Her Second Chance At Love complete

(15) Some Chinese and Conversation

Mike’s POV

I was listening for her carefully as the doctor had stressed to me that she could collapse and need to be rushed back in at any trauma.  Hell, if facing your attacker head on when you least expected it wasn't a trauma i wasn't sure what would qualify.  But while she clung to me and cried she also showed incredible courage.  She was the perfect mix of fragility and strength.  I couldn't wait to get to know this woman more and i couldn't help the deep desire to hold and protect her that i felt.  I didn't really understand it as it hit me right at first sight.  I knew one thing for certain i was going to marry this woman whatever it took.  She was singing in the shower and it made me smile. She had a beautiful voice i wondered if she knew that?  The doorbell rang signaling the arrival of our food.  I quickly made my way to the door so it wouldn't ring a second time and interrupt her shower.  I quickly thanked the young man for delivering it for me and took the bags of food into the kitchen.  I started pulling out the containers of food and set them on the table.  Then rummaged through her cabinets until i found plates for us both.  I then rummaged through the drawers to find utensils for us to eat with if we didn't want to use the chopsticks.  I paused for a moment to listen for the shower and knew she must be out of the shower when i didn't hear her singing or the water running.  I called up the stairs after her to make certain she was doing ok.  She answered back that she was fine and asked if she had heard the doorbell.  I told her it was our food but not to rush it had just gotten here.  I went back into the kitchen to finish setting up.  I poured them both glasses of ice water.  The doctor had advised nothing harsh to drink, so ice water it was.  Aside from that, I wasn't going to do that to her anyhow.  She might need to take a pain killer later and if she drank anything she wouldn't be able to with that head injury.  It wasn't long and i heard her soft footsteps falling on the stairs making their way down to where i was waiting.  I thought about how i loved that sound.  The sound of my woman coming down the stairs to be with me.  This house was nice and large enough but I couldn’t wait to hear her padding around in my home.  Now where did that come from? My woman?  When did i start thinking so possessively towards her?  I wasn't too sure but i knew she belonged to me and i wanted her as my wife, lover and partner for life no matter what it took.  My only fear was her kids.  I had experience with ex-spouses but not children.  My ex-wife never wanted kids so we never had any.  I wasn't sure i would be able to handle kids.

"Something smells good and I'm really hungry."  She said as she made her way into the kitchen.  She smiled at me and i couldn't help it my heart sped up by a billion beats a second.  I wanted her in the worse way but i also knew i was going to have to go slowly and be gentle with her.  I really didn't know too much about her. On their date the other night i had established she was the oldest of her siblings.  That she was the one that took care of the family while she was growing up.  She had told me that she had been married and had three daughters the youngest was seven.  When she talked about her youngest daughter there was a sadness in her eyes that i didn't understand.  That her ex-husband cheated on her and that he left her for her younger sister.  That her divorce had been final only a few weeks officially before she started dating and that i was the first date she had had since getting married.  That was about as personal as we got.  I told her i was the middle of three children and from the sounds of it my life growing up was different than hers.  I was married and had been divorced for a few years.  My ex and I had just grown apart.  Then we talked about other things going on in the world and what we liked and disliked in movies and music.  It was funny to see how similar our tastes were in those areas.  We talked about food and what she liked and didn't like.  I found out that she loved strawberries but that she was allergic to them.  To all berries really.  It was amazing how perfect for each other we truly were.  I looked forward to the next week getting to know her better and spending time with her.  I wondered how many people saw that particular smile on her face.  I got the feeling that the smile didn't always reach her eyes but i loved how it lit them up beautifully.  I looked around at her home and realized that she was doing pretty well for herself so she couldn't have researched me and be after me for my money could she?  Besides she was genuinely surprised that i owned the Chinese restaurant so obviously she didn't know.  I was the one the picked where we ate the other night as well.  Of course, i cheated and picked one of the places i owned but why wouldn't i?  How would it look if even the owner wouldn't eat there?  Aside from that i had some of the best staff in the world. Which reminded me, i excused myself a second and sent a text to my manager at the Chinese restaurant instructing him to give the delivery driver twenty bucks out of the till for a tip and make a note of it.

