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Ryland knew that he could be a little dramatic, but when the dentist told him they needed to get his wisdom teeth out, he leaned on Eva’s shoulder and mumbled “No, no, no, I know that hurts like hell, Eva tell him no, please.” And that was before Eva promised him, she’d be there with him for the whole operation and later she’d do whatever he wants. That promise was before he started annoying her.
“It is an outpatient procedure, Ryland. It only takes thirty minutes.” Eva said, over dinner the evening before, watching him playing with his rice, he called it “my last meal” like he was in prison.
“I know that, Eva. I read posts on reddit and I googled it; some people DIE because of this. Like they go under it and don’t come back.” He said and started to show some videos to her.
“Ryland…” Eva sighed and took his phone, put it in her own pocket.
“And-and I saw videos, Eva, there are people who wake up and don’t know what day it is for hours. There are people who cry because they think doctors cut their dick-” Eva put her hand on his mouth to shut him up.
“Ryland, I say this with all the love I have for you, please for the love of god, just shut up for a second.” She said and saw Ryland’s eyes go soft before she felt a small kiss on her palm.
“Nothing’s going to happen. You said you went under anaesthesia before as a child. Doctor knows what to do, you’re the scientist in this relationship, please act like it before I grab your pincers and pull the damn teeth myself.” She said and saw the fear of God in Ryland’s eyes.
Good, she thought.
“And don’t forget, I did promise you to do whatever you want if you actually go to the hospital with me and let them pull those teeth.” She said and winked after “whatever you want.” Ryland knew he’d let them take all his teeth out and put new ones if it meant he’d see this side of Eva.
“Can- can we actually book an earlier appointment or?” He asked and heard her laugh and a small idiot before he felt her fingers on his neck and she pulled him into a deep kiss.
She drove him to the clinic in the morning, and he was quiet in the car which was alarming for her. She kept her eyes on the road but felt his eyes looking at her sideways. She knew he was thinking something he hadn’t decided whether to say it yet.
“If something happens-” he started.
“Nothing will happen.” She said and let out a chuckle.
“I know but if-”
“Ryland Grace, you are getting your wisdom teeth out, you’re not getting launched into space. You will be fine.” She heard his laugh and started laughing too.
“That’s a low bar, Eva Stratt, damn.” Eva smiled and touched his knee with her right hand.
“I know but you were the lead scientist for Project Hail Mary, this is nothing for you.” He looked at her, grabbed her hand, put it on his chest and squeezed it. Whatever he saw on her face when he looked at her way seemed to settle him and then he turned back to window and didn’t say anything else until they arrived at the hospital. Before they took him back, he grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze and let go. Eva watched the door close behind him and sat down in the waiting room chair and opened her book, she did not read a single sentence for forty minutes.
Eva saw the nurse coming out, smiling, and she took this as a good sign.
“He’s awake.” She said, “and very chatty, you can go to his room now, Mrs. Grace.” Eva smiled kindly and didn’t correct her, people often think they were married and that was okay, she didn’t mind, if she was honest, she quite liked the idea.
“Chatty, you said, huh?” She repeated. Nurse smiled and said “Very,” with a smile on her face, she probably had seen this many times but clearly still found it very funny. Eva followed her through the door and down a short hallway into a small recovery room, and there she saw Ryland, reclined in a chair with gauze packed into both cheeks, a paper bib around his neck, his hair slightly rumpled. To anyone he probably looked like a mad man but to Eva, he looked very cute and endearing. Suddenly he looked at her way and his eyes went wide.
“Whoah.” He said or at least tried to say but with the gauze it came out more like a gibberish reaction. “whoomph”.
“Hi, sweetie.” Eva said, pulling the chair closer to him and sitting down.
“You’re…” he started then stopped, looking at her still with wide eyes, so pure and unfiltered wonder behind those deep-blue eyes. “You’re so…beautiful.” Eva blinked but didn’t say anything.
