Indelible Love - Emily's Story (44 page)

Jake’s idea sounded divine. I could
only think of two problems. First, could the chefs commit at the
last hour and second, the cost. We were looking to have at least
five of LA’s best chefs come and cater our wedding. As much as I
liked the idea, I didn’t think it was realistic.

Jake saw the doubtful look on my
face.

“What’s the matter now?” The foot
massage stopped.

“Do you think we can get all these
chefs to cater our wedding on such short notice?”

“Fourth of July is on a Sunday, and
most of these chefs don’t work on Sundays. I’ll have my dad, the
chief, and Gram call all of them. They won’t be able to refuse. If
they themselves can’t come, they can always send sous chefs.” He
seemed quite sure of himself, so I decided to trust him on this
one. “What else?”

This last point I didn’t know if I
should bring up. I knew that Jake didn’t like me talking about
money.

“Well…what about the cost? The chefs
and sous chefs alone will be a fortune, plus you’re talking sushi
and Wagyu beef.”

“Emily, you really worry too much
about how much things cost. We’re only having seventy-five guests.
Let’s splurge on the food. I thought you’d be ecstatic with this
idea. You’re the foodie.”

“I am excited! This is probably the
best idea I’ve heard all week but…”

“No, buts. It’s decided. Are we done?”
He came toward me with a naughty grin.

“No.” I pushed him back to his
original corner. “Just a little more and we’ll be done.

Jake obediently sat back in his seat,
waiting for me to continue so he can go on with his agenda for the
evening.

“What shall we do about…?” I couldn’t
bring up this topic. It was so embarrassing. Maybe I would just
talk to Mom and not include Jake. But, then again, he was the other
half of a baby so it would be wise to include him in this
discussion.

“About what?”

“Never mind.” I changed my mind. I
couldn’t do it. “I’ll talk to Mom tomorrow about it.”

“Emily. Speak now or we’re done
talking for the night. I didn’t come home early just to talk. We,
no I, have more urgent needs.”

“OK. What do we do about birth
control? Do you want to have a baby right away?”

“Are we actually talking sex?”
Indubitably, his face lit up.

“Yes, we’re talking about sex. What do
you want to do?”

“That’s up to you. What do you want to
do? I’m OK with trying to make a baby tonight if you agree to it,”
he shined a devious grin, “or we can wait till whenever you are
ready. Do you want to come see Carole at the hospital? She’s an
OB/GYN.”

“You’re OK with whatever I decide?
Maybe I’ll go on the pill. I don’t know. Can you make an
appointment for me so I can go in and see the doctor?”

“Sure. Are we finally done?” Jake was
agitated now.

“Just one more topic. I need to talk
to you about Max.”

Jake looked perplexed and tentative
when he heard Max’s name. We still couldn’t seem to talk about my
ex without any tension.

“What about him? I actually saw Max
and Peter at the hospital today.”

“Oh?”

“They were on their rounds with Dr.
Carter, and we said hello but not much else.” Jake began to
chuckle, “Carter runs a tight ship with these students, and he
wouldn’t let either of them stop to talk to me.”

I sighed deeply before continuing my
story.

Jake’s chuckle turned into a frown as
soon as he heard my sigh. He nudged my feet down and pulled my body
over to him. We sat next to one another, my head on his chest, both
his arms wrapped tightly around me.

“OK. Shoot.”

“Sarah told me today that Max is
unhappy.”

Jake dropped his arms and pushed
himself back to look at me.

“Why?”

“How can I explain this? He’s happy to
see me happy with the man that I love…”

“But unhappy that
he
is not the man that
you love?” Jake finished my sentence.

“Yeah, I guess you can put it that
way. Sarah says that he feels that I’m the one who got away. He
regrets not having proposed on graduation night.”

“I don’t! Emily, Max will be fine. He
will eventually find another woman and forget you ever existed.”
Jake grinned and searched for an annoyed look I refused to
show.

“He can’t ever forget me!” I retorted,
but regretted saying as soon as the words left my mouth.

“Does that mean you can’t ever forget
him as well?” Jake’s voice accused with a mock-menacing arching
eyebrow.

“No,” I stammered. “It just means
that…well, you should know…it’s not easy to forget me.” I
laughed.

Jake suddenly forced his body onto
mine. Conversation was done for the night.

The rest of the week went no
differently than the first few days. I saw Jake first thing in the
morning before he left for the hospital. I fixed us breakfast, and
he didn’t come back home till I was asleep. I spent my waking hours
registering for gifts, picking the dinner menu, and giving my seal
of approval on all of Sandy’s picks. Aunt Barbara spent most of her
waking hours at our home as well. She figured since the chief was
working all the time, she would stay busy with us.

Friday night, I tried my hardest to
stay up and see Jake. I was annoyed that we saw each other no more
than thirty minutes a day. I texted, I called. Rarely did I get
more than a minute conversation before he got paged to another
patient. Once again, my eyes failed me, and I couldn’t stay up any
longer. I sent one last text.

I cannot believe I have
seen you no more than an hour in the last three days. It is one
thirty a.m. My eyes are closing. Wake me when you get home. Good
night.

Was this how it was going to be the
rest of our married life? Ugh, I hoped not.

I was startled awake with a heavy arm
on my body. Jake was fast asleep in our bed. I slowly got up to
shower, but woke Jake up in the process.

“Don’t go,” he whispered.

I listened and stayed in bed with him
a bit longer.

“What time did you get
home?”

“About an hour ago.” His voice sounded
like he was in a sleep coma.

“You mean you worked twenty-four hours
yesterday? What happened?”

“Lots of emergencies. I am so
tired!”

