Has Cupid Gone Mad?: War Of Hearts

by Belinda Elkaim

Amber smiles and looks around “Where is Karina?” “I do not know. I texted her a few days ago and she said she was coming. Called her a few times this morning and cannot reach her so I left her about twelve messages” Taylor laughs lightly “I am sure the ‘Queen Of Tardiness’ will be here soon.”

  Amber orders two Margaritas from the waitress as Taylor exclaims “Oh my God!” Amber follows Taylor’s stare and fixates her focus on a familiar looking woman entering the restaurant, repeats after Taylor “Oh my God!” and gasps with an astonished expression on her face “is that really Karina?”

  “Amber, it IS Karina!” Taylor shares her bewilderment. Karina approaches and Amber is unable to mutter a word. Taylor pulls a chair for her and Karina sits down silently, places her bag on the table and lifts her sunglasses above her head, wearing them like a headband to hold down her long messy hair. Her enormous blue eyes are completely swollen; looking as pale as snow she speaks out delicately, “Sorry I am late.”

  Taylor places her hand on top of Karina’s “What is wrong? Karina you are like the most glamorous spokes model in Miami and I have never seen you walk out of your house without make up and hair done, you look strained and depressed, what happened?”

  The two Margaritas that Amber has ordered are brought to their table; without a word Amber pushes one in front of Karina, “looks like you need this more than I do. What is going on Karina?”

  Taylor and Amber watch Karina gulps down the entire glass of Margarita in one enormous sip and anticipate her to speak up.

  Leaning back at her chair Karina sighs and tears flood her eyes, “I almost could not make it today, if it were not for Amber’s special occasion I would still be tugged in bed mulling” Karina bites her lips and gathers enough strength to continue, “Alex just moved out.”

  Amber chokes on her drink and Taylor raises an eyebrow while staring at Karina, “what?”

  Karina wipes away a little teardrop that hangs on the corner of her eye, “Alex moved out, just like that.”

  “Just like that? It is impossible, what do you mean by just like that? When did he move out? Why? Did you guys fight?” Taylor is extremely concerned and squeezes Karina’s hand.

  “I don’t know, I don’t know” Karina rubs her temples and frowns while sobbing “he left three days ago and has not returned any of my calls or texts ever since then.” Getting a little tipsy over the Margarita, Karina looses control and starts sobbing audibly “we were just cuddling and making out on the sofa, then suddenly he stands up and says to me ‘this is not going to work’, turns around and walks out the door” sobbing even louder and paying no attention to the other patrons who are staring at her, “he just walked out, just like that!” Karina grabs Amber’s Margarita and empties the glass.

  “Oh my God.” whispers Amber. “You two have been together for years! He cannot possibly leave just like that Karina, something must have happened!” Taylor orders another round of drinks, “what about all his things? If his things are still in the apartment, that means he is coming back!”

  “Not really.” Karina tries to calm down to no avail and gets hyper emotional, “I received a text from his brother Adam; he is coming to collect Alex’s things tomorrow. I have been trying to pack his things and that is why I am late today. It is killing me to have to put all his belongings in boxes, all those things, those memories .. and I love him so much! I don’t understand, I don’t understand!”

  “Listen Karina you should not have to pack his things, this is ridiculous! Amber and I will help you with that. Why don’t you stay with me at my townhouse for a few days, you should not be alone right now. Look at you, you are a mess and you need to regroup.”

  “Wait, but what did Adam say? He must know why Alex left like that?” Amber is still trying to digest the situation.

  Karina sobs again “Adam would not tell me either, he says he does not know but I am sure he does.”

  “If he loves you then why would he leave you? It makes no sense. Is he seeing someone else? Is there another woman?” Amber questions.

  “Impossible” Karina stutters, “we were always together. I thought we were inseparable, but I guess I was wrong. I was dead wrong!” Karina bursts out in tears.

