Twist of Love (8 page)

Josie started her car and slowly drove away from the parking area. Blake waited a few seconds before starting his car and began following her. He kept a safe distance from her so as not to spook her. He felt uncomfortable as he continued following her car. It was almost like a scene from some cheap movie that Blake had seen. But this was real life, not a film, and Blake's heart was on the line.

'I don't know if I feel like Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible or Robert Englund from Nightmare on Elm Street right now.' Blake shook his head as he continued trailing Josie's car.

He had never done anything like this before in his life. Not even the women that he had loved in his past relationships had made him follow them by car all the way to their homes. But those relationships were different. They all had a start and an end. This relationship didn't have an end. This one had just vanished into thin air, like a ghost plane over the Bermuda Triangle.

“Where the hell does she live?!” Blake said in frustration after passing through numerous streets and intersections. Following Josie like a madman was hard enough. She was actually making this even harder.

'Does she know I'm following her..? No, no...That can't be. She'd step out of the car if that was so.' Blake sighed again, and just as he was about to lose hope following her car, he saw her park her car up a driveway. He had finally followed her home.

'Finally...' Blake thought to himself. He parked his car in a small side street not too far from Josie's house. He stepped out of the car and cleared his throat.

'Okay, Blake, here's your chance... time to know what's really going on.' He thought. He walked briskly towards Josie's house and knocked on the door. Nothing.

'Dammit, why isn't she answering?'

He knocked much louder this time. Still nothing.

'What the-'

“Who is it?”

Josie's familiar voice filled Blake's ears. He was startled for a moment, and wasn't really sure what to say. “I-it's me... It's Blake.”

Blake waited for a moment that felt like an eternity before the door opened. Josie was just wearing her bathrobe.

“What is it? How did you know I live here?” Josie asked Blake as if he were a complete stranger.

“Josie, honey... please-”

“Don't call me that.” Josie said firmly.

“Why? What did I do wrong? I'm a very patient man, and I would've been willing to take you out on more dates and made many more happy memories with you, believe me... but even the most patient of men start to lose themselves when they aren't given any answers. Please, tell me... what's going on? What did I do? Everything seemed to have been going well... did I do or say something to offend you?” Blake knew he had started to sound like he was pleading.

“No! Look, just please, go. Can't you take a hint? I don't want to see you anymore. Let's just leave it at that!”

Josie's words hit Blake's heart like a bullet. He didn't know she could be this cold and cruel.

“Why?! That's exactly why I came here! I want answers! Why would you suddenly push me away?! What did I do to have made you act like this?!”

“You don't want to know why. You don't know me. You don't even know half of me. Who do you think you are? If you even remember, you only forced me to go out with you. I never enjoyed any of our dates. EVER. Don't even think for one moment that I actually developed feelings for you!”

Blake's chest started to hurt. He’d never realized that emotional pain could become physical pain if it became too intense. His eyes were starting to tear up, but he quickly wiped it off.

“Why would you do this to me..? How can you be so heartless? I care for you! I love you!” Blake shouted.

He didn't care if anyone heard him. It was the truth. But he didn't know if Josie was worth his love anymore.

“I loved you, too! Just as I loved someone before you! I was married before I met you.” Josie's eyes were starting to tear up.

She couldn't control it anymore. She just wanted to let it all out on Blake.

“I thought everything was perfect, I thought those love songs were real! But I found out that the real world is much, much different than what I had envisioned in my mind. I thought that he and I would have kids and a family and grow old together. But I was wrong! The world is a horrible place! Full of heartbreak and tears! Just when I thought that everything was going right, he ran off. With. My. Best. Friend!”

Josie's lips spat out the words with frightening precision. Her voice was loud and clear. The wounds in her heart were still fresh, and it showed.

“Love... doesn't last forever. It's just a phase. I knew you'd do the same to me. I know you, Blake Ingram. The 'Heartbreaker of Fallston'. Don't think you can fool me! I know all the relationships you've had with several other women! And I'm not about to add to that list of heartbroken, innocent women!”

