At twenty-two years old,
she thought the entire world was hers to explore at her leisure and nothing was
impossible for her achieve. Today, she
was preparing a candlelight dinner for two, complete with a marvelous French
Bordeaux. She had been planning this
surprise for her fiancé for days. This would be their last dinner together as
an unmarried couple. After tonight, she
was staying in her parent’s home until after the wedding when she could move
into his tastefully decorated apartment. She was deliriously happy and excited
as she got off the elevator and stood in front of his apartment door. With the key he had given her, she opened the
door and practically floated in as she noiselessly closed the door behind
her. She smiled as she thought about
sharing the apartment with him.
The living room was
spacious and not a hint of pretension dwelled there. The white Corinthian leather couch and matching
chair were perfectly centered in the middle of the room and were accentuated
with matching gray smoked-topped glass tables.
The knee level coffee table sat between the couch and a gray-upholstered
recliner while two other tables were sentries at opposite ends of the
couch. The adjacent dining area boasted
a beautiful white-topped cherry wood table with matching plush padded
chairs. The kitchen was just big enough
to maneuver from the stove to the sink without walking into another
person. The apartment-sized refrigerator
was tucked away in the corner which gave the impression of much more room. Hanging in the hallway were two pictures of a
serene village with children playing and puppies sleeping.
A smile played upon her
lips as she thought about the master bedroom. The king-sized circular bed with
its bronze-colored comforter, covering matching silk sheets had an attached
headboard that boasted two built-in shelves filled with books, a radio, and an
overhead lamp. A triple-walnut stained
dresser with a sculpted framed mirror was
positioned in front of the bed and to the left in a corner, a large
walnut-stained open-faced cabinet held his television and entertainment
center. As she stood surveying the area
she could see, she mentally checked off the days. She sighed wistfully as she turned the corner
from the hallway towards the kitchen.
Her head inclined for a moment when she thought she heard a noise and
thinking that James had left on the radio in the bedroom, she put the down the
bag of groceries in the hallway floor and headed for the bedroom.
The French
vanilla-colored carpet beneath her feet was so plush she felt as though she was
sinking with each step as she walked down the hallway to the bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and when she
pushed it open, she barely contained the scream that rose from her belly,
constricting her throat muscles. She
fell back against the wall and had to use it to support her buckling legs. A wave of nausea swept over her and almost
caused her to faint. She stood in the
room against the wall seemingly mesmerized by the flailing bodies in the bed in
front of her. Her beloved fiancé and
best friend Karen were so intent in their love-fest they didn’t hear her come
in and didn’t realize she was in the room until she finally allowed the
bubbling scream freedom.
They jerked in surprise
at seeing at there, with their mouths hanging open, they watched her and saw
the horror she felt mirrored in her eyes.
For a moment, they were also frozen into immobility, too filled with
guilt to react immediately. Then, as she
approached the bed, James was catapulted into action, attempting to cover them
with a tangled silk sheet.
“M.m.mara! What are you doing here?” he stammered.
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