Tales From Sechs City
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welcome to Sechs City, a wealthy, middle-class costal area of Western America in the state of California. A gorgeous, quiet largely uneventful place, people move to the city to follow their dreams, to live their day-to-day lives. It's almost too perfect to be true...
The afternoon was dragging on, and they had been in the shopping mall for nearly two hours now. Although Heidi had managed to complete each one of her necessary chores earlier that morning, she knew that there was still plenty of work that could be done at home, rather than wasting her time here at the mall. Sure, it had been fun spending the time with Isabella, but all they had seemed to do was shop for clothes and shoes, which really they didn't even need. Still, thought Heidi, at least Mike's going to be bringing home a lot more money; that should just about cover all of this.
But now she was becoming more and more frustrated. For the last ten minutes they seemed to have been just walking around in circles, not even stopping windows to look at things, let alone go into the shops.
Isabella was often three or four steps in front, and it was an effort to keep up with her with all the heavy bags Heidi was carrying. She was actually surprised at the seemingly limitless energy of her friend, who was carrying double the number of bags Heidi had.
Finally, as a large crowd of teenagers blocked their path briefly, Heidi was able to catch up with her. 'Izzie, are we nearly done here?' she asked. 'I really need to get home.'
'Nearly, hun,' replied Isabella. 'Just one more thing to do and this one's the most important one of the lot.'
'And I don't suppose you're going to tell me what this thing is, are you?'
'You'll see.'
But Heidi's patience was spent. 'No, Izzie! I'm sorry, but my feet are tired, my arms ache, and I just want to go home and collapse into a nice hot bubble bath, okay?'
Isabella looked at her friend. 'Okay, okay,'' she assured her. 'We'll be reeeeeeeeeally quick -- I promise. Boy, if this is what you're like in a crowded building I hate to think what you'll be like on Wednesday.'
'Thursday, Izzie,' Heidi corrected her. 'My wedding is on Thursday. You should really know that, being the maid of honour and all.'
'I wasn't talking about Thursday,' replied Isabella quietly, but not quietly enough.
'What? Izzie, what are you on about? You haven't...Izzie, I told you, no hen nights!'
Isabella smiled a little sheepishly at Heidi as she in turn scowled back. 'What kind of friend would I be if I didn't give the blushing bride a proper hen night?'
'No, Isabella! I told you ages ago, I don't want a hen night.'
Isabella sighed as they turned yet another corner they had been around at least three times now. 'Well, it's a bit late, honey, because I've already booked half of the evening.'
'Then you can un-book it!' Heidi knew that her friend had meant well but she just couldn't control her tired anger. She wondered if it also had something to do with the fact that she would be going home to an empty house for the first time in a long while.
But it seemed that Isabella had had enough too. 'Fine,' she said shortly, before dropping the bags and storming off into the crowd and away from Heidi.
Heidi sighed. This was not exactly good, having a major bust-up with her maid of honour days before the wedding. She had a sudden urge to get out her mobile phone and ring Mike, but almost instantly she rebuked herself; not only was it a stupid idea -- after all, what could he do? -- it was also a sign of weakness, and she wanted to seem like she was staying strong and focussed when he called her.
Somehow Heidi managed to pick up Isabella's bags and slowly started to trudge her way through the crowd, trying to find her friend among all the anonymous faces.
Finally she saw her, sitting on a rare seat that faced a rather ugly looking fountain. Heidi gingerly stepped forward, put all of the bags carefully down, and slowly sat next to her friend.
'I'm sorry, Izzie,' she said softly. 'I guess I'm just more tired than I realise. And I'm not exactly looking forward to sleeping alone tonight. Or not seeing Mike for three days. The wedding is actually pretty scary too, if you think about it...'
'All right, excuses, excuses,' Isabella interrupted her dryly. 'I'm sorry too. Look, I didn't ignore you. I heard you loud and clear the first time you told me: no hen nights! But you've got to understand, I look at you, and do you know how I feel?'
'Not violent, I hope.'
'No, I feel anxious. You're about to take this huge, huge step; this is a big commitment you and Mike are about to make to each other, you know? How many boyfriends have you had, Heidi? And I mean serious ones, not those silly make-believe ones we have in kindergarten.'
Heidi didn't need long to think about it. 'Two,' she replied. 'There was Brad in high school, he lasted for about five months, then promptly dumped me for some cheerleader bimbo. And then there was Mike, and he's lasted for four years.'
Isabella nodded. 'Uh huh? And let me guess, unless Brad had a way with words, the only man who's ever got his way into your panties was Mike?'
Heidi shifted a little uncomfortably. She wasn't sure whether it was such a good idea to start talking about her sex life in public. 'Well, yes,' she said finally. 'Mike was my first.'
'First and ONLY,' Isabella added.
'Hmm, yeah, I guess you're right. Huh, kind of romantic, isn't it?'
'Oh, yeah,' replied Isabella. 'Romantic. I certainly thought so when I married my first boyfriend.'
Heidi's jaw dropped. 'Isabella!' she breathed. 'What...how...when did...you have never, never told me this...ever!'
Isabella smiled a little sadly. 'It was quite a while ago,' she began. 'I was young and in love with this gorgeous, sweet man. His name was Sam Harris. Oh, he was very handsome. We got married, against our parent's wishes. Simple ceremony, not many guests, just a few friends. For about three months we were happy. And then one day I was working at this tiny office where I was doing some part-time secretarial work when this absolute stud walks through the door. As soon as I looked into his eyes I almost came right there.'
Heidi coughed to hide her slight embarrassment. There was a rather elderly woman sitting on one of the seats nearby, and though she was feigning sleep, Heidi was sure she could hear every word.
'But then I realised. I was so unhappy in my marriage, I almost started crying in front of this guy. He saw me looking sad, offered to buy me a drink. Two martinis later and I'm fucking him in his Mondeo.'
At that the old lady looked up sharply, utter disgust on her features. She got up and huffed away, muttering loudly, 'I never heard such language!'
Heidi and Isabella couldn't help it; the sight was so funny they burst out laughing. When they had calmed down, Heidi took hold of her friend's hand, motioning her to finish the story.
'Well, I felt horrible afterwards, until I confessed all to Sam. Then he told me that he had been fucking another girl at his work. Well, that was it. We divorced amicably and I moved to Sechs City.'
She turned so she could look Heidi in the face more. 'But do you see what our problem was, Heidi? We weren't ready for marriage. We hadn't seen enough of the world, hadn't experienced it all. I am so, so, SO much happier now that I'm free to do whatever I want. I'm not saying that that's right for everyone, and I'm really happy for you and Mike. But you've got to remember that, once you're married, you lose certain freedoms you once had. All these opportunities just go flying out of the window, never to be seen again. And if you try to get them back, well, most of the time its bye bye, marriage.'
Heidi looked at her friend's face. They had had plenty of deep conversations, of course, but she had never seen Isabella look quite so serious about things before. She lifted her hand and brushed a couple of stray strands of blonde hair from across her friend's eyes.
'Okay,' she laughed finally, rolling her eyes. 'We can have a hen night! But not too many people, okay? I've already got at least a hundred people coming to the wedding. I can't deal with large numbers two nights in a row!'
Isabella grinned. 'I promise, and this time I mean it.'
Heidi looked at her watch. 'Right, well, we'd better get going, else we'll be stuck in here when they start to close all the shops, and then what would be the point of being in a mall?'
But Isabella shook her head. 'Uh uh. Still got one more thing to do, remember?'
'Izzie...'