27. Mason
Chapter 27
Mason
June 2023
The last few days with Callie went so much better than I thought they would. I’m glad that she’s open to hearing my apologies and thoughts on what happened between us a decade ago. Some days it’s hard to believe it’s been that long; others it feels like it’s been much longer.
We spent a lot of time just talking about where our hearts were after graduation and how life has been since. Hearing that she hasn’t dated anyone, other than going on a few dates here and there, in all this time made me both happy and sad.
Happy because it gives me hope that she feels the same I do about her–no one can take her place in my life.
Sad because she deserves the world, and I can’t imagine her being alone that whole time.
One thing that we discussed was what we both wanted moving forward from each other. We both would like to see where this goes without forcing anything or putting labels on whatever it is that happens between us. She mentioned being exclusive in the sense that we won’t date or go out with anyone while we are trying to figure out the idea of us. I quickly agreed. There’s nobody else out there for me. So being exclusive, even without labels, will be the easiest thing I’ve ever done in life.
The front door shutting pulls me out of my thoughts. I can hear Ma whistling as she makes her way through the house.
“Hey, Ma. What can I do to help?” I ask as she enters the kitchen with a bag hanging from her left hand.
“I had to run out to get some produce for tonight's meal. You can grab the peeler and help me prep them.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You never told me what happened with Callie. I’m guessing since you were gone a few days that it went well. Or so I’m hopeful.” Ma says with a smirk on her face. She’s never been one to shy away from asking exactly what she wants to know.
I roll my eyes playfully. “It went well. We spent most of the time talking about a little bit of everything. She asked me to let y’all know she was sorry to hear about the fire and hoped that everyone was fine. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined it would be to open up to her.”
“That’s great to hear, son. I just want to see you happy and if she still makes you as happy now as she did in high school, then I’m praying for the best outcome. I hope you told her that we appreciate her thoughts on the farm.”
“I did. I let her know that you, Dad, and the animals were all okay and that we were getting the barn taken care of.” I pause to gather my thoughts before continuing. “We’ve both decided that moving forward we will be exclusive without labels. I’ll be going back to New York soon and we’re working on a plan for her to come up for the weekend. I want nothing more than to give this my all because that’s the absolute least she deserves.”
To anyone else, the water building up in Ma’s eyes wouldn’t be noticeable. But I can see the tears threatening to spill. She doesn't have to say anything more, I know exactly how she feels.
We finish prepping dinner in silence. When I’ve finished peeling and slicing the carrots and potatoes, I move on to cutting up the onion and bell peppers. Behind me, Ma stands at the stove making the sauce that will later be spread across the lasagna before it goes into the oven.
Later that night as I’m lying in bed my phone starts vibrating on the bedside table. Rolling over to grab my phone I see Callie’s name lit up across the top of my screen. I slide my thumb across the bottom as worry sits in.
“Hey, Cal. Everything ok?”
“Yeah, everything is fine. I just wanted to talk to you.”
The relief washes over me, and I sigh outwardly, not meaning to.
“I can talk to you when you get back to Magnolia Falls, though, if you are busy,” Cal says, obviously taking my sigh as a bad thing.
“That was a sigh of relief. I thought you were calling me so late because something was wrong.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s been a long day and I just wanted to talk to you about it.”
“I’m sorry you had a rough day. Tell me about it, or as much as you can if it’s work-related.”
“One of my patients who we’ve had on our services for over a year passed away unexpectedly this morning. They were doing so well and had no signs of death being imminent. They were eating well, and responsive to conversation. I woke up to a call from their daughter a little after five this morning letting me know of the changes they’d witnessed and asking what we needed to do. She had passed away before I got to their house.”
“Oh, Cal. I am so sorry to hear about that.” I can hear the sadness in her voice. I wish I was with her so I could pull her into my arms and squeeze her.
“Thank you. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my rough day. After lunch I headed to an assisted living facility to visit with two patients I have there currently. The first patient I had a visit with wasn’t in their room so as I walked down towards the main dining hall, I saw him walking towards me. He loves playing Bingo so that’s what he said he was doing. As he’s making his way up the hallway he loses his footing and falls. Two nurses run to help him up and upon being pulled up he starts swinging his arms demanding he can do it himself which resulted in him hitting one of the nurses in the face. Neither of these things happening is too uncommon in my line of work, but it doesn’t normally all happen on the same day.”
“Wow. I’m sorry you had such a rough day. What can I do to help make it better?”
“Honestly, just letting me talk about it helps a lot. Now I’m lying in bed and can’t sleep because I’m thinking about everything that went down today and wondering if I missed something with the patient we lost, even though neither I nor their nurse could pinpoint any changes in their behavior that would suggest such a decline. The unknown of each day is one of the hardest parts of this job. Not knowing what you’re walking into or what changes have happened since their last visit with one of us at the agency. I’m able to see everyone’s notes on each patient but sometimes the changes to the patient happen so quickly that even their notes don’t give me any indication of such decline.”
“I’m happy to let you talk as much as you need. I know nothing more than what you’ve shared with me about your career, and I know you can’t tell me much but whenever you need to talk to someone, you can always call me.”
“I appreciate that more than I can express. Most of the time I just need to talk about my day to decompress before getting in bed at night. I’ve got other things I can do to help but talking is by far the most beneficial.”
Cal and I spent over an hour chatting and laughing. It felt good to switch her mood from overwhelmed to hearing her laugh, knowing I did that. We’ve fallen so smoothly back into that same groove we had in high school, but I don’t want to get my hopes up because going back home to New York will be the real test for us .