Sudorific: A Painful Return (Lesbian)

Next Day 1100 Hours

Sitting at my desk, I receive a text message from Terry inviting me to lunch. Immediately seeing her name appear on my phone makes me irritated, so I ignore the text until she texts, "Please?" while including the address in the thread.

Arriving at the establishment, the host greets me, "Hello, ma'am welcome to Jack's, will it just be you dining with us this afternoon?"

"No, I am meeting someone here."

"Two ladies are expecting you; let me direct you to them."

Them?

Going up a flight of steps, I see the back view of Terry's locs up in a bun. She appears to be wearing a dress in the colors of white and blue. I walk up and notice a butterscotch toned woman wearing ruby red and black framed glasses with a bald fade haircut with small curls at the top. Dressing business casual, the female stranger gets up from her seat. "It's so nice to finally meet you! Rio, right?"

"Yeah, who are you?" I attempt to sound polite, but confused.

"Terry's fiancée, Cori, how are you?" She extends her hand.

"Wow, fiancée?" I did not want to shake her hand, better yet have her in my personal space. Trying to process the words that came out of Cori's mouth, I attempt not to react out of anger due to being in uniform. To remain cordial, I shake her hand.

"I've heard so much about you, Rio. Knowing you are a great friend of my fiancée, I hope we can be great friends also." Cori brightly smiles and offers me a seat. Sitting across from Terry, the glow her face wore yesterday has disappeared. Looking as if she had been crying all morning, normally Terry appears to be a walking sun, but the night is upon her.

Staring at one another, I break the ice between us. "So, what made you decide to do lunch?"

"I didn't like how we departed from one another this morning, so I wanted to clear the air of bad energy." Terry fake smiles.

"Everything is okay between you two?" Cori positions her body towards Terry and me.

"Yes. You know how I'm not a morning person. I snapped at Rio and felt bad about it, so I've decided to treat her to lunch,"

In my head, I yell, FUCK YOUR LUNCH! To keep my nerves under control, I look at the menu, even though I don't have an appetite.

"Babe, you should be a better morning person. Although, I'm sure Rio is used to the morning monster from college," Cori jokes.

"Yeah, babe (mocks Cori) you should be a better morning person."

Cori doesn't laugh but instead excuse themselves from the table momentarily. When she leaves the table, my demeanor changes. "The hell, Terry?!" I react with a mixture of anger and shock.

"Rio..." Terry rubs her temples.

"So, this is why you gave back the engagement ring? Wow, it just doesn't end with you! Why did you invite me to lunch, to embarrass me in front of your fiancée? I'm out." I get up to leave while suddenly noticing the engagement ring on Terry's finger that she did not have on the night before.

Our waiter approaches. "Hello, welcome to Jack's, my name is Johnny and I'll be serving you ladies today. What would you like to drink?" I look at the waiter then at Terry.

"Please. Stay." Terry beseeches with teary eyes. Maintaining my composure, I sit down and order water. Terry orders an apple martini. After Johnny walks away, we resume the heated conversation regarding the ultimate fuck over. "So, please entertain me with your bullshit. I'm trying to pick up where we left off."