April's Heart

Miss Bailey

Jae emerged from the kitchen with two plates, placing one in front of April and one at his place at the table.

"Hold on," April said, staring at the plate as Jae stood next to her, smiling, waiting for her to realize what was in front of her. "Is that...?"

"Tofu? Yes. With mushrooms, spinach and soy sausage."

"Are...how did you...?"

"April, you don't have to know someone to know them. Please, enjoy your breakfast."

Jae sat down, smirking, pretending he didn't notice April staring at him. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, waiting for an explanation.

Finally, he looked up.

"Are you afraid I've been stalking you?"

"It crossed my mind."

"I promise, it's nothing so nefarious. I have to admit, though, I never thought I'd tell you this but I suppose now it's unavoidable."

"Tell me what, Jae?"

"It's about Miss Bailey."

Just the mention of her name brought tears to April's eyes. Miss Bailey had been April's downstairs neighbor. They had grown very close over the years. April told Miss Bailey everything. She spent more nights than she could remember sitting with the old woman, drinking tea and commiserating. Her stories were amazing and April couldn't get enough of them. Just after Kenny left Miss Bailey broke the news to April that she would be moving to a nursing home. She was too old to care for herself alone in her apartment. April offered to help or to hire a nurse, anything to keep her there. She didn't know how she could lose Kenny and Miss Bailey within weeks of each other. But she refused. Her son had picked out a place where she would be tended to properly. April promised to visit as often as she could but only a week after she left, April received the call that she dreaded. Miss Bailey had passed away. She never had the chance to see her again after she left. April was so grief stricken, so filled with remorse that Kenny's leaving hardly compared.

"I know she was your friend," Jae said, "she was my friend, too. She reminded me of my mother. She had me over for dinner at least once a week. She talked about you a lot and worried after your boyfriend left."

"She told you about that?"

"Yes. She was concerned that you wouldn't recover. That you'd wallow in your misery forever."

It was so like Miss Bailey to worry so much about April, especially since she never cared for Kenny. Many of her stories had suspiciously Kenny-like characters who had broken her heart and left her abandoned and alone. She called them cautionary tales. April knew most of the stories weren't true and had been based on well known movies of Miss Bailey's time, but still she listened. If only April had headed the advice rather than humor the old woman and ignore her warnings, she could have saved herself a lot of heartache.

"What else did she say about me?"

April feared that Jae knew some of the horribly embarrassing details of her life she had shared during their many long evenings of conversation. Miss Bailey knew about her prom dress debacle, the many perm nightmares, the night she lost her virginity! Surely she wouldn't divulge those kinds of secrets to a man April didn't even know.

"Just that you were the most kind, honest, loving person she knew and that you deserved to be happy."

"Oh, well she had a tendency to exaggerate," April said, blushing.

"That she did, but not about you."

"Jae, I'm nothing special."

"No? Tell me, April. When you looked at my painting, what did you see?"

Just thinking of the painting made April's heart race. She had seen painters paint, the passion it takes to create that kind of art is exhausting. She knew Jae's heart was on that canvass, that what she saw, the agonizing despair, was only a fraction of the sorrow within him.

"I saw sadness. Despair. Misery."

Jae smiled as if her answer validated a belief he had about her.

"Miss Bailey knew you would. That's why she asked me to care for you after she was gone. She knew that..."

"She did what?" April asked incredulously. Quickly anger and embarrassment boiled in her veins "Jae, I don't need a babysitter. So if that's all this is..."

She lowered her head, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She should be angry at both Jae and Miss Bailey but somehow, though he had caused the pain, she yearned for him to comfort her.

Jae left his seat and kneeled in front of her, his hands on her lap. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. Their relationship wasn't at all what she thought it was. Their chance encounters now seemed more contrived, their natural chemistry forced by the hand of a dead woman. However, none of those facts changed how she felt about him. She still longed to be with him, to make him smile. To help him forget the pain that plagued him.

"I'm sorry that I misrepresented myself when we first met," Jae said. "After the first night, I didn't plan to see you again. I didn't intend to go through with Miss Bailey's request. I did, however, want to meet you. I wanted to see for myself if the connection she imagined we would have could be real, the connection I had begun to feel as well for someone I'd never really met but somehow I knew."

"And?"

"Honestly, I've never felt this way. I'm not the type of man to aggressively pursue a woman, and I'm sorry if I came on too strong, but there's something different about you. It's like I can't stay away. I feel foolish but I can't help it. When Miss Bailey first told me about you I had no idea who you were. Now, April, it's like you're all I see."