Chapter 2: Three Missing Words

I just poured my heart out
There's bits of it on the floor
And I take what's left of it and rinse it under cold water
And call him up for more
And I say baby, yes I feel stupid to call you, but I'm lonely
And I don't think you meant it when you said you couldn't love me
And I thought maybe if I kissed the way you do, you'd feel it too
He said I'm sorry
so sorry
I'm sorry
so sorry
He grabs my wrists
as my fingers turn into angry fists
and I whisper why can't you love me, I'll change for you
I'll play the part

~ Sorry by Maria Mena

Rhoda stood outside of Joe's wrecking company. She didn't want to, but she had to. She wasn't about to leave New York without telling him first. Whether it was to show him that she could also walk out, or simply because she wanted to know if she could still keep her faith in his return to her. Either way, she slowly entered the building. With hesitance, she entered his room. "Joe?"

Joe looked up to her from his desk. "Rhoda, I told you, I just need some time on my own." His voice was gentle, but his words stung at her.

"Right," Rhoda said as she set down her suitcase. "I just wanted to tell you that I was going out of town for a few days."

"Where to?"

"I'm thinking about going to Minneapolis."

"Does this mean that I can go back and get a few things?" Joe asked.

Those words angered her. The nonchalant way that he had asked to the look in his face. Everything that had indicated to her that he did not care.

"That's it?" she asked. "I'm leaving and all you want to know is whether or not you can get your things?" She had no idea how to react to this. Part of her wanted to strangle him while the other part wanted to cry to him and beg for him to end all of this.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked starting to get irritated. "Act like your father? Tell you not to go? I can't do that."

"You're right." She calmed herself down. "Why should I care? Its not like I love you or anything? Its, its not like I have any desire to know that you still care."

Joe's expression softened as he stood up and walked over to her. "Rhoda," he said as he grabbed her shoulders. "I care, I really do. But I do think that I'm doing what's best. You were up there the last few weeks. You know how its been between us."

"Alright Joe," she pulled away from his hands. "I'll let you know when I come back. Maybe then I'll let you come and get your things."

Rhoda turned and started to leave, but stopped at the door. There was one more thing she had to ask before she left. Slowly turning back to him she gathered her words. "Just one question."

"Shoot," Joe said.

"Both our faults?"

He could see it in her eyes. It was tugging at her. She needed to know exactly what had happened, and she was going to blame herself until she did. "Its nothing you did."

Rhoda nodded. "I see," she said and then left. It was too painful to say good bye, all it would do was make the situation sound permanent.

OOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOO

Rhoda sat there on the plane. This was it, she too was leaving. After she had gone through all the trouble of telling Joe that he was not allowed to grab his things, she had grabbed all of hers' and left. There was about an hour left until she got to Minneapolis. That was about as far as her plans went. Get there and tell Mary.

What about after she told Mary? What about going back to New York? Reality hit her, and it hit her hard. It was over. The relationship that they both worked on, had just came crashing down. It wasn't a long marriage, but it was still hard to grasp the concept that two people could love each other for over a year, and then within minutes end. In the amount of time it took to get to know him, to find out that they loved each other, to get him to propose and get married and get an apartment together they grew closer and closer. How could all of that suddenly not matter any more?

oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

Mary sat at her desk, next to Murry as he went over the idiot cards for Ted. "Is argument causing too many big words in one sentence?" Murry asked without taking his eyes off the card.

"Not for most people," Mary said as she looked over.

"Yeah, well if you haven't noticed, Ted isn't most people," Murry said.

"Why don't you try fight provoking? That's only one word," Mary said.

"When did we transfer from caring what he messed up to just making sure its only one word per sentence?"

Mary stood up and shrugged. "Try spelling everything how it sounds rather than how it is actually spelled." She walked over to the filing cabinet and grabbed a few of the files.

Murry motioned to her with agreement. "Why don't we just call up a kindergarten teacher and ask for methods on teaching children how to read?"

"Mary?"

Mary turned back from the cabinet and saw Rhoda standing at the door. "Rhoda?" Perplexed, she walked over and stood before her. Instantly, she saw the suitcase and knew that it wasn't good. "What are you doing here?"

Rhoda looked around and sighed. "Look, there's a few things going on back at home and I just needed to get away for a couple days. I'll explain to you later after I go find a room. I just wanted to catch you before you left work. That way I would know ahead of time if you had a date over or something."

"Oh Rhoda, you don't have to do that," Mary started.

"Yes I do Mare, walking in and sitting there through a date that you're not on isn't exactly what I would call fun. Trust me, I've done it before."

Mary slightly laughed. "I meant going to find a room. You can stay with me."

"You sure about that? Because I'm pretty sure that the last time we did this it didn't work out too well."

"Well, this is different, I haven't seen you in while."

"Alright, Mary, you have yourself a roommate," Rhoda said forcing a small smile. It wasn't that she wasn't happy about having someplace to stay, the thoughts of Joe were just still there in her head. His leaving, his walking out that door.

