ONE NIGHT STAND BETWEEN BEST FRIENDS

Salma He was my best friend and also the sexiest valedictorian I had ever laid my eyes on. He was perfect—tall with green eyes that made me feel like I could swim in them for hours; lips that held all my secrets except the one that weighed heavily on me; a gait that could carry all of me without a groan. “Salma?” He called my name in a singsong voice that made me feel dreamy. I cleared my throat. The words were stuck in my throat. “I… I…” I stuttered, “Congratulations on becoming valedictorian.” Brandon furrowed his eyes. He had expected more, but he only smiled, “Thank you.” Coward. My inner voice rang in my head. I wanted to say the words. More than anything, I wanted to tell him how much I loved him but I could not bring myself to say the words. I watched him walk away, his graduation gown swaying well above his ankles. I took my seat on the podium and waited for the ceremony to start. “She’s such a snob,” I heard my stepsister whisper to her friend, Marilyn, behind me. T

Salma I could only read hatred in his eyes. There was no other emotion towards me in them. I stumbled out of the room in a daze and drove back home. Perhaps it was because my vision was blurry from the tears but I did not notice that my family's hunda was parked right outside. I walked to my room like a zombie but when I pushed the door, I saw my parents in the middle of the room with only an expression of fury marked on their faces.I knew what it was they were angry about already. Their faces echoed their reason loudly—they had discovered the pregnancy test strips. They knew I was pregnant. I did not get the chance to open my lips to explain. My father's large hands reverberated across my face with a loud thud. “You fucking cunt!” he thundered, “how dare you?” The slap made me stagger backwards and immediately made me feel dizzy. I wanted to faint and I needed to throw up. But my father was not done. He took a step towards me and raised his hands to hit me again, only this time

BRANDON “Dr. Gascon?” I called her name softly from behind. Madison and Terri had pointed her out to me amidst the crowd. The woman turned and shocked me with her striking blue eyes and a perfect heart-shaped face. “You are?” My heart stopped beating for a full minute, or perhaps it beat too fast, I could not tell which. I looked into her eyes and into the soul of a woman I had not forgotten five years since I had last seen her. “You are Dr. Gascon?” I asked, simply shocked. She frowned and eyed me like I was some annoying bloke. “What the hell do you want?” she asked me, her tone bordering on insulting. It was Salma alright, but she was not the way I imagined her to be. She had evolved into this beautiful successful woman standing in front of me. What happened to karma? She was meant to be suffering somewhere filled with regrets for the pain she caused me years ago but she was… she was the fucking goddess of the medical world in the entire country. “I… this was a mistake,” I

Salma The ring of my alarm woke me up and I was immediately greeted with a throbbing headache. This was not at all what I had bargained for. I rolled on the bed and realised I had hit someone warm and strong. I pulled the sheets off my body and looked beside me. There in my bed was a stranger. I palmed my face as memories from last night flooded my brain. I had told Freddie to take my little girl home and then I had gone to have more drinks at the bar with some other doctors. There I had gotten so drunk that I had flirted with Dr. Kane, who claimed to be head of trauma at Baylor hospital. “Admiring my beauty?” Kane’s eyes fluttered open. I rolled my eyes and climbed out of his bed. “Leaving me so soon?” He stood up and hugged my waist. I could feel his erection pressing against my bottom. “This was a drunken mistake,” I said but I did not free myself from his hold. “I know,” he said, “you kept thinking I was Brandon.” I let go of him instantly, spinning around to look at his

Brandon I did love Elaine but many times I found myself wondering the ‘why’ of our relationship. Was I with her because her father was one of the biggest investors in my medical company? Or was I with her because I genuinely could not stand the idea of being without her? Or was it a combination of both? I pondered all three possibilities as I stood outside her house and called my driver. He answered at once and told me that he was already parked in front and waiting for me. I spotted him and walked towards my car. Elaine pressed on my mind more profoundly as I sat in my car. I was going to propose to her on the same night that Salma had returned abruptly into my life. Her sudden presence felt ominous to my relationship with Elaine. It felt like the universe was trying to tell me something. What that something was, I did not yet know. The car came to a halt, and I realised I had been in my own thoughts for quite a while. “I'll be quick,” I told my driver, stepping out of the car