Shirley had moved in with Conrad.
I had only found out about it when I went to Shirley’s apartment, where her neighbors told me that she had moved just that morning.
I found myself in front of Conrad’s door later, only to be met with Shirley opening the door. She was wearing a blue shirt of his which almost matched the shade of her eyes, and her blond hair was up in a messy bun.
“Wow,” I mouthed.
If I were seated in front of a screen and watching myself going through this, I would be laughing at just how impossibly shitty my life was.
“Lauren, I…” she trailed off, possibly out of excuses to make.
“You don’t have to worry about the apologies, Shirley. I already wished you two good luck yesterday. That’s not why I’m here,” I assured her.
“Who’s at the door?” I heard Conrad’s muffled voice from inside the house, followed by his footsteps as he finally made his way out to find me.
His brows scrunched in a frown as he stared at me. “Lauren. Why are you here this early?”
I had been shamed so much that it was supposed to be almost impossible for me to have any pride left, but a part of me just wanted to turn around and forget that I was ever here. I couldn’t possibly ask them for help like this, especially now that they lived together.
I had one week left. I could still stay at my apartment.
“My dad died,” I blurted.
“Oh, Lauren. I’m so sorry,” Shirley said, her arms outstretched to give me a hug.
“It’s fine,” I declined.
“I’m sorry too,” Conrad said.
“My mom…I don’t know, she got involved with some drug dealers and I don’t know where she is. I called her throughout this morning, but I couldn’t reach her. Now, out landlady has given me one week to leave. I went to Shirley’s place first, but they said you moved out. I just didn’t know it was…here.”
“It all happened so fast. I really wanted to tell you,” she said.
“Why? You’re an adult and…yeah.” I shrugged.
“So, what do you want us to do now?” Conrad took us back to the point.
“I was wondering if I could…” I paused and took a deep breath, shaking off the remainder of my pride. “I was wondering if I could stay here for a while. It’s not a permanent arrangement. In fact, I’ll be looking for an apartment soon. I just—”
“I’m really sorry, Lauren,” Conrad interrupted, “but I can’t. Not right now.”
“Conrad,” Shirley gasped, surprised at his words. “She has nowhere to go.”
“For now,” he corrected her, and then he turned to me with a regretful expression on his face.
“You know that this house belongs to my father, Lauren. It took weeks of convincing to get him to agree to Shirley moving in. The moment he finds out that I’m letting someone else stay, he won’t take it well. I don’t want to find myself in trouble with him.” He shook his head. “I really hate to be doing this, and you know I would help if I could. You have a week. You can search for an apartment and I’ll put in a good word for you with my dad. I’ll let you know what he says.”
He had spent weeks convincing his father to let Shirley live with him. Was she planning to move into his house even when I was in a relationship with him?
I couldn’t say a word. What was there to say, honestly? He had assured me about putting in a good word, and it would only be worse to ask for financial assistance after he had accused me of turning our relationship into a transaction last night.
“Thanks.” I nodded, stepping back. “I’m sorry for disturbing you.”
“I’m really sorry, Lauren. I wish there was more we could do,” Shirley chimed.
I decided that if I had to hear her apology one more time, I would pull all of my hair out of my scalp and run into oncoming traffic.
It felt as though they were both snickering at me behind my back as I turned around and started to walk away, which fueled me to walk even faster until I got out and flagged down a taxi.
I dialled my mom’s number once again, but it went straight to voicemail.
It was almost time for me to clock in to work, so I directed the taxi driver to Milano’s, where I worked.
As I got in, my phone chimed with a text, but I ignored it.
“You look like shit,” Eduardo, the owner’s son—who worked as a busboy to pass his time—commented as soon as he saw me.
“I feel like shit,” I confirmed. “Do you think I could get four thousand dollars somewhere and just take it without consequences?”
“Let’s see.” He leaned against the counter, stroking his chin comically. “You could rob a bank, you could sell drugs or guns and other arms.”
At the mention of that, I grabbed my phone from my purse in an attempt to call my mother again, only to see that the text I had received earlier was from my mom.
Mom: 34 Winston Avenue, the blue house with an old truck in front of it. You have one hour to make it here if you want to take your mother alive.
I had wasted fifteen minutes of the time I had.
Another text came in instantly, and it was an image of my mother tied up and crying. She was in her underwear and her face was bruised.
Mom: Tick-tock, Lauren.
“Please cover for me, Eduardo,” I said, rushing out of the restaurant.
I ran a little too forward that I couldn’t stop as soon as I was supposed to. I found myself in the middle of the road with a black car heading in my direction.
That was when I knew that my luck was just about to get even worse than it already was.
I was going to die.
