With trembling hands, Mia reaches for the tomatoes but pauses mid way, her tears threatening to fall as she turned away to allow them to flow freely from her eyes.
Beatrice's words from earlier rang back in her head, it felt just like she was present with her at the moment and still repeating it.
***
"What happened to Lucio?"
"That's one of the major reasons I have been calling you Mia." Beatrice voiced in the midst of her sobs.
"He has been moved to the hospital and has one more week before his case gets into the extremely severe level where there would be next to nothing to save him."
"Don't…" Mia's voice ceased, her free hand had pressed itself against her opened mouth which delayed in producing the heart wrenching sob she had stuck in her throat.
"Luicio had been in the hospital after the last time we spoke, Mia and…" Beatrice breathed, it was obvious it took a lot from her not to have a complete breakdown.
"And I have used up almost all my money for drugs Mia… feeding us getting tough Mia. It is." She broke down crying again and Mia joined her.
"Lucio has to be alive." Mia finally said.
"Yes he has but we need a matching bone marrow transplant."
"It would cost a lot of money." Mia acknowledged.
"It would."
"One week." Mia repeated and a shudder passed through her.
***
"One week." She repeated again and had this same shudder spread through her joint, making her shiver in the fear of what would happen if they did nothing about Lucio's situation.
"I need to apologize to Rey. I need to…" She broke down again and silently cursed herself for being stubborn and not just going with the flow.
"What's the time? I need to get these ready, he will soon be back."
Glancing at the wall clocking boldly hanging on the wall and not bothering with the reality of life, she brought out a kerchief from her pocket and wiped her face dry.
She needed to get down to making the meals, Reynaldo would arrive any time from now and she wondered about what she would give as an excuse for delaying the cooking of the food till this late into the night.
Turning to gather the tomatoes again, tears blurred her eyes and this time, she let it fall without a stop but extremely careful not to allow it touch the ingredients already splayed out to be used for cooking.
***
Ray shut the door of his car and from the corner of his eyes notice Gary walk into the house immediately as if to avoid greeting him.
Shrugging, he walked into the house. He wouldn't blame the man, he would have probably done worse than that if he had seen his colleagues being bullied by his boss.
He had far more important things to do with his time at the moment. He was ready to face Mia and yet he still didn't know which option he would go for. It was best he just allowed himself to go with the flow.
Looking towards the dinning room to find the table without food, a little frown settled on his face, then the panic came.
'Did she leave? Was that why Gary acted odd out there?' His eyes got tensed as he looked around him as if doing that would give him a clue if she left or not.
Just when he was about to head back to the door and stride into her room to confirm things for himself, a loud clutter came from the direction of the kitchen, halting him in his steps.
Looking towards the kitchen to find the door half open, he paused and hoped that she was the one inside the kitchen and not anyone else.
Walking to the half opened door of the kitchen, he looked into her hunched back like she had been carrying the weight of the world.
He slowly stepped fully into the kitchen but made his body lean against the wall behind him to watch her cook.
'What happened?' He asked himself the dumbest question he would have ever thought to ask as he studied her back.
He thought of stepping out to give her the needed space when she sniffed.
'Does she have a cold?' He stared even more intensely at her back.
No, he did not think of the possibility that the cold could pass to him too after eating her food, or the irritation from her sniffing while handling his food. His thoughts went straight to the possibility of her being sick yet stressing off in the name of cooking.
But when she paused whatever action she was doing, dipping her hand into her pocket to get out a kerchief to place on her face and cry into his with her shoulders shaking from the impact of tears at intervals, he felt his heart break into two.
The panic that had dispelled itself before from the reassurance that she was still there invited itself back again, leaving him to think of the probability of being the reason behind her tears.
He watched her shoulder shake again and it did something to his heart. He made him want to hug her close to him, console her and protect her against whatever could be the reason for tears including himself.
He felt the urge to call her name.
"Fuck Rey!" It was a tense whisper while he ruffled his hand on his already disorganized hair.
"Keep it in." His hands created a fist as he watched her closely.
When she wiped her tears again, folded the hankie back into her pocket, murmuring something he could barely hear or understand, he found his legs moving forward on their own towards her.
'This isn't the wisest thing to do, Rey.' He thought to himself while still walking towards her.
Seeing her slender figure from behind as he walked closer, the need to hug her for the purpose of consolation and the need to hug her just to feel her curves arised but he shut his eyes against the latter.
Few inches close to her and she placed her hands on the counter and half bent, jutting her butt forward and he swallowed, hearing the sound of his nervous swallow in his ears as he raised his hands towards her.