I'm so glad everyone has enjoyed the story so far. Thank you for you comments!
I'm not sure how often I will be posting, especially since the story isn't done yet so I want to make sure I'm pacing the installments. But I'm too eager to share it... so here is the next part! lol!
Chapter 2
The next morning went by quickly, as Melanie was up bright and early and ushering Chad to get to work on packing his things. Lucky for him, she had to go to work, or he would have probably gone crazy. Chad was nervous, the sudden 180 that Melanie did the night before did not sit well with him. He knew her well enough that he was aware of how she sometimes made decisions to satisfy others; or because she thinks it is the thing to do at the time, only to realize she wasn’t really ready for it. It was just a couple weeks prior that she had flat turned down the offer to move in together and expressed that she was perfectly fine with the way things were and didn’t want to change a thing. Now all of a sudden she is getting worried that she is becoming too complacent and wants to change things, for really no good reason. He didn’t want to turn her down, because he doubted she would take no for an answer and all he needed to do was make her feel like he didn’t trust her judgment- that would be a big mistake.
Chad was sitting at a corner table in the coffee shop when he was jarred from his thoughts by someone calling his name. He looked up to see Maggie Kiriakis standing in front of him.
“Chad? Everything okay?” She smiled, concernedly.
He smiled and nodded, “Yeah, Mrs. K, I’m fine. How are you!?”
“I’m good, thank you. I didn’t mean to disturb you, I just saw you and wanted to say hello.”
“You’re not disturbing me at all,” He clears his lap top to the corner of the table, “Have a seat!”
She smiles, and sits across the table from him, “It’s none of my business, but you were a million miles away just then, you sure everything is okay?”
Narrowing his eyes, he looked to Maggie, “Have you talked to Melanie?” He inquired.
She raised her eyebrows, “Um, no, actually not. I dropped off some things to the house yesterday, but she wasn’t there.”
He smiles, “Yeah… she got the food and the note… and the cheesecake. Which was the best I’ve ever had, by the way.”
Maggie laughs, “Well, thanks. But why did you ask me if I had talked to her?”
He sighs, “She asked me to move in with her last night.”
Maggie was taken aback, “She did?!”
“Yeah… she started rambling on about how she was turning into a boring and complacent person and then she asked me… well…told me to move in with her.”
“That’s kind of unlike her. And boring and complacent? Where did she get that from?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I have noticed that she avoids change at all costs, lately… but I didn’t think it was anything serious."
“Bad change is one thing, but good is another. She’s just grown to like a simple life… Maybe I’m to blame for that.” She laughs.
Chad smiles, “I find nothing wrong with it… I just don’t want to move in with her if she isn’t ready. I want it to be because she is secure in her feelings and her decisions. I mean, every time the subject would come up, she would always say,
“I guess I don’t get why that is necessary, aren’t things just fine the way they are?” Now all of a sudden she wants to jump right in.”
Maggie smirks, “Because she’s becoming afraid of herself… and worried that she’s letting things pass her by because she’s scared to disrupt her life of balance.”
He chuckles, shaking his head, “You got it. The two of you must share the same brain.”
She laughs, “I take it that is exactly what she said?”
“Pretty much… and what she didn’t say, you just said for her”
“Do you think I should talk to her?”
He sighs, “It might help… I think she has a lot swimming around in her brain right now.”
“Well, I knew this was going to happen…. You’re the most serious she has been with someone since she was married to Philip, and even then she was conflicted for different reasons.” She reaches out and pats his hand before standing up, “I’ll go talk to her. I’m headed to the hospital for a meeting anyway. She won’t be upset that you told me about it, will she?”
Chad shrugs, “ I don’t think so… not like she keeps anything from you.”
Maggie smiles, “Okay, Chad,” She leans down and kisses his cheek, “See you later.”
“Bye,” He smiles as she leaves.
At the hospital, Melanie was in over-drive, bustling about the nurse’s station. Miranda approached, and stood back cautiously as she watched Melanie ripping through files and organizing pens by color.
Miranda cleared her throat, “Uh, Mel..?”
Melanie’s head shot up from the filing cabinet and she smiled, “Hey!”
“What are you doing?”
She shrugged, “Oh, nothing, I just have some down time and I decided I would get some stuff organized back here, it’s a mess!”
Miranda rolls her eyes, “Okay… what’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong, what are you talking about?”