Pain exploded within my legs as the car hit me before the driver could fully swerve to avoid me. I was pushed so far back, my legs going high up in the air for only a split second before I felt a pain in my head as if my head had been cracked open, and that was when I realized that I had landed on the floor and had hit my head against the asphalt. My vision was blurry, and the sounds around me were muffled, as if my head had been dunked underwater. “Mom,” I croaked, trying to see if anyone would understand what I meant – I needed to get to my mother. As if a movie I was seeing had an abrupt end, my vision went black.~ “Mm,” I hummed and groaned as light filtered into my eyes, causing an immense throbbing in my head that would not leave even after I shut my eyes and rubbed my head. There was a rough-textured fabric wrapped around my head, and I only started to take note of it when I had rubbed my head long enough. “What is...” I paused
“What…what?” I stuttered, whipping my head in the direction of Damien, who still had his eyes on the road as if he had not uttered the most life-changing words to me just seconds ago. “Your rent, your mother’s debt, I can help you clear them,” he said again. At the second offer, I came to the cruel realization that none of that could come for free. One thing my father taught me before he died was that humans lived off of transactions – give some, take some. “What’s in it for you?” I asked the question that was hanging in the air the whole time, and I heard him chuckle in response. “You’re a smart one, Lauren,” he commented. “I’m not going to ask for much from you,” he spoke. “I’m only going to protect you from everything that’s happening. You will be taken under my wing as my fiancée to the public eye, and you will separate yourself from everything that binds you to your mother because you’re only going to get destroyed if you keep going around like
Before I could ask Damien about Conrad, he quickly pulled away from me. “I have to take this,” he said, walking away and placing the phone against his ear as he started to speak to Conrad on the phone. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about properly, but the last thing I wanted to do was sneak up on him because I wanted to listen in on the conversation. “Just because I know a Conrad doesn’t mean he can’t know one,” I reminded myself. There were thousands – millions, even – of people who had the same name, and it was only a coincidence that Damien knew someone called Conrad, right? When Damien was done with the call, he returned and carried on with the conversation. “As I said earlier, I want you to turn in your resignation letter to your boss or your manager. The last thing I want is for us to be caught in the ruthless rumours of the business world. If you get to be known as my fiancée, people will want to keep tabs on you from the press. I don
A long and awkward silence filled the table following Katarina’s admission to what Damien did to her. “I don’t hold it against him, by the way.” She raised her hands in surrender. “I mean, it would have been better and less embarrassing if he had just told me before the wedding, don’t you agree?” I silently agreed with her, but I was too lost for words to say a thing. I could feel Damien looking at me, but the last thing I wanted to do was make eye contact, so I settled for looking down at the delicious pastry and popping little pieces of it into my mouth as Katarina kept going. “Anyway, enough about me. That’s in the past, anyway. I wish you two the best of luck in your future marriage. Just…show up this time, Damien. Don’t embarrass the little girl.” “I’ll be on my way now,” she sighed, getting up and checking the watch on her wrist. “You were right, Damien; I do have somewhere to be. I must have forgotten.” My eyes trailed her as she left,
“What uncle?” I asked, frowning at Conrad as I walked out of the kitchen with him to prevent the assistants from hearing us and finding out what exactly was going on. Damien couldn’t possibly be the uncle that Conrad was talking about, it didn’t make any sense. “What do you mean your uncle owns the place, Conrad?” I asked as we got to the privacy of the living room. “Where is Uncle Damien, and what are you doing in his house?” The truth hit me with a pang in the chest, and I could barely keep my feet grounded as I stared at Conrad, hoping to open my eyes all of a sudden and find myself in bed to realize that I was only dreaming, but nothing was going on. “He went out for a business meeting,” I answered his first question, shoving his second question aside, even when I knew that he was not going to let it slide that easily. “What are you doing in my uncle’s house, having breakfast, Lauren?” he asked again, glaring at me. “I… He’s sheltering me.
“You seem to have made up your mind so quickly,” Damien observed, and I didn’t know what it was supposed to imply, but I nodded at him in response. “I thought about it as I went over to work. I realised that it’s not the right thing to do. I don’t want this to turn into something that it’s not. I know how fast this could turn awkward, just the way it was earlier. I don’t want it to be this way,” I admitted. “As much as I’m not one to help you make decisions or force you to take mine, I’ll have you know that I don’t see Conrad very much, and you won’t have to. If that’s what bothers you so much, I just thought to let you know about it. Besides, you only have so much time to think about it. You have nowhere to go right now, Lauren.” “I know that, but I’m going to keep working and—” “And how much does your job pay you in a day for you to get by? You can’t up and find an apartment right now, Lauren, and we both know it,” he carefully reminded me of my st
My eyes widened as I opened the text and read the words over and over, a triumphant smile making its way out of my mouth. Mom: Send proof that you have the money to help your mother out. I’ll decide when and how for you to get the money to us after that. Cash only. “I still don’t know if you’re excited or just completely horrified.” I jumped at the sound of Damien’s voice, as I had forgotten that he was there with me. “I just got a text from the people who took my mom away, look.” I showed the phone to him and waited for his eyes to scan the phone before he handed it back to me with an understanding nod. “We better get into action as soon as possible. People like this rarely trust others, and I’m sure he probably thinks that you’re only trying to deceive him. I’ll make a call to the bank and get the money so that we can show them that we’re serious about this.” I stared at him, partly shocked that he wasn’t fazed by the amount of money we were suppos
Conrad and I dated for almost three years, and not once had I met his family. “My father is barely in the country anymore. Even I don’t get to see him that much, and I’m his son!” He had once complained to me when I had asked him about meeting his father and why I had not done it. “My mother is just as busy as my father, even if she’s in the country. We can’t always catch her. We have all the time in the world, Lauren. You can meet her anytime because I’m not going anywhere,” he had assured me again when I brought up the topic of meeting his mother. Every other event of meeting the parents after that would always lead to an argument, and Conrad was a brilliant man. He would make sure that he twisted the narrative, even to me. He would accuse me of not trusting him and being too clingy and obsessed, and sometimes I believed him. Now, just three months into screwing my best friend, he had told his uncle about her and was bringing her to a family event.