Love’s Gamble

Chapter 8

Freema awoke with a start. For a second, she had absolutely no idea where she was and this terrified her to no small extent. She was starting to feel like she was in some kind of movie that taught life lesson’s to young people.

Her head was pounding. Why was it pounding so? Was there something that she should know, something about the events of the previous night that had been lost to her due to her…

She suddenly realized why her head was pounding, and she suddenly realized why she had awoke in such a groggy state. She had been drinking last night. After discovering that her poker buddies had bet on whether or not she would last in her relationship with Ken, Freema had come home and drowned herself in vodka. She had not wanted to feel anything. She had just wanted to sleep. If it had been as simple as closing her eyes and drifting away, she would have done it gladly. However, going to sleep was not so simple for her. No, it was something that eluded her because of the fact that she had so many things on her mind. Hence, she drank and drank until she could drink no more and then collapsed onto her bed for the next few hours.

It was not a healthy way to live, but she was sure that there were worse things in life than living unhealthily. She could not deal with the stress of her day to day life at the moment, and so she needed the escape that only alcohol could provide her.

She suddenly became aware of a strange buzzing sound that frayed at the very periphery of her consciousness. She wondered for a moment what it was. Was it some kind of alien ship that was trying to contact her? Was it some kind of government technology that was spying on her, making sure that she did not get up to no good? Were the feds onto her, was this one of their technological marvels used to put people like Freema behind bars?

She suddenly realized that it was the alarm. An arm extended out of her quilt to turn it off. Freema opened an eye with great effort and looking out of her quilt at the clock. It was ten past ten. She was over an hour late for work.

Using some of her most choice swear words reserved specially for occasions such as this, Freema flung her quilt off of her, her hangover suddenly not mattering as much as it had a few moments ago. She rushed into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. She considered taking a shower, and realized that she had no time. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like hell, nothing like the regal beauty that she usually looked like. She decided that today she was going to have to settle for not looking her best. There was nothing she could do about that right now. She was too late to worry about how she looked anyway.

She quickly threw the same clothes she had worn the previous day onto her body. She had no time to pick new clothes out, even though the clothes from the previous day had no small number of creases and wrinkles on them from being left in a pile in the corner instead of being hung up the way a responsible person would do it.

She looked around, wondering if she was forgetting something. She realized that she did not have her phone. Swearing once again with no small amount of rage, she threw her quilt off of her bed and started searching desperately for her phone. She found it and saw that there were a number of notifications on it.

They were from Ken. He had tried to call her three times last night. She had obviously not picked up because she had been drunk. He had also left a number of texts. He was concerned about her. The knowledge of this twisted her heart into a knot and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. He was worried about her. This man, the man she cared about so much, the man that she had realized that she was inevitably going to hurt… he was worried about her. She didn’t deserve him, she realized it now.

However, she was going to have to think about this later because right now she was ridiculously late for work. She rushed out and got into her car, thankful that she finally had her driver’s license once again. She drove off as fast as she could, running more than a few red lights along the way. She was starting to realize just how recklessly she was driving, as well as starting to realize that she honestly did not care so long as she got to work on time, when a cop stopped her.

Freema cursed again, painting a rather obscene picture of the police officer’s mother before she had to force a smile onto her face and roll the window down for the officer.

“Hello officer,” she said, the smile plastered across her face. “What seems to be the problem?”

“The problem seems to be that you do not seem to realize that there is a speed limit,” said the police officer. “Do you have any idea how fast you were going? You were crossing eighty miles an hour. You could have killed somebody. You could have killed yourself.

“I am so sorry officer,” said Freema, desperate to be out of this situation. “I really am. It’s just that… I am really late for work, you see, and I just didn’t want to… I don’t know. I didn’t want to make it so that I would lose my job, I’m sure you can understand. I live paycheck to paycheck and if I lose this job… well then that’s it for me.”

Freema ended her little excuse with a nervous smile. She was starting to fear that her excuse was not going to be enough, for the cop’s expression did not change at all as he was looking at her.

“Look,” he said. “I don’t really care what your problems are. We all have problems that we are dealing with. The law is the law. I’m gonna have to write you a ticket.

“Oh please!” said Freema. “Please, look, if you just let me go, just this once, I swear I will not do it again. Just let me get to work on time and I swear that I will never speed again, I swear it! After all, I would want to heed the words of the wise police officer that gave me a second chance. Out of respect for you I would never speed again, I would always go below the speed limit no matter how late I am!”