[+21] LOVERS ©

“I can't believe my life has become so miserable, everything is topsy-turvy,” complained Morgana over the video call with her friend Lorena, while stranded in traffic at five o'clock in the afternoon in the city.

“All you have to do is look him in the face and tell him once and for all that he can go to hell itself”.

“It's not as easy as you think,” she tapped the steering wheel twice to sound the horn. “I just tried it, and the idiot threatened me”.

“What do you mean?”, her friend has, upset. “Why the hell didn't you tell me anything?”

“The truth is that I didn't want to burden you with my problems, you already have enough with your mother's illness,” she excused herself.

“What you say is absurd, Morgana,” Lorena reproached her, “But you still haven't answered what that idiot Joe is threatening you with”.

Morgana thought about it for a moment, even though she had been living that ordeal for three months, she was ashamed to talk about it. But in that instant, she was so desperate that she didn't really care.

“It's a little delicate,” Morgana said very softly, “I owe him a lot of money”.

“Since when?”, Lorena was alarmed because she didn't even imagine that she had that issue.

“Ehm two months ago,” Morgana knew her friend was not going to like the answer.

“How much are we talking about?”, Lorena needed all the information.

“Three thousand seven hundred dollars,” she replied after a sigh.

“Fuck!”, Lorena exclaimed with exasperation. “Forgive me for asking, but why so much money? I don't know why you didn't tell me first”.

“I didn't really ask him,” Morgana defended herself.

“So?”

“Do you remember the heart attack my dad had months ago?”, she asked.

“Of course”. Lorena answered.

“Well… he was with me when I applied to the bank for the loan, and without telling me anything he deposited the amount… and I… well…”

“You thought it was from the bank, and the idiot didn't tell you. Is that it?”

“Yes, and the worst thing was that I did it right away. Two days later I found out through a call from a bank executive telling me that the credit application had been denied,” she paused. “I told him, and he told me that it was a gift, that I shouldn't worry, that that was why he was my partner. To support me, and he can be to stay with me in good times and bad”.

“Great!”, Lorena expressed sarcasm.

“It wasn't all that bad…”

“It was good while your relationship lasted,” Lorena said curtly. “That guy didn't suit you, and you know it, he's a…”

“Idiot? Miserable? Maniac?”, she finished.

“All that and more, but now what does he want from you, Morgana?”.

“Aside from screwing up my existence,” she mockingly asked, “He wants me with him again or hand over his money”.

“He's a bastard!”, said the young woman on the other end of the line, “What are you gonna do?”

“I wanna pay him for his shit, of course. But while that's going on, I have to put up with it”.

“That's not fair…”

“I know, but he gave me a deadline, and he claims that if I don't do what he says... He will tell everyone in the office that I am a scamming bitch”.

“Those of us who know you know that you are not a scamming”.

“Thank you, but just right now for me, the important thing is to get another extra gig”.

“You will find it,” Lorena encouraged her. “I have to hang up now, I'm at the doctor's office with my mother”.

“That's okay, thank you.”

“Morgana…”

“Yes?”

“Even if you have a lot to thank that man for… He doesn't own you, and you don't owe him anything” She stopped a few seconds, “I don't think even money because nobody told him to be the knight-errant rescuing damsels in distress”.

“I know it,” she said, after bursting out laughing.

“I'm serious, Morgana. Your relationship with him was toxic, even destructive”.

“Don't remind me it…”

“That guy caused you a lot of problems, he made you lose potential clients because of his jealous scenes, and you almost got fired from your job because of that. You got sick of nerves, don't give him the importance he doesn't have”.

“I know it…”

“Well, I'm just giving you my point of view, Morgana”.

“Don't worry about me, hun”.

After saying that, they both ended the call.

Morgana tightened her grip on the steering wheel and took a long breath. She couldn't tell her friend that there had never been a relationship with Joe, they were never boyfriend and girlfriend. They just went out to parties, had a good time, and that was it. 

That was really the issue between them, that Joe wanted something she couldn't give him. She would never give up her job, her lifestyle for any man, and the guy who wanted to be with her… Well, she had to adjust, because there was no other way. She didn't earn her job at the lotto every Sunday.

She had worked very hard for years and had started from scratch. Likewise, she was very proud of her accomplishments. That's why she refused to let one slip-up, one bad decision in choosing a playmate, and everything she fought for go to shit.

She went to turn on the car radio, as the cars were starting to move. She mumbled a curse when she saw the caller ID. Without a second thought, she turned it away. Almost instantly she received a voice message, although she was dying of curiosity, she didn't hear it.

Every word Joe had said to her before leaving the restaurant where he had summoned her echoed in her head.

“Don't think you can hide from me, Morgana.  You're a complete bitch, how could I not have noticed before. But don't worry, I'm gonna finish you.”

Rage overcame her, and with clenched fists and with all her might she gave a couple of blows to the steering wheel.

“How could I have been so stupid!”, she questioned herself in a loud and broken voice, despair was going to make her cry once again. “How did I let it come to this?”

She tried to calm herself by reaching into her purse for a bottle of water, so that the lump in her throat would melt away. After taking a long drink, she looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror.

“I'll do anything to get out of you, Joe. I'll get you out of my life forever”, she promised herself.