High Heels in New York (3 page)

Melissa tried maneuvering through said vendors, but barely taking five steps, three people bumped into her and a bike messenger almost made her right leg part of his bike. Struggling
to make her way through the crowd, she spotted a vendor selling something she couldn’t say no to, cupcakes. Her stomach quickly did a three point cheer. Licking her lips, she detoured to the table.

“Do you have red velvet?” She asked a short brunette behind the cupcake table.

“Sorry. Sold out,” she said, smacking her gum around in her mouth.

Melissa quickly thought that she looked like a cow and she was afraid of cow girl getting saliva on her cupcakes. “Um, okay. What’s your best seller?”

“Red velvet.
But our
Creamsicle
is a close second,” she said pointing to a cupcake with orange frosting.

Just my luck, she thought.

“Is it any good?” she didn’t really want any other flavor. As far as she was concerned, Red Velvet was the best cupcake flavor in the universe and anyone who declared otherwise had shit for taste buds.

Cow lady nodded.

“Okay.” Melissa said, “I’ll take one.” She opened her Michael
Kors
purse and searched for her sunglasses and cash.

Cow lady put disposable plastic gloves on her hands (Thank God!) and placed the cupcake in a box. Curious, Melissa ordered
a couple more flavors and then continued happily to her destination.

Slowing her pace as she crossed the street, she took in the exquisite bands of color in the sky. The colors reminded her that she hadn’t watched a sunset in a long time, not by herself or with Jonathan. Not that they could get a nice view of the sunset nowadays. The best places to watch a sunset in New York were gone when the North Tower of The World trade center was destroyed. She remembered clearly that on its 106th and 107th floor there were indoor and outdoor observation decks, and a complex of venues that included The Greatest Bar on Earth and two restaurants, Wild Blue and Windows on the World. The latter was her favorite place to sunset watch while sipping Cosmos. It was also the very place where Jonathan and her first met. Just the thought of that day put a huge smile on her face and for a moment, she wasn’t thinking about the foreign object inside of her.

2

“Where the hell have you been?” Angie shouted to Melissa when she finally arrived. Angie was sitting at their usual table in the back by a large window that faced the avenue. It was their favorite spot to people watch.

The delicious aroma of oregano, tomato and basil lingered in the air, entering Melissa’s nostrils every time she inhaled. She walked over to Angie, smiling and gave her a big hug.

“Seriously?
”
Angie asked, looking at the cupcake box in Melissa’s hand. Anyone who knew Melissa knew very well that she couldn’t say no to cupcakes. And you couldn’t tell by just looking at her. Melissa was a damn-good looking girl but at the rate she let her sweet tooth take over, she was sure to gain a few unwanted pounds.

“It was on the way,”
Melissa
contended as she took a seat across
from Angie
.

“When are you going to admit that you’re an addict?” Angie leaned forward, smoothing her French manicured nails over Melissa’s pastel pink cardigan.
“
Lanoler
?”

“Only the best,” Melissa smiled, unfolding her napkin with a snap.

Angie sat back in the wooden chair, eyeing Melissa’s outfit from head to toe. “Just look at you, a few years ago you were barely able to afford a pair of Nine West jeans and now you’re sporting hundred dollar cardigans and red bottom shoes.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” Melissa said, staring at her best friend in awe. Angie was the epitome of an All-American beauty; blonde hair, big blue eyes, totally fab and today she looked even more fabulous in a sexy black mini with red heels and recently tucked skin. (Or so she thought it was recent.)

One wouldn’t know by looking at Angie, but during her childhood, Angie bounced around from foster homes to her drug addicted mother. It was shear perseverance that got Angie where she was today. Sometimes Melissa thought Angie was more of a New Yorker than she because Angie wasn’t afraid of anything and always got straight to the point, no bullshit and no sugar coating. Angie said it was due to her Southern upbringing. Melissa knew better. Angie was who she was. Geography wouldn’t have changed that fact.

“Anyway, tell me the good news,” Angie continued, not waiting for Melissa to answer.

Oh shit! How did she find out? Was I showing already? Can you show this early on? Melissa thought and then tried to sound oblivious. “What news?”

“When I saw Jonathan at the Tiffany counter yesterday I wanted desperately to be you,” Angie squealed, clasping her hands together. Her excitement was too much for Melissa to handle.

“Are you sure it was him?” Melissa asked incredulously. “He usually doesn’t even go out to lunch. He orders delivery just so he could stay at his desk and get more work done.”

“Of course it was him,” Angie looked confused. “I was on my way to get a manicure and you know how I hate to be late so I didn’t even get a chance to say hello. But it was him. I’m sure of it.” She shook her head, and stood firm. “It was him.”

Finally noticing Meliss
a’s arrival, the waiter delivered
her food and asked for her drink order. Taking the interruption as an opportunity to finally take
in a deep breath, Melissa looked
over the drink menu as if she
didn’t
have it memorized. But she wasn’t ready to discuss the fact that she was knocked up. “He was probably getting something for his mom. Her birthday is coming up,” Melissa said, and then turned to the waiter. “Water please.”

“Water?
Are you sick?”

“No. I just don’t feel like drinking.”

Angie gave Melissa
a puzzled look.
“Not feeling like drinking is like not wanting to have an orgasm. And who doesn’t want an orgasm? I have one at least three times a day.”

“They have weekly meetings for that you know,” Melissa said jokingly.

