High Heels in New York (9 page)

“Your suitcases were all packed and there you were, waiting for him like the perfect little girlfriend, meanwhile he eloped that same day in Atlantic City with your best friend. Remember?” Kathy snorted.

“Goodness Kathy, don’t you have anything better to do than rub my face in my fucked up love life? Go change a diaper or matter of fact, why don’t you pop out another kid since it’s the only thing you’re good at!”  Melissa shouted before hanging up the call.

After she’d hung up on her sister, Melissa crawled back into bed and cried herself back to sleep.

An hour later, squinting at the clock on the bedside table, she groaned, then staggered to her feet, carrying a train of covers with her and headed toward the bathroom. Her brain was working overtime trying to find a way out of the mess she was in. When she heard the front door to her apartment open, her heart started beating away anxiously.

Oh my God! Jonathan has returned to me and I look and smell like yesterday’s trash!
She thought to herself.

“I see I got here just in time,” Christina said, walking into view.  “Aren’t you
supposed to be wearing this?” s
he asked.

Staring at the pink bakery box in her left hand, she barely notices her holding up the ankle brace in the other. Hobbling toward her she begins to bawl like a baby. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

“Quit it or I’ll knock you on the head and tell God you died.”
Christina
smiled but Melissa wasn’t entirely sure she was joking.

Christina was Melissa’s sexy personal trainer. She had been training Melissa three times a week for the past year and though they were supposed to only have a professional relationship, they hit it off so well when they met that they became instant friends.

“Why are you bringing me cupcakes? You know they’re made with su
gar and lots of butter right?” s
he asked and then pushed
Christina
away far enough to grab a pink frosted one before she changed her mind.

“I
thought you were on vacation?” s
he asked mid-bite, “And, how in the world did you know about my foot?”

“Something more important came up,” she said, putting one hand on the back of Melissa’s shoulder and pushing her toward
the bathroom. “Melissa, when are you going to learn that in New York gossip spreads faster than
Mono.
Now, I’m done talking to you until you’ve washed that man right out of your hair!” She said, adding an Oprah finger snap.

“You’re a strange little person,” Melissa said, getting undressed and stepping under the shower. With every drop of hot water that touched her skin, she could feel some of the stress dissolve right away. The questions however, never seem to cease.  How had this happened? How didn’t she notice that her fiancé had strayed? The Tiffany gift he bought Valerie made it crystal clear that it wasn’t just a one-time thing. It was serious and Melissa was sure that it had been going on for a while.

That Bastard!

The bathroom steamed up and she lathered, rinse and repeated. She closed her eyes and forced herself to try and recall any sign that Jonathan had been cheating, a sign that she may have missed. Their sex life was good. It wasn’t great but it had never been great. Love always trumped sex…didn’t it?

Wash that man right out of your hair! Melissa repeated what Christina said earlier in hopes that it would work.

It didn’t.

Instead, she thought about how Jonathan and she never argued. Wasn’t that a good thing? Or is arguing good? You can’t have makeup sex if you don’t argue. Shit! Was that it? Did he
want throw-you-on-the-kitchen-table kind of sex? All of Melissa’s past boyfriends used to love to pick a fight. They’d fight over the littlest thing like the fact she never recapped the toothpaste or how she left the wet towel on the bed after she’d shower. Jonathan wasn’t like that. If he didn’t like something he would simply fix it himself. He would recap the toothpaste and hang up her wet towel without voicing a peep. Melissa thought it was a sweet gesture. Looking back at it now, maybe she should have done those things herself. And what if he did want makeup sex?

Wash, lather, repeat.

And she cooked.
Twice a week.
That was definitely a plus, especially living in a city where even McDonald’s delivers to your door twenty four seven. She put in the effort big time considering that cooking wasn’t her forte. She figured this out when she tried boiling eggs one morning in college and ended up breaking open the fire extinguisher. The dorm room smelled like rotten eggs for days. She’d used an egg timer religiously ever since. But her cooking limitations had worked out for both of them. Jonathan had recently needed to work late and barely joined her for dinner at a decent hour so she usually had take-out.

Shit. Working late! That was probably it.

Working late was the sign. It had to be. It was so obvious that she couldn’t believe she missed it. What man doesn’t use the ‘I’m-working-late’ excuse when he’s cheating? The bastard didn’t even try to make up a good excuse. Then again, she was dumb enough to believe him.

Right?

Knowing it was pointless to get riled up over old frustrations, Melissa forced herself out of the shower and toweled off. Then, she covered herself in a hot pink couture robe, brushed her teeth and this time, hung up the wet towel. Staring at it, she quickly grabbed the towel and threw it on the bed.

Fuck you Jonathan.

Walking into the kitchen, Christina handed Melissa a steaming cup of coffee.

“Thanks,” Melissa said, taking a sip. It took her a few minutes to bring Christina up to speed on the most recent events.
(Minus the pregnancy part.)
There was enough of her business already circulating the streets of Manhattan.

Christina had already caught air to Melissa’s problems from Angie and the news media but didn’t want to say anything. So, she listened to Melissa ramble on, all the while thinking that she had brought this upon herself. “I have to say Melissa. This is your entire fault.”

“My fault?”

“You live in a big city where relationships are over rated. You’re supposed to be having fun, experimenting, spreading yourself out like butter. Not trying to get married at twenty-nine and especially, not moping around in day old funk,” Christina said.

