I felt a bit tired. Just then, an empty cab approached and I was about to hang up when I heard Karen say, “I’ll come pick you up now. Don’t go anywhere.”
Before I could refuse, she hung up the phone. I had no choice but to continue waiting.
But an hour passed, then two, and she still hadn’t shown up. I checked my phone and came across a post on her childhood friend, Leon Wright,’s social media.
[Holy shit! Found a giant cockroach at home! Luckily, my big sis, Karen, came in time and cleaned it up! Ahh, she’s super awesome!!]
The accompanying picture showed Leon hugging Karen, who was wearing an apron while cooking. My eyes were drawn to a clear lipstick mark on his cheek.
Leon always said he treated Karen like a buddy, yet he acted intimately without restraint and Karen treated him specially as well.
Once, when I was seriously ill with a fever, I asked Karen to make me a bowl of porridge but she complained, saying men shouldn’t step into the kitchen. Yet now, she was willing to cook for her so-called childhood friend?
In the comments, some of her friends joked about how close they were, saying that Karen was a good wife who took care of people. Leon smugly replied, "Of course, look who trained her."
Quietly, I deleted Leon from my friends list.
By then, the sky had completely darkened and I was still sitting alone by the roadside. At 8 p.m., I walked half an hour by myself to the bus stop. I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything all day, nor had I sat down to rest. Every step I took caused sharp pain in my lower back and I felt lightheaded from low blood sugar. A passerby noticed how pale I looked and quickly gave up their seat for me, asking if I needed to see a doctor. I shook my head and they handed me a bottle of water.
By the time I got home, it was already 10,30 p.m. As soon as I stepped inside, I saw Karen sitting on the couch, looking annoyed.
“You finally come back,” she said.
I felt exhausted and set my bag down casually. “Next time, if you’re busy, you don’t have to say you’re coming to pick me up.”
She was at a loss for words for a moment, then finally said, “Something urgent came up. Can’t you just get a taxi yourself? Stop being so dramatic.”
I asked, “Was catching a cockroach and cooking for someone else the urgent matter?”
Karen froze for a second, then let out a mocking laugh. “Jordan, will you ever get over your jealousy?”