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Taking Back Respect
At Mom's On Park Avenue, we were enjoying a leisurely brunch one morning while Trish was explaining her current situation. She was now legally separated from Randy and soon to go through a divorce, and things had suddenly grown a bit ugly.
"I can't believe that witch is trying to take my apartment!" the blonde fumed.
The witch in question was Randy's mother, Janice Orton. The woman had never had a problem with Trish during her marriage to her son, but now that things were over, she'd had a change of heart.
"It's not fair!" Trish cried. "Randy gave me that apartment! Can she really do this?" She shifted her brown eyes Candice's way.
The brunette eyed her with a mixture of sympathy and something else.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, "just trying to fight back the morning sickness."
"Oh, sweetie, are you okay?" I asked.
"I'll be fine... Dry crackers, dry toast, they help." She munched on a piece of the latter as she spoke. Then, she turned back to Trish. "Trish, unfortunately, because she paid for the apartment, she can take it back. My advice is to get yourself a good divorce lawyer and fight tooth and nail."
"I'll do that!" the little blonde declared. There was a spark of determination in her eyes as she gave a sharp nod.
Lisa Marie was flipping through a tabloid newspaper as she sipped her coffee beside Trish. Suddenly, she gasped and stopped on a page.
"Why, I've never..."
"What? What's the matter?
Lisa held the paper out for Trish to see, gesturing wildly as she explained. "There is a bullshit story in this rag about Dave and some third-rate actress!"
I craned my neck a little to see what exactly was on the page that had our friend so perturbed.
"Michelle McCool, huh?"
"Yes, none other - the queen of grade B slasher movies! It says in here that Dave has been seen 'canoodling' with her all over town! That is a crock of shit!" she exclaimed, fury glittering in her dark eyes. "This is nothing but trash - just like Michelle McCool herself!"
"Are you going to talk to Dave about it?" Candice asked.
"No, why would I?"
"Um, to make sure whether or not it's true?" the other brunette said. "Because if it were me, I'd want to know."
"She's right," Trish said as she looked up from the paper. "Lisa, we know how fond you are of him, but you don't want to be with a man who isn't serious about you."
Excuse me?" Lisa Marie could hardly believe she, of all people, was feeling at all uneasy over the idea of a man seeing her for just sex - but she was. "I'll have you know that this is nothing but a pack of lies."
Candice and I exchanged glances. We also exchanged the same looks with Trish, knowing we were all thinking the same thing.
"Okay," the blonde said, definitively changing the subject, "Candice, do you have a good divorce lawyer in mind you can recommend to me?"
"Hmm," the brunette said, deep in thought, "well, I haven't spoken to him recently, but Frank Kazarian is good."
"Okay."
"I can get you his number right now," Candice said, fishing her cell phone out of her purse. "Kazarian and Jacobs, LLP."
Trish took her own phone out and craned her neck to peer at the number in our friend's mobile book.
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver! Now, I hope he'll take my case and win me my apartment!"
"You're all invited to the party I'm throwing tonight," Lisa Marie suddenly declared.
I eyed her for a beat, deciding. It was so last-second.
"Okay, I'm in. Maybe it'll help me forget what happened with Jeff."
That's the spirit, honey... And who knows, maybe you'll meet someone."
"No, I think I'm going to go solo for awhile," I told her.
Lisa Marie shifted her gaze to Candice.
"I don't know if I'd be very good company at a party right now... My hormones, the morning sickness. Not a pretty picture!" she said with a small chuckle.
"Trish?"
"Oh, I don't know," the blonde said. "All the divorce stuff is just... well, it's really getting to me." She sadly laid her chin on her arms, which were folded on the table.
Lisa Marie patted her head.
"So, it's just you and me," she said, her gaze on me.
"Look like," I remarked.
*
Later, while Trish was calling her new divorce lawyer and Candice was battling pregnancy symptoms, I got ready for the party and met Lisa Marie.
She had her hair all loose and done in curls and wore an electric blue sequin form-fitting dress with a lowcut bodice.
"Wow, look at you," I said with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm going all out," she said proudly. The truth was, she'd confronted Dave earlier, asking him about the article about him and Michelle McCool. She'd confided about it to me. "This will show him," she said. "What does that bitch have that I don't? She looks like she doesn't even eat!"
"She is stick-figure skinny," I concurred.
"Right... And I could snap her in half!"
I gazed at her in silence as we caught a cab to the party. I felt for Lisa Marie. I had never quite seen her in such a state. Clearly, she had very true, real feelings for Dave Batista, and jealousy was new territory for her.
We arrived at the party within ten minutes, and Lisa greeted several people as we entered the building where it was being held. And then, her eyes trailed halfway across the room, where she spotted a familiar form. Unfortunately, he had company in the form of another, more blonde, tall and very skinny form.
"Excuse me, Amy," she said, never taking her eyes off of Dave and the actress. "I'm just going to go say hello." With that, she grabbed a drink from a tray a waitress was carrying as she passed us and sauntered away.
"Dave... Hello!" Lisa Marie called, a perfect smile plastered on her face. She exuded nothing but the utmost confidence as she approached. She noticed how he stepped instinctively away from Michelle by a few inches and straightened his tie.
"Lisa Marie... How nice to see you."
The brunette cast McCool a very obvious look.
"Would you excuse us, please?"
"Oh, sure," Michelle replied in her Southern drawl. She turned and left, mingling with the crowd.
When the other woman was out of earshot, Lisa grew more serious and said, "Just what exactly is going on between you and... her?"
Dave laughed and eyed her down and up.
"Oh, come on, Lisa... You know, a little of this, a little of that." He gave her a nudge that seemed to speak volumes. She didn't like that one bit.
"So, you're seeing other women..."
"What's so bad about that?" he asked with a nonchalant shrug.
Lisa Marie felt an uncomfortable twinge deep inside her chest.
"Well, don't... Only see me," she said before she could stop herself.
Batista laughed again.
"Who do you think you're fooling? You're not the monogamous type... That's why we're so good together." He gave her a squeeze on the rear, and for some reason, that only raised her ire.
In response, Lisa Marie reached down and grabbed a handful of Dave Batista. The motion caused him to gasp in pain, his face reddening as he stared at her in shock.
"Don't tell me what type I am," she hissed. "I will not have you fuck me and then fuck me over." She let him go and rushed away, furious. As she walked, she spotted Michelle McCool up ahead and accidentally on purpose ran into her with her shoulder. The slim blonde cried out as she fell to the floor.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry!" Lisa said as she made a beeline straight for me.
"Sweetie, are you okay?" I asked as I held the glass of white wine away from my lips.
"I am so ready to leave this damn shindig," the brunette muttered. She was very visibly upset. "Come on... Let's go."
My jaw dropped in shock. This would go down in the record books as the shortest amount of time Lisa had ever stayed at a party. And
so, we left.