Things That Bang

Fiction: Bitter Truths Over Coffee

"What is it that you want?" Shelby asked before taking a sip of the bitter coffee. Her soon to be ex-husband shrugged and looked around the room and took his time to reply. Shelby was used to his antics by now and waited for his response. He stared at a woman sitting behind her. Shelby knew he was staring at another woman, probably a petite blonde with too much lipstick. He always liked to compare between his wife and other women and always found her wanting. Fifteen years of living with the schmuck had eroded her self-esteem but there had been a lifeline thrown from an unexpected quarter. With a trembling hand, she put the cup back in the dainty porcelain plate with tiny flowers made on it. The Paradise Cafe was expensive. It was her husband's idea to meet there. The clientèle were the kinds born with elegance infused in their DNA. He reeked old money and she - what did she smell of? Sweaty underarms - the tell tale signs of a middle class woman clearly out of her element. She looked away from his handsome chiselled face and let her eyes fall on a blonde sitting behind him. She was the kind he liked - thin like a reed, with perfectly symmetrical features, large china blue eyes, long dark eyelashes, a sharp thin nose and luscious lips painted red. The woman raised a quizzical eyebrow at Shelby and raised a white gloved hand to call the waiter. She wore the air of privilege and authority; all that Shelby lacked. She felt out of her skin, worse still she felt like a bull in a China shop but she had to see this conversation through. She was not chicken! She folded her sweaty palms on her cotton dress. Her tightly drawn knees itched with unwaxed hair. She cleared her throat and tried to get her wayward husband's lewd attention. "Max! Act like a horny SOB on your own time. Why did you call me here?" Max returned his languid attention back to his brunette wife. She had put on weight over the years and lost most of her pixie looks. Shelby reminded him of a fat Labrador - still easy on the eyes but lacking elegance and sophistication. He wondered why he had married someone below his station, someone who could never match his wit, his intellect, never got along with his friends and was naive in bed. He had always liked blondes but married a dowdy brunette. A mistake he was going to finally correct after fifteen years of trying to instil some class in her. She was a waste. Her maroon cotton dress was pulled off from some mall Sale, her nails were chipped and the roots of her hair had not been touched for over three months. For a renowned author who made plenty of money, Shelby never really cared about her appearance and that irked him. But she was not his problem any more. Max leaned back against his chair and spoke "You know what I want, Shelby." Her lips tightened and eyes narrowed. Anger raced through her mind and she began to breath faster. "You know I will never hand it over to you Max! Never!" She glared back at him and his eyes fell on her heaving breasts. He smirked, knowing she found his attention on her breasts ironical. That was again his way of saying her breasts were fat!! He stopped calling her fat a long time back he did it with his eyes and his mocking smile. She thrust her breasts higher and stared back at him. He raised an eyebrow at her attempts to fight him at his own game and spoke softly "If you don't hand over that first edition of Copperfield I will not divorce you." Shelby shook her head at his crass attempts to blackmail her and let her eyes fall back on the woman sitting behind her husband. The blonde was also having coffee. She liked it without milk and sugar. Bitter like the taste of betrayal, something Max was sure to feel sooner than later the blonde had told her over sex musty sheets. The blonde smiled at her tenderly and Shelby held back the answering lift of her lips and she pushed the memory aside and looked back at her husband. "You can continue to sulk and pout over that book. Fact is you gifted it to me in front of your friends and its mine. I won't return it to you." Max leaned over the table and sneered at Shelby "You stupid cow! What do you know about literature or about art? You fat burger-eating filth" "Burger eating filth?!" Shelby let out a open hearted laugh and felt the scales of power shift. "That's the best you can come up with? Wait! its beneath your high born dignity to call me a cunt, bitch, twat or a whore, right? You think them but your frigid mommy used to wash your mouth with soap when you said curse words, didn't she?" "Don't bring my mother into it!" Max dropped all pretext of being civil and seethed at Shelby. "She warned me against you. Look at me when I am talking to you." He glared at her. Shelby pulled her eyes away from the blonde who licked the cream off her lips with the pink tip of her tongue and sent Shelby a flying kiss. "Hmmmm...?!" Shelby smiled a happy Christmas is here smile at Max who blinked. Shelby was in love. She couldn't stay mad at Max. Her mood lifted as if hundreds of flamingos flew away from a dried lake to rivers that swelled with churning water and plenty of fish. "Ah! yes! your mother. God bless her dead soul. She never did like me. Did she?" Shelby leaned over and patted Max's hand that crumpled the fine linen napkin that had the initials of the Cafe embroidered in gold thread. "Its okay Max, I don't have any bitter feelings towards that old dragon but as per that book, it was the only thing you gave me selflessly" She gave him a whimsical smile and began to collect her things. She pulled her suede coat on, put her leather bag against her shoulder and as she got up she spoke to him "Get your lawyer to talk to mine. It can all be very amicable. We'll sell off the lakeside property, the house in Maine and divide the money equally." He tried to speak up but she pushed the chair and stood up "Yes! Equally, Max. I know I made more than you, saved more than you and I am willing to let you have my shekels as well in return for an amicable divorce." She put the woollen scarf with white and black pandas made on it around her neck and continued to speak to Max though her attention was on the blonde who had paid her bill and was ready to leave as well. "The Copperfield stays with me Max and I will fight tooth and nail for it. Goodbye Max." She walked towards her blonde lover who kissed her and without a backward look Shelby walked out of the restaurant. The blonde glanced back at Max who gaped at his secretary and wife leave the restaurant as lovers.