Chapter 12

“Let’s go,” I nodded at Raven as an invitation for him that we were leaving. I quickly put the towel I had just used into the duffel bag, and then Raven took the bag and carried it himself.

Raven and I walked together. I could tell that he deliberately slowed down his pace just to match mine. As we approached the stairs, I felt his hand on my shoulder, causing me to stop.

“Alalayan kita,” he spoke in Filipino. ‘Alalayan kita’ means ‘I will support you’ in English. I felt my heart almost go wild again, but his accent made it disappear—I ended up laughing loudly.

“You always laugh whenever I try to speak in Filipino… I’m trying to get used to it,” he said. I laughed even more.

“I’m sorry…” That was all I managed to say, and he laughed too.

He didn’t remove his arm around me because he thought I might stumble or misstep, so it was better for him to hold me to keep me safe. Since my hospital room was on the 3rd floor, we had to walk down about 30 steps.