Chapter 13

T alia sat at a table in the dining room, working on her meal, her stomach knotting at the thought of whatever Xavier was going through right now. Did she dare go see him after dinner or should she wait until tomorrow morning?

Dennis came up behind her and whispered, "Don't look now."

She instinctively turned to see Xavier, rolling his way slowly into the dining room.

Dennis walked toward him and asked, "Hey, you feeling better?"

"A little bit," he said. "I need to get some food down. Shane says otherwise I won't get any of the needed work done tomorrow."

"That's good news," Dennis replied.

"He's at least talking to me," Xavier shared, with a smile. "But now I don't… I don't know what I can get down. Honestly, my stomach's still pretty rough."

"In that case, let's go back to the basics," Dennis suggested. "How about just a baked potato with some butter?"

Xavier considered it and nodded. "Except he told me to get some protein for the muscle building."

"How about a shake?" Dennis offered instead. "Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can't get food down at certain times."

*

When he finally made a couple choices, he looked around and frowned. "Is everybody already done?"

"Mostly, but you may want to head over there."

And then he saw Talia, still eating.

"Sure, that would be nice."

"And I'll bring your meal over to you in just a minute."

Xavier slowly made his way over to Talia and asked in a quiet voice, "May I sit here?"

She smiled at him in delight. "Absolutely." He rolled up beside her and sat in place. "No food?" she asked.

"Dennis is bringing it," he murmured. "I guess I look like the cat dragged me into a mud puddle."

"Oh, you do, but everybody around here is used to seeing that, or going through it themselves."

He smiled, for the first time feeling a sense of relief and realizing how much these people came from heart. "I'm hoping I'm over the worst of it."

"It depends what the worst of it is," she noted.

"Shane's willing to take me back."

She stared at him in joy.

Yet Xavier shrugged. "The thing is, he wants me to eat in order to build muscle. He's not very happy with what I've lost since changing therapists, so I definitely set myself back."

"And that could just as easily have been your emotional stuff taking its toll too."

"Yeah, apparently that has to be over with now too," he shared, with a smile.

"And hopefully it will be," she said. "It's easy for people to say what should be done, but we all know that sometimes things take longer to get over."

"Well, I'm definitely prepared to get back to work with him tomorrow. He'll also talk to Mandy."

"And I suppose you're also worrying yourself sick about her."

"Well, sure. I feel as if I screwed over a bunch of people."

"You screwed nobody over," she stated firmly. "This is the job, all part of rehab of the mind, body, and soul."

Xavier stared at her, but, before he could respond, Dennis arrived with a large baked potato and a piece of steak.

"If you can't eat all the steak, that's fine. If you want some greens, that's fine too."

"He did tell me to get lots of vegetables down but no way I can handle all this tonight."

"How about a green shake to help you out?"

"Sure. I might manage that, even if I have to finish it in my room. It might be the only thing I manage," he said, pointing at his meal. "I really hate it when food goes to waste."

"So take your time, sit here, relax, de-stress," Dennis suggested, with a hard look at him. "And you'll be surprised what appeals." And, once again after imparting words of wisdom, Dennis walked away.

Xavier looked over at Talia and smiled. "It continuously surprises me how much everybody cares here."

"So you've mentioned a few times," she said cheerfully. "When one thing goes wrong, it affects everybody."

He nodded. "And I'm sorry for my part in that," he murmured.

"And you need to stop being sorry," she replied, giving him a direct look. "Because, just like for everybody else, it's life. We make decisions. We make changes. We do the best we can. Then we learn, we pick up, and we move on."

He smiled. "Well, consider me to have been picked up and now moving on."

She laughed. "I'll believe that when I see you eat. We all know how bad it is when you don't."

"Hey, I'm eating." He picked up his fork and dug into the potato. "I'm eating."