"Babes, the Vogue Boutique will close up if we wait any longer!" Ruth said as she applied a final coat of her lip-gloss.Christine looked up from the book she was reading and turned her eyes to the window by the right side of the large room they have been occupying for four years now. There were so many memories within those walls that Christine couldn't just forget about."Are you even listening to me?" Ruth cried out as she noticed the long look on her best friend's face.Christine turned her eyes in Ruth's direction and smiled. "It's going to rain. I don't think it will be a smart idea to go out—" she started to say but Ruth interrupted her immediately."Shopping is never a smart idea for you!" She hissed with a roll of her large brown eyes. "But not anymore. We just finished college and... With good grades. We have to celebrate! You have to come with me!""Ruth we can celebrate right here. We don't even have to go out..." Christine tried to convince her but Ruth was not in for tha
"Why did you have to press on the horn so loud?" Alex asked his driver as he typed away on his phone."There was someone on the way sir," The bulky driver replied.Alex raised his eyes from his phone and glared at the man. "How many times do I have to tell you to learn to be patient? I am certain the person in question wouldn't have stayed on the road for too long. We could have waited."He had a dozen reports to submit to his father in two days. The last thing he needed was more distractions from his driver!"I am sorry sir," The bulky man squeaked.Alex was about to reply to him when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He hissed and took out the phone. Without checking who it was, he answered."Hello!""Hey man what's up?"It was his annoying college friend Brian. He had tried every possible way to ignore Brian but the guy had refused to back down from pestering his life."Brian, what do you want?" He gritted out."Look man, I know you are busy and all... but it's my birthday today an
"Chris, I am so stupid! I have lost Peter Pencraft!" Ruth cried out as she buried her face into a pillow."Ruth, calm down and tell me what happened!" Christine said rolling her eyes."You don't understand, I had him. He was talking to me and then I slurped! Babe, I embarrassed myself so much, I think he hated me now!" She added dramatically.Christine dropped the papers she had been reading and moved onto the bed where Ruth was hitting her chest like a woman who had lost her husband."When did you meet him?" She asked patiently.Ruth wiped her tears and stared up at her friend with a pout. "We met at the club last night...""When I was waiting outside or before then?" Christine had kept a good eye on Ruth throughout the time they were at the club. The only time she had lost track of her was when she went to the bathroom and was delayed at the bar."You were outside and I went to the bar... He came and then I was drunk. I was giggling like some fool!" She exclaimed slapping a hand to
"Ruth, guess what?" Christine jumped in excitement a few days after her interview.Ruth who was surfing her social media pages turned a bored eye to her friend. "What? You have been dis-virgin?"Christine rolled her eyes and said, "don't be silly Ruth! I actually got the job!""Oh," Ruth said and returned to surfing her pages. "Congratulations love," She added.Christine was used to Ruth's reactions by now so it didn't bother her. Ruth was only interested in news that had to do with boys or shopping for new dresses. Any other thing was left on the garbage can of her brain. She paid zero attention to it. Christine didn't care.She had finally gotten her dream job just a few days after her graduation. She felt over the moon. She hummed to herself as she searched through her closet for a simple dress she could go out with. She had to give herself a treat. Not every graduate made this much progress in their career just a few days after graduation.She knew working for the Davies wasn't go
Christine walked into the fancy restaurant with her heart beating as fast as someone who had just run two miles. What was she supposed to say to Alex Pencraft? How would she even introduce herself? Would she be able to recognize him? Yes, Ruth had shown her a dozen pictures of the young handsome billionaire but she still couldn't trust her brain to remember the face. Her dark eyes searched the restaurant as if scanning a document. There were just a few people seated around the air-conditioned room. Soft music was playing in the background and the lights bounced around in different tones adding to the ambiance of the place. But Christine couldn't bring herself to enjoy it. The dress Ruth had forced her to wear was too short and the heels were already killing her as she stood by the corner trying to find her date. "Excuse me miss," someone said behind her and she jumped in fear. It was simply one of the waiters. Christine held her heart and took a deep breath to calm herself from th
