Leah sits up in her bed and rubs sleep from her eyes. It is five o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday. The air is cold and the sun is barely up yet. She throws her covers to the side and gets up. She stretches her arms up and backward, listening for cracks. When she can't reach back any further, she drops her hands at her sides and moves to the bathroom.
She goes to the sink and looks over herself in the mirror. Morning breath and a horrible mess that's supposed to be hair. Just the way she hates it. "Ugh," she says. "Nothing that can't be fixed."
She goes back to her room and opens up her closet. She searches for a good work outfit. "What to wear, what to wear," she whispers. Finally, she pulls out a gray pencil skirt and a black blouse. She picks out a pair of black high heels from her endless rows of shoes. She's upset there aren't more to choose from since she moved out of her dad's house.
After changing into her work clothing, she goes to her dresser and puts in a pair of diamond stud earrings and her diamond tennis bracelet. Just like every other morning, she stares at the ring finger on her left hand. She wants to be married. She's not desperate, and she's not rushing. She just can't wait to have a ring on that one certain finger.
She tears her eyes away from her finger and grabs her lipstick. It's a dark brown with a bit of a shine. She adds a little mascara to her eyelashes, and she's finished. Just as she closes the door to her bedroom, the phone starts to ring. She rushes into the kitchen and grabs the phone off of its base. "Hello?" she says.
"Guess who's back?" a woman sang.
"Uh, Marilyn Monroe," Leah answers.
"You are so funny. Really. You're killin' me. I'm finally back from L.A. Have you gone to the office yet?"
"I'm leaving my house now." Leah grabs her purse from the chair in the kitchen.
"Oh good. I'm outside. Get your butt out here."
"Uh, I'll pass. Your driving scares me."
"So you'd rather be late, then," Riley says."Because we have to be in by five-forty-five and it's five-thirty."
Leah looked at the clock on the wall. Riley was right. "I'm heading out now." She hangs up and places the phone back on the base. She quickly runs through a checklist in her head. When she knows she has everything, she sets the alarm to her apartment and closes the door, locking it behind her. She rushes down the hall to the elevator.
The doors are already starting to slide closed. Leah moves faster. "Wait!" she calls out. "Hold the elevator!"
The people in the elevator ignore her and let the doors close.
Leah stamps her foot. "Ah, damn it." She opens the door to the staircase and runs down, gripping the rail for help. The clicking sound of her heels fills the stairway. She reaches the bottom and goes for the exit. She can already see Riley's red Porsche outside the glass doors. She moves through the rotating doors and heads for the car. She pulls the handle and opens it.
"Well, it's about time," Riley says.
"About time? That's the quickest I've ever moved." She slides in, shuts the door, and gives her best friend a hug. "How was L.A."
"Oh my God, perfect. Guess what two actors I met."
"You met actors? Like actual actors?" Leah has never met a famous actor before, and she's dying to.
"Yup. But you didn't guess. Come on. Just one guess." She pulls away from the sidewalk and drives off to work.
"I have no patience for guesses. Who?"
