I never took finding Kai on my doorstep, or on the patio deck, or in the pool for granted.
He was young, and bright, and confident.Outgoing.Clearly had friends - even if I had mixed feelings about the one example I’d met - and interests outside of his studies.In short, there were plenty of reasons why the company of the guy living next door to his parents might pale in appeal, compared to all of the other things he might choose to spend his summer doing.
I wouldn’t be able to blame him for deciding that, and I also couldn’t stop myself from responding to his apparent satisfaction with our arrangement.Like fresh, green shoots from some long-neglected plant, questing upwards.Torn between bravery, in delighting at something new and exciting, and the companion dread that comes from understanding how harsh the real world can be.
“You can go out with your friends, you know.You don’t have to keep me company every night.”
He’d laughed as I made dinner - at how I fumbled through boiling pasta, clumsily browned the meat, sprayed my shirt with sauce as the jar’s lid proved obstinate - but Kai had still sat down, smiling and eager, to eat with me.Waved off my apologies for culinary skills barely on par with what his college peers possessed, if even that.
“Trying to get rid of me?”A grin, as he tore bread to dunk in the bowl’s arrabbiata dregs.
“Trying not to monopolize you.”
“Thoughtful of you.”
Was it?Attempting to explain a strategy of showing yourself to someone piecemeal in order to sustain their interest felt like it could be self-defeating.
“I remember what it was like, being bored on summer breaks.”
Kai laughed.“You have a way of referring to your past as though it happened centuries ago.Is this you dropping hints that you’re some ancient vampire?”
“Brooding up in the hills, only coming out under cover of darkness, and hungering for the blood of the innocent,” I suggested.
“Well, innocent is questionable.”He smirked at me.“But I’m down for a little biting.”
I chuckled, shaking my head.“I’ll bear that in mind.But, seriously, if you want...”
“Tate, stop,” he interrupted.“You’re not camp counsellor; you don’t need to supply me with ways to stay occupied and entertained.”
“You work hard, I just don’t want you to feel like you wasted your time off.”
He bent again, to sweep carbs around tomato sauce.“You’re a terrible judge of what’s wasteful.”
Said with such weighted casualness, there was no way I dared protest further.
“What sort of medicine does your dad practice?”I asked instead.
Kai swallowed.“Thoracic surgery, mainly.”
“Throat stuff, right?”
He chuckled.“Yeah, throat stuff.I guess you could say I willingly followed in his footsteps, there; I’m a fan of throat stuff myself.”
I ignored the very obvious detour I was being presented with.
“Does he want you to be a thoracic surgeon, too?”
Kai pushed the empty bowl away, sitting back in his chair.“Not really.He doesn’t so much care, just as long as there’s an ‘MD’ involved somewhere in the title.”
“And his father?Your granddad?”
A smile, or the shade of one.As if surprised I’d even remembered that medicine ran in his family.
“Oncology.Back in the days when there was a lot more done with a scalpel.”Kai shook his head, seemingly remembering old conversations.“I think he saw radiation therapy as an affront to his knife skills.”
I tried not to imagine what Kai’s grandfather would’ve said, had he watched my own haphazard attempts to cut onions earlier.
“If you’d said you really didn’t want to go into medicine yourself, would that have been okay?”
