Temptations

by Diana Scott

and fix it. We’ve been together so many year. We have a son. We have to try. I have to get my marriage… back.

  —What!? What!? What the fuck. Shit. What do you have inside of your brain? Don’t talk nonsense, Susy. —Yoli was screaming and the whole bar could hear her.

  —Yoli, control yourself please. That language… —Mia, always polite, was telling her friend to try to be more quiet.

  Yoli felt grateful that her friends wanted to hang out with her even though she didn’t have an education. She was always willing to learn and her friends were the best teacher one could ever ask for.

  — Oh, yeah! I’m sorry. What king of poop do you have in that head? Is that better?

  Mia nodded. It wasn’t the moment to correct her grammar or showed her new words. That was simply Yoli. She had no education but she had more values and loyalty than the biggest vassal in the world. That was enough to love her without conditions.

  —You have to understand me. I have a son. I must…

  —I must. I must. What the fuck does the kid has to do with any of this? —Yoli was angry but she could feel Mia not being happy about her language.— Sorry. Hell? —she looked at Mia as she was saying “no” with her head.

  —Anyway, what does your kid have to do with this? —said Yoli trying to get to the point.

  Susy couldn’t believe the question but she had to explain herself.

  —Fernando is a teenager. He needs his parents to be together and I’m his mother… Im the one that have to take care of him… I am…

  —The one that had been cheated and is allowing this to go on!

  —Yoli —Mia screamed for the first time— Don’t be rough!

  —I might be rough, but this one is stupid!

  —Leave her alone. She is right. —Mia started looking down— I have been cheated.

  —And you are letting that happen, don’t forget about that.

  —Yoli, that’s enough! Can you tell me what’s going on? —Mia couldn’t understand how mad Yoli was.

  —But, can’t you see what she is doing?

  —What? —Mia was totally lost. Susy wasn’t talking.

  —She is carrying the weight by herself. She is even feeling guilty. She thinks that she has to forgive everything. She feels guilty for his son, for that asshole of her husband and for everybody else. She sees it as a punishment… for been an idiot. That asshole has been making her feel shitty for years and now she sees herself as an ugly person, with no values, strength of personality.

  —Stop! Please! Susy, is that true? Do you feel guilty? You?

  Susy was trying to hide her look in the darkness of her coffee.

  —Susy, please. Look at me. We are like sisters. Look at me, please.

  Susy looked her in the eyes and Mia could see the truth behind them. Susy didn’t feel as though she had to be loved or respected. The past was coming back. Yoli was right. How did she not realize that?

  —See what I mean? —this time Mia didn’t stop her— She feels like the hunger in the world is her fault.

  —Susy couldn’t take it anymore. Life was too hard to, on top of it, have to take this: her friends being so ruff on her.

  —Yes! Fuck! If I was a different woman he wouldn’t be messing around with other women! Yes. What do you want me to do? He is my husband. We have a house, a son…where could I go now? What’s going to be of me? Who is going to support me? Who is going to be by my side? Who is going to grow old with me? Who is going to be happy with me? Who…who…

  —Is going to love you? —This time Mia was the one to finish the sentence.— Is that it, right? You are afraid. You lost your mother. You lost your father. You suffered as a child and you are afraid. That’s it, right?

  Susy started hysterically crying. She couldn’t control herself. She knew what Mia was talking about. Her friend knew all her secrets.

  She cried for the treason, she cried for her lack of courage, she cried for her unrequited love, for how unjust life had been with her, but she mostly cried for the wife that just died and the lost woman that was born.

  She put her hands in her face, covering it.

  “When does life stop hurting you?”

  “When does the clock of pain stop?”

  “When is the roulette going to stop at the number I chose?”

  “Somebody stop the train I want to get off!”

  She couldn’t look at her friends. “Poor Susy”, that’s what they were thinking… “everything wrong happens to poor Susy”. Suddenly her rage took over and she couldn’t control herself

  —Say it! Come on, say it! Poor Susy! Poor good old silly Susy!

  Her friends looked at her knowing exactly what she meant. But they were her friends and they didn’t want to treat her like a victim.

