Tattooed Hearts

Chapter 11: Rejection

Her eyes flutter open as the evening sky shined on her through the window. It didn't take her long to acknowledge the heavy weight that was located on her left arm, not allowing her to move at all. To her unexpectedness, out of anything it could be, it was Maks, momentarily sleeping.

'Was this it?' She thought to herself
'Was it all just a nightmare?'
'Had I always been with him all this time?"

Nevertheless, her thoughts were cut short as a stranger knocked the door as he popped his head in. She squinted her eyes to see the man clearer, but he was still nobody she recognized. The man was in a white coat and had a name tag hanging from his pocket. Very quickly she apprehended that this wasn't just anyone, he was a doctor, and she was nowhere else but a hospital.

"Ms. Davis, glad to see that you're awake."

Still confused of her whereabouts and situation, she doesn't respond. The doctor's  voice however, seemed to have awakened Maks up.

"Meryl?" Maks looks at her with an astonished look.

Not knowing how to respond to him either, she remained quiet. 'What happened?' She asks herself, looking around the room. The doctor walked closer to her, observing her physical condition.

"Ms. Davis? Are you unable to talk?" The questions

She shook her head. "N-no I'm fine. I think. Just confused." She answers, giving the doctor a faint smile

"Well I'm not thoroughly surprised. You had an accident at the ice rink and was brought here by the ambulance. Because you had a concussion, we had to undergo surgery, but everything is well sorted now."

"Oh."

"How long was I unconscious for?" She asked

"Too long" Maks interrupted.
The sound of his voice was slowly shattering her into pieces.

The doctor grins at Maks's answer. "6 hours after the surgery."

Then, the room was filled with silence as  the doctor takes further notes of Meryl before leaving the room. In that fifteen minutes she had been conscious for, she hasn't shared a single glance with Maks. It was as if she was making a whole list of her own taboos and he was one of the things written on the list. She didn't know why she couldn't just look at him, but her senses were telling her that he hadn't for a second put his eyes off her. She didn't hate him, she never did and never will.
She was just disappointed.
She shouldn't be though. She knows him and always has. The amount of women he's played around with, the amount of women he promised a forever. She knew all this. She knew exactly what she had to deal with.
Now she realized. It wasn't him she was disappointed in, it was herself. She had high hopes of changing him, to make him the loyal man that he could be, still she failed. She failed both him and herself. Maybe that's why she couldn't look at him, because he's a reminder of the disappointment she caused herself.

"Why are you here?" She fiddles with the hem of her shirt

"I wanted to see if you were okay"

"No, why are you here? Why you?"

"You need to rest. I'm going to grab a few snacks"

"Were you there? Were you following me?"

"I wasn't following you. Listen, you jut got out of surgery, your body's worked too hard, you need to rest. We can talk later"

"Later? You mean a year later Maks? No. I want this talk right now. If you're going to postpone everything with me, you might as well take me out of your life, which to my memory, you already did."

"Cut the crap Meryl. People would be saying thank you right now, yet here you are throwing shit at me. You want to talk? Talk to Charlie. He told me to find you after he got the call, and don't think that I couldn't say no, because I absolutely could, but I didn't. You don't understand why I haven't reached you recently, yet you haven't given me the chance to explain either. You have no idea how much I would love to tell you but I won't let you live with such pain, especially after seeing you in the ER. The hours that you were in that room, I didn't even lose sight of the door for just a minute just incase the doors opened. Maybe I blew up my chances, multiple times, but I'm not giving up on you. If you don't want me here, I'll leave. I'm sure your family is already on the way."