The walk of shame and Plan A-Z

Walk of shame and Plan A-Z  Emelie was a woman soon to be the big 30;s, that was a big number for her. She was known by her friends; well, she didn't really have that many friends if she didn't count co-workers into that group. She had her best friend Sara; they had pretty much known each other forever.  They were each other's opposites in so many ways, but perhaps that was the reason they had been best friends “forever”. Emelie was that kind of “action-before-thinking” girl. She was sometimes too spontaneous for her own good. She didn't think of any consequences,at least not more than a millisecond top.  Her life philosophy was “everything will be okay somehow”.  Sara's best friend's life philosophy was more “plan and think three times before action”. Her spontaneous choice was to have a latte with caramel instead of vanilla at her favorite cafe. She wrote lists for everything, not just shopping list or “to-do-lists”  It was a list of dreams, goals, what's in her wardrobe, and so on. She had a bad record when it came to men, and she was pretty much a lovebuzzer when it came to love, slightly cynical about it. Emelie, on the other hand, had overbearing beliefs when it came to love and finding Mr. Right. Well, she didn't have any bigger successes in that area, though, and giving up was not in her plan. These two women were the ultimate party girls, and if someone googles "partygirl," they probably show up in a picture.  Chapter 1 “The” walk  Emelie realized she had a way too large t-shirt on and felt a bit relieved , they had just slept together not slept with each other or… she couldn't remember, she sneaked up and was try to find her clothes, the dress was on a hanger shoes perfectly by a chair and there was the rest of her things.  That was a bit strange did Emelie think, when she had ended up in a similar situation her things are more or less all over the place.  And yes there have been a few of these similar situations”.  Emelie found the bathroom, tried to wash her face and took one of the little towels hanging on the side. She was impressed that it was well ironed and she looked around in the bathroom and it was spotless and everything well organized, and color organized. Emma thought it could exist a woman in this equation  but no womanly stuff and just one toothbrush. Good she wasn't up to no drama. She washed herself up as well as she could. The new  mascara she  just bought was really water resistant, she thought. She put on her party dress and put up her hair in a messy bun.  She sneaked out and took her shoes in her hand, she didn't want to wake the man with the sexy back up.  Outside the man's house she tried to recognize her but she didn't really have a clue where she was, no familiar signs or cafes. As she walked down the street she found a small cafe and she stopped for a coffee to go.  Now to the mission to find a taxi. it was really a “walk of shame” she tried to act like it's totally normal walkin around a sunday at lunchtime in a little black party dress and high heels.  And she was thinking never again shall I wake up in some unknown man's bed after a night out,or maybe at least know his name and where he leaves.   Finally home dived into the shower and that shower was the best in a whole week Emelie was thinking.  She took a painkiller and laid down in her bed checking her phone, 11 missed calls and 23 texts from Sara .  Emelie texted her to let her know  that she was not murdered and was laying in some ditch and she didn't have to call the police to report her as a missing person. She was home and she texted her more later.  She had to try to sleep away her hungover and wasn't up for any moral words or advice from Sara right now.   Chapter 2 Hot boss and shopping Emelie was working as a freelancer on fashion and beauty , writing articles, magazines and other writing jobs. She loved the freedom to work from whoever she wanted but that was that kind of freedom with responsibilities Emelie wasn't the most perfect person for, so she was going to the office to really keep up with deadlines and then she had “The most perfect man in univers” as her boss. Emelie tried hard not to make it obvious that she had a thing about him.  Even if she didn't think he even did see her among all the skinny models with glossy long hair walking around at the magazine for interviews or photoshootings.  Emelie loves fashion and expensive beauty products but to pay 100$ or more for some cream to make “the skin glow” wasn't really in her budget.  One day when Emelie sat in her own world trying to get an article together she got an email  from the boss himself , well it was not just to her it was an email to all who work at the magazine, but it was from “him” or his assistant . Emelie has a tendency to twist and turn things in her head and she opened it and it was some invitation to a big company event and it was an invitation to Emelie and a plus one.  Dresscode Cocktail.  