  Yoli and Mia wanted a strong Susy, a happy one. And they knew that she existed behind that façade of the submissive wife that Oscar had created over the years. They wanted to see her fight for her happiness, not for her marriage.

  Mia and Yoli, understanding her friends need replied.

  —Poor Susy? —said Mia

  —Poor Susy? —Repeated Yoli.— We are jealous of you. —Mia agreed with what Yoli had just said.

  Susy seemed lost and was looking at them like they’d gone crazy.

  —What do you mean jealous?

  —Yes, we are. Jealous. You are making us really jealous. —Yoli winked at Mia.

  —Do you know how many gorgeous men there are out there? —said Mia with a big smile— and you are free. Free to go out and taste a bit of all of them.

  —Try, taste, and try and taste again. Yes mam. A sea full of dicks for my friend. Ah! Sorry, penises. —The three of the laughed.

  Susy understood what her friends meant, and she loved them because of that. But she had to continue with her plans, of course, without letting them know about them, or they would kill her.

  She knew that they didn’t approve of her decision but, what else could she do?

  She wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was forty. Live was not waiting on her to make the decisions and change.

  The waiter brought another round of coffees and some pieces of homemade lemon pie. When he was about to leave, after dropping the food and drinks on the table Yoli told him

  —Juan, you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?

  —No, not that I know of. Why?

  —Nothing. —And she looked at her friends and continued— See? A sea full of men.

  The three of them started laughing and poor Juan left thinking that nobody could ever understand women.

  ....................

  Mia didn’t make it to the door when her phone started ringing. It was Yoli.

  —Hello —Mia was listening carefully.

  —Of course I don’t believe a word she says. I’m sure she is going to try to get back with that asshole. But, that’s why we are around, to prevent it. —Mia’s smile looked everything but innocent.

  —Exactly, my friend. I see you tomorrow at breakfast so that we can plan everything.

  Mia hung up the phone completely aware that that was war and they had to rescue Susy from the arms of the enemy. They were like sisters and if God existed He’d better be by their side, cause they were going to move mountains to free their friend. And it that meant playing dirty sometimes, they would do it. They just wanted Susy to get out of that situation once and for all and be happy again.

  And like Scarlett in “Gone with the Wind” said “As God as my witness, I’ll never be sad again”. And she smiled while she thought about the reference.

  The Pretty Woman plan was in motion.

  I’m You, Nico

  —I still don’t know how you convinced me to come here. —Susy couldn’t believe that she was in the private gardens of one of Rurik’s most important clients.

  —At least you don’t look like a New Year’s Eve decorated duck, like me. —Yoli felt lost. “I would do everything for a friend”, she thought as she looked at the s
ilver colored clothes that Mia had happily lended to her.

  —You look beautiful, don’t be silly. —Susy said.

  —Well, it might be right that I look ok. But, darling, you look as-to-ni-shing. Men will fall like flies as you walk through the living room. —said Yoli as she made her turn like a ballerina and repeated— Fantastic!

  Mia was in charge of the clothing of the three friends. Susy was wearing a wonderful red dress that fell graciously until her ankle. She was showing one shoulder and had a knot on the other one, that made her look even more sexy. Her hair was shining on top of her shoulders and her eyes were perfectly shining in between the make up she was wearing.

  “I’m not up for a party”, she thought. But they begged for her to come. It was impossible to say no. Another month had gone by and Oscar was still missing. All she wanted to do is cry.

  She thought that this party would be like a super boring reunion. Rurik was always busy talking business with his bosses and poor Mia felt so lonely, and she begged her to come with her, as her best friend.

  Mia was more than happy with how things turned out.

  The “Pretty Woman Plan” was in motion. Yes, she had to overreact a little bit about this party being boring and Rurik not paying attention to her, but the important thing is that Susy was there. Oh God, she looked like a Greek Goddess with that red dress.

  It was funny that the first action on the plan to rescue Susy came from Rurik himself. He told her that Nicolas Bellpuig, the man himself, had called him to ask about Susy and showed interest to invite her to the event in a discrete way. But, how did they meet? That didn’t matter.

  That man was single, did sports, had his own company and was handsome. This worked even better