The Good Life

Chapter 11

“Whatever. It was dumb.” Marla explained to her best friend Whitney.

“Yeah, it was dumb. Why the hell would you actually sleep with him? Like really? Just because you haven’t gotten laid since you started Grad school doesn’t mean you need to fuck the first guy that comes around. If you wanted that we could have gone to Le Deux.”

“You‘re right. I’ll just say I fucked up. It still doesn’t make me feel any less dirty. I mean, it’s like now I’ve slept with all those hoochies that he’s slept with. That I think is the worst part. It just grosses me out. “

“He hasn’t called you either?”

“God, no. He hasn’t called me. Please.”

“Well, at least you can say you slept with him.”

“Yeah.”

**

“Brunnnnoooo.” Phil screamed at his best friend.

“Yeah? I’m sorry. I was asleep.”

“Well, that’s why I was yelling in yo faccccceeee!”

“Okay, for real, dude. What happened with you and Marla?” Phil sat down on the edge of his bed. “You’ve been outta it since you two went out after K’s thing….”

“Oh…I liked her a lot. She didn’t return the feelings. She said school was more important that anything to her. That was it.”

“She didn’t say that, bro.” his older brother chimed in on the conversation. “You’re a bad liar.”

“We had a great night. And then she told me to leave. I haven’t called her since.” he told the truth.

“We’re going to be back there next week, dude, call her.” Phil pleaded.

Bruno got up from his bed and grabbed his phone. He made a phone call quickly. Everyone looked at him in wonder. “…Yes, and just put the number 39 on the card. “

Chapter 16

Marla sat at the desk of the international disaster relief charity for the last week. She had come to enjoy the organization and was sad to see her time end.

As she typed up donation request letters for the next fiscal year, she caught a flower delivery truck drive by quickly. She sighed heavily. Angie knew that the flowers weren’t for either of them and sighed along with her intern.

“You’re not getting an A in your internship, Ms. Gonzales. You weren’t able to find Mr. Right. Last three interns found Mr. Right doing this. I don’t know what the deal is with you.” Angie said smiling.

Renee came in with a vase of a dozen roses in her arms. “These are for you Marla. There’s a note, but all it says on it is “39.”

“Oh…oh….ummm….Thanks.” Marla picked up the flowers and set them on her desk. “I’ll be right back.”

She walked out of the office and sat on a bench in the shade away from the noise of the highway. She didn’t save his phone number, so she had to flip through nearly 3 weeks of phone calls. Usually, it wouldn’t be many calls – her mother, father, brother, a few friends, but she had been working on papers and studying with many different people. She wasn’t sure if she even still had his number.

“Damnit.” she scrolled faster through her phone. “Oh..there it is.” She dialed.

“Did you get item 39?” He didn’t even say hello.

“I did, thank you. “ she replied. “So, I might have freaked out a bit that night…”

“It probably wasn’t the best first date….” he responded.

“No, the date was fine…everything was fine…it was just….I overreacted. I do that.”

“I’m not going to be home for some time…but I really like you, Marla. Te prometo.”

“Aww, see that’s too cute.” she responded.

“It’s true!” He told her over the phone. He wanted to touch her. It was impossible. He was in Spain and she was in Los Angeles.