  “Well Karina, you have a few choices” Amber analyses “either you call him and leave another message and demand that he explains to you what is going on, and if he still does not answer then you can stay wondering for the rest of your life and remain miserable thinking about him.” She continues,

  “Or you can stop thinking about him and get on with your life. Do something for yourself instead and perhaps you will find eternity with someone else, who knows! What is meant to be will never be lost.”

  Taylor seconds affirmatively, “Karina, I hate to say this but Amber is right. You have to stop punishing yourself! Look at you right now, you are a mess and you do not even know why you are a mess.” Taylor babbles on, “We love you and seriously, you do not deserve to be abandoned just like that. This is not right. When you walked into the restaurant just now we were shocked and stunned, I cannot believe you let yourself go like this, you cannot, you really cannot!”

  Karina closes her eyes and tries to overcome the pain of her broken heart, “If I have done something wrong, he should at least tell me and we can work it out.” Sobbing again, “I do not deserve to be treated this way and it is hurtful. I am sorry to feel this way but I cannot help feeling what I feel.” Karina rests her head on Taylor’s shoulder.

  Shattered by Alex’s mysterious and abrupt disappearance, Karina chooses to suffer from the deafening silence that is beginning to consume her entirely.

  She might be able to find peace within her heart if she clearly understands what has happened, but the cruelness of the incident leaves her baffled, angry and hurt. She has crossed the line between love and hate, and is beginning to detest him for not giving her the least amount of respect to return her calls.

  Karina finishes her third glass of Margarita and appears rather out of control. She toasts to Amber’s divorce settlement, then toasts to Taylor’s new column with the Miami Herald and finally toasts to her own broken heart,

  “After all these years together, this is what I get for loving him. Stupid me, what was I thinking? Here’s to cruel heartless men.”

  “That is right!” Amber is getting a little tipsy as well “to cruel heartless men” Amber laughs, “just like my ex-husband and my nauseating attorney.”

  Taylor stares at both of them and mumbles to herself “Oh my God, this is embarrassing; we better leave before they escort us out of here.”

  Possibly drunk Karina laughs and fixates her focus on Amber “how disgusting?”

  Taylor signals the waitress to bring them their check. “Disgusting is an understatement” Amber laughs “he was totally hitting on me this morning and asked me out, right before I signed the divorce agreement, and, the photo of his wife was right there on his bureau then he said that it was ok, him and his wife Yvette had an arrangement that they can each do their own thing.” Amber laughs scornfully, “then why even stay married?”

  With an entirely different set of perspectives of her own, Taylor suggests impartially “Do not be so judgmental Amber, you do not know their full story.”

  Traditional and conservative, Amber is unable to fascinate any types of “arrangements” especially when it comes to marital integrity.

  Staring at Taylor then looking at the shattered Karina, she refrains from arguing and silently looks at Taylor, secretly admiring her independence and her passionate chase after the exhilaration of randomness,

  “You are right, everyone has their own story. Who am I to judge? I am only a victim of my own circumstance.”

  Taylor returns Amber’s stare and cannot help being annoyed “stop victimizing yourself and be strong. Do not fall apart now; you deserve much better that that.”

  Her words are meant to encourage Amber, but said at the worse possible moment Karina hears it and begins to sob uncontrollably.
Seeing her devastation, Taylor gestures the waitress to hasten on the check and is more than eager to leave.

  Chapter Three. “Yvette where are you?” holding two flutes of champagne in his hands, Jean walks past the wedding photo of Yvette and Russell Krugerman that hangs meticulously on the wall of a long corridor inside her home.

  He finds her in the living room devouring the last drop of Baileys straight from the bottle. Blissfully drunk she smiles at Jean and extends her open arms “Ah, champagne and my beau, what more can I ask for?”

  She reaches for the flute of champagne, then pulls his other hand to have him seated next to her on the long chaise in the center of the room.

  “Are you sure he will not be home?” Jean leans over for a kiss. Yvette places both flutes of champagne on the floor, “How many times have you been here on a Friday night? Have you ever seen him here?” Yvette laughs and returns his kisses. Climbing on top of him “Fridays are my days off remember? He gets to do whoever he wants to do and I get to see you.”

