Dinner With R.H.M.

When I pulled away from him, his arm snaked around my waist, keeping me close to him. I smiled up at him, enjoying his actions.
“The lasagna isn’t going to heat itself up,” I told him.
“Just wait, princess.”
I stood still for a moment, trying not to cling to him. As he pulled his arm away from me, I stepped back. He grabbed my chin gently, planting another kiss on my lips before grinning at me.
“Go on. I’ll be right there. I want to grab something.”
I frowned at him. “Hurry up, okay? I’m starving.”
“I’m right behind you.”
I nodded before spinning around and jogging back to my house. I walked into the kitchen closely followed by Sugar to heat up the lasagna. I was so glad that I had frozen part of it. It was delicious and I could eat it forever. While it heated up in the oven, I pulled out plates, silverware, and cups. I poured us both glasses of sweet tea before frowning at them. I stalked back to the fridge to see what else I had in it to drink before groaning when the only thing I had in there was water.
“Note to self, Sugar: Get other drinks tomorrow.”
She barked at me happily, merrily wagging her tail. A few minutes later pounding on the front door set her off. I followed her to the door, pulling it open immediately before raising an eyebrow curiously at R. H. M. before stepping to the side so that he could walk past me with the canvas in his arms.
“What is that?” I asked, trailing behind him, watching the way Sugar also followed him like a smitten little puppy.
“You’ll see. Hey, Sugar, you pretty little girl!”
I leaned against the counter eyeing Sugar as she sat at his feet, looking up at him with adoration. “What did you do to my dog?”
He looked down at her before scratching her ears. “Well, I did enter your home without you here earlier. I gave her a bone. I hear it’s the way to an animal's heart. Food.”
“Or toys,” I giggled, turning my attention back to the canvas he had set up on my counter. “What is it?” I repeated.
He hesitated before carefully removing the plain brown wrapping paper on it. He stood in front of it, blocking it from view.
“Come here, Leah.” I got up to stand in front of him. “Close your eyes.”
I did as he asked, becoming a little afraid when I felt him move to stand behind me. He wrapped an arm around my waist, taking my other hand in his, linking our fingers together. He put his chin on my shoulder.
“Alright. Open your eyes,” he told me softly.
I slowly opened them, gasping loudly when I saw what was on the canvas. I was featured on it, sitting on a bed looking forward with a sheet pulled up around my breasts. Behind me on the wall there was a mirror. Tears filled my eyes as I found myself staring at my scars. I stiffened in his arms, trying to tug my hand away from his. He lifted our joined hands to touch the canvas.
“Leah, look. Really look.”
He leaned me closer to the canvas while I sniffled. He used one of my fingers to touch a spot in the corner of the mirror.
“What do you see?”
I remained quiet as I stared at the four little girls barely noticeable in the corner, sitting on the floor with a man whose back was toward the mirror, making it impossible to see his face. I glanced at him over my shoulder.
“Is that…”
He nodded. “Your daughter with Mister’s children,” he murmured. “There’s more.”
“More? How is there more?”
He let me go to turn the canvas around. He showed me the little clips there before undoing them. He removed a clear piece of plastic off the front of the portrait, changing the entire picture. Instead of the children being barely seen in the mirror, they were seated around me on the bed, facing me. The sheet had been replaced with pajamas and all four girls’ faces were clearly seen in the mirror. I wiped a tear off my cheek.
“It’s beautiful.”
“When you heal, Leah, you will see that you have to face your past to make it peace with it. Finding peace will allow you to remember or think about things differently.” He set the clear part over the canvas again, making off my scars again.
“This is where you are now. Needing to heal and doing your best to do so.” He pulled it away to reveal the picture underneath. “This is where you will end. You will see hope and love all around you. You will think about her and know that you did your best.” He took my hand again to place it over my heart on the portrait. “You will be at peace loving her and even though that love will never die, you will be ready to move on.”
