The clean-up

Having won his argument, Steve and Maria were looking at what it would cost for Steve to have private care. Maria's eyes grew wide at the amounts she was seeing and she regretted not agreeing to get paid her regular monthly wage. She was feeling bad at the amount Steve would have to spend now, but she calmed herself down by reminding herself that her care would come out of a place of love. That kind of care can't be bought with money. She would do her absolute best to give Steve the best care possible. What she didn't know, she would learn. Over the years she had made plenty of connections and one of those happened to be a nurse. She would probably be able to guide her through the next couple of weeks or until things became routine.

While Steve and Maria's matters were being on track, the two other couples were still finding a way. Laila and Noah had by now arrived home and Noah still didn't seem very willing to talk about what had happened, or about what might have been discussed, between him and Maria in the kitchen. Laila didn't want to push him either since there was a lot on his mind already with everything regarding Harold and his goons. She had already added the friendship with Jake to his load and then there is the concern about his best friend. So, right now, she didn't want to push Noah when there was no need to. Whatever happened and whatever they talked about, she knew Maria well enough to know that it would never be something bad. If she said something to someone, it would always be out of a place of love and concern for those she cared about. Since she cared about Noah in her own way as well, she couldn't imagine that Maria would have said anything to hurt him. At least not intentionally. So, all she could do for now was to wait for Noah to bring it up himself. Once he was ready to open up about the matter, he would tell her. But that didn't mean she couldn't try and get him there a bit faster.

The way she could bring up the topic to Noah without actually pushing him to talk about something he might not want to talk about, is by starting á conversation. Any conversation. Then she could lead the topic to Maria and see where things go from there. Since she planned on telling Noah what she had told Steve anyways, she might as well use that conversation to see if Noah was ready to talk about his conversation or if that would have to wait for another day.

As they were lying in bed, each with their own book, Laila glanced over at Noah before she brought up her talk with Steve. "I wonder if Steve managed to find a way to help Maria without admitting that he knew she lost her job." Noah turned his face around and said, "Maria lost her job? When?" With this Laila seemed to have caught Noah's attention and she went on to carry out her plan. She nodded and said, "Yes. When we were preparing dinner in the kitchen, I asked her how she was able to get time off from her job to take care of Steve, as she had told me she had used up all of her days to come and visit me. That is when she told me that she had been forced to quit her job since they wouldn't let her take any more time off. They had told her that she could either come in on Monday or not bother to come in at all."

Noah turned away and as he returned his focus to his book, he said, "What a scummy thing to do as an employer. As if people will request time off for no reason. How is firing her, going to create a better situation for them. Now they will be without someone to fill in the shifts, just like they would be, had they honoured her request for time off, but on top of that they will have to invest time to find someone else. Invest time to teach that person and let them get accustomed to the work and if they are out of luck, that person will leave after a short amount of time as well or be flaky since they don't need that job like Maria does. If you have a reliable, hardworking employee, you should treasure them as an employer. They will learn the value of what they have lost once they see how hard it is to find a person like her."

Laila smiled from seeing Noah talk so highly about Maria. It was moments like this where she knew just how much Noah cared about her friend and it made her happy. Laila nodded and said, "Yeah, I agree. But until they can realize what they have lost, she is without an income. You know just as well as I do, that she cannot afford to be without an income. So, I decided to tell Steve what had happened and let him deal with the situation as that seemed like the right call."

Noah agreed and said, "Yeah, I think so too. He caused the mess, he should deal with the clean-up as well. He has plenty to spare anyways. Helping her not fall back financially, will not be felt by him in any way. Plus, since he claimed he wanted to marry her, he might as well start putting his money where his mouth is and show how he would deal with such a situation if they were to reach that stage." Laila chuckled. Despite Noah saying it so crudely, Laila knew what he meant.