When Life's A Bitch Friendship Wins

When Life’s A Bitch Friendship Wins

By Melvin Leon Guerrero

Copyright © 2011 Melvin Leon Guerrero

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

DEDICATION

Dedicated to my youngest brother I lost on October 22, 2008 in Alaska. Also, to all my friends that experienced these inspirational stories and lifetime memories.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Love of Money

Chapter 2 - Kids

Chapter 3 - Extended Family

Chapter 4 - Best friend

Chapter 5 - Wine Lover

Chapter 6 - Workaholic

Chapter 7 - Client to Friend

Chapter 8 - Dinner Meeting

Chapter 9 - The Past Appears

Chapter 10 - The Couple

Chapter 11 - Birthday Surprise

Chapter 12 - Holiday Party

Chapter 13 - A Night Out

Chapter 14 - Restaurant Drama

Chapter 15 - Outside Encounters

Chapter 16 - A Visit

Chapter 17 - Strip Club

Chapter 18 - The Unexpected

Chapter 19 - Cold Alaska

Chapter 20 - Got Caught

Chapter 21 – Rebuilding

Chapter 22 – Friendship Calls

Chapter 1

LOVE OF MONEY

Are you ready yet? Damn it, Kaleb yells from the downstairs of their five thousand square foot mansion nestled high in the mountains on a ridge with cool breezes.

This fucking guy is always making me wait, Kaleb says loud enough hopefully for someone to hear. He walks around the house checking the doors and windows are locked; his routine every morning. A picture frame on the wall is slightly off centered; he catches the crookedness and readjusts the frame to stay perfectly lined in the middle of the wall.

The house is exquisite with dark mahogany wood floors throughout the downstairs, the sunken living room covered in plush, rustic, white carpet; the walls in every room are painted different colors depicting a theme for each room. Expensive white leather furniture shaped in an oval fill the living room surrounded by a light, creamy, tan color painted on the upper half of the walls with white wood paneling covering the bottom. Beautiful high ceilings with huge fans twirl slowly as shown in typical model homes. Windows covered with overly dramatic large striped curtains perfectly color coded to match the rest of the décor. The couches are lined with posh designer printed, patterned pillows perfectly laying against each other the entire length of the couch. Not a single layer of dust lies on any of the furniture, tables or chairs in the room.

Bye, you two! Daddy loves you, Kaleb expresses in an enthusiastic voice as he pets his two Yorkshire terriers securely held in a small space beneath the grand staircase. He ensures all the essentials—water and food—are present for them to live another long day locked up until his owners come home, usually twelve hours later.

Kaleb walks through the kitchen smartly painted in deep rich burgundy tones, chrome Viking appliances shine beyond the black urban painted cabinets with long chrome handles and exquisitely meticulous matching granite countertops sparkle clean. He arranges items on the granite countertops into their exact position as he does one final pass with Clorox lemon fresh wipes. He approaches the high back brown leather counter height bar stools; the location of all his belongings waiting to be grabbed before he proceeds to the garage. One final glimpse of the kitchen; everything is in orderly compliance. Frustrated by the wait, Kaleb yells, I’m gonna fucking leave his ass….

I’m ready! Marc’s explosive voice resonates throughout the upstairs as he prances down the staircase. What were you going to say? he asks. He must have heard Kaleb complaining.

I’m gonna fucking leave already. You take so goddamn long just to spike up your hair, Kaleb responds as he gathers his bags and stops to wait for Marc by the door.

Well. Do you like it? Marc utters on the last staircase step leaning against the brass gold railings picking at his hair and rubbing his hands down his body showing off his new Dior outfit purchased the day prior.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You always look the same. Hurry up, irritated Kaleb spoke.

Okay. Gosh. You don’t have to be jealous.

I’m not. That’s my money that bought that shit.

Marc stares down Kaleb as he walks past him and out into the garage. They get into their brand new all black Mercedes S-class and head off to their businesses.

