Ann

The next morning she walked 2 miles looking for a cyber café. She must talk to Ann.

“Hey, you there?” she typed as fast as she could. Her irregular breathing made her more anxious. Her chubby fingers trembled as they hung in the air. Waiting for an answer. She saw Ann’s little green dot on Gmail. That’s a good sign. Her friend is online. She did not calculate the time difference – it should be early morning hours. She only wanted an explanation.

“Yep. You alright?” Ann replied.

Her heart soared. Now, straight to the point.

“Did you enjoy last night?” her friend beat her to it.

“How did you know about that?” she asked. Ann has no business asking about last night. It was private.

“Well, I figure sooner or later it would probably happen,” replied Ann. A smiley face replaced a full stop at the end of the sentence.

“What are you referring to by IT?” she asked. She had a small throbbing in her nape. Today was not a good day because she woke up on a bed of a stranger. A grown up that she thought was the kindest of man.

“I knew he liked you. That’s why I put you to the task,” Ann admitted.

A surge of lava spilled in her stomach. Her own best friend! Her lips pursed and puckered. She didn’t know if she should be angry or cry. She knew that she’s very upset.

She was introduced to Jordi 2 months ago. It’s not the meet-and-greet kind but write-a-mail-and-reply kind. Ann insisted that they should continue writing to each other after she left the loop. Ann said that her plan to travel to Europe made perfect sense. Jordi lives in Barcelona and Ann wants to give him his birthday present.

“You can give him this little bundle,” Ann pushed a tiny box into her hands at the airport. She could have said no or made Ann send the damn package by post but she owed Ann. She never really had a male friend and Jordi was the only one. Sometimes when Ann mentioned his name even casually, she goes red in the face. It was an uninvited feeling, a rush of hot wave into her chest. Burning. Maybe that’s why she said ‘yes’. That’s why she did not mind going to Barcelona from Frankfurt just to give him his gift.

She landed yesterday evening and Jordi fetched her from the airport. Germanwings was not so bad. It’s of a better quality than Air Asia if she was to be honest. He had a small studio about 200 meters from the nearest Metro and a spotless bathroom. Later, they went out to an Italian pizzeria. She ordered a four season pizza and he, a four cheese pizza. She let him ate her artichoke and he drank her diet Coke. It was the most memorable thing about last night. Her ribs were aching for laughing too much. The tiramisu cake was flawless and the Costa Rican coffee was the best that she ever tasted.

All was well until he switched off the light.

“You mean to tell me that you knew that he would do something like that? You knew?” she wrote, this time the words screaming in her head. It’s not conversational anymore but Ann won’t know that.

“Come on….you’re not that innocent. I knew you liked him from the beginning and he told me that he likes you so it’s not a big deal. I know why you wanted to learn Spanish. Everyone wants a taste of a different experience,” she replied.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???” she wrote. Her eyes growing wider and wider at every reply.

“Is that not what you wanted? You fucked a handsome foreigner on your vacation with my help. You’re welcome,” Ann replied smugly, like she was the greatest pimp lady of all Asia Pacific.

“No. That was nothing that I wanted,” she wrote and trying hard to breathe.

Ann knew all about it. That was Ann’s plan all along after she told her about her summer plan. The little box was never meant to be the gift. She was the gift. She was the fool!

“How could you! I trusted you!” she added another line. What would she give to choke her pretty neck right now. She was the only customer in the cyber café. The owner was staring at her because she was getting quite abusive at the innocent plastic keyboard.

“Pfft. Don’t act so dumb. That’s what all Europeans do. Does he like the penguin boxer?” Ann asked, like her dignity did not affect Ann anyway whatsoever. It’s as if it was a normal thing to do – sending your own best friend to be sexually violated by a stranger.

She did not answer. She logged out and paid the owner while apologizing for her antics in front of the computer. He said its fine. Things like that happen to everyone. Bad news sometimes made us do crazy things.

Not bad news for me, she thought. Just a bad, bad friend.

She walked back to Jordi’s house. Gathered her belongings and flew to Marrakesh where adventure awaits. The bitch is not going to ruin her vacation. If she could beat cancer, she could beat anything else.