Page 9 of Twisted Love

“No, honey, complain away. I forget sometimes I shouldn’t make people feel bad by laying out my own misery in that way. We all have problems, complaints, and I shouldn’t belittle yours.”

Keily smiled even though Rosa couldn’t see it. Rosa really was that good a friend and Keily appreciated her thoughtfulness. “You’re awesome, do you know that?”

“I do, but men don’t seem to notice. Maybe I should try with the other team or something?” There was a laugh in Rosa’s voice, but there was something nervous about the laugh that caught Keily’s attention.

“Um, is there someone you have in mind?” Keily was curious and wanted to know whatever secret it was that Rosa was hiding.

“Maybe, we’ll see. For now, I’m only going to say that I’m considering a few things.”

“I see.” Keily’s smile only grew bigger. Rosa was talking to someone, Keily just knew it. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready, I guess.”

“I will, you know I will.” Rosa sighed again, a sound Keily was awfully familiar with lately since she’d done so much of her own.

“My sister still won’t take my calls.” Keily all but whispered. “I guess I deserve it.”

“From what you’ve told me, yeah, maybe. But you’re a different person now.” Rosa paused, not sugar-coating anything, whether Keily was her best friend or not. “She’ll come around one day. I know she will.”

“I hope you’re right. Listen, traffic’s getting a little heavy now, I’ll call you back later, alright?” Keily’s finger hovered over the ‘end call’ button as she waited for Rosa’s reply.

“Of course, deal with the traffic first. How about I call you when I get off work?”

“Sounds great, honey, bye for now,” Keily said, glaring at the button now.

“Bye, Keily. Be careful.”

“I will,” Keily answered and hung up. “Now, are you going to make up your mind about which lane you want to be in?”

Keily’s glare turned from the button on the screen to the black sedan swerving in and out of the lane. The driver was lucky there wasn’t anyone coming in the other lane because they’d have caused an accident if there had been.

It took Keily ten more nerve-wracking minutes to get home, the black sedan swerving across every lane before they turned off at the apartment complex just before Keily’s. She’d have called the police, but she was afraid to take her eyes off the road long enough to call 911. At least the idiot driver had made it home. Now, whether they were drunk, tired, or having some kind of medical emergency, they were off the road at least.

It was the most exciting part of Keily’s day, that swerving driver. The waxing had been the most painful, but not exciting. The haircut she’d also had at the salon was nice, but it wasn’t that exciting since it was just a trim. She’d even had her nails done, a red and black ombre that she loved, but…it wasn’t really exciting either. The whole package was more to kill time than to make sure she was presentable to Logan. She had extraordinarily little to do now that she was a, ahem, kept woman.

As she went through her front door a thought occurred to her. She hadn’t checked on that scholarship business in a while. Logan’s mention of a vacation a while back had made her brain kick in. She’d won scholarships in those pageants on top of all the other prizes, were they still available? She’d emailed a few places about the scholarships she’d won, but then she’d forgotten about them. Maybe they’d gotten back to her?

Keily changed into a slouchy red long-sleeved t-shirt dress, put on some red fluffy socks, and walked back into the kitchen. With a press of a button, her laptop came to life and she sat down at the kitchen table, one foot on the chair as she opened her email. There were a few replies, all of them automated messages telling her someone would contact her soon, but nothing else.

Turning her phone over, Keily swiped until she heard the line ringing and Rosa picked up the phone.

“I thought I was calling you back later?” Rosa chuckled and Keily smiled.

“Yeah, you were, but you remember me telling you about that scholarship money I might have?”

“Yeah. Have you heard back from them?” There was a note of excitement in Rosa’s voice and that made Keily’s smile turn into a frown. Even Rosa would be disappointed with her news.

“Just an automated message. But I need help.”

“You know I’ll be glad to.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve even thought about those scholarships. If my mom didn’t find a way to turn them into cash, I might have enough money to get into a good university with an online program. I asked my mother about my prizes more than once, but she always said I lost the prizes for one infraction or another.”

“Infraction?” Rosa sounded as doubtful as Keily felt.

“We could lose the prizes if we broke anything in the contract we signed with the pageant runners. Getting caught drunk, which I did a few times, or things like that.”

“Were you arrested? Can they really take prizes away?” Rosa asked with obvious doubt.

“Mom said they could. I saw things like that the few times I had enough time to actually skim the contracts. Mom always rushed me about signing them.”