High Heels in New York

by A. V. Scott

  The waiter, who had been standing off to the side was about to protest her thievery but stopped midway when he saw the evil look she shot at him.

  “Mel,” Angie said, grabbing her arm. “They’re not worth it.”

  She was right. They weren’t. But since Melissa had already been made a fool of, and was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, she wasn’t surprised what came out of her mouth next. “And by the way, I lied, it doesn’t happen to every guy and I faked it every time.” She looked over at Valerie. “Every. Single. Time.” She turned on her heels and walked out of the restaurant.

  She expected him to run after her. A little pathetic. But wasn’t he supposed to? Wasn’t he supposed to run after her, beg for her forgiveness and then cry (just a little) when she didn’t? Yes, it’s a little Lifetime Network but isn’t that every woman’s’ version of what love should be like, a movie? At least, that’s what Melissa thought.

  She pushed back the tears when she realized the only person walking behind her was Angie. Then she began to retrace her steps back home in the hopes that doing so would allow her to go back in time, a time when she was certain of her life and the people in it; a time when Jonathan loved her – and only her. But she couldn’t. All she could do was accept the fact that there was another girl about to walk down the aisle in her fairytale wedding with her fairytale man.

  She threw the bottle of champagne in the first garbage receptacle she spotted and began to cross the intersection of Fourteenth and First Avenue.

  Never again will I ever fall this hard ever again, she told herself as she stepped into the street.

  “Mel! Watch out!” Angie screamed.

  3

  “I have no idea what flavor that is,” Angie said, spitting out the chocolate cupcake into a napkin. After seeing her best friends’ love life fall apart right before her eyes and having to rescue her from being run over by a speeding car, she was drained. Luckily, the ambulance came right away and within minutes they were at St. Vincent’s Hospital. That was one upside to living in a crowded city, the authorities and rescue workers were always on high alert.

  “Exactly!” Melissa screeched. “It looks like chocolate, smells like chocolate and even the frosting resembles chocolate. But it isn’t! It’s false advertisement!”

  “Are you sure you’re talking about the cupcake?”

  “I know that I like cupcakes a little more than the average person but, it doesn’t mean I’ll let it get away with walking around pretending to be something it’s not,” Melissa said.

  Angie knew that she was trying to convince both of them that she wasn’t talking about Jonathan. But who the hell was she kidding? She knew perfectly well that she was talking about sneaky-cheating-good-for-nothing Jonathan.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Angie asked, looking her friend over.

  “I’m fine,” Melissa said.

  “I wrote the license plate number down,” Angie said, handing Melissa a piece of paper. “Freaking asshole! I know he saw you!”

  “It’s okay Angie,” Melissa shifted on the examination table, “I’m okay.”

  Angie rolled her eyes. “You don’t know if you’re okay. The way you hit the sidewalk you could have internal bleeding!”

  “Exaggerate much?”

  Angie pouted. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” Angie thought that Melissa should have been more careful. It’s not like she didn’t know New Yorkers drove like maniacs. But, she could also understand how Melissa didn’t see the car. When Melissa stormed out of the restaurant she was consumed by such a rage that she was blinded by it. Angie knew that being in that much pain caused people to react in unusual ways.

  And, now there she was, trying to keep calm herself while Melissa nervously fiddled with the unflattering and very sterile, white and blue checkered hospital gown she was instructed to wear. She had never seen Melissa this nervous before and she wasn’t sure if she was actually being as supportive as she should be. She never liked Jonathan but hadn’t the courage to tell Melissa. It would have crushed her. Melissa was like a lost puppy that needed to be loved and who was Angie to ruin someone else’s happiness. Deep down, Angie knew eventually their relationship would come crashing down so she just remained tight lipped and tried her best to convey otherwise.