It was just 2 weeks away and instant Emelie  let her thoughts run free. She needed to buy a drop-deed , killer dress for this and she had to talk her plus one into the whole thing, the plus one, Sara- Normally Sara needs at least a month or two to say yes to a thing like this  so she needs a little bit of creativity to pusveise her into it. Maybe  even bribe her. Emelie and Sara meet up  that evening for one of their “world-problem-solving” with some wine evenings. They haven't been seeing each other since the night out and Emelie disappeared with that man.  To leave the nightclub with a strange man, how  good looking or sexy he was, wasn't anything Sara never should do. That wasn't even in the cards.  Emelie on the other side “was in love with every man” after a few cocktails or tequila shots.   Emelie gave all the details about the man, at least all she could remember.  In her head she thought Im sound like a crazy person telling her all this.  Sara said she thought Emelie was seeking love in the wrong way and in the wrong men she should just end up with heartbroken or a bad reputation or both. Emelie loves her friend but sometimes she just wanted to spin Saras moral compass like wheel of fortune and hope it ends up at some wild and crazy and totally unmoraly. Emelie points out that Sara should live a little and should get some spontaneity in her life and try not to be so cynical and anti love.  After a lot of persuasion Emelie finally got Sara to be her plus one on the company event and the girls were out trying to find “THE” outfits. Emelie was out for a dress her boss wouldn't miss her in, it was all about getting his attention that evening. She didn't tell Sara any of her plans about her boss then she only should be a mood killer and “54 why and why not it's not a good idea to try to catch her boss. Emelie didn't want that for the moment she was in a shopping mood and she was on a mission.  After dragging Sara around trying dresses out for a few hours, yes dragging around, Sara thought it was time to just make a decision and buy a dress. Emelie found two dresses perfect for her mission and perfect to get his eyes on her that evening. She bought both even if Sara loudly protested as the responsible person she was,they were too expensive and why by tw? And Emelie already had 5 or six black party dresses in her wardrobe. Emelie thought that it would be a later problem to deal with the credit card bill.  And she could always return them if she was really careful with them.  The day for the company event was finally here and Emelie felt like she was on a mission. She went to get hair and nails done and she even got professional makeup done. She chose one of her new ways to buy expensive dresses and she thought, she can't fail this mission.  Emelie and Sara went to the party and everybody was there. I mean literally everybody. It was co-worker and theory wives or husbands, models, photographs, beauty salon owners and so on.  Emelie felt confident and Sara had one of her small talk to Emelie before about not drinking tequila shots, don't follow anyone home. Well Emelie thought she's not my mother but just  said yes to it for keeping her happy. The party went on and the music stopped and Mr right, Emelies boss was on the stage to hold a speech. Emelie thought she should stand a little closer to the stage so he couldn't miss her. So she told Sara to join her to the bar close to the stage so she did not reveal her masterplan for her. What not to do to get his attention.  Emelie tried to listen to his speech and get eye contact with him,without doing something crazy like drop a glass or laugh too loud. Sara whispered to her what are you up to now?  And Emelie tried to pretend unmoved and play stupid.  Well she didn't succeed to get his attention he pronounced that the magazin should get a new boss at the department Emma worked at and he will move on in his career to an office in one of the magazines offices  on the east side. And the new boss was a “”skinny- models like– to- young- to be- a- boss- woman” Emelies felt her heart sink. The plan to get him notice he -failed and now he is leaving the office, the town and move 200 miles away  Chapter 3. New boss and Tim Emily's new boss started work two days after and she quickly showed her right color as a two faced b***h.  Emelie thought if she just tried to be invisible then she would stay out of trouble. She had been invisible to her old boss so why not this one too?  Vicky , her new boss name, did a pep talk/ here I am speech in the office and Emelie thought that this woman needed to have illusions that this small magazine is like Cosmopolitan or some other big magazine and get a grip of her work and attitude. But she kept her mouth shut of course. Vicky had heard from others that one of the magazine's best and most dedicated writers was Emelie so she wasn't as invisible as she would like for so long. Emelie got more jobs and bigger jobs with a lot of different research too. Even if Emelie in one hand thought it was great to get that enolich she had mixed feelings. There was just something about the woman Emelie couldn't point out,more than when the bosses from the head office showed up she did put up with some role of being the popular well liked boss and she was charming and just a perfect boss.  