Chapter 3 Part 2

***ANGELA ANOMAN

APPOINTMENT 1

- I have five homes. One in the US, one in Dubai, two here in Paris and the last one in Tokyo. I'm between planes all the time. I can change your life with the snap of a finger. I recently bought myself a private jet worth over five billion euros. If you become my wife, you will be the happiest woman on earth.

- Oh yes, I don't doubt that for a second," I said sarcastically, sipping my drink.

APPOINTMENT 2

- I love my mother. I especially like the little dishes she makes for me. She and I are very close. Look, since the beginning of this dinner, I record everything to make her listen to it when I'm back.

- I beg your pardon?

- Yes, it's better than giving her the report. It will be up to her to give you a mark out of twenty. Only she knows which woman will be the right one. She always knew what was good for me in every way. Every time she buys me underwear, it fits me like a glove.

- And I suppose she washes them? I say jokingly.

- How did you know?

Is he serious?

APPOINTMENT 3

- Meet Choumie, my lizard. She is my best friend. But she's not the only one. I also have an iguana, a hamster, a baby alligator and... oh I almost forgot, a snake.

I almost faint when he brings out, in addition to the lizard, a snake.

- Do you want to kiss it?" asks the weirdo who is supposed to be my gorgeous date tonight according to Elionne.

- AAAAHHH A SNAKE!!! screams a woman in the restaurant.

I take advantage of the general mess to take my legs to my neck. It's decided, I'll never go on a date again, no matter who it is. Even with the Pope, I refuse.

Unleashed on the treadmill for almost an hour now, I press my earpiece which automatically picks up my cell phone.

- Hello baby," I say without stopping to run.

- "So you're telling me about your dates."

- A disaster, I tell you. I'll never go on another one of those lame dates you set me up with.

- But I do it with good intentions. It's a pity that you only meet idiots. So what are you going to do now?"

- What I had planned to do for a long time. That is, focus on my work and figure out how to see my daughter again.

- You know you've been divorced for three years? It's time to start your life over. You're only 33, honey. Plus you look 28 with that sculpted body of yours from all that exercise you do. I'm tired of seeing you alone."

- That's the way life is, honey. We don't get everything we want.

- "But you, do you want to start your life again?"

- Why do I hear your voice behind my back?

I turn around and see her standing in front of my gym. I stop the mat and grab a small towel to dry myself off with. She hangs up her cell phone and hands me my water bottle.

- What's up?

- What?" I ask, sitting down on the floor.

- Do you want to start your life again?" she asks again, sitting down on the bicycle mat.

- I don't know. My divorce broke me up completely.

- We can't call the one you were married in either. You had never been happy.

- I know," I said, wringing my fingers. Jerome was my only man and after everything I went through with him I don't think I can trust a man again. Not only have I lost all desire to love again, but I have...

My throat closes.

- I want to see my daughter so badly. (bursting into tears) God, I miss her.

- Oh no... you're not going to start again!? Come here baby.

She takes me in her arms. Once again, as I have done for three years now, I mourn the absence of my daughter. My ex-husband took her away from me and I haven't heard from her since. I have been suffering for three years. I do anything and everything to forget this sorrow but it is stronger than me. I want to see my daughter again.

- It's okay, baby. You're going to make yourself sick again. How many times have you had depressions in the last three years? If you die, you won't have a chance to see your daughter again. You have to be strong. That jerk Jerome can't hide her forever. And

now she's of age. She can decide to come and see you without asking her father's permission. Calm down!

- That man broke me, you have no idea. I've lost control of my life. I don't know what to do except work.

- Maybe you should start by finding yourself a man so you won't feel so lonely. You can't go on like this in loneliness and depression. You have to get moving.

I leave her arms. I clean my face with my hands.

- To have another man to finish Jerome's work? No, thanks. I can't stand another disappointment. There is only a tiny piece of my heart left.

I'm keeping it for my daughter. Once I find her, I can die in peace.

- Stop talking like that. There are plenty of good men out there who will make you happy. You just have to let go and give them a chance. Stop putting up barriers. You don't even have friends.

- I have you.

- Yes you do," she smiled. But I mean having a little bit of people around you.

- I have you, your daughter, your son and your husband. That's a lot of people.

- You're an idiot. Well, that's enough, go take a shower while I make you dinner.

- You're a sweetheart.

- I know I am.

After my best friend, Elionne, left, I nibbled on the dinner she made me and now I'm in bed. I hold in my hand my daughter's photo album from her birth until three years ago before her father took her away from me. She was only 15 years old. She and I had always been close to each other. We were best friends, sisters, confidants, everything. But a year before my divorce from her father, a rift began to develop between us. She was slowly moving away from me and getting much closer to her father. I had

I didn't understand that he was the one putting things in her head until she refused to stay with me after the divorce. She preferred him to me. She preferred this man who had disowned her before she was born until she was 10 years old, to me who had sacrificed my studies and my life for her. I was bruised to the core. He took the opportunity to leave the country with her and cut all contact. Three years I don't know where she is, I haven't heard her voice, I don't have any pictures of her. She has completely disappeared from my life. It's like she's dead. I had used Elionne's Facebook account to look for her, but to no avail. Either she doesn't have a Facebook account, which would surprise me, because she used to have one, or she put one of those weird pseudonyms, to avoid being easily found. All my prayer is to see her again before I leave this earth. I refuse to die without having hugged her again.

I am suddenly awakened by music coming from the living room. My God, Anaïs is going to piss me off again with the songs of her favorite star. And besides, what is she doing here? If she is at my place, it means that her mother is too.

- Hello!!!