Rival Lovers

Heartache

If Kiki had a bad night, then her day would be worse. When she opened her garage door and tried to start her car, it barely wheezed and ignored her. After a few more attempts, she gave up and had no choice but to take a taxi. With all her acquired wealth, she owned just one automobile, which is an absolute shame because, even though fueled by greed to acquire more businesses, the only thing she paid any attention to was her body and right now it failed her because it had no tires to ease her arrival to her lawyer's office whom she had forgotten to call. Berating herself, she chose to let it go and just meet him at his office.

Hailing taxi after taxi, none would stop for her. It just seemed like she was invincible before finally one stopped after ten agonizingly long minutes. She told him the address of her lawyer and sat back closing her eyes to relax. Twenty minutes later, when they should have arrived but hadn't, she looked out the window to see that they were on the opposite side of where they should be. Call it ill luck or fate. It was just at that moment they were passing in front of Fey's office building and she thought she could make her out standing by her window looking down at her? Shaking her head out of her wishful thinking, she looked forward rather and confronted the driver about how they came to be on the opposite side of their agreed destination.

"Ma'am you told me about Howard Street and its just the next street to the left of here. I've been driving here in this city for thirty years and I know these streets like the recliner I sit on after work on my porch smoking my cigar while I tell my wife how my day had gone."

"No. I clearly said Hogwarth Street. You are too old to hear. Why don't you just sit at home and smoke your damn cigar?"

"Sorry ma'am. It's time for my break and I'll have to take it now or my wife will have my head for skipping my medicine." With that all said, he swerved to the curb and stopped the car, looking ahead like he could see something she could not.

Unfortunately for Kiki, she was miles away from her lawyer's office and yet left to get another taxi after the actual miracle it took to get this, but it was too late to fix it as the man looked ahead like his medicine was for his hearing and since he hadn't taken it he wouldn't hear a word of what she said.

As she moved to step down, he said; "Your bill is fifty dollars, ma'am."

"How is that even possible?"

No response.

She opened her wallet and took out two twenty dollar bills and a ten, dropped them on the seat and cursed her ill fate which brought her here without any slightest clue of how to get out of it.

Grumbling, she watched as the driver drove his car to the next person standing closest to her, picked him up and drove off. Bewildered, angry, furious, in fact, she did not think about hailing another cab before a car pulled up in front of her and a familiar but unwelcome face at this disgraceful moment poked its head out the window, offering her a ride.

"Thank you, but I'm waiting for my driver. Besides, you are going in the opposite direction to where I'm headed."

Not so much the words but rather the tone of which they were said shocked Fey, who was headed for a meeting which she already suspected she would be late for, but because of what she thought was doing the right thing, she had offered to give the fiercely scowling woman a damn ride and Kiki had told her off like she asked for her heart.

"Damn woman, get a grip on yourself. I did not ask you to marry me, I only offered to give you a ride when I drove out and the heat emanating from you was heating up the street. Which made me see you and I felt you needed some help. I guess I was wrong."

Kiki's jaw almost dropped to the ground as Fey looked like the kind of person who never lost control and now she (Fey) did, because of her, and her stupidity hadn't helped a bit, as it seemed like she'd be under the scorching heat for a while after rejecting a good hearted ride because of her utterly useless pride.

She was thirsty, frustrated as every cab was occupied, probably from people rushing to meet up with their meetings and appointments. Yet again, her pride kept her from calling her assistant to come pick her up before she fainted from dehydration. Crying really did a lot to take up all the water in her body. Just then, her assistant called to inform her that one of their best clients had dropped in impromptu and was demanding her presence ASAP as he had a flight to catch before noon. She had no choice but to ask her assistant to come pick her up.

Her assistant naturally was not nosy but she wondered why her boss had cancelled her meetings just to go see Fey alone without her car and all this thought was because of the location her boss had told her to meet her.

Maybe the day might turn out for the better. Just maybe.

It took Belinda only a few minutes to get there, she even broke some laws, but it seemed way better if she did than take the wrath of her boss who sounded like she was ready to freeze hell over. What she didn't tell her boss was that the gentleman waiting right now looked nothing like gentleness. He was raving mad and it became worse when he learned that she was not in her office. In fact, he had walked right through security and her assistants like a bull at a rodeo, yet no one had the courage to say a word until he had asked directly when not seeing her in her office; sorry demanded where she was. Though inwardly shaking but trying to look brave, Belinda stated that her boss wasn't feeling too well and had to visit the doctor. Unfazed, he told her to call her boss to the office immediately. The call wasn't an easy one either, as Kiki sounded just as bad.

When Kiki arrived at the office, Kiki stormed into her waiting room to find no one and before Belinda's assistant could say a word, she walked in to her office to find the rude man sitting at her seat. Without any formality whatsoever, Kiki had said some unsafe words to him about barging into her office and taking her seat like she was dead when, clearly, he knew she was very much alive and still her own boss. Because she occasionally got paid by him for actual work done, that never gave him the right to lord over her. Only when she was done did she take a breath and as she walked to her seat, he quickly stood and walked over to the other side. After she sat, she told him to take a seat. Meanwhile, still in a daze because he had not been floored before, he could barely get his footing when the man sat like a zombie waiting for her to speak. Don't get it wrong, he is a powerful man and even Kiki knew that and even his wife, these days, could no longer talk to him in an unpleasant way, let alone rightly rude. That must be why he was still in shock.

"Good morning Mr. Jude. What can I do for you?"

All this with a smile like moments ago never happened.

"Miss Kiki Billings, we've done business now for two years and, all this while, we've had a formal if not cordial relationship. I came in here this morning because of all that has been going on. After waiting for you to say something about it to me, I find you not in the seat and, rather than apologize for your behavior, you insult me. Tell me right now why I shouldn't withdraw my business with you?" He had an eyebrow raised at the question.

Madam Kiki, still with her smile on, responded; "I'm sorry you had to find out the way you did about the little mishap with that man. But I can assure you that it's been worked on. As a matter of fact, I was on it when my assistant called that you were here to see me."

"You call it little when you and I both know that little is when its within your office, but right now that case is starting to open up loopholes for everyone in business with you and every business magazine has so much to say about it."

"Have I ever failed you?"

"No".

"Well, I won't start now." Adding; "On the matter of this morning I apologize for my behavior but it was quite rude of you to take my seat in my office. Still, there was not enough reason to respond rudely as well."

"Yes, concerning that, I heard you went to the doctor's. Did he clear you?

"I'm fine thank you." "I'll keep in touch with you on the progress but, rest assured that it will be resolved soon. Do have a safe flight, Mr. Jude."

Dismissed, he stood with a smile though he had more to say, but it looked like today was a very bad day to mess with Kiki, so he quietly walked out the office.