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“Aunt Betty is your back playing up again?”
“No.”
“Are you sick?”
“No.”
“So, why do you say that?”
I know what game she’s playing, but I like to help her along so she can get to her favorite punchline.
“Your grandma’s dead and your granddad too. I’m the only one left of this generation and when you get to my age you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. You take each day as it comes. And I want you to take over the ball for when I’m gone.”
“Is that why you never asked mom to help you out?”
“Not really, it’s just that she always brings your dad and you know, we don’t get along. I don’t know why she always brings him.”
Maybe, because they’re married?
“Either way, I can’t be on the phone all day talking to you. I’ve got a ball to organize and you’ve got a car picking you up”
Then she hangs up the phone and doesn’t give me a chance to reply. I shake my head, because one thing about her is that she always makes me mad and smile at the same time. She has a way of provoking both emotions and I love her for it. I know that her heart is in the right place, but I sigh as I look in the mirror thinking that Aunt Betty’s going to be in shock when she sees me. I’ve put on so much weight that at times, I don’t even recognize myself. The last thing she’ll be thinking about is setting me up with anyone. Not that anyone would look twice at me. My skin’s a mess and my eyes have those bags underneath it. I used to think that they only appeared from lack of sleep but in my case it’s from being miserable and downright depressed.
The black dress I’m wearing is too tight. It's long sleeved and has a twist front silky style shirt dress. It used to be mid-length and now it's just covering my big butt. I've spent weeks wearing sweats that I couldn't go to Rowtons in that. I had to appear as if I was in control, even though deep down inside I'm the complete opposite. This is the result of being dumped, framed and homeless all at the same time. My only comfort apart from hanging out with Gretchen is eating one too many tubs of Ben & Jerry.
The Rowtons is the country club of the South. Where the rich and affiliate like to play. There’s just one problem, I’m far from rich. I don’t even have a job anymore after my fiancé managed to figure out a way to frame me for illegal trading. It was my signature on the paperwork. The funds were moved from my login and all fingers were pointed at me.
I didn’t have a clue what was going on, I was told to leave the office quietly. The Feds could have been called in to investigate, but as my boss and the board members politely told me, ‘We’re lucky that it was only small amounts. Any more and we would have had to turn you into the Feds. If you leave quietly then we can somehow turn this around and stop any investigation. Do you understand?’
I nodded like a bobbing doll, thinking that I couldn’t believe this was happening, I was in shock.
Apart from my bestie, Gretchen, no one knows that I lost my job and my fiancé, Sam. Not that it was any great lost. He used and framed me to see if he could get away with it. Six months ago, I moved in with Gretchen, the moment Sam changed the locks.
I could go to the family home, but to hear dad’s disappointing words about the fact that he never liked Sam seems too much to bear. He used me, not just once, but a number of times and the whole thing just cuts like a knife. I thought that he wanted me to stay late that night to propose.
I’d seen the hidden ring. Heard him on the phone talking about the trip to the Bahamas for two. I never realized that it was for my colleague, Cece who probably helped him set up the whole thing and the girl that he took to the Bahamas.
“Don’t make your face like that!”
Gretchen walks in and scolds me as she stands behind me.
“Gretchen what are you doing here? I thought you were at work?”
She shakes her head, “I told you that I’m working from home today. That’s the beauty of the law. You don't always have to go into the office. I didn’t want to go in. Too much pressure on at the moment.”
“Big case?”
She nods her head, “Everything’s relying on it. Even my partnership.”
She’s the smart one. If only I’d listened to her when I came to the city and didn’t end up following Sam around like a dog on a string when she kept warning me to take it slow. Out of college and the first internship that I managed to get was at the same company as his. I thought that it was fate. I didn't realize that he was setting me up from the start. Gretchen’s only four years older than me. She used to babysit me as a kid, but as we got older I started to think of her as more of a big sister, even though when I hooked up with Sam. I was still acting like a kid.
At times, I don’t know if I hate Sam or if I hate myself more?
“Scarlett you’re bea
utiful. Stop looking at yourself that way.”
“What do you mean?”
