You go back to the inn. You don't know what the hell you're doing, but you're doing it.



"Back so soon doc?" Rita says as you ignore her and look for Eliza.



You instinctively head back to the kitchen where you find her talking to some of the other staff members.



"Eliza, I have to talk to you!" you say anxiously.

"Um…okay, I'm almost done here."



You wait impatiently for Eliza to finish talking to her subordinates, while you're doing that your mother is eyeing you suspiciously as she begins cooking a large piece of meat.



You can't wait here! This was a mistake! You have to leave now!



You rush out of the kitchen, but you don't get far when you feel Eliza's hand grab your shoulder.



"Hey, where are you going? I thought you had to talk to me." She says.



You turn around and nothing comes out. You just take one look at her face and you can't contain yourself. You grab and kiss her right on the lips. This is followed by a few cheers and claps from the patrons in the bar.



"Huh, took him long enough to realize it." Wendy says and goes back to cleaning the bar.



Eliza's response is pure shock. She doesn't know what to do except run into the ladies room. You call out to her before realizing you've done this in front of several onlookers. You panic again and run into the kitchen.



"What's going on out there? Did I hear you call out Eliza's name? What did you do?"

"I…I fucked up…" you blurt out.



You quickly explain what just happened and your mother shakes her head while throwing a washcloth on the table.



"(Sigh) I KNEW something was up when you wanted to talk to her and were acting more jittery than a goblin caught in a troll's larder. I don't know what to tell you son except you've handled this poorly. This is definitely something you're going to have to fix yourself, but you need to do it soon, because Eliza's one of the best employees here and I don't need her all upset right now."



You think about slipping out the back, but your mother's right, you need to take care of this now. At least part of it, because you'll need to take care of the rest tonight when you talk to Cindy.



You sheepishly exit the kitchen wondering if everyone will be looking. Most glance your way, but go back to their business.



"She's down in the cellar doctor love." Wendy says.



Not saying another word you go down to the cellar. You see Eliza trying to keep busy by taking stock of the beer casks with another employee you don't know.



"Eliza."

"I can't talk anymore, I really have to make sure we have enough beer this month. Our shipment is a little late. It was nice seeing you." She answers without looking in your direction.

"Eliza we need to talk about what just happened."

"I think we should just forget about it. Shouldn't you be getting home? I'm sure Cindy will be wondering about where you are."



At this point you grab Eliza again and tell the stock boy to leave, he doesn't seem to want to get involved in whatever drama you two have so he complies.



"Let me go."

"Okay, but we're gonna talk!"

"Talk about what? About me being the other woman? I don't want to be that and Cindy doesn't deserve it! I don't deserve it!"

"I'm gonna break up with Cindy! I want you. I know that now. I should've acted on it earlier…"

"You certainly should have! (sob) Do you know how much I wanted you to say something? Years! From the moment you came back to this inn after your father died, I wanted you to say something. Now it's too late!"

"It's not too late! I just said I'll break up with Cindy then we can be together!"

"Just like that huh? You can toss her aside so easily? I thought you were in love with her."

"I was…I mean…no…agh! Shit look, I want to be with you! Why are you making this so difficult?"

"Because it IS fucking difficult! (sob) I had just come to accept the fact that you and I were never going to happen no matter how much I wanted it. (sob) And now you come back and stir all my emotions up, because you're having doubts about your relationship with Cindy? What the hell happens when you start having doubts about me one day?"

"That wouldn't happen…"

"How do I know? I mean… (sniffle) we've never even gone out on a date. How do you know if we're even going to be compatible?"

"Well let's go on one right now. Anywhere you want!"

"Just leave me alone. I need time to myself."



You try to touch Eliza to reassure her, but she flinches away. You don't say anything else and leave her be like she wanted.



On your way home you think about everything and how badly it all went. You didn't know Eliza pined after you for so long. You really had no idea. If you did you would've…



Would've, could've, should've, doesn't really matter now. What matters now is what you're going to do about all this. Eliza also brought up a good point on how can you possibly know that you're compatible and how it looks like you're just reaching out to her because of your doubts with Cindy.



Speaking of Cindy, you need to figure out what you're going to say to her when you get home.

You break up with Cindy

You have to go for this. Even if doesn't work out you'll always be wondering "What if?"



But before you can do anything, you have to break up with Cindy first. You aren't looking forward to it, but in a way you feel it's probably for the best no matter what happens with Eliza. You don't particularly want to move and you're happy where you're at right now. Cindy's been dominating your relationship since you've been together and it's time to put an end to it.



When you get home, Cindy's already there questioning where you've been. You take a deep breath and say what's on your mind about her whole plan to move and how you're not into the idea. This of course has the predictable result of causing an argument, but Cindy's not an idiot. She KNOWS there is more to it than just the moving. She continues to press the issue of where you've been before you came to tell her this new revelation.



Eventually you just tell her everything about how you also have feelings for Eliza. Cindy becomes very upset and even throws a few objects at you before attempting to hit you with her fists. You manage to fend her off long enough so she stops and just resorts to calling you every swear word in the human language (and a few in some other languages!) before starting to pack her belongings.



"Cindy, I'm really sorry, I didn't want it to be like this, I just…"

"Save it asshole. I can't believe I fell for you! I see now that you can take the boy out of the gutter, but you can't take the gutter out of the boy. I hope you and your trashy barmaid have a good life together because you certainly deserve each other. Oh and don't think you're getting away with this insult. My wrath will be terrible. This, I fucking vow dickhead!"



