Emotional Decorum

CHAPTER THREE

It had stopped raining entirely by the time Viyora got off the phone, she thought of her third relationship before Brian and she wondered what had come over her. It clearly wasn’t the hormones or the weather anymore. The only explanation for this twist of faith should be that opposite energies attract each other, but she wasn’t a fan of science. She had expected to attract the good, since she was the good. But life has its way of playing with you.

Her third relationship was built entirely on lies. Honcho shouldn’t even be a person’s name. However, she expected him to be as honest as the guy in her second relationship, Adams. So, she trusted him. Viyora would boast to herself of being strong enough to not see a therapist after the series of failed and toxic relationships she had been in.

She admired herself for always coming out strong after dating two unstable ex-convicts in a row. Adams was honest about life; he was open and kind. But Viyora knew she wasn’t taking him home to her parents as her husband. But Honcho was a lie. From the point where he introduced himself with such a name to the point where he said he had spent four years of his life outside America, which turned out later to be a prison. Viyora loved him as she loved every other man she dated except Brian.

He was apprehended by the police and she was questioned. That was how she knew she was dating a personality that didn’t exist. Viyora remembered how she fantasized having a home someday with Honcho. He loved the kids or so she was meant to think. He would make her visit adoption homes just to spend time with the children. He showed so much support and volunteered on so many occasions to baby-sit for his neighbors.

Honcho knew how to do a million little lovely things that Viyora loves. One afternoon, he shows up at his workplace with a tiny pink and white cat in a basket full of roses. It wasn’t time for recess yet, so he walked to her boss's office and requested he took Viyora with him that there was an emergency at home and her mom had a cardiac arrest because It was just Monday after a lovely weekend with him, but Huncho announced he was going to be away for a long time and needed to spend time with her.

It was past midnight when Viyora woke up hungry and went in to the kitchen to look for something to eat. She had slept off from all the thoughts about her boring life. She opened the fridge and pulled out the egg crate. She didn’t care what time it was she was going to have bread with scrambled eggs and coke. As she bit the eggs, she began reciting Klein words on dieting and how she was to stop the intake of carbonated drinks.

Klein had made her swear that she would never again take carbonated drinks, but how did these things make it to her fridge and why was she taking them at a very odd hour? She convinced herself that the damage couldn’t be worse than the damage men had caused her.

Sitting before her computer, she goes through her emails hoping she had received feedback on her numerous job applications. She sandwiches the egg in the bread and promising herself she would hit the gym as soon as she gets a job or a man, she takes a deep bite at the food in her hand and allows her thoughts to center on the crumbs that fell off her mouth. Gyming could be a pain she wasn’t ready to face. Klein had suggested gym because she believed there wasn’t a single person in the yoga session.

It was a Friday morning when Viyora’ s mom, Catherine, called to tell her she was visiting Texas and was coming straight to her place after her summit ended. This news alone threw Viyora into panicking. It was fun having someone to do the dishes and get the groceries and do the cooking while you did nothing and that was the problem. Viyora was doing nothing! And that meant she would have to face her mother’s rants and bants about being idle and not trying enough and hopeful that manner falls from heaven.

Catherine is dramatic, even when she was quiet, her facial expressions passed the judgment and did the talking. She got married at seventeen and so expected all her children to do the same. As if that wasn’t enough, she and dad hadn’t had a fight for even a day and their marriage was still so lively and sexually active. Then there she was struggling to keep a relationship and had failed terribly. Viyora would have been all excited if her dad had come along too. At least he was the only one that always came through when Catherine started her bants.

Viyora is the only girl among the three boys and she came last. Apparently, she came last in everything. No one in the family seemed to want to leave Texas except for her parents, who moved to Dallas. Her brothers all live far away from each other but all in Texas and only come around when there is a deep reason to. Viyora’ s dad, Thompson, was doing well when he worked with the company but retired when Viyora and her brothers were still so young and their mother had to take care of the bills and pay the mortgage.

Catherine arrived in Texas in the evening and Viyora was there to pick her up. They got home and got lost in the euphoria of the visit. They talked for so long that Catherine insisted Viyora follow her back to Dallas so she could get help. Viyora didn’t dare feel reluctant. She was breathing free air already without working for it. How does she tell Catherine that Brian isn’t in her life anymore?