“Yes, you!” she said stopping just two feet away from me. “You invited me to your birthday party even though I made it clear that was I mad at you. You broke my heart several times in fact over our almost three year relationship. Almost three years, wow – short by just a few weeks and it would have been three years. And now you’re going out with this new girl, but you write to me anyway. But why? I know why.” She looked around the room and grinned when she saw Sungitha in the kitchen with Jacqueline. “It’s you isn’t it? You’re the girl he’s going to marry. You must be. You’re like the only person I don’t know here.” Like everyone else Sungitha remained still, her mouth slightly ajar. “If you want my advice I say don’t do it. He’s a fool. Did he tell you how he wrote to me asking me out? And after I turned him down with like this angry email he proceeds to invite me out for his birthday! He’s got commitment issues. Surrendon, when will you grow up and be a man already and commit to one girl?”
“Melissa please. It was you who wrote to me first, remember? And no I don’t have commitment issues.”
“I may have written to you first, but it is you who first asked to meet for dinner and then after I blasted you proceeded to invite me to your birthday party! And you do, you do have commitment issues. You can’t be with just one girl; it’s the reason why you couldn’t marry me, why we broke up.”
“No, that’s not true.”
“Then what was it? Was I not good enough for you and your family? You want a more traditional girl for your wife? And why have you written to me asking to see me? You wanted to fuck me, that’s why. Yeah that’s right everybody, he wanted to fuck me! Even though we broke up months ago and I told him to leave me alone, forever!”
“Melissa, you’re drunk,” said Mike. “ I’m a getting you a cab.” He pulled out his cell phone.
“No I’m not and no you’re not. And what do we have here? A cake of the Doom Fighters.” She walked to the table with the cake. “I know about the Doom Fighters. It looks amazing by the way. Elizabeth made this I bet. So when are we going to cut this thing anyway? It’s almost eleven now for god’s sake. So how about it then folks? How about we have some cake?” She then swung her leg under the table, popping the cake and its board into the air. Airborne, the cake with board spun counter clock wise, before crashing with a thump onto the polished hardwood floor.
I remember Mike and someone else, not sure who, take Melissa out of the condo. I sat back down and resumed my game. I don’t know what happened with the cake. Maybe some of it was served, whatever had not reached the floor, and the rest likely thrown out.
The remainder of the night was a blur to me. Of one thing I am sure, that some good fortune had come my way in the game of poker I played after my run on Doom Fighters IX because when I first woke up the first time the next morning there was a nice collection of bills in my pocket and I’m sure I did not make a trip to the bank. My eyes lids were on the way back over my eyes when I sat up suddenly with a start as I vaguely recall something bad happening around my prized Doom Fighters game. I looked over to my desk and there was my first Doom Fighters comic still in its glass case. And there were no cracks. Thank god. Must have been something else then. Time to go back to sleep.
I really liked reading this story. It had a nice flow to it…but the ending sort of left me hanging. I feel like it didn’t quite end. But yes, I did enjoy it and the characters were real and vivid. Well done, Mr S!