Martha was too angry to cry. She was fuming. How could he do this to her? He must have known she'd find them together considering she was coming over that morning. Did he want her to find out that way because he was too gutless to tell her to her face? That was his way of breaking up was it? What an absolute bastard! If she saw him now she thought she might kill him. How could she have ever thought he was one of the good guys? All guys are the same. They cheat, lie, hurt you. She was so sick of them. She never wanted to see Jack and his stupid cheating, lying, bastard face again. Except at that moment he came charging into the diner looking for her.
"Martha we have to talk, let me explain…"
Martha cut him off. "Shut up Jack. I'm not interested. Don't talk to me right now. I swear, if you don't leave me alone, I will not be responsible for my actions." She spoke to him in a low, slow, controlled voice – her words dripping with hatred.
"But Martha if I could just explain…" At the moment she snapped.
Standing up from her seat at the booth she stood within an inch of him and stared up at him, eyes blazing with fury.
"Just shut up Ok?" she shouted. "I DO NOT want to hear your pathetic excuses…"
"Hey, hey," Irene came rushing over. "Keep it down you two. This is NOT the place for a fight."
"Sorry Irene," Martha said. "I was just leaving. But before I do, I just want everyone to know what a PATHETIC, LYING, CHEATING PIG this man is right here." She shouted the last words so the whole diner could hear and everyone looked over at the scene, slightly bemused. Martha looked at Jack and shook her head in disgust. "Go to hell Jack, and don't EVER talk to me again." With that she picked up the cup of coffee she had been drinking from the table and threw its contents at Jack's shirtfront. She then quickly left to go upstairs to the apartment she shared with her Grandad and Aunty Morag. Jack was left standing in the middle of the diner, all eyes on him, wondering how such a harmless situation had got so horribly out of control.
"What happened to you?" Tony asked Jack as he walked in the door with a large coffee stain on his shirtfront.
Jack gave him a dirty look. "Don't ask," and slumped down on the couch. "Why does my life have to be so complicated?"
"I didn't know it was," Tony said, whilst poring himself some cornflakes from the box. "You want a coffee?"
"Does it look like I need coffee?" said Jack and gestured pointedly at his shirtfront. "Dad, I'm having a crisis here. Don't talk to me about coffee."
"Sorry, but you told me not to ask."
"Yeah, you're smart aren't you?"
"Ok, ok, so why is your life so complicated?"
With that Jack launched into his relationship dramas as Tony patiently listened.
"Hiya love, you had brekki yet?" Irene said cheerfully as she emerged down the stairs to see Tasha sitting on the couch staring into space.
"What? Oh sorry, no, not yet."
"Well how about you get up off that couch and have some? I swear your going to wear a hole in that thing the amount of time you spend with your backside planted on it."
Tasha turned her head to look at Irene and something in her eyes told Irene she wanted to talk. Irene came and sat down next to her.
"Ok, spill."
"Reenie, I think if I don't deal with this…Jonah thing, I'm going to lose Robbie forever."
"Tash…"
"No Reenie, I'm sick of this thing controlling my life. I need to face it."
"Well I think that's great love. Maybe you should speak to Rachel?"
Tasha nodded her head. "Yeah maybe, but there's something else I need to do. I'm going to go visit Jonah."
"Tash, love. Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yep, I have to. I know I have to see him, confront him over what he did to me. I'm sick of not knowing, blaming myself. Can you drive me to the prison Reenie?"
"Of course Tash, you just tell me when."
"Today Reenie, I want to go today."
Irene looked at Tasha and knew there was no arguing with her. She gave the girl's bare arm an affectionate rub. "Ok love, we'll go today."
"So as you can see, none of this is really my fault. In fact now I think about it, I don't know why I'm the one that should be apologizing to Martha. I mean, she didn't even let me explain, just assumed the worst of me. She should know me well enough to know I would never do anything like that."
"Well maybe she had reason to believe that there was something going on."
"But that's just it Dad, she didn't. I told Martha straight up I didn't like Kate in that way."
"Maybe you don't, but how does Kate feel? Does she like you?"
"No!"
"You're sure about that? Because when you two used to go out she was pretty hung up on you as I recall."
"Dad…"
"I'm just telling it how I saw it. You ended it; she didn't."
"No I didn't, we both just drifted apart."
"Uh, uh Jack. That's always your excuse with the girls. The fact is every girlfriend you've ever had you've always kept your distance from and cut the ties before things have got too serious. Except Martha. This time I know just how much you like the girl and now she's told you it's over. The old ego taken a bit of a hit has it?"
"That is not what's going on Dad, I'm just saying she should have listened to me before pouring coffee down my shirtfront."
"Does that really matter Jack? The point is Martha's hurting right now. She thinks you've cheated on her. So if you don't find a way to explain yourself pronto, you're going to lose her forever. Is that what you want? Just because you're too pigheaded to see a way past the fact she may have been a little quick to jump to conclusions?" Jack looked at Tony and knew he was right. The fact was the thought of losing Martha really scared him. He didn't realise how much until now and it surprised him. He never thought he'd need someone else so much – he'd always been happy on his own. But without Martha, he realised, he was miserable. He couldn't let that happen. He looked at Tony and grinned.
"Thanks Dad. You're right. I'm going to make Martha listen to me whether she wants to or not!" With that he bolted out the door as Tony sighed and shook his head. Young love; so much drama, give him the contented affection of middle age companionship any day!