Thanks for the reviews! grins like a maniac

Chapter 2

And I'm losing my favourite game
you're losing your mind again
I'm losing my baby
losing my favourite game

-My Favourite Game, The Cardigans

After two days Ray was starting to lose hope. Neela had all but moved to another country and he'd seen her for a full two minutes in 48 hours, in which she had said a total of one sentence, an afterthought even, to him: "Oh Ray, have a nice day too." And he'd spent the rest of that day so immensely distracted that he'd been yelled at by both Lewis and Pratt, a patient had tried to punched him and even Morris told him that he should go home if he couldn't pay attention.

So there he was, at 6 AM on his day off, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, contemplating how he could be such a complete idiot. He knew very well he should have argued with her sudden decision more. His friends told him over and over that he had to get their dr. Neela back, she was hot and sweet and she kept the place clean.

"What did you do?" His friends asked him several times, and each time he was forced to answer with:

"Ask Melissa." This told everyone plenty, and was usually followed by a disappointed mumble of:

"What a waste." Or "Moron."

Every couple of minutes he glanced at the phone and considered calling her, but he didn't know whether she was home, working or sleeping. Looking around the living room that had become a complete mess in just two days he made a decision. He had to call her.

He dialled Abby's home number by memory, he'd been staring at it all morning, and as the consistent 'beep'-ing of the dial tone rang in his ear he suddenly became scared and hastily disconnected.

He was a lost cause, and he knew it all too well.

>>>>>

Later that day Neela and Abby were in Abby's apartment, having dinner.

"Noodles?" Neela threw Abby a filthy look, "Is this the only thing you have here? I swear you've been lost without me."

"I don't have the time for shopping." Abby shrugged. "I can't help it that you and Ray were so insistent to have your little flirt fest," She smirked. "Oh, excuse me, I meant 'grocery shopping', every week that you got used to have having food all the time. I happen to have a life."

"You're hilarious." Neela deadpanned, "But I thought we'd agreed not to mention the R-word?"

"Or you might," Abby hopped onto the kitchen table and swayed her arms dramatically, "go into a sensual frenzy at the memory of your steamy daydreams." Neela stared at her.

"What have you been smoking?" She shook her head. "And please, I did not tell you about that just so you'd have something to tease me about, so don't."

"I'm sorry." Abby said, not very honestly. "But seriously, I don't get you. You move out so you don't have to run into his skanks every other night and resist the urge to beat them to a bloody pulp. That's still understandable. But you still haven't told him how you feel, which you told me you would, and avoid him - and everything that has anything to do with him- at all costs." Abby shook her head. "That's not healthy, Neela. Don't hide your feelings."

Neela gave Abby her nastiest look and snapped, nearly hissed: "Look who's talking. Going out with every remotely attractive bloke that crosses the street, instead of just calling Jake to tell him that she's sorry and she missed him. That's very healthy. You're not better than me."

"Nice, Neela, very nice." Abby slid off the table; she was obviously a tad pissed off.

"It's true." Neela replied. "You're still hung up on Jake, so you take it out on me and Ray."

"Ever thought you might be projecting?"

"What?" Neela stuffed some noodles in her mouth in annoyance.

"You are projecting your frustration about Ray onto me, so now you're trying to convince me that I'm in love with Jake."

"Which you are." Neela gave Abby a pointed look, which Abby returned by rolling her eyes. After nearly two minutes of stubborn staring Abby broke the silence.

"Are we actually fighting about this?" Neela shook her head.

"We were having a slightly heated discussion. It's a roommates thing, Ray and I had them all the time." Abby smirked.

"Does that mean you're going to fall in love with me too now?"

"It depends," Neela answered, grinning, "did you join a band recently?"

Abby shook her head and muttered: "Damn.", before she turned to go to her room and told Neela that she was going to get ready for work. "And eat your dinner."

Lifelessly Neela prodded around in her cold food.

I am a moron. She thought. Who moves in with a man she attracted to, only to realize she's fallen for him and panic so badly about this bloody epiphany that she moves out. Oh, that's right, I do!

"I should call him." She mumbled to herself. She reached for the phone and noticed it was covered in post-its. One by one she took them off and read them.

'6:15, Neela, Ray called.' The first read.

'6:25, Ray called again, doesn't he know you have an early shift today?'

'6:40, HE called, he wants me to tell you he's sorry.'

'6:50, He's sorry Neela, dammit, call him. He keeps waking me up.' Neela smirked.

'7:00, Ray wanted me to tell you, and I quote: "I know I'm a pain in the ass, but please come back. It's boring without you. The guys miss dr. Neela too." Cute.'

'7:10, guess who called?'

'7:30, wow a full 20 minutes this time. He says he'll stop calling. CALL HIM, Neela, this is pathetic.'

Neela was sufficiently shocked.

"Abby! You didn't tell me Ray called!" She yelled at Abby's door.

"Sorry! I forgot, it was too damn early, I just fell asleep. He called, like, 8 times this morning." Abby's muffled voice sounded through the door.

"Seven." Neela muttered under her breath. Abby burst out of bedroom, grabbed her coat, said good bye to Neela and went out the door within 30 seconds, but Neela didn't really pay attention to it.

When the door slammed shut Neela immediately grabbed the phone and dialled her former number and waited for Ray to pick up. But he never did. She left a short message on the answering machine:

"It's okay, Ray. See you tomorrow."

Little did she know that Ray had been sitting right next to the phone when she'd called, too shocked that she actually called him to pick up and that he'd listened to that tiny message about a hundred times, trying to find a clue about what to say tomorrow.

If she did know all this then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't have eaten Abby's entire chocolate stash in thirty minutes.

Press the pretty button! Press it! PRESS IT I SAY!