It's not warm when she's away

 

Megan's grandmother Meme fell a lot lately at the assisted living place. She even broke a rib. Of course, her grandfather was doing well, he had plenty of friends there and even did a Ti Chi class once a week. It seemed he hardly noticed what was going on with Meme.

"I just don't know why it has to be you?" Cori didn't mean to sound so upset, but Megan was spending so much time with Meme at the hospital lately with cognitive tests and now they wanted to send her away for rehab that was not close by.

"We just have to do what we can for the both of them," Megan felt it was best to keep Gramps in his usual routine. Sure, he worried about his wife, but he liked getting updates from Megan. 

It was exhausting. Cori didn't know if they could keep this up. Before he knew it, Meme was going from good to worse at the rehab facility. He'd been with Megan on a Monday with their children at the  hospital before Meme went to rehab. Her appetite was good and she was so excited about Thanksgiving. She talked of extended family who weren't really family, but she talked of them as if they were her grandchildren too. A week later, Meme didn't know where she was. She wanted to go back to Florida. Why would she ever want to be here? She talked of people that neither Megan nor Cori knew.

All the while, he had the pizzeria to worry about. He wanted Megan home with him and the kids. The holidays were coming. 

"Do you think she might have a UTI?" Sammie asked. 

"A UTI?"

"It's a urinary thing, but it seems to go hand and hand with dementia," Sammie told him. Of course, she was there to take care of Cora and the baby. No questions asked. 

It only worried Cori more. What did this mean? He texted Megan about it. She questioned the nurses too. Now Meme was back in the hospital again.

Thankfully, there was Gregory who was great at taking over the pizzeria. He did everything that was asked of him. Cori was glad he'd found him for managing. He knew everything from pizza dough, to prepping the toppings for the pizza. Even if this new chapter with aging grand parents felt to be taking a toll on his family, he was grateful he had such an understanding crew to keep his business going.

I used to travel in the shadows

 "Oh, stop trying to think it's that much different," Pan's lips curled up. He gave Wade a slap on the back. Nothing had changed that much since they got married.

True, it was a very small affair. Just a couple of people from work, their brothers with significant others and of course, Pan's mom. 

"But there's so much I feel we have to do," Wade squinted.

"I know you're not a party animal," Pan chuckled as he was finishing up dinner for two on the stove. It was raining as of late so he knew they wouldn't be going for a run tonight. He'd hate for them to both get sick now.

"Well, I don't like having people over," Wade said he hoped the family wasn't expecting them to have family gatherings now. 

"I think they know that," Pan understood, although he thought it might be nice if they had Thanksgiving here, yet everyone was so busy. That was why he opted to order a turkey dinner. "You know, Gabe's place is small."

"Oh, you are just thinking of the studio," Wade said as he bit into a piece of crispy bacon. "They live above the pizzeria now."

Pan sighed, thinking they might run into Caitlin and he didn't want that. His thought of her made him nervous. After all, she thought the worst of Wade. Thankfully, she hadn't cornered him anywhere to make him feel bad for marrying Wade. 

"Look, we'll just invite Gabe and Sammy, my mom-"

"What about Elvis?" Wade looked at him blankly. They needed to talk about his half-brother who was very much with Pan's ex, Rox.

"I guess-" Pan sighed at the thought. It wasn't bad at the wedding. Still, it was awkward to see her, especially with a growing baby bump.

Pan started eating the cheese omelette packed with mushrooms, peppers, onions and broccoli. 

"It'll be a nice Thanksgiving," Wade nodded as he was still contemplating the whole matter.

"You know, what I'd really like to do," Pan sighed with a soft laugh.

"I know, what I want to do, sleep through the whole thing," Wade sighed. Pan agreed. There weren't that many days to do such hibernation these days, with the nights so long.

"But, its the holidays," he nodded. They had a chance to go to the tree lighting at the old train station this year with family. It would be a great way to start the holidays.

Sent down from above, unconditionally love

 "I just want to know what's going on with you and Cassie's mother?"

Carmen felt herself shaking as she said it. She didn't want to say anything, but it was getting a little annoying. Justin seemed to be on his phone with her all the time.

"Not anything yet," Justin made a face as if she might know something he didn't. 

"Well, you..you talk to her..a lot," Carmen said as she broke up the sizzling ground meat and put in the chunks of onion and pepper.

"I don't know, if it'll amount to anything," He went back to the dishes he was drying. "Just something on the side." He winced.

"Something on the side?" Carmen was disgruntled.

"Well," he turned to her and landed against the kitchen counter. "She's trying to help me write."

"Write what?" Carmen looked at him as if he needed to tell her everything.

"Oh, it won't be published here."

Justin sighed as he went to find the penne as the water started to boil.