“How are you feeling, Ryland?” She asked but she could clearly see in his eyes that he was not listening her.
“Like…like an angel.” He said then stopped himself. “Oh my god, are you an angel? Am I dead? Did you come here to take me?” He started talking non-stop and there were spits everywhere because of the gauze in his mouth and Eva tried so hard to not laugh but then she saw Ryland was panicking so she immediately shook her head.
“No, I am not an angel, yes I came here to take you, but I am your girlfriend, I’ve been waiting for you this whole time.”
“No, no, no.” he said very seriously. “No, look at your face, it’s like…sculpture- like, like gods made it. Your face is…wow.” The nurse by the door made a small sound that was definitely a suppressed laugh, and Eva pressed her lips together.
“Ryland, listen. I am not an angel. I am your girlfriend. We came here because the doctor told you, they were going to get your wisdom teeth out. Now the procedure is over, and this is anaesthesia talking.” Eva said and still saw Ryland’s confused face and let out a big sigh.
“Okay…let’s focus. How’s your head?”
“Good.” Then he paused and looked around the room slowly like he was looking for something, someone. Then he looked back at her. “Angel…do you know where my wife is?” Eva paused and mumbled a what the fuck? under her breath.
“Uhmm, what?” she asked and prayed the god she believed in that he was joking.
“My wife.” Ryland said like he was explaining something so obvious. “Where is she? Is she coming?”
“Ryland, I am sorry to tell you this but, baby, you do not have a wife. I am your girlfriend.” He looked at her with tears in his eyes and shook his head.
“No.” he said. “No, no, you’re an angel, gorgeous angel.” He squinted. “You look like my wife because she looks just like you, too pretty to be real.” Eva smiled and held his hand to make him realize she was in fact a human being. But maybe it was a wrong decision because now he was looking at her hand, he grabbed it and put it on his chest, looking at her with those big, heart eyes.
“That is a beautiful but also a very strange thing to say to your girlfriend.”
“I don’t,” he said, then stopped. Furrowed his brow. “I don’t have a girlfriend. I have a wife, her name is…EVA. Like EVE, you know first woman?? Maybe you know her personally, because you’re an angel.” He looked at her and the worst part was she knew he was serious. “My beautiful wife Eva, very very scary when she is mad, but I love her. Where is she?” He asked, still holding her hand and looking at her with warmth in his eyes.
“Wait- did she- did she say no when I proposed to her? Did she see you and get mad? Is that why she’s not here?” He tried to get up but she pushed him back and shook her head.
“No, no, she will be here, she said yes, don’t worry.” She said and prayed that it would work this time. Ryland calmed down and smiled at her.
“Oh, that’s good.” He said and grabbed her hand back. “You look so much like my Eva, so pretty, beautiful.” He said and touched her hair.
“You’ve said that.” Eva smiled. Her boyfriend was trying to hit on her and it was one of the cutest things he did for her.
“I knowwww. But look at you, looking just like my Eva…kinda scary-” he stopped and she saw his wide eyes. He made a gesture with his hand, telling her to get closer and with a smile on her face, she got closer.
“Are you the angel version of my wife…looking after me?” He whispered with a serious voice. Eva couldn’t help herself and let out a laugh. “Woah…and you laugh just like her, such a pretty voice.”
“Yes, Ryland. I am the angel version of your wife, and I came here to take care of you because your wife is busy and wanted me to take you home.” She said and heard him laugh.
“Yes! I knew Eva would not leave me alone. Not to brag but…she loves me too. She told me so.” He had that smug look on his face which she loved it very much.
“Okay then, I am going to take you home. You need water and gauze and to sleep for several hours.”
“Okay,” he said agreeably. “Then you can stay for dinner and meet my wife, my wife and the angel version of my wife.” They both groaned when Eva tried to help him get up, “Oh my god, I have two Eva in my life…is this heaven? Oh my god, you’re going to take me to heaven. Eva was right, heaven does exist-” Eva who was so in love with Ryland Grace wanted him to shut his mouth because what started as something cute and funny now started to annoy her.
