The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  Chapter 3

  After Matt’s little games, Liz had to excuse herself and headed off to the restroom. Bella followed close behind, oblivious to what had just happened between Matt and Liz.

  “It’s ok Liz. He’s a jerk. Don’t let it ruin your night.”

  “No I’m fine. It’s ok. He apologized.” It was just a small lie. Liz knew Matt would never actually apologize.

  “Alrighty. Let’s pee then party!” Bella danced her way into the ladies room.

  As the girls headed back to their table, Wade was just heading toward them.

  “Hey girls. Should we go get some drinks at the bar? I’m buying.” He said as he tried to get the girls to follow him over to the bar on the other end of the club.

  “No. Let’s just go dance.” Bella said as she grabbed Wade’s hand and headed toward the dance floor. Then she saw it. Bella stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Oh wait. Yes. Let’s go get a drink.” Bella said as she did a one hundred eighty degree turn.

  “What?” Liz said looking over at their table, knowing something was up. Since both Bella and Wade were obviously trying to divert her attention.

  There he was. Only moments after having his fingers inside her, Matt had found that blonde bimbo and was making out with her. Liz couldn’t help but feel horrible. He obviously didn’t care about her at all. What kind of man would do something like this? Matt, of course, would say the girl kissed him. Or perhaps that he was too drunk and didn’t remember. No matter what, he always had some sort of excuse.

  This time Liz didn’t have the energy to even go back to the table. It was more than just him kissing another girl. It was that Liz knew she couldn’t do anything about it. She had nowhere to go. She couldn’t exactly go live in the dorms again, that was way too expensive. She couldn’t afford her own place and the tuition at school. So Liz knew she would just have to tough it out. But for right now, Liz wanted to go home.

  “Will you guys take me home?” Liz asked as she looked sadly at Bella and Wade.

  Liz could tell Bella really wanted to dance, but she hid her disappointment well.

  “Of course we can. Right Wade?” Bella nudged him and gave him no choice.

  As the three of them loaded up into Wade’s SUV, Liz felt horrible. How had her life come to this? Staying with a jerk of a boyfriend simply because she couldn’t afford her own apartment. At this moment, Liz hated her life.

  Back at the apartment, Liz grabbed her things out of the bedroom and made a spot for herself on the couch. She wasn’t going to argue with Matt, but she certainly didn’t have to sleep in the same bed as him. Liz would just give him the silent treatment and sleep on the couch for a little bit. At least he would get the point and know she was mad.

  Liz fell asleep faster than she had expected and soon woke up to her alarm on her phone. It was seven o’clock and Liz had to get ready for work. Saturdays were typically filled with waitressing and it was one of the best days of the week for tips.

  Liz text Bella to see if she was up. Not that Bella would be waking up this early in the morning, but more likely she was still up from the night before. When Wade and Bella had dropped Liz off she heard them talking about going back out to a different club. Surely Bella wasn’t about to waste a perfectly good Friday night just because Liz wasn’t up for staying out.

  Liz peaked into the bedroom and saw Matt fast asleep. At least he had come home last night, she thought to herself. But he obviously didn’t try to wake Liz up or apologize to her. Hopefully he got the point that she was mad at him. Maybe when she got home from work tonight he would at least apologize. Liz was hopeful.

  Matt actually use to be a really nice guy. But his drinking had gotten out of control lately and he had flunked another semester of classes. Matt was actually 24 years old and still trying to finish up his degree. Liz thought she was taking a long time! Matt had been going to college for 7 years.

  Liz met up with Bella for a quick coffee on her way to work. It was normal for Bella to have been up all night, and even more normal for Liz to be heading off to work on a Saturday morning.

  “You could stay at my father’s house in my old bedroom.” Bella offers.

  “Oh geeze! No!” Liz laughs.

  “I know it’s a long ways from school. But it’s close to the law office and your waitressing thing.”

  “No. I didn’t say no because of that. I’m not living with your father!”

  “Why. He wouldn’t mind.”

