She could hear the faint ring on her mobile phone get louder as she regained consciousness amidst a throbbing headache.  The past 48 hours have all been a blur to her:  his revelation at the office and his confession to her.  She remembered an argument, then all of a sudden, him collapsing and her trying to get help.  Between then and now, she tried to piece together everything in between while getting up from her bed.  Her phone stopped ringing as she took it and saw five missed calls.  It was the hospital that was trying to get in touch with her.  Upon realizing this, she hurriedly changed and went out.

Upon arriving, she proceeded to the Intensive Care Unit where he was confined.  The staff in that department recognized her and readily showed her in.  She was now outside his room, separated by a glass wall.  She looked at him as he was sleeping, with various instruments hooked up to him.

“He was asking for you all night,” a female voice said.  She turned around and saw an elderly woman standing just behind her.  She remained silent as she initially didn’t recognize who that person was.  Then she suddenly realized:  it’s his mother.  She finally got the courage to ask her, “how is he?”  “Stable,” was all the mother can reply as a start.  “But the doctors still don’t know for sure.”

She turned around and continued to look at him as his mother went to her side.  “You’re more beautiful in person.  No wonder he talked about you a lot,” the mother said, breaking the unusual silence.  “I wish we could have met under better circumstances,” she replied back.  “He talked a lot of things about you too.”  She then hesitatingly asked, “how long has he been…  sick?”  “Close to eight months now,” his mother said.  “He didn’t want anyone to know except us, the family.  He didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him.  He wanted to continue living life as if nothing’s wrong.  The doctors initially gave him three months, but I noticed a change in him since he started talking about you from the time he first met you.  It’s as if he became more alive than ever.  He would tell how things went at work between you two and all the things he’s done for you which made him smile a lot.  But he told me also about your situation, but knowing my son, once he falls for someone, it’s for real.  And as a mother, I knew that he was deeply in love with you.  He even stopped taking his medication since he said that the pain wasn’t there anymore.  But still, we were careful.  Then about six weeks ago, he became very ill and that’s when the doctors said that the he needed aggressive treatment immediately.  That’s when his condition started to worsen.  I had to arrange to talk to your boss about him leaving the company and making sure that even he doesn’t know the real reason why.  I didn’t realize that things would escalate this quickly, and now he’s here.”

Tears started to fall from both their eyes as her phone rang again.  It was her boyfriend.  She tried to regain her composure as she excused herself to answer it.  His mother then proceeded inside the room and sat next to him.  The beeping sounds of the instruments was routinely interrupted by what can she only make out as her having an argument with someone on the phone outside the room.  She looked at him as he lay there, held his head, brushed his hair back and sobbingly whispered, “she’s here.  She’s finally here.  Wake up.  You have to get ready.  This is it.”

to be concluded…