She sighs, “You never go on an organizational rampage like this unless
something is bothering you and you don’t know how to deal with it.”
“Okay, I must have missed something… when did you become the resident psychologist?” Melanie scoffed and returned to the pile of files surrounding her, as she sat on the floor cross-legged.
Miranda rolled her eyes, “Okay, now I know something is bugging you…”
She turned and began her work on the computer as Melanie continued to leaf through the filing cabinet, making no comment. Miranda turned and leaned on the counter, sighing, “Melanie are you seriously not going to talk to me?”
She stopped what she was doing and sighed audibly, putting her head down, “I told you there is nothing to talk about, seriously.”
Miranda shook her head and focused back on the computer, when Maggie, smiling as always, approached the nurses’ station with a coffee in each hand.
Miranda smiled, “Hey, Maggie!”
Melanie paused for a moment, closing her eyes and taking a cleansing breath.
“Hi, Miranda, how are you?” Maggie spoke as she spotted Melanie in the corner, surrounded by files and papers.
“I’m good, how are you?”
Maggie looked puzzled at her, “Fine, thank you...” She looks to Melanie over the counter and clears her throat, “Honey?”
Melanie looks over her shoulder and smiles, “Hi.”
“I brought you some coffee.” Maggie smiles as Miranda looks to Melanie and then back to Maggie.
“I’m not sure she needs that today…” Miranda smiles.
Melanie bounces up from her floor post and over-joyfully skips into a hug with her grandmother.
Maggie laughs as she hugs her tightly, “My sweet girl!”
The break apart and Melanie hands her coffee to Miranda, “You’re right… here.”
Miranda smiles, “Thanks!” She walks over to the other side of the counter, among Melanie’s mess.
Mel smiles brightly at Maggie, “What are you doing here?”
“I had a meeting… But I missed my beautiful granddaughter and I was hoping we could visit for a little bit.”
She smiles, “Well you are in luck! I was just about to go on break!”
Miranda cleared her throat from the corner, hovering over Melanie’s mess.
“Oh, yeah,” she turns to Maggie, “I should probably finish cleaning that up first.”
Maggie chuckles, “Okay sweetheart. I’m gonna go say hi to your dad and I’ll meet you in the cafeteria, okay?”
“Perfect!”
Maggie turns to walk away, as does Melanie before stopping quickly, “Oh, grandma?”
Maggie turns abruptly, “Yeah?”
“Thanks…” Melanie smiles.
Maggie nods, with a small smile.
In the cafeteria, Melanie and Maggie are about half way through their lunch, Melanie is telling her about the plan for Chad to move in. Maggie is listening intently.
Melanie smiles, “I’m really excited… I think it will be great for both of us to start this new chapter to our relationship, you know?”
Maggie smiles, shrugging, “Sure… I suppose.”
Her smile fades and she sighs, looking down, “Listen, I know you are old fashioned and you don’t really agree with living with someone before you are married, but this is really the way everyone does things now, you know. And it’s probably better this way anyway, seeing as how I don’t really have the best history when it comes to marriage and all of that commitment. Maybe it will be better to start small this time. And Chad will be happy with this. He is over all of the time anyway, so what difference does having your own closet make? I think we-”
Maggie reaches out and takes Melanie’s hand, “Honey, slow down.”
“What?”
“You’re rambling, sweetie…”
She sighs, “Sorry…”
“You don’t need to be sorry. It’s just not giving me a very good feeling about this...”
Melanie’s defenses grow strong, “Why would you say that? I just told you that I was excited about it!”
“Yes, you did…”
Mel narrows her eyes, “You’re the one that didn’t act like you were too happy about it.”
Maggie is taken aback, “Hey, listen… Did you expect anything else from your “old fashioned” grandmother?”
She sighs and slumps in her chair, “You’re not old fashioned.”
“I’m not, huh?” Maggie raises an eyebrow.
Mel looks up, sheepishly, “Well, maybe a little… but you aren’t the only one.”
“Who were you defending yourself to, just then, huh? To me or to yourself?”
Melanie looks up at her with a concerned face, “Well, I am a lot like you, you know.”
Maggie chuckles, “Yes, you are. That’s exactly my point.”
