Defy Desire

Chapter 14 - Maia

So far, so good. There'd been no sight of Dr. Finch yet. It was now 11am and we were down in Paediatrics, dealing with a distal radius fracture of a young boy. One of the practitioners, Joanna, was scrubbed in, leaving Rachel and I circulating. She didn't question me about being off sick and we had ended up in conversation about her ex-boyfriend trying to get back together with her. I could tell she wanted to but didn't want to look a fool, after all, he had cheated on her. The conversation led to Harrison being brought up and I told Rachel the story of how things turned sour.

'Do you still have feelings for him?' she asked me.

'Definitely not!' I laughed. 'He's a different man now. Has been for a long time and I knew it was coming long before it ended.'

'Yeah, they make you crazy don't they,' she chuckled, her eyes looking straight through me as I could tell she was thinking of her ex. As she said it, Ava entered the O.R and smiled as she approached us.

'Not a lot of work going on in here, ladies,' she joked.

'What do you want?' Rachel asked, in a teasing tone.

'Just here to steal some gauze!' she chuckled, turning to the cabinets behind us.

'Anyway, we were saying?' Rachel turned back to me.

'How guys make us crazy,' I laughed. 'Harrison used to annoy the shit out of me because he always used to find it funny to wind me up by messing with me. Back before he changed into a boring old git who only ever broke a laugh at my Dad's shitty jokes.'

'What did he used to do?' she asked.

'Well,' I started, smiling at the memories flooding back. 'I'm kind of OCD. Not like in a clean, germaphobe way but I have my way that I like my things and he used to mess around with them to annoy me. Like my books, my CDs, DVDs all things like that always need to be in alphabetical order, even my products in the bathroom cabinet are all alphabetical and lined up perfectly. My wardrobe has to be colour coordinated and in its different sections for each type of clothing and even my underwear draw is organised into different styles of knickers then each group organised by colour.'

She stared at me in disbelief. 'Okay, Monica Gellar!'

'Maia, you're hella weird,' Ava laughed, as she walked past us and gave a little wave. 'Back to work I go!'

'See you,' Rachel said to her, turning back to me. 'Back to you being hella weird...'

'I know I am; it drives my best friend Lola crazy because I'm always rearranging her room,' I chuckled. 'It's a compulsion I can't help it. I can deal with mess and trust me, if I'm going on a night out, my room is a pig sty by the time I'm leaving the house, but when it comes to how I like my things organised, that's the way I am. Harrison used to mix the colours up in my wardrobe, or I'd go to get ready for bed in the bathroom and find everything in my cabinet all mixed up. It used to make me laugh, I never got mad and we used to end up in a fun fight over it. I missed that fun boy when he changed.'

'I know what you mean,' she sighed. 'When you know someone so well, you see the gradual change in them. Little things that no one would notice, you notice the most. Adam would always kiss my forehead on a morning before leaving for work. I always pretended to be sleeping and he never realised I knew he did this, but I did. So, when he stopped doing it, I knew something wasn't right. Then the next morning, and the one after and every day after, he never did it again. From there he only changed more and more until I got the balls to go through his phone and found out. When a person changes, it changes how you see them in your mind, you can't reverse it. You grieve for someone who isn't dead and wish you could make that person come back to you, but they never will. Even if they try, even if they promise they will, you'll know it'll never be the same person.'