Love Heals

Chapter 7

Emilio sat on his bed, swiping through his camera roll on his phone to clean out the photos when he saw a picture that made his heart clench.

It was Rachel. She sat with her knees pulled to her chest in the shopping cart of one of their local grocery stores and a blur of one of the aisles in the store surrounded Rachel. Rachel was turned towards Emilio, who was holding the phone to take the picture, and smiling, all gummy and open mouthed with her honey gold eyes shining like she was mid-laugh. Emilio remembered that day well.

The two of them had made a quick run to the grocery store after coming home from a weekend at Emilio’s brother Pedro’s house and– surprise! They forgot to go food shopping before they left and had nothing edible in the fridge. Emilio had turned his back for one second to compare the prices of two different brands of some organic milk Rachel liked and when he turned back, Rachel had somehow gotten her five foot eleven self into the empty grocery cart undetected and was smiling at Emilio.

“Push me!” Rachel giggled like a toddler.

Emilio just rolled his eyes, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

Emilio took a running start and pushed the cart, holding onto the handle bar and placing his feet on the bar between the back wheels of the cart. He’d used his body to steer the cart and pushed one foot off the ground and back to the bar every time it felt like they were losing speed. The noises of the busy market around them were drowned out with their laughs as they steered around the store, Emilio taking the picture of Rachel in the process and knocking into a magazine rack while doing so. They were awkwardly approached by an employee after who asked them to leave. Emilio couldn’t even what remember what went wrong between the two of them. If only he knew, then maybe he’d call Rachel and maybe she’d want to try agai-

“Emilio?” a voice snapped Emilio out of his reminiscing and he looked up, meeting the eyes of her roommate, Cameron, who was standing with one shoulder leaning on the door frame looking quizzically at his hand holding the photo.

“Hey, Cameron. What’s up?” Emilio smiled and locked his phone, not deleting the photo.

“What you got there?” he smiled, crossing the room and coming to sit next to Emilio. He shrugged, not saying anything. Cameron stared, studying him rather intently.

“You’re thinking about her again huh?”

Emilio shrugged, “I never really stopped.”

“Don’t you think you should be focusing on getting well?”

“I can multi-task.”

Cameron sighed, “This is a waste your time you know.”

“Hey, I think I can decide for myself what’s a waste of my time Cam. What is up with you with all the negativity?” he said voice rising in irritation.

Cameron shrugged, “Just trying to watch out for ya,” he said walking out of the room.

*****

The next morning, Emilio took his crutches out and headed for training. There were some exercises he could still do, some drills he was still able to keep up with to build up his arm strength, and keep his body fit.

When training was done, Emilio had a shower and changed into street clothes,. He stopped by Whole Foods stocking up on fresh vegetables and legumes. He got some whole milk because his mama always said it was good for his bones, and some wine for after dinner because he had a lot of things he wanted to forget about. When he got home, he started dinner, just seasoning some chicken from the fridge and throwing it in the oven. He figured Cameron would be back by the time the chicken was done so he decided to make extra.

The oven timer went off just as Cameron texted that he was on his way, so Emilio took the chicken out of the oven to let it cool off for the few minutes until Cameron’s arrival. Once the table was set, Emilio put an oven mitt on his hand to bring the tray with the chicken over to the table. The tray, though, was still hot and Emilio let go almost immediately when he felt the heat through the oven mitt, yelling out a series of swear words in the process.

“Your mama would freak at that language Milo!” Cameron scolded.

Emilio nodded, “That’s only if someone tells her.” He transferred the chicken to a separate plate and brought it over to the table rather than bringing the hot tray and the conversation was dropped. Emilio couldn’t help but wonder what Rachel would do if she were there with Emilio instead of Cameron right now.  He loved his friend, but Rachel was something special. There was no competition.

Emilio laughed at himself for coming to that conclusion, realizing that he still wanted Rachel even after all these years since they called it quits. He couldn’t forget Rachel. Rachel wasn’t new territory to him– she was familiar but still exciting and so damn comfortable to be with.

Emilio remembered what Rachel looked like with messy hair and a pair of ratty old gray sweatpants and suddenly that became everything.

He fell into the seat with a long sigh.

“Let me guess, you still have feelings for Rachel?” Cameron smiled nervously. “It’s okay Emilio, I get it.”

“Is it that obvious what I’m thinking?” Emilio hung his head.

“I saw the photo you were looking at the other day before bed. You really loved her, didn’t you?”

“Present tense.”

“What?” Cameron turned his head in a way that was very reminiscent of Rachel.

“I love her. Present tense.” Emilio trailed his eyes up to meet Cameron.

“Go,” Cameron whispered, “tell her that. You deserve to be happy and I don’t want to hold you back.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t even think about me like that anymore.” Emilio sighed, hanging his head.

“If she felt–feels–the same way for you, then she definitely does. At least text her, okay? And y’know, tell me how it goes, if you want. I’m rooting for you, Emilio. I hope I can find someone who loves me like you love Rachel. Sappy as that sounds.”

“Well okay then, let’s roll credits on this chick flick before we both grow some ovaries.”

Cameron laughed though it didn’t sound real. “I’ll just be in my room,” he said taking up his plate and walking away.

There Emilio sat, scrolling through a bunch of pictures on his phone that he had been too attached to, to delete. After an hour of staring and scrolling, Emilio found Rachel’s number in his contacts.

to: Rachel
hey, are you busy on Thursday? I want to see you.

Emilio sat there with eyes glued to his phone, telling himself how stupid he was and how Rachel would be wondering if he wanted to change his appointment or what before he heard a ding that signaled he had received a message a few minutes later.

From: Rachel
Hello, Emilio. I am free on Thursday. What’s up?

Emilio smiled, struggling out of his seat and nearly yelling because he was so damn excited. Emilio could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he typed out his reply.

To: Rachel
I thought we could sit down and talk. Have dinner with me?

From: Rachel
Yeah okay. I guess this conversation is overdue.

Emilio felt like he was a 15 year old girl with a crush from the way his heart skipped a beat.

*****

“Romeo and Juliet,” Emilio said confidently.

“Romeo and Juliet?”

“Romeo and Juliet.”

“…Yeah?…” Rachel questioned.