First, Best and Always

Chapter 28 – Decisions To Make

Raven lay quietly now in Vin’s arms. She’d cried herself out, but had still not revealed the reason behind the tears. The crying had stopped and she just wanted to lay there peacefully and not talk about anything. Vin however had other ideas.

“What happened that had you so upset,” he said softly.

“Nothing ‘happened’…,” she said into his chest, “just old memories, old wounds.”

“Don’t you think we ought to talk about it? “I mean…if it had you this upset, maybe you ought to talk about it.” “You can tell me ya know….” “You can tell me anything…”

The ringing of the phone interrupted him. Letting out a sigh of exasperation he looked at the phone saying, “What is it now?”

Raven attempted to reach over him to answer it, and he caught her hand stopping her with, “Ya know, we don’t have to have company tonight….” She gave him a knowing look and picked up the phone anyway.

“Hello?”

The voice on the other end was quiet and serious, “Hi,” I was just calling to see how you’re doing….”

She tried to feign an upbeat mood, “I’m fine, how else would I be?”

His response cut through all the crap, “I know where you were today.”

“Oh” came her subdued response.

“Perhaps we should leave dinner for another time?” he said considerately.

“No, I was kinda looking forward to that, but maybe we could go somewhere instead, ya know…how about ‘Tadesco’s’?”

“Are you sure?” “…Cause we don’t have to do this now, it can wait until you feel better.”

Speaking now, almost in their own private code she said, “You know better than anyone how that is….it never gets better.”

Vin lay there silent. Listening to a conversation that was beginning to sound increasingly personal, increasingly intimate.

“Okay then, I’ll call and make a reservation for…8?” “Is that okay for you?”

“That will be fine, see you then,” and she hung up the phone.

Vin couldn’t hold back any longer, he wanted to be supportive of whatever she was going through, but that was a little hard to do when she wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t let him in.

“Who was that?”

“Eric.” “We’re going to eat at Tadesco’s instead of here, I told him we’d be there at 8” she said matter-of-factly as she got up from the bed and headed into the bathroom to run a bubble bath.

“Raven?” “Where were you this afternoon?” “I know you said you went driving, but exactly where did you go?”

“Nowhere in particular,” she said as she stood pinning up her hair, “I just got in the car and drove for a while.” “Actually it kinda drove me more than I drove it.”

“Soo, you weren’t with Eric today?”

Sticking her head back out the bathroom door she looked at Vin quizzically, “No.” “I wasn’t with Eric…what would make you think that?”

“Nothin’, I just wondered is all.” Vin breathed a small sigh of relief. “Okay” he thought to himself, “So she wasn’t with him….idiot you did all that worrying for nothing.” Leaning against the frame of the bathroom door he watched her as she peeled off her clothes and stepped into the tub. When she had herself positioned he sat on the edge of it and offered to wash her back.

“Hummm, I just wanna soak for a bit baby, but I’d love it if you’d come back and massage my feet,” she said playfully wiggling her toes and sticking one bubble covered foot under his chin. His smile brightened,

“You got it!” he said kissing her foot, “One ‘Diesel Special’ foot massage coming up!” “Just let me get this stuff out of the way,” he said picking up her discarded clothes and heading for the laundry bin. As he approached the washroom he noticed that there was an inordinate amount of dirt on Raven’s jeans… it looked like some kind of caked on mud with a funny reddish color.

“No matter” he thought, then rolling the jeans, and top up like a basketball he scored two points as he tossed them into the washer.