Free Duping Cupid (A Valentine's Day Short Story) by Gina Ardito

for a minute or two, padded into the kitchen, and plopped himself down near the corner where, in Vivi’s apartment, his water and food bowls sat.
    “Umm...” Vivi said to Mrs. Melendez. “Could I trouble you for some water for him?”
    Nodding, Mrs. Melendez headed to her kitchen area and pulled a small glass mixing bowl from a lower cabinet. She filled the bowl with water and jerked her head at her bistro table. “You sit.”
    After Beowulf had his water, Mrs. Melendez poured the café Cubano into two delicate china cups and placed one in front of Vivi, along with a plate piled high with fruit-stuffed puff pastries. “So,” she said as she took the seat across from Vivi. “You tell me what you need, eh?”
    How to explain? Without sounding like a jilted girlfriend? Or a desperate loser trying to buy back the man who’d left her? Start with the plan, she supposed, and fill in the blanks as needed. She sipped the dark, thick coffee for fortitude. Once the caffeine jolt hit her, she found her courage.
    “Feel like making paella for Bass again?”
    ****
    Bass was forced to wait until noon on New Year’s Day to call Vivi. Twelve hours past the time he wanted.
    She answered on the third ring , her easy smile obvious in her voice. “Hey, you. Happy New Year.”
    “Happy New Year. Did I wake you?”
    “No. I’ve been up for hours. How was your night?”
    Ridiculous to the extreme. Whenever he thought Ava’s friends couldn’t spend more money in a more extravagant way, they found a way to out-lavish the previous gala. At last night’s party, they drank Cristal out of hand-hammered, jewel-encrusted gold goblets. The gold gave the champagne a tinny aftertaste, but the partygoers didn’t care. Nothing mattered but the excess.
    “Wild,” he lied. “Ava is amazing, and her friends...” He stopped there. There was only so far he was willing to go in this game. “How about you? What’d you do last night?”
    “Sarah invited me to a party at her place, but I opted to stay home and watch movies instead.”
    “Alone?” He held his breath.
    “No. Wulf was here with me.”
    Wulf . Again.  “That bum’s still staying with you?”
    “ He’s not a bum. I told you, Wulf is in this for the long haul.”
    “Uh-huh.” His hands curled into fists, but he remembered what Ava had said last night about Vivi’s business as deceit for the lovelorn and forced a blasé tone. “You tell your family about him yet?”
    “ Better than that. He went to my parents’ house with me on Christmas,” she replied with a little too much cheer, in his opinion.
    He did? What happened to “not ready to share him yet”?
    “How did that go?”
    “Oh, you know.” She sighed. “The usual.”
    Sympathy warred with triumph. “The new guy didn’t pass inspection , huh?” Or was the new guy just a figment of her imagination? Either way, he won, and he could be gracious in his victory. “I wouldn’t take it too hard. You know how your parents are. They weren’t too wild about me the first year or two, either.”
“Oh, no, everybody loved Wulf! Especially Russ. The boys spent most of the afternoon playing ball in the yard. Even my dad got involved.”
    Mr. Maxwell left his cozy spot in the den to venture out into the cold and play ball with the new guy? What the hell?
    Once again, he forced a calm outer shell, far from the turmoil building inside him. “Sounds like everything went great.”
    “ Gee. Ya think?” Her tone grew caustic.
    Ah, at last. The black lining in her silver cloud. “What? What’d I miss?” Maybe Wulf set fire to the kitchen curtains or broke two pieces of the family china. A man could dream…
    She sighed. “The usual. My date is more popular than I am. You know how it goes by now. I’m the outcast in the family. Always will be. Do you know what Kate said to me last week?”
    “What?”
    “That I should have taken up Julian on his offer to lose the weight and I would’ve been married and a responsible