Chapter 10 : Give Your Heart A Break

Arizona's POV

On Friday afternoon, I had no meeting with Herman for the center. So, I had all the time I needed to organize and to prepare the best dinner in the world for Callie and Sofia.

I wanted this to be an unforgettable moment, and I wanted Sofia to have a great time with our family once again. I needed to show her that the time when we were at war with each other was now behind us.

I spent hours cooking a dream dinner for the two most important women in my life, while listening to medical podcasts. I had to do everything I could to make them happy.

In the late afternoon, while Sofia was finishing her homework in her room upstairs, I lay on the sofa waiting for my roast beef to cook. However, after a few minutes I fell asleep.

Callie's POV

When I arrived in front of the house in Arizona, I smelled a strong smell of burning. I rushed inside, using the key that was hidden under the flowerpot on the porch. As I entered the kitchen, I saw directly that thick smoke was coming out of the oven. I opened it to see what happened, and I noticed that Arizona had burned something, apparently a roast.

"Arizona," I said, raising my voice to call out to her, "something is burning."

"Shit!" Arizona replied, running to see the state of the roast. "My dinner is completely screwed, fuck it."

"It doesn't matter." I said to reassure her. "What else have you prepared?"

"I've prepared a salad," she replied, still as angry as before, "but the most important piece was this roast."

"Everything is okay," I tried once more to reassure her, "this dinner is going to be perfect."

"I'm just pissed off about letting a $35 roast burn."

"I understand that it bothers you, but that's OK, we're nevertheless going to have a great time together."

Arizona's POV

Even though I was annoyed towards myself, I could not help but be silent when she looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes.

"Arizona," she said after a few seconds of silence, "I'm going to go get us some pizzas."

"That's fine with me, even if my roast would have been better."

"I know, Arizona."

After she had said that, she grabbed her jacket and went out to get our meal. While we waited for her to come back, I went upstairs to get Sofia and we set the table together.

Twenty minutes later, Callie was back with some pizza under her arm. As follows, we started to have dinner.

Dinner was absolutely splendid; we had our family back the way it was and the way it had always been meant to be.

They were really the only two things that mattered to me. They had given me everything I had ever dreamed of in my life: they had taught me the happiness of commitment and had shown me how to be simply and completely happy thanks to moments with my family.

After dinner, Callie went to put our daughter to bed. As I waited downstairs, I could hear them laughing together and I was so happy about it.

Callie came back down a few minutes later and we settled down on the couch to watch TV together.

"I'm really tired," Callie said with a yawn, "I don't think I have enough energy to go at my place to sleep."

"Do you know the best remedy to make you feel better when you are severely tired?"

"Are you asking me for medical advice? If you are, my specialty is bones, not sleep."

"No, I am not." I replied. "I was going to tell you that the best remedy for this kind of illness is a good glass of wine!"

"That sounds perfect to me."

I got up and went to pour the two of us glasses of an excellent French wine that I had bought that day and sat down beside her.

"By the way," I continued, "you haven't told me how things are going at work."

"It's quite challenging because I have a lot of responsibilities as head of orthopedic surgery, but it's fantastic! We are really a very heterogeneous team, so there is a lot of emulation. That's really enriching."

"I am happy that you are blossoming so much in your job."

"And you, are you blossoming in the project with Nicole?"

"Of course I'm blossoming, it's unambiguously the most stimulating project I've ever worked on. I really feel like it is the climax of everything I have always wanted to achieve in my career. I mean, I have been doing this job for a long time now, but I have never been more accomplished. I have trained many surgeons but with this institution we could really make a difference. We could teach as many surgeons as possible the latest techniques. We could have an impressive impact!"

"You know," she said, putting her hand on mine, "I want you to know that I am incredibly proud of you and proud of this extraordinary surgeon that you became. You really deserve this project to be a complete success, and I'm sure it's going to be something groundbreaking."

"I'm proud of you too Callie!"

"Look at us, I'm starting a teaching center with one of the best fetal surgeons in the world. As for you, you are running the ortho department of one of the most respected hospitals in the world. At the same time, you own one of the most innovative hospitals in this country. I think we have a lot to be proud of. Anyway, I am proud of us."

"I completely agree," I said, raising my glass, "and I suggest a toast to our success and to our status as great surgeons."

"To our success." I reply while toasting with her.

We toasted with happiness. We were just happy to be together and to be able to celebrate together all that we had accomplished.