The Ultimate Betrayal

Sally was at her desk at work, listening to her Ipod, waiting for the switchboard to ring.  A typical day for Sally working at the law office of Schmitt, Taylor & Lester.  Sally Kissinger, just your average run of the mill young woman, in her late 20's, never married, hardly dated, a little on the shy side.  Sally had excelled through college with a degree in Fashion Design, only to learn that Fashion Designing did not pay the bills, being a secretary at the law firm, did just that, and she got to meet many people in her capacity, however small it was. 

On a particular Thursday in June, Mr. Sellars, walked through the law office door, and instantaneously, Sally was smitten.  She couldn't get up to offer Mr. Sellars a cup of coffee without spilling it all over herself, the floor, or him.  Only thing, when this usually happened, and she hated to admit it, it happened more than she cared to admit because she was a klutz of sorts, Mr. Sellars just smiled and assured Sally that it was just fine.  He liked the shade of brown his shirt was turning, he said that with his head cocked to one side grinning at her.  Sally didn't know whether he was joking or if he was trying to make her relax and add a little humor to her day.  She secretly hoped it was the latter part. 

One thing the partners always told her is that she needed more fun in her life.  They often tried to fix her up with a cousin, another attorney, a neighbor, someone they knew casually, etc.  She always thanked them graciously but never took them up on their offers to set her up on a blind date.  Her best friend in the whole wide world, Madison, attempted to set her up on blind dates in the past that turned out just horrid.  No, Sally, would not subject herself to that again....EVER. 

Sally hung out with her best friend on the weekends, they would go to the Mall and hang out for hours just window shopping.  Neither had much money to spend on frivolous things but they enjoyed laughing and catching up from their week at work.   On occasion they would go see a movie, they both liked action and comedy flicks. 

Madison Hooper, worked as a journalist for a popular magazine, Kolor me Single.  She enjoyed her job, would like to climb the ladder someday and maybe run the magazine.  Her boss, Tyler Mabrey, was the cutest thing she had ever seen, but very married and very off limits!  Unfortunately, but a girl could still fantasize, couldn't she? 

Madison was informed she would be in charge of training an intern for the next 3 months and show him the ropes along the way.  Great sighed Madison, some nerd that I have to lead by a collar for the next 3 months!  To Madison's surprise, this "nerd" aka Dakota Smyth, was one of the hottest guys she ever saw, so much in fact, she forgot about how cute she thought her boss Tyler what's his name was. 

Dakota, seemed wordly, he told Madison about his travels, that he always wanted to be a journalist because his mom was when she was still alive.  He said he shared her passion for this line of work and wanted to follow in her footsteps.  She wanted to ask how his mom died, but didn't.  This was a stranger after all.  Soon Madison and Dakota were fast friends, she wanted more, but could tell he wasn't interested in her in that way.  Madison asked Dakota out for a drink with her and Sally one night and the sparks flew all over the damn place....for Dakota and Sally.  Sullenly, Madison watched as Sally and Dakota hit it off and forgot, at times, that she was still sitting at the table.  Madison excused herself to go to the ladies room and never went back to the table.  She hailed a cab and went home instead.

How could Sally betray her like that?  Sally knew that Madison had a HUGE crush on Dakota, he was all she had been able to talk about since he walked into the office at Kolor me Single.  How dare her best friend flirt her way with Dakota!  The more she thought about it the angrier she had become.  What seemed like an eternity later, which was only 20 minutes after she had been home, she got a text from Sally asking if she was ok?  "Are you freaking kidding me" is what she wanted to reply, but what she actually replied was "Yea, just not feeling that great, didn't want to ruin your great evening."  She heard NOTHING from Sally or Dakota the rest of the evening.

The next day at work was a bit awkward, it probably didn't have to be, but it was and Madison made it that way.  She barked orders at Dakota, sent him on insignificant stories, basically gave him crap work.  She was angry.  At Dakota for looking at Sally in a way he never looked at her, for letting herself get carried away by another pretty face,  for many things.  She took the rest of the afternoon off to clear her head.  Did she want to lose her best friend over some guy that neither of them knew very well?  Did she want to lose her sense of humor and her friendship that she had been forming with Dakota?  Life just didn't seem fair, she was the one that got dates with nice cute guys and Sally barely got noticed....until now.  That was the problem, Madison, decided she was jealous!

