“Ms. Marigold… tell me in detail about what happened yesterday.”
“Well Mr. Yojiro…” Mo said, her red hair drooping over her freckled face as she reclined in her chair. “It started out as an ordinary day. People came in and ordered coffee, and my employees served them. Ms. Blackwell had even brought in some donuts from a bakery that had become popular a few days back.”
“Yes, yes…” her therapist said, waving his hands around as he wanted her to speed up. “But how did you go from a normal day to you spilling hot coffee into a Ms. Hughes’ face before curling into a ball?”
“Well, during lunch hours… I had recieved a call…”
___
“Hello?”
It was her break, and as soon as Mo was about to leave for lunch at the nearest sub store with her latte, she had received a call from an unknown number. Settling down in a seat near the entrance, her full attention was on this mystery caller, and whatever they had in store for her. Hopefully, she thought, this call was just some spam number trying to call her, and that she could just hang up and put it away once they were done trying to sell the pitch.
“Uh, is this Mo Marigold? Owner of the local branch of the Bean Machine and mother of two?”
“Y-yes…” Mo said nervously. While she had no idea who this woman was, they apparently knew her quite well. “Why do you ask?”
“This is the police.”
Mo’s heart skipped a beat, as the hand holding her latte started shaking. “W-what do you need, o-officer?”
“It’s about a ex-husband of yours, a Mr. Johannes Marigold.”
The mention of Johannes angered Mo quite a bit. Long ago, she may have been charmed by his guile and his sweet jazz music, but nowadays she recognized him as the conman he was. He had walked into her life, put a baby into her in order to force her to marry him, and then put another in her to keep her happy. She gave out again and again, and all he did was take.
Worst of all though was the fact that by the time Valentine was 10, he had cheated on her with a maid from Hammond Hotel. One divorce later and Mo was forced to take care of her two kids herself, with Johannes barely paying any of the alimony checks that he had owed her for abandoning her for someone more conventionally attractive. It had shattered her confidence in men, and had left her dreadfully scared about her ability to raise her own kids safely in Valentine, even if he was gone.
“Was he arrested, I guess?” Mo asked, calming down a bit. “Serves him right, for leaving me alone…”
“No. He’s dead. We found him this morning with a fractured skull. We’re still trying to figure out everything, but we suspect it was a case of vehicular manslaughter, from a bus speeding past a red light.”
“Oh… oh god…”
The news hit her like a truck. As a single mother she was counting on Johannes to continue paying alimony checks in order to keep her girls going through school, since a managerial position at the Bean Machine did not exactly pay the best, even with the moderate success the place had compared to other coffee stops. Without that… she’d not be able to support her loving daughter Juliet’s admission into Buttercombe, or help her daughter Valentine fully adapt into adult life after she graduated.
Dropping her phone onto the table, she was shaking more than usual from whenever she usually heard bad news. Clutching her sides, Mo was in shock and despair about the situation she now found herself in. Her emotions were in a complete flux, and any interaction could cause her to go over the edge.
Unfortunately, that’s when Saffron came in.
“Hey uh… you okay boss? You’re kind of causing a-”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”
*SPLASH!*
“GYAAAAAH! My face!”
Without even registering who was talking, Mo splashed her own latte into her own employee’s face, causing her to fall down flat on her ass as she screamed in pain. Only a few seconds later, after realizing what she had done in her state of shock, she curled up into a ball on the floor, bawling her eyes out as she realized what she had done. Ultimately, she was in a mostly unresponsive state until the regional manager arrived and talked her down.
___
“Now… your daughter has told us that you have Panic Disorder. This is a mental disorder where a subject undergoes various panic attacks at unexpected periods of their life, such as from dealing with bad news.” Pushing his glasses up, he looked down on Mo with a curious glance in his eye. “Is this true?”
“Y-yes…” Mo responded, not trying to hide anything. “They diagnosed me with it when I was 13. I often wake up from nightmares because of it, and having to raise two children alone has not helped me with it one bit…”
“Have you been taking your medication for it?”
“Yes… and while it’s been doing me well most of the time… well, yesterday things were different.”
“Hmmm… and you can verify that you took your medicine yesterday?”
“Yes.” Pulling out her phone, she sent an image to Mr. Yojiro from yesterday morning. “I take my antidepressant pills in the morning during my breakfast, mixed into the water. But the things that happened yesterday-”
“Indeed, the shock must have been incredible.” Mr. Yojiro responded, nodding his head. “I would have gone depressed myself if I had found my husband had died, and with your mental state it’s clear that this has had a much deeper effect on you than anyone else in this city. Probably even more so that Johannes’s wife…”
“Please… don’t say his name…” Clutching the pillow behind her with her right hand, she was on the verge of another panic but calmed down after breathing in and out a bit. “S-so… how’s Saffron?”
“She’s mostly fine, at least physically.” Mr. Yojiro clarified, with a slight smile on his face. “She was planning to sue you, but that guy Duke managed to talk her out of it according to the people who brought you here.”
“I… I don’t know what to do…”
“Well… I can at least say this. You can’t go back to work at the very least.”
“I-I’m fired!? Oh god, oh god, oh-”
“You’re not fired!” Mr. Yojiro shouted, snapping Mo out of her shock. “You’re being put on vacation. The regional manager saw that you were suffering, and thought that some paid vacation would help you calm down from this massive change in your life and figure out how to deal with all of this stress.”
“W-what about Valentine? Juliet’s fine since she’s in Buttercombe, but my little Valentine isn’t going to be able to watch for herself!”
“She’ll be fine. I’ve contacted your sister Eunice in Charleston, and she’s agreed to come over to look after your kid.” Moving his hand over Mo’s own hand, he’d wait for her to let go of the pillow before pulling it away. “You… you have nothing to worry about. Everyone’s gotten together to help you get through this.”
For a while, Mo did not say a word as she took in everything that she had heard. Everyone had come together to help her, even when she had taken the action of hurting someone in her state of disarray. Tears flowing down her face, she was completely grateful to everyone that allowed her to finally take a break after the devastating news. Even if she was struggling with everything else, she knew that at least she had people in her life who loved her.
"So... where do I go from here?"
"That is up to you." Mr. Yojiro responded, writing down what he saw from his patient. "If it were up to me I'd suggest going to see the cherry blossoms in Hokkaido, or going to Paris for the Taste of Paris Food Festival. But I am a therapist, not a travel planner."
"...I understand."
After that, Mo continued to talk with her therapist for a good few hours, talking about her past and what she wished for her children before they were done. By the time she was done she had calmed down massively from what she had experienced yesterday, and while she was still scared about the possibility of not being able to care for her children she knew that at least for the moment that they were going to be okay.
Still though, there was the issue of where to go. Checking her e-mail on her phone, she saw that she had recieved funds not just from the regional manager, but her sister, her father and her fellow workers as well (minus Saffron, for obvious reasons). It all totaled up to $25,000 USD, enough for a one month trip to just about anywhere in the world. She could go on a all expenses paid cruise, or stay somewhere in Europe for a while, or maybe even travel to multiple places if she fancied it.
The choices were a bit paralyzing to Mo, but ultimately she managed to settle on what she wanted to do. Calling out for a cab, she got a drive to a travel agency to plan it all out. This was going to be her dream trip, something that was going to be her key to gaining confidence in her life. As she walked into the building, her heart beat happier for a brief moment in her life... before succumbing to anxiety once more as she was greeted by a chunky attendant.
"Hello, and welcome to Loving City Travel. My name is Louisa, how may I help you?"
"Hi... m-my name is Mo Marigold. I'd like..."
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