And with that Cindy leaves while slamming the door of your apartment. It went about as well as you could've expected. All you have to do now is talk to Eliza again. You figure you should probably give her a couple days before do so though.



A few days pass and after work you head over to the inn.



"Oh it's you. I suppose you're looking for Eliza, well she's here. Dunno where though. Y'know, you should've just tried to hook up with me instead. Hell I wouldn't have even cared if you still wanted to stay with Cindy." Rita says.

"Yeah, just as long as I bought you something nice and expensive right? Sorry, I don't go for gold digging whores."

"Oh fuck you, Mr. big shot doctor! Don't try to play moral superiority on me with all the drama you got going on!"

"I wasn't playing anything and none of this is about you anyway, despite the fact that you like to think everything is." You retort and leave.



After a quick scan of the room, you don't see Eliza. You head over to the bar where Wendy is located.



"Wendy where's Eliza?"

"You're back a lot earlier than I expected. You just cost me 20 coppers in the bet we had going. But nevermind all that, I'd just like to say, that you really fucked up with how you handled this situation. I hope you've at least had the sense to break over with that snooty bitch before trying this again."

"Cindy's not…" you begin to say still feeling the need to defend her, but you stop yourself "(Sigh) Yeah, yeah I did. And I'm probably going to pay for it later."

"We all pay for our mistakes in some way. She's in the kitchen. And hey! Be gentle with her, she's been upset for the past few days and in a fragile state right now."



You nod and enter the kitchen.



Upon entering the kitchen all eyes turn to you. Eliza's, your mother's, the other workers you don't know, everyone. You half expect Eliza to run off again, but she doesn't in fact she seems ready to confront you.



"Um, Flameflower can you be in charge of the staff for a little while?" she asks.

"Can I? I've waited for this day to come!" Flameflower gleefully says in semi-power drunk glee and then telling everyone to quickly get to work. Her sister Sunshine looks a little jealous. You knew Eliza had managed to instill a work ethic into them, but you didn't think either of them would jump on the chance for more responsibility.



"If you two are going to talk here at the inn, I suggest one of the empty rooms upstairs and I'd rather you not cause such a scene this time." You mother says.

"We won't."



You and Eliza exit the kitchen through the back way.



"Hey wait doesn't this lead to your family's living quarters?" Eliza asks.

"Yeah, and what better place to talk? Nobody will be there, nobody will interrupt us and if something upsetting does happen, a scene won't be caused."



You take Eliza to the living area to talk. You notice she's shaking a bit.



"How come you're shaking?"

"I'm nervous. I've been nervous about all this for the past few days. I didn't know what was going to come next. I didn't even know if you were going to come back after what I said to you."

"What you said? If anything, I should be the one apologizing for all the stuff I did. I mean I mean you were right, I dumped all this stuff on to you suddenly, I also just grabbed and kissed you the way I did. That was really out of line, I'm sorry about that."

"It wasn't so much the kiss that bothered me, it was just the situation in which it happened really. I always believed our first kiss…if we ever had one, would be under different circumstances."



You take a deep breath before continuing.



"Well I feel you should know, I've broken up with Cindy."

"You really broke up with her?"

"Yes, she's vowed revenge on me and everything."

"Revenge? You don't think she'll do anything crazy or violent do you?"

"I don't think so and least I hope not. Look, I'll deal with it when it happens. The point is, I want you to know is I'm here for YOU now. If this means your ready, then I'm ready too. If this means you still need some time, I'll back off and wait. If that means you don't want me at all, then fine I'll leave you alone."



Eliza takes your hand.



"I don't want you to leave. I've waited a long time for this moment, but I still have concerns about whether we'll really be happy together or not. I mean what if you come to the conclusion one day that you've made a mistake breaking up with Cindy. I'd hate for you to start resenting me for that."

"Eliza, my breaking up with Cindy wasn't only for you. I mean I hate to admit it, but yeah perhaps there were selfish reasons for breaking up with her as well. Like not wanting to have her plan our entire life out with minimal say on my part. I really should've broken up with her earlier (Sigh) I really did handle this poorly. I just hope you can forgive me for putting you through all this."



Your talk with Eliza goes on for awhile, eventually you both agree on taking things slow at first, but the pair of you are pretty happy about this new relationship.



Time passes and your relationship with Eliza is going well. Unfortunately Cindy is true to her word and takes revenge even after she leaves Klyton.



She doesn't do it directly, but rather indirectly, namely through her father's business connections. The price of booze distributed to your family's inn is increased, the food too. Most of the traveling merchants that used to stay at the inn now have taken their business elsewhere. Your family's inn takes a huge loss, and it ends up resulting in laying off most of the staff.



While your mother could keep the place running even with all the cut backs, she ultimately decides it isn't worth it and sells it altogether in a few years. Naturally Cindy's father makes sure his people are the ones that get a hold of it. The revenge tries to continue on directly through price gouging from a few shops you buy from, but you manage to put an end to that, by reminding the various owners that you're a doctor and how pissing you off might not be beneficial for their health plan should they ever get sick in the future.



You apologize to your mother for the situation with the inn however, but she tells you not to worry about it. She got enough from the sale and is moving to Teckleville like she originally planned. She just hopes that you and Eliza will visit every once in awhile.



With Eliza out of a job, she moves in with you. It becomes permanent when you get married. Eventually you also move to Teckleville to start a private practice and soon Eliza gives birth to twins and you start the next phase of your relationship as a family.



Overall your life with Eliza is a good one and you never regret your decision even if it did result in the loss of your family's inn. Besides you always had the best thing that was ever connected to that place and really that's what was important.