Miss Independent (3 page)

              “I’m not saying I did. I wouldn’t do that to you, ever. But I’m saying if I had been that girl--”

              “If you had been Sheila from Slutsville, USA.”

              She bobbed her head and looked to the corner of her eyes. “Sure. If I had been her, would you toss me aside too?”

              “What does it matter? You’re not a tramp like she was. That girl went out of her way to screw me over, ever since we were kids. She rigged every homecoming election we ever entered together so she would win and I would lose. She always stole my Barbie’s and even my car when I first learned to drive. Do you remember her claiming to ‘borrow’ it and then accusing me of being too drunk to remember that I told her it was fine, which is something everyone knew I never would’ve done?! That Mercedes was practically totaled after she rammed it into a tree after SHE decided to get high on coke; and
I
was the one left suffering and listening to my mother scream at me for three hours, from everything to the dangers of drugs to the color of the walls in my bedroom. I couldn’t drive for a year after that and all she could say was, ‘my bad’. Bitch.”

They started walking again as Vanessa began to sober up.

“You are nothing like her, Nikki,” she went on. “You never will be. Count your blessings for it and I’ll count mine. And for the record, I didn’t toss her aside. That piece of trash willingly left the moment she thought screwing Nathan was more important than our sad-sack excuse of a so-called friendship.”

“Ten years down the drain over him,” said Nikki.

“He was the straw and she was the camel.” She tilted her head. “Or something like that.”

They continued on for a few blocks as Vanessa became more lucid in the cool winds engulfing the city. It remained gloomy but fitting for her mood. When they came upon Nikki’s workplace sometime later, she stopped and peeked inside, noticing the crowd was thinning out for the afternoon. She turned to Vanessa, who was staring out into the loud Manhattan streets, thinking.

“Do you mind if we go inside for just a second?”

Vanessa turned to look up at the sign and groaned. “I know you like working here, but I really don’t like their coffee, Nik.”

“Ok, well, I need to pick up my check.”

“It’s Tuesday. You get paid barely two days into the work week now?”

              “No. I missed last week’s check so I want to pick it up now.”

              “If you didn’t have your check from last week, what did you buy my food with today? Monopoly money? In fact, you always complain about not having money, and yet manage to pop up with some every week at the last minute, almost like magic.”

              “Why are you asking me so many questions, V?”

              “
Me
asking
you
so many questions? Why are
you
not making any damn sense, Nik? First the Sheila thing and now you can’t even answer me about a simple paycheck? If you’re borrowing from your parents, it’s perfectly okay, no one out here will judge you.”

“It’s not from my parents.”

“Then it IS coming from someone.”

“No, just…” She stopped. “I only need to step inside for a second, is that okay with you?”

“Perfectly fine. But if you want to go into work today and flirt with your boss, just say so and I’ll go home alone.”

              “I don’t need to go in today, V,” she said in a harsh tone. “And I don’t flirt with Oscar.”

“Yeah, and I’m Lebanese.”

“Just wait out here and I’ll be back in a sec.”

“I’m not waiting out here by myself while you go in there doing God knows what and coming out only God knows when. You’re a chatterbox, and it’s cold outside.”

She walked around Nikki and entered the shop, choosing to sit in a corner near the door.

Serving at the main counter was a handsome six-foot-two, brown hair, blue-eyed former GAP model turned human coffee machine. His name was Oscar Malone, and The Bean was his latest in a slew of chained shops located within and around the tri-state area. Nikki became his first employee at this particular shop just three days after officially opening on the Lower East Side nearly a year ago. Sitting pretty between two hair salons and a popular gym didn’t seem to be too shabby of an area at the time.

              As Oscar waved at Vanessa, she politely smiled and began scrolling through her phone.

              “It won’t take me long,” said Nikki.

Vanessa had hardly paid her any attention. She was too busy searching for messages from anyone else she knew who may have been invited to the wedding-from-hell.

              Once the last customer in line had collected her order, Nikki strolled up to Oscar and gleamed. His eyes lit up the moment he saw her face and his smile only got wider when she nodded her head, indicating they head to the back of his shop, to his office. He agreed with a quick nod and wink, then turned away from her.

              “Hey, Max!” Oscar called out.

              A short, balding man wearing a loose green employee shirt and matching apron came walking around the corner. His hands were wet and soapy from having washed dishes.

              “Can you take care of the front while Nikki and I have a quick discussion in the back? It won’t take long, just, give the customers whatever they ask for. This is kind of important, so…”

              “Whatever you say, boss,” replied Max. He gave Nikki a slight look of disgust as he wiped his hands down on his apron and headed to the register.

Upon entering his office, Nikki went over to the chair before his desk and rested her hands. Oscar shut the door behind them and lay back, staring at her shapely physique. The yoga pants hugged her curves perfectly. And the tank only accentuated the size of her ample breasts.

He tilted his head and ran his tongue over his lips. “I missed you today,” he said in a low voice.

Those words and the tone of them sent a visible shiver up and down her spine. She loved going to work because it gave her the chance to see him and work in close quarters every day. But she also loved the thrill of not seeing him from time to time and how enamored he would be with her when she would come back.

“Did you have class today?” he asked her.

She nodded. “It was a good one. We performed improvisations in front of everyone.” She spun around and looked directly into his eyes. “I was the slutty barista having an affair with her boss.”

