In the Dominican Republic, Tiffany is at a rundown office, filling out paperwork. The past few months are rolling around in her head, everything from when she met Doug on the way home from New York to when she and Sean had to bail out of the crashing plane.
Her tears fall on the paper as she's filling it out. She puts "irreconcilable differences" under reason for wanting the divorce. She sniffs and subsconsciously sneers at herself while doing so. She signs the bottom and gets on the empty line.
"Next," the disinterested employee at the counter said.
Tiffany slowly walks up and hands him her paperwork. He peruses the document, typing the information into an outdated computer.
"Didn't take too long to lose that lovin' feeling?" he chided as he typed in the wedding date.
"We weren't right for each other," Tiff said.
"That tends to become apparent very quickly when the glow wears off," he said.
Tiffany looks at the ground, still feeling a tremendous amount of guilt over it all.
Five minutes later, the man handed her a receipt. "Come back tomorrow, we'll have it certified and it'll all be over ... except the division of property. Then again, you probably weren't together long enough to get too much of that."
"You're a real people person, aren't you?" she said.
"If you want someone to hold your hand, there are any number of churches on the island," he said. "Next?"
Tiffany looks behind her and sees there's no one in line. She raises her eyebrow at the man. He shrugs and leaves the counter. She sighs and walks out the rickety door.
She stumbles out onto the dirt road feeling about as low as she ever has. She looks both ways, doesn't see much in either direction. She decides to go to the right. She takes off her heels and starts walking down the path.
"It's really incredible. Fill out a piece of paper and you're practically divorced. Like it never happened. Except that it did. ... Was supposed to be for life. I swore I thought that." She looks upward. "You know I thought that, right?
She keeps walking and happens upon a bunch of kids playing baseball in a sandlot. She splays her skirt and sits down on the ground to watch. The boys look so innocent, running around in bare feet, screaming, yelling and having fun. She flashes back to life in Tennessee, when her biggest problem was having Cheryl try to tag along when she was hanging out with her friends.
After an hour or so, Tiffany pulls herself to her feet and continues down the road. She comes to a small chapel. It looks worn down but very quaint. She puts her shoes back on and steps inside. She walks down the aisle and sits down in one of the pews near the back. She puts her head in her hands.
"Senora?" a warm voice echoed from behind her. Tiffany lifts her head and sees a man of the cloth walking toward her. "You all right?"
"Yes," she said, shaking her head no at the same time.
The priest slides into the pew in front of her. "You came here for a divorce?"
"How did you know?" she asked.
"We don't see a lot of tall blondes on this island ... unless they're here for a quickie divorce," he said.
She nods her head and looks back down at her feet.
"Want to talk about it? ... Sorry, occupational hazard," he laughed.
"I'm not sure what to even say. Is this a confession?" she asked.
"Doesn't have to be official if you don't want it to," he replied. "But I do think it would lighten your burden at the very least. It's amazing how talking it out can do that."
"I'm not sure I'll come off looking very good in the end ... or the beginning," she said. "I was married less than two months ago. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure I got married out of fear. ... Not that I was going to be physically hurt. See, there's this other man..."
She looks up at the priest, he's just listening intently and not showing any signs of judgment. "And that man's the one I wanted, the one I wanted from the moment I laid eyes on him. But he's ... difficult. A loner. The kind of man every woman wants to change. She wants to be the one who makes him want a commitment.
"To make a long story short, while I was waiting for this big miracle to happen, along came another man - the type I always thought I would marry someday, only better because he treated me with so much respect that it made my head spin. And I said I'd marry him."
"Because the other man hadn't come around?" the priest asked.
"Actually he did. And that must have scared me twice as much because my new fear was not being loved, but losing what I had. I went with the safe bet," she said with regret.
"And it was over before it started," he said.
She hangs her head. "Yes. It's got me questioning myself on every level. I used to be a really strong-willed person. Then I married a good man just to ensure I wouldn't be left alone, accidentally - or worse - on purpose, by the other. How can I trust anything I'm thinking about anyone at this point?"
She looks at him for the answers, and he's discerning what the parties in question have seen in her in the first place.
"How can anyone be sure what they think they want is what they actually want?" she continued. "I was so convinced I was doing what I needed to - for me."
"Sounds like a crisis of faith," he said. "So what happened to change everything?
"Let's just say there was a life-or-death situation," she said.
"Oh. Well, I can tell you from years of experience that people are able to really cut right to the heart of it all when they're about to die," he said. "You can be pretty sure that what you were thinking in those moments is what's at the core of your soul. Without fear or any other impediment."
Tiffany takes that in and nods.
"The rest is not going to be better overnight, there's no miracle cure for that and if you can't forgive yourself, you can't expect anyone else to either. But I think you now know for absolute certainty what's truly in your heart. I wish everyone was able to have that kind of clarity."
"I just don't wish them to get it the way I did," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Feel better now?" he asked.
"Actually I do. Thank you so much," she said, grasping his hand in appreciation.
"De nada," he replied and walked to the front of the church.
Tiffany steps out of the church, slips off her shoes and starts back down the road the way she had come. She takes a deep breath and lets the warm breeze blow through her air as she strides down the path.