Chapter 1
“Emmie… You’re so beautiful the angels are jealous,” Matt said as he tucked a few loose strands of red and black hair behind the ear of a crying mistress that he was holding closely.
Mistress might have not been the right word for this woman, but it was quite close to hitting the spot right on. Emmelia, or Emmie, was married to a man by the name of Nathaniel, Nathaniel Bonel; she had loved him dearly, had being the key word. To be more specific, she didn’t know if she loved him still or not.
The two were standing on the front steps of a small home crowded by other homes like it in the city. The street light in front was out, as were most of the lights on the streets. It wasn’t the safest neighborhood to be in, especially after dark.
It being slightly windy out, the leaves were skidding across the cement sidewalk and the asphalt road that needed to be redone. Trash cans were over flowing with newspaper that dated back to a few months ago. It, being autumn, was chilly, but not so bad that you could catch a cold.
They were alone, but that didn’t bother either of them at the moment. Emmelia needed comforting, that’s all that mattered to Matt; and Emmelia needed someone to comfort her through the scene she had just gazed upon and through her fear of rushing through the dark alleys to get to this certain spot.
Why did she end up here though? She could’ve gone to a much closer home for safety and comfort.
Why did she even need such care from someone else other than her own husband, which she loved, didn’t she?
One day, when Emmie was just arriving home she was exhausted from staring at a computer screen for hours at her job. She was tired of wearing her work uniform which was just a purple dark sweater and nice jeans; but, what she was really tired of wearing was her black pointed toe heels, which she took off at the front door and traded for a pair of soft slipper like tennis-shoe.
The well kept house looked like it cost a fair amount of money, which it had. Most of the money that was spent was earned by Mr. Bonel. He is a civil engineer manager at a successful engineering office. Emmie didn’t necessarily have to work, but she didn’t go to college for nothing, and she didn’t want to be unprepared if something unfortunate were to happen in life.
When Emmie reached the kitchen for something to snack on she found her husband, snacking on some women strewn across the large counter with her husband hovering over her. The woman was dressed in a red sensual, slinky, dress with a low scoop-neck. The dress hugged every curve of her, no doubt a sharp image for men to feast their eyes on.
The shocking scene was more than an average day wife could normally handle with control. When her husband, Nathaniel, looked up and saw Emmie standing there with a look of horror upon her face- as if she had just seen an incredulous monster at her presence- Nathaniel looked to the clock, five thirty, the time his wife always comes home, it seemed to him time had just flown by.
Then, he glanced at the woman he lay upon. Her blonde wavy locks of hair lay against the dark marble counter everywhere, her lipstick smeared around her lips and her eyes penetrated with fear, knowing that they were caught in the act of their own fun, which just now turned to into a fiasco.
“Emmie…”
“Don’t ‘Emmie’ me! How could you…” She stopped mid in her sentence to hold tears back. “Bastard!” Emmelia shouted and threw her keys at her husband and ran out of the kitchen, through the family room and out of the large ranch.
“Nathan?” The young blonde asked in shock.
By now, Nathan was off from atop of the blonde and standing on the kitchens tile floor. He wiped the remaining lipstick off his face with his sleeve.
“Julia... I think you should go.”
“I’m not going to leave just because that hussy caught us, she left, so it doesn’t matter if I stay” The blonde, Julia, went up behind Nathaniel and started to rub his shoulders and he relaxed at her touch.
“No. You really have to leave!” He tensed up again.
“But Nathan… She’s the one who you wanted to leave, and look what she did. She left!” She tired messaging his shoulders again.
Nathaniel turned around and took her hands in each of his to keep them off him. “You need to leave…” He said softly.
A rush of emotions swept through Nathan and he took Julia’s head into his hands and kissed her passionately. Julia wrapped her arms around his neck and led him toward the living room, her bare feet slowly moving backwards off the kitchen’s tiled floor and onto the dark carpet of the living room. She led him to the off-white modern love-seat and pushed him onto it. She took her time, in her red slinky dress, to straighten her hair out and crawled on top of him. She began to kiss his neck as his hands traced up her body figure. (Ignore the line, put two enters between)
Emmelia was now running in a huff away from her home, she would have driven instead of going by foot, but she had thrown her keys at Nathan out of anger.
“That bastard deserved it!” She cried out to herself with tears streaming down her face, smearing what little make-up she had on. She had to think of somewhere to go that she knew she would be welcomed and not pushed away. That’s what brought her mind to going to Matt’s house.
She had known him for some years, even before she started working at the United States Incorporated Technology Company, or better known as, U.S.I.T.C, with him. They made technology systems to use in certain electronics. The company wasn’t too large, but large enough that a divorced or single mother of two could get by. It had been around for a couple of years before Emmelia had started working there three years ago. Matt had been one of the first workers there, and is now her boss.