Not that ranting crazy woman she could be if she didn't get what she wanted now or yesterday.  Emelie tried to do as much work from home instead to avoid her as much as possible.  She's got a huge article to write with a short deadline, and at first Emelie thought it's not even possible. But as stubborn she was she should have finished it in time to show Vicky she could make it.  She turned to Sara for support and advice, she is the most wise of us she thought. After hours of talking and wine drinking they come up with ….absolut nothing sencible. Emelie was thinking of just finishing this article when she's out of that magazine and looking for other jobs. She had small work made for some other small newspapers so she could manage Emelie and Sara decided they needed a night out not thinking of bosses or work. They had been out for a long time, not since that last night Emelie could remember but she very well remember the awakening the day after. They dressed up and were ready to have a really great party night at their favorite place.   At the club it was high pulse and the girls got them some colorful cocktails and then scanned the dancefloor and bar. They danced and drank and had a fun night, they both got a lot of attention even if Sara managed to scare most of them away with what Emelie called “manhating - cynicism” but that night Emelie thought well that's maybe as well that she kept the men away. No more walk of shame for me. When the night started to its end and it started  to be early morning, the girls were ready to end the party and go home. And somebody tapped on Emily's shoulder, it was the man Emelie sneaked away from that morning.  He was tall and had a killerbody, a cute smile and charming brown eyes. Emelie felt a little bit uncomfortable and in her head she tried to come up with good answers. He wondered why she didn't wake him up before she sneaked away that morning and why she didn't call or text him? Emelie quickly had a workthing to finish that sunday and she couldn't find his number, that sounded like a really stupid answer but it was all she could come up with. He laughed and asked her to get her phone. Emelie didn't think so and gave him her phone and he put in his name and number in her contacts and made a quick call to himself,if you lose my number again he said. Sara interrupted and it was time to go home. Emelie and the man named Tim hugged quickly and Emelie couldn't help to think he smelled sooo good and his body was close to perfection. Emelie and Sara shared a taxi home Emelie continued work with her article Vicky had signed her up for and she worked hours. did research and wrote. But she tried to avoid the office as much as she could or tried to avoid Vicky at least.  Even if Vicke at least once a day reminds her that it's soon deadline or adds something for Emelie to add to the article.  Those calls, texts or emails were so annoying that Emelie thought she just couldn't stop answering and ignored her.  But she still has some working morale and Vicky is her boss so until the article was done she had to keep a smile to her face and do as she was told to do. Then she could resign and tell her what she thought of her, that was Emelies plan.  Emelie was glad she had Sara as her ball plank to stay insane and don't do any stupid irrational thing.   Days went by and back in Emelies head she thought of Tim and if she should send him a text or if she should wait at least a week so she did not appear too keen and desperate.  Saras advice was to wait until he made the first move, if he was really interested he would text or call her. It sounded sensible in Emelies ears but still, what if he is Mr.right her perfect match and she misses out her chances?  Sara just shook her head  and laughed and told Emelie she needed to get a grip of herself and stop being that over romantic woman who believes in eternal love and some man being Mr.right.  Emelie thought she would wait ... .at least a day or at least an hour or so…. She  tried to write the perfect text to Tim, she wrote and erased, wrote and erased and thought for god sake i'm a writer and cant even write a simple text. She thought I cant sound too desperate but still get him to get the message that she wants to meet for a coffee if he wants.  then that feeling that if she gets turned down or worse he doesn't answer. Emelie wrote her text asking  if he would like to meet up for a coffee tomorrow. pushed send and instant she regret sending it, what if Sara was right she may be should wait for him to make the first move? Well what is done, he maybe doesn't even answer? Emelie kept herself busy by working and made some laundry when she waited for him to answer. She checked her phone 53 times to make sure the text was really sent away and if he had received it, she checked if the sound and notification was correct and one. And she waited. After about 2 hours and no answer she called Sara and told her what she had done and that he hadn't answered.  For god sake woman it was only two hours ago, not everybody has their phone glued in their hands . You need to learn to be patient.   