“This can't be happening … this can't be happening. I must be having a nightmare.” I think to myself as I stare in horror at the sight before me, and tears of disbelief fill my eyes.
That loud, twinkling, feminine laughter that I would recognize any day, any time, comes again, but for the first time in my life, it fills me with revulsion instead of joy.
Different emotions, the most pressing of which are shock, disbelief, and confusion, all battle for their place on my face as I stare at my bestie, Amy, who is the person laughing.
She has just entered the restaurant where I’d been waiting for over two hours for my husband, Austin, or soon-to-be-ex-husband, by the looks of things, to show up.
Amy is arm in arm with Austin, and I just watched them kiss each other intimately on the lips, with tongue and all.
You see, tonight is my first wedding anniversary. Austin and I made reservations at this restaurant to celebrate, but he stood me up without any explanation, and now, I can clearly see why.
As I watch, they settle down in a booth in a corner of the restaurant, and she leans towards him for another kiss, which he returns eagerly. My stomach starts to churn immediately, and I fight the urge to retch.
These are the two people I love most in the world right now, for goodness’ sake! How can they do this to me?
I get up and walk on autopilot to their booth while clutching my chest tightly because it feels like my heart is about to pound its way out of my chest. She is resting against him, and his hand is on her right boob when I get to them.
“What … what’s going on here?” I ask in a broken voice.
They spring apart immediately, guilt written all over them, and it’s clear that they didn’t expect to see me there. Maybe they thought I would have left by now.
“Lucy, babe! Oh, thank goodness you're here. We were worried that you would have left already. Austin was held up with work, and he was afraid that you’d be mad that he got here late, so he pleaded with me to come along with him to beg you.” Amy tells me, getting up and stretching her arms towards me for a hug, but I shrink away from her, not believing a single word that has just come out of her mouth.
“What’s the matter?” She asks, her forehead creasing in what looks like confusion.
“I saw you just now. You were kissing my husband. How could you? You're supposed to be one of my best friends. And you, Austin, how could you betray me with the person I call my best friend?”
“I don’t know what you're talking about, Lucy. How can you say such a thing? All I did was hug Austin. I didn’t realize it was a crime to hug your husband. You’ve hugged my boyfriend in the past, and I had no issues with it because I know you see him as a brother, which by the way, is exactly the way I see Austin, so hearing you say what you just said is really disturbing.” Amy says, still looking confused, while Austin doesn’t say anything.
“But … but you kissed him …” I insist, but my tone is weak now as I suddenly doubt myself. What if I was mistaken in what I saw?
Maybe the distance from where I was sitting to the booth, coupled with the somewhat low lighting and the fact that my emotions aren't the best right now, affected my vision. Besides, I’ve had a couple of drinks while waiting for Austin, so maybe my judgment is impaired.
“No, I didn’t kiss him. You probably thought so because of the distance between here and where you were sitting, and also because of the angle we were in. The thought of kissing your husband is enough to cause me to retch. Jeez! Don’t ever say such a thing again. It’s so gross.” Amy tells me, echoing my thoughts.
She sounds very serious like she’s telling the truth, but I can’t get the disgusting image of her kissing him, or him fondly her boob right there in the restaurant out of my head.
Before I can overthink, I see proof of the fact that I'm not crazy or drunk and that all of this isn’t just a figment of my imagination.
The proof is Austin’s lips … those lips that I’ve kissed a thousand times before. They’re stained the exact same shade of red that is Amy’s lipstick, and when I look at her again, I can see that her lipstick is smudged.
“I knew it. I knew I wasn’t mistaken. You backstabbing, evil betrayers. Her lipstick is all over your mouth!” I exclaim, and unable to help myself, I begin to cry again.
People are watching us now … I can feel their interested gazes on us, but I couldn’t care less, not when my heart feels like someone has plunged a dagger into it and is mercilessly twisting it.
“Do you know you're embarrassing me? The whole restaurant is watching us for goodness' sake. Sit your ass down and stop making such a spectacle.” Austin says in irritation, and I gasp in disbelief.
This is the first time since I’ve known him that he's talking to me in such a disrespectful tone. As he finishes talking, a waiter approaches us cautiously.
“Is everything okay here? Do I need to call security?” The man asks.
“No, no need for that. She’s just being a drama queen.” Austin replies to him, and he leaves.
“A … are you being serious right now? That’s what you're going to say after I caught you making out with my so-called best friend in public?”
“You know what? I don’t have time for this. You're becoming something else with your constant nagging, and I can't stand it anymore.” He snaps at me and gets up.
“Austin, calm down. You kept her waiting all night. No wonder she’s hurt.” Amy tells him, pretending to defend me, but suddenly I can see right through her, and it is clear as day that she’s enjoying this spectacle.
“No. I’m tired of her and the marriage. Just look at how she embarrassed us in public. I want a divorce, Lucy. I’ll get the papers ready as soon as possible, you’ll sign them, and we’ll both be free of each other. I can't do this anymore. Let’s go, Amy.” Says Austin.
“I don’t understand. You kissed someone else, and probably have been doing heaven knows what with her before now, but you're threatening me with divorce as though I'm the one who’s cheating? Is this a joke or what?” I ask him, still trying to wrap my head around the unexpected events of this evening.
