by Brandy Blake
Not wanting to wake her just then, Valerie went to the kitchen and put some fresh water in the kettle, putting it on to boil. She prepared two mugs for tea, and when the water was ready, the kettle whistled a merry tune, and she poured the bubbling water into their mugs. The scent of apples and spice rose up to meet her nose, making her smile, and making her nostalgic for winter mornings there in her grandmother’s kitchen. Fog and rain would press at the windows from outside, and somehow it felt cozy as she sat there with her grandmother, drinking the same tea that she had just made, talking about everything in the world.
She heard the recliner move a little, and she took the two mugs of tea into the living room. Her grandmother had woken up and was looking around; her dark eyes searching the room.
“Oh, honey! I didn’t hear you come in. I’m so sorry. I must have been more tired than I thought.” She smiled at Valerie and moved as if she was going to get up out of her chair. Valerie stopped her.
“No, Grandma, you stay there. I made tea for us. We can talk right here. You look really comfortable.” Valerie shared a smile with her grandmother and set the mug of tea on a coaster on the little table beside the recliner where Evelyn could reach it.
Her grandmother sat up and made herself comfortable and reached for her mug of tea. “Thank you, darling. This is our favorite, isn’t it!” She smiled and blew lightly over the rim of the mug, cooling her tea.
“How are you doing, Grandma?” Valerie asked interestedly.
Evelyn stopped blowing on her tea, paused a long moment, and then set the mug back on the little table again. “I’m afraid it looks like I’m not doing so well at all. I didn’t want to tell you all of this, but of course, I have to. My doctor called me this morning and talked with me. He said that the test results came back, and…” she swallowed and looked at Valerie in her eyes, “it’s cancer.”
Valerie gasped and covered her mouth as tears sprang suddenly to her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“But… that can’t be!” she somehow managed to whisper past the huge lump in her throat.
Evelyn sighed and nodded, pressing her lips together to hold back her own tears as she blinked and breathed in slowly through her nose. “I’m afraid that it is. Dr. Hanson thinks that with treatment, he will be able to stop it, and I could beat it, but it’s not going to be an easy road. He explained about the treatments, about chemotherapy and how it works. He told me that I’m not going to be able to work while I’m going through the treatment.”
“Grandma, I’ll help you! I’ll do whatever you need to help you get through this. You’re not going to go through it alone.”
Valerie reached for her grandmother, wrapping her arms around her in a firm but gentle hug. Evelyn hugged her back and they held each other for a little while, each of them sharing the tidal wave of emotion that they were feeling. Finally, Valerie let her go.
“How long do they expect the treatments to take?” she asked, searching her grandmother’s sad old eyes.
“I’m not sure yet. It depends on how my body responds to them. What I do know is that I’m not going to be working for the next few months, and that’s what really worries me. I still owe money on this house, and if I don’t work, then I can’t make the payments for it, and if I don’t make the payments, I’ll lose the house.
“The treatments and medicine aren’t all covered by my insurance, either. Dr. Hanson gave me some information on groups that I can go to for support, both emotional and financial, but it’s not going to be enough to take care of everything; all the bills for the house, the house payment, the medicine and medical charges that will be coming… I don’t know how I’m going to manage it all.” Evelyn shook her head slowly, staring off into nothing as she spoke.
Valerie furrowed her brow and took her grandmother’s hands in hers, holding them close to her. “I’m going to help you. You won’t have anything to worry about. I promise.”
Evelyn looked up then at her granddaughter, reconnecting with her eyes once more. “No honey; you don’t make enough money for that. You’re making enough with your modeling to take care of your own things, but not mine, too. This is going to be a lot of debt. More than either of us can handle. I think, realistically, we’re going to have to accept the fact that there’s a very good chance that we’re going to lose this house.”
With a stubborn shake of her head, Valerie sat up straight. “We’re not losing it. I’m going to make sure of that. I’m going to find a way. There’s going to be a way. I promise. This has always felt like home to me, too, Grandma. You’re keeping it. Where else could you ever live if not here? I don’t want you to worry. I promise you that we’re going to find a way to make this work. No matter what.”
She meant it with everything in her heart. She wasn’t going to let her grandmother down. Evelyn looked at her with a ray of hope, but she could see that her grandmother wasn’t totally certain that Valerie really could do much to save them from what was barreling toward them like a freight train.
“When do your treatments start?” she asked her grandmother quietly.
“Right away. I go in tomorrow.”
“Then I’ll be with you, right from the start,” Valerie promised her, leaning close to her and kissing her cheek. “Every step of the way.”
“Thank you, baby. That means the world to me.” Evelyn sighed with relief.
***
Valerie stayed and visited with her grandmother for a long while, and when she left, she called Lisa. Her grandmother might have needed her, but after her visit with Evelyn, she needed her best friend.
