Page 55 of The Baby Dragon Cafe
She hadn’t thought of it that way. Saphira had been so busy trying to keep everything running, trying to keep everything successful, that she hadn’t even stopped to see just how far she’d come. Looking at the artwork now—drawn a decade ago—she realized he was right.
“Yeah, I did!”
She had done that. She had made her dream come true.
Even if it didn’t go any farther than this, she had made that drawing—that vision—a reality. Sometimes Saphira was moving so fast she forgot to take a second to breathe, and she was thankful to Aiden for giving her that reminder. She had needed it.
“I wish Nani-Ma was here to see it,” Saphira said, eyes welling with tears. “To see everything.”
Her gaze went to Aiden, then to Sparky. Nani-Ma would have loved them, Aiden especially. Saphira could picture them meeting so clearly in her head, and the image was a spear through her chest, for she knew it would never happen.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.
“Thanks,” she replied, going to sit down again. He joined her, and she released a long breath. “It’s been more than a year but it still hurts.” She paused, looking at him. “I’m sure you understand that.”
He nodded. “Even though Danny and I were close, we didn’t actually see each other every day. Sometimes he’d be gone for work for a week at a time, so initially I was able to fool myself into thinking I’d be seeing him again soon, that he wasn’t really gone forever, just gone for now.”
“I had that too, in the beginning,” she told him, pulling a pillow onto her lap. “I would forget she wasn’t here, so sometimes things would happen and I would think to myself, oh Nani-Ma will love to hear about this, and I’d pick up the phone to call her, and then I’d remember that she was gone, that I couldn’t call her. And the loss would hit me all over again.”
“Then slowly, you start functioning around the grief, and you get used to it,” Aiden said, voice soft. He sighed. “I don’t know what’s worse: the grief, or getting used to it.”
“In the beginning, it hurt too much to even think about her, let alone talk about her, so I would try not to, and then I felt bad, as if I was forgetting her,” Saphira said, fiddling with the edge of the pillow. “But now the worst of the pain has gone, and I love to remember her, truly.”
“I feel the same,” he said. “Now that the worst of the grief is over, I’m always thinking of Danny, knowing he’d get a real good laugh out of something, or hearing his smart-ass response in my head.”
“I hear Nani-Ma’s voice in my head, too!” Saphira said, smiling. “Especially with the cafe, I feel connected to her, since it was because of her that I was even able to accomplish thatdream. Nani-Ma made me promise to make the cafe a reality—it’s why I want it to succeed, so I can keep that connection to her. In a way, it feels like converting all the grief into love, and I can keep her legacy alive through the cafe.”
“That’s wonderful,” Aiden said. “I think I can understand that a little, and I think I understand why Danny left a dragon egg to me. As if he wanted to ensure I would still have a piece of him, even after he was gone.” He paused. “I want to do right by my brother, and I think that I can, now—I feel connected to Sparky, even more so now that we’re bonding, and it’s all thanks to you, Saphira.”
“Oh, I’m not doing much,” she said, sheepish.
“You really are,” he said. “I was so angry with my parents when they first hatched the egg because I didn’t want to deal with it, but I can see why they did it and how ungrateful I was being before. You helped me realize that. That even though my family can be a bit overbearing and intrusive, they have good intentions—they’re good people.”
“I like that,” she said. “Even if they feel burdensome at times, it is a blessing.”
His great, big family. Something she did not have, but something she had felt a part of, going to family dinner with him.
“Truly.” Aiden looked at the clock then and stood. “It’s getting late,” he said. “You should take the day off tomorrow to keep resting. We can’t have you burning out. And speaking of burns—how’s your arm?”
He reached for her hand, pulling it up to see the affected area. Most of the burn was healed now.
“All good,” she told him, standing as well. “Hardly even hurts.”
“Good,” he said. “But still, you should rest tomorrow.”
“I can’t take time off,” she replied. “I would be too stressed out to relax.”
He frowned. “You should hire more help.”
“I know.” She sighed, walking with him to the door. “I did hire one person to cover for Lavinia, but maybe I’ll reach out to the other people I interviewed as well to hire another.”
She would have to figure out how to make that work financially, but perhaps it was time to prioritize such a thing.
“Okay, good. You shouldn’t have to do everything yourself, you know.”
“I’m starting to see that.” She smiled. “Thanks again for your help, and for dinner, and for being here—for everything.”
“I’m happy to do it,” he replied, a tender expression on his face. He turned to Sparky. “Let’s go, buddy.” Sparky hopped over, jumping up to lick Saphira’s face goodbye.
