Page 46 of Healing of the Heart

EPILOGUE

Blake walks into another patient’s room at the urgent care. She just has to deliver the news that this patient has strep throat. It’s pretty easy, and she prescribes antibiotics for him. He’s an older man and doesn’t seem surprised by the news.

“I told that nurse it was strep,” he says, “and she still made me take all these tests. I hate the flu test, and I knew I didn’t need it.”

Blake laughs. “That’s kind of her job.”

“Well it’s nonsense,” he argues.

Blake just shakes her head and goes over to her computer. “Well,” she says, “at least we made sure you didn’t have anything else.”

“I suppose so,” he says, and then crosses his arms. “Still annoying, though.”

Blake laughs again and types some on her computer. “Okay,” she says, “so I just sent your prescription to your pharmacy, so you should be good to go.”

“Great, thank you,” the man says and then leaves. Blake stays in the room and sighs to herself.

It’s been over a year, but Blake misses her time in Zambia. Just like all of her other trips abroad, she thinks about it often. Zambia was special, however; it’s where she reconciled and found the love of her life. She misses all the time that she had in the cabin with Amory, she misses being so close to her all the time. Now, Amory works at a different clinic across town and she leaves for work in the morning before Blake even wakes up.

She doesn’t know how she does it and manages to keep her sanity, but she supposes that Amory is just a morning person. For Blake, waking up at eight in the morning is still too much for her. She should have gotten used to it years ago, but just because she should have done something doesn’t mean that she has.

Blake rubs her tired eyes before she leaves the room and goes back to work. There’s another patient in the next room that she needs to see who has come in about a UTI, so Blake goes there to treat that.

She still misses Amory while she works. The sort of silver lining to their differing work schedules, though, is that Amory gets off before Blake, and when Blake does finally get off work, she sees Amory sitting in the waiting room, reading a magazine. Amory is as beautiful as ever. Her lovely honey blonde ponytail looks freshly washed and her beautiful face is deep in concentration. Blake walks over to where Amory is sitting and puts a hand on her head.

Amory looks up and gives Blake a wide smile, putting the magazine down.

“Are you ready to go?” Amory asks.

“Yep,” Blake says, giving her a soft smile in return.

The two of them walk out of the doctor’s office and head to Amory’s car. Blake usually takes the bus to work in the morning so that the two of them can drive home together in the evening when she’s done with work.

As they walk through the parking lot together, Blake notices that Amory is fiddling with the ring on her finger. It’s new and she expects that she will continue to play with it until she gets used to the feeling.

Blake doesn’t have a ring because she was the one to propose, but she supposes that when she gets a wedding band, she’ll be the same as Amory at first.

Blake moves closer to Amory and takes her hand in her own, squeezing lightly. Amory’s hand is warm and Blake smiles at her as they walk.

Blake plays with the ring on her finger, so glad that she gets to call this woman her fiancée.

When they get to Amory’s white SUV, Blake lets go of her hand so that she can get into the driver’s seat and Blake opens the door to the passenger’s. Amory turns on the car, but before she can start driving, Blake reaches over, grabs her by the hair, and kisses her.

“Okay,” Blake says, when she’s done kissing her fiancée, “we can go now.”

Amory laughs and then reaches over to Blake, planting a firm kiss on her lips before she starts to back out of her parking spot.

“Okay,” she says, laughing.

They head home and Blake looks out the window, a little anxious. Amory is a good driver, with all the caution of a doctor, but it still doesn’t help the fact that Blake always gets a little nervous when someone else is driving. She tenses a little bit at every turn and every time another driver gets just a little too close to them. She doesn’t say anything, however, and they get home without incident.

When Blake opens the door, she immediately sees Millie on the couch, lounging lazily. Blake smiles at her cat, grateful that she has been acclimating well to their new house. They only moved in here three months ago, and her cat had a hard time with the adjustment at first. Now, Millie seems to be doing great. She meows when she sees Blake and Amory enter and jumps off the couch and to the food bowl that sits in their kitchen.

Amory laughs and grabs the cat food from the designated cat cabinet. At the sound of the food bag ruffling, their kitten, Scrabbles, comes running into the kitchen. Unlike Mille, Scrabbles is a scrawny little thing. According to the animal shelter, she was the runt of her litter, but Blake and Amory are hoping that with some love and lots of food she’ll fatten up. They’ve only had her for a month and she’s already filled out a lot.

Blake reaches down toward Scrabbles and scoops her up, petting her while Amory fills the cat food and water bowl. When the bowl is filled, she lets the kitten down so that she can eat her fill. Amory and Blake stand in the kitchen for a moment, watching their cats.

Amory turns to Blake. “Have you gotten your flu shot yet?” she asks.

---