Five years later
This was the first time in her life that she wished she hadn't lost contact with her secret benefactor who had helped her through college.
She needed the solidification of having a backbone at the moment, the hope that she could yet again, rise about her circumstances and be who she wanted. Ruby sighed as she walked to the restaurant that was only a few blocks away. She was meeting her boyfriend tonight, and even though that should cheer her up, the fact that she had just lost her job five hours ago was pressing down on her. She was just going to have dinner with him and go home. She could have gone home straight, but they had already made plans, and today was his birthday. That brought a half smile to her face. Roy was a nice guy, even though she saw a side of him that sometimes made her wonder if being nice was just a cover for who he really was. Or maybe she was the bad person, thinking like that about her boyfriend who had been nothing but supportive of her. He was a police officer and he had always supported her dream of going to law school and being a criminal lawyer. That was her dream since forever. It was what her parents wanted her to be, and she loved it as well. She had just finished college a while back, and thankfully, she had no student loan to repay thanks to the secret benefactor who had sponsored her school fees and every other thing but it didn't make things easy for her. Like every other college student, Ruby worked her ass off, working a nine hours of job at the coffee shop in the morning before or after a lecture according to her timetable, at the art gallery where her mother worked in the afternoon, and then at a bar at night, only going home at night. Yeah, that was a bad idea, considering her history with walking at night, but she had no choice. She was helping her cousin and only family left; also in college like she was, to pay for her rent while saving the little that remained. Olivia was also working at the time, but it was to support the college loan to pay for her school fees and book. They had both agreed even though it took time to convince her she wanted to help, that they would support each other whenever they needed the help. She was studying to be a nurse, while Ruby was studying to be a lawyer. She still hadn’t gone to law school because, after graduation, they had both worked for a year to pay back Olivia’s student loan, living together in a one-room apartment they could afford after sorting their food and saving. Now, she had little saved up, but that can't take her to law school, so for now, she was going to have to look for a job. She fastened her pace as she glanced down at the wristwatch she had on her left wrist to see that she would be late if she didn't do that now. Roy had agreed to come to the restaurant after his shift at the station and that was only five minutes away, so she had to be there and settled before he arrived. Soon, she got to the restaurant and someone took her to the reserved table. It was quite an expensive place, but she wanted this year’s birthday to be a nice one. They had been dating for three years now, and she had only ever just gotten him a gift, something she could tell he hated from the look in his eyes each time but pretended to like it. This year, she had thought of going out of her budget and getting him a present that was worth it. Roy had always talked about how much he loved this restaurant, so she had thought about bringing him here, even though doing that now would leave her probably broke for a few weeks if she didn't get a job soon. She had made the plan before losing her job, so she wasn't going to cancel it now. Besides, it wasn't as if she had planned to be fired today anyway, so there was nothing to do. As soon as she sat down, she removed her phone from her bag and texted Roy. Ruby: Hey, Roy. Where are you?Roy: I'll be there soon. I have something important I need to discuss with you.Ruby wondered what the important thing was. He had been acting a little weird lately, so it made it difficult to know what he wanted to say. Perhaps, he was going to propose. As soon as the thought came at her, she widened her eyes. What in the world was she thinking about? She didn't think that was it, but the thought soon made her smile. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to be married to Roy, but the idea sure was nice. She texted him back. Ruby: Okay then. I'm waiting right here. She placed her phone on the table, but the ringing sound jolted her a bit, making her almost jump in her seat. She picked the phone up to see on the screen that it was Olivia that was calling her. “Hey, girl. Are you okay?” that was the first thing she heard her say when she picked up the call. Ruby sighed, realizing that Olivia had seen her text at last about getting fired. "No Livy, I'm not. I just want to crawl into a hole and die.” She said. “Oh, honey. Don't say that. I'm so sorry you had to lose your job. Your boss is such an ass, you know that, so don't blame yourself.” She said. Olivia was the type of person that never hide the way she felt about a person. She had always told her that her boss was an ass, and she had said the same thing about Roy, but that was probably because she didn't like him, for whatever reason. “Where are you?” Olivia asked, her voice interrupting her thought. "You should come home and we'll eat ice cream until our faces are stuffed. I'm leaving the hospital soon. I'll just tell Liam I need to be with you.” She said. Liam was her three-month boyfriend who was also a nurse in the same hospital she was working at but in a different department. Olivia worked in the emergency ward while Liam worked intensive care unit. “You don't have to, I'm meeting Roy for dinner. It's his birthday remember?” Ruby said. There was a silence at the other end for a couple of moments, and then she said. "Oh please, I don't put that in my head. I'll still talk to Liam, and I'll be at home when you get here.” Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Livy. I don't know what I’ll do without you.” She was grateful for having such a wonderful cousin as her family. Olivia was a nice woman who used most of her free time volunteering at an old people's clinic downtown. She was just so wonderful, Ruby couldn't believe her luck to have her. “Right back at you, Ruby. I don't know what I’ll do without you either.” Olivia said too. Ruby smiled. "Oh shut it, you old woman. Stop repeating what I said. Be creative for once.” She said, teasing her. Olivia laughed, and the sound soothed her a little, making her smile even harder. She soon saw Roy make his way to her and she said. "Hey, Roy is here. We'll see back at home.” And she ended the call. She quickly kept her phone in her bag just as Roy got to her. Before she could stand up, he came to her and kissed her cheek. “Hey, you.” He said and smiled down at her. “Hey, Roy.” She greeted back as he sat down opposite her. Before she could say anything else, a waiter approached them. “Good evening sir, ma'am. I will be your server for the evening. What would you like to order?” he asked. Ruby looked to Roy and he ordered for them both, then she ordered a bottle of wine, the cheapest one. She needed it anyway, to wash off the anger her job lost left in her. After the waiter was gone, Ruby looked back at Roy with a nervous smile. With a shrug, she said. "I lost my job today. I was fired.” She made it sound as simple as possible so as not to make it a big deal. It was his birthday and she didn't want anything to disrupt that. Roy pushed his eyebrows up in a question. "Oh, really?” he asked. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that.” And that was all. Ruby swallowed down the lump in her throat at how he had reacted. Well, she didn't know what she expected. He had always acted that way when she told him something bad. There was never a time when he pulled her into a hug and tell her everything would be fine. They were part of the reason why she thought that his nice front was just a cover for who he really was. Sighing, she said. "You said you had something important to discuss with me. Is everything all right?” she asked. Nodding, he said. "Well, the thing is, I don't want to beat around the bush,” he paused, looking around before looking back at her. Ruby furrowed her brows in a frown as she inched forward in her seat, wondering what he wanted to say. “I think we should stop here.” He said simply. “Okay, what do you mean? Do you change your mind about having dinner here?” She asked. He shook his head. "No, Ruby. Look, you're a nice woman, and you're really going to be great for someone else, but I've realized not for me. I think we should stop seeing each other.” He said. What the hell was he talking about? Was he drunk?That wasn't the case, she could tell. She, after all, didn't smell anything on his breath when he kissed her cheek. “Wait, is this because we've never had sex?” she asked. She had told him from the beginning of their relationship that she was waiting to have sex until she was married, even though the truth was she was waiting for the right person. Roy shook his head with a grin. "What the hell? Do you think it's because I want to have sex? You don't think I've not been having sex since we started dating, do you?” he asked, smiling.It was as if Ruby didn't know who he was anymore. "I just don't want you anymore.” He said.Still the same night "I just don't want you anymore.” The words kept ringing in her ear as she looked at him. She just couldn't believe this. Why was he suddenly being this cruel to her, showing her the side she had always wondered about?“Is this some sort of joke?” she asked as she picked his hands but he removed them sharply. “Do I look like I'm joking?” he asked her, a stern look on his face. He shook his head. "Look, Ruby. I don't want to hurt you, that's why I wanted to leave it at that, but you're making a face as if I'm a bad person. I'm not.” He said. But he was! He was cruel and being an ass for no reason, or maybe there was one, so she asked. "Why? Why are you doing this? Did I do something wrong? Is that it?” she didn't care that her voice was starting to rise with the tempo. "If that's it, please. Let me apologize.” She said. Roy rolled his eyes and grunted. "Oh, please you can't. How can you apologize for being a prude? I can count the number of times you kissed me
Cameron looked beside him at his five and seven years old children already dozing off to sleep. They should be in bed, but he couldn't leave them at home alone as he couldn't find a babysitter for the night. Their last nanny quit a week ago because she couldn't understand his kids. At least, that was the silly reason she gave when she submitted her resignation letter. Tonight, he had dinner with his family; his parents, grandmother, and sister, and he had told them he would be bringing his children over as well since he couldn't find someone to stay with them tonight. They should be in bed, not out here in his car sleeping. Thankfully, it wasn't a school night, so they would sleep in tomorrow morning. He should talk to his best friend; Lee, if he could talk to his wife for him. She ran an agency that hire people to work as a temp in a company. Maybe she could get someone who was interested in working as his nanny or something. The car soon rolled to a stop and Mr. Paul; his driver
