You made walking easy

The Café

CARINA POV

We arrived at a cafe I instantly recognised. This was the first place we went to outside the hospital. It was also where I learnt that she always picks apart her sandwiches as if she's analysing what's inside of it. This is also the second time I literally walked into her, thankfully that hasn't happened since.

We walked slowly into the cafe and were met with the two owners and a few platters of baked goods including an almost authentic Cannoli. I couldn't wait to tuck in.

"Thank you so much Julie. You didn't have to prepare this all " Maya said appreciatively, which earned a silent nod and smile from one of the owners. We headed to our designated table, the table we sat at for the first-time weeks ago.

A while later, Maya tried a cannolo for the first time. She closed her eyes and let out a quiet moan while fully appreciating the flavours. "How have I never had these before? I think I need to ask if I can put in a monthly subscription for these" she said. I know how to make them, maybe I could teach her one day. The platters we were given were slowly becoming more and more empty, we didn't notice how much we had eaten until there was one last cannoli. We decided to split it.

We started to discuss our weeks. She seemed to have quite a good week now that she can almost independently walk around the station. She mentioned that she had accidentally walked in on a conversation between Vic and Travis (two firefighters at the station), talking about the bets they had placed a few weeks ago on who they think would sleep with who within their team. She didn't tell me who they thought she would sleep with; I don't really want to know. My week was pretty good, multiple surgeries and no deaths. As I talked, I noticed a slight smile forming on her lips while she took in what I said.

Since my first interaction with Andy, I wanted to ask what had happened since. "So how has it been between you and Andy? Are you two okay now? ". I could see her getting lost in her head, her eyes racing around the room. "Hey sorry, we don't need to talk about this, okay? ". "No no no, I can talk about it, she brought up my dad after seeing me eat some donuts. She knows he's responsible for a lot of things I do out of habit. As a kid I was told Eyes Forward, meaning I should block out everyone, every emotion and everything that could affect my performance when working towards a goal. She knows that because of him, food just isn't a thing for me anymore. She just said some triggering thing and I guess just thinking about it is triggering enough ". This left me speechless, I can't believe Andy would purposely talk about her dad. She seems horrible.

"Do you play any instruments, can you dance? What's something no one would know? " she quickly asked, wanting to change the conversation as soon as possible.

"I could never play an instrument, I tried to learn how to play the Ukulele but for a surgeon my hand-eye coordination apparently sucks. I wouldn't say I could dance but I love to dance naked with a glass of wine and some music, I always feel quite liberated doing it. How about you? "

" Oh I-uh tried to learn guitar and got pretty good at it until my dad found out. I'd love to play again but I don't think that'll ever happen. I can't dance for the life of me, I think I could compare myself to a beached whale or squid.. maybe a mix between the two" she answered with a slight blush on her face.