ทะลุมิติมาเป็นสะใภ้ร้ายกาจ (ยุค80)

Isabella Rogers glanced at the watch wrapped around her wrist, tapping her finger on the table with each passing second. Kevin was late again. He had become obsessively late the past few days that she wasn't sure they were dating anymore.

Fumbling for her phone, she shot him another text.

'What's going on, Kevin? We were supposed to have lunch together!'

She glared at the device in her hand, brown feline eyes flashing in anger and slumped against her chair. The milk tea she had ordered because it was his favourite had become cold, and so had her freshly baked muffins.

The cafe was toasty and warm, a contrast to the cold November weather that prevailed in Los Angeles. And yet, Isabella felt blistered. As if she had been left in the snow for too long.

Pretty ironic since it doesn't snow in LA, she thought wistfully.

When she had met Kevin a few months ago, it had seemed as if there was hope for her. That not all the men in her life would turn out to be mindless humans and sex-driven jerks. She had always had the worst luck with men. Scratch that, all the women in her family had.

Her mother had to bail out of a loveless and toxic marriage. It hadn't been pretty or easy leaving their father, but they'd had to choose between living or something much worse than dying. As if that wasn't enough experience, she had lost her only sister to the cruel fists of a man. Irene, her sister, had stuck to her crazy wife-beater of a husband like glue and where did it end?

"With a freaking gravestone and a couple of useless flowers," Isabella muttered to herself and sighed.

Somewhere, deep inside her, she knew what was going on with Kevin. The signs were there. Same as all her previous boyfriends.

First, he started keeping things to himself. He would space out during conversations or reply with a bored or irritated expression. He got angrier every time she pressed, asking why he was being distant and she had caught him on numerous occasions smiling weirdly at his phone.

She knew what was happening, but she hoped and prayed and begged that she thought wrong. Reaching for her tea, she sipped it and squeezed her face in disgust. It had grown cold, just like what she had with Kevin.

It was time to put an end to things.

Feeling courageous and mostly fed up with Kevin's bullshit, she rose to her feet, dropped some money on the table and walked out of the cafe.

The atmosphere, though cold, was cheery. Everyone, at least those who were happy enough to, prepared for the holidays with bustling songs and loud cheers. Isabella treaded the walkway with care as kids ran to and fro, skittering around like little kittens. The cold air blew at her black as night hair and filtered through her blue woollen sweater and she regretted not wearing something with a little more stuff to it.

Turning around the corner that led to Kevin's house, she stopped for a moment to reconsider things.

Was she really ready for this? Breaking things off with Kevin was a major change. She would lose her boyfriend, lover, housemate, and beer buddy for four months in just a minute.

If...if he isn't cheating on me, she thought, letting the false wings of hope soar in her heart, then maybe we still have hope. Maybe things can be better.

"We'll talk this out, "She breathed, taking slow measured steps towards his house. "And sort them and everything will be fine."

Kevin's house was a simple suburban home, with a driveway and a lawn and all the good stuff. His parents were well-renowned Lawyers, able to sponsor their wandering son. He had never been able to hold onto a single job for more than a month.

She reached for the keys in her purse and opened the door to the house with trembling fingers.

"Kevin?" She called weakly.

The living room was messy with clothes strewn all over the red rug. The wings of hope in her heart slowly tore to pieces. It had been too much to hope, too much to pray that Kevin would not betray her. She had known this would happen anyway.

"How dare he?" She whispered, feeling the ropes of anger envelope her. How dare he disgrace and embarrass her? How dare he play her for a fool?!

Isabella was mad! How dare all of them? How could she possibly have much worse luck with men? Men who wanted her body and not her heart. Men who had fun at her expense. Men who saw her as a pushover, a piece of shit to be flung around distastefully.

"Kevin!" She screamed. "Where are you?! You lousy piece of crap!"

Grabbing a golf stick that hung on the wall, she walked to his table and began smashing it to pieces.

She would ruin him. Ruin everything just like he ruined her! Just like he ruined what they could have.

"Hey! Hey!! Hey!!!" The coward launched out of his bedroom, dressed in nothing but boxers which he had hurriedly put on as the wrong side was on the outside. The woman he was banging followed closely behind him, her blonde hair tousled and her eyes hooded. She was wrapped in a toy story-themed bed sheet. The same bed sheet Isabella had given the surface as a present.

Oh, he deserves to die.

With a loud growl, she lunged towards him like a screaming banshee, prepared to beat the living crap out of him. Kevin dodged, weaving his slightly larger body around her and grabbing her arms.

"Will you calm down?! Damn, you're crazy!" He yelled.

"Crazy?! I'll show you crazy, you bastard! How dare you?! I gave you everything! How dare you!" She screamed, writhing and thrashing about to break free.

Kevin chuckled and shoved her away, mockery gleaming in his cold blue eyes. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you're crazy old and all I want is some fresh blood!" He spat.

The blonde Bambi walked to his side, looking rather smug.

Isabella wanted to tear her face apart.

"Face it, Isa." He said, wrapping an arm around his fellow culprit's waist. "She's younger, more beautiful, and doesn't expect the world from me. You do! And you know what? It's darn depressing!"

Younger? More beautiful?

Tears came unannounced as the humiliation sunk deep. Her shoulders shook with sobs, and she brushed past him, fleeing the house.

Isabella had no idea how far she walked, crying her heart out all through the streets of LA, but somehow she found herself standing before Anna's house.

Her best friend stood on the verandah, with hands on her waist and lips pursed.

"The heck, Isa? You're like a leaking watermelon, gosh," Anna said watching the moppy figure approach her.

"Anna..." Isabella sobbed, wrapping her arms around the brunette who stared at her blankly. "I am so stupid, Anna."

Anna's countenance softened understandably. She embraced her friend in return and led her into the house.

"It's okay, babe. Come on, cry it all out." She urged. It wasn't the first time Isabella would come over to her place crying over a failed relationship. Heck, she could almost say she had gotten used to it.

"He...he said I'm old... And ugly! Am I ugly, Anna? Am I that bad? I'm just 29, I'm not freaking Methuselah... Right?" Isabella asked between hiccups.

Anna shook her head in the negative. Isabella was far from ugly. She had the prettiest brown eyes Anna had seen on humans, and her black straight hair gave her a pretty sophisticated appearance. She was thick and well endowed with curves that Anna wished she had.

"Kevin's just being a bastard, honey. It'll all be fine, hmm?" She consoled, patting the latter's back.

"No, no. You know what? I'm done. " Isabella sniffed. "I don't care anymore. Men have zero places in my life right now. They're all obnoxious overbearing jerks!"

Anna sighed. "You say that all the time, Isa." She reminded him.

Isabella cleared her throat and shook her head. "I mean it this time, Anna. I really do. I can't... I won't do this anymore. Cry over a pig? I won't!"

Her best friend chuckled, letting her go. "I'll remind you next month when you start feeling lonely."

Isabella wiped her face and said in a stone-cold tone. "Trust me, Anna, it won't happen anymore. If I get lonely, I'll buy a freaking teddy bear or adopt a child or something."

Anna stared at her for a full minute. She had known Isa since college and if there was any penultimate dream of hers, it was to have a child and name him or her after her sister.

"Or," she began staring straight into Isabella's eyes. "You could do an artificial insemination."

Isabella's brows furrowed. "True. I don't need a man for that."

Anna nodded. "And lots of men donate sperm all the time."

"And I'll have a baby of my own, someone to call mine. Someone that won't make me feel lonely." She crooned. "Anna, you're a genius."