41

" Oh! There you are my boy, how are you doing?"

"Recuperating slowly you?"

"Seen better days. What about you Keturah. How are you feeling?"

"Uh pretty well actually. Thanks for asking." I answered with a genuine smile on my face this time when her accent immediately hit me.

"I see a lot has happened since the last time we spoke. Keturah has he gone down on one knee yet?" I gawked at Mrs. Davies as warmth rushed through my cheeks.

"What! He hasn't? Darien I th-"

"Oh God! Davies." Darien groaned flipping his hair on the other side. His ears had turned red and I knew for a fact that he was hiding his face from us. He was blushing. I giggled making his shrink laugh as well.

"Why do you do this to me Davies. I thought we had a truce."

"Yeah well I don't recall you hitting me up with my client as a date a truce."

"It was a prank." He whined rubbing his tainted ears to stop the blushing. I couldn't hold in my laughter any more.

"Was it? Cause I remember my client almost kissing me after you decided to drop us home."

"Davies." He continued to whine and blush at the same time making him look cute. Really cute. The woman can really whine him up.

Mrs. Davies laughed at his mortified face making me love their relationship. This didn't look like a session with your therapist at all.

"Ok ok. I'm just messing with you. You look really cute not to annoy. Makes me think of my son. Now, tell me are you two together or what? I need the gist."

Darien laced his finger with mine and raised it trying to give the memo to her but she raised a brow with amusement lurking in her eyes.

She was so good at this.

"Yes Davies, we've been together for the past month. I told her how I feel."

And now it was my turn to blush again. The intensity in his eyes after saying that made my heart swell for him all over again. What was he doing to me?

"I told her I love her and couldn't leave a day without her, obviously why we are in this place together." He placed a soft kiss on my lips after murmuring the three words I wasn't tired of hearing.

A throat was cleared making me refocus my attention back on Mrs. Davies. "You guys even forgot I was here. I'm gonna cry. This is really beautiful.

As much as I want to fawn over this relationship, I know you both have been dreading this session so let's get this over with.

Now, since we've done this a couple of times with you Darien-and Keturah as a guest. We are going to take this slow. What we are doing here is confidential and privy to us only.

There is nothing bounding you to speak or stay. You can leave or-"

"Tell me what you want to tell me. We get it Davies-Ouch!" I pinched his thumb one more time for interrupting the woman.

"I know you get it. Just wanted your lovely girlfriend to know what we're doing here."

I nodded in agreement to Mrs. Davies and she sighed. "Alright, let's start."

My eyes quickly found the time at the bottom of the laptop anxiously waiting for next hour to go by fast.

"I know you two have been through a lot these two weeks. What do you want to tell me? Let me start with you Darien, how are you really feeling about the incident?"

" The doctors are saying I'm recovering well but I uh I don't feel it."

"And why is that?"

"I feel like my recovery is just too quick?" My heart tugged at his response. His recovery was really going well and it was due to the best doctors stationed on him. Did he not want to get well?

"Please explain to me how you were expecting your recovery to go." Mrs. Davies muttered softly with a nod.

"I...I- Darien stopped to clear his throat-" I thought I was going to die.. No. I knew I was going to die when that uhm burning wood fell on me. And, with these wounds on me, I found it quite okay to let everything go."

My thumb found his index finger at that point and started stroking it. I didn't want to cry. I bit my cheeks really hard to stop me from crying. How would I have survived if he had left me. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if that had happened.

"What about you Keturah? How do you feel about the incident?"

"Uhm I don't know, just..mixed feelings. I'm angry at one point that it happened. I mean to everyone of all people it had to be him and his family. And then I'm a mess at the other point because I wish I had known before time as crazy as it sounds.

My uh my intuition never fails me. I had this gut feeling to be with him that day. I remember calling him that morning to grab some stuff and eat but because of the uh stupid exam, we rain checked and then uh that happened- I'm sorry I don't know why I'm crying."

Darien's fingers leaves mine to wipe his thumb under my eyes. "I'm sorry this is stupid. My eyes just keeps running like something." I sniffed wiping my snort with the tissue in his hands.

"It's fine honey nothing to worry about. Now, what do you think about Darien's answer to the question I just asked you?"

"You mean when he said uhm..." She nodded waiting for me to answer. Did she want a sincere response or I should just play it like I didn't mind.

"Keturah, it's fine. You tell us what you genuinely want to say and then we can go on from there." Mrs. Davies gave me a soft motherly smile making it hard for me to lie to her.

"After hearing his response, I felt like he didn't want me. Like he just...gave up." A huge burden fell off my chest after saying that out loud. My tightened chest began to feel loose and I couldn't be more sad for saying that. That was selfish of me.