In the car, the ritual discussion of events to take place that day happen with Kaleb explaining everything he needs to get accomplished. On the agenda for the day is nothing, but normal. A coffee meeting with a potential client that wants to invest in a new business venture followed by a visit to the bank to make deposits then check on a car he sold that was being fixed in a repair shop followed by a post office visit to check the five mailboxes after a loan signing at the escrow company: pick up the kids from school, meet with a client to discuss several financing solutions for their new home purchase, quickly stop and visit a friend in the care home and then to the office for his late daily responses to numerous emails. Once all his work is done, meet Marc at the restaurant.

Make sure you go and check the restaurant to ensure payroll is correct, Kaleb affirmatively says; his second direct command of the day to Marc.

Okay. After I finish what I have to do, Marc says staring into the passenger visor mirror, again picking at his hair.

What do you have to do today? Kaleb asks as he watches Marc pick at his hair. Before Marc can respond, Kaleb’s irritation with Marc’s self-centeredness causes Kaleb to speak again in another demanding voice, Will you sit back, I can’t see out my side mirrors, he says pulling Marc by the shoulder.

I have to finish some work at the mortgage office then meet with Melissa and show her those houses in the hills. I have a lunch appointment with Megan and her client that wants to use me to list her home for sale and then a short meeting with the designer for the construction home Ken is remodeling. I gotta stop by the stamp shop to pick up the stamps we ordered for our notary seals and then drop off the files in downtown that need to be recorded before the end of the month. I’ll probably be there in the late afternoon before dinner.

Just don’t forget about the restaurant, Kaleb reminds Marc. It’s normal for Kaleb to always repeat himself many times; it’s an annoying pet peeve that Marc has on Kaleb. He turns to Kaleb and instead of speaking words of wisdom, turns back to the mirror, smiles, and flips the visor up resting his back against the heated leather seat. The radio plays solitude music closely reflecting the love relationship they have.

Both Kaleb and Marc are entrepreneurs: owning a mortgage company, a real estate firm, a used car lot, a restaurant and they both are notary publics. The days are always packed with many things to do with usually Kaleb handling the sales side of all the businesses while Marc handles the operations for everything besides the car lot; he hated anything to do with the car business.

Their schedules were so loaded: meeting with people, attending seminars, juggling the responsibilities of multiple businesses, handling a lot of stress from the combination of all the businesses that they really had a hard time showing the love for each other. The relationship was not for love, but for the qualities in workmanship each other can bring to the table. Their work ethic was different which explained how the ying and yang balanced their abilities to run simultaneous businesses. More than often the end of the day consisted of finishing up left over business or talking about what needed to be done the next day. Long days resulted in short nights with no passion or expression for each other.

One thing was proven to be the binding factor in their relationship, money. Unfortunately, money was the binding source: the glue, the passion, the love, the green paper material worked like magic in holding together the relationship. Kaleb was interested in investing his money into other ventures that could potentially make him richer while Marc was content in the money and businesses he already had; his investment was in clothes and buying lavishing materialistic objects. Disagreements soared when disputes of money were discussed from spending thousands to lending money away to not telling each other when a large lump sum was taken out from the bank account. Never was there a discussion about love, friendship, or their bond to each other.

At home, the relationship was quiet, routine, and never involved them together. Kaleb would spend the moments at home in the office while Marc would prepare dinner and complete whatever chores needed to be done. The television in the living room would stay on with no one watching except for the expensive furniture purchased, hardly used.

Dinner was eaten at a large dining table enough to sit eight with Kaleb and Marc at each end. Conversations at dinner were silent except for the occasional – pass the salt. Some days during the week involved dinners at expensive restaurants with an intimate ambiance, fine wine, and exquisite food, even the most expensive restaurants couldn’t bring out the personalities each one of them possessed for each other.

Marc is a tall figured, five foot ten, moderately thin, with small fractions of muscles, strong facial features, thick eyebrows, flat nose, big lips, with clear light brown skin. His posture is straight, his walk consists of some swag in the hips and broken wrists accompany his expressions. He dresses very fashionably with a ‘man’ purse and large black Prada sunglasses. Typically, around clients or friends he is loud, noisy, with a laugh that can be heard blocks away because of his funny unique humorous personality.

But around Kaleb the personality is more of a calm, composed, extra professional attitude than his usual self. It could be Kaleb’s strong street smart personality combined with his muscle built stature with defined arm muscles and bulging veins. His five foot eight inches height doesn’t top Marc’s, but he can hold his own next to a taller person. Kaleb has fair skin with wide Botox inspired lips, flat nose, skinny eyebrows shaped perfectly above his eyes. He usually gets compliments on his bald head; he usually refers to as his Vin Diesel look. He is a talkative type around everyone except Marc.

