Chapter One Marion

Hi, my name is Marion, Marion Stone but it's always been Mari to everyone and Marion Stone to my mom when she is angry with me.

You see, I've been grieving for the last two weeks, ever since I caught my cousin, who is also my room mate tangled with my fiance in her bed with her bedroom door wide open for me to see. She meant for me to see that. That she could take any man I fancy and wrap them around her little finger just to show me that she could and would.

I was renting the two bedroom apartment for two years before she became my room mate. Her mom demanded through my mom that I should share my apartment with my younger cousin and keep an eye on her in the big city as a part of my obligations to the family.

Truth be told, i've never been big on family really. There was only my mom and myself for quite some time since my dad passed away when I was just a kid. His family were never too interested in my mom and me because they were always busy squabbling over who had made it in their world and who will never make it. My mom and I were firmly in the who will never make it category and so we weren't worth their time.

Their lack of welcome and warmth suited me just fine as I am not a people person. I enjoy my solitude and personal space more.

But I came to the big city to work and needed at least one person to connect to and spend time with. That was accomplished in my getting together with Sean. He too came from a small country town and was looking for a person to connect to and do things with.

We met at this little outdoor Cafe just around the corner from my office. It was just around the corner from his office too. So the Cafe serves as a centre point and meeting place for us where we get together every lunch time.

Our getting together started out casually as greeting each other at lunch and when we became regulars, we started sharing a table then we agreed to meet outside of lunch to accompany the other to a dinner or watch a movie at the theatre if either of us got bored with our own company and needed a distraction.

By mutual consent that companionship became sexual as we are both young and sexually active. Not actively active on my part but Sean had a steady girlfriend in his home town and was used to regular sex and missed it when him and his girlfriend mutually agreed to go their separate ways as soon as he told her his intention to come to the city to work.

After a year of sedately regular sex, we decided to make an honest man and woman of the other by biting the bullet and marry each other. The decision to marry and becoming engaged was also mutually decided. There was no excessive emotions involved on either of us. We discussed that we should get married and pool our resources together. Sean was going to move in with me and we would share the rent. Then we went out and bought an engagement ring together so I wore it to seal our decision.

We didn't move in together as a week after we got engaged, my mom called me and ordered me to accommodate my cousin. I didn't make a fuss and decided to go with the flow because honestly I was quite apathetic on my engagement and was still orienting myself in the change of status of the relationship even though I had discussed and agreed to it.

The only thing I was decidedly sure about was Sean and I not living together with my cousin. I am certain I did not trust my cousin around Sean and as for Sean, I was not quite sure of his loyalty to me. There was no reason why I would feel like that toward Sean but the lack of strong emotion on both of us toward the other sort of caused me to doubt his loyalty to me.

So here i am still grieving after two weeks. Not because of my heart being broken but because of the hassle of having to go out and getting to meet another guy. Clubbing wasn't my scene and I wasn't up for it anyway.

To make matters worse, I was the one who packed my bags and left the apartment with only the clothes I was able to pack in a bag. Mainly the necessities of fresh underwear and changes of casual clothing. There were no formal wear in the bag for the office. In my rush to get out from the apartment, I mainly thought of important personal documents and my rainy day cash stash. The clothing and underwear were added into the bag to fill it up.

I'm currently sharing a room with three other women in a back packers hostel on the other side of the city. I carry my backpack with me when I use the bathroom as I do not trust the likes of my new room mates.

It was late Sunday afternoon I caught Sean and my cousin and ran out of the apartment. I went grocery shopping and didn't know Sean was coming over. He usually watch footy on telly every Sunday afternoon and once a month he gets a ticket to go watch the game at the local stadium.

My Sunday was usually spent cleaning and laundering in the morning and grocery shopping in the afternoon. Our schedule never changes. We were both becoming creatures of habit and caught in a rut. Something needed to give i guess. But i wasn't expecting the something would take my bitch of a cousin banging my fiance to wake me up and get me out of the rut. It woke me up with a vengeance I can tell you.