Tabitha Koblasz
Robert and Meredith
Robert Cristal was a good man by anyone’s standards. He was tall and slender, he had brown hair that he spiked up a little in front, and he always smelled just a little bit like his favorite Calvin Klein cologne. He worked as a criminal defense lawyer, not because he liked arguing (quite the opposite in fact –he hated argument and/or conflict of any sorts.) Though it cost him money, Robert chose specifically to only represent the "criminals" he truly believed to be innocent, after all the whole reason he was even practiced law was to help people. That’s all he had ever wanted to do; that’s all he could ever remember doing. But despite Robert’s slim number of applicable clients, Robert was not in want. He was very successful and had way more money than he knew what to do with. This came in handy because with such, he never had a problem catching a girl. Keeping one however; was another story entirely. At the age of 26, Robert’s longest relationship had been 2 years ago and it had only lasted four weeks, two of which the girl had spent away visiting family –where she met Tony, whom she would later leave Robert for. One day, after one of his preliminary hearings, Robert went to the park to sit and think. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to represent his current client; something in his gut said that his client wasn’t as innocent as he had claimed himself to be. Robert wasn’t oblivious by habit, but when he got to thinking the way he was then, he was lucky to notice even a big green dumpster right in front of him (he learned to look for those after nearly breaking his nose walking into one.) Robert had no idea what was around him as he walked around, looking at the ground with every step, and being Robert, we not only walked into a person, he knocked her over and then followed his bulldozing by proceeding to fall on top of the woman. He got up, apologized profusely, and when finally she looked up, her nose was bleeding. "Great," Robert thought, "this is EXACTLY what today needs."
"I’m so sorry miss, are you alright? Should I call a doctor? I swear if anything’s broken, or anything, I’ll be glad to cover the medical bills." He reached his hand out to help her up.
"What the he-"
Still on the wet ground, the woman turned and looked at the man responsible. His hand was awkwardly outstretched to help her up, and she was quite surprised to see the emaciated looking man was wearing a gold, diamond studded, Rolex watch on his skinny wrist. This perked her interest. Instead of biting his head off for being so unmindful, she switched tones.
"Oh no, no, no. Please, that won’t be necessary. I don’t think it’s broken, it just hurts. I just need a napkin or tissue or something."
"There’s a coffee shop right over there, they should have some. My name is Robert."
"Meredith."
The two walked to the shop, and on the way, Robert began to inspect the girl whom he’d just ran over. Meredith was tall and skinny with long legs, she had a short blonde bob, and had a golden tone to her skin that suggested she was naturally fair toned, but she had spent a good amount of time in the sun recently. Over all, very good looking; by his experience, the type of girl who would dump him in a week.
They got to the shop, and immediately the scent of coffee grinds and steamed milk hit them. Meredith started coughing, and excused herself to the restroom. Robert went up to the counter and purchased to cups of the rich dark coffee, he then took them to a table where he sat and waited for Meredith. Somewhere deep down, he knew that despite what she had said, this collision was going to cost him.
In the bathroom, Meredith got her nose to finish bleeding rather quickly. "Good," she thought, she had important things to do and she couldn’t stay in the bathroom all day. "He was pretty good looking, and judging by the Rolex and the professionally tailed Armani suit, he has good money too." Meredith unbuttoned her shirt a little, and fixed her skirt. She fixed her hair and makeup, making sure her nose still showed a little that it hit had been hit, and applied a new coat of lipstick. After about 5 minutes, she returned from the bathroom and found Robert at a table.
Robert handed her one of the cups of coffee he had bought and pulled out a chair as invitation for her to sit. Once she had he sat down across from her.
"How is it? Should I call a doctor? I know a very good one personally, he’d be happy to come out and -"
"It’s fine, don’t be silly. What were you doing that you were walking so aggressively?"
"I was thinking." Robert’s face started to flush.
"Rough day?"
"Not as rough as yours is now. Are you sure you’re alright? I feel terrible."
Meredith reached across the table and expertly placed her perfectly manicured hand on his. "Robert. It is Robert, right?" He shook his head yes and she proceeded. "Robert, I’m fine, really. Look for yourself, it’s done bleeding and there isn’t even any swelling." Then she smiled, thinking how easy this was, and continued.
"So what made your day so terrible?"
The two continued talking for some time, until the shop started to close and they were kicked out. While walking back through the park to their cars, the two exchanged contact information and agreed to meet up again sometime soon.
They started seeing each other regularly, and about two weeks after they started dating, Meredith convinced Robert to take her to meet the family. When they got to his house, Meredith knew immediately that Robert was the one she had always wanted to marry: his lived in a mansion and everything about the estate screamed money.
The two walked up to the home and Robert’s mother came out and greeted them.
"Oh you must be Meredith! Robert’s told me so much about you."
"That’s me I’m afraid. Unless what Robert has said is bad, in which case, my name is Sarah."
Robert took his arm off Meredith’s waist and hugged his mother.
"Hey mom. How have you been?"
They all went inside and the mother offered some to make tea when they sat down in the living room, inviting Meredith to come help her make it.
The two left for the kitchen and once the door closed, the mother turned, looked Meredith straight in the eye, and said "I know why you’re here, and I don’t approve. You’ll not have a penny of his money so long as I’m alive, so you might as well find another man."
