Confrontation

She slapped him in the face with all her might. Her body shuddered with anger, her soaking blond hair spraying water and lashing across her face. He lifted his hand to his cheek, looked at her. The humidifier buzzed through the room.

`Miranda,' he choked, `I'm sorry.'

`No. Don't be sorry, Sam. Don't be sorry.' She fell to her knees and cried soundlessly.

`I wanted to tell you. We weren't meant for each other, you know as much as I, but this wasn't how it was supposed to happen.'

She sucked in a deep sighing breath. `I wish you had told me, Sam.'

`I know. I know. But Julie was so close to you. I knew you'd be devastated. And though things have been bad for a while now, I-I loved you, Miranda.' He turned and tugged at his hair, a nervous habit since she'd met him. `I knew how much you loved her. You always told me that you could cope with losing me someday, even if it took the rest of your life, but you could never survive without Julie.' Sam turned towards her, his eyes red.

`And she-she left you ? For good ?' It was hard not to gloat, to keep her voice even, to keep the poisonous laughter in her throat from sneaking out.

`Yesterday. She broke it off. She said there was someone else..'

`I'm so sorry, Sam.'

`I deserve it. For what I did to you.' Sam shook his head dejectedly and looked up at his reflection in the steel tiles. `What goes around comes around, huh ? As Julie used to say, karma.' He snickered.

`I wish you had told me, Sam.' She came forward and took his big hands in hers. `I'm the someone else.'