  “Oh my god, Bella! Yes he is nice. I can’t live with someone else’s family. That would be weird. Plus he’s technically my boss. That would be weird. Plus he’s your Dad. That would be weird.” Liz was not about to include the fact that he was drop dead gorgeous. It was a given fact, well at least Liz thought it was well known to the world. How could Bella not realize how friggin hot her Dad was?

  “Ok. Ok. Liz. But seriously, it would be better than staying with that asshole Matt.”

  “Nah. It’s fine. He apologized all night long last night. He was just drunk.” Liz didn’t have the heart to tell Bella the truth. Really did Bella even need to hear the truth? She didn’t understand what it was like not to have a place to go. Not to have someone to call when you needed money.

  Bella lived in a private dorm room on campus. Her tuition paid for. Her housing paid for. Even a full meal plan, which Bella hardly ever used, was paid for. Liz loved Bella to death, but she couldn’t understand what life was really like for Liz.

  Chapter 4

  Work was crazy that Saturday for Liz. She started at 9 o’clock in the morning and didn’t get done until almost 10pm. By the time she snagged a cab and got home, all she could think about was climbing into bed and going to bed. On the couch, she wasn’t about to get back into bed with Matt yet. In fact, Liz kind of hoped Matt had decided to go out tonight. At least that way she could get to sleep right away instead of having an argument with him.

  As Liz opened the apartment door she instantly could tell something was going on. There were clothes thrown all over the living room. Women’s clothes.

  “Shit.” She heard Matt say from the bedroom.

  “What? What’s wrong?” A girl’s voice said.

  Just great Liz thought. Of course. Now he was bringing the girls home with him. Liz couldn’t take it anymore. She was tired of sitting by while this jerk walked all over her. This was more than any person could take.

  “What the hell is going on?” She screamed as she stood in the doorway to her and Matt’s bedroom.

  Sure enough, right there in her bed was the blonde bimbo from the night club.

  “Babe. It’s not what it looks like.” Matt said as he was sliding his pants on.

  “Hmm. Because it looks like my boyfriend is screwing a bimbo.”

  By this time the girl had figured out what was going on and was wrapping herself in the sheet and walking out of the room. She walked around the living room picking up her clothes, and then headed to the bathroom to get dress.

  “Babe, really. It’s fine. She’s leaving.” Matt tried his best to convince Liz that this was all normal. Nothing weird going on here. It was totally normal for a girlfriend to find her boyfriend in bed with a blonde bimbo.

  “Stop saying babe. That’s degrading and it pisses me off.”

  “I’m sorry babe.” Matt winced as it came out of his mouth again. It was pathological for him. He couldn’t help himself.

  “You can’t go one night without getting laid? Seriously Matt?”

  “She’s leaving Liz. Calm down. She’s leaving.”

  The girl was leaving. By this time she was almost running out the door. She didn’t bother to turn and look back, just straight out the door and down the stairs at the end of the hallway.

  “I’m done Matt. Even I can’t keep putting up with this shit.”

  Liz started to pull a giant suitcase out of the closet.

  “Babe. Seriously, it won’t happen agai
n.”

  “Matt, I’m better than this. I can’t stay here another second.”

  “Fine! You want to leave? Leave me then. Go live on the street for all I care.”

  “Oh you don’t care. Don’t pretend like you do!”

  By this time Liz had long lost her ability to just sit idly by and let this guy walk all over her. Now he was just pissing her off.

  “Good ridden.” Matt said as he walked down the hall toward the bathroom.

  Matt started grabbing all of Liz’s makeup and other things and throwing them into the hallway.

  “Stop!” Liz yelled as she headed down to try and save her makeup.

  “Stop? Why? You want to leave. I’m helping you pack your shit.” Matt is beyond livid that Liz has finally decided to leave him.

  “Stop. Matt. You’re breaking everything.” Liz grabs his arm to try and stop him from throwing her makeup onto the ground.

