Whisked Away

Untitled Part 11

Sunlight spilled into the apartment as dawn broke. The pleasant hums and chirps of birds filled the surroundings with the sounds of a good morning. How cliched. 

"Mmmm," Rose stretched, her arms and legs tugging, "how loNG HAVE I BEEN ASLEEP FOR??! FUCK!"

"Whaaat..." Tanya groaned as last night's indecent amount of wine's aftermath kicked in. Great. A freaking hangover. 

"I SLEPT IN!" Rose exclaimed, stepping out and kicking Tanya's extra pajamas and scrambled into her black pants and tucked in a white blouse with silky frills. I'll wash it and bring it back, Rose promised in her head. Tanya gazed calmly as Rose rushed around the place to get ready frantically. She giggled to herself; both the girls were worlds apart but they fitted together perfectly like two peas in a pod. Dabbing on some lipstick, Rose admired her reflection for a fraction of a second and ran off with her pumps. 

"I'll be back with Chinese takeaways tonight, your fav!" Rose shouted from the door.

"Alright, bye, wifey!" Tanya replied, laughing. 

"Love you!" Her footsteps diminished in the distance. 

"Love you too!" Silence. She was alone. Again. Facing the creamy interior of her house, she reminisced about Pete. It felt like Pete was gone for a long time; time passed so slowly without him. 

"I have a question," Pete smiled at her. " and we shall answer together at the count of three. If it's time for us to get a house, which colour should we paint it with? One, two, THREE!"

"TEAL!"

"CREAM!" Tanya whooped!

"Seems like we have different interest," Pete's face fell as he turned his face away, "maybe we should live separately..."

"What? No, it's okay, let's just get teal!" Tanya whispered with a look of concern. "Pete?"

Suppressing his giggle, Pete turned to face Tanya again and seeing her face so worked up, he let out a loud chuckle. "HAHA! You look so cute when you're worried, Tan!"

"Wait, what?" Tanya's eyebrows knitted in disapproval. "Pete, you're dead!" And they tickled and wrestled with each other playfully on the grass, laughing with their hearts content. 

In a second, Pete grabbed Tanya, catching her by surprise and whispered, "Cream it shall be, for my queen deserves to have what she wants."

With both lovebirds smiling and gazing into each other's eyes, their faces closed the distance between them. Next moment, their arms held on to each other like their lives depended on it, their mouths didn't speak but moved gently, tongues teasing. They wished for nothing more than to live in the moment forever.

A teardrop slid down her cheek. Tanya hugged her pillow tightly, wishing to feel the familiar, masculine body and to whiff in the smell of his aftershave just once for the last time. She missed Pete terribly. 

Before she let the sorrow consume her alive, she brought the delicate palms of her hands, wiping away her tears and succesfully smearing the eyeliner she did not bother to remove last night. She never forgot her religious steps of cleansing her face but last night was an exception, all she wanted to do was to forget everything and get drunk. Looking like she did not have a wink of sleep for months, Tanya dragged herself to the toilet for a quick shower.

After an hour of meticulously scrubbing her body harsh, she took to the living room, poured herself a glass of water, grabbed the newspaper the paperman had slipped under her door and sat herself on the sofa. Crossing her legs comfortably, she opened the newspaper with a crisp and turned to the hiring section. She couldn't live on Pete's savings forever, nor could Rose afford to buy her chinese takeouts every night. She had to earn a living. Gone were the days Pete assured her that both of them could live on Pete's salary when Tanya failed to grasp a job with her language degree. Almost no one found the prospect of a language degree on her degree feasible. Only Pete knew her dream was to be an English-Spanish translator in the United Nations. But she figured it took a lot more than a two year degree in language to get the job, and almost no company fancied hiring her. Scanning through the column, she began circling positions she could see herself doing as a career without having to feel like murdering someone. 

After a good fifteen minutes of a hopefully fruitful search, she opened a new page and on it, she began typing her resume, just like she had done hundreds of times in the past. This time, she did not have someone to fall back on; this time, she was alone and was left with no choice. Her sight traced around the house as memories resonated from each and every nook and corner of the house. 'I'm gonna need a new coat of paint first thing in the morning,' she thought to herself.