A MAN'S SORROW CUTS DEEPER

He was back...

Can awoke with a head filled with images he did not understand. He did not know what to do about them. He did not know what to think. Were they a dream? If not, what were they? Images and scenes flashed before his eyes one by one, in no particular order. But one thing was for certain, they all included Sanem...

After speaking with Emre and the doctor, it became aparent that his memory was coming back. And it all made sense. But his memory was not the only thing that came back to him. What rushed back into his heart and soul was the feeling of love. Love for Sanem. And his heart could not have felt happier. It remembered her, and he remembered her. The moment they first met and kissed, when she conquered his world with the slightest touch of her lips upon his and the scent that reached his soul. The moment they met at the agency and she captured his mind with her vivid description of who she thought he was. The moment he caught her in his arms when he found her seemingly trespassing at his home, when they danced for the very first time at his mountain home, each time they fought at the agency and away from it, when he saved her at the Bride Rock, when he saved her after she fell down into the pit in the forest, when he told her he fell in love with her, when she came to him and finally revealed she loved him too, when he pulled her out of the bathroom window and told her she was his beloved, when he returned from the sea and disabled his boat on purpose, when they spent the night in the forest after she hit his head thinking he was a bear, when they finally made up, when he carried her inside her home and she spoke out through her dream and revealed the names of their three children she always held close to her heart, when they decided to tour the world, and finally their accident...

All of that was so sudden and came to him so vividly. He decided to reveal to Sanem that he was back in their own secret way that only they would understand. Only they would recognize what the overspiced cutlets meant. Sanem had not realized what she had done when she presented the severely overspiced cutlets to him so many moons ago. She already won his heart, and he was only waiting for the right moment to reveal to her that he was her albatross. He was the man who fell in love with her and who hoped she loved him too. And those cutlets she made for him conquered the rest of his system, so that all of him was filled by Sanem and only Sanem.

So he decided to make those cutlets by hand for her. Though Mihriban offered her help, he knew she would have noticed he used too many spices. The moment Muzo and Deren and Ceycey came he had to turn around and smile. For the memories that came back to him also brought back the allencompassing feeling of friendship he felt for them. He remembered how much they tried to ensure that he and Sanem found their way back to each other. But when Sanem walked in with Leyla and Emre his heart skipped a beat. The fact that she still loved him and the fact that she fought so hard for their love filled his heart with so much contentment. He was a reserved man, one who had not often displayed his emotions. And she understood it, and loved him all the more for it. He looked at the band of friends that had come into his home and he could not have felt any more gratitude for them even if he wished to, for his heart was already filled with it to the brim. But he noticed briefly that Bulut and Deniz were missing from this picture, as was Aziz Bey. If he could have wished for this day to have turned out any different, he would only have wished to have them three there too.

After all had settled by the table, he offered the first bite of the cutlet to Sanem. First she was surprised, then shocked at the sheer overspiced taste of it, and then it hit her. No one that was there sitting by the table had known about the taste of the cutlets. It was not even part of the book. That tiniest of details belonged only to Can and Sanem. It was their secret. It was part of their own story. Her heart burst out of her chest and flew right in to his own. He was back. Her Can was back. He was still the same Can that fell  back in love with her, but now he was so much more. He was all...

Knowing that his memory was back felt like one of the greatest of treasures to him. They fought for their love and won. The joy and light that shone out of Sanem's heart was so bright in her eyes. And it was so evident in the sweetest of embraces she offered to him now. Her arms around his neck felt like they belonged there. He could not help but smile and thank his lucky stars, the amber princess, and the Ministry of Wishes of Fishes that the events of the last few months turned out the way they did, and that Sanem was back in his arms...