The Affair

"Can you keep a secret?" Melody whispered quietly to Gina. Gina was elated. She loved secrets. Gina didn’t know why Melody asked her about secrets.  It’s not like they were best friends. They went to high school together, but they weren’t too close.  Melody was a cheerleader, and Gina was in debate club.  She also was in drama club, and many of her classmates remember her being in the middle of a lot of the drama.  Bella, another classmate, had told her about the time she had sex with Nate, and she hadn't told anyone, except for her sister and her sister's best friend, Jane. She never told anyone about the time Nick cheated on Emily, mainly because he cheated with her. Gina wasn’t usually a good girl friend, but maybe this thing with Melody would help fix that.  This was great. She needed a good secret, so she pressed Melody to tell her more. 

Melody was tall, blond and

beautiful. Gina envied her because she was a friend to all, and everyone loved

her. If she had a secret to tell, then it was a good one, because everyone told

her stuff. "What is it?" Gina asked excitedly. Just as Melody was

going tell, Gina heard Taylor Swift singing, "Shake It Off." That

just happened to be Melody's ringtone. Gina really thought Taylor Swift was

obnoxious, and this was her least favorite song.  “Why the hell do you have that as your

ringtone?”  She asked very loudly. 

Melody said, "Excuse me,

I have to take this."

"Damn," Gina said

in her head. "Curiosity killed the cat. I'm dying here." She waited

for Melody to finish her call. She heard a very quick good-bye, and don't call

me again, and Melody walked back towards her. Gina was trying to put pieces of

a puzzle together and try to figure out this secret on her own.  They were going to have lunch at the food

court in the mall, so they started walking towards the court. They were both on

their break. Melody managed a Christmas ornament kiosk in the mall, and Gina

was working part time in Bath and Body works. Her full-time job at the bank didn’t

pay her enough, and she was trying to get her own apartment.  They didn't have much time, and now Gina was

dying to hear the secret.

As they walked into the food

court, Melody decided on pizza, and Gina was still on a diet so she went and

ordered a salad. They decided to meet at the corner table back by the exit.

Gina got there first, and started munching on her salad. "Where the hell

is Melody?" She said out loud and the table next door thought they were

speaking to them.

"Did you say

something?" the young couple asked.

Gina replied,

"Nope!" Gina wasn’t always the nicest person, and sometimes her tone

really pissed people off. 

The other table snapped back with, “You’re very rude!” 

Gina really didn’t care about the other people in the food court.  She wasn’t out to make friends here. She looked up, and saw Melody on her way, finally. 

"Come on Mel. We don't have much time. Now what was that secret you wanted to talk about? I’m really glad we’re at this point in our friendship that we can share things.”

Melody pulled some napkins

out of the dispenser and pushed in her chair. She took a big bite of her cheese

pizza.  She was starving.  She dabbed her face with the stiff napkin,

and took a sup of her diet coke.  "Well,"

she started. "I need some advice because I think I made a big

mistake."  Gina thought she could

hear a crackle in Melody’s voice.

“Oh my God Mel.  Are you okay?”

Gina was now chomping at the

bit. She couldn't wait to hear what Melody's story was. Melody continued.

"The other night, I was feeling bored. I ran out of wine, so I started

walking to Zip's Liquors. I opened the door, and started to walk in. When I

looked up, I saw..."  Gina started

to ask about Melody’s husband Ray.  They

had been married for 5 years, but Gina didn’t think they were too happy.  Melody never told her they weren’t, but she

had come up with this conclusion on her own. 

Gina thought Melody could’ve done better, but here they were.

"Hey girls!" Lana

Jones had walked up to them in the middle of Melody's story, and completely

interrupted her.  Gina rolled her eyes at

Lana and took a bite of her salad.

"Damnit'" she said

out loud.

"Are you okay,

Gina?" Lana scowled. She never liked Gina. 

Gina had dated Lana’s brother in high school, and it didn’t go so well,

and now 12 years later they were still like high school mean girls.  Lana more so than Gina, but Gina held her

fair share of grudges.

"Yeah good." Gina

scowled back. This was going to be the end of the secret for sure. Gina was

disappointed. Lana stood there and continued to waste their time while they

were eating lunch. She was going on and on about this guy that she met, and blah,

blah, blah.  She just wouldn't go away.

Finally, she said good-bye, and she and Melody were going to meet up over the

weekend.  It seemed strange to Gina that

Melody would be spending more and more time away from Ray.

"Now what were you

saying Melody?"

"Oh, never mind. It's

not that important. It’s getting late, and we should be getting back to

work.  We get really busy in the afternoon.  Gina was left dumbfounded at the table. Did

Melody not trust her? Was the secret too big? Was she going to tell Lana? Gina

was getting angry. "I would've told almost nobody." Gina was trying

to convince herself that she could be trusted. She would get that secret out of

her sooner or later.

Melody kept walking towards

her kiosk, and said, "I think this is a secret that doesn't need to be

told. Too bad because it's a good one."