Deadly Queen

Bella

Richard <3: I want us to break up.

My brows furrowed as I read the text from my boyfriend so much that I lost count of how many times my eyes scanned the text to tell if I was seeing right.

My hand quickly went over to the dial button, hoping it would be a prank.

The line was silent when he picked the call at first, but I finally heard him sigh.

“Orabella,” he said.

He never called me by that.

“Richard,” I replied. “I don’t understand. The text you sent…”

“It wasn’t working, and you knew it as much as I did,” he stated.

“What do you mean by that? We’re perfect. We’re working just fine. I don’t—Please tell me you’re joking,” I pleaded.

Richard was someone who made a lot of jokes, but I knew when his tone was serious. His tone was completely serious right now, and that sickened me to my stomach.

“What do you mean, Bella? You barely even have time for me anymore We haven’t seen each other in about a month now. Do you really think this makes sense?” He scoffed.

“Come on, Richard. You know I’m preparing for my interview at Hera. The interview is tomorrow, and you know how excited I’ve been about this for the longest time. You can’t do this to me.” I shook my head.

My voice was starting to waver as tears filled my eyes to the brim.

“I found someone, Bella.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. My tears flooded down my cheeks, and wiping them did nothing but fuel them to come down faster. Of course, he had found someone.

“It’s not your fault, believe me. I didn’t want you to find out from anyone else before I could get the chance to tell you. I can’t get into a long-distance relationship with you, Bella, I’m sorry. I really hope you find someone there. I don’t want to hold you back. Good luck on your interview.”

I wanted to spew curses of spite at him. I wanted to wish him all the bad luck in the world. I wanted to tell him that I hoped the new girl would break his heart the way he just did mine.

I did none of those things. Instead, I hung up the phone and flung it onto a couch, covering my face with my palms and sobbing into them.

“I can’t believe he did this to me,” I said to nobody but myself, standing up and gathering the notes where I had scribbled down possible interview questions and the best answers for them.

I kept the notes on my coffee table and walked out of my apartment and into the car which I had spent most of my life saving up for, driving straight into the livelier parts of Manhattan.

There was nobody to talk to. I only moved to Manhattan about four weeks ago for the job whose interview I would in in for tomorrow, and making friends was not something that came naturally to me, so I was stuck with a broken heart, all by myself.

I found one of the places I had gotten quite accustomed to since I moved to Manhattan – a bar right in the middle of town. It was somewhere you went whenever you wanted to see other people live their happy lives and you wanted to forget about your shitty one.

I found an empty stool at the bar, ordering myself a glass of rum and making a mental note to drink, but not enough to knock me out and give me a hangover that would jeopardize my interview at Hera – one of the biggest jewelry companies in the country.

“That is tough,” I heard someone comment when I tipped the glass of rum back and chugged down the liquor at once.

I swiveled in my stool and found a pair of brown eyes examining me.

“I’m just going to take a wild guess and say you got dumped?” He raised a brow, waiting for my answer.

“It’s that obvious?” I groaned, frustrated. He laughed at my reaction, taking a fine sip of clear liquid in a low-ball glass.

“Very.” He nodded to confirm. “I do have to say, though; he’s an idiot for losing a person like you. What kind of a person messes up this bad?”

I laughed, stuck between wanting to agree with this stranger and wanting to defend Richard.