The Love We Choose

Chapter 45

"HAPPY NEW YEAR LYNDY!! How're you doing?"

Lynne closed her eyes underneath her eye mask and mentally chided herself for not looking at who was calling before she blindly picked up her vibrating phone from her nightstand. "I'm fine, Huan. And a Happy New Year to you as well."

"Hey, I enjoy staring into dark blurry screens as much as the next guy, but it would make this whole video call process a bit better if I could actually see your face. Can you take the phone off your ear, please Lynne?"

Sighing, she pushed the eye mask up off her face, sat up, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Taking a deep, cleansing breath she switched on her bedside lamp and angled the phone in front of her face. "Better?" She asked him as she situated herself more comfortably against her plump, pale forest green pillows.

"Much. I can see you," he said with a small smile on his face. "You know, you surprised me, leaving the way you did. You should have come and got me. We should have left together."

"No, you deserved to have fun and let loose after the past few stressful months. You haven't seen Eddie in months. I was just tired and didn't want to rain on your parade. Growing eyeballs and fingers and the rest is a lot of hard work. I'm a grown woman who can take care of herself. I'm not your responsibility," she replied, a little more brusquely than she had planned.

"That doesn't stop me from worrying about you," he responded sternly, the care evident in his voice.

Lynne closed her eyes as her heart thudded hollowly in her chest. Stop that. He means you plural. Don't get tripped up. "Well, if you want to worry, you can worry about my grocery bills. I'm just hungry all the time now. I tried to not look like a starving chipmunk last night each time I passed by the snack table. When I got home, the first thing I did was raid the fridge. I can set my watch by my cravings. Every 4 hours I need to eat. Do you know if your DNA is spliced with that of a tapeworm? I feel like no matter how much snacking I'm doing in between meals, it's never enough."

She watched his eyes crinkle at the corners as he let out a hearty chuckle and a small yawn. "Never saw a tapeworm listed on the family tree, but I could always call up Uncle Jin and ask him. That seems like something he would know."

"Report back to homebase with your findings please, I need something to justify eating myself out of house and home on my tax returns," she quipped. When she registered he had propped his phone up on his dresser and had begun undoing the buttons on his shirt, she glanced at the time. "Are you just getting home? Edgar kept you there till now? That's impressive. I'd expect him to have slowed down at least a skosh now that we are older. I guess the party king hasn't lost his touch at all. I feel so old."

"Yeah, I..." He paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "Umm...actually, I left Eddie's around three-ish."

Lynne gave him a perplexed look as she tried to connect the dots. "And you came home, passed out, and are finally hopping in the shower now?"

"No. Umm." He finished taking the shirt off and tossed it behind him into his hamper before returning his gaze to Lynne. "I ran into Veronica at the party last night."

"Oh, really?" She replied coolly, her face neutral.

Huan had expected her to say something snarky and was surprised when she didn't, so he pressed on "It was after you left, I guess. Before that I hung out with Eddie for a couple hours. But yeah, Veronica and I went and grabbed breakfast this morning. We actually had a really decent conversation. She-she wants us to try again."

"Hmm." Lynne was silent on the other end of the phone. "And how are we feeling about this?"

"I guess I'm a little unsure of how to progress. She hurt me once before, Lynne. But I can't deny the fact that the attraction and feelings I had are still there. You know? They just don't fade away." Huan held his breath as he waited for Lynne to respond.

"Then....Then, I think you should go for it."

Huan's face briefly mirrored how flabbergasted he felt internally at her answer. "Y-you do?" Not what I was expecting.

"Yeah. Think about it, Huan. You were with her for a very long time and wanted to even marry the girl. That's not something that is easily forgotten."

Adopting a softer tone, he posed the question "but, what about us?"

"What about us? Is you being in a relationship with someone else going to stop you from being there for your child? I never pegged you for the deadbeat type."

"No. That's not it. I mean-"

She cut him off before he could say anything that would further cause her heart to betray her mind, "we are just friends who are sharing in the effects of a happy accident, Huan. Remember? Don't worry, I didn't take your 'we should get married' statements seriously. You were just saying them because of our situation."

He was silent for a few moments as he weighed her words. "Oh..ok. Sure. Then-then I guess I'll give her a call back."

"You do that. Now I'm going back to sleep. Momma bear is tuckered out. I'll see you at the appointment next week."

"I'll be there."

"I know you will. Bye Huan."

"Bye Lyn-" *click* "dy." The distinct dead air sound signified that she had hung up before he finished speaking. "That was weird."

Quickly stripping out of the rest of his clothing, he took a shower and hopped into bed to get some much needed sleep. When he woke up, he could mull over just how complicated his life had become in a few short months.

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