ANGELA and
KAREN are having lunch waiting for CYRUS to arrive.
ANGELA
For the
record, I still think this is a bad idea.
KAREN
I know,
you’ve told me fifteen times. But what
if Cyrus really was your secret admirer?
Wouldn’t you want to know?
ANGELA
Yes. Which is why I agreed to
ask him to have lunch with us, against my better judgment.
KAREN
Well, here he
comes.
Cyrus walks
up.
CYRUS
Hi Dr.
Givens. Hi Karen.
ANGELA
Have a seat
Cyrus.
Cyrus sits.
KAREN
I’m glad you
could join us, Cyrus. Except for the
premonition thing, we haven’t really had a chance to get to know you since you
started here at the hospital.
CYRUS
Wow, I really
appreciate that. Ever since the rumors
started spreading about me, no one has wanted to have much to do with me. Except the two you, of
course.
KAREN
So tell us
more about you, Cyrus. Do you have
family in the area?
CYRUS
No. I’m actually not from
ANGELA
How did you
end up here?
CYRUS
Quite
honestly,
KAREN
And you like
it here?
CYRUS
Yeah. It’s a nice area.
KAREN
And is there
a special woman in your life?
ANGELA
Karen! Sorry Cyrus, Karen can be very inquisitive
sometimes.
CYRUS
Oh, that’s
alright. There is this one person that I
have my eye on, but I don’t think I’m even on the radar there, if you know what
I mean.
KAREN
So you have a
crush, is that what you’re saying?
CYRUS
I guess you
could say that. I mean, we hardly know
each other so I don’t mean to make it more than it is. I’m sure it will never go anywhere. And besides, I’m busy finishing up school and
working here. Oh look, I forgot my
fork. I’ll be right back.
Cyrus gets up
and walks away.
KAREN
Did you hear
that? Secret crush? It was Cyrus!
ANGELA
That doesn’t
prove anything.
KAREN
You’re
willing to pin this on Manny with less evidence than that!
ANGELA
Do you really
think it could be Cyrus? Maybe I should
just ask him. No, I can’t do that.
KAREN
Well, have
haven’t received anything the past few days, right? So maybe he’s realized that you’re not
interested.
ANGELA
How could I
be interested if I didn’t even know it was him?
Cyrus walks
back up and sits down.
CYRUS
Hi. (joking) I think my
ears were burning.
ANGELA
We
were just having some girl talk. That’s
all.
DANTE RAMOS
and ARDEN MORGAN are talking in the hallway.
DANTE
What did they
say?
They keep
grilling me, Dante. I need to have a
lawyer here. I was naïve to think that
the police would just let me go. They
keep talking about how I fled the scene of a crime.
DANTE
Don’t they
realize there were mitigating circumstances?
Cliff Myers attacked you. You
were scared out of your mind.
I know, but I
left him there to die and instead of calling the police, I left the state.
DANTE
Dammit.
I’m going to call my father. He
can take care of this for you.
No,
Dante. My Aunt Barbara doesn’t want him
to know that we’re related and I don’t want to do something to hurt her.
DANTE
Well, I don’t
get it. What the hell is the big
mystery? Why is she lying to my
father? And why is she willing to let
you fry to just keep this secret?!
So you think
I’m going to “fry”?
DANTE
Oh,
I know. It’s alright.
You’ve done more for me than anyone, and I appreciate your offer. But I don’t want to drag any more people into
this than I already have.
DANTE
Look,
Dante, I
don’t want you to spend your money on me.
Driving up here with me and paying for the hotel was more than enough.
DANTE
Don’t be
silly. Let me go make some calls. I’m not going to let these cops give you a
hard time when you didn’t do anything wrong.
But listen, when we get back home, I’m going straight to Barbara and
finding out what she’s hiding. I know
she’s your aunt, but she’s dating my father, and as much as he drives me crazy,
I don’t want anyone playing him for a fool.
I’m sure she
has very good reasons for doing what she’s doing.
DANTE
Maybe she
does, and if I agree, I might be willing to go along with this a while
longer. But she’s going to have to fill
me in, or else I’ll have no other choice but to tell my father about your
connection.
MANNY has
just arrived and is talking with CAROLINE.
MANNY
Thanks for
seeing me, Caroline. I know how busy you
are.
CAROLINE
I got the
feeling that you wanted to talk. Is it
Angela? What’s going on?
MANNY
This is
really hard for to me to say, and I’ve thought about telling you this at dinner
both times we went out, but I just couldn’t.
But I was at a meeting last night and realized that it wasn’t good for
either of us to keep this to myself any longer.
CAROLINE
Sounds
so mysterious. We’re friends, Manny. You can tell me anything.
MANNY
Caroline. There’s something I realized while I was away
from
CAROLINE
And what’s
that?
MANNY
Even you made
a comment the other day about me not drinking.
There’s a reason for that. I
realized that I have a drinking problem.
I’m an alcoholic.
CAROLINE
Oh. Manny, I uh, I’m not sure what to say. Thank you for telling me.
MANNY
I’m sure you
remember a few parties where I got sloshed and made a fool of myself.
CAROLINE
Well,
yeah. But I guess I didn’t think that
much about it.
MANNY
By the time I
left
CAROLINE
Manny, is
that why you left
MANNY
One of
the reasons.
CAROLINE
Oh my
God. You left to protect Angela from
your drinking problem? If she knew about
this, it might change everything.
MANNY
That’s not
the only reason, Caroline. Don’t try to
make me into some martyr. I’m just a
man. A man with a lot
of flaws. But part of my
recovering is making amends for things I’ve done in the past. So as much as Angela doesn’t want to see me
or talk to me, I have to keep trying. I
need to apologize to her for what happened between us before. She may not forgive me, but I won’t be able
to completely move on until she hears me out.
ANGELA has
just returned to her office from lunch.
ANGELA
Okay, let’s
see what’s on the calendar for this afternoon.
Sees a
note on her desk.
ANGELA
What’s this?
Angela picks
up the note and begins reading.
ANGELA
Dearest
Angela. Being close to you and not able
to touch you is driving me crazy. I
don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to love you from afar. Always, Your
beloved.
Angela puts
the note down.
ANGELA
Oh my
God. Cyrus, did you write this?