Bridget the Bossy Bridezilla

Ben, enormously relieved that Janos was talking about the project would normally have said that he was engaged and getting married soon, but tonight said, "No, I'm not married."

"Plenty of time for you to find nice girl to marry," said Janos. "You probably want to get home, but would it be okay for me to have quick look at plans?"

"Okay," said Ben, as he Janos and Tracy stood for a few minutes discussing the guest house plans before Ben bade them goodnight and drove back towards Brisbane. Stopped at a set of traffic lights in Southport, Ben could not believe what he had done. He had cheated on Bridget with a client and tried telling himself he should feel guilty.

But while Ben did feel some guilt, he was not overwhelmed with guilt the way he imagined he would had somebody put the evening's events to him as a hypothetical several weeks earlier. Driving through the intersection as the light turned green, Ben pondered what Bridget had gotten up to after their fight earlier in the evening, and what to about his troublesome fiancée in the longer term.

Breaking off the engagement would seem to be the most sensible course of action, but Ben knew he would never find the courage to do that. Bridget's barrister father would help his daughter make Ben's life a living hell. And Ben did not want his life to be hell. And now he had one thing over Bridget - the knowledge of what he had done with Tracy, not that he ever intended telling Bridget about it. So now when Bridget was bossy, bitchy, selfish or controlling, Ben had the knowledge that he had screwed Tracy and it gave him satisfaction that he had done something she had no control over, and a kind of inner strength.

Turning onto the freeway that would take him back to Brisbane and his bad-tempered bitch of a bride-to-be, Ben hoped his next meeting with Tracy went just as well.

*

At the Kovich house, Janos and Tracy had gone back inside, Tracy remarking to her husband, "Your daughter is home."

Janos laughed. "What you mean is my daughter? You give birth to her, I drive you to hospital, I remember."

"Speaking of driving, where's your car?" Tracy asked.

"I leave in secure car park, we have few beers after meeting, did not want trouble with police," said Janos.

"How was your meeting?" Tracy asked.

"Good, it was with legal firm in Brisbane we use," said Janos. "The barrister, he in good mood, buy everyone drinks. He talk about his daughter, she has good job as dentist and is getting married in two weeks to nice guy. He very proud."

"I wish I was as proud of our daughter," said Tracy.

"Why she want to go out with losers and listen to awful music?" grumbled Janos. "What they call, it grunge?"

"Yeah, grunge," said Tracy. "I could think of better terms for it. Shit, crap, excrement, dung, manure ..."

Her husband shook his head. "Grunge, the music kids listen to today, it load of bloody bullshit. If I make grunge music, I would get gun and kill myself."

Janos and Tracy turned as their daughter entered, having removed her earphones but dressed as usual in crappy grunge clothes - an oversize check-shirt and jean shorts over black tights that looked like they had come from a charity bin. The teenager chewed gum, her long brown hair hanging loose.

"So Casey, what great things have you achieved today?" Tracy asked her daughter in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

THE END.