“How did you manage to pull that one off?”

“I’m not sure. One of the girls said I didn’t seem to know what I was doing, though.”

“She doesn’t know you like I do.”

He walked forward and placed a hand on her stomach. She ran her fingers across his freshly tanned skin.

“No one knows me like you do.”

He slowly nodded and smiled. “Why’d you come in here today?”

“I wanted to see you,” she answered. “We were walking past, and--”

“What did you tell Vanessa?”

“That I was picking up my check.

He chuckled. “On a Tuesday?”

“She didn’t believe it. She thought I was coming in here to flirt with you.” She stood up straight and moved away from him, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jacket as she let out a shaky breath. “She sees it. She sees how attracted I am to you and it scares me that she knows that something could be going on.”

“When the divorce is final, we won’t have to hide anymore.”

Nikki nodded and rested her hands behind her. “
Desagradable
,” she mumbled. “And when will that be? My friends don’t know you’re married. V’s not in here enough to notice the wedding ring on your left hand. Maurice wouldn’t care, but it matters to me. Hell, I’m starting to get the feeling that even Max knows something. Did you notice the way he looked at me when we walked in here? Like I was the Whore of Babylon ready to claim my next victim.”

“I didn’t notice anyone but you. I never notice anyone but you.” He shrugged. “If you want, I can always get rid of Max. He sucks at taking orders and never wants to help out at front unless he has no other choice."

“I don’t want that. He may think I’m a whore, but he needs the money just like I do.”

Oscar came up and wrapped his arms around her waist, embracing her. “You shouldn’t talk about yourself like that.” He leaned down and kissed her shoulder.

She lay her head back against him, feeling safe. “When is your wife flying in from Los Angeles?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t care.”

“You
should
care. Doesn’t she bring your kids with her?”

“They’re in the Hamptons this summer with my parents. I thought I told you that?”

She squint and looked aside. “No. You didn’t.”

“Guess it slipped my mind.”

“So when she comes, she’ll be alone?” she asked.

“I guess so.”

He kissed the side of her throat. She blushed.

“How long is she staying this time?”

“I don’t know, Nikki.”

“I know you hate me asking about her, but the last time she was here, I didn’t get to see you at all. Only at work and you seemed kind of distant most days.”

“I had to be. She could’ve walked in on us at any minute. But that won’t be a problem soon.”

He kissed her again. It didn’t affect her in the same way this time.

“Some friends of mine are getting married soon,” she said. “
Former friends
. We all got the invitations in the mail today.”

“Congrats to them. Hopefully they’ll be a lot better off and much happier than I was.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“Because they don’t deserve it. The two people getting married…” She paused. “They screwed V out of her happiness by, in her words, ‘screwing each other’.”

“You’re going to have to explain this to me a little more for me to understand.”

“Nathan, that’s the guy, and V were in a relationship. They were together since freshman year, even though we had all known each other since we were kids. Our parents were all from the same circle of notoriety and prestige and therefore, so were we… Nathan and Sheila slept together in our final year and it just kinda ruined everything for everyone. The dynamic of our circle was broken and we could never get it back. Vanessa didn’t want to, and I couldn’t blame her. She thought
they
were going to get married and then she receives an invite that says he’s marrying someone else, and not just some regular ‘Plain Jane’ but her former best friend. They say you can’t turn a whore into a housewife, but I guess those two are just demented enough to prove society wrong.” She paused, thinking of herself and her own situation. Was she demented too? “Sheila was like a sister to her,” she continued. “They were closer than we ever were, Sheila and I. I never thought V would get over it. After today, I know for sure that she never will.”

“You can help her,” he said.

She shook her head and grinned shyly. “No, I can’t. I’m the last person that could help her, I’m the last person that even wants to and it’s for selfish reasons. I asked her today if she would ever discard me if I were like that, like Sheila. She told me I was nothing like her. And for a few seconds, I felt good. I felt like she was right, like I WASN’T like her and that I was in fact better somehow for realizing it. But I think I might be worse.”

She released herself from Oscar’s arms and crossed the room.

He stood back and made a face. “I’m completely confused here.”

“You’re married,” she stated. “
Married
.”

“I’m aware of that, but you’re not best friends with my soon to be ex-wife.”

“No, but I’m a woman and I know what it’s like to be screwed over. And here I am, doing it to some woman I don’t even know.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person.”

“It makes me worse. Just because I don’t know her favorite color or what she likes to drink at a bar doesn’t change that. I knew better then and I know better now, but I can’t seem to make myself care. At least not when it comes to you, and that scares me more than anyone will ever know.” She circled the room. “I never thought that at nearly twenty-four years old, I’d be waiting around for my married boyfriend to divorce a woman who so far, isn’t willing to leave on her own terms. Then again, I didn’t think I’d still be working odd jobs just enough to pay my bills either. My parents were on Broadway since before I was born. They were so unique to that world back then, him being white and her being Latina. You think it’d be easier for me now, being part of such an esteemed legacy.”

“It’ll happen when it’s meant to, Nikki.”

“People keep saying that. But I have yet to see any results from all the hard work I’ve put in since I was in high school.”

He cupped her face and looked deep into her eyes, an encouraging grin forming on his lips. “You’re going to make it. And when you do, I’ll be in the first row.”

“And where will Melanie be, in the back with all the other wives?”