The Corrupt Gene
by
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The café was on the right side of the bookstore... “A cup of chi tea, please” Katie said to the counter-girl... “Thanks!” She then strolled over to the magazine aisle at the bottom far right of the cafe...Whispering as she breezed by the magazines...“Okay, lets see, Technology-Tec.,” nope for nerds. “Hmm, maybe music,” not this time. “Where’s my womanly stuff,” she said, still looking, where’s my…oh there they are. “Oh my god!” she said, thinking, who put this trifling nudey-porno stuff next to them in the aisle? She rose up with a look of contempt, as if she herself was the store manager and wanted to fire whoever it was that was responsible for it...Forget it; she then swooped down and picked up a magazine she first saw and then walked back over to the café..Opening the magazine, she flipped through without looking at the topic’s page, stopping and commenting along the way... “Page #17,” Okay what’s this: “How to Make a Man Fall in Love”, she said, too easy; boring. Skip! She flipped again through the pages and stopped at page #22. “Maintain the Perfect Relationship with Ten Easy Guidelines.” Never had the perfect relationship, ...she continued flipping the pages again until she stopped at page #77, “How to Put the Sex Back into Your Relationship”, Yeah right, like I need advice on that. But the idea...made her think of being with Stew...With that thought, she went back in the magazine and flipped back to page # 22, “How to Maintain the Perfect Relationship.” She smiled...Placing down the tea, she began to read... ...as she walked to return the magazine...just before passing the end of the huge glass window in front of the magazine aisle, she caught a glimpse of a familiar posture in the corner of her eye. It made her stop immediately in the aisle. She froze...she stared at the man as he entered. The cornea in her eyes expanded rapidly, and her pupils dilated such as when seeing an unbelievable spectacle. It was Greg, her ex-boyfriend - the one she dumped on the answering machine. She hadn’t spoke with him since, or seen him in more than three months, or better put, she had been avoiding him for nearly three months now. ...she panicked and dropped the magazine and began franticly thinking of avoiding him...confrontation never entered her head. Upper management (brain) rang down to Katie; “Duck and hide!... Quickly, jump behind the counter!...Better yet, disguise yourself...that’s it; go back to the table with a magazine. Shit!” Katie reached for the nearest magazine in the aisle, at this time any would do. Grabbing one, she then rushed back to her table...She held the magazine up to her nose and let her elbows touch the top of the table. She stretched the magazine out in front of herself, covering as much of her face as possible. Peeping out of the top of the magazine, she then saw Greg standing at the counter of the café. She again covered up completely with the magazine and listened to his conversation with the counter-girl. “Hi, Bridget how are you?” she heard him say. “I’m fine, so what’ll it be, your usual?” The counter-girl...responded. “Of course, you know me, ha ha. So, when do you finish school, again?” he said. “I told you, never. I’m a student for life” Bridget said with a smile. “Well, give me a call when you’re finished... Is he flirting with her, Katie thought, though still fearful enough not to peer over the magazine... Greg tracked Bridget with his eyes as she turned to make up his cappuccino. ...He turned around and became distracted by the cover of a magazine... Completely taken by the counter-girl, he didn’t nearly suspect that it was Katie behind the cover. “They still read that stuff?” he said to Bridget, nodding to the magazine. She smiled and said, “Apparently so, yeah.” Katie was holding the magazine right-side up, and she was grasping the magazine too close to her face to read the content of the article on the page in front of her. “Just filthy” he said jokingly to Bridget. “...I see you’re still putting the smutty magazines near the women’s article in the same aisle.” “Yup, I told you,” Bridget said and laughed. “I’m bringing like needy people together.” “Like needy people,” he repeated. Looking at him with the side of her eye, Bridget said, “Why don’t you say, Hi.” Greg moved to the side while Bridget served another couple in line. Greg returned his attention to the cover of the magazine... Katie has been thinking endlessly what would happen if she were spotted. She knew Greg would explode into a tantrum of all sorts...While remaining hidden underneath the cover, she strained in thought for an excuse but for the life of her could not come close to anything satisfactory. Greg fixated on the figure behind the cover, and thought that from the top of the head she looked just like Katie. But so had nearly every girl in the last thirteen weeks, reminded him of her. Every girl with dark hair and gorgeous legs he had encountered since then resembled Katie in some small way..So he took his sight off of her, willfully imposing himself not to...fantasy of bumping into her. Not this time, he thought. I won’t stare this time, she’s gone; gone… “I’ll… see you later” he said sullenly to Bridget, and left out. ...Katie was relieved. She remained seated and looked through the window and followed him with her eyes as he walked to his car... “Whooah!” Katie sighed, and dropped the magazine down on the table in exhaustion of an avoided catastrophe...“What!” she said reading the heading of the article, “Backdoor; The only “Huh, w ...what… Oh my god!” When she looked up and noticed everyone staring at her, she laughed in folly, “Ha, ha, ha.” ...a little embarrassed, she continued to chuckle. “I’m gett
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About the Book
The Corrupt Gene is a novel interwoven with four people that shows how life predisposes us to fall in love and seek certain relationships. The story unfolds with Sunita, a Wedding Boutique owner, who wants to be married as much as the customers buying her gowns, so to become married, she increases her efforts to make her boyfriend propose to her. Meanwhile, her best-friend, the tantalizing Katie, who has no problem making men commit to her, can no longer ignore the harsh and cold ways she breaks up with them. But as the consequences of Katie’s actions catch up to her, and begin to toil on her conscious, she finds apart of herself more humane when meeting the most unlikely of people, Stew, who is an inspiring actor, and who also happens to be stalking his ex-girlfriend. Just as friends are naturally acquainted through mutual friends, Novice, friend to Stew, becomes deeply affected by Sunita, even though he is married. And as the ties of affection increase between him and Sunita, it is thwarted by the same ideals of faithfulness that they both espouse.
About the Author
Abdul Bilal is a young author who lives in Pennsylvania and resides in the Delaware County. His degree in Science and love of literature has helped him to compose this work.