SHOCKING REVELATION

     Ethan was lying on a couch in the living room waiting up for Faith when she returned. He sat up when she entered. 

      "Hey, you're back." He looked at her face and was shocked by the sight. 

     Her face was so pale, her eyes puffy and her mascara had washed down from her eyes and smeared all around her eyes, giving her a horrid look. She looked like a ghost, her purse and her shoes held in one hand. Ethan stood up immediately and went over to her. 

      "What's wrong?" he asked with concern. 

       "Leave me alone," she drawled.

       "What happened on the date?" He tried to reach for her face but she slapped his hand away. "Faith, I'm just trying to help." 

     She looked at him. "I don't need your help!" she snapped and dragged herself towards the kitchen. 

Ethan followed her slowly. She went into the kitchen, went straight to her fridge and took out a bottle of aquavit. Ethan watched her as she grabbed a tumbler and sat on the table. She opened the drink and poured it into the tumbler. He watched as she poured it into her mouth. She started pouring again into the glass.

     "You know you don't have to stand there and watch me drink myself to a stupor. You should go and sleep, do not worry about me." 

      "Actually," Ethan said stepping closer. "I have been a little sombre today, why don't we have this drink together?" 

      She stared at him for a while and gulped down the second glass. "If we are having this drink, there should be rules." 

      Ethan nodded before speaking. "Sure." 

      "First, we shouldn't ask each other about our problems, like what's making us sad. Second, no touching." 

      Ethan nodded. "Third, make the rules and break them," he muttered. 

       "Did you say something?" Faith asked. 

      "No, I didn't. I was just going to get a tumbler for myself." He stood, went to his cabinet and took out a tumbler. 

     Faith poured him some drink and they clinked their glass, while Faith gulped hers down, Ethan sipped his. One of them needs to be sober enough to control the other. After two more shots for Faith, she fixed her gaze on a particular spot in the kitchen, her glass held, suspended a few inches away from her mouth. 

     "Do I have a problem?" she asked. 

     "No," Ethan replied looking at her. 

      "I think I do. I think Adriana was right." 

      "Who is Adriana?" 

  She turned and looked at him. "I said no personal questions." 

    Ethan raised his hands in surrender. "My bad." 

     "She is a psychiatrist," Faith said almost in a whisper, still looking at him. "My doctor sent me to her." 

       "You have been seeing a doctor?" When she just stared at him. He lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry, no personal questions." 

      "Yes." 

     He looked up at her again. "Yes, what?" 

      "I have been seeing a doctor. I have an ulcer and it's heading to a dangerous stage. My doctor said it could bleed and I could bleed to death." Ethan just gawked at her. She wiped her tears and only smeared the mascara more on her face. "She believes it's stress or something and she sent me to a psychiatrist, who is convinced that I have a mental problem." 

      Ethan couldn't digest it all at once. He shook his head. "No, no, no, no." 

       "No, what?!" Faith asked. 

       "It's not something terminal, is it?" 

     "Not until it bleeds." 

      "Jesus Christ, Faith." Ethan's voice came out in a hoarse whisper. 

      "I have to pass through all of these and I still have to pass through so much pain in my life. Everyone thinks I'm at fault and I keep losing people in my life every day!" she cried. "I am cursed!" She was weeping again. 

    Ethan shifted his seat closer to her and drew her into his arms. "No, Faith, you are not cursed," he said in a breaking voice. "You are not cursed," he repeated and sniffed. 

      "Nora hates that Noah is coming back and Noah feels it's my fault that Nora is like that. The double date was a complete ruin." 

     In a normal situation, Ethan would have been glad that the double date was a disaster and he would have loved Nora forever, but the shocking revelation Faith made about her state of health disconcerted him and he thought of nothing else but Charlotte on that dying bed. He imagined Faith in that state, dying and he wouldn't be able to save her. 

      At that moment, he felt like the cursed one. He was never going to find a woman to love. He was never going to find that love his mother and father had. He hugged her tight and sobbed. Why do they all have to die? The women he has affection for? Faith gently pulled away and stared at him. 

       "Ethan, are you crying?" She stroked his cheek with her thumb. 

    Ethan shook his head and shut his eyes to prevent more tears from falling. "No, no...I'm just..." his voice was so cracked that he could barely utter a word. 

     "Come here," Faith said and hugged him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," she mumbled on his shoulder. 

      They hugged each other and stayed like that for a while. Ethan didn't want to let go because he was scared that she might just drop dead if he let's go. 

      When she had slept off, he carried her to her room and laid her on the bed. He removed her coat and didn't go further when she stirred and mumbled some incoherent words in sleep. He couldn't sleep, all ounce of sleep flew away from him. He brought a chair, sat beside her bed and held her hand with his. The bottle of aquavit, he placed by the nightstand and drank from it occasionally, while watching her sleep. He made sure her chest was rising and falling at every second. But by the early hours of the morning, he slept off. 

       Faith woke up and stretched herself in bed. When she woke up, she saw Ethan's head placed on her bed, her eyes flared and she checked beneath her blanket, her clothes were still intact and she heaved a sigh of relief. Then the events of the previous night started coming back to her. She shouldn't be on foul terms with everyone, she should go apologize to Noah, but before then, she had to see Charlie to help talk to her brother. He should at least tell her what she did wrong. 

    She looked at Ethan again and tilted her head thoughtfully, then squinted her eyes. She remembered what transpired between them last night. She was drunk, but not drunk enough not to remember that she had rattled her secrets to him, after telling him that they shouldn't ask personal questions. Was she not hilarious? Then she was confused again by his reactions. He had cried with her! Why? She threw the blanket aside and climbed down the bed, careful enough not to wake him. 

      She put a foot on the cold floor and searched around for her flip flops, when she couldn't find them, she stepped down and went into the bathroom. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she screamed at the sight she saw in the mirror. 

     Ethan shot up from the bed and ran into the bathroom. Faith was staring at herself in the mirror with horror. Ethan stared at her and heaved with relief when he found that she was okay and was only screaming about her face. 

        "Jesus! Faith, you scared the hell out of me!" 

         She turned quickly and looked at Ethan and crossed her arms on her chest. "What are you doing here?" 

     "You were screaming, Faith." 

    A knock came at the room door and Dolores' voice rang out. "Is everything alright?!" 

      Ethan shrugged. "You see?" 

       After a few hours, Faith was in the hospital canteen, she had called Charlie on phone and told him she was coming. She wanted to meet him at the canteen and didn't want to see Nora. She needed to face one problem first. Charlie had not sounded too lively on the phone and she was scared. Was he blaming her too? But at least he agreed to meet her. 

    She sat there longer than expected waiting for Charlie. Charlie came hurriedly, peeling off his gloves as he came. He wasn't looking bright either. 

      "Hey, sorry I was delayed by surgery." 

       "It's fine. I know these are working hours," Faith said with a smile and noticed that Charlie was avoiding her gaze. "Are you alright?" 

       He looked at her. "Yeah, why?" 

       "Because...it seems you are avoiding me." 

     Charlie looked away for a while without saying anything. Faith's heart started thumping and her breath started coming out in huge gasps.

       Charlie looked up at her again. "He is making me choose." 

        "What?" 

       "He is making me choose between you and him." His voice was lower and his beautiful brown eyes were begging her to understand. 

      She leaned back on the chair, tears have welled up in her eyes and she stared at him dumbfounded.