CHAPTER ONE
I woke up to an empty bed like I did almost every morning. Bryan, my boyfriend of five years, rarely slept in. He always got up around five o'clock to cram his work out session in his "busy" schedule.
Bryan and I had known each other since freshman year of high school, but didn't start dating till our senior year. He purposed that I move into his lavished penthouse in New York City that his mother had spoiled him with as long as he chose to go to NYU instead of WSU. She figured that since she could not win him in the ruthless custody battle that lasted too long, she would bribe him into moving closer to her once he was eighteen.
His dad, too, had tried to bribe him, insisting that he attended WSU and in return would get a brand new Rolex. Bryan chose the penthouse over the watch, but in the end got both the watch and the fancy place. He was, no doubt, a very spoiled guy.
I had left Seattle to join Bryan in New York City. Our relationship was good for the most part, except he rarely made time to see me. He worked for his grandfather, who owned one of New York's hottest hotels, and was overpaid for doing almost nothing. Every time I visited him at work he was either playing miniature golf in his enormous office or reading the latest Maxim magazine.
I got up to do my morning stretch and headed towards my make-up table. I smiled when I saw the pink frame that held a picture of me and Kate on the beach during our vacation at Tahiti. Kate and I had been friends since..forever. She was the most loyal friend ever. Kate would visit me every winter to enjoy my company and I would visit her every summer to enjoy hers.
I began to brush my dark hair and applied eyeliner to make my blue eyes pop out more.
I heard a gentle knock on my bedroom door, it was our maid, Mandy.
"Come on in."
The hefty lady entered with a vacuum cleaner and a duster. Bryan's mother entered after her which I was not prepared for at all. She wore a white pencil skirt with a red satin blouse tucked in neatly. Her long black hair was pulled back in a tight pony tail. She had a stack of photographs in her arms.
"Mrs. Ashford." I called out, surprised. I hated that she had the spare keys to our place, but she technically did own the damn penthouse after all. What is she doing here anyway? I thought.
"Ana, I just skimmed through all the pictures from your photo shoot for the Real Girls, Real Fashion event," she stopped to take a deep breath and got to the point, "Honey, you look fat in all of them. I don't think it would be a good idea to use your photo to promote the event. Too bad they won't allow us to use Photoshop to shave off some of that fat off your thighs."
"What?" I jumped up from my make-up table to grab the photos from her. I scanned through all of them, but didn't understand what she meant. "I don't look fat!"
"Fuck Mrs. Ashford!" cried Kate.
I had decided to call my best friend after Mrs. Ashford unpleasant visit. I got out off the cab and held a newspaper over my head to prevent my hair from getting wet from the heavy rain.
"You're not fat!" I heard her say over the phone. "You've already lost twenty pounds since you moved to New York. What are you? Like only a hundred pounds now?"
"Ninety pounds, actually." I corrected her as I dashed into the nearest coffee shop. I had starved myself for months just so that I could do a runway show for charity that Bryan's grandfather hotel was sponsoring.
"That's anorexic! Plus, isn't that event all about promoting real girls? They should be embracing all body shapes."
I was just about to order a latte, but changed my mind to a cup plain coffee instead since it had a lot fewer calories. I didn't know why I was letting Bryan's mother get to me.
My phone beeped and I held it in front of me to see who it was. It was an incoming call from Bryan. "Hold on." I told Kate and switched over to the other line.
"Good morning, darling."
"Hey, Bryan. How are you?"
"I'm doing great. Meet me for dinner at Moda and dress extremely nice. I have a surprise for you. I'll see you there after I get off work?"
"I'll be there."
"Wonderful!"
He hung up and I resumed my conversation with Kate.
That night, I threw on a pair of diamond earrings that Bryan had bought me for my 21st birthday and wore an open back red dress. He had arranged for a limo to pick me up and I wondered what the special occasion was going to be.
I arrived promptly and was greeted by one of the hostess. I scanned the area for Bryan but he had not yet arrived. There was a huge crowd in the waiting area for a Monday night, but Moda was one of the hottest restaurants in Manhattan so I sat on one of the seats that were available and fumbled with my heart shaped necklace from Tiffany and Co. as I waited for Bryan.
Bryan arrived not so long after, "Sweetheart, what are you doing waiting here? You should be seated at one of the tables I had already reserved for us."
He gave me a kiss on the cheek and took my hand as the hostess led us to a table for two. Our waitress, a slender blonde lady with impressively large breast that I noticed grabbed Bryan's attention right away, brought us over our menu.
"My name is Kelly and I'll be your server for tonight. What should I start you off with?"
"We'll start off with a bottle of your finest champagne," He answered. His eyes were still glued to her chest.
"Great! I'll be right back!"
"Bryan, what's going on tonight? What are we celebrating?" I asked.
"You will soon fine out." He shot me a handsome smile and continued to flip through the menu.
Our champagne arrived in a bucket of ice and we placed our orders.
Finally, Bryan dug in his suit jacket and pulled out a small box.
Oh, my god! Is he going to purpose to me?
I had been waiting for this moment ever since I was a little girl!
"I'm deeply in love with you, Ana. I really want you to be my wife," he said and popped open the box, revealing a beautiful halo diamond ring. "Will you marry me?"
"Oh, my god! Yes!" I screamed and nearly jumped out of my chair. I could hear the people around us clapping and congratulating us.