Lisa agreed to meet her for coffee at one of their favorite cafés and Valerie found a table in the back where they could talk quietly without being overheard. She wasn’t there fifteen minutes before Lisa showed up and sat down with her, looking at her wide eyed.
“I know something’s wrong. What’s going on?” she asked as she let Valerie go from their embrace, sitting across from her at the small table. She looked almost as worried as Valerie felt.
“I just left my grandmother’s house. She had some bad news come today. The doctor told her that she has cancer.” Valerie said it simply, not wanting to get into details or mince words. She just had to get it out.
“Oh no…” Lisa sighed with sadness and reached across the table to take Valerie’s hands in hers. “I am so sorry to hear that. She’s such an amazing woman.”
Valerie nodded. “She is the most amazing woman I know. I love her so much.” She sighed. “I spent a while with her today, talking to her and working out what we’re going to do. It’s not going to be possible for her to work while she’s going through the chemo treatments. She has a lot of financial responsibilities that she has to take care of, and I’m worried that she won’t be able to do that. I know she can’t do it. I have got to find a way to make some big money really fast if I’m ever going to help her keep her house and make it through all of this.”
Lisa bit at her lower lip and looked at Valerie seriously. “God, that’s horrible.” She paused a moment and leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice a little. “Look, I know that you already said no about this, but what about that thing your agent wanted you to do? Have you considered that?”
Valerie’s eyes darkened and she frowned. “I don’t want to do that! There has to be some other way for me to make some money!”
With a sigh, Lisa folded her arms in front of her. “I’m sure there are a few jobs you could pick up here and there, but there isn’t going to be any way that you could really make any big money really fast, like you said. Not unless you take that agent up on his idea.”
Her shoulders slumped slightly, and Valerie frowned as she picked up her mug of coffee and held it in her hand. “I know you’re right. I just… I really don’t want to do it. That would be a last resort for me. I want to try to find anything else before I do that.”
“It wouldn’t be that bad, Val. I really think that your agent is right and that it w
ould boost your career. You went to him for help, he came up with a solution that’s probably going to work. Think about it this way; why would he ask you to do something that wasn’t going to make a ton of money for you both? He’s not going to waste his time and effort doing anything that won’t make you two some money. Did you think about it that way? If he’s telling you to do it, then that probably means that he believes it will make money for you both and you’ll be a success.
“And for Tristan, too. He can’t shoot down and destroy two careers like yours and Tristan’s if he’s hoping to make it big off of you both, and hoping to make you two big as well.” Lisa gave her a meaningful nod and Valerie groaned.
“I understand it, but I don’t like it,” she said with a grimace.
“When does your grandma have to start chemo?” Lisa asked kindly.
“Tomorrow,” Valerie answered quietly.
“So you really don’t have any time at all then, do you?” Lisa looked at her intently.
Valerie shook her head. “No, I really don’t. I do have to find something right now if I’m going to be any help at all to her.”
“Well,” Lisa reached over and closed her hand around Valerie’s again, “You do have one ace up your sleeve.”
Valerie looked down into her cup of coffee and wished for some other way; any other way, to be able to help her grandmother.
They talked a while longer and Valerie left, heading back to her own home. She had a ranch style home on a little grassy hill, overlooking part of the city. It was smoggy during most days, but at night, when the lights of Los Angeles lit up, she could see the ‘Hollywood’ sign from her back deck.
It was a pretty little house, simple and well designed. There were two bedrooms, two full baths, a breakfast nook, a kitchen, a small dining area, a living room, and an office. She had known that it was ideal for her when she had bought it the year before, but as she pulled into her driveway thinking of nothing but her grandmother, she knew that if she hadn’t bought the home, she could have moved in with her grandmother and she would have had a lot more money to help her, rather than feeling as though she needed to scramble at the last minute.
Evelyn didn’t want to rely on her for help, but they both knew that there was really no other way for Evelyn to keep her home and do chemo at the same time. Her health insurance wasn’t good enough to take care of everything that she needed medically, and those bills were going to stack up as well.
She had been working it over and over in her mind, and she had begun to realize that Lisa was probably right. There was almost no other way that she could think of in which she might be able to make the money that she needed.
Valerie pulled into the driveway and with a heavy sigh, she closed the car door behind her and began to walk toward her front door. She hadn’t gone more than a few feet before she heard her name called out. She looked up, already knowing who it was.
A well-built man a little taller than she was, was walking along the sidewalk toward her, coming from the house next door. He was Puerto Rican, with neatly trimmed black hair and dark brown eyes, and his skin was a dark golden brown. He was dressed in jeans and a button up shirt. He waved at her with a bright smile on his face.
“Valerie! I’m so happy to see you!” he sang out as he came toward her.