  Lying powerless underneath the woman whom he loves, “Why can’t you just leave him, get a divorce so we can be together for real?”

  Yvette moans as Jean rubs his hardness against her, “are you saying that this is not real?” she tries to unzip his pants but he stops her.

  Grabbing both her wrists and holding her still “Yvette,” he gazes into the windows of her soul “look me in the eyes and tell me you love me.”

  Sheepishly she complies and looks at Jean with the most genuine and affectionate expression on her face, “I do love you Jean, I love you.”

  “So why can’t we make this legitimate?” he continues staring into beautiful hazel green eyes.

  Yvette pulls her wrists away from his grip and appears annoyed, “How many times do we have to go through this?” she sits up, straightens her dress and gets off the chaise. Bending down, she picks up her flute of champagne from the floor, finishes it in one gulp and reaches for his.

  “You are becoming an alcoholic” Jean pulls the flute away from her, “every time we are together, all I see is that you are drinking.”

  Yvette stumbles a few steps forward and Jean quickly leans over to grab her and prevents her from falling, “that is not true Jean, we do things together too.” she chuckles and kisses his neck. Realizing that she is drunk and once again comfortably numb, Jean sweeps her off her feet and carries her to the bedroom, “do not make me worry about you, you need to control your alcohol intake.” Placing her onto her bed, Jean says into her dreamy eyes, “now what should I do with you?”

  “You can do whatever you want to do with me.” Yvette laughs while rolling over to the center of the bed, leaving space for Jean to climb in.

  ........ While Yvette enjoys her not so secretive rendezvous with Jean, Russell instructs his woman of the night to undress slowly in front of him “that is the way baby girl, make daddy happy!”

  The blonde bombshell for hire knows his type just altogether too well. As if she can read his filthy mind, she undresses herself in a provocative strip tease ever so slowly to raise his pulse, removes her clothes piece by piece and tosses her panties at him. He groans and watches her turn around to climb into the five star hotel bed, stark naked with only her stilettos on.

  Russell stands up, removes his belt and follows her. Standing next to the bed, he looks at her deliciously curvaceous body and salivates. Holding the buckle of his belt in his hand, he twists the belt around his fists a few times, “now show me you are a good girl and you will be rewarded. I do not want to hear any screaming, there will be no screaming is that understood?”

  ........ It is 3:00am in the morning and Jean is long gone from Yvette’s home. Lying naked in her bed, Yvette stirs to wake and heads over to the shower. She stares at her own reflection in the mirror, breaths in deeply and sighs as she exhales. With the saddest expression on her face, she refuses to believe that she is ‘comfortably numb’ as Jean suggests, neither does she believe that she is becoming an alcoholic.

  In denial she steps into the warm shower, washes off her depression and allows her sadness to drain away. She refuses to believe that her life is nothing but perfect. In her mind, everything is working out just fine. She has out-loved her husband and no longer feels any pain caused by his infidelity. She has everything she could ever wish for in life, including an estate home in Star Island, butlers and maids, credit cards with no pre-set spending limits, jewels that have stock piled in her personal vault and best of all, she can use any of the three exotic cars lined up in their garage.

  Clearly understanding her husband’s filthy erotic desires, she wishes no part of it and instead trades her one day a week freedom for ‘eyes shut tight.’

  Walking out of the bathroom wrapped in a luxurious bathrobe, she heads into her oversize walk-in closet, changes into a silk teddy and gets ready for bed. She hears a chain of short beeps from the alarm pad and knows that Russell is home, “urgh!” she shrugs and rushes into bed, hoping to avoid any unnecessary conversations.

  Russell enters the bedroom before Yvette has a chance to turn off the bedside lamp. Watching him enter through the door, she can smell the distinctive odor that she knows too well.

  “Coco Chanel. She wears Coco Chanel.” Yvette stares at Russell with a blank expression on her face.

