by Unknown
“Hello?”
“Hey girl, what are you doing for lunch?”
“Why hello there Ms. Diva, want to go with me to the park for lunch?”
“That would be great. I have so much to tell you about my weekend. So I’ll meet you at the front because we’ll have to walk there,” Regina told her.
“Great, I want to hear about everything, see you downstairs.”
When they got to the park, they went straight to Mrs. Ramona’s cart to get some of her good food. “My goodness girl let me look at you now,” Mrs. Ramona said giving her a hug and then opening her arms. “You have changed since the last time I’ve seen you Gina girl and you are looking good. Has that Irish man of yours put something on you?”
Regina laughed at her comment. “I think he has and I love every moment of it too.”
The women laughed as Mrs. Ramona served them up some food before going over to some tables. “Now, I want to know everything that happened to you this weekend because Mrs. Ramona is right, you look so different now you’re practically glowing. I think Collin has been good for you.” Maxine smiled at her friend.
“I don’t know where to begin because this whole weekend has been nothing but magic for me. He told me that this weekend would be all about me and he was so right about that. We went to his place off in the suburbs, which was so nice Max, and we had champagne and cheese by the fire until we soon got all hot and bothered near the couch.” Regina squealed. Max looked shocked until she began to squeal right along with her.
“So how was he?” Maxine asked, biting her lip.
“He was so gentle but so fucking hot it was unreal, he was like an animal. Afterward, we had to get ready to go to the party. It was nice seeing everybody and all of Collin’s friends were so nice but we didn’t stay very long though, we were both ready for round two. When I woke up the next morning, he brought me breakfast in bed and said he had a surprise for me, he didn’t tell me that we were going to visit his family. I was completely shocked. I met all of his brothers, he has nine of them and they all look just like him.”
Maxine chuckled. “You know you can hook a sister up, right. Are any of them married?”
Regina laughed at her friend’s comment, taking a sip of ice tea. But before she could say another word, she saw a familiar face coming toward them. Carol, along with another woman, was heading to their table.
“Why hello there Regina, how are you today?” she said while the woman who was with her looked on with a smirk.
“Doing pretty good and you?”
“Oh, I’m doing just fine. Do you mind if my friend Kendra and I sit with you guys? It’s always nice to sit with coworkers, you know,” Carol said as the two of them sat on the opposite side of the table.
“Decided to have lunch at the park today Carol?” Maxine asked.
Regina didn’t like this and was starting to have a strange feeling in her stomach. Obviously, Max thought the same thing if the look on her face was anything to go by.
“I heard about the party on Saturday, I was wondering how it went?”
“Oh it was really nice, too bad you weren’t able to make it,” Regina said, picking through her food before giving her a reassuring smile.
“Yeah too bad for her, but not too bad for you though,” Kendra chimed in.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Maxine demanded as Carol’s lips grew into a grin as big as a Cheshire cat.
“Let me ask you a question Regina, why do you think Collin got with you in the first place?”
She didn’t like how this was going. She needed to leave and leave right now. “Let’s go Max.”
“Wait, I’m not done talking with you, why you won’t answer my question?”
“Because he wanted to get to know me or maybe because he likes me.” Carol and Kendra started laughing. She didn’t understand why they were laughing at her about what she said.
“Honestly, get a fucking clue. The only reason why Collin got with you was because of a bet, he doesn’t like you at all and he’s been using you.”
The words hit her like a big slap in the face and she fired back. “You fucking lying bitch, you’re just jealous because he took interest in me and stopped seeing you.”
“Why would I be jealous of a thing like you? You got played by one of the biggest players in the office. He only cared to win a bet and you were part of the ploy, he needed the homeliest chick in the office and you were the one he picked. They do that every year and the winner gets a week’s vacation. Sorry to burst your big fat bubble girl, if you don’t believe me, ask him yourself!”
“Fine, I will!”
Getting up, Regina started walking away from the group but heard Maxine ask, “Why would you do that to her?”
“Because I can and she needs to be put in her place.” The three women began walking faster to catch up with Regina as she was making her way out of the park.
Regina’s eyes stung with tears as she made her way down the busy street. She couldn’t believe what that bitch said, she had to be lying. Yet, her heart ached with each step she took. Once she reached the building, she went inside and tried not to let the dismayed expressions of the people getting off the elevators affect her. She pressed the button repeatedly to the Collin’s floor.
The doors were about to close when she saw Maxine and the others hot on her trail. She didn’t bother to wait, she didn’t want to wait, she wanted answers and she wanted them right away.
* * * *
“I messed up my lunch date to hear all that crap,” snapped Collin, walking out of the conference room. The so-called meeting was basically a short presentation that lasted all of ten minutes, ten minutes he could have been spending with Regina. Now he would more than likely end up spending it in his office with a sandwich instead.
“I ordered some Chinese food, want to share?” asked John.
“Sure, bring it to my office and we’ll eat there and talk.” Collin patted his back and walked around the corner toward his office. When he got inside, the phone rang but before he could answer it, he heard a commotion outside his door. Then the commotion came into his office by way of four disgruntled women, Regina, Carol, and two other women.
