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Author’s Note: Well all heck has broken loose and I find myself at 3am in the morning thinking about my story, watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent and typing up a storm with Brian McKnight in my ear. (I’m downloading his new CD Just Me to my phone from Amazon for even more inspiration because I know he’s the only man right now that won’t disappointment.)
Now I know that’s kooky listening to love and romance songs while also watching a show about murder and mayhem, but that’s the life of a suspense romance author.
Author’s Response to the funny butt that emailed me about my writing, grammar and so forth: It’s a live story. Thank you for pointing out what an “elementary writer” I am to discourage me and clearly make me want to stop writing all together. I appreciate your critique of detailing all my childish writing techniques. You’re a true inspiration to those that have actually taken your advice and stopped whatever they are doing. Clearly you have no other things to do with your precious time other than going around ragging on people and the little talent that they have to keep them from their dreams and goals. Can you say dream killer?
(Yes, I’m going to be bad, but what did you expect? Lethal’s slightly involved.)
I encourage feedback. No, I demand it! Because I love it. Good and the bad.
If you’re doing NaNoWriMo and you want to connect with me, please go to: http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/sylviahubbard1
Synopsis:
3 Friends and one finds herself extremely unhappy as she realizes her friends are using her.
Yet revenge isn’t as sweet as she thought it would be when she falls for her friend’s boyfriend and then ruins another marriage.
Chapter 2
On her drive home as she was getting into her third cigarette, she tried to pinpoint the spot in her life that made her realize her friends were just using her.
For ten years, Stefanie had accepted the things the way they were. Paying Lauren and Jezica’s bar and restaurant tab, doing their schoolwork, helping them cheat on tests, and doing errands for them.
Maybe it was the call from her accountant, Kenneth Bianchi, about the large sum of money that was never paid back from Lauren a year ago.
He’d called her two weeks ago as he was getting prepared for an end of the year assessment before he started working on her fiscal tax year. He had started taking care of her books by a recommendation by Treasure earlier this year and he had been the best business decision she has to date.
Lauren was very upset about Stefanie changing over accountants because Stefanie’s first one had come from Lauren’s recommendation.
Kenneth’s next advice after getting her books in order was to keep her business to herself.
Not telling Lauren and Jezica her business this past year had really started to unstress Stefanie. There was less explanation; there was less nosiness and most of all borrowing.
The third thing Kenneth had done was catch her up to date on exactly how much each of her friends had borrowed from her over the last decade. Jezica owed over ten thousand dollars. Most of these loans had come from trips she had asked Stefanie to pay for and shopping excursions Jezica’s husband wouldn’t pay for.
The amount didn’t bother Stefanie much. The amount was more or less a principal of the matter. This wasn’t just a couple of dollars here and there and Stefanie didn’t even count the expensive monthly lunch and girl’s night out events.
Lauren was another matter. A year ago, Lauren said she decided to leave her job at a local fashion & style magazine to open up her own design firm. She had initially borrowed five hundred from Jezica’s husband and according to the proposal she gave to Stefanie, the bank loaned her ten thousand dollars. For three days she had called Stefanie up and been the nicest she had ever been in their decade old relationship until Stefanie finally loaned her fifty thousand dollars.
According to the terms of the loan contract she had signed with Lauren, the terms of payment were clearly laid out and Lauren was supposed to pay back the first installment of the loan three months ago.
Stefanie really had been consumed with her new clients and just stressed over all the demands Lauren and Jezica were making on her, she really hadn’t been thinking about repayment and any money issues.
So the next morning when the text message of her things to do from Lauren had gone off after her meeting with Kenneth Bianchi, the clean white pillow had started to bother her.
As days passed the empty pillow bothered her more and more. Even when she changed the color of the pillowcase, it bothered her worse.
Yet, even though Jezica and Lauren were supposed to be her close friends, she didn’t feel comfortable going to them telling them her troubles – especially because her troubles were about them.
Treasure had somehow become someone she could tell her troubles too, which was why the mousey friend kept suggesting her “private service.”
As she got out of her car, she stomped her cigarette butt in the ground still upset with herself for never giving up smoking – even after her mother had died of lung cancer eight years ago. She had never known her father, but the pictures her mother had of him were all with cigarettes in his mouth.
The odd thing about Stefanie was that the only place she liked to smoke was in her car. Lauren and Jezica always made her feel bad about smoking or even going out to smoke break when they were out.
Getting into her loft, Stefanie went to her bedroom to strip down to her granny panties and thick bra. Going into her small bathroom, she started up the shower and sighed knowing it was going to be a lousy night. As long as she allowed her tab to be touched by Lauren and Jezica at the bar, they would buy whatever they pleased.
Her answering machine to her personal home number was empty, but she never expected the phone to have a message since she wasn’t seeing anyone. The last guy she dated had been gone for the past six months and that relationship was three months of her life wasted as he pined for Lauren most of the time and only dated Stefanie to be closer to Lauren.
Men were not the high point or even the happy point in her life. Not once had they offered her any pleasure in her life, but she couldn’t give up. There was always that need to know if there was more to being with a man than just laying there and letting them do what they wanted to do to her or just pleasing them and getting nothing in return.
Unbraiding her dark brown hair with natural streaks of auburn from the four corn rolled braids that went up into the ponytail, she took a brush and combed out the waves and then used some styling lotion to wrap her hair. Taking off her underwear, she jumped into the shower and took her time washing herself up. The feel of her hands over her flawless caramel brown skin from head to toe gave her some kind of comfort and pushed the stress of her day away.
If she wasn’t working she was finding ways to spend time finding a little bit of happiness in her lonely life.
Her phone was ringing when she came out of the shower and reluctantly she answered already recognizing the ring tone as Lauren.
“Did you pick up my laundry?” Lauren asked. “I was getting ready for the club and I couldn’t find my red blouse.”
“I didn’t have time-”
“Oh you were too busy?” Lauren said cutting her off with an unladylike cackle. “It’s not as if you have anything else to do, Stef. You act like I’m asking you to go around the fucking world.”
Keeping her cool as usual, she said, “I’ll have them tomorrow morning.”
“That’s not good enough, but I guess I’ll have to wait, huh.” Lauren hung up the phone.
Just as she was about to put the phone down, another call came in. “You aren’t going to change your mind,” Treasure asked playfully still lingering on their prior conversation Stefanie had tried to avoid. “The stress in your voice clearly tells me you need something different more than you know.”
It was nice to hear Treasure’s voice and just to talk about something different was something Stefanie needed right now.
“Treasure, as evasive as you sound, I’m not as innocent as I may seem. Especially with men.”
“Of course, you aren’t. I just believe you’ve seen the wrong side of men.”
“And I built the software your business ventures relies upon, so I think I know what you’re implying and what you are thinking about involving me in.”
“Just hear me out, Stefanie. You know I’m not a pushy person, but I’m an expert at knowing what people need. Lethal wouldn’t keep me as his assistant if I wasn’t good at determining someone’s needs before they desire it.”
“And what are my needs, Treasure, since you think you know me so well?”
“Intimacy with a man. You’re tired of being someone’s second or others with you because of your money.”
Stefanie slowly sat down on a bed and touched her heart. Treasure was good… too good.
La Revanche des Trois (Revenge of Three) – Chapter 2 (c) 2011 Sylvia Hubbard. All Rights Reserved.
Please leave your comments below and let me know how you like the start of my National Novel Writing Month project.
Let’s pray by November 30th I’ll be at 50,000 words, but for now, it’s just 3245.
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