I turned to Darien to see him clenching his jaws. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. "I'm sorry I'm being selfish. Forgive me."

But he just wrapped his arms around me whispering into my ears. "No you should be the one to forgive me for even thinking about giving up. You saved me. I don't know any woman who would have done that for me, really, and I was being selfish."

I nodded after I felt him shake on my shoulders and continued to murmur his apologies into my ears. He was crying.

"You're my lady in shining armor. Davies, she's my lady in shining armor." He wailed making me release a snort. Why were we being sappy today. His shrink chuckled nodding her head.

"I heard it and we will get to that shortly. So, now that we have gotten that load off our chest, Keturah, I want you to be honest with this one. After going though this, do you think you have control when it comes to things happening in your life?"

No no. I did not want to go there. I stayed mute taking a quick glance at the time on the screen once again and we'd just exhausted only twenty minutes? How?

"If you don't want to answer that it's okay we can skip-"

"No uhm it's fine Mrs. Davies. I'm used to-I wouldn't say controlling but planning. So yes. Usually, as in uhm everyday that is before I met Darien, I would plan my day. Where and when everything would happen to avoid any surprises-"

"So I take it you don't like surprises? And call me Sophia." Mrs. Da-I mean Sophia interrupted making me squirm in my seat. Was this an interrogation cause this felt like I was in a hot seat.

"Sometimes I guess. Life has given me a load full of surprises so I prefer getting things planned to outsmart the surprises. But after Darien came into my life, I realized that none of that mattered anymore and I loved it.

I was free, I felt it and still do. The incident at his house even proves that and in my whole life, I've never been unprepared. My last final exams proves it. Does that make me irresponsible?"

"What do you think? Let me give you sometime to think about it and go to Darien. My boy, has this predicament changed anything in your life?"

My focus shifted from his response as I thought about Sophia's question. Was I really irresponsible for going with the flow. Weighing the pros and the cons, I really loved planning okay- controlling every aspect of my day. It just made sense.

Going about your day knowing what and where I'll be going and doing. It just made things easier.

But did I really have control?

Because if I did, then Darien and I wouldn't have been in this hospital. Even after my gut was telling me to be with him that day, I had to brush it off because of our finals. Which I obviously had no control off.

Cause if I did, we wouldn't have been writing our finals that day and we would have been together the whole day.

But his parents, Rosa, would definitely be at home.

Dear Lord, I really had no control at all. It was just meant to happen I guess.

"Oh I think our session is up." Mrs. Davies said shifting my focus back to her. I guess she had to when she saw the nurse prepping Darien for his physiotherapist.

"Go ahead I want to say goodbye to my in-law here." Darien leaves a kiss on my fingers before he was wheeled out.

"While you're still processing this, I want to thank you. For not giving up on yourself for him. You've been a great inspiration for him ever since I've known him.

I want you to promise me that you'll take things easy, that you'll enjoy life." I nodded blinking the tears away.

"As I've always said to Darien. We are all in a maze. Trying to get to our own points of destination and, as much as we are focused on getting there, we have to take it easy on ourselves and learn to enjoy and appreciate everything around us.

There'll be hurdles in each turn, things are going to get difficult for the next few years who knows? But you gotta take it slowly and learn to understand that every trap you face in each turn is not your fault."

"I hear you Sofia, thank you."

"No. You need to understand it and set your self free. Believe me if you really want what you have with him and anything else in your life to work. Life is in phases, what you can't accomplish today you can accomplish it tomorrow. You need to understand that."

I nodded taking in everything she said.

"I'm sending you my direct contact, if you ever need me, not like this but as a friend, you can give me a call. I know he'll be popping up the question soon. Let me know when he puts the ring on your finger."

Heat suddenly rushed to my cheeks immediately she ended our meeting. I got up and down to get to Darien. His session with his physiotherapist would take an hour and I wasn't going to wait that long. I had to go see him and let him know he was worth it.

"Hey, where are you going?" Speak of the angel and he shall appear.

"You're back early, are you done already?"

He nodded and groaned when the nurse helped him on his feet quickly before putting him in his bed.

"It was just another scan." I nodded and waited patiently for the nurse to leave.

"I have to tell you something. When you said you knew you were not going to make it. I knew that wasn't possible. Hear me out.

As crazy as this sounds, I remember my pastor saying in one sermon that Jesus broke the yoke of untimely death for all his children so you are not permitted to die before your time. You hear me?

You're worth it Darien. I want you to know that. I know God led me to you in that house that day and I would do it over and over if I have to. That wasn't your time to leave us. I want you to know that. Every child of God needs to fulfill their destiny and you, are not done with yours."