A Heart Healed

“Stop,” she breathed, bringing her hand up to cover her eyes as she silently counted out ten deep breaths. Once she was done, she slowly brought herself back to the quiet, peaceful interior of her apartment. That was much better. At least she could say she had found some way to calm herself down. It wasn’t foolproof, but it was better than nothing for now.

Perhaps she should eat something as well. The last thing she remembered eating was probably the egg she had made for breakfast and it was now three in the afternoon. Naomi hadn’t even attempted to tidy up her living room yet. She had been lying on the sofa all morning, trying to watch a movie that Olivia claimed was really good and yet she had fallen asleep somewhere in the middle of it.

She wasn’t even bothered by the fact that she had slept through her movie, it was probably the dream she had as she laid there. It felt like a memory of the day she and Marc had broken up, but instead of sending him away after they were done screwing on her sofa, she had dreamed of different ways in which it might have happened. Marc would beg her to stay. She would beg him to come with her. They would just run away and never return.

Each dream just left her with an overwhelming mixture of nostalgia and regret. No matter the dream, what if she hadn’t chosen the easy way out? What if they really had tried to make it work, even if it was long distance, instead of just rending a good thing in two and throwing it out?

The idea was something she had thought about quite often over her time off as well. She missed him, and yet, Naomi didn’t know if she could even start the conversation to make things right again. Sure, an apology was in order, maybe several, but then what would happen? Would he even want to try again?

She glanced at her bedroom door where her phone was charging with a deep desire to at least try to call him again. There was no shortage of her attempts over the past few days and yet, here she was. This was probably her karma or something. She broke a man’s heart and now she was terrified to make a phone call to him.

Naomi just turned her eyes from it. Maybe she should just make food or something.

Then her ringtone started playing, making her heart jump as she rushed towards the device on her bedside table only to see that it was a number that she didn’t recognize at all. Who was this? How did they get her number? Chances were the person on the other end had made a mistake and called the wrong number.

Well, if she was going to get used to phone calls again, she may as well start here. Her finger pressed the answer key and she immediately put it on loudspeaker.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Doctor? Dr. Bennett?” a familiar male voice asked before she remembered that this may just be a patient who she had given one of her cards.

“Yes, who is this?”

“It’s Ezra. Ezra Hewitt. You remember me?” Her heart plummeted to her stomach like a stone. Ezra Hewitt? As in Marc’s younger brother, Ezra? She wasn’t ready. No, she wasn’t ready for this. She aimed her finger that the hang up button, but before she could press it, Ezra spoke again. “Before you hang up on me, I just wanted to talk to you about my brother quickly. If you want, I’ll never bother you again about him afterwards, deal?”

She moved her finger away. “I’m listening.”

“Thank you, doctor. I just wanted to tell you that even though I don’t know why the two of you split up, I wanted to tell you that I yelled at him for being an idiot for letting you go, and technically, you’re one too for not seeing how much you two actually get along.” She gave a dry laugh at that one. “He’s become someone tolerable since he met you, you know? Before my accident, he was like a ghost haunting his own apartment. I’m pretty sure the cleaners even think so.

“He was a virtual shut in. If it wasn’t for his boss and I sending him out for company events and forcing him to be the spokesperson for his business, he’d probably never leave the house ever but then he started going out and spending time somewhere that wasn’t this tomb he calls a penthouse. Even I don’t like being here very much.”

Naomi bit her lip. “Ezra…”

“I’m not saying you have to take him back, but just think about it, will you?”

“Okay.” She nodded.

“Thanks, Doc.”

With that, she pressed the button on him first. Naomi didn’t know what to say about that. She didn’t expect to have that kind of conversation with anyone, let alone her ex’s younger brother. It did teach her something new about Marc on the other hand, and suddenly, all of his reactions made sense.

Why he often looked like he’d never seen much of the world outside of his office even though they were going to a restaurant in town that she had found online, why he didn’t know how to deal with people most of the time, why he looked so pale that night she had caught him sleeping in Ezra’s room.

Why he looked so broken when she had told him that she was leaving.

Tears started streaming down her cheek when she realized what just happened. She finally understood the man that was Marc Hewitt, and Naomi loved him. All of him. Her body shook with sobs as she tried to accept this truth, curling up on top of her bed with her phone in her hands.

She wanted to see him now.

No, she needed to see him. Naomi wanted to tell him everything. Not just about what was going on about her job but about what she felt. She opened the contacts on her phone, scrolling down the list until she had found the one that she was looking for. Her finger didn’t hesitate this time as she called the number.

A few seconds later, the call connected.

“Hi, Marc.”