Husband With Benefits

Cai shrugged. "Just like that." He took a slow sip from his glass before continuing, "Look, it’s not about never getting hurt or pretending like nothing bothers you. It’s about not letting it define you. You get your heart broken, sure. You stumble, you screw up, but at the end of the day, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going."

Rafe stared at him for a moment, then scoffed. "That sounds like the biggest load of self-help crap I’ve ever heard. Which self help book did you steal it from? Are you too shy to talk about your heartbreak? Hmm? Now who is the chicken? Tell me, do you have a white moonlight?"

This time, it was Cai’s turn to remain silent before he sighed," Why do you think I am specializing in research related to the brain?"

Rafe frowned," Isn’t that because of your father? I read the investigative reports. And its no hidden secret that he was in the hospital, assumed to be in a vegetative state because all his CTs always showed no movement, when in fact his brain was trying to heal itself. And if your Uncle had not held onto not letting his brother die, he would have been gone before he could heal...

Cai nodded at that," That is indeed a part of it. My father lost seeing me in my growing years because of that. And it did have an impact on me and my life. But there was something else..."

"We were teenagers... I fell in love with a girl. It was a first crush, I was a late bloomer in that department, but I was infatuated. I approached her and we quickly became close friends. She was amazing and we continued to grow closer for almost a year...until she was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor."

Rafe could sense the heaviness in Cai’s voice now, the gravity of his words tugging at the air between them. He felt the urge to crack another joke, to lighten the mood before it got too dark, but something in the way Cai spoke made him hesitate. It was clear this story was going somewhere, and Rafe wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it. But he stayed quiet, letting Cai continue, knowing his friend needed to get this out.

Cai’s eyes were distant, the casual demeanor he’d worn earlier all but gone. "Things progressed too quickly," he said softly, staring at his glass but seeing something far away. "One moment, we were two dumb kids, dreaming about a future we thought we had all the time in the world to live, and the next, she was lying in a hospital bed, fighting for her life."

Rafe swallowed, already feeling the ache of the story in his own chest, but he didn’t interrupt. He knew better.

"My dad was there for me through all of it," Cai continued, his voice tightening slightly. "He tried to help me understand what was happening, but how do you explain to a fifteen-year-old kid that someone he cares about is dying? He did his best but that didn’t make it any easier. He told me that sometimes the hardest part of life is accepting the things we can’t change, but I didn’t want to accept it. I was there, every day, holding her hand, watching her get weaker. They tried everything to shrink the tumor... but it didn’t matter. Nothing worked. Every treatment session was seeing her soul leave little by little. Finally, in her last days, my father even tried to stop me from going, but I didn’t want her to think that I had abandoned her, so I went."