I was going to get married!
"I'm getting married!" I screamed. I had schedule to webcam chat with Kate immediately the next morning.
"Oh, my god! Let me see it! The ring! Let me see it!" she squealed.
I held my hand up to the webcam so that she could take a look.
"Whoa! That rock is huge!" she exclaimed. "When is the wedding going to be? And what would be the theme of your wedding?"
"I'm not sure when the wedding will be. But, I was thinking about a beach theme wedding. Maybe we'll get married in Malibu or even Hawaii!"
"That sounds amazing!"
When I ended my conversation with Kate, I proceeded to announce my engagement to some of my close relatives and even updated my Facebook status. I could not believe that I was finally getting married.
On my way to get some coffee, I stopped by a magazine stand and bought a bunch of bridal magazines to get an idea of what my wedding should be like. I sat on a bench in central park and flipped through the pages while I enjoyed my hot cup of coffee.
There were so many décor to choose from! I used my sticky note to mark all of the potential ones and figured that Kate could help me narrow it down.
Later that day, I got a call from Mandy informing me that she had a horrible cold and couldn't make it to our penthouse to clean. I wished her well and figured that it was no big deal. I could clean and do some of the laundry myself.
I arrived home and decided to do laundry first. As I sorted the clothes by its color, I gasped in horror when I saw some lipstick stain on one of Bryan's white shirt.
I immediately texted Kate and told her to get her webcam ready so that I could show her.
"Look!" I cried, as I held up Bryan's shirt to the webcam.
Kate's eyes widened as she analyzed the plum colored lipstick mark. She leaned closer to her computer screen to take a closer look. "Ana, is that thread part of his shirt or is it actually a long piece of someone's hair?"
I pulled the shirt away from the webcam to see. "Where?" I asked.
"Near the third button."
Oh, my god! It was obviously a piece of someone's long blonde hair!
I looked at Kate. The look on her face said it all. She was sure that Bryan was cheating on me with some blonde bimbo.
I got a phone call from Bryan while I was tossing and turning in bed, waiting for him to come home.
"I'm gonna be home super late." He said, "I have some work that I have to finish up in the office."
Like what? I thought to myself. Bryan doesn't work! He just fools around in his office all day. I did more work than him doing modeling gigs here and there. Then I shot up from my bed and became suspicious.
What if he's with that blonde bimbo?
I got out of bed and got dressed to pay him a little surprise visit.
I hailed down a cab and promised to pay the driver extra if he rushed me to my destination. He agreed and I arrived shortly to the hotel where I bombarded in like a crazy woman about to go on a rampage.
"Don't tell Bryan that I'm here." I said to one of the receptionist who knew me. He had the phone ready to dial Bryan's office as usual when I came to visit, but set it back down when I asked him to.
I took the elevator up to his office and took a deep breath before I swung the door open.
No one was there. Not even him. But, where the hell was he than if not in his office? Maybe he was in a meeting room somewhere and was actually working…or out partying with that mystery blonde woman!
I got back into the elevator. The ride down seemed like an eternity and my anxiety was beginning to make me nauseous.
Oh, my god. I'm gonna throw up! I thought to myself and stopped the elevator to get off the next floor. I figured I needed to calm myself down before I got back on.
I paced up and down the hallway to try to ease my anxiety. A maid that was pushing a cart full of cleaning supplies smiled at me. I forced a smile out just to be polite.
Maybe there was no mystery woman and I was only being paranoid. I stopped pacing and decided to call Bryan to tell him how much I missed him and how much I wanted him to come home before I went insane. Maybe I just needed him to tell me that he missed me too.
I opened my bag to find my cell phone and speed dialed Bryan. Suddenly, I turned around to face room 1094 and swore that I had heard Bryan's ring tone coming out from there. I tip toed closer to the door and pressed my ears against it. I called his cell again and listened closely.
No way. He really is in there! How convenient! I thought to myself. Where the hell is that maid?
I rushed to hunt down the maid so that I could use her universal key card to unlock room 1094. Once I've located her, I snatched the key card from her hand. She took off chasing me down the hall, shouting a bunch of angry Spanish words at me, but I didn't care.
I unlocked the room and stumbled in, tripping on some clothes that were scattered on the floor. My jaw opened when I saw Bryan naked with the mystery blonde woman bent over in doggy position.
"You dog!" I shouted. No pun intended. "How could you do this to me?"
"Ana, I feel nothing towards her. I love you!" he shouted as he got off the bed to get dressed.
"Bullshit!" I cried. My inner goddess was breaking down in tears.
The blonde hair woman brushed her hair away from her face and just when I thought that nothing could shock me more, I realized that she was our waitress, Kelly, from the restaurant that he had proposed to me!
The maid finally caught up to me and entered the room. I turned to her and shouted, "This man asked me to marry him and now he is cheating on me with that bitch!" I pointed to Kelly.
"Oh, mi dios!" the maid cried out and clasped both hands against her face in horror. It was probably the most dramatic scene that she had watched other than the ones from some Spanish soap operas, I thought.
I handed her back the key and stormed off. This was not happening! I had pushed aside my dreams of obtaining an English Lit. degree to move out here.
Enough was enough, I didn't care to hear his excuses. I was going to go home to pack my bags and buy the first plan ticket to Washington without a second thought.