by Nia Anderson
As they ate, Grace noticed Ryan glance over at the phone and then his watch several times.
"Expecting a call?" she asked him.
"Actually, I should make a call. My phone’s dead though…”
"Well do you want to use mine while it charges?"
"Nah. There's caller ID. I can only imagine what my girlfriend would think if I called her from your phone at night."
"What? We just arrived and we took take the same flight. It’s not that odd that you’d be with me."
"I know, it's just…I didn’t exactly tell her we were traveling together."
"Why not?"
"Just seemed easier."
"Oh yeah, I forgot how she feels about this whole situation." Actually, Grace hadn’t forgotten, but it was her way of reminding Ryan, in a non-threatening way, of that horrible encounter on the first occasion she’d met Sophia.
"Yeah…I’m sorry about the way she acted that day, by the way."
"We’re all adults. You can’t be responsible for other people’s behavior."
"I know, but still…"
Ryan and Grace ate the rest of their meal in silence. When they were done, Ryan accepted Grace’s garbage and put it in the receptacle by the door. Grace shed the robe she was wearing and slid down underneath the covers. She listened as Ryan took his turn in the bathroom, showering, urinating and brushing his teeth. It seemed like such an intrusion – her being there with him.
When the light from the bathroom cut into the darkness of the rest of the room, Grace quickly shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She didn’t want Ryan to feel uncomfortable at the prospect of her having heard him relieving himself. She also didn’t want him to feel exposed as he walked across the room in only his underwear.
"Should I request a wake up call?" Ryan asked. He knew Grace wasn’t asleep.
"I already did,” she whispered.
"Why are you whispering?" Ryan whispered back.
Grace laughed. "I don’t know."
Ryan fluffed his pillow and then settled down for a much needed rest.
It all seemed innocent enough. By no action of their own, they had been forced to share a hotel room, and a bed, but they were making due. They respected one another’s privacy and slept as far on their sides of the bed as possible, but as the night progressed and their subconscious minds took over, Ryan and Grace drifted closer and closer together. By the time the sun replaced the moon a few hours later, they were completely entangled in each other's arms.
Chapter fourteen
By the time Ryan awoke the next morning, Grace was already showered and dressed. She was bustling around the hotel room with a brush in one hand and a shoe in the other. Ryan eyed the clock. It was after eight.
"Grace! How come you didn’t wake me up?" He jumped out of bed.
"I did. Three times. You wouldn’t get up,” Grace said as she focused on what she was doing.
"Was there a wake up call?" Ryan asked.
"Of course not." Grace was going to make it a point to put another complaint in to the front desk.
"This hotel sucks!" Ryan hollered as he disappeared into the bathroom. The shower spray began immediately.
When Ryan emerged, dripping wet with a towel around his waist, Grace quickly diverted her eyes as he walked across the room and grabbed his clothes.
"How much time do we have?" he asked as he entered the bathroom once again.
"About ten minutes." Grace tried to remain calm. She hated being late, but she especially hated being late for this. Matthew’s doctors were not going to wait and Grace wanted to see the little boy before he was wheeled into the operating room.
"I’ll be ready. Don’t worry,” Ryan promised.
And true to his word, he was. With his hair still wet and unkempt, Ryan stuck his feet into his shoes and headed for the door.
"You have some toothpaste there," Grace pointed to the corner of Ryan’s mouth.
"Thanks." Ryan wiped it away before he and Grace hurried through the door.
Luckily the trip to the hospital was a short one. Ryan trailed behind Grace as she hurried up to Steve and Monica Woodcraft, the couple that had adopted Matthew eight years prior.
"Are we too late?" Grace asked frantically.
"No, they’re running a little behind schedule. Matthew’s just taking a little rest. His room is over here." Monica led the way. As they walked, Monica handed Grace and Ryan orange ribbons. The ribbons symbolized leukemia and their support in fighting the disease. Ryan and Grace both pinned the ribbons onto their shirts.
Quietly, Ryan joined Grace at Matthew’s bedside. He looked down at the young boy whose skin resembled a lighter shade of Grace’s. Prior to chemotherapy, his hair had been curly, also like Grace’s. But then Matthew stirred and opened his eyes…those he got from his father.
A small gasp was heard from Grace when she realized Matthew’s eyes were on her. He looked at her and Ryan as if they were strangers.
"Mom?" he called.
At first Grace thought he was talking to her, but his eyes began to search the room until they landed on Monica.
"Mommy’s here, baby." Monica stepped up and took his hand.
"I want to go home." Matthew said groggily. There was a sedative attached to his IV drip to prepare him for the anesthesia he would receive in surgery.
