Page 74 of The Second Chance Cinema
“And I can be—”
“Presumptuous.”
“Exactly.”
The hospital probably wasn’t the time and place to get into things. Still, Drake was relieved to have started the conversation. He didn’t even care that the couple getting snacks was possibly trying to eavesdrop. They were never going to see them again.
Before he could say more, a nurse interrupted them.
“Are you Jen and Marc’s friends?” she asked. Ellie nodded. “They’re ready for you.”
Ellie and Drake followed the nurse into a hallway plastered with stickers and construction paper signs. It alarmed Drake that a place responsible for life-or-death matters was decorated the same way as an elementary school.
“This is it,” the nurse announced in front of a large room with a view of the parking lot. The room was unexceptional, except for the baby crying in Jen’s arms. Drake had seen a lot of babies at parties and potlucks. This particular baby moved him to the point of losing his balance. She was tiny and scrunchy with a little pink hat on her head. Marc waved them in from the edge of the bed with a sweet, exhausted look on his face.
“Here she is.” Jen beamed. “Our Lola.”
Lola could barely open her eyes. Drake feared he was going to be asked to hold the baby. He might break her. Could Drake be responsible for a human that small? He was clumsy. Dinner plates feared him. He was an actual ball of nerves. Not Ellie, though.Lola was cradled in her arms right away, and Ellie smiled at her in a vow of aunthood, of slight rule-breaking, of loving her fully.
Ellie softened when her eyes met his. The next part of the conversation they needed to have happened without words. Drake could see that Ellie was capable of committing to people that she loved, he conveyed to her in silence, over the beeping IV drip. And Ellie loved Drake like she hadn’t loved any of those other people, she seemed to tell him. She wasn’t going to leave.
And Drake wasn’t going to let her go.
They stayed at the hospital late. Jen originally asked for them to “pop in for five minutes,” but once Ellie and Drake appeared, she wanted them to share in the excitement. Marc put on the originalVacationmovie where the Griswold family goes to Walley World. “This movie’s pure cheese,” he said. “But, you know what, it’s aboutfamily.” Halfway through the movie, when the leather couch that Marc was using as his bed became too cramped for the three of them, Ellie suggested a trip to the gift shop.
“I think an award would be the most fitting thing,” Drake told her, faced with a row of depressing cards.
“I agree,” Ellie said. “This is definitely an award situation.”
They swirled around the aisles, beyond the flowers, then vetoed a section of stale Gummi Bears. The store was having a sale on balloons; there was a steep discount for purchases of twenty or more. Drake and Ellie marveled over the logistics of carrying that many balloons into a hospital room.
“Should we just go with chocolate?” Drake asked.
With five types of chocolate in hand, they returned to the hospital room. The lights were still on, but Jen was asleep. Lola was cradled in Marc’s arms. Ellie flicked the switch and made a quiet promise to call in the morning, setting the candy stash on Jen’s bedside table. Ellie and Drake walked out together, and she pushed the elevator button.
“It’s weird to be here,” Ellie said. “In a hospital, I mean.” Drakenodded. In all the commotion, he hadn’t considered how the memory of the loud beeping monitors and harsh lights might affect her. The elevator hummed as it went down. He took her hand. “It’s nice to be here for something good, though.”
“That is one cute baby,” Drake said.
“I think,” Ellie whispered, looking up at him, “I want that.”
“Chocolate money?”
“No.” The elevator doors split open in front of the empty cafeteria. Neither of them moved to step out. “You know what I meant.”
Drake did know what she meant. Ellie’s face as she cradled Lola already told the whole story. She did, in fact, want kids. Still, he’d learned in recent weeks—and conversations—not to assume things Ellie hadn’t told him herself. “Are you saying you want kids?” As he waited for her answer, the elevator doors snapped shut. They had missed their chance to exit and were headed back toward the third floor.
“Whoa,” Ellie said. “Let’s not get all plural yet, okay?”
“Deal.”
The elevator paused on the third floor. A woman holding a large stuffed bear entered, along with an absurd number of balloons. The balloons took over the space, forcing them to physically duck under a canopy of pink in every shade. They fought to withhold their laughter as the elevator headed toward the hospital’s ground floor. The doors flew open and closed as the woman tried to make an exit without much luck. Drake reached out to help her, but some balloon stragglers kept getting in the way. Ellie stepped back with bated breath, waiting for one to pop.
As soon as the woman finally got the handle on all her balloons and left, Ellie lost control of her laughter. There was the laugh Drake loved so much. She snorted through her nose and bent at the waist to gain composure. She was messy, and honest, and beautiful. Drake wanted decades of this. He couldn’t wait to seewhat they would become. But in order to get there, they needed to finish facing, and accepting, who they used to be.
“Well,” Drake said, grabbing the elevator doors before they could close again, “you ready to go home?”
“Yes,” Ellie said, then hesitated. “Under one condition.”