  Too exhausted to reply Russell reaches inside the inner pocket of his tailored jacket, pulls out a black velvet box and tosses it over at Yvette,

  “Silence is Platinum” he buys her silence and reciprocates her sarcasm with a straight face then disappears into his closet.

  Yvette bites her lips and opens the box. On top of the velvet lining rests the most exquisite platinum and diamond necklace, which does not seem to satisfy her so she pushes for more, “How boring.” She fakes a yawn and looks straight at Russell as he steps out of his closet in his nightshirt, “I want the keys to your Bentley.”

  The white convertible Bentley is Russell’s favorite car, the fourth car in the garage that is normally off limits for Yvette, but tonight she feels gutsy to push her limits.

  Silence fills the room for a split second; he is far too tired to start a debate so after cautious consideration, he gives in to her demand “do not expect anymore jewelry for a long time. I will take the Porsche.”

  Chapter Four. Jingling the keys with her perfectly manicured nails, Taylor inserts the bronze color key in the center of the keychain into the door knob and opens the door to Karina’s apartment.

  Amber enters the apartment after Taylor and gasps loudly as she stares at the humongous mess. As if a tornado has swept through boxes are everywhere, items are scattered all over the floor, garbage bags are placed randomly throughout the apartment and the odor of rotten food fills the stale air of the room.

  “Oh my God, thank you for volunteering us to this unsightly chore. It is going to take forever to clean up this mess for Karina!” Amber frowns and glares at Taylor while walking over to check out the kitchen, “Oh my, I am not touching anything in there! No wonder it smells so bad in here!” she points to the stacks of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink.

  “Amber, just look at how distraught Karina is; she is completely shattered and has not stopped crying since I brought her to my place yesterday. We must extend all the support we can. She needs us now.” Reluctantly she picks up some empty soda bottles from the floor and puts it inside the garbage bag, “I have a feeling that this is not going to be easy.”

  Amber and Taylor reaches the perfect strategy, if it is not a ‘girl’ thing then it is probably Alex’s belongings and need to be packed into the boxes.

  Taylor opens all the drawers to look through the built in TV unit, she finds some sports magazines, few photos of Alex and his band members, and a few demo CDs.

  Curious about his music, Taylor slides one of the demos into the sound system and Alex’s guitar solo fills the room. They look at each other and are drawn into his unique vibrations. His music fills the room as Taylor and Amber return to their desig
nated area to continue packing.

  In Taylor’s mind she begins to wonder what went wrong between Karina and Alex, the happiest couple whom she thought has found forever.

  She has always admired their connection and the bond between them appears to have been unbreakable. Rather

  disappointed with Alex’s unacceptable behavior, she feels sympathy for Karina who is mourning over the death of her shattered heart.

  Amber on the contrary, is livid with Alex’s silence. She finds it surreal that a man could walk out of a woman’s life after cohabiting for over three years. As a matter of fact, she is angry with all men as her faith in their honesty and integrity has been gradually smothered into nothingness.

  Silently she curses at Alex and her exhusband “the hell with men, they are only good for one thing.” Letting out all her frustration, she shoves Alex’s belonging into an open box and forces it to close.

  “There, a thousand days’ worth of memories packed into thirty boxes, how about that?” Amber slumps into the sofa and texts Karina to make sure she is doing fine.

  Taylor comes out of the bathroom smiling mischievously “Look what I found .. condoms, that is a guy thing right?”

  “Oh for crying out loud just put them into the box will you?” Curiosity struck, “what size?” asks Amber.

  Taylor flashes the condom packs at Amber “Magnum” she reads off the label and tosses them into a box while laughing naughtily.

  Peeking into the box she narrates the inventory “toothbrush, cologne, men’s hairspray, gel, razors, everything is here, she is not joking that he just walked out like that. This is bizarre and he is not even calling her back? I wonder if he is alright.”

  “It is what it is. It is his choice and there is nothing we can do.” Amber continues stuffing his clothes into the boxes “I do not have to fold them right?” she interrupts herself, “anyway, when we are finished packing, we will call his brother, let him know to come pick it up and we will try to squeeze some information out of him.”