Lisa’s POV

-He really was one of the good guys wasn't he. Because how many owners would you know would want to tip a kid twenty bucks for delivering food to some woman's house?  Usually, they just feel they are entitled to ask what they want of their employees and everyone else be damned. I had seen that when I worked at the bar where I met Ray.  The owner was a jerk to most of his staff.  Nobody really liked working there and for certain nobody would have given two shits if he needed their help. Mike’s employees seemed to jump at the chance to help him.  I wondered how long, if he was pretending to be a humane person, he could keep up the act.  "Penny for your thoughts?" he said to me as he made his way back into the kitchen.  "I was just thinking how nice it was of you to tip the young man that brought our food like that.  You're the owner and could have just demanded it from them."  He shook his head and said "I know there are people out there just like that but one problem I see with the industry is the high turnover of employees.  Customers like to see a familiar face.  If you treat the employees well, they stay if the employees are happy and stay then the customers are happy and keep returning. Its just a matter of common sense."  I smiled and said "you make it sound so simple but there are plenty of owners out there that don’t see it the same way."  "Are you talking from experience?"  I smiled and confirmed for him that indeed I was speaking from experience.  He asked me about working there and why I left to which I had told him.  I started telling him how the job was a means to an end so that I could get out of this town after my then fiancée had cheated on me with my best friend.  How I was planning on going to college out of town and was earning money until the semester started.  She told of how I met Ray and at first was wanting nothing to do with him but eventually went out with him.  How they had fallen for each other pretty quickly and one thing led to another and before I knew it they were getting married.  How I was leaving my job that I loved to be a proper wife.  You know the kind that stays home does the cooking and cleaning and taking care of the house.  I was a virgin when I got married and up until the other night, I had only ever had s*x with my former husband.  Now I had to put that number to two even though one of those I didn't really remember and it was wrong how it happened.  I trailed off and went quiet for a bit thinking of how disgusted with myself I felt that I didn't know any better when it came to Sam.

As if knowing what I was thinking he reached over and touched my hand "you couldn't have known that he was going to end up doing that to you."  The gesture was sweet and somewhat made me feel better but I still couldn't help to think what if.  He squeezed my hand again and whispered "I mean it."  I smiled and asked him where he met his ex-wife.  It made him smile and sadden at the thought of his ex.  “It's funny but we met when I was working for her dad as a sous chef in his restaurant.  At first, I wanted nothing to do with her because I saw her as nothing more than a spoiled little rich girl who thought the world should bow down to her.  I of course was having no part of that and when she threatened to have me fired, I took off my apron, handed it to her and said 'here then you do my job’ walked away with her mouth wide open.  She started chasing after me apologizing."  I laughed at his crazy story.  We continued the conversation he again told me that he was the middle child and had a brother and a sister.  He was very devoted to his parents and even loved his siblings but they had all taken very different paths.  I asked him what was the one thing he regretted about his marriage and he looked at me and told me that it was plainly and simply that he allowed her self-harming behaviors to continue for so long.  That he didn't stand up to her or her parents earlier and maybe she would have survived a lot longer than she had.  I asked Mike what had happened to Charlene and he simply replied that she “drank herself to death.”  After the divorce there was nobody there to really monitor her and she just didn't know when to stop drinking.  Her family knew of the problem and chose to avoid the subject.  Unfortunately, because she came from a life of privilege's she felt that she was more in control than anyone else knew.  I shook my head in dismay that a family could be so blind to other members ultimately deadly actions.  When Jessica had started the affair with my husband nobody was the wiser.  When the affair came out in the open the family shamed her for doing something like that period it was just worse because she had done that to her sister.  I looked up at him and smiled.  "You don't have to stay with me I'm sure that I can find someone to come over and be here."  He looked at me seriously and said "not a chance of getting rid of me I'm here for the long haul.  Besides I get the feeling if someone from your family came to help you out you would be the one doing all the work while they sat around.  Not a chance honey the doctor was clear you were to rest as much as possible.  I'm staying to make sure you do just that."