Pat

DeJa Vu

As I lay on the hospital bed, Gabe took my hand before I felt him sit next to me on the bed.

“I miss you,” he said. “I miss your laughter, I miss your smile, I miss your voice, I miss everything about you. Please just wake up, I don’t care if you continue using me as your handkerchief as long as you’ll be here with me.

I know you think that I lied to your mom but I didn’t. You are the love of my life. I never told you that because you might have pushed me away and I didn’t want to risk it.” Why would Gabe confess his love? Wasn’t he my employer? “Anyway, I have said a lot for now. I’ll let you get some rest,” He sat there holding my hand until he got a call.

Why was I in the hospital and why couldn’t I wake up?

After Gabe left, I still tried to push my body to move. The only thing I could compare what I was going through with was drowning. I was fighting to get back to the surface but the water and gravity were pulling me back down. I had to get back not only for my sake but for my family and friends and especially for my son.

Little by little I started winning. First I opened my eyes, then I was able to move my limbs and before dawn I could sit up and talk. My sister was so happy she called everyone that very minute she saw me moving. Gabe was the first to get there at a few minutes past six. My parents and other sister came soon after.

“I thought you were going to propose as soon as I woke up,” I asked him. “Don’t act surprised, I heard everything you said,” everyone’s attention was at what he’d say.

“I…I didn’t carry the ring with me,”

“Can someone tell me what I’m doing at the hospital?” They all looked at me shocked.

“You don’t remember?”

"I wouldn't ask if I did,"

“What is the last thing you remember?”

“A car running me over, is that why I’m here?”

“You don’t remember anything else?”

“I remember you and I buying my phone and you told me it was an early Christmas bonus and a bunch of other things. Should I remember anything else?”

“No, not at all, we just got worried that you couldn’t remember how you got here,” Gabe was doing most of the talking and the others stood by looking awkward.

I got discharged a few days later and Gabe proposed soon after.

We didn’t have a big wedding. We held a small ceremony and only invited close family and friends. It all happened too fast but it felt like it was long overdue.

Gabe and I worked from home. He would source for the work and I would do what I loved. I wrote.

We were always together because we both worked from home and he was like my boss. That also resulted in Joelisa, our baby girl. I had always wanted to give my baby girl that name.

However, they say familiarity breeds contempt. To avoid that we took turns driving Chance to school every week and taking a few hours apart.

One day, Gabe surprised me with tickets and a reservation for a hotel by the beach for a weekend alone, something I needed and that became a regular thing.

When Joey turned three I got pregnant with Tariq. Chance was the one who suggested the name. The house we were currently living in was no longer accommodating to our growing family so we started house hunting.

My best friend suggested a house that got recommended by a friend of hers. Gabe was against it but I insisted on viewing the house. It was a three-bedroom maisonette and the rent was affordable.