She sits up straighter, “Sometimes you just have to step out of the box, though, grandma. I mean… get out there and take a risk. I’ve just created this plastic bubble of comfort and I need to branch out and stop being boring!” She sighs casting her eyes upward, she focuses on Maggie who is quietly and intently listening, “Say something, please.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“That I’m not crazy…”
She shakes her head, calmly, “Melanie, you are not crazy.”
“Why am I acting crazy, then!?”
Maggie smiles, sympathetically, “You aren’t really acting crazy, either, honey.”
“I feel crazy.” She sulks.
Maggie leans in closer, “Melanie, you do realize that you never have to do something that you aren’t ready for. No one judges you… you are only judging yourself.”
“That isn’t true… anyone can look at me and see this creature of habit… I hate it. I used to be so interesting.” She pouts.
“You used to be a very different person, yes. But you are no less interesting now than you were then. The only thing your life is missing right now is the drama… last time I checked, isn’t that a good thing? And let’s not forget- drama can always creep in right when you never want to see it again.”
She sighs, “I know…” She looks up at Maggie, “It’s not that I don’t want Chad to move in… it’s just that I’m afraid of it.”
“What are you afraid of, exactly?”
She shrugs, “Just that it’s going to change things…”
Maggie smiles, “Well, honey, it is going to change things.”
“I know that… but I just want things to change for the better, not worse.”
“That’s what the risk is… you can never really know which way it’s going to turn out.”
Melanie throws up her arms, “Right, this is why I avoid risks.” She slumps back into her chair.
Maggie smiles, “But honey, this isn’t a blind risk. This is something where you can use your prior knowledge and make a logical decision. Any decision in life may turn out to not be the right one, but as long as you make them using your best possible judgment, you have nothing to worry about.”
Melanie’s eyes fill with tears, “I was happy… until I got bored.”
“That’s what it is… you aren’t boring. You are bored. There is a big difference there.”
“Tell me how to fix this…”
Maggie tilts her head, “You are happy now, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you could be happier if Chad was to move in with you?” she asked gently.
Melanie shrugged, “But I won’t know if I don’t try, right?”
“Not necessarily…”
She sighed audibly, “I don’t know what to do!”
“I think you should just go with the flow… and really think about this before you get into a decision that you can’t take back.”
Her eyes widened, “I already can’t take it back!”
“Of course, you can. Chad isn’t totally convinced of your confidence yet, either…”
“I figured you talked to Chad...”
Maggie nodded, “Just for a second at the coffee shop.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that he wasn’t too sure that this is what you wanted and he was afraid to tell you because he didn’t want you to think he doubted your judgment.”
Melanie sighed, “I guess I better figure this out then…”
“He’ll understand, honey.” Maggie encourages.
“Hope so…” She sighs, her head resting in her hand.
The evening sunset shone through the window as Melanie was putting dishes away in the kitchen when Chad entered with a box in his hands. She turned and smiled to him as he set the box on the table.
“Hey…” She smiled.
He walked over and gave her a kiss, “Hi…”
“Um… you brought some stuff over?” She cautiously asked, glancing over at the box.
Chad smiled, “Well…”
“What?”
He walked over to the table and pulled out a bottle of wine and “The Notebook”
Melanie smiled, “That’s it?”
“I saw your grandma today…”
She smiled, “Yeah, I know, so did I. Let me guess, she knew something was wrong.”
He laughs, “Yes. And I’m thinking that you might have changed your mind about things after talking to her…”
“Please, don’t take it the wrong way…” She grew nervous.
He shook his head and set the stuff down before hugging her, “It’s fine, Melanie. Everything is great just the way it is and when you are happy to move forward with whatever it is that is next, then we will. Until then, I’m happy with wine and movie nights.”
Melanie smiled and kissed him, “I love you… thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me…” he smiled
“Yes, I do! You are sacrificing your happiness for me… and that certainly deserves a ‘thank you’.” She smiles.
“I am perfectly happy. I like how things are right now, too.” He smiles.
She nods, looking up at him, “I’ve spent so much of my life searching for happiness, you know?”
“Yeah,” He nods with a smile.
“I’m happy right now, and I’m just not ready to make a change yet. I just want to enjoy the way my life is. The way our life is, together. And never take it for granted, because you never know when something could happen and change everything.”
Chad kisses her, “I couldn’t agree with you more. How about we crack open that wine, huh?”
Melanie smiles and bounces over to the box, feeling like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders...
