Fashion Cheers Break-up : episode 1

This cannot be true. My life is over! No… wait! Maybe, this is all a dream? A knife-like nightmare, trying to stab my love life. I keep recalling the phone call I had received an hour back. Life prior to that, seems like a decade ago. I cannot breathe. The walls are closing in. OKAY, I’m losing it! I need to call Mia. Right now!
Mia Jerome, my best friend, is a fashion columnist at The G&G, one of the top fashion magazines in New York.

Trrring trrring

“Hello! Where have you been? I have been calling you since WHEN!!!” bellowed Mia.

“Umm… can you come over at my place? For tonight? I’m fu**ed up.”

“Why? Is everything alright? You sound terrific!”

“Just come, can you?” I demanded.

“Okay, Okay. Give me an hour. I’ll be there.”

The line disconnected. I checked my phone, and saw fifteen missed calls. My heart skipped a beat. Could it be Jake? He might have just wanted to tell me that it was a prank and that how much he loves me. I opened the list. Ten were from Mia, one from my mother and two were spam calls. I checked my received calls’ list. That unknown number flashed up on the screen. The conversation echoed through my ears. That bitch Gloria from Jake’s high school. That long-legged, tight-ass, D-cup sized Gloria! Her screeching voice burned my ears.

“Why her of all the people?” I asked myself.

I glided across my rooms like a zombie, finding bits and pieces of my relationship with Jake. From the sofa, to the bedroom, from the kitchen to the bathroom, I could smell Jake. I rummaged through the cupboard, only to find empty hangers and some old shirts of his. He knew it. Why didn’t he talk it through then? Was it me? Wasn’t I good enough for him? Or was it my size B that put me down? For, on bed I was way better than him! I clicked on the gallery in my phone, and gazed at our pictures together, from the past. He looked happy in them…We looked happy! I shifted from the bedroom to the kitchen, started typing a message.

“Jake… I miss you…” UH! No. Delete! “Jake, call me please” Why please? Delete delete! No way. I fidgeted and without a second thought, called him. Okay. Keep calm Neha, Keep calm!

“The number you’re trying to call, is currently out of reach. Please try again, later!”

I raced to the mini bar and poured in some emergency vodka for myself. Finished it and let the drink soothe the knots in my stomach.

‘AWOOT-OV-REECH! He cannot be out of reach! Not from me.’

Beep Beep rang the door bell. I opened it expectantly. Mia stood there, exhausted from the office work and worried to the skin. At the sight of me, her eyebrows rose, and pulled together. Must be my puffy swollen eyes and tear stained face. I let her in.

“What the heck Neha! What’s wrong?”

A burst of emotions exploded within me. I gave up! I started crying like a child.

“Jaybrukapwime” I cried.

“Err, what? Here, have water.”

I pushed the bottle in her hands and repeated.

“Jake. Broke. Up. Wimme Mia!”

“What??!!” She sounded shocked. Looked shocked too.

I told her everything. How I suddenly got a call from Gloria Brown who was shouting at me for “bugging” HER boyfriend, JAKE! And to add to this humiliation, how Jake himself took the phone from her and told me blatantly that he never found the special one in me, and I was a nice girl. But we never had that “thing”! And how shamelessly he could say that Gloria was The One. She was always The One.
After I was done, she stared into the space, mouth open, eyes wide.

“That sco**drel! What a spineless s**t.” She hissed angrily. “He didn’t even have the balls to break up over a personal call, leave apart doing it in your physical presence! Neha darrling… you’re better off him. ANYDAY! You know he doesn’t deserve you. You always did!”

She poured some more vodka for the two of us and sat beside me on the couch.

I took a sip and buried my face in the pillow and moaned. Mia pulled me closer and hugged me. After a few more sips I started pouring my poor heart out, trying to find a cure to my heartbreak. A few more sips, and we were laughing hysterically at how bad Jake was on bed and debated, which was smaller, his brains or his dick. We ordered for a large ‘Extravaganzza’ pizza, dismissing the thought of diet and calorie consumption. After dinner and some crying, drinking and some laughing, and more drinking and more crying, Mia took me to my bedroom and put me to sleep. I closed my strained eyes, and heard the main door shut. I fell asleep before I knew.