“If you don’t shut your mouth, this angel will take you to hell, Ryland. Then you will never see your girlf-wife.” And that threat worked for like twenty-seconds before he opened his mouth again.
“Right-but, my wife. My wife Eva, you know her. She is small and she has these eyes, they’re like-” he seemed to be searching for the words with a lot of effort, “like the sea. Like-like the part of the sea where it gets really deep and you can’t see the bottom.” He stopped her and looked at her with a smirk on his face. “I told her, I fell for those eyes and begged her to let me drown in them.” He whispered and giggled. Eva tried to not grab his face and kiss him.
Damn you, Ryland Grace, she thought. Even with drugs, he was still romantic. They were almost out of the hospital when she heard him.
“Oh my god.” He said. “It’s you.”
“Yes, it is me.”
“You’re here.”
“I have been here the whole time, Ryland.”
“Eva,” he said, like calling her name was a prayer for him. “You came.” He said and held her face.
“Well, I did drive you here.”
“You’re so pretty.” He said it again and then asked her, “Can I hold your hand?”
Eva reached over and took his hand without saying anything and he looked down at their joined hands and then looked back up at her with a huge smile on his face. The nurse appeared with a small cup of water. “The doctor mentioned the anaesthesia can cause temporary confusion.” She said.
“Yes, I’ve noticed.” She said and let out a laugh.
Getting him to the car took a while, it wasn’t because he couldn’t walk or anything. It was because every now then, he stopped and told her something. The first time it was just “your hair is so nice and smells so good.” while they were waiting for the elevator. The second time was worse. He stopped in the middle of the clinic lobby, turned to her and said, “I know you told me you’re not my wife, but I love you anyway. I will find you and love you anyway, angel Eva.” Eva let out a sigh.
“Ryland, baby, I am your girlfriend, of course, I love you.” She said.
“Right, my girlfriend.” He said, tapping his own chest. “In here, I love you anyway.”
It was even worse in the car because Eva knew tomorrow, he’d have a hard time looking at her when he remembers today.
“Eva.” He said, when they were about three blocks from home.
“Yes.”
“I think I am going to marry you.” She kept her eyes on the road, with a small smile on her face. “Is that so?” she asked.
“Hell yeah. I’ve been thinking about it. I have the ring and all since first week.” He said and she felt her heart skip a beat. He bought a ring after dating her for a week? This stupid man…
“I am going to ask you, and you are going to say yes.”
“Hmm, you are very confident.”
“Yes. I am a scientist. I have data. I make you laugh; women love men who make them laugh.”
“Ryland.”
“I love that laugh. I looooove your laugh so much.” Eva shook her head and tried not to cry from happiness and the love she feels for this man.
“You are going to be embarrassed about this tomorrow.
“No, no, no, I love you sooo much.”
Eva pulled into the driveway, turned off the engine and sat for a second, because she needed a second, because eight months with this man and she still couldn’t believe of being loved by him this much. She got out and came around to his side, helped him out of the car and he put his arm around her shoulders, face buried in her hair. She walked him up to the front path and got the door open, their cat Louise came immediately to them, winding around their feet.
“Louise!!!” Ryland said, very lovingly, bending down to pet her and nearly losing his balance so Eva caught him. “Louise!! She said YES!”
“Ryland! I did not say yes.”
“Hmmm, not yet.” He said cheerfully and tried to get up with her help and tried to kiss her, with gauze and all.
She got him onto the couch with a blanket and Thelma, who appeared from somewhere, jumped on his legs and fell asleep on top of him. She brought him water and the soft foods the nurse had listed with his pain medication and sat on the coffee table across from him while he carefully drink from his cup with a straw. He was quieter now, fading, the anaesthesia finally losing its grip on his mouth and his brain.
“Eva…you know I am going to marry you.” He said and Eva let out a chuckle.
