Chapter 6: This Night (Part 1)

Joe had his suitcase next to him as he sat in the cab. He was on his way to the address in which he was about to see his wife. It was finally starting to make him nervous. It really was kind of silly, he was afraid to see the woman that he had married two years ago.

Mary had told him that he would have the apartment to himself for a couple of hours to get ready, but he was starting to debate whether or not this was a good idea. At was starting to seem like was two more hours to worry. Two more hours to change his mind and head back.

"Right here correct?"

Joe was brought out of his thoughts. "Yeah," he said. Joe grabbed the money to pay him and then left with his suitcase. The door man was told to expect him, so he had no problem getting in. It was simply waiting that the problem would occur.

Natalie Richards was the cousin of Mary. She was tall, slender and had sandy blonde hair that went down just past her shoulders. Today was the day that she figured she would stop in and surprise her cousin. Though she lived in a small town fifty miles away, she was familiar with Minneapolis. Once she had gotten the address, she knew exactly where she was going.

Walking into the lobby, she got to the counter and waited for the doorman to notice her.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered. "My cousin Mary Richards lives here."

"She's not in right now," he answered.

Natalie sighed. "Well, you think I could go up there and wait for her?"

"There's already someone else up there."

"Good, that way they can tell you if I just decide to go crazy and wreck the place." She was starting to get irritated.

He sighed. "Fine, go ahead."

"Thank you," she said and then continued to the elevator. It wasn't until she had gotten to the elevator that she had started to wonder who could be up in her apartment waiting for her. She got to the floor and walked to the room. Setting her things down, she knocked on the door and waited.

"Hello?" Joe asked as he opened the door. It was obvious that it hadn't been Mary since she didn't just come in herself.

"Well, who are you?" Natalie asked.

"Joe Gerard. Who are you?"

Natalie politely smiled as she picked her things back up. "Natalie Richards. Mary's cousin. If you let me in, I could tell you a little more about myself."

Joe opened the door wider and stepped aside. There was something about this girl that he didn't like, but what was he supposed to do? Tell her to go away? This wasn't his place. He wasn't about to send the owner's relatives away.

"Did Mary know that you were coming today?" he asked closing the door.

"Nope, I'm surprising her. You?"

"She knew I was here." For some reason, he had to stay brief with her. Going into a conversation just didn't feel right.

"Does our little Mary finally have a serious boyfriend?" Natalie asked. She sat down on the couch and smiled to him.

Joe laughed. "No, no. I'm here to surprise her friend who happens to be my wife."

"I see," Natalie said. Leaning forward, she started to play with her hands. "If you're married, than why doesn't she know that you're here?"

"She just came out to visit a friend and I got a couple days off of work." He was starting to get irritated. This was really none of her business and she was starting to ask questions.

"Looks like there's a little more to it than that." Natalie smiled up to him. There was something behind those deep brown eyes, something dark. The deeper intent of this conversation was becoming very obvious to Joe.

Joe sat down in the chair and firmly looked to her. "What does it matter to you what happened?"

Natalie laughed. "You're ashamed. She left you and you're ashamed of it." She could see that her last remark bothered him. "I didn't mean anything by it. I just found it kinda funny. That's all."

"There's nothing funny about it. I actually left her first, and I shouldn't have."

Natalie backed away. "Oh. I'm sorry." Sitting back into the couch, she watched as eh just stared blankly ahead. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you leave?"

Joe looked up to her and sighed.

Rhoda leaned on the edge of Mary's desk as she, Mary and Murry watched Ted do the news.

"And now onto… Wait, give me a second," Ted said looking through his papers.

"You would think he had to fail a test to get this job," Murry said.

"What does it matter? He was probably gonna read it wrong anyways," Rhoda said.

"Ah, here it is. The number of important cars rises to fifteen million," Ted announced.

Murry dropped his head to his hands. "That's supposed to be imported cars rises to one point five million." He turned to Mary and Rhoda. "I cannot tell you how many times I corrected him for that."