  While they waited for the x-ray results, however, Angie couldn’t help but think about the call she missed earlier from Carlos. Maybe she should have sex with him one more time. She had to admit that it was a lot more fun being naked in a bed with a man than with a piece of plastic. And unlike Andrew, Carlos knew exactly what to do. Just thinking about Andrew made her want to call Carlos right then and there. She tried being in a relationship with Andrew. She even tried doing the date night thing once a week but, he was as much fun as a nail on a wall. And in bed he was worse. It seemed as if Carlos came along just in time to rescue her from the obscurity of a bad decision and reminded her why she thrived on one night stands and meaningless relationships, they were just better.

  Just as she was about to check her cell phone a delicious looking man with graying hair entered the room wearing a white lab coat. “Hello Ms. De La Rosa. I’m Doctor Bernard,” he said. “I have your test results.”

  “Give it to me straight,” Melissa sat straight up, listening. “I can take it.”

  “Is it okay to discuss this in front of your friend?” He asked, signaling to Angie.

  “YES!” Angie interjected without letting Melissa answer.

  “Okay.” He looked down at the chart on his clipboard, “Everything seems perfectly fine. You have a slight sprain on your right ankle so just take it easy for the next two weeks and ice it when you get home,” he said, handing Melissa a prescription and an ankle brace.

  Melissa tilted her head, examining the brace. “What’s this?”

  “An ankle brace. You have to wear it for two weeks. After your two week checkup if it’s healed you won’t have to wear it anymore,” Doctor Bernard said.

  “A sprain?” Angie screamed and covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh my God!”

  Melissa grabbed her arm, trying to console her. “It’s okay. It’s just a sprain.”

  “How are you going to walk and you know…do stuff?”

  “I’m sure I can walk. Right doc? I really don’t need this,” Melissa said, handing the ankle brace back to him.

  “Technically. Yes. You can. However, if you want to walk in those things ever again, you need this,” He said, pointing to her pumps, and handing her back the ankle brace. “And I don’t recommend you walking for more than a few minutes at a time. You need to let your foot rest so that it heals properly.”

  “There’s no way I’m wearing this...this thing! Just look at it. It’s horrendous,” Melissa shrieked. Having someone tell her that she had to give up heels for two weeks was like telling Britney Spears she could put a piece of gum in her mouth and not chew.

  Angie stood in the corner trying her hardest not to laugh. She knew Melissa was about to have an emotional meltdown. “Don’t worry Mel,” she said through giggles. “Manhattan is full of those yellow things on wheels. If you give them money they can take me anywhere you need to go.”

  “It’s not funny.”

  “Does that mean she can go home?” Angie asked.

  “Yes. As long as she wears flats for the next two weeks she’ll be fine.” Doctor Bernard continued to scribble in his clipboard.

  “Great,” Angie said, grabbing the ankle brace from Melissa’s hand as she tried to throw it in the garbage.

  “What? Flats? Hell no!” Melissa crossed her arms in front of her chest like a little child.

  “The most important thing is that there doesn’t seem to be any injury to your baby,” he added, creating an uncanny silence in the room.

  Angie’s eyes were bulging out of their eye sockets. What in the world did he just say? Melissa is pregnant? And she hadn’t told her? This was impossible. They told each other everything. How could she keep this from he
r?

  “Thanks,” Melissa said bubbly, waiting for the doctor to leave the room.

  “What the hell did he just say?” Angie asked furiously.

  “I was going to tell you but… I wasn’t sure.” Melissa took off the hospital gown and started getting dressed.

  “Don’t you piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining,” Angie said.

  “I promise. I was going to tell you. It’s just that with everything that’s been going on I just don’t know…” Melissa finally admitted.

  “Know what?”

  “I don’t know if I’m going to keep it,” Melissa said. She was afraid to look at Angie. Afraid to see the look on her face because she knew that if she did, she would see the look of disappointment in her friends’ eyes.

  Angie was silent.

  “And now with Jonathan out of the picture.”

  She still didn’t say anything.

  “Angie, please say something.”

