Twisted Part A--Contributed By @djoi
Eunice rubbed her palm across her face to clear off the vestige of sleep so she could see clearly. The text which had just entered her phone woke her up from a sleep which was nowhere near enough. She had gone to bed at about 3:00 am after finishing the report due tomorrow. She knew she would have to edit and crosscheck it later, but the moment she saw that she was done with the draft, she fell into bed with her exhausted brain.
The notification sound from her phone woke her up with a frown, and if she had any other job but the one she had, she would have ignored the sound but because she knew it could be anyone with any emergency, so she picked it up, her squinting eyes trying to read what the message was about. She gave a slight tired smile when she saw it was from Kenneth.
The image of her boyfriend fleeted into her mind, all 5 feet 8 inches of him. She thought of his beautiful smile which showed off his perfect dentition, making many ladies swoon, his well cut hair which always looked sharp, his well groomed beard then adding his baritone voice to the mix, he was a typical woman magnet. Kenneth was the perfect eye candy and women shamelessly ogled him and considering that she wasn’t so bad herself – even if she said so herself – Eunice knew that they made the perfect couple.
She was proud that she had him.
Seeing a text from him this early made her smile. She wondered what the occasion was and checked the date to be sure she had not missed any dates; his birthday, their anniversary or her birthday.
Her birthday.
Her eyes fell on the date which was digitally displayed on her phone and her suspicion was confirmed. Today was the 15th of August and it was her birthday, and she had totally forgotten! Work these past days has been so choking that Eunice had forgotten everything else but her job and … her job. Smiling she absentmindedly unlocked her phone, wondering what it is that Kenneth was saying in the text he sent her.
It took about four seconds for Eunice to read through the text for her to understand what she read.
It could only be a joke. It had to be a joke.
The smile was frozen on her face even as her eyes got immediately reddened and misty with tears. She blinked to clear the blur and took no note of the now flowing tears. How? Why was this happening to her? Why does it have to be on her birthday of all days?
She put the phone away, shook her head and went to the dispenser suddenly feeling very thirsty. She needed to calm down and a glass of chilled water would definitely do that. She looked at the wall clock ignoring her phone’s clock, and saw that the time was few minutes past the hour of seven. No doubt lack of sleep could make one incoherent. She would get calm and read the text again.
There has to be a mistake somewhere.
Feeling a little better after taking a few sips of the chilled water, Eunice approached her bed again and picked up her phone, her heart beating furiously against her ribcage. She was afraid, very afraid.
She unlocked her phone for the second time that morning and saw that the message had not changed, and no her eyes had not deceived her either, it was true.
Kenneth was breaking up with her on her 30th birthday.