Never say never

Chapter 3

°3° ~Victoria~

This was absurd. Victoria set aside the script she had been working on to slip into yet another coat, blood-red and thigh-long, to brave the chilly morning air. She kept her hair at chin-length at all times, so she did not see why she needed yet another haircut.

Liza had been adamant about it though, so she had relented.

"What kind of people will be there?" She asked as a young woman was applying sheets of foil to different strands of her hair, highlights she called it, and pierced her friend with a questioning glance.

"Oh, you know, just a few old men from work." Liza swirled her dainty, long-fingered hand in the air and nodded approvingly at the work being done on Victoria's head. She would certainly not tell Victoria what kind of old men she was referring to; the girl would find out early enough.

Again, there was a pang of discomfort as she realised how terribly wrong her plan could potentially go if Victoria was not overwhelmed by the collective beauty and charm of some of the most successful actors of the island.

She knew of course that Victoria was not a huge fan of TV and that there was a definite chance that she would not even recognise anyone, seeing how she had only lived in England for less than a year and probably did not spend her days watching the mini-series the BBC had on re-run in the afternoons. Fact was: she didn't know and couldn't tell.

They were still handsome, Liza tried to calm herself, they were, they made millions by being handsome and even if she could definitely not see it, she could believe the general consensus that they were easy on the eyes.

Armitage...he had been Martin's idea, and Liza could not say a lot about the man other than that he was a diligent worker and a smart person. Personally, she found him old and crusty, his eyes were too cold, and his face was too angular to be really attractive to her, but she could concede that other people seemed to see something in him.

Angie had shrugged, saying that he had a nice enough smile, but Liza found all of his professional ones haughty and snarky and his private ones painfully awkward. She had no feeling for men in general, so she was certainly not the person to ask about men and their guiles.

Moreover, she could not tell if he would be someone to tempt Vic. Liza only knew her ex-husband and one man was hardly a pattern on which to base one's assumptions. She simply hoped that the old bugger would elicit some kind, any kind really, of reaction from her apathetic friend. Remains to be seen, Liza thought with a sigh.

Victoria was vain without being arrogant, meaning that she wanted to look her best without ever thinking that she achieved just that and so, when all was said and done, she was rather pleased with the result of their little trip to the hairdresser's. Maybe, it was a good idea after all to go out again and see people who were real, instead of those invented characters she tended to spend all her days with now.

She tried hard to stay in that spirit as she brushed and styled her newly dyed hair the next day in preparation of her outing with the girls. Out of respect for Liza's and Angie's efforts, she had taken great pains with her appearance today and after an excruciating hour (and more cotton pads than was ecological), she was almost satisfied with the way her make-up looked.

Of course, she was not Liza with her glossy, flawless skin or Angie with her adorable freckles, but she looked pleasant enough for a 32-year-old divorcee. The thought of the mannequin-like beauty her ex-husband was dating now soured her mood a little and she tried to shake off her discomfiture, without much success, as she slipped into the dress.

Liza had only said that she was not to wear gloves, but she had not objected to the level of refinement Victoria had assumed would be necessary, so she had chosen a dark blue dress that swept over the floor elegantly every time she took a step.