7. A true friendship.

BETH.

"Ugh! Yes dad! I'm preparing already, chill." I said into the phone when my dad didn't stop nagging at me.

"Make sure you impress him and be a good girl, and trust me when u say you'll like him. He's not like the other blind dates I had set up for you." He said again, for what seemed to be the tenth time.

"You know that if we keep on talking like this, then I won't even have the time to be prepared or anything, right? Dad, we've spoken about this since last week, don't worry, I won't skip it." I whined, wishing that I could just drop the call and then he did himself after saying, "Alright, love you, pumpkin." I simply rolled my eyes as I proceeded to call Lara who was supposed to be my stylist and makeup artist but was yet to be here but just as I was about to do that, I spotted her in my garage with a man I wasn't familiar with so I walked towards them.

"Oh baby! You know how much I love you too. Thank you so much for the money, it'll go a long way for me." I heard her say as I neared them, she placed a kiss on the man's lips afterwards and then she spotted me.

"Oh baby! Meet my bestest friend in whole wide world!" She announced, drawing me closer to her.

I simply scoffed when I saw that it was yet another man that I was sure she just met like a day ago.

"You must be Elizabeth, I've heard so much about you from Lara. She talks about you at any chance she gets, nice to meet you. I'm Damien, her boyfriend." The man introduced.

To say I was pissed and irritated would be an understatement. How many boyfriends was I supposed to meet? Hundred?

"Okay. Hello. Follow me this instant, Lara!" I snapped as I stormed into the elevator expecting her to be behind me but trust Lara to always take her sweet time with whatever she was doing. After a while, I saw her running towards me and I held up the elevator for her to get in and as soon as the elevator door closed and we were moving up to the floor of my apartment, I lost it.

"I know that it is your life and you can do whatever you want with it but Lara, what the hell is your problem?" I started.

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly fine, no problems at all." She replied feigning naivety as usual.

"Oh really? How about deceitfulness and disloyalty? Those aren't problems? You string about three guys along at once just because of what? Their money? Do you know what that is called?" By now, I was sure I was raising my voice.

"No, maybe you should enlighten me." Lara responded, looking unfazed like she just couldn't care less about whatever it was that I was talking about.

"It is called prostitution!" I shouted, just then the elevator stopped at my floor and the doors opened and we both stepped out.

"Are you seriously calling me a prostitute right now? It's not my fault that I have a lot of rich guys who want me and loves spending their monies on me. That's not prostitution in any way." Lara said in reply causing me to roll my eyes.

"Really? Prostitution, the act or practice of engaging in promiscuous sexual relations especially for money. That's the definition of prostitution, dear friend! Lara, I just don't get this, is it so hard to be loyal to one man? How do you think Tony would feel when he discovers that you have two other guys that you date, huh?"

"Look, Beth. Am I here to listen to one of your righteous lectures or am I here to style you and do your makeup? And won't you press your door password in so we can get in instead of arguing right here?" Lara said nonchalantly, trying to divert the whole talk.

"Not until you answer my last two questions, Lara! Not until then, I'm so sick and tired of you doing this to people, it's not right, it's not fair." I said, remaining adamant on finishing what I started.

"Ugh! Listen, miss I'm so righteous, it's called not putting every egg in one basket. It's called being on the safer side, it's called being smart. And I'll only stop when one of them gets married to me, for now, there's absolutely no way I'd set myself up for heartbreak. Now, open the darn door!"

"Just input the password and stop acting like you don't know what it is!" I snapped right back. She looked like she finally remembered that she knew what it was and then proceeded to type it in.

Soon, we were in my apartment and the more I watched Lara grinning from ear to ear as she did my makeup, the more grumpy and annoyed I got. She was gushing with so much excitement and happiness that annoyed me, causing me to intensify my glares at her hoping to ruin her stupid good mood.

"Why are you glaring at me so much? I'm just happy that you finally decided to let go of the past and get back onto the streets. And knowing your dad, I already know that he's going to be a very rich man. Girl, you better don't come back here with some excuses again." She said, smiling, causing me to smile in return. Fight and then laugh together, a true friendship, that was what we had.

"And what do you mean by excuses?"

Lara stopped whatever she was doing as she stood up straight with her hands akimbo and then she started to mimic me, "I can't be with that man, he's so conceited and egoistic. You know what's worst? He said he likes his women enjoying and not bothering themselves by working, like do I look like a woman who would want to stay home all day waiting for her man to come back home? I can't marry this one either, he talks too much about himself, barely leaving any time for me to even talk. Those kind of men believe that women are inferior to them, there's no way I'll be happy in such relationships..."I interrupted her by throwing one of my mini pillows at her while we both busted into laughter.

"Stop acting like these reasons aren't genuine enough. You know they are." I said, sitting up straight for her to continue whatever she was doing with my face.

"You're just a bad judge of character, you keep highlighting their bad characteristics, right? Yet you end up with the worst ones, the ones that have no money in fact. Don't you think it's better to be with those rich men? At least they are rich, other than the ones who'd owe you money and even use your money to cheat on you then break up with you. Personally, I think it's better to cry over a heartbreak in a private jet while wiping your tears with beautiful one hundred dollar mint notes than to cry in a taxi while wiping your tears with some cheap tissue."

I was speechless, and I'm sure my face showed that as I pressed my lips in a fine line.

Lara laughed, hysterically might I add. "Oh my God, your reaction is so so priceless, I wish I could frame it."

"Why don't you just take a picture then?" I replied, sarcastically and my eyes widened when she really pulled out her phone and took a picture of me.

She simply giggled, "You look like you could let out all of this frustration by getting laid, dear friend. It looks like sexual frustration to me. You need a good lay."

"You are definitely out of your mind, no one can convince me otherwise." I joked.

After much delibrations and a lot of back and forth, we were finally done. I was dressed in a black midi dress and my hair had been straightened making it much longer.

"You're so good at your job." I complimented Lara after taking a look at my finished look in the floor length mirror.

"You bet! I never miss." She bragged.

Soon enough, I was at the venue for the blind date and I picked up my phone to check the description my dad had sent to me days before, "Tall, Dark skin. Dressed in a blue glittering suit..."

While reading, I kept looking up to look around the place for whoever had those descriptions but then one of the workers walked over to me, "Miss Elizabeth Martinez, right?"

"Yes." I simply replied.

"Allow me to walk you to your table." He said politely walking in front of me while I followed suit.

And then as soon as we arrived at the table, I was shocked to see who my blind date was as I gasped in disbelief, "Tony?"