Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

Lucky at Lunch

The first Friday of each moth the four women celebrate their friendship by meeting for lunch. This month they’ll also be celebrating Jenny’s Birthday. The four of them met during college and have stayed close throughout the years. They roomed together after college, they were bridesmaids in each other’s wedding and they celebrated the birth of babies as their families grew.

It hasn’t always been easy over the past thirty years; Tammy divorced her cheating husband, Barbara lost both of her parents, Susie has suffered from infertility, and Jenny has been unemployed after the downsizing of her company. Despite these challenges, they’ve always been a source of strength for one another which have enabled them to weather the storms of life.

They dine on fresh salads accompanied with candied pecans and caramelized pears. Jenny opens up her gifts; she receives a bestselling book from Tammy, a beautiful scarf from Barbara and stack of lottery tickets from Susie. After reading the back cover of the book and modeling the scarf Jenny starts scratching the lottery tickets while the four of them enjoy coffee.

The first few tickets turn out to be duds, but on the fourth ticket after scratching two of the silver ovals she notices that she has a matching pair. The next scratch also matches. Now she needs one more match to win $25,000. She can feel her heart beating in her chest and the sweat pooling on her forehead. She can only dream of being so close to a life changing event. Her hand trembles as she clenches the penny she is using the scratch the ticket. Her eyes stare in disbelief as she realized she has a winning ticket.

Jenny’s voice trembles as she says, “You aren’t going to believe this!”


WC 294
Prompt: “You aren’t going to believe this”