She had started working at the U.S.I.T.C when she was not much over twenty-four. She had finished college, gotten married, and now lived in a sturdy home. There hadn’t been time thinking about children, so that matter was put off. Now she was twenty-seven, going on twenty-eight. Finding that her husband had been cheating on her was not in her plan, and not to mention their anniversary was in a little less than a week away.
Matt had to be the second most important man in Emmelia’s life. It may seem strange, but if you saw the two of them walking on the streets together, you would assume they were married. They were just friends though, and treated eachother as such. Emmelia was always loyal to her husband while Matt was currently single.
Matt didn’t go on many dates; he didn’t really have the want to. With being one of the higher ranking people at his job, it gave him more responsibility, and having a girlfriend was an unwanted duty. Also with being one of the major people at work, he got the larger sum of money, but he still chose to live in what people would call the lower class neighborhood. That’s because he sent most of his money to his mother who was ill most of the time.
Still, Emmie and Matt always remained just friends for the five year’s they’ve been friends so far, and always will be.
Running through these streets was not a smart thing to do. Not many cars were around besides the ones parked out front of houses. The current road she was on a murder had happened not to long ago. So many crimes have happened on this road that the news barely even bothers to mention it.
Dogs and cats were attacking eachother, and who knew what the other rodents were doing in the alleys. Thankfully Emmie didn’t have to go through any of those alleys. Many drug dealers and thugs lurked around there, and it was not a place to be unless you wanted to get in trouble.
“A few more blocks to go,” Emmelia thought to herself, “I hope he is home at this time.”
A city clock chimed six o’ clock as she went by, now walking cautiously. Matt would be getting home from work in five minutes or so, and then he would want to rest; But Emmie had no other place to go, and she had already made it this far.
From Emmie’s home to Matt’s it was about ten minutes by car, and almost a half an hour by foot, especially if you’re running was slowed down from crying. Within those ten minutes Emmie went from hurt and anger to miserable and scared. The transition in emotions made her cry more, brining her thoughts back to what had just happened and then back to her current situation of being in a bad street.
She hurried the rest of the way down a block and taking a turn onto Milling Street- the street Matt lived on- and kept walking a couple more blocks.
When Emmie arrived at Matt’s house she was crying, panting, and shivering from the slight chill outside. She knocked on the door a few times before anyone actually answered the door. To her relief Matt answered the door and immediately embraced her in a hug when he saw her.
“What happened?” He asked, his tone filled with worry.
Emmie just cried into his shoulder until she could calm down enough to speak.
“Matt… Nathaniel’s been having an affair,” Emmie said with desperation in her voice, “with a slut,” she said more bluntly.
Matt hugged her tighter, “I’m so sorry Emmie,” he let go of her then looked at her.
“I don’t know what I did wrong.” She said looking hopelessly at Matt.
“You did nothing wrong, you were a great wife to him, he just couldn’t honor you the same way you did him,” Emmelia let out more tears, “It’s okay.” He had his hands softly on her shoulders as he looked at her.
“What’s wrong with me?” She looked back into his eyes, with a little hostility in her expression, “Did I not treat him right? Did I hurt him without knowing? Is all he wants is a Barbie for a wife?” Again, hostility was in her voice.
Matt brought her back into a soft hug, bringing us back to where we began, “Emmie… You’re so beautiful the angels are jealous,” He tucked loose strands of her red and black hair behind her ear, “No; you are not a Barbie, thankfully. But, some men… They’re more interested in the physical features.”
“Then what did I do wrong?” Emmie longed for an answer.
“You did nothing wrong. It was him who did wrong, not you. Please don’t blame yourself.”
The two were now holding onto eachother -one crying, the other concerned-, lightly conversing.
“Come inside, it’s warmer, and you can rest,” Matt lightly pulled her into the house.
Though his home was not so large, it looked very nice. Right as you entered the house there were hard wood floors and a cherry wooden stair case up to where the bedrooms were.
On one side of the stairs was the family room which was furnished with a beige sofa that leaned on the wall of the stairs, and two other single chairs that were a darker brown, they were set out away from the wall and turned in facing the couch. There was an average sized television with a wooden coffee table a few feet in front of it. On each side of the dark wood entertainment center that the T.V. was placed in was a window with golden drapes that looked out to an alley, then a brick wall which was the next house.
The walls were a maroon color with the same color wallpaper covered with golden leaves and vine designs halfway up the wall. The carpet was a darker red, it also was in need of replacement, but it wasn’t in terrible condition. On the wall of the stairs, next to the couch, there was a door to the closet that went under the stairs; it was also used for storage.
