Amanda felt like crying. She felt as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders. "Can this day get any worse?" she asked herself quietly while she tried to mask her face so that her emotions were not obvious, but she was failing terribly at it. Just then her phone beeped. A message from Eddy reminding her of the movie tickets. She sighed and sent the e-tickets via email then brought her attention back to the cashier.
"C-can you t-try the card once a-again please?",
The cashier who had just started her shift and therefore was not privy to any of the happenings in the restaurant a few minutes before, looked at Amanda bitterly and with scorn. She thought,
"Look at this girl trying to be brave. If someone offered to pay such a huge sum of money for me, I would gladly accept and even give him my phone number. This one is trying to be brave when she does not even have the money to pay for this. Why even bother reserving the whole place when it's above your means?" She plastered a fake smile on her face, gritted her teeth and turned back to Amanda.
"Ma'am it's not working,"
"Huh? What?"
"I said, the card is not working!"
Amanda was trapped in her thoughts with an almost blank look on her face, so she did not notice the slight arrogance and disrespect in the girl's tone but more than one person observing them did.
The waiter from before came and 'relieved' the cashier of her duties.
"Go to the back and help them there", he had a stern look on his face and ordered her to leave for him to take over. He bowed respectively to Amanda and inquired rather softly, "Do you have another card or any other means to pay the bill ma'am?"
Amanda smiled at him, and he was thunderstruck! The girl was absolutely gorgeous when she did. He schooled his face to hide his expression and took the other card Amanda offered.
"This card is okay, but it will unfortunately not cover all the bill," he looked at her apologetically as if saying; "I understand your predicament" without actually saying anything. Amanda sighed and putting all appearances aside, emptied her purse on the counter. She took out all the physical cash she had plus her last credit card and gave them all to him. He studied her for some time and then proceeded to, tally what had been given. He smiled again as if to give her assurance and said, "Yes, this will be enough".
Amanda nodded and turned to leave the restaurant.
"Ma'am, will you be okay?",
"Why will I not be?" she replied with a forced chuckle. She thanked the man and then left without looking back.
"They say that misfortune comes in threes, I really hope that I do not get the third one this evening because I am exhausted, and my journey has just begun", she muttered to herself as she moved.
She had left the restaurant looking all confident but was totally a mess on the inside. It had all happened too fast. She stood outside by the roadside for a bit while she contemplated her route back to her apartment. The busses had long since stopped running so her only option of getting back to her apartment was a cab. She opened her purse and noticed that she had no cash left, she had maxed up her credit cards and her debit account had nothing!
She reminisced on how the day had started and her state currently. "It looks like I must walk". She sighed as she knew that it would take her more than an hour to cover the almost 4.2km to her apartment. She started walking and scrubbed away the tears that now flowed freely.
She thought back to their first meeting…
Eddy and Amanda had been inseparable since they met. They catered to each other's needs and not many words were needed between them, but she was totally questioning what she thought they had had as friends and also hated her mother right now because of everything. "Marry your best friend? Huh?".
Why did she even take the words of someone who had divorced her husband? If the best-friend-marriage thing worked, they wouldn't have divorced. She knew she was being unfair, but it was that advice that had gotten her here… wherever that was.
Amanda still recalled the day she had met Eddy for the first time. It had been right after her parents' divorce. She was to stay with her mother and her younger sister Ella, was to stay with her dad.
[A/N: flashback]
It was an especially bright and sunny day that day. Her little eyes looked around in fascination as they were in a different vicinity she had never seen before.
Eight-year-old Amanda held her mother's hands and swung it up and down while she giggled like crazy. "Mama, where are we going?"
Her mother stopped temporarily and came down to eye-level with her daughter, "Little princess, we are going to see you daddy today,"
"Daddy?"
"Yes, why? Are you not happy, princess?"
A confused expression flashed on Amanda's face as she hesitantly said, "No, I want to see daddy too."
"Then, why do you look a teensy-little unhappy, dear,"
"I will be happy to see daddy."
"Will Ella be there too, mummy?"
"Of course, Ella will be there. Do you miss your sister?"
"Yes, mummy."
"I'm sorry my princess, that I have to do this to you."
"Why are you sorry Mummy?"
"Nothing princess, you will not even understand it if I explain now. I will tell you when you are older. I hope you understand my reasons then." Amanda's mother Yvonne Menas muttered under her breath but just smiled and patted Amanda on the head.
"Let's go my princess, it looks like it's about to rain as the clouds are gathering."
She had divorced her husband a month before and she did not like to think of the reasons that led to the divorce. She still felt a bitter taste in her mouth when she thought about it. She did not want her remaining daughter to grow up with any negative emotions under her care.
They were married for almost ten years and had had two beautiful girls, eight and six at the time of the divorce. After the divorce settlement, her now ex-husband, Mitch Menas has taken custody of their youngest, but she at least had her eldest daughter, so she was okay with that.