A Classy Woman Scorned

How a true woman deals with a cheating man

Ashlee quietly hummed to herself while she flipped through the latest issue of Glamorise. Sipping her large hot chocolate she looked at her watch as casually as she could. She had about two minutes before Sam and his date exited the movies according to the session times. At first Ashlee decided to just ignore his infidelity. He was just getting it all out of his system before the wedding she had told herself and for a while she actually believed it. But the more he saw this other woman it seemed like the relationship between her and Sam had withered to the point that Ashlee felt like she was the other woman rather than Sam’s fiancé. Ashlee tried not to think about the tightening feeling in her stomach and the way her face was burning up. Confrontation was not her favourite thing in the world but spending nights alone in a loveless marriage would be considerably worse.   

            As the minutes hand shifted Ashlee began to prepare. She pulled out her pocket mirror and gave herself a quick look over before leaving the coffee shop. Ashlee had played this moment repeatedly in her head but actually doing it was a completely different matter. The feeling in her stomach got stronger as she walked towards the movie theatre and met eyes with Sam.

            His normally cool façade was stripped off and replaced with shock. For a moment Sam seemed to be frozen in place but quickly recovered to let go of his girlfriends hand.       

            Ashlee walked over to the couple wearing the sweetest smile she could muster.

“Hello Sam” Ashlee said before leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. Sam’s jaw hung open in a rather comical fashion. Ashlee then directed her attention to the woman. “I don’t think we have met” she said with an added note of cheerfulness.

“Oh no I don’t think we have, I’m Shirley” the woman extended her hand and smiled back at Ashlee.

“I’m Ashlee, Sam’s fiancé” Ashlee replied and firmly shook Shirley’s hand.

“Fiancé?” Shirley stammered and her eyes moved to Ashlee’s left hand to see the diamond studded ring. As if she had found out he was secretly carrying the plague Shirley moved from Sam’s side and stared at him with a look of horror. “You’re engaged!” she cried and Sam winced.

“Well I don’t really think we are anymore…you know…considering the circumstances” Ashlee piped in.

“I was going to tell you Shirley…” Sam started.

“When Sam, when were you going to tell me that I was just a piece of a*s on the side?” Shirley interrupted. “No you know what, I don’t event want to hear it because everything that comes out of that mouth is a lie!” she screamed.

“To believe he was lying to us both this whole time” Ashlee said adding fuel to the fire that was Shirley’s shattered self esteem. She pulled out a tissue from her handbag and pattered her eyes carefully so as not to remove her makeup. Sam’s eyes darted between Shirley and Ashlee as he tried not to linger on one of them for too long.

“Oh no, don’t cry” Shirley said as she took hold of Ashlee’s hands. “It will be alright, I swear if I had known”

“It’s alright I just, I think I’m going to go” Ashlee said sniffling to add effect to her performance.

Shirley nodded sympathetically to Ashlee and then continued to verbally abuse Sam. Before turning to leave Ashlee flashed a triumphant smile at Sam and left him to tend to who she believed would  now be his ex-girlfriend.  

Author's Note

I am terrible with my grammar so be vicious

Reviews

[SRMarx]

Interesting topic. I would have loved to get to know Ashlee more as a character. I think the story would benefit from showing more of her character and her relationship with Sam.

[E. L. Foley]

I loved the line " As if she had found out he was secretly carrying the plague Shirley moved from Sam’s side "--it totally captured the reaction.