“What’s going on here?”
“We need to talk right now, I want to know something from you Collin and I would like the truth. Why did you ask me out to lunch originally?” Regina asked as one of the women closed the door behind them.
Collin looked at the group and noticed Carol standing there with a smirk on her face, her arms folded against her chest.
She knows about the party. Damn it!
Collin looked at Regina, having a hard time telling her the answer she wanted to hear. “I invited you to lunch because of a bet. You see, every year each male executive picks out the most shy or homely girl in our building and invites her to a pig party. Whoever brings the worst one wins a vacation. But honestly Gina, once I got to know you, I really fell for you, deep, and that’s the truth. I’ve never met anyone like you in my life. I didn’t want you to find out about it this way.”
She slid her hand into her pocket and grabbed the handkerchief she had gotten from Jordan the other day. “How fucking dare you do that to me, I thought you may have been falling in love with me. So who won the bet anyways?”
“It was a toss-up between you, Linda, and Agnes. Agnes won the bet, you didn’t,” Collin solemnly said as her tears continued to fall.
“Even though you admitted caring for me, made love to me, and did all those wonderful things for me, you still went through with the party because you wanted to win a stupid fucking bet. Were you ever going to tell me about it?”
He felt his eyes start to well up too as she got up in his face.
“No, I wasn’t going to tell you. I had hoped it wouldn’t have come to this.” He eyed Carol as the woman standing next to her giggled. “Did you have to be such a vindictive bitch to mess with her like this?”
“You get what you deserve for pushing me to
the side for this fat thing Collin.”
The door opened as John walked in with Chinese food in hand. “I didn’t know you were inviting more people, I don’t have enough food for everybody.”
“Why don’t you ask John, John weren’t you going out with that Linda girl for a while?” Carol asked him while he put down the food.
“How in the hell did you know about me and Linda? Yeah I was going out with her, but she’s not here today. What the hell is going on here, man?”
“It seems we have a vindictive bitch who wanted to get back at me by letting Regina know about the party and why I went out with her in the first place."
Collin looked back at Regina, who was in tears.
“Regina you have to believe I didn’t want you to find out because I didn’t want you to be hurt,” Collin assured her while he tried to hold her hand but she snatched it away from him.
“Don’t you dare touch me you bastard, you played me for a fool. If you cared for me like you say you do, you wouldn’t have went through with going to that stupid party and same goes for you John. How dare you play with women’s emotions like that! I want my shit out of your car right now, so go and get it or I’ll bust open you’re fucking windows to get to the trunk!” Regina demanded with a quiver in her voice as she tried to control the tears.
“You wouldn’t do that to me Regina, would you?”
“Just get my stuff out of your car now!” Regina screamed to the point that he noticed Regina’s friend jump before walking to her side.
“All right baby.” Collin moved past her along with John.
When he rounded the corner towards the elevator, Collin avoided the stares he got while he waited. He knew everybody would be talking about what was going on in his office. Instead of waiting, he walked toward the door leading to the stairs. As he flew down the steps, he thought it was going to take him forever to get to the parking garage but the exercise would do him good. Honestly, he never thought that this would happen, especially now. It took him all but ten minutes to get to his car. But instead of getting her bag out of the trunk, Collin ended up kicking the tire. The pain that pulsed in his big toe was nothing compared to how much pain he had caused Regina at that moment. His throat started to tighten thinking about the look in her eyes when he told her the truth. He swore he could have broken Carol’s neck for what she had done, the vindictive bitch. Now he not only had to look upon Regina’s disappointed face but he may just end up losing her forever.
* * * *
Anger and sadness blazing through her, Regina turned Carol and Kendra’s way as the two women watched her. Kendra slowly moved out of the way so Carol stood there alone. She looked this woman eye to eye as the smirk she once had on her face was now replaced with worry, obviously wondering what she got herself into at that moment. “I hope you’re happy with what you’ve done. You and him belong together honestly, both of you are liars and cheats, taking whatever the hell you want by making others feel inferior. So you should be very happy because I am through with him for good. Oh and fair warning, even though I might be very cool and collected right now, don’t think I haven’t forgotten what you’ve done to me. If I ever see you by yourself I will break every fucking bone in your body and leave your sorry ass for dead. And that wasn’t a threat, it’s a promise because I only give my word when I know I can and will keep.”
Carol looked at Kendra and said, “Let’s go.”
As they left, Collin walked in with Regina’s overnight bag. Once she saw her bag, she quickly grabbed it and made her way out of the office along with Maxine to the elevator.
“Please come back into the office Gina, I want us to talk about this.”
But she never said a word, never looked his way as the doors of the elevator opened up and the two ladies went inside…until that last split second before the doors closed. She looked at him and shook her head.
“Regina, I’m so sorry that this happened to you. It seems that a lot of people knew about this party. Lord knows if I had known about it beforehand, I would’ve warned you all about it Regina you know that,” Maxine said, as Regina stood in silence. “What do you want me to do for you?”
