There had to be another way. Tasha walked the length of her room twice before she perched at the foot of the orthopedic mattress now covered neatly in flowery, lilac-colored sheets.
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She knew Esther thought she was jealous of her. Well, she was, until she found out that the million-dollar, tall, handsome man her sister was engaged to was Tommy Brains. The same Tommy Brains she spent 4 years of her life selling cotton candy at events and running shifts at restaurants to support his education.
The same Tommy Brains who promised to take her to the altar, place a ring on her finger, and say “I do”.
Initially, when her green eyes met his brown ones, her mind could not register him. Tommy had met his unfortunate end in a ghastly motor accident, his mother had told her when she brought him flowers to wish him good luck in his final medical exam.
So when she saw him that day in his 3 piece suit, with that sleek smile fixated on his face, she thought she was dreaming. Something flashed in his eyes that day but it was gone quickly, as if he recognized her, then didn't.
She had sat at the table like everyone else, stealing glances at him from time to time, not once did their eyes meet.
When he left that night, Tasha went to her cupboard, the place where she stored all his memories and took his pictures out.
Maybe she had begun to forget his face and was mistaking him for someone else. The reality stared back at her anyway, there was no pretending. It was the same brown eyes, the same crooked nose, the same thin-lipped smile. The tears didn't come then, she just clutched that old photo to her chest until dawn.
The following evening, she called Esther upstairs to her room. They shared it until Esther began to sleep frequently in the cellar which she had converted to her dark room. Her things were still in the room, and she came to climb the top bunk from time to time but she was hardly ever there.
“Hey, where did you meet this Sean guy again?”
That naughty smile climbed Esther's lips as she began to twirl a strand of her curly hair around her fingers.
“We met in Dubai. There was a conference and I went there to take photographs, we bumped into each other right after the conference and he broke my camera. He kept looking for ways to make it up to me. That was when our series of dates commenced” Tasha nodded. It sounded a little bit like Tommy, he would definitely want to make it up to a lady if he broke her camera.
“Do you know anything about his past? Background? Parents?”
“He lost his mom when he was 3,”
“Wow,” that definitely didn't sound like Tommy.
“His dad is in California” Esther finished. Tasha nodded, then handed the photograph to Esther. Her sister's brows furrowed then she raised questioning eyes to Tasha. “What's this?”
Tasha shrugged. Esther glanced at the photo again, everyone in her family had heard of Tommy even though they never met him because he was in China, chasing his medical degree. Or so Tasha thought.
“This isn't my Sean,” Esther said over and over. When she rose sharply and threw the picture back at her sister, Tasha knew she didn't believe her.
She didn't show anyone else, and she was glad that Esther didn't mention it to their parents either. The slander on her name was already too much. She didn't bag a college degree because she was too busy trying to help her boyfriend bag his, she returned home after his supposed death depressed and irresponsible.
Now that she was trying to come out of that state and her parents were finally beginning to trust her again, she wasn't going to disappoint them.
So she thought of what to do to prevent him from taking her to the altar.
Initially, she thought telling her sister that she had accepted to marry a con man would stop the wedding but if anything, it fueled the preparations. Esther wouldn't even give her so much as a glance and she wasn't allowed to do anything to assist.
So she sat there on that bed, thinking of the best thing to do.
Then it hit her, the perfect plan B.
She waited for the bachelor's night when she knew he would be most vulnerable, then she took out the black dress he got for her birthday and a pair of silver shoes. She knew the exact location of the party, she had convinced her cousin, Mark, to tell her. By the time she arrived, he was fairly tipsy.
“Hi Tommy,” she made sure the recorder on her phone was running.
“Tasha?” She raised her lips in a pitiful smile, he truly recognized her, and he wasn't dead.
“You remember me” She took the seat beside him and placed her arms around his shoulders. “Maybe we should have a little chit-chat before your boys get back. Where are they?” There was no single friend of his in the VIP section of the club, that too had been her doing but with Mark's help.
He couldn't refuse, after all, he was dead drunk. She managed to drag him into the convenience and after getting a good chunk of the truth from his sorry self, locked him in and headed to her sister's party even when she wasn't invited.
As she drove back home that night, her heart kept breaking at the scream Esther let out when she gave her the recording. Tommy just wanted her money, that was what he did to ladies in different countries, and he had been married 4 times.
Tasha wiped tears from her eyes, they would both be alright but before then, she needed a cold bottle of beer.
