Chapter 34: Not a Good Fit
- DEX -
By the time I get to the hospital, Raya still hasn’t texted me back. I put my truck in park and sit there, wondering if I shouldn’t wait until I hear from her. She may be resting. She may have visitors.
"Raya asked me to come," I remind myself. She said she has something important to tell me.
The woman at the desk asks for my name and gives me Raya’s room number, and I proceed down the hallways in search of it, trying not to think about how every time I’m in a hospital, it reminds me of my mother. A few nurses passing in the opposite direction smile.
Finally, I come to the right door: room 428. It’s cracked ajar, and suddenly I’m back in that singular dream again, approaching the bedroom door in that mysterious apartment before the cat slips in ahead of me. I glance at my feet as if one might appear out of thin air.
I knock gently. "Auraya?"
She doesn’t answer, so I push the door open slowly and see her sleeping on the inclined bed with afternoon sunlight streaming in through the window, falling across her golden hair. She looks peaceful. Do I leave? Do I wake her?
Since she is the one who asked me here, I decide to wait. There is a couch under the window and a chair pulled up next to the bed. Once my bag and computer get deposited on the couch, I sit down in the chair and have the uncanny feeling that I’ve been here before.
This isn’t an apartment bedroom, but there is no doubt in my mind as I watch Raya sleeping that it was in fact her in my dream. The question is whether or not that matters. Is there... meaning behind it?
Someone else knocks, and I automatically straighten in the chair. An elderly gentleman peaks his head in. "I have flowers for a..." he looks down at the paper in his hand. "An Auraya Gray?"
"That’s right," I nod and wave him in, raking a hand down my face at the odd timing. Now it will look like I’ve brought them myself.
He sets them on a corner table and smiles at me before leaving. "I hope she feels better."
"Thank you." After I say it, I realize that it makes me sound like someone much closer to her than I am—someone who would receive the hope for her recovery just as personally and dearly as she would.
"Dex?"
Raya’s voice sends an immediate warmth flooding through me just like the first time we met, and I turn to see her squinting as she comes out of sleep.
"Hey, kiddo." Kiddo? "How are you feeling?"
She thinks about it, biting her lip and sitting up.
"Careful," I tell her, standing from the chair. "You don’t have to get up for me."
She freezes and looks at her hands like they are guilty of something she wasn’t aware of. "No, I’m okay. Thank you for coming. I’m sorry. I must have passed out."
"It’s good for you to rest. I can come back."
After feeling over the surface of the blanket, she retrieves her phone and looks at it. "Dammit."
"Is everything alright?"
"No," she frowns. "I mean yes. I’m... I’m alright. It’s just my dad. He’s stubborn and insists on staying with his car."
"Staying with his car?"
"His car broke down on the way to my apartment, and he’s waiting for a tow truck. It’s... it doesn’t matter." She forces a smile, but there are a few tears brimming in her eyes. "Thank you for coming here. I know it’s weird. I’m sorry, and you’re so busy."
"Raya, please stop apologizing. It’s no trouble at all. I want to share a project idea with you anyway, and it will be easier to do in person."
"Oh, uh..." she looks down into her hands, and I see a gold locket that she must have fallen asleep with. "I... I don’t think I’m going to be staying."
"Staying?"
She sighs and makes a fist with the locket inside, its gold chain spilling out between her fingers. "At Mobius. It was sweet of you to offer me a raise and some actual work," she chuckles, still not meeting my eyes. "I hope it doesn’t cause too much trouble. It’s just... it’s not a good fit."
I frown. "Are you sure that’s what you want?"
She nods, her gaze still on her hands. When she finally looks up, there is so much ache there that she is trying to hide, but it’s obvious that it’s there... at least to me.
"Maybe you should think about it. With what just happened yesterday, it’s normal to be upset..."
"No, it’s not that. It really just... it’s not a good fit," she insists.
"Okay," I say. "Okay. I understand."
She sighs again, closing her eyes before dropping them again to her lap. "That’s not what I wanted to tell you, though."
Rather than badgering her with questions, I remain silent—waiting for her to find whatever words she is searching for. Several seconds go by with her fidgeting quietly, and I sit back down in the chair to give her time. Whatever it is she needs to tell me must not be easy, and I can’t help but wonder if it has to do with the dreams her sister was referring to.
"Something weird happened to me last night," I offer, giving her a chance to take a break from her thoughts, and she glances up curiously. "I actually dreamt for the first time in years. Remember when you asked me about it?"
She nods again, her bottom lip falling open and drawing my eyes to it.
"Why?" She asks quietly.
"Why did I dream?" I chuckle at the question. "I don’t know. I’m trying to figure that out."
Raya continues staring at me, and I can tell she wants to ask me what this groundbreaking dream of mine was about, and I’m waiting for her to do just that. Because if she does, I’ll tell her. I’ll admit everything—I’ll even tell her about the cat. Maybe it won’t even be considered inappropriate or unprofessional, because she just told me she’s quitting the internship. If that’s the case, I’m not really her boss any longer.
Raya’s cheeks begin flushing a light pink color like she can sense my thoughts, but she doesn’t look away. And neither do I.