“Darling, I’m not only a member, I’m the damn president.” Angie laughed, pushing her plate to the side. “Anyway, good for him for buying his mother something nice. You’re already spoiled as it is.” Angie liked to bother Melissa about her
social
status because Melissa wasn’t used to being treated like a princess. Jonathan had been spoiling her since the very first day they met and she wasn’t used to life in the fab lane like Angie was.  So, Angie felt it was her duty to show her best friend how to enjoy this new life of wealth and privilege. After all, Jonathan had the money and loved spending it on her. What girl in her right mind would say no to a little spoiling here and there from her soon-to-be husband?

“One day it’ll be you,” Melissa assured her friend.

“I’d much rather masturbate with a cheese grater than let the same man pound my vagina for the rest of my life.” Angie said, taking a sip of her whiskey.

The visual made Melissa close her legs together tightly. It was just like Angie to turn her head at marriage. She loved her freedom and wasn’t going to let anyone, especially a man take that away from her. Sometimes, Melissa envied her tenacity. Just for shits and giggles, Melissa
took
a loud exaggerated gasp. “And you have to kiss with tongue. Can you imagine?”

“Joke all you want, you’ve already committed yourself to Jonathan. If you don’t get married it’s like you’ve wasted the last two years of your life. You have no choice but to treat your relationship like an investment and
get your return ten times fold,
”
Angie said, finally taking off her shades and placing it inside her purse.

Shoveling a heaping spoon of food into her mouth, Melissa considered the truth in Angie’s statement. “I suppose.”

Angie’s eyes followed the spoon from the plate into Melissa’s mouth. “Think about it Mel, having a man in your life is like buying a pair of designer shoes or a couture bag. You spend thousands for the right seasonal accessory. You use it every day. You take care of it. You love it
like no other accessory exists,” s
he said, pulling a makeup bag from inside her purse. “But, when the new season arrives, so does newer and better accessories. So, you go out and purchase a newer and better accessory while the old one sits in the closet collecting
dust until it makes a comeback.” S
he stared straight
in her friends’ eyes and unzipped
the makeup bag. “Except sometimes, it loses its pizazz and never comes back into style.”

“Like Lindsay
Lohan
?” Melissa teased.

“How is Mr. fabulous anyway?” Angie asked, dabbing red lip gloss on her already glossed lips.

“He’s fine, still trying to make partner and still trying to convince me that my trip to London is a stupid idea.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say stupid… per say,” Angie muttered. She hadn’t wanted to put her two cents in about Melissa’s trip because she knew how badly Melissa wanted to go. But, this day and age, it just wasn’t safe for a woman to travel outside of the USA alone.

“You too?”
Melissa screamed, slamming her napkin on the table. Okay, she was being a little over dramatic but who wouldn’t. Long before she met Jonathan, she had decided, that she was going to be taking a two week trip to London by herself. The trip would be one of those last hoorah moments where she could say goodbye to single life and Angie, along with her mother, did not approve of such a trip.

“Cranky are we?” Angie asked.

“I’m so damn tired of everyone telling me what’s good for me,” Melissa said in between bites. “I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions.”

“Give down the country why
don’t you
.”

“Sorry,” Melissa could feel a stress headache coming on. “I have a lot of stuff on my mind.”

“Anything you want to share?” Angie asked, finishing her drink. “You know, come to think of it, I’ve had the best experiences in Europe that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.”

“Did it involve a hot French guy and lots of sex?”
Melissa asked.

“Make fun of me all you want but one day you will realize that sex is like air; it’s not important
unless you’re not getting any,” Angie said, shaking her head.

“I like sex.” Melissa said, defensively.

“Says the girl who schedules sex like a dentist appointment,” Angie snapped.

Melissa knew that Angie had hit the nail right on the head with that declaration. But isn’t every body’s sex life different? “Just because I like to be prepared it doesn’t mean I don’t like sex. I mean, what if I didn’t shave? What if I’m having, you know – leakage? That would just ruin the mood,” Melissa said. She didn’t care if it wasn’t normal to schedule sex. It worked for her and Jonathan.

“Darling,” Angie sighed.
“Your sex life hasn’t been in the mood since Hilary Clinton was sexy.”

Melissa stuck out her tongue. Just then she had an epiphany. She would not be having sex for nine long months! Technically you could have sex while pregnant, Doctors even encouraged it. But there was something about trying to enjoy something so intimate while there was an innocent bystander inside of her, getting its head bashed in that grossed her out. So that was it, if she kept the baby, she was going to be fat and sex deprived. These realizations made her want to walk into the gynecologists’ office and slap her across her face with her plastic container of birth control pills that had promised to keep her baby free.

Depressed, Melissa tried for a subject change. “So what’s up with you?”

“Apparently I’m old and should refrain from ever stepping foot on a movie set,” Angie whined.

“Really?
I’m sorry,” Melissa said. Angie was always a hardworking and determined actress. But she hadn’t received a script she liked in months. Melissa gave Angie a lot of credit for doing what she did. It took a lot of self-love and thick skin to be
an actress which were
two things Melissa didn’t have.

Angie sulked. “I really wanted the lead in a film that Paradox
Pictures
is producing.”

“Oh, the one who created Top Gun? Is it true they’re going to do a remake?”

“Yes! And I really want to be
in it,” Angie
said keenly. “I need to be in it.”

“What happened?”

“That!” Angie said, pointing to the young blonde all over Marty.

“Wow.” Melissa’s first impression of the girl was that she looked a lot like Angie. “You know who she reminds me of?”

“Please, don’t tell me. I already know.”

“Don’t worry,” Melissa said, spooning more food into her mouth. “It’ll work out.”

“You better not get fat on me,” Angie scolded, with a slightly alarmed look on her face. “I need you to fit into that sexy black dress for the charity dinner.”