The next morning I woke up with a start. I did not understand what caused the head-splitting ache, the overdose of liquor from last night, or the memories of the harsh reality. I checked my phone and found two missed calls from my boss and a message on Whatsapp from Mia saying, ‘I have dropped in some fresh milk and bread this morning. Take a nice long bath, & make a nice breakfast. love, mia xx.’

Thank the lord, for Mia had spare keys to my apartment! At least, I still have friends around me. I pulled my body up, and logged into my Facebook account. ‘Jake Ryan’, I searched in my friend list. Zero results. I was shocked. Numb! ‘He unfriended me!’ I whispered. I sat back on the chair. ‘WHY? Oh wait … He blocked me too!’ I took my phone and typed a message for Mia, “He z BLOCKED ME ON FACEBOOK.” Message sent. Fresh hot tears rolled down my cheeks.  My phone started ringing, the screen flashed up ‘Boss Calling’.

“Oh that cow! Please, stop calling. I cannot take more sh*t from her now!”
I took the call.

“Hello” I said groggily.

“Neha! I have mailed you the designs for the summer’s collection. I need the layout by noon. Get the files ready. Give me your designs, Micheal has asked for them. Okay?” She said crisply.

I kept quiet. My headache was unbearable now. I didn’t want to think about work, no matter how much I loved it.

“Neha?”

“Err… yes, Jessica. I’m sick! I think I will be taking a leave this week. Can you… umm… manage to adjust my holidays?”

“Oh. I will have to notify Micheal. What reason are you willing to give?”

I knew that Micheal would hardly question if I asked for my due holidays. But long-nose Jessica always had to know it all, and as she was my boss, in charge of my floor, I was answerable.

“Ughh… I am having a rough phase. Had a break-up, so need to gather myself.”

“You want me to tell him this?”

“Yeah, this is the fact.”

“Alright. I will see.”

She hung up. What did she mean by she will see? What will she see? Anyway, I couldn’t afford to think about her now. I loved to work under Francis Le Meur, one of the top courtiers in the world. My career as a designer was good enough, and the best part of it was that, I never had the trouble of finishing up my savings or being unable to pay the bills. I moved from Calcutta, India to New York after getting a dream call from the ‘Le Meur’ company, offering a job as an intern, some three years back. After struggling for a year and a half, I got lucky with my job life and bought my own apartment at the posh streets on Broadway, and soon, I was thinking of buying a Volkswagen from the promotion I smelled at work. Jake was a lawyer, yet to establish himself in the highly competitive New York city. We met a year back at the Art Gallery for an exhibition. Soon we started dating, and I asked him to shift to my apartment. I paid the bills, I carried the household expenses and I invested in his needs.

I felt a bit better about myself when I considered my life, and then his life. So, I got up and decided to obey Mia. I looked into the mirror at myself. Jesus! I looked sh*t. I had patches under my eyes, my lips were chapped, my hair stuck out like rough dry wires. I remembered Gloria. She is fair, blonde, tall, hot and a famous model! She is perfect. Any man would die to lay her on bed. The trend was beauty without brains. Nobody cared about a creative intelligent short, yet smart girl from India. My bath water was ready, and so, I sheltered myself into the tub. I didn’t realize that I had dozed off and woke up, coughing on the water. I pulled a robe and ran to my ringing phone.

“Hello? Regina?”

“Owwww darrrrrrrlinggggggg…. I’m SOW SORRRRREEEE to hear about your break up! Are you okay sweets?” Sang Regina Wilson, my gossip mate at work.

“Yes, Reg. I’m OK. thanks for calling!”

“Not a problem dear. I’m free at lunch. Wanna join?”

“Umm… not today. But I’ll catch up with you soon!”

“Come on girl, talk to me. You will feel lighter. And get out to get some sun and fresh air. That will do you good!”

Well, that did make sense. And moreover, staying at home would mean being surrounded by his scent and presence.
“Okay then. See you at the cafe on the F-block across the street, at 12:30pm?”

“Yeah. See ya! Toodles!”

I poured myself a large glass of milk. The fresh bread went straight into the fridge. I pulled on a blue shirt and beige trousers to go with my mood. I had to do something with my hair. Perhaps I needed a haircut after all. I pulled my hair into a tight knot, dabbed some concealer under the eyes to hide the patches and applied my pink ‘miracle skin transformer lip rewind’ lip gloss. I looked less pitiable for sure.

