You Were Always Mine

Persistent Ghost

Vivian was halfway through a budget review when her phone started vibrating.

She barely heard it.

As much as she wanted to keep lying to herself that she was busy with work, her mind seemed to enjoy taunting her with the images of that night at the family dinner.

She slammed her pen down on the table helplessly, there was no way she'd be getting any job done with those thoughts crawling in every part of her brain..

..and ticking all the right places, all the right angles…his mouth had felt so hot on hers, so needy and desperate but then he had said such hurtful words right after.

Vivian frowned, why was she even thinking about this again?

It was then and only then she heard the distant ring of her phone.

She glanced at the caller ID to see Maya's name on display.

She glanced at the papers on her desk and the woman calling her and decided she needed a distraction.

There was no way she would be getting any work done this way.

She slid on the receiver. “Someone better be dying Maya.”

“My love!” Maya cooed at the other end of the phone.

Vivian rolled her eyes, she knew that tone all too well and Maya only ever seems to be in love when she's about to make a request that could most likely cost her an arm and a leg.

Literally.

“No, I will not be burying a body with you. You commit a crime, you go in the slammer. It's as easy as that.” Vivian offered simply.

Maya scoffed, “I can't believe we're friends!”

“Neither can I.”

“Come to the spa with me.” Maya said immediately.

“No.”

“Oh come on! When was the last time you've visited one?”

Vivian massaged her brows, it was indeed a century ago and she might just be in need of pampering at this point.

“I guess it was a while ago.” Maya replied when her friend didn't want to admit the truth.

“Fine. You're right. I haven't been to the spa in a while but can't we do this on a weekend?”

“Girl, we both know you need this. If you didn't you wouldn't have picked up my call, knowing I'm probably going to drag you out of the office.”

This is the reason why you can't have friends who know you all too well, they tend to rub that knowledge in your face.

“So I'm right! What happened?”

Vivian exhaled, “Nothing. I'll be on my way in ten.”

Maya cheered. “Node spa. I'll book you a session right away!”

“Yes mum. See you soon.” Vivian ended the call and stared at the phone in her hand.

Did she just agree to a spa date on a work day? Now, isn't that something new to learn about herself?

She pushed her chair back and picked up her bag, making a mental note to have Cassandra to move all of her work back by a day.

She wasn’t getting any done anyway.

****

Maya's shrieking wasn’t on her bingo card and lord did this woman scream like a banshee.

She had just arrived at the spa less than thirty minutes later (there was no traffic) and stepped into one of the most expensive spas in the city ; soft music drifted through the building, the scent of lavender filled the air and the entire place looked designed to convince rich people they had inner peace.

She was almost convinced. Until her friend started screaming in excitement.

Maya hurried towards her, wrapping her slender arms around her friend, filling her nose with her scent.

Maya had an interesting taste in perfume; Vivian would have to give her that at least.

“I thought you would bail out on me last minute! I love you Vivian Pearl!”

Vivian tried not to smile. “Of course you do. We both know the reason you asked to hang out with me is because Drew ditched you.”

Maya winced. “Ouch!”

Vivian rolled her eyes.

“I always want to invite you to things you know?” Maya said, lacing her fingers through her friend's with a small smile on her face.

Regret maybe.

“But you're always busy and working so hard. I mean you've done a pretty great job with Pearl and I'm very proud. I just wish you could balance things a little uhm?”

Vivian didn't reply and pretended to be drawn to the posters on the walls of the spa.

She was right, Pearl could run without her having to clock in everyday.

The question was, why did she feel the need to keep herself busy all the time?

“Miss Maya?” One of the attendants at the spa called as they approached the front deck.

“Yes?”

“Your reservations for a bestie spa treatment is right this way.” she offered and soon the duo were led into a quiet room.

They changed out of their clothes into something comfortable robes and laid down on the bed for their massages.

“Are you ready to spill now or do I have to force it out of you?” Maya asked.

Vivain chuckled. “What?”

“I'm just curious..” Maya started in that suspiciously high tone that made Vivian sigh.

"Here we go." She muttered.

"So." Maya started dramatically. "How's married life?"

There it was. Vivian should have known and should have seen it coming.

“And the last minute dinner thing, how did it go?”

Vivian shrugs, "Fine."

"That's not an answer."

"That's all I can offer."

Maya exhaled, “I don't know why you agreed to marry that jerk, really.”

Vivian chuckled, “Let's say I have a sleazy old man who made it possible and he thinks he's helping us.”

Maya leaned up from the bed, her face turning towards her friend.

“You haven't told him?!”

“What's the point of telling him?”

“Jesus Christ, Vivian! I know Louis wouldn't even let him anywhere near you if you had just told him what happened!”

Vivian arched an eyebrow, that sort of played differently in her head. If she tells the old man, he would probably try to ‘fix’ things between them.

“This is horrible.”

“Oscar is Oscar. And that's about it.” She said simply, hoping that was enough to shut down the conversation.

She came here to forget him, not remind herself about how hot and cold he gets.

"What if you seduce him?”

Vivian nearly choked on her saliva, jerking up to meet her friend's gaze.

"What?"

Maya nodded seriously. "I'm just saying." She added thoughtfully. “I mean you two used to be all over each other…while pretending it's nothing but friendship.”

She glanced at Vivian, “We all knew it was bullshit. I mean, it could work.”

Vivian could not begin to imagine the kind of thoughts running through Maya's head. "No."

She returned to her original position and allowed the masseuse to finish her job.

What on earth is Maya talking about?! Seduce him? Seduce Oscar?! Isn't that another shade of desperation?

“Why not?” Maya asked again, "It could work! It could remind him how you two used to be.”

If there's one thing Vivian knew about Maya, she has never been rejected by a man and she also believed a little bit of love making might just solve eight five percent of the problem.

Not in her case. Not in her and Oscar's case. Love making isn't going to solve any of their problems.

“I don't need him to remember how we used to be.” Vivian muttered , knowing that lie sounded way horrible even in her own ears.

She sighed. “Can we just…let this be please? I came here for a massage.”

Maya chuckled. “Fine.”

She laid back down and the young lady resumed her massage.

“When you're ready to go lingerie shopping, you know where to find me.”

An hour later they were done with their massages and were waiting to get their manicure done.

Vivian decided to check for her phone in the locker room. Maybe she got a message from Cassandra while she was away.

Finally with her phone, there was no message waiting for her. Maybe there was no emergency to attend to or she was just simply looking for an excuse to leave Maya, worried she might just buy into the whole idea of seducing Oscar.

Vivian shuts her eyes, “What are you doing?!”

Sue shut the locker and walked out of the room, into the general hallway when someone walked right into her.

Her phone slipped out of her hands, falling onto the tiled floors. She didn't need to check the screen to know it was broken.

Fantastic.

Angry eyes glanced up to meet the person who bumped into her and immediately wished she had told Maya no to her spa date.

“God, is everyone just blind here?!”

Athena battles her eyelid dramatically until they settle fully on Vivian. Then a scoff escaped her as she straightened, almost too delighted to see her.

Vivian groaned internally; fate just had a cruel way of reminding her exactly where she stood with Oscar and there was no changing that fact.

"Vivian." Athena called with that pretentious smile on her lips.

Vivian glanced at her phone and sighed. She just wanted to leave.

She tried to side step her but Athena blocked her path almost instantly, batting her fake lashes innocently.

Vivian stopped, she really didn't want to do this right now.

"Fancy seeing you here." Athena offered.

Vivian finally met her gaze on clear exhaustion. “Move.”

Athena scoffed, she was still as pompous as she remembered…

“Or what?”