“How long have you known Ruth?” Alex asked as Christine settled back into her seat. He knew he should have let her leave but something in him couldn’t let her go like that. There was something about her that made him feel at peace with himself. There was an aura of calmness that he just couldn’t put a finger on.Christine took a stray hair of her hair behind her ear before replying in a subtle voice, “I have known her for five years now but it feels like we have known ourselves all our lives.”A waiter came around the table and took their orders. Christine used this time to take in the dashing man in front of her. She couldn’t understand how Ruth could ever get bored of someone like Alex. He was calm and understanding. Handsome and alluring. Yet, Ruth had decided to leave him for her ex-boyfriend. If she were in Alex’s position, she would have gotten mad at Ruth, because why would my date not show and send her friend instead?It was outright rude.“Christine…” Alex called and Christin
"Believe me, princess, she's nothing but an opportunist golddigger! You can't see it because she's so good at her games." Rhoda lectured."I have told you times and again that you need to send that girl far away from you! But no, you wouldn't listen and now even your father thinks she is an angel!"Ruth sighed and combed through her hair with her fingernails."Mum, you're just paranoid. Christine is not that type of person," Ruth defended Christine as she passed an apologetic smile to Christine who smiled in return before exiting the room.She didn't want to imagine what Mrs. Davis could be telling her daughter on the other end of the phone. She was used to the woman's harsh behavior but she preferred not listening to all of that at all."Tell me, do you really love him?" Rhoda asked her daughter. Knowing the kind of child she had, she knew Ruth couldn't love such a daddy's boy but she had to somehow convince Ruth to do it anyway."Mum... Alex is so boring, I won't even lie about that
In the cold bustling streets of the city, Christine walked along the pedestrian bridge with her hands deep inside her fur coat pockets.It was a Thursday and she was heading back home. She needed to catch her bus.Working for the Davies was as hard as she could have imagined but the experience was one she would have never gotten without their help.She was grooming herself in her career and that was all that mattered.Christine was thinking about the presentation she had to do the next day when her eyes fell on a family of three across the street."Honey, your daughter is being naughty again," the woman told her husband, pointing to their daughter who giggled around with her doll.The man looked at his wife and Christine could see the love he had for her flash in his orbs.Her heart tightened painfully as she knew she had missed out on this sort of affection and maybe she would never even experience it.Her father never loved her and not her mom. That curse was probably passed on to h
~Alex could not stop smiling.Even during the meeting he had which showed that he had lost a sizeable amount of his stocks in a company in Europe, a news that should have made him sad, he continued to smile. He could not help himself.Seeing Christine after all this time was the best thing to happen to him today. Well, after getting married to his wife that is.When Ruth had asked him to let her go and get Christine back to New York, he had agreed without a second thought.He had guided his agreement under the veil that Ruth needed her best friend since she had always been a part of Ruth's life but actually, he had not agreed because of that. In fact, the thought of Ruth needing Christine especially to settle down in her newly made marital home was absurd and something he would never have tolerated but he needed to see her.He had offered Ruth his private jet to go and get Christine because he could not wait for the delay a commercial airplane would pose.And when Ruth had asked tha
~"I told you I was going to succeed..." Ruth said with a look of triumph on her face and Christine wished she could slap the look off of her face."Hello, Christine. Nice to see you again," Alex finally said to Christine.He spoke in a voice so deep and smooth that something stirred within Christine.Christine smiled at his words not because he had spoken to her but because she knew without a doubt from his voice that he meant it when he said it was nice seeing her again."Thank you. Same here," She managed to say in response.Her eyes flicked to her friend to see if she must have noticed the awkwardness between her and Alex but Ruth looked entirely oblivious to everything."Can you imagine Chris wanted to stay at a hotel instead of with us?" Ruth said to Alex.Christine closed her eyes in annoyance and closed her hands into fists while tucking her lips into her mouth with a wish that she could land her fist into Ruth's face.She did not know why Ruth was such a blabber mouth. Now Al
"Get up Ruth! We will miss our flight!" Christine called out to Ruth from the door of the room"Stop stressing! We are using Alex's private jet," Ruth groaned from the bed before using the pillow to cover her head from the glare of the light that Christine had turned on"Even private jets have schedules, Ruth!" Christine said before matching over to the bed to get Ruth out of it.She was not ecstatic to be leaving but she had accepted her fate and she was pissed that the designer of this whole plan had not even gotten up from bed.Christine placed a palm on Ruth's forehead."Still have a fever?" She asked Ruth."My head bangs like a marching band," Ruth mumbled in pain."Serves you right. Next time you won't go and get wasted again," Christine scolded her.After throwing up early this morning, Ruth had to take an aspirin to deal with her body pains before sleeping.Christine had been worried. She feared that those men she had gone out with had put something in her drink or harmed her.
