The Lies You Tell

It was one in the afternoon. Seven hours after Damien was supposed to be home. The bedroom door slowly creaked open. Ava laid in the large bed, eyes wide open, back turned to him. Her eyes swollen and nose red. She had been up all night after their phone call. He'd been "tracking a couple" last night when he told her his Silverado 2500HD had broken down.

8:45 pm

"Baby what's happening?! What's that noise?!" She remembered screaming out in panic into the mouth piece. Hearing the deafening pop of his tire unnerved her completely.

"It's okay, I think my tire was just bald." Damien's deep voice tried to soothe her.

"Shit!" He cursed softly.

"What?! What happened?!" Her voice a high squeak.

"My phones on ten percent and I-" he was cut off in the middle of his sentence. Ava guessed the phone had actually died. Her headache went into overdrive. Damien was stuck out in Austell Georgia, with no phone, no car and a six shooter. It was midnight and she was willing to bet Cobb county police wouldn't be too kind if they found him. Hopefully he would be able to charge his phone and call her back.

6 am

Ava was supposed to be getting ready to go to work but between panicking and throwing up she just couldn't. Where was Damien? It's August. The nights and early mornings are cold, and it's still dark. This was completely unacceptable. What if something happened to him. Where is he? She began dialing the surrounding police stations. "Hi, My name is Ava Smith and my fiance is missing. He was stranded last night and I haven't heard from him since midnight and haven't seen him since 8pm yesterday."

The best each station could do for her was put out a BOLO. Ava huffed in complete frustration. "Maybe he made it to the MARTA." She thought grumpily. After a quick Google search she dialed the number for MARTA's security and police. After giving a description and call back number she was even more frustrated than before. They told her the same thing as Dekalb, Cobb and Gwinnett county police. They would also put out a BOLO. Ava began bawling, dialing Damien's number over and over again only to get sent directly to voicemail. She finally set down her phone after a flurry of kicks in her belly reminded her to eat.

She'd called 57 times. She began dialing all his friends,  no one had seen him. There wasn't much else she could do.

After scarfing down four waffles and two go gurts she dragged herself to her bedroom. It's twelve o'clock and still no word from him or the police. She laid down and began bawling again.

1 pm

"Hey baby." Damien said. Ava's back was turned to him and he could hear her sniffling.

"You awake?"

Ava shot up, eyes and hair wild, through gritted teeth she ground out " Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?! Where. The. Fuck. Have. You. Been?!"

Damien breathed out heavily, "I told you I was stranded with no phone. Just drop it."

"DROP IT?! You've been missing for hours and obviously you're out your rabbit ass mind!"

Damien swept past her to the bathroom and she caught the faint scent of bath and bodyworks jasmine. Ava followed him, standing in between the French doors. "Where were you really?" She asked calmly.

"I slept in my car." He lied so smoothly.

" If you slept in your car I fucked Eric." She snapped back.

"That's not fucking funny." He cut his eyes at her.

"Okay" Ava said blandly.

As he turned on the water Ava turned on her heel and threw on her robe. As she reached the bottom of the spiral staircase she snatched the spare keys off the table. She jogged outside and there sat his truck. Yanking opening the driver side door a golden gleam caught her attention in the door pocket. A row of trojan condoms fell into the dirt as she yanked at the corner. A wave of nausea hit her and her knees almost buckled. She grabbed the condoms stuffing them in the front pocket of her robe and kept digging through the door. A hotel room key card was hidden at the bottom for Double Tree inn on La Vista Road.

This time rage flooded her.

She burst through the front door and marched to her bedroom. Resisting the urge to fireman kick the door down she walked in and sat on the edge of the bed waiting for her fiance to come out. She snapped a picture of the  condoms and key and waited. Her pride was telling her to grab some baby oil, a belt and make some grits.

Damien damn near skipped out of the bathroom, bringing with him a cloud of Irish spring.

"Why are you looking at me like that?!"

Ava swiftly snatched condoms and key back out of her pocket and threw them with enough force to catch the interest of a division one football team. She hit Damien square in the face, right on the bridge of his nose.

"So you slept in your fucking truck last night right?! I can't believe you, I'm out here worried about you and you're, of course, laid up with the next bitch! Double tree?! So the bitch your fucking with is so basic she can't get better than double tree from you?!"

Ava was on a roll and Damien was half naked and dumb founded. Then it clicked to her. His best friend, Gerald worked at double tree. He had a baby momma named Ally who was dead set on getting her claws in Damien. As a matter of fact Ava was almost positive that she got pregnant by Gerald just to stay close to Damien. Ally was a bigger girl with a nasty attitude and bad habit of lying. Her due date was the month before Ava's and Ava was weary of her negative energy. Ally and Gerald argued about any and everything. The first time Ava had even heard of Ally it involved a majestic lie about miscarriage and cancer. Ava kept her distance.

"That's not my fucking key! And those condoms aren't mine!" Damien exclaimed.

"Oh I'd love to hear this" Ava started laughing softly, sign one that she was close to losing her mind.

"The key is Gerald's! After I got my truck fixed he asked for a ride home and the condoms are Tony's! I picked them up together!"

Tony was Damien's older cousin, womanizer, weed head and one of what used to be Ava's closest friends before she met Damien.

"So you're telling me it's a fucking coincidence that they left condoms AND  a hotel key card in YOUR truck​?!"

"Yes!" Damien pleaded.

"Tell me something, how in the holy fuck did they call you to pick them up?!"

"I bought a new charger on my way here right after my truck got fixed! You don't ever believe me!"

"You're lying! I already talked to Tony and Gerald this morning! Neither one of them had seen you!"

"I asked them not to tell you because you're always spazzing and you would've thought I was around Ally!"

"I didn't say jack shit about ALLY , YOU'RE SO FUCKING GRIMY!"

Ava stood up and marched to her closet. She pulled out the tightest, hip hugging, breast showing, booty molding "little black dress" she had. She bent over and pulled out a pair of black Swarvoski crystal Louboutin heels.

"Where the hell are you going Ava?!" Damien asked.

Ignoring him she sent a quick text to her best friend Kitten. An successful veterinarian with a whole lot of ratchet in her.

Ava locked the doors behind her and turned on the shower. After twenty minutes she had a full face done, finger waves you could dive in and curves you could crash on. She tapped her way out of the bathroom right past Damien who looked stuck between turned on and furious. "Ava, where the fuck are you going?!"

She continued to ignore him and raised the garage door, her baby, a 2017 matte gray dodge viper sat prettily in it's space. She unlocked it's custom butterfly doors and slid into the winter white interior.

After shoving the keys in the ignition and bringing the beast to life, she cracked the presidential tinted windows and looked Damien dead in the face "Don't worry about it."

Seconds later she was tearing down the driveway and out the gate, Damien yelling in her rearview.