I soon find out that he’s not joking at all. After a few more minutes of back and forth between us, he leaves the restaurant with Amy, who has stopped pretending to be innocent.
In fact, she sneers at me behind his back as they leave, and clings tightly to him as they leave the restaurant, while I sink into the nearest chair and give in to bitter tears of misery, totally unaware of the mysterious man in the corner, who has been watching everything unfold.
Austin’s POVIt’s been ages since I’ve seen this sort of excitement on Amy’s face, and instead of pleasing me, it gives me this unsettling feeling.The reason for her excitement is Ralph Lewis's celebration party that we're going to attend later this evening.While I understand her joy and had actually invited her to the party because I was looking for ways to please her, the level of her excitement seems a little over the top to me.Right now, she’s prancing around our hotel room, examining the dress that she's going to wear for the umpteenth time, like an excited schoolgirl going for prom.“I think I’ll put on the dress again, you know, to make sure it still fits me.” She says, with a high, girlish laughter.She's mostly talking to herself, not to me. I watch as she hurriedly takes off the robe she’s wearing. nd then puts on the dress for the party.She does several poses in front of the mirror, turning this way and that way to see herself at different angles, and pushing her butt a
Lucy’s POVMy ears are ringing, and my heart is pounding fast as I listen to Amanda speak with full confidence, but there’s no way she can be right, after I’ve conditioned myself to believe that I can't have kids, right? I mean, I want her to be right. Scratch that! I need her to be right, but there's no point in raising my hopes up, only to have them dashed later on. Still, I can't help but ask in a voice that belongs to someone else ...“How would you know that the symptoms I'm experiencing are pregnancy symptoms?”“I would know because I’ve walked down that road before when I was pregnant, but that’s not all. I also know, because I’ve tended to countless pregnant women while I was away volunteering. I know all the symptoms of pregnancy like the back of my palm, and can mostly tell if a woman is pregnant, just by looking at her, even in the early stages of the pregnancy.” Amanda tells me in that confident tone.“Stop! You can't do that. You can't give me such false hope … Amanda, y
Lucy’s POVThe day of the ceremony dawns bright and early. Unfortunately, however, I didn’t get a good night’s rest, because for the better part of the night, I was unable to sleep, and was instead thinking about my conversation with Amanda. By the time morning comes, I’ve resolved to tell Nathan that I can't be with him and that we have to stop seeing each other. I’ll do it after the party, but I hope we’ll remain friends, even though that will probably be a bad idea as well.“Rise and shine, princess of the day. How can you still be asleep by this time of the day? Everywhere is bustling with activities. Oh, and your prince charming is downstairs waiting for you. He brought you a huge bunch of flowers. That man is such a green flag, and that is such a good thing, considering that these days are filled with bright red flags.” Amanda says, barging into my room without knocking.“Good morning, Amanda. You're really excited about today.” I reply, pasting a wide smile on my face. I'm st
LUCY'S POVLucy’s POV“Yes, I believe so too. It’s just nerves.” He finishes and drops a kiss onto my lips.I have the feeling that he is trying to subtly change the subject, but my traitorous body distracts me, and I eagerly return his kiss.By the time we stop kissing, I’ve even forgotten what it was that we were talking about.He leaves work early that day, and we spend the night together at his place. However, I have to leave early the next morning because it's the day of the party.“Oooh, was that Nathan I saw who just dropped you off?” Amanda asks me, as I enter the house.She’s sitting in the living room of our new house and sipping a glass of orange juice.“Yes, it was,” I reply somewhat shyly, and Amanda gives me a knowing look.“I'm glad you have finally accepted that you like him. You guys make a beautiful couple, by the way.”“Well, we’re not exactly a couple. We’re just having fun with each other, and no, I don’t want to talk about it, because I know that’s the next thing
“Well, good afternoon to you both,” I say by way of greeting.Nathan’s head snaps up at the sound of my voice, and a smile breaks out on his handsome face as our eyes meet.“Lucy? What on earth are you doing here? Don’t get me wrong. I'm happy to see you, but aren’t you supposed to be resting in preparation for ‘you know what?’” He asks me.The phrase ‘you know what,’ obviously refers to the party being held tomorrow, but he’s being discreet until said tomorrow, so that the lady working at my desk wouldn’t know what he’s talking about.Only a select few people know about me and my parents, and they include Amanda, Nathan, Lucas, and the staff working at our house. I don’t even know if Nathan’s parents and sister know, or if he kept it a secret from them as well.“I was bored, so I came to say hi,” I reply to his question.As I say this, the lady gets up with some papers, mutters something about how she has to do something in another section of the building, and hightails it out of th
Lucy’s POVMy nerves are shot, and they’ve been this way for two or three days now, but I can't for the life of me pinpoint or say what could be making me feel such an emotion.Life is good, and everything has been going smoothly, both at work and in my personal life, so I have nothing to worry about, but still, I can't get rid of the feeling that something dreadful is going to happen, and soon too. The anxious feeling probably has to do with the ‘reveal party,’ as Nathan, my family, and I have come to call it. The party is going to take place at our residence tomorrow.A fairly large number of guests have been invited, with the majority of them being workers in my dad’s company, and others being his close friends, associates, and business partners.I don't know any of these people, and since I don't have friends apart from Amanda, I have no one to invite to the party, but that's okay because after now, I'll be free to make as many friends as I want.It is probably the thought of st