At first Regina didn’t know what she wanted to do, but then she said, “I want you to take me home, I need to go and find out about Linda. I’m going to take off from work for a while.”
While Maxine went to get her things, Regina told Patrick about her needing some time off. He didn’t ask why, the look on her face was obviously enough to let him know what was going on and he let her do just that.
The ride to Regina’s apartments was as silent as library before it opened. No words except for the breathing between the two. It wasn’t until they got to her apartment when Maxine asked, “Do you want me to stay with you?”
“No, you go on back to work, I’ll be fine. But come over after you get off, all right? I know word has already gotten around about what happened today.”
“I’ll call you all right.” Regina waved goodbye to her friend and took a deep breath. She made her way inside to drop off her bags before getting into her car and heading over to Linda’s house. She had plenty to talk with her about once she got there.
Chapter Eight
“Who is it?”
“It’s Regina.”
“Hey girl, come on in.” As Linda opened up the door, she sneezed into her tissue and stepped aside, letting Regina walk in.
The apartment was in disarray with used tissues everywhere in sight along with empty tissue boxes. Linda sniffled and coughed away while she went over to the loveseat and curled up in a ball on it. She wrapped her shivering body up in floral print comforter. Looking over toward the kitchen, Regina saw a tea kettle on the stove and a coffee mug on the counter next to it.
“My goodness, you look just like how I feel right now,” Regina told her with a small smile as she walked in and sat down on the couch.
“Girl I don’t know how the hell I got this cold but I feel and probably look like shit, don’t I? What do you have in the bag?”
“Well I have some things for your cold, some chamomile tea, cough drops for your throat, something for your sinuses and head, a box of tissues and oh yeah, some hand sanitizer,” Regina said as Linda grabbed the box of tissues and suddenly sneezed once more into her tissue.
“You are a godsend. I couldn’t even make it out of the apartment to run to the store.” She tilted her head with frown. “What’s wrong, you look so sad?”
Regina didn’t know how to tell her about the party and she was trying her best not to cry anymore but she ended up doing just that. Linda ended up giving her the tissue box. “So you found out huh?”
“How could I have been so stupid? I thought he was falling in love with me, Linda.” Blowing her nose, Regina heard the kettle whistle and went into the kitchen. Pouring her some hot water, she brought Linda the cup along with the sugar bowl. “How long have you known?”
“I’ve always known about the parties, I thought that you knew about them as well.” Linda started putting sugar into her cup as Regina stared at her in surprise.
“What do you mean you knew? I didn’t know anything about the parties. For Christ’s sake, I just got here. I haven’t been around long enough to know about the goings on at that place. How long have you been doing this pig party crap?”
“Oh, for about five years now give or take. I know what you’re thinking, how could I go through all of that? The first time I honestly didn’t know what to think, but by the second time I realized what was up. Plus the guy I was with, he was nice enough to actually tell me all about it even though he wasn’t supposed to. He told me that it would weigh too much on him not to let me know what was going on. I went with him twice because he was so sweet to me and we dated for a couple of months afterward. But I honestly didn’t know that you didn’t know about the party, I’m so sorry Regina. How did you find out?” Linda asked her while taking a sip of her tea.
“A jealous ex-lover of Collin’s,
she thought it would be funny to make the fat girl feel bad. So she told me all about it and I confronted Collin. The entire office is probably talking about it. I’m not going back there Linda.”
“You’re what! But you have to go back to work, what are you going to do about money for bills and things?”
“I have some money from a fund my parents left me, it’s just enough to help me out with my bills for a while. I just can’t be in the same building as he is. I’ve got to get away for a while and clear my head and figure out what I’m going to be doing next,” Regina told her before she blew her nose once more.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“When he told you the truth about everything, did you look into his eyes when he tried to apologize to you?”
“Yeah I did and he was just as upset as I was at that moment.” She remembered how he was trying to tell her about it and how his eyes were welling up with tears, just like her own as she cried.
He was just as hurt as I was.
* * * *
“Collin man, say something, you’ve been sitting there for the past couple of minutes now saying nothing at all,” John said standing at his desk.
Collin was in no mood to talk. He honestly didn’t know why John was hanging around in the first place the main show was over. His head was throbbing behind his eyes from guilt and cowardice…and maybe the few tears that escaped. He had lost probably the best thing that had come into his life in a long time over a stupid bet. Clicking on the button to get Nancy, he heard her say, “Yes Collin, what can I get you?”
“I need an aspirin, make it three if you got them and some water.” He looked over at his friend, who was obviously worried about him. “Bet you never thought you would see the day Collin Noonan cried, huh?”
“I never thought I would see Collin Noonan fall in love,” Nancy said setting the cup down and handing him the pills. “What you did was wrong, you knew that when you began this nonsense—even before you got in too deep with Regina. I’ve known her since she first started here and she is probably the nicest girl I’ve ever met. Sure she was shy and didn’t wear the best clothes, but she is something a lot of the women you’ve dealt with are not, she’s pure and wholesome and true. You fell in love with Regina because you’re not used to a woman like her and you screwed it up big time,” Nancy said before leaving the two men alone once more.