“Don’t laugh! Even when you were just- even when we weren’t together yet, in my head you were always mine.” Eva was quiet for a moment.
“That is very stupid.” She said but inside she thought that is the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.
“I know,” he said and smiled. “I am very stupid about you.”
“You should sleep.”
“Will you stay here?”
“Where else would I go? This is my house too.” She said and saw the smile on his face.
“Yes, it is.” He fell asleep about ten minutes later, one hand in Thelma’s fur, his face is finally relaxed. Eva thought about the hospital, about the lobby, about the I would find you wherever you were and I would love you anyway, she thought about eight months in this small house, the kitchen and the lemon and all the evenings she had climbed the stairs to her room and he had gone to the pull-out couch and neither of them had said the actual thing until that night. She thought about the project, about Ryland saving her and protecting her, she thought about everything it had cost her to be here and how much she did not regret it, not at all. Ryland made a small sound in his sleep and shifted slightly. Louise jumped up and curled against his feet, Thelma put her head back down and Eva leaned her head back against the couch and looked at the ceiling of their living room and thought, yeah, me too, Ryland, I, too would find you wherever you were and love you anyway.
In the morning he was himself again just a little puffy. Eva was in the kitchen making tea when he came downstairs, moving carefully and she handed him the medication before he asked and pointed at the oatmeal on the counter without turning around.
“Thank you.” He said.
“How do you feel?”
“Like I have gauze in my face.” He sat down at the table. “which…I do.” Eva smiled.
“Did I-” he started, slowly, “ask for my wife, like a lot?” Eva turned with a smirk on her face, leaning against the counter with her mug.
“Hmmm, several times.” She said.
“And you told me, you were my girlfriend.”
“I did but you were so sure that I was the angel version of Eva and that me and real Eva should meet.”
“And when you told me you were not angel...”
“You did not believe me. You thought I was too pretty to be real.” He put his head in his hands. “Oh, God...”
“You also told Louise you were going to marry me and before I said yes to anything you yelled, SHE SAID YES!”
“Please tell me, you’re joking.”
“No, I’m afraid, I am not joking. You told a stranger in the waiting room, on the way out, you had two women, one normal, one angel version and that you had data about the proposal and my answer. You were very confident about my answer.” He was quiet for a moment, looking at the table. He knew he had nothing to say about the angel part, although he did think she was too pretty to be real.
“To be fair...I do have data.” Eva looked at him, took a sip of her tea and said nothing. “And the wife thing…well I say things out loud when the filter goes, I guess.”
“I know.” Eva said and kissed his hair before wrapped her arms around his neck. Ryland lifted his head and looked up at her.
“You’re not going to say anything about it…?” He asked and saw her smile.
“I am happy that my boyfriend thinks I look like an angel and that he is so sure I will say yes when he asks me to be his wife. But no, I am not going to say anything. I’m just going to say you should eat your oatmeal before the medication kick in on an empty stomach.” Ryland smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“We’re good, right?” he still asked because he in fact had a ring in his sock drawer and ready to ask the question, but he also wanted her to be ready too.
“Yes, of course, my love, we are good, we are better than good.”
“Okay.” He said and started eating his oatmeal, Thelma jumped onto the chair beside him, and he had a big smile on his face before he heard her laugh.
“I am just waiting for you to remember the part where I told you “I am pregnant”” she said and ran to their bedroom. Ryland who had oatmeal in his mouth, suddenly started coughing.
“EVA??? WHAT???” he asked or tried to ask and started running after her. Their lives, once filled with loneliness, despair, and anxiety, were now filled with their own laughter, their love for each other, and their hopes and beautiful plans for the future. Ryland still couldn't believe that this once cold and soulless house was now filled with Eva's laughter, her scent, and their love. To him, Ryland was the luckiest man in the world. Eva may have been the saviour of the world, and she saw Ryland as her saviour, but above all, Eva had saved Ryland first.