“And what about, R. H. M.? You did all this to show me it was okay to move on, but you are still holding onto something. When are you going to be ready to move on?”
His fingers lovingly stroked over the triplets’ faces. “We both have a journey to take. You are already taking yours. If it’s okay, I would like to take mine beside you.”
I turned around to wrap my arms around his waist, leaning against his chest. “I’d like that.”
“I also have another surprise for you.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. But I’m not giving it to you. You have to find it,” he told me.
I raised my head to look into his eyes. “What do you mean I have to find it?”
He smiled at me. “It’s somewhere in Eden. When you see it, you’ll know.”
“You know you didn’t have to do all of this to apologize,” I said.
“I know, but I wanted to.”
“Why? Seems like a lot of effort.”
“Because to me, Princess, you’re worth the effort.”
The timer going off had me pulling away from him to remove the lasagna from the oven. “What do you want from me, R. H. M.? Because I’m confused. Sometimes you seem so into me and other times, it seems like you don’t want anything to do with me.”
His hands fell on my shoulders. “I guess we’re both confused, Leah. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but I can tell you that I want to find out exactly what this is. It’s going to be slow but I can’t just give up on this. These last few days have made me miserable. I missed you.”
I leaned back against him. “So, what happens now?”
“Now, we both continue our journeys without expectations of each other. And see where it goes. I don’t want either of us to feel pressure.”
I closed my eyes as my hands gripped the handle of the oven. “So, does that mean that we can’t spend time together?”
“No. Starting next week, we will be spending a lot of time together.”
“We will?”
“Yes. Week task four involves V. R. and that is done at my office.”
“Next week? But I thought Mister said I had two weeks to find a coping skill,” I squeaked, making him chuckled.
“You skipped task 2 because you had already completed all of them. I have no doubt that you will finish task 3 before the two weeks are up.”
“You have a lot of faith in me,” I mused.
“You’ve given me every reason to have that faith in you.”
I smiled as I began to serve the lasagna. “I already forgave you. You don’t have to be so sweet and romantic.”
He chuckled as he stepped back. “Who? Me? Never!”
“Mhmmm Whatever’s gotten into you, I like it.”
He picked up his fork to take a bite. “Leah?”
“Yes?”
“I want to tell you something,” he mumbled, almost incoherently.
“I’ll listen.”
“When I was younger, I dated this woman. Her name was Janice. I loved her very much but I wasn’t in love with her. I thought I was. When I lost her, it hurt a lot. I was depressed for months. That was when I met D-my wife. I saw a lot of Janice in her and I think the need to save Janice made me throw myself into the relationship with her. It made me want to save her, but I couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, I still failed. I felt like I was never going to be good enough so I stayed away from people that I could develop feelings for. I know that I have a lot of work to do, but I’m asking you to have a little patience with me. If I act like an asshole, I don’t mean to. Just like some things make you afraid or panic, I have things that make me do the same.”
I reached over to lay my hand on top of his. “I understand, R. H. M. I do. I’m not going to demand things from you. I’m not looking to just rush into another relationship. I’m okay to start off being friends.”
“Thank you, Leah.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you for trusting me.”
We remained silent for a while as we ate. After helping me with the clean up, he cleared his throat nervously.
“Princess?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think I could spend the night? I would like to hold you.”
I stared at him, shocked. What the actual hell happened? This R.H.M. was so different from the R.H.M. that I had seen hours ago. I swallowed hard before nodding.
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
I led him to the bedroom where I grabbed some pajamas before going into the bathroom to change. When I came back out, he had stripped down to his boxers and a tank top. He eyed me.
“Is this okay?” He asked.
“Yes. Jeans are uncomfortable to sleep in,” I told him as I pulled the covers back.
We both climbed into the bed and I laid next to him, not quite sure how to lay. He rolled toward me before positioning me on my side so he could spoon. After he pulled the covers up over us, he kissed my shoulder.
“Sweet dreams, Leah. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I tangled my fingers with his. “Sweet dreams, R. H. M.”