Molly sat at her dresser and stared at herself in the mirror. She was getting married in 2 weeks. She should be happy, jumping for joy.
Yet instead she felt. "Empty"
"What's empty?" asked Richard from behind her.
"Nothing"
She felt as if everything was a nightmare that she desperately needed to escape. Her mind drifted to Shane and suddenly she was flooded with emotion.
But Shane's no good. Thought Molly. I know that. Then why am I feeling so… ugh!
"Molly honey…. Are you up there?"
"Yes mother"
Phyllis made her way up the stairs and into the bedroom.
"Oh! You didn't say Richard was here too"
"Why would I need to say anything about Richard?"
"Well.um. You two could be having couple time and I wouldn't want to interrupt that."
"Why would we want to have 'couple time' "?
"Don't worry mum." Said Richard "You're welcome here anytime."
Phyllis waited until Richard had left the room and made his way down the stairs before she knelt beside Molly.
"How could you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Why would we want to have couple time?"
"But it's a valid question. Why would we want to have couple time? I see enough of him in the day time."
"Because it's an important part of maintaining a relationship, me and your father always put aside time for each other. That was our couple time."
"Oh yeah. I can see how well that worked for you."
"Don't be smart to me young lady. After everything you put him through, you could at least treat him with respect."
Molly looked away and Phyllis sighed.
"She really did a job on you"
Molly was silent. Phyllis stood up and stroked Molly's hair.
"You look so good in your wedding gown. Now what type of bouquet should we get you? Lilies? What do you think?"
But her efforts were wasted; Molly's mind was elsewhere as she wistfully pictured a certain dark haired hairdresser.
On the other side of town an attractive Latino woman gazed at an ad on a supermarket notice board.
Flat mate wanted.
Tidy and well organised with rent on time.
Smallish apartment but nice view. 2 decent sized rooms on 4th floor.
She stared at the number written below and hesitated before reaching into her handbag for her phone.
She created a short txt.
Am interested in apartment.
Txt me back address and I will come and look.
I am well organised and will pay rent 6 months in advance.
As the txt was sending she glanced back up at the ad. Something about it was familiar but she couldn't put her finger on what.
She was interrupted however by a new txt. She read it and smiled, placed her phone back in her bag and walked across the road, glancing at the street sign.
Shane sat on her couch waiting, someone had replied to her ad. She was in need of help for rent money and had decided to find a flatmate. Besides that she also figured that some new company would take her mind off Molly and the upcoming wedding.
There was a knock on the door and she stood up and quickly examined herself in the mirror.
She then grinned wolfishly at her reflection and reached for the door handle.
The young Latino woman who was on the other side of the door started to speak as the door opened.
"The apartment better by clean or I'm taking my 6 months rent money some place else. And if you're a.."
But what her potential flatmate was, was lost as the Latino's sentence trailed off. She stared incredously at the woman holding open the apartment door, her own shock mirrored on the woman's face.
"Carmen?!" Asked the woman the surprise clear in her voice.
"Shane?" Replied Carmen feeling a rush of mixed emotions as she spoke.