  “You know how I feel about abortions so I don’t know what you want me to say.”

  This fact Melissa knew very well. A few years ago Angie found out that she couldn’t have children and she was devastated. She told everyone that God knew what he was doing but Melissa knew her friend well enough to know that her heart had been broken. “Under the circumstances I thought you’d understand,” Melissa said.

  “I don’t,” Angie yelled, grabbing her purse off the back of the plastic blue chair. “And just because my views are different than yours it doesn’t mean you have to lie to me.”

  “I didn’t lie,” Melissa said, putting on her black Stella McCartney bra. “I just didn’t tell you.”

  “Omitting is the same thing as lying. A lie is a lie.”

  Melissa stopped for a moment and looked at Angie dead in her eyes. “Look I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. I still don’t know.”

  “It? You say that like it’s a… a thing.” Angie’s arms flailed around in the air.

  Melissa had never seen her upset like this, but she wasn’t about to back down. “It’s a thing that’s taking up too much real estate without having even filed out a rental agreement. I don’t want to be pregnant. I never wanted to be. Jonathan was the one that wanted kids,” she screamed.

  Even if she tried really hard, Melissa couldn’t remember a time in my life when she had her I-want-to-be-a-mom moment. Her dreams consisted of traveling, writing and having once in a lifetime moments in Manhattan, not sitting at home changing dirty diapers and watching daytime talk shows. Even now, she wasn’t sure if getting married had even been her idea.

  “What did Jonathan say when you told him?” Angie asked, “You did tell him, didn’t you?”

  Melissa’s silence was her answer.

  “Melissa you have to tell him. He has a right to know.”

  “He has the right to kiss my ass,” Melissa said, pulling her tank top over her head.

  “You’re being so stubborn.”

  “I’m being realistic. The last thing I need right now is a baby. And as my friend you should have my back no matter what decision I make,” she said, noticing that her jeans felt snugger than when she put them on earlier.

  “So you lied to me, you’re keeping it from Jonathan and you’re not even sure you’re going to keep it?” Angie had to make sure that she understood what Melissa was telling her.

  “That’s about right.”

  “I got to give it to you Melissa,” Angie said. “You have more balls that I ever gave you credit for.”

  “Why? Because I don’t want to be a mom? Newsflash, not everyone wants to be a mother. I’m sorry you can’t have children of your own, but no matter what anyone says, in the end it’s my decision.” Melissa could see Angie’s eyes well up and the minute she finished fuming at the mouth and wished that she could take it all back. “Oh gosh, Angie I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

  Angie’s voice quavered, as if she might cry. “You’re such a bitch,” she said and then stormed out of the room.

  #

  Turning the key to her apartment, Melissa hoped Jonathan had come to his senses. She pictured him getting on his hands and knees begging her to take him back and telling her what a fool he had been and that he loved her more than anyone else in the world. Closing the front door behind her, she stood in the hallway for a moment, frozen. The silence was deafening. She would have to create another fantasy because Jonathan wasn’t home. The questions begin immediately. Did he stay at Valerie’s place? Did they get married already? They were probably already playing house. She could picture them in their perfect little house with their perfect little life and her with her perfect little shoes. It made Melissa sick.

  She wanted to dig deep for the Brooklyn girl inside of her and burn all his clothes like Angela Bassett in Waiting to exhale. But she gave up that idea instantly. She simply wasn’t that brave anymore. If this would have happened to her back in College, she may have beat that chic to a pulp at the restaurant. But, she had come a long way from the streets of Brooklyn and wasn’t going to let anyone ruin her new life.

  Mentally and emotionally exhausted, she turned down the long hallway, past the recently remodeled gourmet kitchen and crossed the sunken living room with its cozy fireplace and into the master bedroom. She plopped down on the queen platform bed and closed her eyes. All she could think about was that she had become obsolete.

