Veronica

“Yeah? Well, I don’t give one single cold-hearted revenge fuck what you think.” Veronica sealed her statement with a contemptuous sneer, turned on her heel and walked out. People were so fucking self-entitled and stupid, and she didn’t know how much more she could tolerate.

When she got to her car, there was a huge splatter of birdshit on the windshield, driver’s side, of course. Inventing new profanity, she unlocked her door and got in. Her phone rang before she got the key in the ignition, and she hit the side button to silence it. The last thing she needed was another problem today.

As days go, it wasn’t horrible. The sun occasionally peeked out of the cloud cover, and it wasn’t hot or cold; it just was. The trees had leaves, neither new nor turning. Everything was just blah—and Veronica couldn’t stand it, living in suspended animation, waiting for the next catastrophe.How the fuck was she going to make rent now? After losing her shit on her asshole boss, she couldn’t even use this shitty job as reference. Damnit, damnit, damnit.

She wanted a drink, but it didn’t seem wise to waste what little money she had on booze, so she went home and got in her bathtub to try to wash some of the day off and maybe soak some of the nothingness away. As if it would ever go away. She’d been feeling like this for weeks, completely dissatisfied with everything in her life. She hated her clothes, was bored with her playlists, didn’t like anything on TV. She needed something new, some excitement. Travel would be wonderful, but she couldn’t even afford to go to a bar, much less another country.

Her phone rang again when she got out of the bath. This time, she answered. Great, Jeff was canceling dinner. Something about a stomach bug, and it sounded super lame and fabricated.

“Whatever,” Veronica said and hung up. She was in no mood to listen to a bunch of half-assed lies at this point in her day. She wanted to break something, preferably Jeff’s jaw.

Instead, she put on her lotion and moisturized her face, then looked through her closet. The little red dress was hanging in the back. How long had it been since she wore that dress? Did she still have the shoes, or had they been lost in one of the moves over the past few years? The black sandals would work if she couldn’t find the red slingbacks.

Veronica pulled the dress out of her closet and laid it on her bed while she sat at her vanity and began to apply her makeup, heavy on the eyeliner and mascara and a red lip to match the dress. Maybe she should just wear the black sandals instead of hunting for the red heels. She decisively hooked a pair of black earrings through her lobes and fastened an onyx necklace around her neck.

She pulled the dress over her head carefully so as not to smudge her makeup. Her mother used to put a pair of panties over her head when she got dressed after doing her hair and makeup, but Veronica was just careful; besides one of her thongs would do more harm than good in that task.

Veronica really couldn’t afford to go out, but she grabbed her black bag and headed out the door. She didn’t feel like going to any of her usual hangouts, didn’t want to spend time with same boring people, so she drove to the Hilton; maybe there would be some interesting people at the bar.