Ruby didn't know how far she had walked, from the restaurant to her house, but she did, with the box that was packed at the restaurant in one hand and her bag in the other. She walked to her apartment and got into the elevator. Thankfully, it was still working. If she had to go up to her apartment through the stairs to the third floor, she would have been exhausted. Finally, she got to the door of her apartment and unlocked the door, the bunch of keys already in hand. As she pushed the door in and walked by it to enter into the apartment, the edge of her dress pocket was caught in the knob, pulling her back and making her fall down flat on her ass. Thankfully, the box of food she was holding wasn't that much affected, but the content of her bag was scattered on the floor. Frustrated, she sat there instead of getting up and letting lose the wail she had been suppressing in her. She began to shake uncontrollably, crying as she remembered everything she had gone through in a day. Her
Ruby had her head resting in Olivia’s lap as she cried, while Olivia had her right hand in her hair, massaging her scalp and hoping that would get her to stop crying. She was still burning with fury but she tried to not show it for her dear cousin’s sake. It wasn't easy to go through what Ruby had just in one day, so she would try to stop her from crying. Besides, crying was good, it meant that she wouldn't keep it in and later hurt herself from the compressed emotions she felt. "Do you think that I don't dress well?” Ruby asked Olivia suddenly, turning her body so that she was now facing her. Olivia's hand stopped massaging her scalp and she stared down at her. She sighed, wondering how best she would answer her. She shook her head slowly and said. "No, Ruby. I would say that you can do better if you want, but if you want to go with this, nothing is wrong with it. You're a beautiful woman, and no matter what you wear, including a sack of rice, you'll look good.” Ruby smiled, and
Someone was shaking her awake, but Ruby just wanted to sleep for five more minutes. She didn’t have a job to go to anyway, and it wasn’t as if she had a date she was going for. She seriously just needed her beauty sleep. She was going to sleep more and see if the person would leave her the hell alone. “Wake up you brat. You can't just stay in all day without going out to look for a job.” The voice said and Ruby groaned. She popped one of her eyes open to look at the annoying person and it turned out to be the only person it could be. Olivia!“Leave me alone, for goodness sake. I just want to sleep for five more minutes.” She said. "Well, you've been saying that since six o’clock and this is seven o’clock. I'm going to work in an hour but I sure as hell won't leave you at home to continue your moping around routine.”Ruby rolled her closed eyes and then she opened them to look at her cousin who decided to be annoying today. She had lost her job and her boyfriend a week ago, so why w
"Ms. Hardin?" Ruby heard a voice call and she jerk out of her thought.That meant that it was almost her turn, seeing as the woman they had just called was beside her. Her nervousness increased and she tried taking a deep breath so that she could calm her nerves down a notch. It was just like that, no problem at all, but she was prone to riling herself up like that all the time.It wasn't her fault, it was probably how she was wired, plus it was Olivia’s fault for not hinting to her about the job before this morning. Now, everything was a disaster.It wasn't only her work life that was a disaster though. Her love life was the worst, but she couldn't think about that now. She shook her head and muttered to herself again, wanting for this interview to be over as fast as it could.She had prepared all the way here in the car for the interview and she had even practiced some of the questions she knew they always asked in common. She just hoped that her nerves wouldn't get in the way and
Ruby walked erratically, not sure of what to do. She was left with nothing but the clothes she had worn this morning. Her bag had been stolen, which meant that she had no money for a bus or cab. She walked to the bus stop even though she was sure she couldn't board the bus without any money.The rain was falling so heavily, and it had drenched her to the bone if that was a thing. She wanted to go into an alley and scream her throat out, getting out the fury that she was feeling.She was so angry at herself and if she had a chance or even the courage to do so, she would have taken a blade to her wrist even if it was just to punish and not to kill herself.Why was she so stupid, so much that she had forgotten something so important? She asked herself.Her dress, or rather, Olivia’s dress, clung to her body with the rain that had drenched her. She was starting to feel the cold creep into her body so deep that her teeth were starting to clash.She was beyond a reasonable doubt, hopeless
“I've been calling you all day to know how the interview went.” That was the first thing Olivia told her as she entered their apartment later that night. She dropped her bag on the kitchen counter before coming to sit with her on the couch. Ruby sighed, just at that moment, remembering that she had lost her phone earlier. “I had the craziest day today, Livy.” She said, and then she explained how stupid she had been today at the interview she went for. As she narrated the event, Olivia stared at her with her eyed widened in surprise and her mouth opened as if she had never heard such stupidity before. “What the hell, Ruby?” Olivia asked, frowning. “You don't have to say it, Livy. I definitely know that I had been a fool. I was just so uncollected and nervous that I ruined the interview.” She said. “And you're this calm? You lose your phone and your money but you're this calm? How?” she asked, wondering if she had missed the part where her cousin had cried her eyes out. Her eyes