If You Tell Me To Stay

Chapter 54

When Sanem awoke she was no longer holding Can's hand. Instead, his arm was under her neck, and his other arm was draped loosely over her waist. She was far enough back that she could fully appreciate all of his features, and at her own leisure too as he was still blissfully asleep and unaware of her lingering perusal of his face. She was always struck by how beautiful he was. Not just in physical appearance, which anyone with eyes had to admit, but she had been granted the rare opportunity to see his soul. He was beautiful there too, more so if that were possible. She raised her hand slowly and ever so lightly and ran her fingers across his prominent brow and down his strong jaw. She was struck anew with how lucky she was.

She felt tears forming, which wasn't surprising; she was constantly on the verge of crying as of late. She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to hold in her emotions. It was of no use and the tears fell silently.

Sanem didn't want to disturb Can's slumber and gingerly disentangled herself from their relaxed embrace. She was in the kitchen, preparing a glass of tea, when she heard the sound of an engine outside. Although she knew very little about motors, this one sounded familiar. Walking outside, she was shocked to see and hear her red scooter. Umut had just switched off the engine and was putting the kickstand down when another car pulled into the driveway.

Güliz, upon seeing Sanem on the doorstep, immediately leaped from the driver's seat and ran to her. Güliz hugged Sanem tight while gushing about how relieved she was to hear everyone was okay after yesterday's accident. She explained that all the employees had left early after the news of the car crash had reached them and that instead of Umut driving Güliz home, he stopped at some junkyard along the way and made her scour through rusty dirty piles of metal looking for car parts she couldn't remember the names of. And then if that wasn't enough, they picked up some random man who was covered in tattoos from head to toe, or so she supposed because obviously he was clothed.

"I held the flashlight over them for hours. My arm is still sore!" Güliz finally ended on a flourish.

Still stunned at seeing the two of them and even more baffled by Güliz's whirlwind of an explanation, Sanem turned to Umut for clarification who had long since made their way up to them.

"We know you've been feeling... off lately... and after that accident... well..." Umut looked over at her shiny red scooter, "We just thought this might make you feel a little better. We wanted it to be a surprise."

"You fixed it," Sanem said in astonishment.

"Well... an acquaintance of mine fixed it."

Güliz repeated the word 'acquaintance' with a snort.

Umut rolled his eyes, exasperated by something she clearly wasn't going to let go of anytime soon, but still smiled at her before continuing, "I know someone, a mechanic, who owed me a favor. In my younger deputy days, I may have looked the other way on something I probably shouldn't have and he said he would pay me back one day." Umut shrugged as if it were no big deal that he just called in what was probably a pretty large favor to fix a scooter. "I was pretty sure I knew what parts you needed and it was just a matter of finding them for cheap."

Sanem stood there like a statue, her eyes darting back and forth between the scooter and her two friends. Her breathing deepened as the emotions she was always holding at bay threatened to pour over.

"Güliz?" Sanem said while trying to choke back a sob, "Permission to hug your boyfriend."

Güliz gave a flighty laugh, "Granted."

Sanem wrapped her arms around Umut so quickly he didn't have time to react. Now he was the statue, clearly uncomfortable with this show of gratitude. Or maybe it was the fact that she had now turned into a waterfall.