Bitter Sweet

20. Alex

Stephanie arrived at the hospital bright and early. She got a ride from Sergio who had ditched school to be by his brother. For a Friday morning, the hospital was at its busiest. Stephanie wondered why that was. Sergio had said very little to her in their fifteen minute drive. He seemed nervous to have her there, and she understood. She went berserk when she found him smashing her sister, he was probably still fearing that she would remember and pull him by the ear and scold him. But Stephanie stopped caring about her sister. She thought she was an adult, that no one, specially Stephanie, could tell her what to do, so Stephanie let her have it. If she was such an adult, let her suffer from her stupid mistakes.

When they arrived, Mrs. Alvarez was outside Julio's door. Sergio gave her a hug and didn't seem to wonder why he was not in school. "How's Lorena?" she asked quietly.

Stephanie replied, "Good, she's with my mom."

She reached for her hand tenderly. "Oh, please remind me to thank your mother for looking after her, it was so nice of her to offer."

Stephanie nodded. Her mother will like that, she thought. She enjoyed being thanked for her Christian actions. They all sat on the chairs right along the wall, across from Julio's room, as Mrs. Alvarez explained he was having his injury examined. Stephanie nodded and they sat silently, no one saying a single word, and it made her uncomfortable. She got up and decided to walk around as if it was a museum and she had paid to see the exhibitions. She watched the doctors walk through the halls as they had deep conversations. She saw the nurses in front of computer screens very focused in their task at hand. She remembered when she made people believe she wanted to be a nurse just because it sounded good. At least better than saying she wanted to be a baker. But she hated the sight of blood, and found it extremely difficult to deal with people suffering without bursting into tears, that job would have made her miserable.

A tall, blonde woman bumped into her, bringing her back to the present. "I'm sorry," Stephanie apologized even though she wasn't at fault.

"It's alright," the woman paused and watched her. "Are you Stephanie Rios? The pastry chef?"

Stephanie nodded feeling a bit flattered, and a bit confused as to why the woman knew her name. "I am."

"I'm Natasha Hill, I live a couple blocks away from you, I think."

Stephanie blinked feeling more confused than ever. "Oh?"

The woman laughed. "I own a restaurant in downtown Tucson, The Garden, your mom and dad came by the other day and told me everything about you. She mentioned you were a pastry chef and that you recently lost your job."

"Yeah, that's true," she replied hating her parents.

"Anyway," the woman continued. "My pastry chef is feeling a little under the weather and he will be out for a month, if you're interested, you can give me a call and we can arrange something. I'm desperate," she added with a giggle. She took a card out from her expensive purse and handed it to her. "Please consider it, you can come over check it out any time you like."

Stephanie looked down at her fancy card. It must be a five star restaurant, the type people had to dress up for. "Wow," she lastly said. "Thank you."

The woman gave her a smile and walked away towards the cafeteria. Stephanie looked after her as she saw her elegant, and surely expensive clothes and her nice heels and her beautiful hair that seemed to be done by a professional. Stephanie couldn't believe her luck, perhaps she didn't hate her parents after all.

She walked back slowly and approached Mrs. Alvarez, "They sure are taking their time, uh?" she told Stephanie as she joined her by the window looking through the slits of the blinds.

"I'm sure it's just a thorough examination." Stephanie assured her. She turned to look behind her but her eyes met a set of familiar blue eyes. He smiled at her and waved, she then realized he was handcuffed.

She walked directly towards Alex, he smiled at her as if nothing was wrong. "You look great, Stephy."

"What the hell happened to you?" she asked as he saw his bruised face and his bandaged leg.

"I got into a fight," he replied proudly.

She rolled her eyes. "What did you do? Why are you handcuffed?"

He sighed deeply and looked down at the ground. "I'm being arrested for defending myself."

"Tell me the truth."

"I'm serious! I was at a bar and this guy started hitting me out of nowhere, I had to defend myself, right? So, I grabbed the closest thing I could find and I got him. I was that good."

Stephanie shook her head. Bar fight? In Tucson? "And you stabbed him with a bottle, did you?"

"Yeah, I mean whatever worked, wait..." he watched her suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

"Because the man you stabbed happened to be my neighbor."

"Oh, I see. I see why he got all defensive."

"What do you mean?"

He straightened and pretended to scratch his neck, the handcuffs made it difficult. "Nothing, I was talking to a friend and he got all up into my business, that's all."

"Then why did you say he got defensive? Were you talking about me?"

"No, never."

But Stephanie found it hard to believe him. "You were talking shit about me?"

"No! I was talking about you, yes. I was telling my friend I was here to look for you."

"Why?"

"Because I want you back. I miss you."

Stephanie let out a laugh. "How romantic telling me all this when you're obviously going to jail!"

"It was all a big misunderstanding, I'll be out in no time. Tell me you'll wait for me."

Stephanie laughed again and she didn't care if people turned to look at them. "No!"

"Come on, you're not still mad for that time, are you?"

Stephanie took a step forward angrily. "You raised you hand at me, Alex."

"I didn't hit you though! And I already apologized for that."

"Okay, and you almost killed Julio."

"Oh, I see what's going on. You are a thing, aren't you? Is that why he spoke so highly of you?"

"We are not a thing and if we were, it doesn't concern you."

"Wow," he replied defeated. "I see you are over me, that was fast."

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot."

Alex took a step angrily but backed down immediately as two cops appeared behind her. "Excuse us, Miss," they told her as they grabbed his arms, one by each side.

"I came here for you, Stephanie!" he screamed as he was taken away. "You won't find anyone else who would do this for you, no one!"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and walked decidedly to Julio's room, thinking she already found someone who would do more for her than he ever did.