  As Matt pulls his arm away from Liz, her arm goes flying into the picture on the wall. It shatters and falls right onto Liz, leaving a gash on her face and cuts to her arm. Blood starts pouring everywhere, immediately halting the argument.

  Matt is genuinely worried and goes to grab a towel. Without a word he wraps it around her arm and holds another up to her cheek.

  They sit there quietly on the floor of the bathroom. Surrounded by broken makeup and a tiny puddle of blood on the floor.

  Liz didn’t bother to pack all of her things. Instead, she grabbed just a couple outfits for her two jobs and filled a small backpack with them. Matt gathered what he could of her makeup off the floor and put it into a plastic grocery bag. They didn’t talk, there was nothing to say. It was over.

  Liz took a cab to the dorms at NYU and buzzed Bella’s room. She had tried texting her and calling her but Bella had not answered. There were two possibilities. One, Bella was out again and not checking her phone because she was at a club. Or two, Bella had finally crashed and was sound asleep. There was nothing that could wake her up when she was asleep. Not even a fire alarm, which had happened the night Liz first met Bella, two years before.

  Liz had been assigned to sweep through the floors when they did a fire drill. Liz was a little older than most the other girls, so it was assumed she was more responsible. Liz had gotten to Bella’s room and she was sound asleep. Not even shaking her could get the girl to wake up. Finally after about five minutes, Liz was able to get Bella up. When they got downstairs, the dorm supervisor started yelling at Bella and Liz told her to knock it off. It was at that moment Bella and Liz became friends.

  The two girls were inseparable for about a year before Liz moved out of the dorms to live with Matt. Now look where Liz was, stuck sitting outside the same dorm complex on a freezing cold January night.

  Chapter 5

  Luckily Liz didn’t have to wait outside too long before a student recognized her and let her into the lobby. Liz went up to Bella’s room and knocked a couple times, but there was no answer. Still not sure if Bella was home or not, Liz tried the door to see if it was unlocked. If Bella was home, the door was almost always unlocked.

  Unfortunately the door was locked. Liz slumped down and sat with her bags in front of Bella’s door. She was exhausted. It had been such a long night. Liz didn’t know where else she could go tonight. She had friends from work but it was now 2 o’clock in the morning, Liz wasn’t about to show up on any of their doorsteps at this hour.

  Tomorrow she would ask around at work to see if anyone had a couch she could crash on for a little bit. Surely someone would let her stay with them. That’s what she would do, she would just move around from friend to friend for the next semester. It was only a few months, Liz thought to herself. It wouldn’t be so bad.

  Liz closed her eyes for a second while she thought of the logistics of living on someone’s couch for the next five to six months. Where would she put her things? How would she find the time to get her school work done?

  Liz slowly drifted off to sleep as her mind worried about what was to come.

  “You can’t be here.” A stern voice hollered way to close to Liz’s ears.

  “What?” Liz said as she was disoriented and didn’t really remember she had fallen asleep in the dorm hallway.

  “You can’t be here.” The voice said again firmly.

  “I’m just waiting for my friend.” Liz said as her eyes focused in on the woman. It was Helga, the dorm supervisor. Oh how this woman got on every last nerve Liz ever had. But one thing Liz knew about Helga, she was a stickler for the rules and there would be no talking her into letting Liz stay there for the night.

  So Liz reluctantly grabbed her things and moved down to the lobby. Luckily Helga did not follow her, yet. So Liz waited in the lobby for a little longer, hoping Bella would come home soon.

  At about 3am, Liz saw a cab pull up out front and knew it was Bella. There were no other students in their dorm that would stay out until 3am and go against the curfew that was set. But Bella didn’t follow the rules like the other students did.

  “Liz. Oh my god. What happened to you?”

  For a moment Liz didn’t know what Bella was talking about. But then she remembered the cut to her face. She reached up to feel it and could feel how swollen it had gotten by this point. It felt like her cheek was twice its normal size.

  “Oh I’m ok. Matt and I got into a fight.”

