No. Just giving them back would be fine. Thanks.”
Lena fell back into bed and closed her eyes as the nurse departed, and the door clicked shut behind her. She knew she would have to open her eyes soon, if not right away.
But Lena still wasn’t sure if she was ready a week later.
Kellen thankfully heard her plea and didn’t bring her any more flowers or anything. He would still sit outside her door, though. The nurse always kept her up to date on the situation and asked her if she wanted to call security and keep the man out of the hospital for good. Of course, Lena said no.
The trouble was, even though Kellen had wounded her a lot, she still couldn’t harm him back. Especially after hearing how much anguish and remorse he was in when he came into her room that day and she turned her face away from him. How could she damage someone who was already in so much pain? Also, her very devoted friends had already said and done a lot, and it was all rather over-the-top from what she had heard. Lena was afraid that if she added more to it, she would turn into the type of cruel person that she would eventually hate herself for becoming.
******
At first, Damien smiled, but then it turned into a big grin.
Lena could finally go home. It seemed like forever before Dr. Robert said it.
Ryan, who was next to Damien, hit him on the back too hard in happiness, and Lola, who was on the other side, screamed in his ear.
Lena seemed happy, and that made Damien smile even more. The poor woman had to eat the terrible hospital cuisine for a long time. Damien had made some chicken soup at home following his mother’s recipe and tried to smuggle it in one day, but the security caught him red-handed, and it was a sad failure. Lola responded, “Pal, you should have told me. I’m the best at getting things past the toughest security. Mostly.”
Damien had said with optimism, “Do you think you can get the broth inside?”
“Of course. Just pour the broth into two small soup containers, please. And please lend me your credit card so I can go to the nearest lingerie store quickly.”
Damien’s eyebrows came together in uncertainty, but then he realized what was going on and was horrified. He stared down at Lola’s chest, and then he looked up again to see her nod with total sincerity. Damien, of course, said no.
But back to the happy present: now that Lena was heading home, he could finally utilize his mother’s special recipes to make meals for Lena that would hopefully make her smile instead of gagging.
The following two hours were spent paying off debts and getting the discharge paperwork ready. Damien had a hard time since he had to witness Kellen’s sad expression the whole time.
Kellen had written his name all over the documents while Lena was in the hospital. He had also signed the papers for the procedure. So he had to sign the discharge papers also so that Lena could go home.
Damien stopped Kellen from taking out his credit card. “You don’t need to spend any more money. Lena wouldn’t like it,” he said in a forceful voice so that Kellen realized how important this was to Lena and him. “She was actually talking about giving you back the money you’ve spent on her during her admission and surgery.”
He observed Kellen’s fingers go tighter around the credit card, and more lines form on his forehead. Damn, the guy looked like he had aged ten years in only a few weeks.
“She doesn’t have to give the money back.”
Damien nodded his head. “But she wants to. Don’t worry, she’s not broke. She’s been working and has her own savings. Dr. Robert also signed her up for a special program that helps middle-class cancer patients pay for their treatments, which are very expensive.”
Damien quickly paid the amount specified while Kellen’s credit card lingered over the billing counter. Damien gave the person at the other side of the counter Lena’s next month’s advance payment from the boutique, just like Lena had asked him to.
Damien kept telling Lena to pay the bills, but Lena was quite clear that she didn’t want to take money from anyone. At first, he was angry with her for being so stubborn, but he couldn’t help but appreciate how much she wanted to be free.
He didn’t understand why she looked at herself like she was ashamed of being the weakest person in the world when he saw her every day getting back up no matter how many times life knocked her down.
Lena would say that he took her up off the street and gave her a new life, but she didn’t understand how she had worked day and night to establish her own world and make his business a success.
“Give her some time to heal, Kellen,” he said firmly. Kellen stopped in his tracks and turned to Damien, who thought that Kellen was going to his guard post outside Lena’s door. “I know she needs to talk to you. No matter how much I or any of her friends don’t want her to, it’s going to happen. But now is not the right time. I guess you already know that, don’t you?”
He saw Kellen’s tense shoulders drop as if the guy was completely defeated.
Kellen said after a period of silence, with his back still to Damien, “I don’t want to hurt her more than I already have, but I can’t live without her either.”
Damien let out a sigh. “It’s more about what she wants.”
He wanted her to remain away from Kellen, though. He didn’t want her to go back to him. He hated Kellen just as much as Ryan and Lola did. But if Lena wanted things to be different, who was he or anyone else to get involved? He figured it out a few days earlier when he went into Lena’s room to give her a rose.
Lola told him how happy Lena was that he selected those pink flowers for the Dana baby, and he felt Lena would appreciate it if he got her one, too. But then he came in with the rose behind his back and heard the nurse say how lovely the lilies were as she held them up to Lena. Damien didn’t know why, but he felt uneasy when he saw Lena’s eyes widen as she gazed at the flowers. All of a sudden, one pink rose didn’t seem like enough. He did what he believed was best at the time. He smiled, made an excuse, and then walked out of the room.