This story is by Ava Mauriello and was part of our 2021 Spring Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.
Lisa, a petite young blonde photographer, sat at a bar side table chatting with Dean, an ex-MLB player turned advertising executive. It was their company’s annual Christmas party.
“My wife will be here any minute,” Dean whispered.
Standing at the bar waiting for drinks, Dean avoided eye contact with Lisa; he was fidgety and nervous.
“Why won’t you just leave her already, you’re clearly miserable…” Lisa huffed under her breath.
Just as Lisa started enjoying instigating the dissolution of Dean’s marriage, an absolutely gorgeous goddess, painted in designer clothing, emerged right next to Dean. She leaned in, kissing Dean. Lisa’s jaw dropped.
Tanya was much more put together than Lisa expected. Not that Lisa knew much of anything about Tanya. She knew Tanya was a renowned scientist, but she never thought a scientist would be so glamorous.
Dean no longer seemed impressed by Tanya’s charms. He quickly walked away, chatting up a male co-worker. Tanya narrowed in on Lisa. Together they wandered towards a small table, carrying flutes of champagne. Tanya showed genuine interest in Lisa. Lisa could not understand why Dean didn’t appreciate a wife who demonstrated an intellectual prowess Lisa had only read about in books. Not only was Tanya brilliant, but she was a beauty too.
After exhausting a conversation with a co-worker who made snail racing seem more interesting, Dean reluctantly joined the ladies seated at a small table near the bar. Tanya offered to bring Lisa and Dean back drinks, leaving Dean and Lisa alone together.
“She’s quite charming, isn’t she?” Dean said with a slightly patronizing laugh.
Tanya returned balancing two glasses of red wine and a whiskey/ginger ale in her hands more eloquently than the waitress had.
“I drink whiskey on the rocks.” Dean roared. “How many times have I told you?”
Dean grabbed the drink from Tanya’s perfectly polished hand and downed it like a shot. As he turned to walk back to the bar, he nearly knocked Lisa off of the modest stool she sat on, causing her to spill red wine all over her sheer white blouse. Dean apologized, but that didn’t stop him from returning to the bar.
“Hey bartender, can I get a lemon, hydrogen peroxide, gin and water, please?” Tanya said, directing a boyish looking bartender. The boyish bartender nodded, running swiftly back to the bar.
Tanya measured the ingredients carefully, and poured the new concoction onto Lisa’s top, lifting the stain in seconds.
As Dean walked back from the bar he saw Lisa exiting the bathroom. Dean trapped her in a dark corner of the bar, towering over her and kissing her, passionately.
Lisa, insulted, pulled away. “Your wife is here!”
“I know, it’s a real thrill, huh?” Dean said with a sneer on his face. As much as Lisa wanted to be angry at Dean, his stunning eyes and sharp chin made him look so masculine and irresistible to her.
Once Lisa returned to the small table, followed by Dean, she saw Tanya staring at her phone. As Tanya noticed them, she perked up, looking up at them with the excitement of a child, and announced she wanted to go to her favorite hole in the wall bar around the corner. Tanya begged Lisa to accompany them. Dean also looked at Lisa with longing puppy dog eyes. Lisa couldn’t resist.
At the hole in the wall bar, Lisa studied Tanya. She discovered that Tanya was a research endocrinologist studying the effects of powerful hormone secretions through bio-engineering.
“Get over yourself, you put microchips in rats…” Dean, said, grimacing.
Tanya glared at Dean. Lisa couldn’t figure out why Dean had treated Tanya so poorly. What man would be able to resist Tanya, other than Dean?
“Oh right, you played professional baseball, what a hero…” Tanya retorted.
After thought provoking conversation at the bar, the night led them back to Dean and Tanya’s beautiful home. They all sat in a circle around a willowy glass coffee table drinking wine and whiskey.
“Remember when you used to look at me like I was the only girl in the world?” Tanya asked, looking wistfully into Dean’s eyes.
“I barely remember last week…” Dean said in jest.
“It feels so long ago now…” Tanya said sipping her wine. “Why can’t things stay the way they were?”
