He pulls up to the restaurant. Tiresa’s car waits accusingly near the door.
If the upgrade is better, he wonders, then why did he just cheat on his fiancé with the older model? Was there still something between Bella and him?
And why does it bother him so much that she might find a man to be happy with?
***
Tiresa sits at the bar by herself, waiting for Mika to arrive at 7 p.m. for a drink before dinner with a few of his attorney colleagues. She can’t stand his business associates, a pretentious group of men who act like they own the world, use ridiculously verbose vocabulary to sound smarter than they are, and view her, a beautiful woman, as an accessory to a successful career. Disgusting.
She finishes her appletini and signals the bartender for another. She checks her watch again—Mika is late. Three weeks until the engagement party and she still didn’t have him trained to show up on time. He will be late to the party to the wedding and probably to his own funeral.
She felt like dying herself this afternoon when Bella ran out of the store. She hadn’t time to duck behind a clothes rack to avoid her when she came barreling through the store after that clerk told her off. Tiresa wasn’t a praying person, but she prayed fervently then that Bella wouldn’t talk to her. Now that would have been embarrassing. What was Bella thinking, shopping at AmandaE? The clerk was right to put her in her place and run her out of there.
They used to shop all the time when they were in college. Of course, they usually shopped at second-hand shops and turned each outing into a treasure hunt. You never knew what you would find in a shop full of cast-offs. Tiresa smiled at the memory of how she could always find just the right vintage top and an accessory like a scarf, vest or costume jewelry and look like she just walked out of Sax 5th Avenue. She might have been a poor college student, but she sure never dressed like it.
She considered a career in fashion and got lots of practice as Bella’s personal stylist. Bella had the knack for picking out exactly the wrong thing to wear—anywhere. The first time Tiresa saw Bella’s wardrobe, which was when they moved into their dorm room, she shrieked in horror. “Floral print with a lace collar?” Tiresa howled, grabbing the dress off the hangar and tossing it in a garbage bag.
“What are you doing with my dress?” Bella cried, making a grab for it.
“You’re never going to wear it again so we’re donating it to the trash,” Tiresa blocked her way.
“What’s wrong with my dress?” Bella demanded.
Tiresa rolled her eyes and continued to rummage through Bella’s side of the closet. “Nothing, if it’s 1988 and you plan to tease your fringe ten inches above your head. Bella, where do you shop? This is terrible, horrible, ugh!” She tossed three more garments into the trash bag.