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Just in case you didn’t know this is for National Novel Writing Month.

La Revanche des Trois is a novel intent on giving you sensual noir.

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

Chapter 10

The next morning and the morning afterward, she encased herself into her home after wrapping her head around work for long hours at a time. Other than peanut butter sandwiches, she drunk lots of water and found she was even too depressed to even smoke. When she came up for air it was only to read her email.

Obviously, Jezica had not said one word to Lauren, because she received a casual email from Lauren addressed also to Jezica as well.

Hey girls, guess who’s going out on the boat tonight with the most gorgeous man ever! Of course I’m not going to kiss and tell, but I will let you know I’m going to scream until my lungs fall out of my body for his good hot sex, LOL.

Jezica had the nerve thirty minutes later to respond as if nothing was wrong between anyone.

“I’m almost jealous. You’ll take pictures won’t you? Shoot some over to us.”

Stefanie wasn’t in the mood to be polite anymore and just deleted the messages and went back to work. A couple of hours later, her phone beeped and she saw a beautiful Benz that looked right off the showroom floor on her phone from Lauren’s phone number with a comment “Look at what I’m about to get into.”

As she deleted that one, she also felt like throwing the phone across the room. At this point she really didn’t want to face reality and wanted to light up a cigarette in her house, but ingrained to never do that, she just quit work early, made herself a big bowl of ice cream and camped out on her couch with her Netflix ready to go for her.

The more time passed the more miserable she became as she thought about her life in whole. No real friends, no real man and a shell out a place she only used to rest her head. There wasn’t much to come home to.  Some sparse furniture in the front room that had a massive couch and a 27 inch television, necessities for the kitchen where she could warm up restaurant takeout food and then there was her bedroom which only had a bed, dresser another smaller television and a bedside table. The bathroom barely looked lived in because she believed a nice bottle of lotion and soap were really all she ever needed in order to feel womanly. Most times she didn’t feel like she needed to take time with her body and she thought she was doing good by shaving her legs and underarms plus exfoliating other smaller places.

She didn’t do the spa or luxury baths or massages that Lauren and Jezica treated themselves too. It always felt wasteful and the idea of some man or woman touching her intimately all over … even as she thought about it presently, she shuddered at the idea.

Her phone rung and she was glad to see Treasure’s number on the line instead of Jezica or Lauren.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Treasure asked concerned. “Because that greeting did not sound like you are.”

Stefanie took little notice she was on speakerphone, but that didn’t bother her. “I’m really fine,” she tried her best to sound upbeat, but it was difficult to sound like she was fine.

“I know you said you no longer wanted the situation with the client, but he inquired very recently if you would like continue or changed or mind?”

Taking a deep breath so tempted to take up the client’s offer to get her mind off of things and to make herself feel good, she knew that wouldn’t solve the problem of her current depression.

“I know we aren’t close friends Stefanie, but it really sounds like you need one and I listen pretty well.”

Stefanie wiped the tears that suddenly burst forth from her eyes from her misery that seemed to weigh heavy on her chest since she had come home from Jezica’s house. The revelation of her friends’ deceit had been hard to just ignore even though she had tried, but now it was just too much to bear.

“I know your sister is gone, but how did it feel to have a best friend?”

The line was very quiet for a long moment and then Stefanie heard a click to indicate she was no longer on speakerphone.

Treasure rarely spoke about her twin sister, who was murdered not too long “She was my best friend and best friends are wonderful. They’re the essence of life you need when you can’t take life anymore.”

“Was it because she was your sister? Your twin?”

“No,” Treasure said. “Friends. True friends are the people in your life that you need to make it on that bad day and they make days whether bad or good better. Friends don’t have to be relative or even the same gender, Stefanie. Their human beings we need in our lives to let us know we’re still human and no matter how bad or good we are, there’s someone who’ll always be there for you.”

She pulled the phone down on her chest to hide the sob that escaped her lips. When she pulled the receiver back to her ear, she said, “Thank you for that, Treasure. I guess since… since I never had it, I wanted … no, I needed to hear what it was like.”

“I’m sorry, Stefanie. I’m sorry you never felt I was a real friend, but I can be.”

“It’s not that. It’s not you. I just… I blame myself for not really getting tired of being tired of having nothing, but from this point on, I think I know and understand that I need more.”

“And you’ll have a friend. Me. Okay?”

“Thanks Treasure. Thank you so much.” She was suddenly exhausted. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Maybe I can peel these clothes from my body, wash up do, stick to my regular schedule and we can have lunch somewhere when it’s all done.”

“That would be perfect. Lethal needed me to get some software modifications over to you personally anyway. I’ll bring them along.”
She hung up feeling a whole lot better. Getting into bed after a long hot shower, she noted tomorrow would be Thursday. In the morning, she would start back at the gym which was her usual and really start to change her life around.

***

            Waking up at six, she saw the forecast predicated rain for later on in the afternoon, but since she planned to be back at her home before ten, she didn’t feel the need to bring an umbrella. Since the gym was less than half a mile, she decided to jog over there from her place.

The first drops of rain hit her shoulder just as she was walking in the gym and she prayed it was just some light shower, but by the time she got off the stationary bike, drenched in sweat, the rain had escalated to what looked like tornado whether.

Standing at the door of the gym, she tried to wait the outpouring of rain anxiously wanting a smoke and wishing she had drove over.

“Hey you,” Dexter said, with the most gorgeous smile on his face, sliding up to her from behind. “I know you, don’t I?

Looking up into the softest brown eyes of the six foot two large handsome darm coffee skinned man, she felt the air completely leave her chest. The smile was just too mesmerizing and she was clearly speechless. What a coincedence? Or was it?

 

La Revanche des Trois (Revenge of Three) – Chapter 10 (c) 2011 Sylvia Hubbard. All Rights Reserved.

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