  “What? He hit you? Oh I’ll kill him myself!” Bella was a tiny thing, but Liz knew she could probably take Matt down if she really wanted to.

  “No, it’s not like that. I knocked a picture off the wall and it hit me.” Liz could have made it seem like Matt had done this too her, but she just wasn’t that kind of girl. For as much as she had struggled in her life, the one thing she always tried to be was honest.

  Liz could still remember her mother saying to her “If you have nothing else in this world, you will always have your integrity.” She said that to Liz only a few short months before she passed away from cancer.

  “Ok, if you say so.” Bella seemed suspicious of Liz’s story, but didn’t question her any further about it.

  “I came here because I don’t have anywhere else to go Bella. But Helga already saw me and kicked me out.” Liz was starting to feel pretty desperate. It was too cold outside to sleep out there.

  “Shit Liz. I don’t know what to say.”

  “It’s ok. Maybe I could go sleep in the file room at work?” Liz thought that actually sounded like a pretty good idea. It was warm there and no one would be there at all on Sunday. It would be perfect.

  “You can’t sleep on the floor of the file room, that’s crazy.”

  “What then? I can’t sleep here. I can’t go back to Matt.”

  “Sleep in my old bedroom at my Father’s house.” Bella said with a smile as she pulled the condo key out of her wallet.

  “Bella. No. We talked about this.” Liz refused her offer.

  “Let’s think of this reasonably Liz. My father said he was going to Boston for the week, right?” Bella had that mischievous smile on her face that she always got when she was about to cause some trouble.

  “Yes.” Liz didn’t know where this was going yet, but she could never resist that smile of Bella’s.

  “So you will go stay there for this week while he is gone. It’s perfect. You can get things figured out and you’ll have a nice warm place to sleep.”

  “Hmmm” Liz was trying to come up with a good reason to say no, but this idea actually didn’t sound so bad.

  “See it’s brilliant. I’m brilliant. Now let me give you some cab money so you can head over there.” Bella handed Liz forty dollars and the key before she could even say no.

  “Well if you’re sure your father is gone.”

  “Yes, silly. He’s opening that new office in Boston, I’m sure.”

  “Ok. I guess I could stay there. Just until he’s coming home. You call me the second you hear when he is coming home. I don�
��t want to be there when he’s there.” Liz was firm about that one detail.

  “Of course! I’ll call him every day to keep track of him. Now go.” With that, Bella hugged Liz and headed off to bed and Liz headed to the Upper East Side condo of Bella Wellington.

  Chapter 6

  “I’m a friend of Isabella Wellington,” Liz said to the doorman as she arrived at the Upper East Side condo.

  “Yes, Ma’am.” He answered politely.

  “She gave me the key. I’m spending the night.” Liz pulled the key out and showed it to the doorman.

  “Yes, Ma’am. Go on in.” He nicely opened the door for Liz and waved her into the building. Possibly her story was so believable because of the bruising to her face and the large amount of personal belongings she was carrying. But for whatever reason, Liz was grateful he didn’t bombard her with questions.

  All she could think about was getting into a nice warm shower and going to bed.

  The apartment was impeccable. The last time Liz was up there she had been so busy avoiding eye contact with Harrison that she had not taken the time to look around at all.

  Modern furniture was stylishly placed around the two bedroom condo. Not a single thing looked out of place. In fact, it looked like no one even lived there. The condo looked more like one of those furnished rental apartments. Everything was brand new, and nothing looked worn or used at all.

  Liz couldn’t help but look around the condo. She took her shoes off and set her bags down by the front door before setting off to explore.

  In the kitchen, she opened the fridge to see what was in there. This wasn’t a regular refrigerator; it looked more like a walk in cooler from a large restaurant. The fridge was enormous, yet hardly a parcel of food inside.

  Liz peeked in some of the take-out containers and quickly closed the lids. They looked like a science experiment. There was plenty of beer and other drinks throughout the fridge though, and Liz grabbed herself a beer while she continued to explore the kitchen and rest of the condo.