Chapter 4 : Trying to Help

Rhoda walked into the empty apartment. She had just gotten back from meeting up with her former coworkers over at the department store. It was something that was supposed to be fun, but it was far from it. They didn't know that she had gotten married, and that was basically the only thing that had changed since she had last seen them. The only problem was that her marriage was the last thing that she had wanted to mention right now. If the marriage was brought up, then next would be the separation.

Silence surrounded her, this was truly the first time that she had been alone since he left. It was weird. Slowly, she made her way over and sat down on the couch. It wasn't her apartment, but it didn't need to be. The loneliness had settled in regardless.

She had lived on her own before, but this was different. Then, she had known and expected to come back to an empty place. Now, all she had to look forward to when she got home would be the empty reminder of what was. Of what she used to have.

"Better get used to this," she told herself. "This is what its gonna be like from now on." It was a harsh reality that seemed to keep slapping her in the face, but she had to get used to it. There was no way around it. Joe had left her, and that was all there was to it.

Mary sat at her desk as she went through the mail before her. Murry sat down at his desk and looked over. "Anything for me?" he asked.

"What?" Mary asked. She had been a bit preoccupied. Her thoughts had been centering around how Rhoda was. It was worrying her.

"Are you okay Mary? You haven't been yourself today," Murry said.

"Well," she said as she set down the stack of envelopes. "I have been a bit worried about Rhoda."

"She doing bad I take it?" Murry asked.

"She's being way too down on herself. She's saying that she was never meant to be married, that the only reason he has asked about is so that he knows when he can go back and get his things. There's a chance left for him to come back and she has completely gotten that out of her mind."

Murry turned to her. "Sorry to say this Mary, but I don't think I would be all that optimistic if Marie left me."

Mary sighed. "Is it so bad for me to want her to keep her hopes up?" she asked.

"Of course not," Murry said and then turned back to face his desk. "Unless she ends up getting them crushed."

"Thanks a lot," she said.

"Anytime."

That night, Mary walked in the door with bags in her hands. "I hope you don't mind. I figured neither of us would want to cook tonight, so I got take out instead."

"Perfect," Rhoda said. She had been curled up in the chair looking through a magazine. "Good food in minutes with minimal clean up."

Rhoda set the magazine down and followed Mary to the kitchen. "How was your day?" Mary asked as she pulled containers out of the bag.

"Eh, it was okay. Some of the people I liked are gone and there were some new ones that I didn't know." Rhoda shrugged. "Kinda made it feel like I had been gone for more than just a couple of years." Her eyes wondered around the apartment. "I guess the new apartment and absence of Phyllis doesn't help much either."

"I guess it wouldn't," Mary said.

Rhoda let out a small laugh. "Wouldn't she love to see this, my marriage didn't work out any better than hers."

Mary looked up to her in surprise. "Joe didn't cheat on you did he?"

"Oh no," Rhoda said. "He might as well have though." She sat down at the table and looked down at her hands.

Mary didn't know what to say to that. "Was it really that bad?" she managed to ask.

Rhoda looked up and sighed. "I doubt you've ever had anyone cheat on you have you?"

Mary shrugged. "There was one," she started.

"How much did you care about them? I mean how badly were hurt?"

"I don't know. It was a while ago, I don't really remember it to tell you the truth. It was before my engagement."

"I was kinda hoping you would say that you felt horrible." Rhoda leaned on the table and watched Mary. "People usually are a little hurt when that type of thing happens you know."

Mary laughed as she turned to the cabinet and started to grab plates and cups. "He didn't mean that much to me though. We had only been dating for a week if even that. I'm just glad that I found out before things got serious."

"While ninety nine percent of the world is more bothered than you about that sorta thing, I have a point to make that they would understand more than you would. When someone cheats on you, you get this message that they love you, that they could do better than you. Its basically them telling you that they don't want you and that you're not enough for them." There was a small break. The sadness gradually building in her eyes. "When Joe left, I got that same thing from him that I would have gotten if I would have seen him with another woman."

The both stood there in silence. "I think I'm going to go for a walk, excuse me," Rhoda said as she broke the silence. Mary watched her leave. There had to be something that she could do to help. That was when the idea came to her. Without a moment's notice, she walked to the phone and pulled out the organizer in which she kept her numbers. The one that she needed was right there. She dialed and waited for an answer. "Hi, Brenda. Remember me? Its Mary." She waited for a second. "Yeah, Rhoda gave me the number when she was living with you. You think you could do me a favor?"