“I’ll let you sleep. We’ll talk
later.” I kissed his forehead and left the room. Exhausted, he
didn’t put up a fight. His arm thumped on the bed as I dropped it
from my body. Once downstairs, I turned on both ovens and put in
the croissant bread pudding and brown sugar-glazed apple wood
smoked bacon. Water for the french press began boiling as Sandy and
Bobby trickled downstairs.

To my surprise, Nick came into the
kitchen with Jane.

“Jane!” I ran to give her a welcoming
hug. “What are you doing here?”

“What about me, Sis?” Nick opened his
arms. We shared a three-way hug.

“My boss decided late yesterday to
give me this weekend off so I flew in this morning. I thought I’d
come and help you with wedding prep.”

“Mom’s done just about everything so
there’s not much to do, but I’m super happy you’re
here.”

“Where’s Jake?” Jane
wondered.

“He ambled into my room about an hour
ago and I haven’t seen him since,” Nick answered.

“Oh, he’s sleeping in his bed right
now,” I said.

“I’m up,” was all I heard as I walked
into the breakfast room with all the food.

I was surprised to see Jake up and
dressed already.

“Why are you up? You should sleep some
more.”

Jake came over and kissed me
passionately in front of his whole family. Jane and Nick started
gagging and Bobby and Sandy laughed.

“Are they like this all the time,
Mom?” Nick questioned.

“All. The. Time!” Sandy
answered.

“Sorry,” was all I could say in
between the onslaught of kisses.

We all sat down for breakfast and Jane
and Nick both had great news.

“Mom, would it be OK if I moved back
in for a year?” she asked. “My firm wants me to work in the LA
office starting this fall. It would be too much of a hassle to find
an apartment, so I thought I’d move back home.”

“You too?” Nick said. “I need to move
back in for a year as well. I’m going to defer med school and go do
some research at the VA, over by enemy territory.” This of course
was his affectionate term for my alma mater.

“Jane. Nick. That’s fantastic news. Do
you know that your brother and I are going to live here for a year
as well?” I shared our great news. Nick of course knew we were
living here, but Jane didn’t take it as happily as I thought she
would.

“Why?” she asked. “I don’t know if I
want to be living under the same roof as you two lovebirds. You’ll
probably be worse than you are now. Eew!” To show her disgust, Jane
stuck her index finger in her mouth and pretended to gag
again.

Sandy turned to Bobby, who was taking
a bite of his bacon, and exclaimed, “Bobby, let’s charge rent. We
can make a fortune off of these three. Finally. No more
freeloading.”

“Mom!” Jane and Nick complained loudly
enough that Sandy backed down from her landlord-tenant
idea.

I smiled, watching my new family talk,
argue, and love each other. From the corner of my eyes I saw Jake
watching me revel in his family’s banter. He reached over and
squeezed my hand.

“Emily, what’s on the agenda for
today? I am here to help with whatever you need.” Jane looked eager
to start her day with me.

“I’ll help too,” Nick
added.

I turned to Jake to see what his
schedule would be like, hoping the four of us could hang out today.
Jake read my mind before I spoke. “I have to go back in this
morning but I should be done sometime in the afternoon. I’ll call
and see where you three will be and join you.”

He then turned to me and continued our
discussion about cooking school. “Have you thought some more about
enrolling in the CIA this fall?”

Nick loved this idea.

“I think I’m going to continue
teaching this year. I don’t want to go to school anymore. Even
though it’s cooking school, I don’t want the pressure, and I’m sure
the instructor and students won’t like it if I’m there just for the
fun of it.”

Jake tried to convince me otherwise
until I told him about my alternate plan.

“But, I think I’ll continue taking
informal cooking classes. It’s more casual and I can pick and
choose what I want to learn. Depending upon your schedule,” I said
to Jake, “I’ll go and take evening courses. I will drive you and
myself crazy if I’m home every night with nothing to do, but wait
for you.”

All of a sudden, I had a fantastic
idea.

“Nick, you want to take these classes
with me? I’ll find classes over by the VA and you can join me after
work. We can go eat at new restaurants before or after
class.”

Nick loved this idea even more. “Cool!
Will Jake be paying for all my classes?” He sniggered over to
Jake.

“I will treat you, but I expect
payback when you become a doctor, OK?” Nick heartily agreed to this
deal and we finished our breakfast.

Jake got up to clear our dishes when
Nick stopped him with a request.

“Hey, Jake?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you ever going to make up for
that botched Masa meal?”

“What do you mean, ‘botched Masa
meal’? What happened?”

“After you left Jake standing on a
street corner in New York,” Nick started laughing at his brother,
“he was in such a foul mood he canceled our dinner. He actually
paid the entire cancellation fee instead of allowing us to go and
have our meal.” Nick rolled his eyes at his brother and waited for
an answer.

“I’ll call that Urasawa and see if
they can seat us tonight. I doubt that he will have four seats at
the bar on such short notice.” Jake walked into the next room to
make his call.

Urasawa was one of LA’s
premier Japanese restaurants. It had earned two Michelin stars, and
was the closest thing to a Japanese
kaiseki
meal in America. Hiro
trained under Masa and bought the restaurant from him years
ago.

“Nick, you’re in luck. An entire group
of eight canceled just now. I reserved all eight seats for us at
6:00 p.m. Don’t eat lunch today.” Nick’s face lit up. My face lit
up. We gave each other a high-five. We were each other’s biggest
food allies.

“Emi, have you been to Urasawa
before?” Jake turned to ask me.

“No. We can’t afford meals like that
on a teacher’s salary.” I joked. “Why did you reserve all eight
seats? Mom and Dad are going to a dinner function tonight with
Uncle Henry and Aunt Barbara.”