Another Door Opens

18 - What I wouldn't give even to be a wet dog in her lap right now.

- MILES -

I spent Christmas morning cooking with my parents, then packing all that up and trekking over to visit my nan at the nursing home. On the menu are a range of foods my nan will likely forget by this evening given her dementia, but at least we will remember.

Her memory had never been great, but it got progressively worse after my grandfather died a few years ago, so much so that we had to find her a comfortable nursing home that we trusted to ensure she was taken care of. We all work a lot so couldn't find a way to make home-based care work for her, and now we're stuck in a cycle of continuing to work too much, too often just so we can afford to pay for her to live there. Nursing homes are not cheap.

It's one of the reasons why I'm forever busting my ass trying to build my business into a success. Why I try my hardest to go above and beyond for my clients and my staff to make sure they enjoy coming to the gym and want to keep returning to both work and work out. 

After helping to feed my nan, and with a full belly myself, I settled in to read aloud to her. Being the only child of my parents, and the only grandchild of that next generation up, I received a lot of attention from my family growing up, who were insistent that I grow up to be a bright kid with good prospects. My nan used to read to me before bedtime to ease my always-active mind into sleep, and so now I do the same for her. Nan reading to me so frequently is largely one of the reasons I continue to love reading still now myself, and so get laughed at by hot women who must look at me reading while I'm walking Echo and think I'm ridiculous.

Once Nan had fallen soundly to sleep, I helped my parents pack away the remainder of the food from lunch and spoke to the head nurse at the facility about storing the leftover food for her for later on. It took some serious negotiating with her to get a promise that she wouldn’t eat it all herself, a commitment which came with some heavy flirtatious overtones attached on her end, which had me wondering whether she and the other nurses on staff today had hit the eggnog a little too hard for still being at work, but it is Christmas and everyone deserves to have a good day I suppose.

I chuckled to myself as I returned to my parents in my nan’s room, and then again when I took a second to open the text message I’d received from Wolfe.

Lune and I want to wish you and your sweet fam a Merry Christmas, Miles. We love you and are so grateful to have you in our lives, even if you are a manwhore---Luna’s words, not mine---and kick my ass every time we’re boxing on at the gym, you giant hunk of a man. Hope this holiday has been a magical one for you, and that you’re gifted with the joy of all your heart’s desires like we have been blessed with this year. Your continued friendship being one of those blessings, of course.
P.S. I’m going to need some serious PT after the bottomless feasting of last night, this morning, this afternoon, and I’m sure this evening too. Fuck me…

I can picture the two of them sitting together crafting this message together so vividly in my mind it kept me laughing all the way back into my nan’s room, where she stirred a little upon hearing my rather loud laugh envisioning Luna and Wolfe snapping at each other about the affection:humour ratio of their virtual Christmas card to me.

“You seem in a better than usual mood, son,” my father said with a quizzical look. “Not that you’re usually not a cheery person, but I don’t know, son... Something’s different.”

Again, being an only child of my parents, we have an unnaturally close relationship, and they’re usually pretty good at picking up on any changes in me. What I’m imagining they’re sensing right now is the joy I am undoubtedly feeling just thinking of my friends... and their friend. Just knowing that Eden is nearby somewhere, and is bringing such happiness to my own friends' lives these days, is indeed a blessing all round.