Madison decided she wanted to keep both Sally and Dakota in her life, so she would just need to suck it up and get over her jealousy.  This wasn't worth losing years of best friendship with Sally!  The three of them continued to hang out together and the more she was around Dakota and Sally, the more intense it seemed to her. 

 Finally one day, she called Sally at work and told her that she needed to stop seeing Dakota.  She had told Sally that he was married back in Wyoming where he had come from and he had 2 little kids that he never saw.  Madison knew it was a stretch, but she wanted them to not be together.  In the worst of ways.  Sally seemed to be quite shaken up, and for a brief moment, Madison thought about telling her it was all a lie, but held her tongue.  This would bring her best friend back and maybe just maybe Dakota would turn his gorgeous pale blue eyes on her! 

Sally avoided Dakota's calls for a few weeks, and even accepted a date with Mr. Sellars, whom she had previously spilled coffee on at the law office.  Mr. Sellars, turned out to be quite the charmer, and a very nice man, just not for her.  She missed Dakota.  She longed to reach for the phone and call him, just to hear him say something that made her laugh, to be silly together.  But how could she face him when he hadn't been honest with her?  A wife for god's sake?  How do you forget to mention that?  And 2 kids?  That he hadn't seen in a long time?  My gosh, these are two little angels not some cats found on the side of the road! 

Sally and Madison went to the Mall one particular Saturday and were walking around.  Over lunch, Sally confessed to Madison how depressed she had been about being so wrong about Dakota.  Madison asked if she had heard from him, Sally said every day he leaves me a message begging me to call him, this has been going on for 3 weeks now and I just don't understand why he is so adamant if he is has a wife and kids back home....Sally choked back tears.  Madison, had a brief flutter of guilt.  She had to admit it did tear her up seeing Sally so sad, but also, she was loving the extra attention from Dakota, although he didn't look at her in the same way he did Sally.  She just couldn't tell Sally at this point that it wasn't true about the wife and kids, she just couldn't.  Maybe the devil made her do it. 

After avoiding Dakota for 5 weeks, Sally ran into him at the grocery store.  He tried to talk to her and she just spat at him "go and try talking to your wife and 2 kids back in Wyoming."  Dakota looked hurt and puzzled, "what on earth are you talking about?"  She said Madison told me about your wife and 2 kids that you never see!  Dakota tried to explain that that all was a lie, that Madison was trying to come in between them for some reason.  Sally ran out of the store in tears!!  She didn't answer her phone later when Madison called, or when Dakota tried to call again.

Early the next morning, Sally went into work and asked one of the partners a HUGE favor, she asked Tom Taylor, to run a background check on Dakota Smyth for her.  Sure enough, no wife or kids, never been married!  Everything he ever told her about himself had checked out, about his travels, about winning prizes in journalism contests, about his mother dying.  She asked for the day off as she had some confronting to do.  She marched into the office of Madison at Kolor me Single and confronted her.  The door she left open so Dakota could hear every word, and whoever else was standing near with their ears pressed to the glass. 

Madison broke into tears and tried to explain her jealousy at the time, how she always got the looks, whistles, men in general, and when the tables turned and Dakota had fancied Sally and not her, she didn't know what to do.  She begged Sally to forgive her.  Sally couldn't.  She rushed into the waiting arms of the one man that cared enough to hang around, when she hadn't given him any reason to do so.  Yes, her dreams were starting to come true, her future looked bright, and Dakota would be right by her side every step of the way. 

Losing Madison had been hard, even harder was not having her as a maid of honor at the wedding, funny how things turn out in the end.  Upon arriving back from their honeymoon in the Bahamas, they ran into Madison at the airport, were very cool to one another...and to Sally's delight she had a nerd of a man on her arm.  Time to settle princess, I have the knight in shining armour this time.......Sally thought happily to herself.