PART 3: COWED
Maid of dishonor.
Darlene and Nubia laughed long and loud in the breakfast nook of Darlene's big house. They had been friends, best friends, for ten years, since they were 20. They called and/or texted each other every day, had breakfast, lunch, or dinner together almost every other day until Darlene's marriage six months ago. They knew each other's secrets.
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They had met in UCLA, Darlene Fontaine majoring in Communications, Nubia Silva in Business Admin. In some ways they were opposites. Darlene was tallish, slim (even ten years later), had a full head of raven hair, was flat as a board, with high cheekbones, fine features, clear blue eyes and had an ass that you could (in her words) "bounce a quarterback off of." She was out-going, very talkative, adventurous. She was known to some as "Dare-lene."
Nubia had fine lustrous brunette hair, large intense dark brown eyes, full round breasts ("the melons" Darlene called them, eyeing them enviously). The plump ass she had in university had widened and grown "thicc" (a porn term that Darlene used that bugged her) over the last ten years. Nubia was on the short side. Her parents had immigrated from Brazil when she was ten. Nubia had a faint Portuguese accent. She was a woman of few but well chosen words. She seemed somewhat aloof to many but this was better understood as self-contained.
Nubia and Darlene became fast friends and when they were not attending classes or writing papers they did almost everything together: work-outs at the gym, shopping, visiting each other's families, going to the hair salon, holidaying and partying.
They partied a lot. Darlene wasn't shy. The first time Darlene brought a frat boy back to the off-campus apartment she shared with Nubia, she took off her dress in the kitchen and demanded the frat boy bang her on the counter top, knowing full well Nubia was eating mac and cheese at the kitchen table. Nubia said nothing but very carefully watched the adult entertainment.
There were times when they holidayed in Mexico and they'd bring men to their hotel rooms and "go their separate ways" (as they would joke): one on the bed with her cheap thrill, the other on the floor with her midnight special. Once in a while Darlene would give Nubia a look that asked "join us?" Nubia always declined these offers with a quick shake of her head.
On the night of the day they graduated they held hands when, drunk on tequila, they swore to be best friends forever and got star burst "tramp stamp" tattoos at the same time.
After a year of being the telegenic spokesperson for a few government agencies, Darlene changed gears and became a Pilates instructor. She now owned a successful studio with a clientele made of the wives of semi-rich husbands.
Nubia worked for different business consultancy firms over the years. This work involved at lot of travel across the States and to Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.
But they kept in touch daily wherever they were and shared their frustrations, successes and ups and downs of work, parents, romance and sex. By phone, text, Skype or during long lunches or dinners, they'd share every detail of their one night stands, flings and affairs (some of which in Darlene's case were with married men and women.)
"It's amazing how many married women decide they're bi-curious after a few Pilates sessions," a drunken Darlene had once joked after a home cooked meal at Nubia's apartment. Soon after saying this Darlene started caressing Nubia's breasts. Bleary-eyed, she mumbled "melons" and then passed-out, face first, on to Nubia's lap.
Nubia had gently pushed Darlene off her lap, took off Darlene's dangling ear rings and shoes, put her friend on her side on the couch and pulled a blanket up to her chin. Before turning off the lights in the front room, Nubia had looked at her friend and said to herself: "I have no interest in Pilates".
When a hung-over Darlene stumbled to the breakfast table, she asked, "What happened last night?"
"What didn't happen last night?" Nubia teased.
Three years ago Nubia married a man named Gordon Price. "The Price is right" as, inevitably, Darlene nicknamed him, was five years older than Nubia. He was two rungs higher up the corporate ladder than her. He made good money for the firm. He was dependable, reliable, a safe-bet. And not un-handsome. When he asked Nubia for a date, she accepted, thinking he'd be a good investment. Nubia decided it was time to settle down. After a year of dates Price proposed, Nubia accepted, they got married at city hall (Darlene was Maid of Honor) and promptly had a mortgage together which allowed them to buy a house in the 'burbs. (Nubia had become estranged from her parents. They didn't attend the wedding.)
Nubia cheated (her word) on her husband for the first time exactly two months after the end of their honeymoon. She let the bartender of the Toronto hotel she was staying in for a business trip pick her up. Sex with her husband was intermittent.
She only had "pick me ups" on her business trips and not on every trip. Only when the spirit moved her, because (as she said to Darlene once) "the problem with casual sex is it can be quite... casual...hit on and miss..hit on right out of the park...it's a lottery--thank God for the Pill." (Nubia gave Darlene in-depth reports of her on-goings-on.)
Nine months ago Darlene texted Nubia: "I've met an interesting man." Nubia didn't hear a word from her friend for a month. Then on a Saturday morning the call display on Nubia's cel winked DAR DAR DAR.
"You in LA?"
"Darlene, where have you been? And: Yes."
"Let's have lunch today at Hell's Kitchen, I've made reservations."
"What? How? OK."
When Darlene sat down at their table her face was aglow.
"I'm getting married!"
"You? Married?"
"It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do me."
"Who?"
"His name is Lance. He completely accepts me for who I am. When he proposed, I told him he didn't know the real me. I felt compelled to open up to him completely. I told him about all the men and woman who've F-U-C-K-O'ed me. He wanted all the dets. I told him everything. I told him I can't give him babies. And he said, 'I still want you to be my wife."
"Darlene, I..."
"We're getting married in the Catholic Church!"