"We will. Soon, son." Steve stood on the other side of Matthew’s bed.
Grace looked over at Ryan and saw that he was uncomfortable. She also felt a little out of place and she stepped back. Ryan followed her.
The doctor came into the room and started asking the Martin’s a lot of questions. Ryan and Grace exited the room to give them some privacy.
Ryan took a seat in the hall. He sat in stunned silence.
"Ryan…are you okay?" Grace asked him quietly.
"He looks so much like you." Ryan finally said as if he were in awe.
"I was going to say he looked like you." Grace smiled. "He’s so beautiful."
"And he has no idea who we are."
Grace nodded. That was evident by the way he stared at them.
When Ryan and Grace had made the decision to give Matthew up for adoption many years ago, she had never thought she’d care if he called another woman ‘Mom’, but hearing it today, it tore at her heart in a way she never expected. She wondered how Ryan felt about it. She was just about to ask him when the door of Matthew’s hospital room opened.
"They’re wheeling him out now,” Monica announced.
Ryan and Grace stood up and watched as Matthew’s young body lay still and scared on the adult sized bed.
"We’re going to go watch from the observation suite," Steve added. "If you want to join us…"
"Actually, the observation suite is for immediate family only." The nurse overheard.
Monica and Steve stared at Grace and Ryan, not quite sure of how to explain their situation.
"We’ll wait in the lobby,” Ryan offered. Grace nodded.
The surgery was only supposed to take a couple of hours if there were no complications. Ryan and Grace sat down in the scantly decorated lobby and tried to bide the time as they waited for news on Matthew’s condition.
Ryan glanced over at Grace several times before he spoke.
"I forgot to bring something to do,” he said.
"I know. I was going to bring a book, but there’s no way I’d be able to concentrate on it,” Grace admitted.
"What are you going to do when you go back home?" Ryan asked. He thought it was a fairly neutral conversation topic.
"I’m going to tell my parents I’m moving in with Morgan. I don’t want to live with my old roommates again next year." Grace sighed. "I should probably call Morgan, actually."
"Morgan? You two are still friends?"
"Yeah. Do you ever see anyone from high school?"
"Nah. I saw Peter a couple of times, but that was right after we graduated,” Ryan said of his high school best friend.
Grace nodded. T
he conversation fell flat. Grace thought of something to revive it. "Thanks for coming,” she said quietly.
Ryan smiled at Grace. He knew they’d get around to discussing their presence at the hospital. "No problem. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if something happened and I wasn’t here."
"Don’t even talk like that, Ryan." Grace looked down at her hands and bit her lower lip, a sign of nervousness.
"You’re telling me you haven’t thought about it?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, but…I don’t want to talk about it,” Grace whispered.
Suddenly Ryan’s cell phone started buzzing and ringing. Grace looked at him and pointed to the sign that asked that all cell phones be turned off. Ryan gave a wave of dismissal as he answered his phone.
"This is Ryan,” he answered, a habit that he’d gotten from his job.
"Ryan! Why haven’t you called me? I was worried sick! Did you make it okay?" Sophia sounded frantic.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I've just been really busy here, and–”
"So you weren’t going to call me?" Sophia interrupted incredulously.
"Yeah, I was. Eventually."
"Oh. Well how’s everything going?"
"Fine. He’s in surgery now. We’re just waiting."
Something about listening to Ryan share Matthew’s surgery with Sophia got the better of Grace and she got up and walked out into the hall. When Ryan found her she was leaning over the railing of an atrium watching the people down below.
"I could really use a drink right about now." He sighed.
"Me too,” Grace agreed.
Ryan looked over at her in shock. "You drink? I thought ever since your high school days you swore off the stuff."
Grace laughed. "Yeah, well, times change.”
"Well, in that case, let me buy you a beer when this is all over,” Ryan offered with a sly smile.
"Make it a rum and coke and you’re on."
The surgery took much longer than anyone expected but soon the Martin’s came to tell Ryan and Grace that all had gone well in the operating room but they wouldn’t know for a while if it was going to work or not. Ryan and Grace said goodbye for the evening with promises to return bright and early the next morning before their flight left to take them back home.
"Are you up for dinner?" Ryan asked Grace as they left the hospital.
"Yeah, sounds good." Grace nodded.
They decided to walk because driving in San Francisco was no small feat. There were one way streets everywhere. Often a two-way street seemed to turn into a one-way street with no warning. They had already had one near miss on the way to the hospital that morning. That was enough for them.
With the stress of the surgery behind them, Grace and Ryan were able to relax and really enjoy dinner and each other's company. They found that in the years that they’d been apart, their lines of thinking and reasoning had converged. They shared a lot of the same ideals and principles. Even their politics were similar.
