Escape
“Admiring you from a distance
Scared to go and make a move
Didn't wanna be distracting
You be all up in your groove”
It’s been two weeks. Two very strange weeks. Rio asked to be paired with another doctor, that was Dr. Sam Wilson, he would be in the clinic for the nighttime patients, so Rio lied saying she could only attend the physical therapy at night from now on, trying not to get anyone suspicious about Agatha and her.
Agatha made a promise to herself not to enter the hospital so much, bringing lunch and snacks everyday, afraid she would bump into Rio whenever she had an appointment with Torres. William would sometimes comment about her, saying he misses her and that he saw her upstairs, and most recently that she had invited him to the game that week’s weekend. All Agatha could do was give him a failed smile. It hurt not to know if she was okay, if she was recovering, if she was hurting because of Agatha or if she got over it. It also hurt because she was a coward and couldn’t face the simple truth.
It was now friday, she knew Rio would come by the clinic around 7PM, it was currently 5:30PM, so she made sure to update all the charts and leave as soon as she could, and just as she was leaving, Sam arrived.
“Hey, Dr. Harkness, how’s it going?” They shared a brief hug, they are acquaintances, it’s only normal.
“I’m fine, how are you?”
“Can’t complain” He made his way to the snacks table they had at the clinic for patients to make some tea “didn’t think I would see you here at this hour on friday”
“Yeah, well, I had to update the charts for next week’s patients…” If she needed an update on her former patient, to seem casual, this is the right time “So, um, Rio Vidal… Is she getting better?” Alright, this was good, pretty normal.
“Um, yes! Tonight is her last session, actually”
Oh, she was finishing this journey without Agatha.
“Your work with her prior to mine was impeccable, when we started she was already aware of everything she needed to do in order to be on her feet properly, so zero complaints and just dedication, thank you!”
Agatha chuckles “It’s nothing. Just doing my job.”
“Mommy!” Nicholas was waiting for Agatha in the hospital’s daycare, so William went to pick him up.
“Your child is safe and sound, can you give me a ride now?” William tiredly asked while Nicky hugged his mom and she was kissing his little face so hard he was giggling
“Oh my baby, are you good? Was William nice to you?”
“Yeah!”
“Please, what could I have done to him in the whole five minutes it took me to pick him up?”
“Hey, you are getting too comfortable, watch the way you speak to me!” She pointed at him serious and then smiled “Now come on, kid”
“I’m not a kid, god!”
“alright, teen”
✨✨✨
When at home, Agatha sends Nicky to shower and put on his jammies. From downstairs she asks loudly “Nicky, how does pizza sound for dinner?”
“AWESOME!” She yells back, making her laugh a tiny bit to herself.
Few moments later they are sitting on the floor, eating pizza and watching The Jetsons. Agatha made Nicky love the cartoon.
“Mommy, did you fix your patient?”
“What patient?”
“The one that came here for help”
“Oh” Agatha did not see her son remembering that episode
“Did you?”
“She didn’t need me anymore, Nicky”
“How come? I thought you fixed people”
“I help them, yes.” This was torture “Now, finish your slice, it’s still early we can go for a walk, what do you think?”
“But I’m in my jammies”
“It’s okay, we can go outside wearing our matchy robes”
Agatha got them a pair of purple robes because she mainly thought it was cute.
Minutes later they walk on the sidewalk, hand in hand, talking about the stars and the moon.
“That one looks like a dinosaur” He said point at the sky, making Agatha look up as well.
“It does! And look, there’s a banana!”
Nicky laughs and corrects his mother “that can’t be a banana, mommy, don’t make any sense”
“Sure, cause there’s only dinosaurs in the sky”
“Yeah!”
They spend some time like this, together, looking at the sky and laughing. When they were making their way back, they saw Wanda walking towards them.
“Hey you two! What are you doing here?”
“We were looking at the dinosaur stars” Nicky told her with a sleepy voice and yawning right after.
“Yeah, and now we’re going home to sleep” Agatha had her body turned to Nicky and now was moving to face Wanda “Would you come have a glass of wine with me?”
“Yeah, let me text Vision that I will be late”
They walked together, in silence. As Agatha was putting Nicky to sleep, Wanda grabbed the wine and glasses and made her way to the couch. Agatha joined her shortly.
“How you doing?” Wanda asked while handing her the glass of red wine.
“I’ve been better” She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in
“Are you finally ready to talk about what happened? It’s been two weeks, it’s not healthy to keep so much to yourself”
“I know… it’s not easy for me to just… talk”
“Okay, I’ll ask questions and we go from there” Agatha nods. “Why is Rio not your patient anymore?”