Emelie was surprised she didn't come up with some negative comments . She took a shower and went to bed watching some episode of a series ...and checked her phone, still no answer. She decided to try to forget the text and that she had contacted him. He had received it and he had read it but not answered.  She felt disappointed and wondered why he was so keen to change numbers at the club the other night ? Maybe it was the alcohol speching?   The day after she finished her article and did the last checks so it was perfect. She made some paper copies of it, saved it on a stick and did send it to Vicky and when she pushed that send button she had a feeling of relief she was done with the article and Vicky.  Now was the big question: what to do next? Except for waiting for Vicky's approval of the article , get paid so she could resign and at last tell Vicky what she thinks of her and her ways to treat employers.  Then it was that thing with Tim she couldn't get out of her head.  Two days after she gave Vicky her resignation papers and Vicky looked like a huge question mark and wondered why?  And Emelie who had made that speech in her head weeks before just couldn't get all those words out and just answered that she couldn't work for someone who was two faced and Vicky looked at  her and of course did want to know what she meant by that. Emelie decided it was time to make it short and told her that now she had something to think of and left the office.  She felt happy and relieved even if she didn't really tell her off but she was satisfied that she kept it that professional and did not act in  so “Emelie way” talking before thinking . Now it was time to find new jobs  And forget about Tim. But forgetting about it was probably way harder than finding jobs.  Sara thought it was a perfect occasion  for celebration and the perfect way was a night out all on her. Emelie got surprised by the last “all on her” she always preach about Emelie should be more careful with her money bla bla  Emelie first thought it was a great idea but she didn't want to take any risks to run into Tim tonight and she wasn't really in a party mood and that was absolutely not like Emelie.  Emelie just wanted to go home and lay on her sofa binge watching some series and eating greasy pizza.  Sara understood, at least she said she did that, and they made up lunch plans the day after instead. Chapter 4 Plans, making lists and coffee Emelie and Sara were out for lunch. The sun was shining and it was a busy day. It felt like summer was on its way. It had been 1 week since she had sent that text to Tim and still no answer. She had done some detective work and found him on i********: and got his address and she thought she could pretend she had some errands in his area if they ran into each other. She needed a foolproof plan A and some plan B and C just in case all the other plans failed. She took up one of Sara's favorite things to do, making a list of pros and cons, and detailed plans. She thought, why not? She needed to make it work. She checked his i********:, trying to get some more useful details about him, photos of if he had visited certain places or had any hobbies. She felt like a stalker and she probably was, if it should be rightfully described, but she preferred to call it an investigation for a good cause. She didn't tell Sara what she was up to. She would probably try to stop her and come up with a lot of cynical negative things about it, and Emelie was just on a mission. After weeks of checking him out, she found out he was playing paddle probably on Thursdays. The last photo of him on i********: was taken on a Thursday on a paddling course with some friends. And it was taken nearby. So it was just to put the plan in motion. She checked out the area to see if there was any cafe in that location. No luck. So Plan B checked out for cafes in the area where he lives, and Jackpot is a cafe straight across from his apartment. For a split second, Emelie hesitated and thought she sounded totally crazy. So she took a shower and searched the wardrobe for the perfect outfit. And she realized what was the perfect outfit for stalking a man? Maybe she should Google it to see what the answer is. No, she decided to wear jeans, converse, and a nice top with a colorful knitted cardigan over it. She took her MacBook and put it in her handbag. She had to look busy if he showed up. She took a taxi and she was on her way. She felt like her stomach would explode because of jittery butterflies. And in her head, she went over what could go wrong. At the cafe, she found a table close to the window and she got a large latte and a baguette with cheese and ham. She took up her Macbook and just surfed around and took a sneak pic on his i********: just to see if he made any new posts. After her second latte, she had to go to the toilet and she asked the waitress not to remove her coffee glass. She would be back in a minute. When she came back to her table she did hear a familiar voice and she felt her heart pound and she just went to her table and picked up the computer, pretending she was busy. Her head was spinning with, She started to regret the whole thing and tried to come up with some plan to get out and away from the cafe without him seeing her. Or she could only hope he wouldn't stay at the cafe and soon be leaving.  