I quit

With that final message about Dominic, Noah helped Laila off the couch and they both headed towards the door as they waved Maria and Steve goodbye. Maria had wanted to get up and see them out, but Laila assured her that she didn't need to do that as they knew their way and she should instead get started on unpacking. After that they walked away so fast, that Maria had no room to protest any further and it had become just her and Steve again.

Maria let out a sigh before she said with an added chuckle, "They sure are an odd pair but somehow they make it work for them." Steve laughed along for a second or two before he said, "Hey Maria, I have been meaning to ask you ever since you agreed to stay here and nurse me back to health, but did you manage to get approval from your job?"

Maria was startled by this question and froze on the spot as her shoulders jumped up ever so slightly. She tried to dismiss Steve's question with a fake laugh and a quick, "Don't worry about that. I took care of it. Just focus on getting better." But since Steve already knew that Maria was keeping something from him regarding her job, he didn't give up his questioning so easily. Instead, he asked, "I see. Wow they sure must be generous employers to give you so much time off on such short notice. What did they say to you when you told them you wouldn't be coming in for the next two to three weeks?"

Maria clenched the thin blanket she was holding, which she had grabbed to cover herself with as she sat next to Steve for a bit, before getting up to unpack. Her brain was in overdrive as she was thinking of what to say that would cause the least amount of suspicion but would make Steve drop the subject. At the same time, she was becoming a bit paranoid. Wondering if Steve didn't already know the truth but was just trying to make her spill the beans herself as well. That he was just testing her to see if she would tell him the truth or not. Not knowing that the truth was somewhere in the middle. But the longer she waited with answering, the more suspicious she appeared.

With a nervous laughter she said, "Well what can I say. They weren't too happy, but they understood I suppose. I already agreed to become your nurse, so there wasn't much they could do about it at this point." With a sceptical tone Steve replied, "I see. That must have been a tough phone call to make. They are commendable employers to understand and accept your situation so easily. I can't imagine that a company can just miss one of their employees for three additional weeks without any advance notice. If they can do without that employee for five weeks, why keep that person on at all? If it were me, I would have demanded them to get back to work on the day they had promised or otherwise they didn't need to show up at all. It hardly seems fair to expect others to give proper notice and settle for a single call from you."

This seemed to have triggered Maria and just as Steve had anticipated and hoped, Maria turned around in huff and with reddened eyes as she told him, "You would seriously fire someone over that?! That is despicable! Anyone can have an emergency. Are they nothing more than dispensable puppets to you?! Replaceable the moment they become the slightest bit inconvenient?? All you employers are the same!" The moment she let out that last sentence she knew she had slipped up. She quickly covered her mouth and stopped talking, but Steve had heard it loud and clear, so the cat was already out of the bag.

With narrowed eyes he asked Maria, "What do you mean by 'all you employers'? Isn't your employer a wonderfully understanding person? After all, you just told me that with just one phone call they accepted that they couldn't do much about it at this point. So, there seems no reason to me for you to have such a strong reaction to my words. Unless your job didn't take your request too well either and you have something to tell me. Hmm?"

With a guilty look on her face, and clenching the thin blanket even tighter, Maria said in a soft voice, "I quit." Steve furrowed his brow a bit further and continued to stare at Maria. He already had a feeling she had been fired or had quit because of him, but to hear it confirmed like that and seeing Maria looking so small, did make him feel a kind of sharp pain in his heart. He didn't like the idea that Maria was being made to feel bad or was being punished in any way because of him. To be responsible for that kind of expression on Maria's face, that had been the last thing he had ever wanted to do. He had promised Noah and Laila that he would keep her happy, but he had failed to do so and this quickly after he had made his promise.