"Oh no! I will not have that hanging over my head!" Rhoda said as she rushed over towards the door. "Joe you walk out of that door now don't...!"

Joe stopped there halfway out the door. "Don't come back? Is that what you're gonna say?" He asked, cutting her off.

"Who was gonna say such a thing?" she casually asked as she shrugged. "There are many ways to end that sentence." It was purely to cover up what she truly wanted to say to him, to hide what was going on right before her. "Don't uh, forget the milk. Don't uh, c-c-cross uh, against the light." She shrugged as she thought of another one. "Don't talk to strangers." She had had it. Her head went down as she briefly closed her eyes. "Don't do this to me."

Murry looked up and watched the two for a second. "You know, you only have an hour left. I could cover for you if you want to take her to your place," he offered.

"Cover for what?" Lou asked as he walked over to the small group.

"Well, Mr. Grant," Mary started. "Rhoda here has an emergency and she sorta needs me. I was wondering if I could leave an hour early."

Lou stood there and looked at Rhoda for a minute. "Hey Rhoda," he said.

"Hey," Rhoda replied.

"How are you?"

"Alright."

"She looks fine to me," he said.

"Come on Mr. Grant, one hour. I'll make it up tomorrow by staying an hour late," Mary said.

"Fine, but remember that you're staying late tomorrow," he said as he headed back to his office.

"I will," Mary said and then grabbed her coat.

OOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

Rhoda had just gotten done unpacking her small amount of belongings that she had brought.

"Is there anything you wanted to do tonight? Anything you needed?" Mary asked as she went through the fridge in the kitchen looking for what they could have for dinner.

"No, I don't think so."

"You want to talk?" Mary asked. She closed the fridge and look to her friend with concern. No more than a few sentences had been exchanged between the two. It was obvious that there was something wrong, and she was just waiting for the right moment to finally ask what it was.

Rhoda sighed. There was so much going on, but no real way for her to put it into words. "I don't know," she said as she plopped down on the couch. "I mean what much is there to say when your husband leaves you?"

"Oh Rhoda," Mary said. "What happened?"

"Well, for starters, he wasn't as happy as he wanted to be. He was tense and I was tense, it just wasn't all that great between us the last month. I thought if I finally brought it up instead of avoiding it that we would come up with some solution." Rhoda looked over to her. "Something tells me that I would still be in New York with Joe in our apartment if I hadn't said anything. But no, I had to start something. I couldn't just unlock the door, give him a towel and say sorry."

Mary cut her off. "Unlock the door and give him a towel?" she asked as she walked over to join her.

"Well, there might have been a minor fight before the fight," Rhoda said. "I locked him out on the terrace and it had started to rain."

"I see," Mary said. "Was this how it was the last few weeks?" She sat down and joined her.

"We had small fights, nothing that no one else would have living with someone." Rhoda sighed and looked back down towards the floor. "It was just tense feeling. Little things would get on his nerves and then I would get irritated. Like last week when I came home with the groceries. I thought I would bring home a bottle of wine for us and all he was stuck on was the fact that I had forgotten bread."

Mary sighed. "Is there any chance of him coming back?"

Rhoda shrugged. "Slight one." She looked up at Mary. "I dunno kid, maybe I just wasn't meant to be married."

"What makes you so sure that he isn't coming back?"

"One of the last things that we talked about was whether or not he could go back to the apartment and get his things. You would think someone who's coming back would be able to leave everything." Rhoda let out a small laugh. "But hey, I guess having his things is a guarantee that he'll be back right? Whether or not he stays is still a big question though."

Mary just sat there and listened while she went on. There was no use in cutting in when there was nothing for her to say.

"What really bothers me is that he didn't say that he loved me, and I didn't say that I loved him. Most people who love each other tend to say those three little words to each when they leave."

"Don't dwell on that, I mean you two were fighting. No one thinks to say anything like that when they're fighting," Mary said trying to comfort her.

"We weren't when I told him I was leaving. I went to his wrecking place just to tell him that I was coming here and when I left we didn't even say goodbye or I love you or any of the sort. He did tell me that it wasn't all because of me, but that was it," Rhoda's eyes were starting to water as she looked down for a second. She looked back up and caught Mary's eyes. "I went there to see what he would say. I wanted to hear him tell me no, don't go. All he was interested in was whether or not he could get his things."

"You two need a break from each other and he didn't want to interfere with you're little vacation. Did you ever think of that?" Mary asked. All she wanted to do was to make sure that Rhoda didn't completely feel out of hope. The only problem that ran through her head was that small little what if. What if he didn't come back? Then what good would all this optimism be?

"I hope you're right," Rhoda said.

Mary didn't say it out loud, but deep down she too hoped that she was right.

~ This is dedicated to the couples out there having a rough time especially Veronica and Brandon and Kay and Joe