Blake was at a loss for words. He wanted to speak, but he couldn't. It was as if his voice had been sucked right out of him. He didn't know how to react to Josie's outrage. He knew that Josie couldn't possibly know any of the things that had happened in his life. She had only believed the gossip about him, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

“I knew it!” Josie said in a spiteful tone of voice.

And in an instant, Josie slammed the door shut as hard as she could. The loud, thundering sound of the door slamming shut shook Blake and sent chills throughout his entire body. He fell to his knees and cried.

“Why...!”

He pleaded towards the sky, as if the heavens had all the answers. People walking down the street were starting to stare at Blake and at Josie's house, wondering what the commotion was all about. Blake looked around and wiped his tears. He had gotten what he had been looking for. The closure. But he wasn't one bit happy with how it had ended. But he didn't want to force Josie into anything. Her cold, harsh words still echoed into Blake's head. He didn't want to prove her right.

“F-fine... I won't force you into anything anymore, if that's what you thought of me... goodbye, Josie Steele...” Blake said softly.

He stood up and walked towards his car slowly, still grasping his chest. The pain was still intense. People were now staring at him. But he didn't care. None of it mattered now.

“D-damn...” he whispered to himself as he clutched his chest.

He didn't know whether he should consult a doctor for his chest pain. But he decided not to since he had already got his fill of mean doctors for the day.

21. Slipping at Work

“You're a loser, Josie. You could've had me. We could've been happy together. But you chose your pride. You chose another person's opinion over what we had. You messed everything up.” Blake told Josie in a cold voice. There was neither resentment nor anger in his voice. It was cold and sounded monotonous.

“No! I'm not a loser! I didn't lose anything! Damn you!!”

Blake didn't reply to Josie. He just stared blankly at her. His face was expressionless, like a ghost. The stare from his eyes pierced through Josie's very soul. She’d tried running away from him, but she still couldn't hide from the image of Blake's blank stare that haunted her. She fell to her knees and cried.

“Stop this! Stop doing this to me! I'm sorry! There, you heard it! I'm sorry! Stop doing this to me! Leave me alone!!” Josie shouted, but no one seemed to hear her. She was alone in a huge, dark room that seemed to stretch forever. There was no hiding from what she had done to Blake. Her punishment was clear.

“Just like you said, love isn't real. So now you have what you want. You will spend the rest of your life.... alone.” Blake's voice sounded remorseless. His remark kept repeating over and over inside Josie's head. She tried covering her ears, but to no avail.

“Damn you, Blake!! Damn you!!”

“Doc. Doc!!” The nurse's stern voice woke Josie up from her trance. She looked around and saw the familiar blue green walls of the operating room.

“Doc, the patient's vitals are starting to destabilize! You've been daydreaming over and over again! We can't afford to have you thinking about something else at the moment; we could lose the patient! Focus, Doctor Steele!”

The nurse was right. What the hell was she doing? She was in the middle of an operation that could determine the patient's life and she was letting herself get distracted by Blake? They hadn't even seen each other in a week. They hadn't tried contacting each other either. But it seemed that Josie was the one suffering from their sudden separation. Ever since their painful argument, Josie has been plagued by a series of horrifying daydreams. And to make things worse, these daydreams would often happen at the worst times, like right now.

“R-right... let's wait until the patient's signs stabilize again.”

After 5 long, grueling hours, Josie and her team just barely managed to finish the operation. She went to the female restroom and threw her cellphone inside the sink. She started crying.

“Doctor Steele... is there something wrong..?” Milla's familiar voice greeted Josie's ears. She wanted to be left alone right now, but she couldn't muster the strength to tell that to Milla.

“M-milla... I... hey...” Josie said, quickly wiping off her tears.

“Is there something wrong..? You can tell me, Doctor... the nurses have also told me that... they say you haven't been yourself lately...” Milla was trying to comfort the pained doctor.

