Let's Start Afresh, Boss

“Hello, Mom?” Betty’s voice sounded hoarse over the phone, and she picked up her bottle of water that was lying on the passenger’s seat of her car and sipped.

“Bet!” her mother responded to the phone in her usual blitheness, forcing Betty to drop the water bottle, only this time, it was worried, and she could tell.

“What’s that voice? Anything is the problem?” her mother asked.

Betty took a deep breath, holding back the tears that were only on the brink of slipping off.

“Mom, there is no problem. There has just been a recent development between myself and Ray, and I want to let you know that…” Her voice trailed off, and she held the phone away from her so her mother wouldn’t hear her sniffing.

“What’s the matter, sweetie? What’s making you so emotional?”

“Mom, it’s not…”

“Are you going to have your wedding earlier than planned? Is that why you’re so emotional?”

“Mom, listen…”

“Come on, dear. I know how overwhelming this whole marriage thing must be for you, but you and Ray are in love, and that’s the most important thing. You two are going to scale through, right?”

Betty took a deep breath. “Right, Mom.”

“Come let us talk about it, dear. I know you can overcome anything. Is that not so, sweetie?”

“Yeah, I definitely can overcome everything happening right now,” she said in a strangled voice.

Her mother sighed loudly on her end. “The most important thing is that you and Ray love each other, and that’s all that counts. You two…”

“Mom!” Betty cried impatiently.

Her mother fell silent, startled.

“I am not going to marry Raymond anymore, and that’s the development I called to talk to you about!” The tears came then in torrents, and she sniffed as she tried hard without success to hold the tears back.

“What is wrong?” her mother asked finally when her crying had subsided.

“Mom… there are too many details, and I can’t say everything over the phone…”

“Well, where are you? Can you come over so we can talk about this? I’m truly worried now, and I must see you, Bet.”

There was a pause.

“Hello? Bet?!” her mother called, startling Betty.

“Mom, there is not going to be any wedding between Raymond and me anymore and I’d like you to pass the information to Dad. I broke up with him for good.”

She hung up without waiting for a response, and she could imagine within her the intense anxiety that must be building in her mother.

As Betty had expected, her phone rang again. Her mother had not been satisfied with her last words. Perhaps she wanted a better explanation, which she was not in the right state of mind to give. She ignored the call.

She glanced at her wristwatch again. It was already past seven in the evening, and she was supposed to be heading home. She picked up her wallet and perused its contents, ignoring her phone, which was now ringing continuously; she sighed in relief. Her credit cards were all inside. She turned the key in the ignition and honked as an unforeseen car that had just illegally broken out of the traffic behind whizzed past.

She sighed. Of course, the road wardens would get the driver sooner than he expected.

Betty had no definite direction in mind as she drove; perhaps a trip towards the west of Los Angeles was not going to hurt.

Her eyes were beginning to cloud up again, and her vision went blurry temporarily until she brushed the tears off and focused on the road ahead of her. Raymond started to call her again for the umpteenth time.

Betty picked the phone up from her thigh and switched it off.

Raymond, her fiancé and most trusted male in her life, had not only betrayed her trust, he had shamed her and his offense was too grievous to forgive. One thing she knew was that she was not going to marry Raymond even if her life suddenly depended on it.

What respectable man slept with his fiancé’s best friend and colleague?

Mia Moresco, Betty’s friend and confidant in the entertainment industry, was sleeping with her fiancé, and Betty was sure she’d never have been if she had not caught them red-handed.

***

Betty had returned happy from her meeting with her new manager, who had landed her another big job that was further going to showcase her on national television and was eager to share the good news with her popular hip-hop singer boyfriend, Raymond Jefferson, when she had caught him with her best friend, Mia in bed. The humiliation was not one Betty was going to let go anytime soon.

She’d opened the door to Mia’s moans and Ray’s groans of pleasure, and she’d stood behind the door in which she’d only left a jar.

She watched with stifled disdain and anger as Ray and Mia fucked each other right in Ray’s bedroom.

“Who’s better in bed? I or she?” she heard Mia ask through moans as Ray glided in and out of her, the tempo of his thrusts slowly increasing.

Of course, Betty knew she was the SHE being referred to.

“You’re more seductive…” Ray started to say and then stopped to kiss her.

Betty held her breath.

“Ah… you hit me so well…” came Mia’s slurred words as she lifted her hips to match Raymond’s thrusts.

Betty reached for her phone and made a short clip of them while they were still oblivious to her presence.

“She’s sexier…” Ray said.

“Ray, you f*ck me so well. I don’t want this to end,” Mia cried between moans as Ray continued to hit her.

Soon, they climaxed right before Betty. She took a deep breath and withdrew from the door as quietly as she could.

It was only when she was on her way out of the house that she sent Ray the video, and he’d started to call her, sending loads of apologies.

Betty glanced at the time again; it was already eight in the evening.

Betty was absent-minded as she breezed through Texas, waiting in the traffic she found herself in and playing loud music whose lyrics she did not know. When she finally veered the car onto the highway leading out of town, still with no destination in mind, she laughed.

“Wish I knew where I was heading!”