In a restaurant, Marc would practically finish a bottle of wine by himself–he only drank French wine claiming it’s the purest of wines–while Kaleb would have several glasses of water and occasionally a salted rim blended Patron margarita.

Marc would always order a chicken salad with blue cheese and croutons while Kaleb enjoyed an appetizer and the bread basket. The main entrees of garlic mashed potatoes, filet mignon, and steamed vegetables were what appeased Kaleb while Marc just engorged in his bottle of wine; main dishes contained too many calories. Absolutely, no voice noise was made to each other while couples at other tables talked up a storm, held each other’s hand on the table, and frequently shared their food with offerings to each other. They were in their own world unconscious of what was occurring around them. Love was in the air how it usually is whenever dining at an exclusive high class restaurant, apparently not to them.

So, how was your day today? Marc asks as his sips the last few drops in his wine glass before the waiter can come over to refill. Kaleb doesn’t look up instead his eyes and brain is planted into his phone.

It was fine, he says without offering the same question to Marc.

The waiter comes to refill Marc’s drink and announces the specials for dessert.

"For dessert, we have an almond Florentine with five sorbets, fresh cut fruit and pureed coulis.

No response from either of them except for Marc’s smiley expressions directed towards the tall, handsome, Italian waiter as he looks him up and down waving his wine glass in his hand and then winks as he takes a sip.

We also have our Strawberry Dream made of a flourless strawberry crepes filled with vanilla bean crème fraiche, strawberry sorbet and aged balsamic vinegar. Let me say, it is quite a delight both the taste and the presentation. Would you like to taste it, sir? the waiter asks Marc.

Kaleb lifts his head and notices Marc giving small hints of attraction to the waiter by smiling at him, scanning him from head to toe and giving a wink of the eye. A conversation is taking place amongst the two of them about dessert, secretly. The hand holding Kaleb’s phone drops to the table and he leans forward. Marc quickly jolts at the thunder sound Kaleb made on the table. He notices Kaleb’s approach and relaxes his back against the chair still holding his wine glass in his hand. Kaleb waves his hand to the waiter as a gesture to continue without saying a word.

And finally, a selection of our fabulous soufflés to choose from: banana, coconut, chocolate, and Grand Marnier. Marc shakes his head left to right signaling to Kaleb that he doesn’t want anything.

I think we’ll have the Strawberry Dream, Kaleb states as he turns away from the waiter and looks at Marc. It seems like someone here is already dreaming away. The waiter nods confirming the order and then smiles at Marc before leaving the table. Marc places his wine glass on the table and immediately pushes his chair out to stand.

Where are you going? Kaleb asks rudely.

The restroom, Marc quickly responds.

Are you sure you’re not going to follow the waiter for your Strawberry Dream? Kaleb replies to Marc implying an affair will occur with him and the waiter. Marc turns his head and begins to prance off into the direction of the bathroom, but his first couple of steps shows his body’s drunken mood. He stumbles a little before regaining his composure. He takes a deep breath, pauses, and then continues walking.

Always a fucking drunk! Kaleb exclaims under his breath as he watches Marc walk away.

Kaleb is staring at his phone when he hears Marc’s signature laugh resonate from the corner of the bathroom. He lifts his head and listens attentively to the noise. Again, another squeal from Marc projects into the dining area, this time a little louder.

Kaleb stands up from the table and approaches the bathroom area. He stops at the corner waiting for another indication Marc was still there. The bathroom doors closes as Kaleb peeks around the corner, Marc is no longer there. Kaleb bolts for the bathroom door, he turns the knob. In a stall, he can hear Marc giggling softly. Kaleb slowly creeps inside the bathroom bending over looking for visual confirmation of Marc’s shoes.

Finally, he realizes Marc is in the last stall, only one pair of shoes is visible. Kaleb slowly continues to walk toward the stall door and listens for any noise of another person. Just as Kaleb is putting his ear to the stall, he hears Marc giggling again. At that moment, Kaleb