"Published, you're going to publish something?"

He nodded. "Hopefully."

That's when he told her Cassie's mother was popular in Asian dramas. "Some of her stories were in dramas, but then she got in a little bit of trouble. They weren't as crazy about her bromances as they used to be. So, anyway, she's been in the states for a long while. She even has her citizenship. And, and she's worked on some graphic novels, in the states. 

"What's her name?" Carmen wanted to know if she'd read any of her work.

"I can't tell you, it's a secret."

Justin left it at that. 

"But how can she help you?" Carmen mixed in the tomato sauce and spices and stirred what was in the skillet.

"I'm helping her, or so she says, but I'm learning a lot about a genre I'm not that familiar with. She is helpful, and she seems to think I would do OK with Wuxia dramas." Justin told Carmen that she still  had dramas in Asia. She knew people who still helped her and were anxious to see if he could come up with some new stories on the web there.

I make the shapes come much too close

 

"So what are our Thanksgiving plans?" Rico wanted to know just how to plan accordingly. He was over early before classes at his Dad's. He felt he needed to touch base with him and a text or a phone call would not do.

Of course, the coffee was always on. He did wonder if his dad ever slept, but he never complained.

"What do you have in mind?" His father sounded as if it would be the usual noontime routine. His brother would of course wanted the afternoon to watch games on TV and Caitlin's family liked it early too because of their family schedule.

"Sound good to me," Rico smiled. "Mona's family usually does it in the early evening." He made himself at home with his dad's scrambled eggs and bacon, but his dad just set out an egg burrito for him this time.

"So how are things," his dad drank his coffee at the kitchen table.

"I'm not ready to move back home yet," Rico's smile was open as he reached for his mug of hot coffee. "It's better than expected."

"Of course, it is." His dad was even-lipped as if he didn't want to hear it.

"Well, you know, I've slept alone a good portion of my life and you know, to find out someone has to always sleep on the right side of the bed, it can be..strange."

He talked about work. His weekends at the skating rink. And then he was taking a full load of classes.

"You should be in the dorm," his dad sighed.

"You have a point," Rico nodded. "But this is what I wanted and..and Mona has really been nice to me."

"You always, went out of your way from her from the very beginning," his father said as he hugged himself. Rico knew that look. His dad thought he was too much of a nice guy.

Rico pressed his lips and knew he should shut up and tackle the egg burrito before it went cold. Although, it was steaming hot when he bit into it. Yes, he missed his dad's cooking. It wasn't that he hated Mona's cooking, but she did like to sleep in, in the morning so he ended up making breakfast and she was a bit indifferent about it. He didn't really know if she liked it or not. It was as if she was sleep eating, perhaps.

It might not have been what dreams were made of, but he was happy to be with her. 

"You're not going to get married are you?" His dad awoke any thoughts he'd had of Mona still sleeping. Rico thought he should have texted her, but best not to disturb her.

"What?" It startled Rico. The thought made him smile. "I want to. I do. It's just I want to be able to provide for her too, and I-"

"You don't even know how she feels about it, do you?" His dad put him on the spot.

"I want us to see how it goes first," Rico knew he wasn't as optimistic as he used to be about relationships. It hadn't been the same since Liv. He felt at fault that he hadn't picked up on what she wanted. Of course, she'd lived at his father's house. She had her own room. It was different then. They were in high school. But he had such high hopes back then. The thought they would always be together. He knew back then he just wanted to save her. And maybe he'd felt that way about Mona when they first met so long ago at the skating rink. But he knew now, it wasn't like that. He might need saving too. Yet, he knew they needed to remain equal. And maybe he had that with Mona.

I'll be there for you (Like I've been there before)

 

Nic was glad to hear from Tristan, although he felt he had to pry information out of him, and maybe Tristan was doing the same to him.

"When are you getting married?" Nic asked.

"When are you getting married? Tristan shot back. They both laughed.

"It's just crazy. Your sister is married now... and... and..." Nic didn't know where he was going with this.

"You know, you take your time with everything but cooking and a grocery list. You are always certain of those two things." Tristan told him over the phone.

"Well, I always like something delicious and good buy."

Nic thought of the days back at the apartment when they roomed together. Oh, he was adulting now, and he felt as if he just felt to be dragging his feet, getting married. 

"You know, you want to start a family," Tristan reminded him.

"I know, and you do too."

"Oh, I'm not in any hurry."

Nic definitely felt they were on the same page. Yet it felt life was happening. A new election brought back a past president. It would be Thanksgiving before he knew it and he wasn't so eager to make Thanksgiving dinner like last year when he was in Seoul. 

"Do you think you'll come home for the holidays?" Tristan wanted to know if they'd stay with them if they could fly home.

