Who to trust

Chapter 21 Advise

Mia woke up, eyes stinging. She searched for Alex but he wasn't in the room. She stood up and went for the bathroom.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, "I look like shit." She sighed before washing her face. She changed into comfortable clothes after. 

Just then the door opened revealing Alex holding a tray of food. "You're awake. I brought dinner." He walked to the bed, placing the food down.

"You didn't have to bring the food up here." Mia walked back to the bed, sitting in front of Alex, with the tray between them.

"I figured you still might not be feeling well so I just brought it up here." He explained.

Mia looked at the food and her eyes widened, "Why did you put so much food? This is basically for two people."

"I know."

"You knew? But you still put so much? I can't finish all these."

"Who says it's all for you? I haven't eaten either." 

Mia looked at him astounded but he ignored her. He placed the spoon in front of Mia's lips, "Open up," he said, trying to feed her.

Mia knew there's no arguing so she did what she's told. She chewed on her food as she watches him feed himself too. They ate in silence aside from a few "ahh" whenever Mia asked for food.

Alex fixed the utensils after they were done eating. He was about to stand up when Mia stopped him. "I'll bring those down. You go rest." Mia didn't wait for him to answer. She took the tray and went down to wash the dishes.

She sighed as she soaks the plates with soap. Her mind lingered to her talk with Maven earlier. She still doesn't know how to face the situation despite thinking hard about it.

She glumly walked back to their room. She saw Alex sitting on the bed drying his hair, he just got out of the shower.

She went to the bathroom to grab her toothbrush. She figured, now that they have nothing to do, she would have to explain why she suddenly cried earlier, but she didn't know how to explain. She slowly brushed her teeth to buy her some time. But the inevitable was bound to happen anyway.

She got out of the bathroom, sitting beside Alex who was laying on the bed watching tv.

She awkwardly sat there not knowing if she should start talking or wait until she's asked. She played with her ring, unsure of herself. The whole time Alex noticed her uneasiness, but he didn't want to force her to explain things. Instead, he held her hand to stop her from fidgeting. She looked at him, but his eyes were fixed on the tv. She scooted closer to him leaning on his arm.

She played with their hands instead, still uneasy. Alex couldn't stand it anymore, he turned off the tv. "You want to say something?" He asked, turning to Mia.

Mia thought of a lot of ways to start this conversation, but she didn't imagine that she'd start by saying, "I'm scared."

Upon hearing her confession, Alex shifted to face his body to her. "Why?"

Mia continued to play with their hands as she explained what happened earlier when she met Maven.

"Giving him another chance is like giving him the power to hurt us once more. I just don't want to go through the pain all over again."

"I understand where you're coming. Your trust issues are getting in the way, am I right?"

Mia nodded at Alex's question.

"I can't blame you for that. I'd feel skeptical too. But remember when I was in your apartment and had an argument?"

It wasn't hard to remember that time since Alex only went to her place once, and it wasn't a nice memory.

"No.." Mia lied although it was obvious she remembers, she just didn't want to go back to that day.

"Don't fool yourself, I know you remember." Alex laughed at her. 

"Why are you bringing that up now?"

"Because I want you to remember the time when I said that I couldn't be by your side because I had to wait for your memories to come back. When I told you that it would be unfair of me to just tell you who I was, I meant that I made a promise to your dad." Mia lifted her head in confusion.

"What promise?"

"When we learned you lost your memory, your dad asked me if he could take care of his daughter for a while. Just until you finally recovered because we all know that once you regain your memories you'd come back to me."

"Why does that sound so arrogant?" Mia couldn't help but comment.

"Maybe it is, but you did anyway, right?"

"How can you be so sure? What if I never wanted to do anything with you anymore? I almost hated you back then."

"I wasn't a hundred percent sure. But I know you'd see me sooner or later. That I was there for you. I didn't leave you. And your dad never left you either. Of course, he did commit mistakes before, but he wanted to make up for it. When he asked me if your family could bring you home for a while, how could I say no? He wanted to fix things. Although it didn't go the way he thought it would be, he still tried. I agreed to his set up of me not introducing myself to you to give way. Besides, he said he'd give you back until you've recovered."

"But you told me before that it was better if I didn't get my memories back, why did you tell me that?"

"That was something that just came out of my mouth unthought of. When I saw you getting those severe headaches whenever you get back a piece of your memory, it hurt me twice. I didn't want to see you go over it again. And I thought of all the bad memories that would hurt you more, that's why I said those things. But what I really wanted was for you to remember only the happy memories, and forget about the painful ones.

"I'm sure your dad felt the same way. Why don't you hold on to that more in considering whether you should give him a chance or not." Alex advised.

Mia smiled at him, placing a light kiss on his lips then resting her head on his chest. "Thank you," she whispered.

Alex kissed her forehead before they drifted off to sleep.