“She broke things off with me”
“What? Why?”
“She heard me talking to Anne and stormed off, I went to her house, I reminded her we were not in a relationship but she ended everything”
“What did she hear exactly?” Wanda thinks of a scene and with wide eyes she asks “Did Anne make a move? She was flirting?”
“No! God, I wish that was it”
“Why? Are you into Anne now? Have you talked to her after that day?”
“Slow down, woman. Oh my god”
“I’m sorry, you’ve been distant, I need updates”
“I’m sorry for that” She takes a deep breath in “So to answer in order… I said a very hurtful thing about Rio and I to Anne, Rio heard it. No, I’m not into Anne but it is confusing to see her now as an adult and yes she texted me a couple of times and greeted us at the clinic, but that was all”
“What did you say?”
“I said we were nothing”
“Agatha…” Wanda had that disappointed but also warning tone to her voice
“I know, I know. It was really fucking wrong”
“Yeah. So why did you say that?”
“I panicked because of so many things… it was so strange to talk to her, and now she was in Lilia’s place, I couldn’t just say I was dating Rio when she was my patient and I couldn’t say it because we weren’t dating and I just phrased wrong, I-” tears came rolling down her face, she couldn’t hold that lump in her throat any longer, she moved closer to Wanda, resting her head on her shoulder”
“Oh, Agatha…” She embraced her friend, hand making small circles on her back, trying to get her to calm down “I got you, let it out” Wanda felt a bit out of place, it’s been so long since Agatha let out her feelings, crying.
After a few minutes of sobbing, she grabbed Agatha’s face with her hands, making her look up and face her.
“You can’t keep your feelings in just because you think it’s the best for everyone. It’s not the best for you and you need to let yourself feel and enjoy. Even if it 's sad, okay?” Agatha nodded, sniffing.
“Can I ask you one more thing?” Agatha nodded again “Do you like Rio?”
“Does it matter now?”
“It will always matter if you decide to keep it in and let her go without a fight”
“What, you want me to make her take me back?”
“How is she going to take you back if you were never hers in the first place?” Wanda arched her eyebrows, questioning Agatha and letting go of her face “Weren’t you casual?”
“Okay, ouch?”
“Weather you like it or not, you hurt her”
“I know.”
Agatha’s phone vibrates with two different notifications. One from Anne saying “You free tomorrow night?” and the other one was a post from google reminding people of the Basketball game tomorrow, it was the semi-finals and Rio’s team was still fighting for the finals.
“Are you going to answer her?”
Agatha types on her phone and hits send. She then shows her phone screen to Wanda and she reads the reply that said “I’m not, sorry.” Wanda simply smiles.
After a while Wanda left and Agatha made her way to bed. She was sleepy because of the wine but it didn’t stop her from typing Rio’s name on the message app and realizing she was blocked. Okay, maybe she deserved that.
Maybe it was for the best. Rio didn’t deserve to be hurt by someone who never learned how to properly love a significant other. She deserves someone a hundred per cent in and not a broken soul.
✨✨
Morning came, and she was woken up by a kid singing about his love for pancakes and that was a hint she was making pancakes that morning.
Later, the afternoon hot wave hit, she was sitting on the couch going through Instagram while Nicky was taking his nap. As she was sliding through people’s stories, she saw William’s. She followed him back after many whines of “please, follow me back”. He had three stories up. One was of him and his date sitting on the bench, second one was the view of the courtside ticket he got from Rio and third was… Rio. Rio, William, the boy and another woman. One Agatha had never seen before. Rio had her arm around her, but it didn’t seem romantic. At least that was what Agatha wanted to believe. Her eyes were now focused on Vidal’s outfit. Oh, for god's sake. She had a white crop top, jeans, blue button up was open and an orange cap backwards. This was torture. In one motion she put down the phone and decided to occupy her mind with reading.
Hours later, google gifted her with gossip news. God, it’s about time she turns off the notifications from google.
The headline was “Rio Vidal’s new fling”. She couldn’t help but scroll down and read it.
- “Rio Vidal takes a date to watch the game and it seems like it was a good lucky charm because her team won!”
It wasn’t even good writing. She thought. Well, maybe she deserves this. She had to be hurt back.
What Agatha did next did not make her future self very proud. She will be cussing herself out, I promise.
Message app was open, Anne’s name was typed, message was sent.
Me
Hi! Turns out I’m free tonight!