CHAPTER 1

"Never!! I'm never going to agree to this, not in this life nor in the next. I threw a birthday for you and you're saying you're not going to attend?" Aria was mad and couldn't keep her anger in check. She paced around with her breath running all over the place.

"Of course not. When did I mention that? I'd be there in a jiffy. You've got nothing to worry about," he had said to her, calming Aria's throbbing nerves at once.

That was two hours ago and he still hadn't arrived for the party yet. Aria's insecurity returned. What was going to happen to all the money she had spent? The efforts? The guests? she couldn't keep her emotions in check one bit.

“I think you’re worrying yourself over nothing, Aria.” Bianca stated, quite unbothered about the missing celebrant and more focused on scrolling through her I*******m news feed. Aria however, was worried and now frantically searching for her car keys.

She tossed the pillows on the couch aside to further her search, “No I’m not Bianca. I threw this party for Caleb and it’s been more than two hours now and he hasn’t shown up, of course I have to be worried.” She finally saw the car–keys underneath one of the pillows and she grabbed it instantly.

“Well, did he say he’s going to be here? You know Caleb always gives excuses whenever it gets to spending time with you.” Bianca pointed out and the next she received was a pillow aimed directly at her head.

She swung around and faced Aria, “Ow! Why?” She rubbed on the spot the pillow had hit her.

“Because you’re trying to insinuate Caleb doesn’t want to spend time with me.” Aria folded her arms crossly.

Bianca arranged her brunette hair in place, “Exactly. That’s exactly what I’m trying to say.”

Aria shot her best friend a glare and she shrugged, going back to paying attention to her phone.

“I’m going to his apartment now to check for him.” Aria said and made her way to the exit.

“Hold on, you need to take a look at Amy’s newest upload on I*******m. She has her cheeks on display in a bikini!” Bianca urged Aria, waving the phone at her and Aria caught a glimpse of Amy’s sultry bikini picture but that was the honest least of her worries now.

Amy wasn’t her favorite and frankly speaking, she wasn’t Amy’s favorite either. Amy and Aria have never been on good terms, Amy is Aria’s boss' daughter.

Aria works as a waitress in a Burger Bistro and her terrible boss has a terrible daughter who always loves to make life hell for her whenever she comes by to her father’s restaurant. However, Amy was none of Aria’s business at the moment.

“No, I don’t give a shit about Amy’s ass cheeks, Bianca. I’m going to find Caleb.” And with that, Aria stepped out of her room and left Bianca alone. Bianca sighed at her naïve best friend, she can’t simply get the message can she?

She got up from the bed and also stepped out of Aria’s room, returning back to the crowd gathered for the house party.

***

A fifteen minutes drive was all it took for Aria to arrive at Caleb’s apartment and how shocked was she to find out that his car was still parked in front of the house. She was stunned and surprised. Meaning he was still home and purposely decided to miss out on the party thrown for him, or deliberately decide to come late?

Something doesn’t seem right here, Caleb would never do something like that. Bianca doesn’t know what she’s saying, she would never understand the dynamics of her and Caleb’s love story which makes it easy for her to judge saying Caleb doesn’t like to hang out with her.

But in reality, Aria knows Caleb loves her so much and her company as well.

So why isn’t he at the party you solely organized for him? Reality smacked her square in the face. So she unbuckled her seatbelts and alighted her vehicle, she would be finding answers to reality’s questions in a matter of minutes.

The walk from her car parked across the road to the front porch of her boyfriend’s apartment seemed like the longest two minutes in the entirety of Aria’s life, the route seemed unending.

And when she finally arrived at the front door, she began to feel nervous and anxious for some reason. Her inklings tingled, and her gut feelings began to hyper–activate, something really felt wrong.

Her premonitions were conjuring up the worst possible events and she really prayed that whatever she might see the moment she stepped into the room would prove her gut feeling wrong.