It was late, after midnight. Dean, Tanya and Lisa were all wasted.
Tanya brought down a satin nightgown for Lisa.
“Don’t keep her up all night. We have to work tomorrow. She’s not a rat in your maze,” Dean said, staggering up the stairs.
Tanya rolled her eyes at Lisa, before covering her in a blanket and following Dean up the stairs.
As Lisa drifted off to sleep, she was awoken by Dean climbing on top of her, whispering how madly in love with her he had become. Lisa fluttered her eyes open and saw Dean’s beautiful eyes staring into hers. How she had waited a lifetime to hear him say those words.
“Isn’t this too risky?” Lisa pleaded.
“Trust me, she’s on very powerful sleeping pills,” Dean reassured her.
“This is the craziest thing I’ve done! You’re so bad!” Lisa admitted.
Lisa woke alone on the couch, barely able to sit up. Tanya sat down next to Lisa, seemingly fine, whereas Lisa had a splitting headache and felt overcome with guilt.
As Dean and Lisa drove to work, they sat in silence.
“How many women have you had in this car?” Lisa asked, frustration steaming off of her.
“Oh, you’re one to talk. Do you only go after married men?” Dean barked back.
As they were driving to work, Dean got a startling text from Tanya: Admit that you’re a cheating piece of shit or I’ll blow my brains out!
Dean, in a panic, turned the car around and started speeding back to his house.
As Dean and Lisa entered Tanya’s room, they saw her holding a gun to her head.
“Don’t fucking move! How could you treat me with such contempt after everything I’ve done for you? This is how you honor our vows?!” Tanya cried.
“Honey, please, I love you. You’re right. Put the gun down! I’ll never love anyone the way I love you. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking…” Dean confessed.
“You don’t believe this arrogant prick, do you? He’s never going to stop!” Lisa chimed in.
“You’re just as bad as he is. You knew he was married!” Tanya cried back.
“You’re right, I didn’t know that I would feel like this. I thought I wanted Dean, but the truth is I’m actually in love with you, Tanya. You’re brilliant, beautiful, no one compares to you,” Lisa chanted as she started walking towards Tanya, almost in a trance like state.
Dean quickly threw Lisa back against the wall.
“She’s my wife! You think you can sleep with me and my wife? You’re twisted, bitch!” Dean continued.
Tanya dropped the gun on the floor, slowly crawled on top of the bed, and watched intently as the dog fight unfolded.
“Tanya’s so much better than you. It was an act of charity for her to marry an immature savage like you!” Lisa retorted, sternly.
Dean started circling Lisa like a cornered dog. Now she’d attacked his pride.
Tanya seized this opportunity to grab her purse while heading towards the door.
“Now you two can finally be together… I’m sure you’ll be really happy. You two deserve each other…”
Lisa and Dean ran after Tanya as she exited the house.
“Tanya, you’re the love of my life. I’ll die without you. Is that what you want?” Dean shouted.
Lisa ran up to Tanya in the BMW as she pulled out of the driveway.
“I won’t give up on you, Tanya, I’ll do anything for you…”
Tanya drove off into the distance. Dean and Lisa were left alone, staring at each other with deep regret in their eyes.
*****
A year later, Lisa is splayed across a hospital bed, unconscious with a tube down her throat.
Tanya enters the hospital room.
The doctor pulls out a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“An EMT gave this to me. He said she was clutching this letter when he found her unconscious,” the doctor explains.
Tanya unfolds the letter and reads it.
I have felt repulsed by every man I’ve dated since the Christmas party. I can’t stop thinking about Tanya. It pains me to admit I’ve even resorted to stalking her. But she has continuously rejected me. Dean and I hate each other, yet we aren’t interested or attracted to anyone else, only Tanya. I have tried, but I can’t love anyone else. This is a fate worse than death. I can’t continue on.
“I hope you’re feeling better,” Tanya taunts. “I’m not going to let you get away that easily.”
In that moment Tanya brushes Lisa’s hair from behind her ear, revealing an implanted microchip.
Tanya’s thrilled that her latest invention didn’t only work on rats…