Ryan made a small joke and Grace laughed. He watched her while she picked at the shrimp in her pasta. He had forgotten what it was like to have this much fun with a person of the opposite sex.
Sophia was so rigid and terse. She hardly ever laughed. At first Ryan had felt that she was a challenge. He had felt a sense of victory every time he’d gotten her to laugh. But those times were few and far between anymore. And each time, Ryan cared less and less that Sophia had found him humorous.
On the way back to the hotel, the good feeling between Ryan and Grace remained. They sang along to a song on the radio before they dissected its lyrics and made up some of their own. Feeling comfortable behind the wheel, Ryan steered with one hand. He put his other hand on the console between the seats, but Grace had her hand resting there. When Ryan’s hand touched hers, Grace moved away, disguising it with a need to search the glove compartment of the car.
It was still early evening when Ryan and Grace arrived back at the hotel. They were both too tired to brave anymore of San Francisco, even though the city had a great nightlife. Grace clicked on the television and Ryan rummaged around in the hotel drawers to see if there was anything of interest. He found a board game.
"Hey Grace, look at this." Ryan held up the game.
Grace looked over to see a black box with the words ‘Sex Drive’ stamped on it. "Ryan, put that down! You have no idea where that’s been." Grace was disgusted.
"It’s never even been opened." Ryan pointed out the plastic wrap. "Until now, that is." He opened the box.
Grace shook her head in disagreement, but she waited patiently for him to tell her what the game was all about.
"This looks funny. It’s a sexual trivial pursuit game. You like learning things, right?" Ryan asked as he held up the first question.
"Ryan, put that away,” Grace told him.
Instead of listening to her, Ryan pulled out a card and asked her a question. "What is a person who fears marriage called?"
That question seemed innocent enough, so Grace answered. She got it wrong. Her wrong answer made her more interested in the game. Pretty soon she and Ryan were playing and laughing once again. The first categories they’d indulged in were non-sexual and Grace felt at ease answering them. However, as the game progressed, the questions got more sexual in nature.
"What are the five most common signs a woman uses when faking an orgasm to convince her partner that she’s reached sexual climax?" Ryan asked.
"I don’t know!" Grace blushed.
"What, you’ve never faked it?" Ryan asked.
"No." Grace sat up. She was getting embarrassed.
"Have you ever had one?" Ryan was unrelenting.
"Ryan!" Grace stalled. "That’s a little personal, don’t you think?"
"No more personal than you asking me how far I can eject my sperm." Ryan laughed.
"That was the question on the card! And I wasn’t asking you personally. It was just how far in general men can…oh never mind!" Grace got flustered.
"You’re cute when you get embarrassed,” Ryan told her.
"I’m not embarrassed,” Grace insisted.
"Fine. Then answer the question."
"What are the five most common signs a woman uses…"
"No, I meant, have you ever had an orgasm."
"Yes I have." Grace stuck out her chin in reassurance of her answer.
"Did you have one when we…you know?"
Grace couldn’t believe Ryan had brought it up! There was no way she would have ventured onto that topic. She laughed through her unease and got off the bed on which she was sitting.
"I’m going to take a shower and then I’m going to bed,” she said with a smile.
Ryan looked disappointed that the game had come to an end but he offered no protest. He simply cleared the game off the bed. When Grace emerged from the bathroom Ryan was in bed with the lights off. The television illuminated the room.
"I called down for a wake-up call. They promised this time,” Ryan informed Grace as she crawled under the covers.
"Okay,” Grace said quietly as she turned away from Ryan and laid her head on the pillow.
It was important for Grace to hide her face from Ryan for fear that he would see her feelings displayed on her face. She thought she would have been able to come here with him and not have any latent feelings for him awaken. But that game…those questions…that question.
"Hey, is the television bothering you?" Ryan touched Grace’s back softly.
It felt as if lightening rocketed through her body at his touch. "No, it’s fine,” Grace whispered. Despite her words, Ryan clicked off the television.
Grace heard Ryan roll over as well. By his breathing she could tell that he was facing her.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I saw that guy you debated senior year on television last year. Did you see him?" Ryan piped up.
"Greg Mathis?" Grace asked, her back still facing Ryan.
"Yeah. He was being interviewed for some insurance fraud thing he
was involved in,” Ryan stated.
"Are you kidding?" Grace sat up in interest. Greg Mathis had been one of her biggest academic rivals during high school. Unlike Grace, Greg played dirty to get whatever he wanted, and once it was at her expense. Even to this day, she couldn't bring herself to forgive him for sabotaging her senior project.
