THREE

MAY

"What the..." I heard Edmond mutter. "Is this you?" He asked, pointing his phone in my direction.

Yes, it was me. The picture that shone back at me was an impromptu selfie I had taken as my snuggle profile picture.

"Why are you even on the app?" I retorted to deflect the attention back at him.  My eyes flicked at the file titled your marriage contract. This was weird. No, this was effed up. I refused to let this worsen the already humiliating counting minutes of my life so I did what any reasonable woman would do in such a strange scenario. I stepped out of the room.  Outside, a guard was already waiting for me.

"Miss," The giant man began. "I'll be escorting you to your desk if there are any important things you would like to retrieve."

I scowled and let him lead the way. Retrieving my important documents, forgotten lunch boxes and my trusty hairbrush only led to another embarrassing fiasco. I shared my table with two coworkers. As I filled the box provided with everything I owned, I felt them staring, judging me and from the corner of my eyes, one of them, Chad Preston, gave a mocking smirk. I didn't need to read minds to guess why. Chad had been one of the few to consider me a pursuable conquest and I had rejected him outright. He was probably enjoying this. With the shambles of whatever pride I had left, I strode out of the building barely managing to keep my tears in. Storming to the side of the road to flag a taxi down, the words of Edmond Walters flashed at the back of my mind. It's my company and I decide who to let go... How was I going to survive without my salary? I had bills to pay. With whatever compensation the agency that just fired me would give, I could guarantee that it would only be able to cater for one of my many expenses. In truth, my expenses were not many. Just two really.  A house and foodstuffs.  I either chose to have a roof above my head and die starving or vice versa as I returned to the corporate market job hunting. A taxi stopped and I got in.

"492 Trainer Avenue." I managed to say with a croaked voice. The driver nodded in understanding and began to drive leaving me once again with my crippling thoughts. Portland was a big place with a lot of talented individuals who were still struggling to land even blue-collar jobs. I dreaded that it might have to come to squatting with my mother back at Clearville just when I thought I had gotten the pieces of my life together. My phone beeped again and while I wanted to fight the urge to just ignore the damn thing, I couldn't. Something told me it would be from that cursed app and what I truly needed at the moment was to divulge all my anger and pain to something else other than myself. I was right. It was another notification from Snuggle.

It's okay to be a little shy, It said. We noticed you didn't spend enough quality time with your new husband so Snuggle's own little helper will be on her way to help you. Be nice.

I let out a heavy sigh and tried to delete the app for the second time. Again it failed, sending me an error code that informed me that I did not have permission to delete the app. I gave up and threw the phone into my duffel bag. If I kept on trying, there was a high chance that I would toss my phone out the window in unbridled rage. The taxi pulled over in front of my apartment.  I paid the driver and highlighted. I took in the sight of the ramshackle with odd blue doors I had come to accept as home. Soon, it would be all gone. I dropped the heavy box and my shaky hands searched the depths of my bag for my keys.

"Hi there May Wolfe," A hyper-feminine voice greeted.

Hearing my name from a total stranger made my skin crawl. I was not what people would call socially engaged so I sure as hell did not know this woman. My hands froze for a moment and I slowly turned. My hands dug into my duffel bag again. This time for pepper spray or that fucking key so I could gut this stranger if the need be.

"Hi," I slurred, wearing a plastic smile as I made eye contact with her. The first thing I noticed was the woman's prominent red lips. Like the candy red that coated her lips, the woman was also dressed in a red designer pantsuit that emphasized her feminity. She looked elite. On her right hand was an Ipad and she looked a bit puzzled when I continued to stare.

"Who are you exactly and how do you know my name?"

The woman clicked her iPad for a few seconds before beaming at me with the whitest set of teeth I have ever seen. "You can call me Cupid. I am your love manager."

My eyebrows flicked upwards in suspicion. "Love what?"

"Love manager." She repeated. "Snuggle sent me."

  My confusion immediately metamorphed into one of disgust. She was the one the notification was referring to. I picked out my phone from my bag and pointed it at Cupid's face. "I don't know who you people are or what your deal is but I don't want anything to do with this insanity. I am not married. I don't want to be. Especially not to that bastard. So tell me how to delete this godforsaken app so I can get back to hating myself and my pathetic life."

A little dimple showed on each of her cheeks as Cupid pushed my phone aside as gently as she could. "I am afraid I cannot help you in that department. However, may I know if you identify as a feminist?"

"No!" I shot back. "Wait... I don't know. Why does that even matter?" I watched her tap on her screen like she was taking important notes for her higher-ups. It enraged me.  I slapped her hands off the screen and pointed a finger in her face. "Hey, you listen to me, I don't give an f about happily ever afters or this app so help me get rid of it or fuck off."

Like before, all Cupid did was click on her screen. Only this time, she pointed the Ipad in my face and read out loud. "Section 1.1.9 clearly states that only after a thirty working days test drive of marriage can you demand dissolution."

"What does that have to do with me? I didn't agree to any of this." I whined.

"But you did," Cupid said, sliding to the bottommost part of the document. "See." To my shock, I noticed my signature. "That's your signature." Cupid pointed with contagious glee.

"I can clearly see that. Why does Snuggle have that?"

"Because you gave us permission to do so."

That was it. The last straw. I turned my back to Cupid, found my keys, pushed it into the keyhole, and turned the doorknob. I was going to go in, find some leftovers in the fridge and get some much-needed sleep.

"Miss. Wolfe," Cupid tensed. "Where are you goingW we need to talk."

I ignored her and slammed the door in her face. She continued ranting as I made my way to the fridge to retrieve some leftover pizza from last night. Something about using coercion to get me to cooperate. I hammered to my head that if I refused to give her an audience. She would get frustrated and eventually leave. As I made my way to the microwave to reheat the pizza, I noticed she had gone quiet.

"That was easy," I muttered to myself. My phone beeped and I checked to see what new stunt Snuggle was playing.  My stomach flipped and my mouth hung open the moment I looked at the new notification. It was a debit alert from my bank. Someone –Scratch that– Snuggle had cleared my bank account of two thousand two hundred dollars. My entire life savings.