To the left of the stairs was a wall with two doors on it. One door entered into the kitchen, the other was to a bathroom.
Matt let Emmie sit down on the couch and went into the newly remodeled kitchen to get some hot chocolate. He knew both of them liked it, and besides, it was always comforting to have something warm run down your throat.
Emmie sat on the sofa in silence, she had been in Matt’s house a few times for little get-together’s for work. She had never been at his house alone before so it was slightly awkward, but after what had happened at home and going through these streets she felt there was no problem with it.
Before Emmie had gotten to Matt’s house he had been watching the news, since it was still on as she sat there. The news reporter was informing people about a girl who had gone missing weeks ago.
“She’s probably dead by now,” is the only thought other than her current situation that ran through her mind. Most of her thoughts at the time were quite negative, but considering what she had been through, it seemed acceptable.
Matt came into the family room with two mugs of hot chocolate in his hands and set one on a coaster on the coffee table in front of Emmie and the other on a different coaster in front of one of the chairs that he sat down in.
“Thanks,” she said as she blew into the cup to cool it down and then taking a sip of it and remained silent.
Matt turned the T.V. off which brought Emmelia’s attention to him.
“Can you tell me what happened, with a little detail?” Matt asked, not trying to be nosey but he wanted to get a better outlook on what had happened to his good friend.
Emmie nodded and set her cup down and wiped her eyes with her sleeve to remove the wetness from her eyes, “I came home from work, no earlier than usual… I went to the kitchen and I saw Nathan on top of some woman…” Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at Matt and told the story.
“Did he notice you there?”
“Yes. He was shocked to see me… He tried saying something but I didn’t want to hear it, so I left… I probably should’ve listened to him.”
“You didn’t need to, you saw what was going on, and he doesn’t deserve to explain himself.”
“Well, then I should of took the time to pick up my keys that I threw at him so I didn’t have to walk here,” She rubbed here eyes again.
“You walked all the way here?” Matt looked shocked and even more concerned than he already was, “You know how dangerous this neighborhood is, you could’ve gotten a cab at least Emmie.”
“I’m sorry…” Emmie looked down to her feet.
“No, no… Sorry for coming off like that. It’s just dangerous around here, and you need to be more cautious, especially if you are a female wondering these streets.”
“It’s okay; I understand that you’re worried.”
The room had gotten silent after that, with the exception of the noise of them drinking their hot chocolate.
“Matt?” Emmelia broke the silence.
Matt snapped out of his thoughts,“Yeah?”
“That was kind of bold.”
“What was?” He asked in confusion.
“What you said about me being beautiful.”
“Oh, sorry…” Matt felt like he was in an uncomfortable position, “It is true though, Emmie.”
“Thank you… Do you think I could stay here for tonight?”
“Um, I don’t have a problem with it but do you think you should?”
“I just don’t want to go back home to see Nathaniel yet; And I don’t have any other friends near by or that have room for an unexpected guest.”
“Then sure, you can sleep in the guest bedroom.”
“Thank you,” Emmie said with gratitude, “I think I’m going to get some rest then, I don’t feel like being awake at the time.”
“Alright, if you need anything, just holler at me. The guest bedroom is the first door on the left upstairs.”
“Kay, night,” She said as she headed upstairs with her hot chocolate.
“Emmie,” Matt called out.
Emmelia stopped where she was and turned to Matt’s direction, “What?”
“There should be some t-shirts and sweatpants in the dresser in the guest room if you need them.”
“You offer too much to me, thank you. I’m really glad I have you as a friend.”
Matt gave her a welcomed nod as she disappeared the rest of the way up, “Goodnight, Emmelia.”
Matt turned the T.V. back on and sat in the dark chair staring at its screen but his mind was elsewhere.
“Doesn’t Emmie have a friend down the road from her that always had an extra room for her many guests? Why’d she come here then?”
Emmelia entered the guest bedroom that had two toned vertical green stripes down the walls and a wooden floor. A four post full size bed sat against the left wall in the middle of the room, with a matching dresser two feet away from the beds foot. The dresser was on the opposite wall as the bed but still only a couple feet separated them. The dresser had a mirror and setting on top of the dresser there were small statues of doves, one on each end of the dresser. Beside the right side of the bed was a bed side table with a lamp and an alarm clock on it.
On the wall opposite of the door Emmelia entered was a window that had dark green curtains; it had the same view as the family room except higher up. Between the bed and the walls there was about three feet on each side, so the room was fairly small, which was acceptable for a guest bedroom.
Emmie sat on the bed for a minute and decided to change into the clothes Matt said were in the dresser’s drawers.
Email this story 
Print Story 
Add to reading list
