Revenge in Stilettos Volume Two

“Then this asshole walks out of the restaurant and leaves me, ALONE, in the most visible table in the house!” Candace screams into her phone. Sol Mendoza sits on the edge of her bed listening to one of her closest friends retell how her boyfriend embarrassed her the night before.

“Did you leave, Candace? I don’t think I could’ve stayed there and ate alone!” The thought of sitting alone at a high profile restaurant made Sol’s palms sweat.

“Girl, please,” Candace laughs. “I had been waiting to eat at Sake Fire for months and I wasn’t going to let some jerk ruin that for me! The food was fantastic too!”

Sol admired her friend’s strength but wondered if she may have been a little too forceful with Ron. She knew from her own relationship that men didn’t like feeling forced into things or told what to do. “Good for you, my friend! So what now?”

Candace shrugs, “I’m going to keep pushing along with my plan! Marriage by 30, kids by 32 and I plan to make partner no later than 35. I’m cutting it kinda close with this little set back but you know me, I gets what I wants!” They share a thunderous laugh.

Sol’s boyfriend Greg walks into their bedroom and rolls his eyes. He can tell by the way she’s laughing that Sol’s chatting with one of her girlfriends.

Sol looks up and smiles at Greg. “Hey honey, I’m going to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow at lunch, okay? Bye!” She hangs up smiling until she looks at Greg. Her smile disappears instantly. “What’s wrong?”

“Who were you talking to?” Greg asks accusingly.

“That was Candace, babe. Ron walked out on her yesterday and she was confiding in me. I can’t believe that happened!”

Greg laughs loudly, “I can! I just can’t believe that it took him so long!”

Sol looked hurt, “Why do you hate my friends so much?”

“I don’t hate them all, Sol, just Candace and Tracy.”

“So you hate MOST of my friends! What’s so wrong with them?”

Greg sighs, exacerbated. “We’ve had this conversation before. I just don’t think that you have much in common with them. I approve of Shawn as a friend more than those two!”

“I don’t understand why you can’t like my friends just because they are my friends. We enjoy each other’s company and I’ve known them almost half my life! Am I supposed to just drop them when they’ve never hurt me or given me a reason?”

Greg crosses the room to embrace Sol. “I never mean to upset you with this conversation but I just think you and Shawn are headed in the same direction. You two have settled down with men that love you and you don’t need to go out every weekend in search of a man. And above that, I just don’t like them!”

Sol pushes back from him, offended, “How can you say that? You barely say two words to them when they come over and you’re very antisocial at group functions! You don’t even know them and, if anything, they shouldn’t like you.”

“I don’t think I’d lose sleep over that Sol,” Greg chuckles. “I mean, Tracy is THE most annoying person I’ve ever met in my life! And Candace needs to let go of that “angry black woman” thing if she ever plans on finding a man!”

Sol looks shocked, “Can you even say that? You’re white!”

“Oh so that makes me a racist now?”

“No I know you’re not a racist, obviously, but maybe you shouldn’t get in the habit of calling black people angry.”

Greg shrugs, “Whatever, I’m not wrong.”

Sol sighs and walks into the bathroom. She was in the middle of styling her hair when Candace called. She stands in front of the mirror removing hot rollers and fluffing her hair.

Sol was a Cuban-American beauty with long, dark hair and a body that made men stop in their tracks. Her friend Tracy was always trying to convince her to “rock” her body more but Sol wasn’t quite sure what that meant. She thought it meant that she wanted her to show more skin but that wasn’t going to happen! Her ultra-Catholic parents would kill her! It was bad enough that she was living with a man that wasn’t her husband. Sol’s mother probably lit every candle in the city daily in prayer for her daughter’s sins!

She inspects her appearance in the mirror. Greg’s coworker was throwing a get-together to christen his new house in Brentwood and she was accompanying him. Sol had no desire to attend this “dick swinging” competition between Greg and his friends but he always expected her to attend and she never disappointed him. She knew she was tagging along as eye candy and she tried to be as attractive as possible for him.

Sol was having a hard time concentrating on her makeup. She kept replaying Greg’s words: You two have settled down with men that love you. She found it interesting that he used those words. Shawn was married to a man that loved her and Sol was shacking up. It wasn’t the same thing in her eyes.

Greg knocks on the bathroom door, “You almost ready babe? I’d like to leave in five.”

Sol opens the door. Greg has changed into a pair of jeans and a button-up dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She admires how attractive he manages to look when dressed so casually. Her father doesn’t understand what she sees in this blonde-haired, green-eyed man but Greg is the love of her life and she plans to spend her life with him.

“I’m ready.”

“Great! Let’s go!” Greg turns and walks towards the door and suddenly stops and looks at Sol. “You look great, by the way!”

“Thanks babe!”

The couple gets into Greg’s BMW Z4 convertible and head towards Brentwood. Sol silently hopes that the night goes quickly, she’s not in the mood for schmoozing tonight.

Although Sol wants to confront Greg about their future, they drive in silence. She wants to ask why they weren’t so much as engaged after five years. Why he stresses how much he loves her yet runs from the discussion of marriage like the plague. Was she being a fool? Was she wasting her life on someone who wouldn’t ever totally commit? What was wrong with her that he wouldn’t marry her? Did she not make him happy?

“Hey Greg?” Sol blurts out, almost without thinking.

“What’s up babe?”

Sol stares at the side of his face yet can’t manage to say a word. Say something idiot!

“I, um… I was wondering if Shelly was going to be there tonight.” She wanted to slap herself for being such a coward!

“You know, I’m not sure. Nick is coming so she should be with him.”

“Oh okay. I hope so, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her.” Sol turns away from Greg and lightly bangs her forehead on her window. Tomorrow, she thinks, I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow. She reaches over and rests her hand on his leg. “I love you.”

Greg looks at her and smiles, “I love you too babe.”