She apprehensively pressed down on the door knob and slowly opened the door— she never knocked, she had been dating Caleb for two years now and they knew and trusted each other in and out, there was no need for knocking, she even had his spare key. But the turnout of events that night really made Aria wish that she did in fact knock, maybe it would’ve given Caleb enough time to conceal the truth…

Her jaw slacked as she was immediately taken aback by the horrendous sight playing out right in front her. Caleb, her boyfriend of two years, had his penis in a place where Aria had never expected it to be in a million years.

Amy Walters.

Caleb paused his thrusts and Amy’s pleasured moans immediately went on mute. They froze on hearing the door open and who they least expected to be in the apartment, walk in.

Hell, of course, Caleb expected her, he knew she would come looking for him by the time he didn’t show up at the party. But the thing was he didn’t care about how she felt, he was done with her a long time ago but she was too dumb to realize and read between the lines.

“Caleb? What the hell are you doing?” Aria’s voice thundered, a mixture of furiousness and candid hurt, she looked like she could burst into tears any moment.

Caleb stood, still perched behind Amy without a single iota of remorse in his face. If anything, he was in fact disgusted and irritated with Aria that she had interrupted the sex of the century with Amy.

“Can you leave? It’s rude to barge in on people, Aria.” Amy had the audacity to say to Aria with an angered scowl, no remorse either.

Aria was stunned, she opened her mouth to speak but her orality was lost and she just remained there, hung open and wordless. She couldn’t even move or feel her legs— the sight had traumatized her, if she could she could’ve ran out of the damn house long ago.

Amy groaned frustratedly, “Babe, make her leave!” She whined to Caleb and much to Aria’s surprise, Caleb pulled out of Amy and pulled his jeans up and walked to where Aria stood transfixed.

“Aria, leave.” He pronounced and Aria couldn’t believe her ears. Were these words coming from the man she loved with all her heart or was this man here an imposter?

“You heard him. Leave!” Amy seconded.

Her eyes skidded away from Caleb and focused her glare on Amy, the stupid bitch who had just given her a thousand and one more reasons to hate her.

And then she felt motion in her legs once more. Fueled by her anger, she charged towards Amy and before Caleb or Amy could even comprehend what was happening, Aria had lunged herself at Amy and landed a punch on her damned face, it would surely leave a black eye.

“Ow!” Amy screeched in pain at the collision of Aria’s fists with her eyes. Luckily for her, Caleb got there just in time and prevented Aria from landing another punch.

“Let go of me you cheating bastard!” Aria protested as Caleb hoisted her away from Amy and made to throw her out of his apartment.

“I can’t believe you laid your hands on me, you lousy thing!” Amy cried as she pacified her paining eyes. “I will teach you a lesson, Aria. You would regret doing this.” And that was the last Aria heard before the door to the apartment was slammed shut at her face.

Not only did the bastard unremorsefully cheat on her, he also has the impetus to throw her out.

Sadly, Bianca had been right all these while.

***

Monday came fast— no, scratch that. Monday came slow, especially for the heartbroken woman who spent her weekend sulking over her failed relationship. She wanted nothing more than for the accursed weekend to be done with and it seemed to have taken all of eternity, time really does move slow when your heart is crushed.

It was 8:00 am sharp and Burger Bistro just opened. Aria was in her waitress uniform, highly overdosed on black brewed coffee to make her sleep–deprived self seem at least half–awake and had tried to make her hollow eyes seem alive with mascara, however they still looked hollow and empty.

“And what are you doing here, Aria?” That was her boss’s voice, Mr. Walter. She paused cleaning the tables and turned around to face him with furrowed brows, what did he mean by that question?

“Good Morning sir.” She greeted him.

"Save your greetings for yourself. Didn’t you get my email, you’re not supposed to be here.”

He was in his usual cranky mood, only that he seemed crankier for some reason. Aria couldn’t understand why, and no she didn’t check her emails. She stayed away from the damned phone all through the weekend

“No, I didn’t sir.”

“Well Aria, your services are no longer needed here. You’re fired.”

“What?!” Aria exclaimed, gaping at him in shock.