Christine felt more relaxed after her bath.Her first foster mother after leaving the orphanage had always said that one felt better after a bath although she was not sure if this feeling of relaxation she was feeling was from the bath or from what had transpired during the bath.Clara, her first foster mother was the best she ever had. It had hurt her so much when she had to leave her care when she went to jail.Clara had been an orphan just like her and when she had left orphanage care at the age of sixteen she had refused to stay with a foster family and had survived on her own. She had to make a living for herself which she did by selling drugs.Christine had not known she was a drug dealer when she started living with her. Clara had hidden it so well and it was not until the day when their tiny apartment had been busted by the police did she found out.Although Clara was an addict, she made sure Christine never for once touched any drugs. She even stopped doing drugs in her prese
"A friend?" Christine asked."Yes, a friend," Ruth answered.From the way Ruth's eyes danced with mischief, Christine knew that this was more than just a friend and that there was more to the story."Spill," Christine said in a commanding tone as she looked at Ruth through squinted eyes.Ruth rolled her eyes and said, "He's just a guy I met on Tinder.""On Tinder?" Christine asked shocked as she lifted her body off the bed to have a better view of her friend."Yes, on Tinder," Ruth repeated with an attitude stressing the letter 'r'."What the fuck are you on Tinder for? What are you looking for on Tinder? Do you forget you are married?"The only answer she got from Ruth was just a shrug of her shoulders as she ignored Christine and focused her attention back on the beeping iPhone in her hands.Christine was not going to let this conversation die and so she got off the bed and walked over to where Ruth stood.Ruth was so engrossed in whatever it was she was doing on her phone that she
Christine was livid with fear. She was still confused from being jerked up from sleep and was the more confused to hear Ruth's question.Her sleepy eyes were opened to twice their size as they tried to make out the silhouette of Ruth's figure which was looking above her.Her room was dark. She had not turned the light on when she had come in and collapsed onto her bed. At least that was what she remembered happening. But she was able to see Ruth's face thanks to the dim light that filtered into the room from the opened door.She however could not read Ruth's expression through the dimly lit room but she wished she could. It would have given her a better understanding of what she was about to face."Um..." She started to say trying to fill the silence between them."You were moaning my husband's name, Christine. Why was that?" Ruth asked.Her voice was not helping matters. Christine longed to read Ruth's emotion in her voice since her facial expression was out of the question but Ruth
"Why would you do that?" Christine asked. She was flabbergasted by what she had just heard."Find a vibrator. Or handcuffs. Or a whip," Ruth added."How are any of those any better?" Christine asked wide-eyed."Is that not what you told me to do?" Ruth asked.Christine shook her head. She had given up on Ruth."Do whatever you feel is best my dear," Christine sighed. "I am super tired and I need some rest.""Unfortunately for you, there is no rest. You need to get your things, We have to be back in New York today so that you can report for your new position," Ruth said."About that, so you are serious," Christine said."Did I look like I was joking?" Ruth asked with an attitude as she got up from the chair and walked over to where she had dumped a couple of shopping bags on the table."But why would you do such a thing? I am happy over here," Christine said. She was already panicking knowing what her return to New York entailed. It meant meeting with the one man who seemed to have po
It was as if the words Ruth had just spoken were some magical words as the whole world seemed to come to a stand still as dhe blurted it out."What?!" Christine bellowed, breaking the silence."I am leaving the marriage Chris! I can't continue like this!" Ruth reiterated."What are people going to say? What are your parents going to–Oh my God you're mum is going to kill me!" Christine shouted as the repercussions of Ruth's proposal downed on her."Stop being dramatic for fuck sake. I won't be the first woman to get divorced," Ruth said with a roll of her eye."But the marriage is barely a month old! People are going to talk Ruth! You guys are still supposed to be on honeymoon for fuck's sake!" Christine exclaimed.Ruth had not yet divorced Alex but Christine was already feeling the pain that would follow her if that happened. Ruth's mother would insist that she had a hand in it.'But you know you could end up having him for yourself if she leaves him?' a small voice in her head spoke.
She was finally ready to talk and Christine was eager to know what was the problem that would make Ruth look for her and trace her down to this place.Christine shifted closer closing the gap that was between them."It was all a trap Chris, I should have seen it but I was blind. I should have read the signs, all the red flags that were being waved right in my face, but I did not," Ruth sounded so heartbroken and emotional and Chris hated herself every minute. She had a hand in Ruth's marriage to Alex so she was part responsible for whatsoever pain her friend was going through.For Alex's sake, she hoped whatever Ruth was going to tell her was not true. For his sake, she hoped he had never hurt her friend because she was going to bring down fire and brimstone on him."It's okay baby," Christine cooed to a sad Ruth as she carressed her hair with her hands. Even though she was eager to hear what Ruth had to say, she did not want to push her and end up shutting her up. She wanted her to