Chapter Eight:
"Thank you," I told Angela as we unwrapped ourselves from each other.
"For what?" she asked, wiping a tear from her eye.
"For everything," I said. "And I mean that."
"What do you mean?"
"I have had so much that I've needed to talk about, and I never actually realized it until you moved in," I said. "I, uh... I'm lucky to have you around." She looked at me the way a cow looks at an oncoming train: completely shocked, unable to move. I managed a little smile. "And I'm sure Maya didn't mean it when she called you a tramp." Actually, I was pretty much certain she did. Apparently she was the jealous type. But some part of me just wanted desperately to make her feel better about it.
Her expression softened a bit. "She seemed pretty sure about it then..."
"No, no..." I started to lie. "She just... well, she gets angry, and she says things she doesn't mean." I patted her on the shoulder. "Besides, Angela, you being a tramp would be like having an agoraphobic daredevil."
"...What?"
"See, agoraphobia is the intense fear of being in a situation that's difficult to get out of... what I'm trying to say is that you're the opposite of a tramp. You're afraid of being one."
She smiled. "Thanks. Um..."
"Yes?"
"I was just going to say that I should be going... Dr. Jin needs to get a good look at your foot, and everything..."
"Oh, yeah. Bye, then."
"Bye," she said timidly as she walked toward the door. "And get better."
"I'll try," I said, a little too late. She'd already shut the door. Seconds later, Dr. Jin walked in. "Now, your toe is broken," he said. No nonsense guy, Dr. Jin was. "So we're giving you the boot."
"The boot? You're just going to kick me out of here?" I said, confused.
"No, no," he said, squatting to look in a lower cabinet and pulling out a plastic foam-lined boot. "This boot. It prevents unnecessary pressure on your toes, which is usually caused by walking, with this curved front end."
"...Oh."
"But first, we've got to replace the splint. The one you had on was a temporary one; this one, you'll leave on until your toe heals." I looked at him quizzically. "It's waterproof, don't worry." He started carefully moving my toe into the splint. "So... pardon me if I'm being a nose, but that girl who came in here... that wasn't your Maya, was it?"
"Her? No... that's my friend Angela."
"Hm. She looked guilty. Did she break your toe?"
I put on a little smile, if only to keep from breaking down. "No, no... she gave me the temporary splint, actually."
He finished with the splint and started putting the boot on my foot. "Then why did she look so guilty?"
"It's, uh... it's a long story," I said, looking away from Dr. Jin.
"Well, why isn't your Maya here to visit you?"
"We kind of had a fight..." I admitted.
"Oh? What about?"
"That's not really your business, is it?"
"No, no it isn't. I'm very sorry. Irene keeps telling me I'm not warm enough with my patients; I was just trying to make small talk. Anyway, the boot's on. You're free to go."
"Thank you, Dr. Jin."
"You're welcome. Be safe," he said.
"I will," I said on my way out the door. I looked at my watch. My shift started up again in an hour. I didn't enough time to go home and come back, especially with my walking speed slowed by the boot, so I went ahead and headed toward the inn.
As I opened the door, I saw Maya sitting at a table, fidgeting with her hands. "Chase!" she said, standing up quickly enough to knock down the chair behind her. She ran toward me and threw herself at me. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm a terrible fiancée! I never should've yelled at you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Well now that that was settled... I pushed her off of me. "You don't need to apologize to me."
"Yes I do! I'm so sorry!" she cried hysterically and wrapped her arms around me again.
"No, Maya, get off me!" I pushed her away a second time. "What I meant was, I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." She cocked her head and gave me a confused look. "Angela heard you call her a cheap tramp. I think you should apologize to her."
"No," Maya recited like a child whose first and only word was 'no'.
"What?"
"I'm not going to apologize to that woodsy little wench." She even tried to sound cute in defiance. "I meant everything I said."
"Maya! Angela would never do something like that! You know, she didn't even want to go walking with me at first!" Maya gave me the same confused look. "I wanted to go walking with her!"
"How come you took her out on a walk instead of me?!" she shouted.
"Because I don't want to spent time with you! You're a bratty, bossy, childish, possessive chore of a woman!" Whoa. I was getting pretty good at telling the truth.
"Why would you say that to me, Chase?!" she cried. Tears spilled down her face.
"Because it's true!" I yelled. "And if she were in your shoes and you were in hers, you could bet money she'd understand!"
"Well then," Maya stood up straight from her slump and then leaned in close to my face. "Why isn't she in my shoes?"
"Because you were here first!" I blurted. And no guilt followed. I didn't feel sorry for lying, because I wasn't, and more importantly, I didn't even care if I was ruining my marriage. I didn't want to marry her; I didn't love her. I had no feelings for her at all. Why not go for broke? "And you know what? I don't even like you! And I sure as hell don't love you. I just accepted your proposal because I felt sorry for you. So, here, you see this?" I took the Blue Feather she'd used to propose to me from my pocket.
"N--" she started to interrupt.
I slammed the feather onto the nearest table, took the knife out of the silverware napkin, and proceeded to chop the stem of the feather like a green onion. "That's what I think of spending eternity with you." I picked up the bits of feather and blew them at Maya, feeling rather proud of myself. I finally said it. Everything I'd been fighting back thinking just fell right out of my mouth. And it felt fantastic.
Maya's eyes were pouring out tears like a fountain. "B-b-but... I love you, Chase... h-how could you do this to me..."
Oh... maybe I'd gone a bit too far. I'm such a hypocrite; I got so bent out of shape when Maya may have hurt Angela's feelings, then I crushed Maya like a peppercorn. But I didn't want to marry her, and if I apologized, she'd think everything was fine and tomorrow we'd be all happy-coupley again. "I'm an inconsiderate, hypocritical jerk, that's how," I said coldly. "I'm sorry about the feather, but not anything I said. The wedding's off."
Maya took off running, sobbing uncontrollably. I leaned one hand on the table and stared at the spot she'd just run from. I felt bad, I did. I convinced myself that I'd done the right thing by imagining being married to her...
"YOU! This is all YOUR fault!" I heard Maya screech, followed by the loud sound of a slap and stomping up the stairs. I looked around. Where the stairs bent stood Angela, a reddish mark on her shocked face.
"Angela..."