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Week 31

“Yep, yep, no problem. Yeah, I know how much of an arse he has to be, you don’t need to apologise for him,” Gia said into her mobile, as she looked at the mail that had arrived, “Thanks anyway. Bye Kelly.”
She ended the call, and placed the phone on a kitchen counter, before continuing to sift through the mail. Mark came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the side of her head.
“Anything important?” he asked.
“No, just bills, and irrelevant pieces of council legislation,” she said, looking over her shoulder at him, “You go back to the lounge room. We’ll head out soon.”
Mark nodded and left the room. Gia then spied one letter that was particularly distinguishable. For one thing, it had a handwritten address on the front-so not a bill, but something specifically for her. She opened it eagerly, and a card came out. On the front was a crying bear, appearing to say the words “I’m Sorry.”
Gia picked it up and went to the lounge room.
“What?” Mark said as she entered with a smile.
“You are such a tease!” she said, “Asking if anything’s important. You could have just told me you were mailing me the letter. It’s sweet anyway.”
Mark was confused, “What letter?”
“The sorry letter. It’s okay, you know. I forgive you for getting all paranoid about Kelly and stuff. It’s Steve I blame, I keep telling you,” Gia said.
“Look, Gia, thanks for forgiving me, and I should have sent you a letter apologising formally but, I didn’t. That letter isn’t mine,” Mark explained.
Gia then decided to do what she had yet failed to do-open the card. Inside was a heart felt apology for being a bastard, signed by Steve.
“That total arsehole!” Gia shouted.
“Who?”
“Steve! It’s him who’s apologising,” Gia yelled, marching back into the kitchen.
“But…I thought you were blaming him-surely him apologising is a good thing,” Mark said, getting up to follow her, “I mean, just then you wanted me to apologise.”
Gia spun around to look at Mark, “If you apologised, it would be try to make up for a mistake-pure and simple. Steve’s trying to convince me to come back to the station by apologising.”
“But I thought you said you missed-“
“Where he can continue to abuse me and try to end our relationship. Really, try to keep up Mark,” Gia said, typing numbers into her phone and put it up to her ear, “Well, this will end now. I’m not coming back and he has to face it. No more letters, no more flowers.”
A voice came through on the other end of the phone, “Hello. This is Natasha.”
Gia was surprised to hear a female voice, “Uh, is Steve there?”
“Steve’s just popped out for a second. Can I get him to call you back?”
“No, just tell him…tell him…tell him to stop sending me flowers and shit. He’s an arsehole, and I want nothing more to do with him. Feel free to emphasise the arsehole. Got that written?”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, “I’m not a fucking secretary.”
“What?”
“Look, I’ve remembered most of your message, and believe me, I’ll take no small amount of joy in calling Steve an arse. That said, you want a perfectly dictated note, then send him an email for crying out loud.”
The call then ended. Gia put down the phone, and looked at Mark.
“Hopefully that’s the end of it.”
“Good. Can we go now?” Mark asked, “I know a great restaurant up in Gertrude. Serves a huge banquet and quite frankly I could use one now.”
“You’re strangely calm about this,” Gia said, leading Mark to the door, “Your girlfriend has another man giving her flowers and letters. Aren’t you a little bit angry, or something.”
Mark groaned, “Gia! Make up your mind. You’re angry at me when I think Kelly is trying to steal you away from me. Then you’re angry at me for not thinking Steve’s trying to steal you away. I’m trying to be what you want, but it’s not easy.”
“Hey! Calm down, Mark. I was just saying…usually it’s the other way around. A guy’s suspicious of the male friends of his girl, not female.”
“Well,” Mark said, voices raising as he got annoyed, “I’m not a usual guy. I thought it was obvious when we first met that that was the case. Perhaps you need to reconsider the relationships if you want a usual guy.”
There was a pause as both parties considered what they had just said. Gia opened her front door and walked out, followed quickly by Mark.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said. I just-I’m not that used to-“ Mark said, following her quickly.
“Let’s just go to the restaurant, okay? We’ll talk about this later,” Gia responded, a tear coming from one eye.
“I didn’t mean to make you-“
“Shut up, and keep walking, okay? You keep asking me what I want? What I want is for you to keep walking, okay? When we get to the restaurant we’ll think about what we both just said, all nice a public like.”
They both walked in silence for a time. Mark extended a hand, trying to hold Gia’s, but she moved hers away from him.
“It’s just our first fight, Gia,” Mark said, “All couples have them.”
“Not talking until restaurant. Then, if I break into tears, you’ll be the one embarrassed,” Gia said through gritted teeth.
“At least give me an idea of how I can help.”
“Start thinking how to distinguish you from Steve at the moment. Both are trying to be nice one minute, and being an arse the next,” Gia explained “Steve is just an arse to begin with, only pretending to be nice. I’m wondering whether you’re the other way around, or exactly like Steve. Neither is really good, is it? I mean, either you’re just playing mindgames with me, like Steve, or you’re pretending to be an arsehole to me for some reason. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I feel like I deserve better than both of those.”