She knew that there would be no polite way of getting out of talking to him. She stopped and waited as he drew near to her, gazing at her from head to toe.
“You look beautiful as always! I love this! You are a goddess!” he exclaimed adoringly. “You know, you could come out with me to dinner tonight, and you wouldn’t even have to change. You could just wear that and be perfect! You’d be a vision! I tell myself every day how lucky I am to live next door to such a beautiful woman! Come out with me tonight, my little angel, and have dinner with me. Let me show you how a real man treats a woman as perfect as you!” His wide eyes were filled with hope and encouragement.
She felt the same awkwardness in her that she always felt when he approached her, and as she always did, she promised herself that she would be polite to him. He had never been anything but nice to her. Very, very nice, since the day he had met her.
“Mr. Nunez,” she began, “I don’t-”
He held up his hands and waved them at her. “Please! Please Valerie, call me Ricardo. I tell you every time, call me Ricardo.”
With a half-smile she nodded. He did tell her to call him by his first name every time they spoke, but she continued to use his last name in a more formal way to try to hint to him that there should be some distance between them. He was, in truth, a handsome man, warm dark eyes and a kind and friendly smile, and she knew that he was a good man, but she didn’t feel the same attraction to him as he felt for her, and no matter how many times she had told him no, her declinations seemed to have no effect on him. He continued to ask her anyway, ad nauseum.
“Right. Ricardo. I’m sorry, but I just can’t go out tonight. Thanks for asking, though. I hope you have a good afternoon.”
She gave him a friendly smile and hoped that he would understand that it was just that; nothing more than a friendly smile.
She tried to take a few steps, but he walked beside her and held his hand out to touch her arm and stop her.
“What about tomorrow night? Do you have any plans tomorrow night? I could take you somewhere you have never been before. I could take you to this fantastic little restaurant I know of… we could have the best Thai cuisine you’ve ever tasted in your life, and then afterward we could go dancing… we can go salsa dancing if you want to; it’s very sexy, and you… my darling, you would be a queen on the dance floor.
“Everyone would be amazed by you! Come with me. We can set the whole night on fire… say yes and let me give you a night you will never forget… the night of your life!” His smile had turned from friendly to sultry as he had begun to describe the evening they would share if she agreed to go out with him.
Valerie’s smile became a thin line. “I’m sorry, Ricardo, I just can’t. I’m taking care of some personal things in my life and this just really isn’t a good time for me. Thank you anyway, though.”
She turned away from him and began to walk toward her front door, hoping that she had heard the last of it from him, at least for that moment.
“Well I understand, you know, I go through some personal things too! If you need a friend to talk to, you come and see me. I will help you with whatever you need. I am here for you!” he called out as she opened her door and went inside, giving him a little wave as she closed the door.
She could see out of the small window in her door that he was still standing on her lawn looking up at her house. He stood there for another minute, staring at her door with his hand on his heart, and finally he shook his head and walked back to the sidewalk toward his own home beside hers.
She let out a long heavy breath and shook her head. In the year that she had been living in the house, he had seen her at least once a week if not more, and every single time he saw her, he asked her out on a date, and every time she told him no. He was nothing if not determined to have her.
She had gone through a brief period where she felt sorry for him, and she had almost said yes to him just to give him a pity date, but then she realized that it would only encourage him and he would never stop going after her then, so she kept on turning him down, and he kept on asking her every time he saw her.
She set her purse down on the table beside the door and walked to the kitchen. The golden sunlight of late afternoon filtered in through the windows, giving her home a warm glow. She pulled a bottle of white wine from her refrigerator and poured herself a half of a wine glass full of Riesling.
Taking the bottle with her, she went out on her back deck and sank into a chair, holding the glass of wine in her hands. She ran her fingers up and down the smooth stem of it, thinking deeply about everything that had developed in so short a time in her life, and she wished that all of it could be easier, though she
wished for nothing so hard as a healthy recovery for her grandmother.
Evelyn had made sacrifices for her all throughout her life; gifts of time and love that she would never forget. There was no way that she could let her grandmother down. Try as she might, she could not think of any other solution to helping Evelyn, other than doing what her best friend had suggested, and taking Al Oliver up on his offer.
She had promised herself when she first got into the modeling business that she would never do anything unsavory or anything that she couldn’t tell her grandmother about, especially to further her career, and there she was, faced with the decision of having to do just such a thing in order to help save her grandmother.
Valerie tried to think of it optimistically, the pros and cons. What would be the best part of doing it, she wondered to herself. She’d be able to save Evelyn’s house and help her take care of her medical bills. Evelyn had always been there for her, and it was time to pay it back. The worst that could happen is that there would be a sex tape of her out all over the world, and there would never be any way to undo it or take it back. There was no erasing it once it was done.