  She kicked off the plastic flip flops Angie was so kind to get her from the hospital gift shop, before she insulted her, and then hobbled to the bathroom. Her eyes sweep the room. Pieces of Jonathan lingered all around; his toothbrush was casually next to hers in the glass tumbler; his shaving cream, his bathroom slippers. He wasn’t just still there, he was everywhere. Her upper lip began to twitch. That nasty, dirty, bastard, she thought. Then it finally happened. She got angry. So angry in fact that she started grabbing all the things he left behind; his designer suits, the mechanical tie organizer and five pairs of GUCCI shoes. Everything she could find that was his was a goner. She took it all and put it neatly into a pile in the middle of the living room, walked into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of shears and a hammer. Then she opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of white wine, opened it and didn’t even bother with a glass. Once she sat down in front the pile she started to smash it all into pieces.

  Bam! She slammed the hammer down onto the tie organizer.

  A visual of him kissing Valerie popped into her head.

  Bam!

  Bam!

  Melissa had to admit, that this felt good and she was about to tear into one of Jonathan’s dress shirts when her phone started ringing.

  “Hi ma,” she said, cranking her neck to one side so that the cell phone was held by her shoulder.

  “Hi mija. What are you up to?”

  She chugged more wine. “Nada.”

  “I have some great news. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone. But, you don’t come down for a visit anymore. You’re too busy with that hot shot fiancé of yours.”

  Fiancé? Ha! She cuts a big gash into a black Calvin Klein blazer. “Uhuh,” Melissa said, wondering what new gossip her mother would make her privy too.

  “You know how Dr. Lopez and I have officially been dating for a year now?”

  She took another sip of wine, “Yeah.” Her mother waited ten years after Melissa’s dad died to even consider the idea of dating again. Then one day she surprised Melissa with the news that she was finally taking a stab at dating again. Melissa couldn’t have been happier for her mother. But then her mother proceeded to tell her that the man she decided to date was none other than Doctor Lopez . He was the same doctor who used to be Melissa’s gynecologist. It was and still is a little creepy to Melissa, that her mother was dating a man who’d seen Melissa’s vajayjay.

  “Si mija. Well.” The line went silent.

  “Ma? What is it?” Melissa said, cutting a hole into one of Jonathans’ black slacks.

  “He proposed! I’m gett
ing married!”

  Melissa dropped the shears. “What?”

  “I don’t want a big wedding. I already had one with your dad. Rest his soul. We’re going to have a small one in the backyard.” Her mother shouted with joy. Only her mother would call the twenty five miles of beach that backed up unto her house a backyard. You can take the Latina out of the country…ah well you know the rest.

  Melissa began to pace around the apartment. “I don’t know what to say.” She took two more sips of wine, wishing it was something more pungent like vodka.

  “It’s on Sunday,” her mother continues.

  “A week? You’re getting married in a week? Don’t you think that it’s too soon?” By now Melissa was in her bedroom. She couldn’t believe that her mother was getting married…again. And before her! This wasn’t happening.

  “At my age there’s no reason to wait.”

  You should wait. Wait until your little girl gets married! Melissa wanted to say. She didn’t. Instead, she opened the closet and took out her wedding dress, placing it gently on her bed.

  “Anyway, I have something very important to ask you,” her mother paused. “You don’t have to say yes.”

  “Spit it out Ma.”

  “Will you be my Maid of honor? It would mean so much to George and I.”

  Hearing her call Dr. Lopez by his first name made Melissa just as uneasy as the idea of being her mother’s maid of honor.

  “Ma, I would love to but I’m just so busy and wouldn’t Aunt Joselyn or Kathy want that privilege?” Seriously, her aunt and her sister lived minutes from her mother while Melissa on the other hand had to trek the hour car ride to make it to good old, over rated Seagate Beach, in order to have the privilege of hearing her mother torment her in person with her happy little life. She had to give her mother some credit though. Snagging a doctor at her age was something that was unheard of.