“I thought snagging a really hot and successful man was the main goal for any
woman?” She replied defensively.
“Doesn’t every woman want to be a kept woman?” Her brain finally registered his last remark. “And I didn’t smell.”

“Yo
ur problem is you brag too much,
”
Christina said, pointing at Melissa.

“I do not.”

“Girl, when Jonathan proposed, you were on the phone with Vera Wang before his knee came off the ground.”

“Everyone knows you have to plan your wedding years in advance in order to get the best,” Melissa said, reaching for another cupcake. “I wasn’t going to get stuck getting married in a hall like a commoner!”

Christina laughed. “You’re something else.”

“That’s what people keep telling me.”

Christina walked over to the fridge and took out a bottle of water. “When are you leaving for your mother’s wedding?”

“She wants me there on Sunday. But knowing my mother, she won’t get anything done in time for the wedding which means I have to get there by Friday just to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“It’ll be fun,”
Christina
said, opening the bottle and drinking the entire thing.

Melissa threatened her with a glaring stare.

“Really.
You’ll have the opportunity to give your mother away and see your family,” She said, wiping her
mouth with the back of her hand.
“Just come back with a tan and it’ll feel more like a vacation.”

Grabbing her coffee, she hopped off the bar stool and sat on the couch. “Don’t you remember all the crap I’ve told you about my family? They’re not normal.”

“Neither was the Manson Family but they found common ground,” Christina said.

“I’ll take the Manson Family over mine any day of the week,” Melissa said. Everyone claims their family is the worst. There’s always a drunken uncle sitting on the sofa making obscene jokes and an obsessed mom who’s always meddling. Melissa had neither. Her mother, the wannabe saint who drinks whiskey in her bedroom and thinks no one can smell it on her breath, is relatively harmless as long as Melissa doesn’t let her too much about her life. There was her cougar aunt Jazz who’s
latest romp almost landed her in jail on account that the boy looked under age but wasn’t. And, then there was her sister Kathy, whom Melissa barely spoke to on account that she always managed to make Melissa feel like shit.

“When life gives you lemons you make a margarita,” Christina exclaimed, as she stood up and began dancing in the middle of the living room.

“You know you’re insane right?” Melissa asked rhetorically. She had always loved Christina’s spirit. It seemed that nothing could ever get her down. And right now, Melissa needed all the positive energy she could find.

Unexpectedly, the doorbell rang they both looked at each other inquiringly.

“Are you expecting anyone?” Christina asked.

“No,” Melissa said as she wrapped the robe closed around her body and walked to the door. When she reached the door she peeked through the eyehole. “It’s the police.”

6

“Thank you for your time Ms. De la Rosa. Here’s my card. If you hear from Mr. Henry please give us a call right away,” The police officer said as he walked out of Melissa’s apartment.

“That was the weirdest two hours of my life,” Christina said, wiping her forehead with a napkin. The entire time the police officer spoke, all Christina could do was feel sorry for Melissa. How could Jonathan have done this to her?
And why?
Melissa was a good person. She didn’t deserve any of it. “What are you going to do?”

“There’s nothing for me to do. My life is over. Everyone in the entire Tri-state area knows my business by now. I’m going to have to move to Brooklyn,” Melissa said crying and burying her head in her hands as a panic attack seized her. The police officer asked Melissa if she knew where Jonathan
was
or where
he’d hidden the
money he
’d
stole
n
.

But she didn’t know. And that’s exactly what she told
the Police Officer
, even though the look on his face was evident that he did not believe a word she told him.

“The hell you won’t. Brooklyn is full of ga
ngsters and girls with big hair,
” Christina said, walking over to her and giving her a big hug.

“There’re gangsters everywhere,” Melissa replied,
walking back into her bedroom and opening the double doors to her closet and
trying not to laugh. “And big hair is in New Jersey.”

“At least in Manhattan they know
how to dress,” Christina said.
“Plus, can you see yourself back in Brooklyn?”

“It
’s not that bad,” Melissa lied.
She hadn’t lived in Brooklyn in over a decade. The closest she even got to her old home town was downtown Brooklyn and that was just to go to Junior’s for cheesecake. But now she had to pay the rent to her apartment all her herself which was something she couldn’t afford. Melissa felt nauseous just thinking about moving back to Brooklyn. There is absolutely nothing worse than having to move back to the number one place you were running from. That would be like shopping at Bloomingdales wearing sweatpants and a pair of Nikes. She just didn’t fit in that part of New York anymore.

Taking a deep breath, she
began picking up shoes from her closet
and holding them up in the air
. “Where in the Tri-state area will I be able to find an apartment that has a closet big enough for all of my things?”

“I’m sure you don’t have that much stuff,” Christina said, walking over and gasping when she saw the closet. “Geez woman, you have like a hundred pairs of shoes!”

“No I don’t. I have three hundred and thirteen,” she said proudly.

“How can you afford all this stuff?” Christina asked as she picked up a red bottom heel.

“Jonathan,” Melissa said, realizing that her golden goose had finally laid its golden egg.
“Why do I feel like my entire world has just exploded into a million little pieces?”
She asked, getting back into bed and resting her head
on an oversized goose down pillow
.

“Love does that to people,” Christina said
, picking up a Black Peep Toe Chanel pump and trying it on.
“That’s why I avoid it.”

“You avoid it because you suck at it – just like me,” Melissa pointed out.