"Its not that bad," Mary said. "Certainly better than the inflammation hitting ten percent."

Lou walked out of his office and joined the group gathered around the TV. "Fifteen million important cars out there huh?" he asked.

"You noticed that one," Rhoda said.

"At least he got imported wrong, or else we'd have Ford, GM and Chevrolet calling us up."

"In Minneapolis?" Mary asked.

"Word gets around," Lou said.

Ted walked into the room and joined everyone else. "Hi guys!"

Everyone turned and faced him. Lou was ready to yell at him. A smile slowly spread across his face. "You know how to read don't you?" His voice was calm and steady as he asked.

"Yes," Ted said.

"Well then why don't you?" Lou asked, raising his voice.

Mary looked over to Rhoda. "You ready to go home yet?"

Rhoda just watched as Ted tried to say that he was reading what was right there on the paper. "Sure Mare, let's go."

The two went and grabbed their coats. "Good night everyone," Mary said as she grabbed hers.

"See ya tomorrow Mare. Bye Rhoda," Murry said.

"Bye," Rhoda responded. As soon as the door closed behind them, Rhoda smiled over to Mary. "What do you think about a movie tonight? My treat."

"I don't know," Mary answered. "You know anything good that's playing tonight?"

"We can always check the listings."

"You can do that while I get freshened up," Mary said as they stopped at the elevator.

Joe sat on the chair. Natalie had worked her way from the middle of the couch to the side closest to him. "You know," she started "it really does sound like she was being unfair to you."

Joe just watched as she took a strand of her hair and played with it between her fingers. He was starting to hate himself for even letting her in, and was hoping desperately for Mary and Rhoda to walk in.

"I mean, she was whining at you to buy a house that you couldn't afford. She was pretending there weren't problems that were there. She was simply using you. Just had you there for her needs. What about your needs Joe? I know you have them, everyone does."

"You don't know anything about Rhoda or my needs or how my marriage was." This girl was starting to bug him. He needed to get rid of her, and soon. It was sad, but he knew if she hit the right buttons, she could possibly get what she wanted out of him.

Natalie shrugged as she sat back. "Well, your wife obviously wasn't good enough to stay with. So your marriage couldn't have been all that great."

Joe stood up. He had had it. "Look, this wasn't Rhoda's fault! It had nothing to do with Rhoda. I, as in myself, was starting to feel the same way I did around the time that my first wife and I split, and I didn't want to hurt her like that. I wanted to get out of there before I said things I would regret."

Natalie stood up before him. Her eyes meeting his. "So, were you going to officially end it tonight?"

"I don't know," he honestly answered.

Natalie took her hand and began to brush it through his hair, but he flinched back. "I haven't ended anything yet."

"You ended it the minute you walked out that door," Natalie said. She closed the distance that he had made between them. "What would you have done anyways? Go back to her for another two or three years and then do the same thing?"

Joe stood there. His eyes were locked on hers. Everything felt wrong, but he couldn't move away. Suddenly, her words made sense to him. It wouldn't work out anyways. That didn't mean that he wanted to give up just yet. He still wanted this girl off of him and he wanted to talk to Rhoda. It was just getting harder and harder to move away from her. He could feel her arm grab his neck.

"Really lying like that to her would make things worse. And no one needs false hope now do they?" Her lips slowly touched his. He accepted it.

"Surprise! Oh my God!"

Joe quickly pushed Natalie away. Mary stood wide eyed in the entrance with her arm holding the door open. Next to her, in the middle of the doorway stood Rhoda. No wide eyed expression, no anger or depression in her eyes. Just simple and utter betrayal.

"Rhoda," Joe said as he started to walk to her. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" she asked. "We were separated and you were doing what you wanted. If anything, I should be thanking you. I thought we could have had another chance, and you showed me that we don't." Holding back her tears, she walked up to him and looked down at her hand. "Just so that its clear to you." She slid her ring off her finger and let it fall to the ground. Looking up, the tears had already started to fall from her eyes. "Its over."