Chapter 5: Choices and Decisions

Brenda had called Joe up and asked him to meet her for lunch. He had been hesitant about the whole thing, well, hesitant was an understatement. More or less Brenda had to argue and beg him for about fifteen minutes before he even considered the idea. The last thing that he had wanted was for Brenda to show up with Rhoda. He just couldn't face her yet. There was too much going through his head. Their last meeting was more than he had wanted or needed at the time.

Guilt was something that he could not handle right now, and he knew that he would feel it as soon as he would see her face. She was supposed to be up in Minneapolis, but with the way his luck had been going, she would have just came back and was getting ready for lunch.

Joe sat there at the table and waited for Brenda. Slowly getting ready to face the worse that could happen at the moment. It wasn't an extremely nice restaurant or anything fancy, so he could be assured that this was a more casual occasion. That to him was a fairly good sign that there should be no surprises.

"Joe!" Brenda said, getting his attention as she took her seat across from him. "We gotta talk."

Joe sighed. "What about?"

Brenda relaxed herself and leaned forward. "Listen, I don't think Rhoda's gonna be coming back to New York." Stopping to see his reaction, she saw a small spark of interest in his eyes. "At all," She said emphasizing it. "As in never returning. Moving away…"

"I get it," Joe said. His eyes gazed down to the floor as he thought over what he had just heard. There was no real certainty as to what he was feeling at the moment, mad, angered, upset, disappointed, depressed, sad. One thing he was sure of though, was the fact that they were all aimed towards himself. "Why don't you think she'll be coming back?" he asked as he looked up to her.

Brenda sat there and thought for a minute. "I dunno. Mary called me last night."

"What did she say?" he anxiously asked.

Brenda shrugged. "I dunno. They had a weird talk last night. About how things used to be, how her marriage failed how you might as well have just gone and cheated."

Joe sat there and just simply listened.

"Were you going to get back together?" Brenda asked.

There was no answer to that. At times he would think that he did want to go back her, where he was thinking that the second she got back he would show up and tell her that he wanted to get back together. Then there were the times that he wondered if they would land in the same place that they were now. Whether or not it would be worth it to get back together. "I don't know yet."

"I think you should go talk to her."

"That's a bit of a distance for a talk," Joe said.

"I still think you should go."

O O O o o o O O O o o o O O O o o o

Mary sat in the darkened living room as she watched a horror movie on her TV. Rhoda, who had just walked out of the bathroom with her pajamas on and her hair in a towel, noticed the silence before hand and opened the door cautiously. As soon as she walked out and spotted Mary, she crept up behind her. Once she was standing right there, she quickly grabbed Mary's shoulders and yelled "Gotcha!"

Mary screamed as she jumped. "Rhoda!" She yelled upon turning around to see her. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at her.

Rhoda picked up the pillow and carried it with her to the chair as she laughed. "Sorry about that kid," she said sitting down. "But you sound like a mouse when you scream. I just had to."

Mary was still trying to catch her breath. "Not funny Rhoda, you really scared me."

"Would you think it was funny if you scared me?" Rhoda asked.

Mary glared to her and then cracked a slight smile. She was about to say something, but the phone rang. "Excuse me," she said and got up to go answer it.

"In her your own home you still feel the need to excuse yourself from a room."

"Yeah, well," Mary said and then picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Mary, its Joe," he said. Wanting to get right to the point, he didn't even wait for her to say anything. "Brenda told me what you two want me to do."

"And?" Mary asked. She wanted to keep it brief before Rhoda started to get curious.

"Well," Joe sighed. "I'll come out there. Tomorrow around four alright?"

Mary softly smiled. "Sure."

Joe was about to say goodbye, but hesitated. "I know that you want this to be a surprise, but could you at least answer a few yes or no questions?"

"What is it?" Mary asked. She wanted to get off the phone, but she couldn't just cut him off like that.

"I just want to know what to expect when I get out there. Is she mad?"

"No."

"Hurt?"

Mary hesitated. "Yes."

That wasn't a surprise to him, but it still hurt him. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her. He wanted to stay with her. No matter what was said or what had been done, he wanted to stay. Something was nagging at him though. A familiar feeling. The feeling that he had gotten before he had left his first wife. The same thing was happening, and he didn't want to let it get to the point where he would actually hurt her. "Does she truly wanna see me?"

"Yes."

"Thanks. See ya."

With that, the phone line went dead. Mary slowly hung up the phone and went back to sit down on the couch.

"Who was that?" Rhoda casually asked.

Mary thought for a second. "It was just Murry. He had a few questions about a story we were working on. I took the notes for him and I guess he had forgotten them."

"Oh," Rhoda said. Something was wrong. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out. The changes in Mary's expression were obvious. She had gone from her normal self to distant and solemn within the five minutes that she had been on the phone. "Don't take this the wrong way Mare, but you look pretty bad right now. Something bothering you?"

Of course there was something wrong. She was starting to wonder how great of an idea this was. Every 'what if?' situation was going through her head. What if they weren't ready to see each other yet? What if things are made worse between them? What if they just weren't meant to be and she was messing with something that she shouldn't be messing with? "No, I'm just tired."

"Hey, if you wanna go to bed, don't let me keep you up."

Mary laughed. "Sure, say that after you scare me half to death."

Rhoda rolled her eyes. "I just added some excitement to your life."

Mary stood up. "Like a possible trip to the hospital?" She started to walk towards her bedroom.

"That's how everyday in New York is for me," Rhoda said turning back to face her.

"Goodnight Rhoda!" Mary called from her room.

"Night Mare," Rhoda said and then turned back. She turned the TV on and decided to watch the end of the movie.

Mary waited a minute and then stepped back out of her room.

"Too quick there to be predictable!" Rhoda called out.

Mary just turned back and walked into her room. There was something that was telling her that tomorrow was going to be a bad idea. It was nagging at her more and more. She was happy tonight to see Rhoda in a good mood, and then that phone call. "This is crazy," she softly laughed to herself as she stopped before the mirror. "You're bringing two people back together." There was a long silence as her smile slowly changed to a frown. "Right?" she asked herself.