Why didn't she listen to Sara's advice? She felt stupid and just wished she could be invincible . She wasn't ready to meet him, all her plans seemed to be failing and this wasn't at all in any of her plans. Maybe she should text Sara and get some advice but should only say that Emelie was acting like a psychopathic stalker and had to face him. That was not an alternative, did Emelie think.  When she tries her best to hide behind her screen she hears her phone signal, why now and why so loud Emelie thought. The high and annoying signal makes people look at her table. And so did Tim - Emelie quickly answered the phone and it was one of her former co-workers. She quickly explains that she has to call him back later or tomorrow and if it was something important he could text her. She looked up and there he stood, right in front of her.Emelie tried her best to look surprised to see him, and all she could say was a simple “hi” and she tried to smile that natural and cute, but it probably looked like she was feeling sick or something.  He looked surprised to see her but smiled and said  - Hi, good to see you, what are you doing in the area?  Emelies thought to say something quick and sound natural but all she could come up with was “I'm doing research on an article, what are you doing here? -I live her you remember he said with a big smile Emelie smiled back and got a small sensation of relief , and maybe this is working . Tim asked if he could join her and of course could he. They ordered in more coffee and Emelie thought she probably should sleep for a week because of all the caffeine. But who needs to sleep now? And in her head a romantic ending of this whole plan had started to take its form . Plan Goal. As the evening went on and they had a really good conversations about pretty much everything, The waitress told them it's time for closing the cafe and they drank the last coffee and in Emelies head a voice told her “don't go home with him make plans for a new date instead”  Tim asked her if she wanted to come for dinner later in the week and before he had said the whole sentence she had already answered.  Please Emelie don't act so desperate she told herself. Dinner date was planned and he gave Emelie a warm hug and then he was gone with a smile. Emelie felt happy  and bubbly and almost like a teenager when she stood and waited for a taxi. In the taxi she took up her phone to read her co-workers text and her heart started raising. Vicky had got a nominee for a big reward on her article! The article she worked with for weeks!  All the bubbly romantic happy feelings she had minutes ago had changed to anger, frustration and she needed to do something but what?    Chapter 5 sweet revenge or Emelie asked the taxi to go to Saras address instead of hers. She felt close to tears and needed Saras ``grown up advice”. Sara opened her door and found a teared up Emelie outside and quickly realized this was time for a “WPST '' short version of; WorldProblemSolvingTime.  Emelie landed on her sofa and Sara opened a bottle of their favorite wine and Emelie started rambling about stalking plans, coffee with Tim, the text from her ex co-worker, Vicky and reward all in one sentence.  -Hold on, wait, take it slowly and from the beginning I don't get a s**t what you are talking about now.  Emelie started over from the beginning about her planning and “investigations' ', how she made lists and had gone to the small cafe across Tim's place. And when he showed up and how she felt. And then he had joined her and they said bye with him hugging her and they had made up dinner plans.  Sara was just quit and then she laugh so she cried -Are you totally crazy, you are the split image of a stalker Emelie. -No it's not stalking it's just investigation or research, don't make me look like a crazy person even if I felt like one in that moment he did see me at that table. Emelie started to tell Sara about the text she got about Vicky was nominated for a big reward with her article and now she had to find out what to do. Just take a visit to the office and confront Vicky? How Vicky should claim she had written the article and what proof does Emelie have?  The girls finished the bottle of wine and opened a new one and they started to create a revenge plan. Maybe not the best revenge plan and tomorrow it only should be nothing but some “wine talking”, or? The morning after they both agreed to skip the revenge plan and think of some more “grown up plan” instead but Vicky needed to get exposed. Well, that sensible decision sounded great did Emelie think, but some bits of the plan could be used otherwise it would have been a waste of all the hours they made the planning yesterday. No wasn't the time she wanted to be responsible at all. The dinner date with Tim was something she totally had forgotten, all caught up in her "A Plan for Vickys fall" She hears her phone signal and it is a text from TIM.