I'm not quite sure which one of us was more stunned; myself or Niles. How could Donny have gotten the divorce papers together so quickly? He said it would take a
couple of days! No wonder she was so furious.
"Let me see those." Niles said as he calmly took the papers from her. "Where did you get these?"
"Oh, like you don't know!" She yelled. "Why don't you ask the maid here?"
"Daphne is not a maid!" Niles yelled back. "And this has nothing to do with her! Now I insist that we go into our room and talk about this instead of having this
ridiculous screaming match in the hallway!"
"You'd better believe we're going to talk about it!" Mel pushed her way past him and into the hotel room, slamming the door behind her. I was so ashamed of myself; I
could hardly look at him.
Quickly, I turned away but then I felt his hand on my shoulder, prompting me to turn around. My eyes filled with tears at the sympathetic
expression on his face. Leave it to Niles to be concerned with someone else's feelings when his were clearly shattered by a woman who was supposed to love him
unconditionally. If you ask me, the only person Mel loved was herself.
"Daphne, I'm so sorry for the way Mel treated you. She had no right to call you that... horrible name."
A tear escaped and ran down my cheek. "I-It's okay, Dr. Crane. Thank you."
Just then the door opened and Mel stuck her head out, glarin' first at me, then at Niles. "Are you coming or not?" She snapped.
Niles sighed audibly. "Yes Darling, in a minute."
When she slammed the door, I saw him wince at the sound it made.
I looked into his eyes... those beautiful eyes that were as blue as the sea... the ones I got lost in so many times. But in those eyes, I saw shame... and
embarrassment. It took all the strength I had inside of me not to take him in my arms and hold him; even let him cry on me shoulder if he needed to. Oh, how I wanted
to do that.
But I couldn't.
He'd been hurt enough already and I couldn't very well add to his pain.
"So, you said you needed to talk to me?" He asked; the question sounding surprisingly casual.
"Oh... Maybe we'd better talk about this some other time." I said.
He glanced toward the door and sighed. I knew he was anxious about what would happen with Mel and was trying to prolong what was sure to be even more pain as long as he could.
"Daphne, you're upset. I can see tears in your eyes. Something's wrong and I want to help you. It's not right for you to be this upset just hours before your wedding."
He really was the sweetest man.
"I-I'm fine, Dr. Crane. Just a bit of nerves I suppose." I lied, hating myself for not telling him the truth.
"I think it's more than just nerves Daphne. I'm worried about you." Niles said. "I've never seen you quite this upset before. It's not good to keep things bottled up
inside."
I sighed. "All right. But before I tell you, I just want to say that I was only thinkin' about you. It was wrong of me to interfere in your personal life and-."
The door opened abruptly and Mel glared at her husband. "Damn it, Niles I thought you wanted to talk! I don't have all night. I just want to get this damn wedding
over with so that we can go back home and live our lives... alone!"
I cringed, knowin' full well she was talkin' about me. There was no mistaking that.
"When the door slammed again, I looked at Niles, unable to keep the tears from falling any longer.
"Daphne, I-."
"You'd better go, Dr. Crane. Your wife is waitin." I said, before turning and walking away.