Meredith had handled this conversation many, many times before. Robert’s mother was nowhere near something she couldn’t handle and quite frankly, having been around this block so many times, she didn’t even see a reason to try and hide her intentions.
"Your son is exactly the type of man I’ve always planned to marry, and I will do so regardless of what you do, mother. Get used to me being around, because I’m NOT going anywhere sweetheart. I’ve got your son wrapped around my finger, and soon enough I’ll have his money wrapped up in my wallet."
With that, the tea sounded and Meredith walked back to the living room, sitting down by Robert and wrapping her arm through his.
When the mother entered the room again with the tea pot and cups on a tray, she handed them out and started to pour tea into hers and Robert’s cups, and then when she went to pour some into the cup she’d handed Meredith, she missed and poured the tea straight into Meredith’s lap.
Meredith screamed and jumped, and Robert jumped to help her. He said there would be spare clothes in one of the bed rooms and he took her hand to lead her there while the mother flowered Meredith with false apologies.
Over the next couple weeks, the bantering continued while Robert remained completely blinded to everything going on.
One day, Meredith called Robert’s mother and told her she had planned a cruise for everyone for a month from then, and gave her instructions to meet her at the dock and sent her the cruise information. Meredith then called Robert and told him the same news, but Robert told Meredith that he simply couldn’t because he would be out of town on a business call that week.
"Silly me, I totally forgot. I’m sorry, well, how about I stay behind and watch your cat and we’ll let your mother go. No sense in wasting all the tickets."
Robert said it was a great idea, and said he was happy that the two of them were getting along so well.
A month later, the mother and Meredith meet at the docks in front of the ship. The mother starts looking around, and notices Robert isn’t there. She looks at Meredith, without any suit cases, and tries to run. Meredith then punches the mother in the face, knocking her out, and takes her to one of the janitor’s closets and locks the unconscious mother in it.
Meredith then leaves the ship, pulls her cell phone from her bag, and dials a number and say into the phone, "Give it about 100 yards from the dock." She then hangs up and puts the phone away.
Ten minutes later, the boat starts to depart, when suddenly not long after leaving port, the boat is hit by a torpedo and explodes in a fiery blast. There would be no survivors with this one.
Meredith smiles. She then pulls out her phone, calls Robert and starts crying hysterically. She explains that the boat was attacked, and in between sobs, apologizes, explaining that she doesn’t see a way for anyone to have survived the "unexpected attack."
A couple hours after the funeral, Meredith begins to walk away from Robert’s house to her car which is parked about a block away due to all the other guests. Almost to her car, Meredith notices Robert’s grandma nearby and stops to talk to her.
"I’m so sorry about what happened -"
"Shut up fiend. I know everything, what you’re doing to Robert, what you did to my daughter. But there’s a difference between my daughter and I. My daughter didn’t believe in conflict, she did everything she could to break your little affair up without telling Robert, to save him. But I’m not as subtle. He deserves to know how horrible you are; how this was all a game for you right from day one. It all ends today."
Meredith knew exactly what Grandma was saying, and there was no way she was going to let some old woman stand in her way.
"I killed your daughter. What makes you think I’ll let you get by?"
"I don’t."
With that, Grandma kicked Meredith to the ground and jumped back. Meredith immediately got up and ran towards Grandma, aiming to tackle her to the ground and get a couple good punches in on the witch. Grandma easily side stepped, then tripped Meredith in mid-step. Meredith grabbed Grandma on the way down and the two of them started rolling around in the grass. Grandma broke free and ran to the nearest car. Meredith saw what she was doing and immediately did the same. With Grandma in a car she’d broken into and now stolen, and Meredith in her own, the two raced off down the road and Grandma pulled up by Meredith, pulled a gun out of her dress and started shooting across the car. Upon the bullet’s impact with her window, Meredith grabbed her own gun and started shooting back. They continued for about 6 blocks when the two started to ram each other’s cars. Grandma hit the tail end of Meredith’s car, causing it to spin, almost hitting a telephone pole. The twist; however, positioned Meredith’s car perfectly perpendicular to Grandma’s and Meredith gunned the gas. Meredith hit Grandma’s car in a perfect T-bone and Grandma’s car flipped.
Once Grandma’s car stopped rolling, Grandma jumped out just before it went up in flames. But then, as Grandma was backing away from the inferno, Meredith turned around, gunned the gas again, and ran Grandma over, killing her instantly.
Realizing that despite the lack of witnesses, Meredith was clearly at blame, Meredith quickly ran over to the flames, and allowed her arm to get burnt and set things up so as to have her positioned on the same side as Grandma. After Meredith made everything look like there was a man who had done all this and then run off, she limped off to the house, told them that the Grandma and her had just been attacked, and then she collapsed to the floor, seemingly having fainted.
After weeks of talking to the police, and Robert defending Meredith in court, Meredith was declared innocent and Robert proposed to Meredith. The wedding was a small ceremony, only a couple friends and Meredith’s parents. Afterwards, the newly wedded, hopped on a private jet and set off to honeymoon in the tropic islands of Hawaii. The two went straight to their hotel and while Robert laid down on the bed, Meredith began unpacking their bags and putting them in the drawers, where she grabbed the knife so everything would end with her happily ever after.
