Second Chances (ON HOLD)

Chapter 13: Breaking Walls

“Do you know man, life’s fucked up, I mean look at me,” Chad, Marco’s friend paused briefly, flaring his arms, and continued. “Just look at me.”

 The man had been going on and on like a broken record since the past two hours while Marco sat back in a plush, silken soft velvet upholstered seat at Ritz’s business lounge with his back resting comfortably. 

“I mean… just look at me.” Chad shook his head in disbelief once again, and Marco cursed Victor for dragging him into this mess for the hundredth time in the past hour. The squeak of the door opening made him sigh in relief, where he hoped Victor had finally arrived, but he almost sucked in an angered breath when a tall redhead walked in with a tray full of refreshments for the duo.

 “Nobody dies virgin, I tell you! Nobody! Life fucks us all!” Chad’s random outburst earned him a rather disconcerting look from the female who at this point was trying to position her chest in a way that wasn’t quite scanty, before Marco as she served him a glass of Pinot.

Chad William was Marco’s best friend. Well, Marco wouldn’t have known what else to name their acquaintance. They had met in a slightly unconventional circumstance after all, now that he thought of it. The man was absolutely dimwitted when it came to women, Marco thought, while reminiscing their first encounter at a frat party. Both of them had been wasted. And the only difference in between them at that very moment was that Marco had tagged along with his older brother and Chad –well Chad had been Tinkerbell among the houseful of rather untamed and on-the-leash bunch of wild hyenas. Let’s just say, Marco was one of those rather untamed and on-the-leash bunch of wild hyenas. It was a nightmare for a man’s pride, to say it in the least.

“Wives! They strip you bare of your wealth. Pesky creatures.” Chad added with a scoff 

Yes, Chad Andrew William was a married man. Not even two years had passed and his whining over his loss of freedom and liberty that had been stripped away from him, had begun. Such were the confessions of men who married early, Marco thought dryly, eyeing Chad who sat with hunched shoulders, his head buried in his fists opposite to him. Marco suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at the male specimen before him. 

“Now that you’re done –I hope, will you tell me why you’re on your time of the month again?” Marco finally asked, growing exasperated of the situation posed to him. 

“It was my birthday two days ago!” Chad screeched like a twelve-year-old brat.

“What? Your mommy forgot to bring your favorite cereal?” Marco muttered under his breath. The man sitting before him was a damned twenty six year old grown up. But yet his ability to act like an infant never bode well with him.

“Damn it Marco! My wife!”

“I swear to God, if you go on once more in incomplete sentences I will kick you out of my meeting room.” Marco, at last found it in himself to excrete his rather mounting anger at his friend.

“It was my birthday two days ago! Damn it, my wife got me a signed, vintage Beatles album.” Chad raged. Marco just stared dumbfounded at his friend. Chad had always loved the Beatles. Yet his outrage about his wife finding such a thoughtful gift for him surprised him. 

“Didn’t you go ballistic over the Beatles in sophomore year back in college?” 

“Yes! I bloody did. That’s not what the problem right now is! The problem is, an unknown asshole way, way outbid me for the same album four days ago over E-bay! Eight hundred dollars! Damn.”

“I’m still trying to fathom why this should anger you…” Marco mused.

 “That asshole was none other than my very own wife! She outbid me using my very own credit-card!”