lover/fighter - Finnick Odair

Chapter 7 - After the storm

For the first time in a long time, Rhea is in bed until noon. It's Sunday, and her practice is closed as usual. At least the one in the city center. Her second temporary practice, which she has set up for her other patients, has no set hours. Normally she would have been there this morning, especially since she just hadn't found the time in the last two days. Without question, she had a lot of catching up to do, but at lunchtime her presence there would be useless anyway. Most of the people who came to see her in her second office spent most of the day working themselves. Therefore, most people came either early in the morning or in the evening, never over noon, because at that time they had to earn their money.

So when Rhea rolls out of bed at just after 12 o'clock, she decides to use the day to get her thoughts in order and regain her usual rhythm. The last 48 hours had really drained her.

Normally, she used the time at noon on Sunday for all the things she didn't find time for during the week because of her double life. Errands, cleaning, household chores, everything that comes up in a household. Mirella scolds her every time, telling her that at her age she should rather go out on a Sunday. She assured her more than once that it was not necessary for her to take care of such trivialities on the only day off in her week, the chores that Mirella took care of during the week.

One could say that Mirella Castillo is like Rhea's woman for everything. While Rhea struggles with her work, Mirella takes care of her apartment, runs errands for her, makes sure the refrigerator is always full, and most importantly, helps her organize things in her second practice. More often than Rhea would like, Mirella even cooks for her and leaves her homemade meals in the kitchen for her before she leaves. Rhea tells her every time not to go to such trouble, but secretly it always warms her heart when she comes home to find a plate covered in foil with a lovingly written note. And Mirella is a fabulous cook.

Rhea has been able to admire her cooking since she was a child. Back when she herself had lived on the outskirts of the Capitol in her small one-room apartment, Mirella and her family had lived in the apartment right next door. When she moved in there at 14, after her mother died, Mirella had taken her under her wing as soon as she met her. At first, Rhea was uncomfortable with the attention, and she always tried to keep her distance from the overly-approachable woman, who was pregnant with her third child at the time. The problem was that the two were very similar in one respect, their stubbornness. But that had also been the reason why they ended up being so close today. Rhea had to use the years of Mirella's self-sacrificing care for her as leverage to get Mirella to agree to her proposal to pay her for the favors. After much back and forth, Rhea convinced her to quit her old jobs and officially work for her instead. If it had been just about her, Mirella probably would have refused. She has her pride and doesn't want to be given anything. But since she had three children to take care of, and Rhea paid her enough so she didn't have to struggle through 3 jobs, she finally agreed. Even though Rhea felt that their deal was extremely fair and not excessive, so she didn't owe her anything, Mirella took every little thing out of her hand ever since.

The stubbornness had remained, however, and so Rhea insisted that on at least this one day a week she do the things herself that Mirella usually took care of for her. The reason for this was something her mother had told her when she was little, which had been burned into her memory forever. 'When you don't know which way to go, sometimes it helps to remember the path you've already taken.' Previously she hadn't understood what that meant. Today it was clear to her that it meant everything and nothing at all, something different for everyone. But maybe that's what it's all about, finding your own answer. For Rhea, it meant never forgetting where she came from, not letting herself be blinded by the supposedly carefree life she could lead with the money she was now earning. And in order not to forget, she chose one day of the week to be the old Rhea again, because she never wanted to be like the privileged rich snobs who grew up with a golden spoon in their mouths.