"Hard to say," he hadn't thought about it. There was work and new projects happening. He couldn't see taking the time off.

"Well, you have to take off some time, if you're getting married."

"You're one to talk," Nic winced. "You and Dale work all the time."

"Yeah, it's like that. You hate to stop, you might have time to think, and who wants to do that?" Tristan joked. "Oh, I forgot to tell you," Tristan said right before he was ready to hang up.

"What did you forget to tell me?" Nic couldn't imagine what Tristan had on his mind.

"Guess who got together?"

"Who?"

"I'm afraid to tell you," Tristan laughed.

Nic gritted a smile. 

"Rico moved in with Mona," Tristan said.

"Mona?" Nic winced hard as if Rico had a bad case of something. "Is he crazy?"

"Well, I'm sure someone said the same thing about us." Tristan chuckled, but Nic kept thinking he, himself, was probably Mona's worst boyfriend of them all.  

'Cause when I think of you

 "Do you think Rico is really happy?" Vada said a few days later when she and Sammie were out for coffee after classes.

"I think so," she nodded. "Didn't he look happy?" Sammie said she didn't think he was faking it with Mona. "He's known her for a while."

"Really?" Vada winced. It didn't look like that to her. She thought he'd just met Mona and now he'd moved in with her. "Wasn't his Dad against it?" 

Vada couldn't help to be peeved because his dad always made her feel she was too adult to be around his son. 

"Oh, let's don't even go there," Sammie told her they'd either work it out or just move on. "Just like you and Kevin."

"But we're not living together," she pressed her lips as if she was behind in the game of life.

"Well, what's the hurry?" Sammie looked at her as if she was her own worst enemy. Vada knew that look. She'd seen it before. She knew Sammie tried to stop her from moving so quickly with Justin, and she was right.

"But what about you and Gabe?" She thought that was a whirlwind something.

"What about us?" Sammie said he'd always been there for her and she never had that with anyone else. Not even family. "I knew he was the one, the moment he walked in through the door at the pizza place."

"You make it sound so easy," she shook her head.

"I didn't question it," Sammie sighed. 

"And you're still not questioning it?"

Sammie shook her head, no. "Look, I know he's going through something right now with his mom and his brother, but...but we're fine. We like where we live. He's got a good job. He can take classes that the company will pay for."

"But he never went to college," she made it sound as if he'd always be blue-collar.

"A lot of people won't do those kind of jobs anymore. And he likes it," Sammie was straight-lipped about his manual labor job with the plumbing company. "See he knows how you are. You do snub your nose about certain ordinary people. We can't all be you."

Now Vada swelled a frown. She didn't want to have a spat with her best friend. After all, Sammie helped her with everything. If she wasn't giving her a pep talk about work, then she was customizing an outfit for Vada. 

Yes, maybe wanted wanted too much. And Kevin might be the best thing that had ever happened to her with that sweet smile of his. He was so down to earth. She didn't know she could sink that low, but actually, it had made her more centered.

When you see only problems

 

"I didn't know it was going to be so easy, you know," Hoyt said about being married.

"Well, let's hope it stays that way," Ari smiled back. After dinner, they helped with the dishes while the girls chatted about what to do for Thanksgiving and the holidays.

"If only we had a house," Hoyt said as she scrubbed on a pan while Ari dried the plates. 

"Yeah, we're still saving up," Ari told him. 

"I guess it can wait, but it sure would be nice, you know, my own lawn, that kind of thing," Hoyt shrugged.

"Well, you want to fall in love with the place, you know. Not just find a headache," Ari said. He couldn't imagine what it might be to own a house, but he knew it could be trouble too. 

"Yeah, it's a journey all right," Hoyt sighed. "But it'll be worth it. You know, make some real roots. I feel I can do that with Simone."

"Well, I think you two are good for each other," Ari said he hoped Mona knew what she wanted now.

"Oh, she always knows," Hoyt chuckled as he rinsed the pan and put it in the drainer, "Or at least she thinks she does."

They finished up then and Ari reached for a canned lemonade in the fridge for the both of them.

"I gotta tell you, I wasn't sure if we should be friends now," Ari reminded him he was Mona's uncle. 

"Yeah, she might be pretty peeved about it," Hoyt nodded and took a sip of the drink.

"Well, we can run our life around Mona," Ari admitted.

"Oh, but she does love running everyone's life." Hoyt chuckled.

"Well, she's ruined quite a few relationships already, but you know, I'm sure there is somebody who loves her, no matter what."

"And I thought I was that guy," Hoyt sighed. 

"Sometimes, it takes a lot out of you to figure it out," Ari sighed.

Hoyt looked at at Simone in the livingroom. And he wondered how much it took out of Simone to wait for him, all this time.