I reached the cafe and found Regina sitting at a table round the corner.

“Haaaaalloww honeeeeey! Look at the poor youuu…” She yodeled.

“Hi Reg.” I cut off.

At first I wasn’t too eager to stretch this meeting, but maybe due to my heartbreak I poured my heart out to Regina and surprisingly she was very warm and understanding. She bought the lunch as well!

“Sweetheart, I need to make a move now. Or bossy pants will come screeching after me! If you’re free this weekend, we can go clubbing. Call me if you need anything. OK?”

“Oh thank you so much Reg!” I said gladly.

I got up and headed for home, grabbing a bucket of ‘Lychee Gold’ from Baskin Robbins to treat myself. I plopped down on  my soft plush couch, shoved my pants off, hugged myself and switched on the TV. After surfing the channels I stuck to ‘Romedy Now’, but that was a bad idea. I was in no mood to watch Ashton Kutcher snog Mila Kunis. Finally I settled for Tom and Jerry. Ice-cream was always a treat I thought. I kept licking scoops of lychee gold, watching Tom chase Jerry.

Mia kicked the main door and rushed into the room with hands full of packets and wine. She quickly placed them on the kitchen table. I got up to shut the door.

“Woah Mia! That was some entry.”

“Look at you, pig. What are you doing? How can you eat all that by yourself?!” She snatched the bucket from my hands.

“Oye! What’s wrong in having ice-cream now?”

“This, is like eating kilos of fat and carbs. Don’t you want to fit in your clothes?”

“What’s the point now. It doesn’t matter how I look. And moreover, since when did you become so figure conscious Mia?” I said gloomily.

She bit her lips. “I need to show you something.” She pulled out a magazine from her handbag and pushed it to me. I was stunned to see the cover page.

‘Sizzling model Gloria Brown admits her long relationship Legally, with the uprising hot-bod lawyer, Jake Ryan.
” I cannot be happier to declare that I and Jake have been dating for quite a long time, and he has proposed me for marriage! I am so excited! We haven’t fixed the date yet but I think we will have a destination wedding. We always dreamed of one. Jake has always been the guy for me. You know how right it feels when you meet that special one? I feel that. WE feel that.” says Gloria glowingly. The lovebirds were spotted at New York’s posh Japanese Restro, Masa’

There was a picture of Gloria and Jake, hand in hand, looking totally in love! My head started spinning. I needed to sit.

“Here, have some water, come sit Neha.” Mia took me to the sofa.

“F**k water. I need a drink. Bring some from the minifridge.” I fumbled.

Mia got busy with the order, and in a while she handed me a glass of whiskey. I gulped in the whole drink at a go and filled in some more. The drink hit my head and I felt high. I did not wait for Mia to stop me. After a couple of shots more, I was out, completely. I felt nauseated. My vision blurred. Mia carried me to the washroom for me to throw up. I did and felt a lot better. She got me slices of lime to suck on from the kitchen. I got back my senses.

“Neha, you cannot be so silly! I know how you feel, but this is not the way to deal with this.” said Mia.

“I do not know Mia… I…I feel so shattered…so cheated!” I wailed.

“I know. I know, love. But that slimyballs doesn’t deserve this. He was the one to cheat on you. Can’t you see, he lives on her money! Previously he used to suck on your money, and now he has found her. He is a bloody creeper. A Parasite. You’re safe from him  now. And that calls for celebration, not mourning.”

“Bu…But… I LOVED him! And I thought he loved me too!”

“Did you? weren’t you more like a godmother slash babysitter to him? Can you call that ‘LOVE’?”

“I feel so inferior! Look at that long-legged Gloria with such nice ass and boobs. And he left me for her! Humiliated me.” I kept moaning.

“That’s what we need to work on babe. Forget sulking. Put your bold pants on. It’s showtime!”

I gaped at Mia. What was she talking about? And why was I behaving like a dimwit? I wanted to Do something, but what? I was clueless. I hope Mia had some really kickass plan for, the grin on her face and glint in her eyes, ushered a particle of hope within me. That made me feel better, excited and revengeful.

 TO BE CONTINUED…