“Yeah, I bet that's what they say... they don't know my life, they don't know what's going on...”

Milla wrapped her thin arms around Josie and hugged her tightly. Milla's sudden embrace made Josie feel a little better. But just a little.

“Doctor Steele... you can tell me anything. Anything at all...”

“No, Milla... it's okay... thank you. I really appreciate your kindness, but this is something I need to fix on my own...” Josie told Milla.

Milla smiled and nodded. She knew that Josie was going through a hard time, but believed in her enough to know that somehow she would pull through. The Iron Lady was as tough as her nickname. But she would soon have to earn that nickname all over again.

The ring of Josie's cellphone cut off their exchange.

“Excuse me.” Josie said.

“Of course,” Milla said.

“Miss Steele, please come up to my office right now.”

It was the cold voice of the hospital owner on the other end of the phone. He did not sound very pleased. Josie swallowed hard. Whatever this was, it was probably not good.

22. Time for a Break?

“Sir, you wanted to see me..?” Josie said in a nervous voice. Her superior, the owner of Lenora hospital, had just called her into his office for a brief meeting.

“Yes, Ms. Steele. Please, take a seat.”

Josie nervously pulled a chair and sat in front of Jarvey Huang, the owner of Lenora Hospital. He had developed a fierce reputation and everyone knew that he expected excellence from every one of those who worked for him. The reputation and credibility of his hospital was on the line, so he couldn't afford to be soft on his employees, even if most of them were professionals.

“I hear another patient has filed a case against you. That's the third case this week, alone. You're damaging-” Jarvey was suddenly cut off by Josie.

“Mr. Huang, please hear me out. I just haven't been myself lately. I've been really stressed-” then Jarvey cut off Josie just as she’d done to him.

“And so? You work here to heal people, not to kill them. If you think you've got a problem with your personal life, then go take a break. Come back when you know you're ready. Just make sure when you do, you had better be ready.”

“Sir, with all due respect, there were no fatalities in my cases...”

“Yes, but these cases can really damage the reputation of the hospital. We all have to work hard at our jobs to maintain our image, you know...”

'Coming from you. All you do is sit around all day and give people headaches. Jerk.' Josie thought to herself.

“Yes sir, I agree... I think I should spend some time alone first.”

She was getting overwhelmed by her work all of a sudden. This had never happened to her before. Even when she had just split with Trevor, her work had never suffered. But now, for some unknown reason, she had been messing up operations left and right. She had to do something about it. She was already facing 3 cases filed against her by the family members of patients who she had allegedly mishandled. It was a good thing that there were no casualties. Yet. But it was clear that her work was slipping. Maybe it was indeed time for a break.

Josie hunched her shoulders and leaned on her chair. If she could have sunk into the chair, she would have done so. She looked away from Huang.

“I'm glad you see reason, Miss Steele. Please feel free to take as much time off as you see fit.”

23. Old Memories

Josie drove to the local diner. It was her first leave of absence and this was her first act in her forced vacation. It was an act of pure desperation.

As she parked the car in the parking lot, the memories flooded Josie's brain. She wished she could turn them off like a TV, but there was no such comfort coming. The local diner brought back all the happy memories of that first date with Blake. She remembered how she’d felt so forced and coerced at first. It was such a sad irony now that she went here of her own free will and was just desperately hoping to somehow see Blake again.

She opened the familiar door of the diner. The chimes resounded in her ears as they had on that first date. And the memories came back again. Josie fought back the urge to cry.

“Hey, Miss Steele! How are ya' and Mr. Ingram?”

Josie heard Megan's familiar voice and her huge size covered her entire vision. Megan had actually gained a lot more weight from the last time they went here.

“Actually Megan, I was wondering if he had dropped by here recently.” Josie said.

“It's been more than two weeks and he hasn't dropped by here at all.” Megan said regretfully. “Why? Is anything the matter? I hope Blake's all right.”

“He's fine, Megan. Just dandy.”