my solution - huskerdust slowburn

1

"4:00 AM."

I read out loud the time on my phone. It's not like there was anyone around to hear it, anyway.

I painfully squatted down and unzipped those torture machines called 'boots', which were practically strangling my feet after a whole evening of having to stand on them.

Valentino says that I have to wear them all the time to appeal even to the tallest, monstrous demons, but I feel like I'm already tall enough. Sometimes, I wish I would only have to deal with short men.
They're the best, anyway.

I held the heels in my lower set of hands and began searching through the bunch of keys. I didn't understand why Charlie consigned me so many keys, when I only needed to open the main door, my room and the dining hall. But there were at least ten other pairs.
That only made me more confused and wasted my precious time.

As I was starting to lose my patience (to the point I wanted to kick the door open), I finally found the right one.

"About time, for fuck's sake."

I muttered under my breath, as I made my way into the hotel. I walked on my tip toes and I was gentle with my every move, as I didn't want to wake up anyone, mainly because I wanted to avoid running into anyone in these conditions.

Mascara was strolling down my cheeks, making me resemble a witch, my lipstick was all smudged, and not to mention my stockings which were all ruined. I tried to fix my dress, which was all stretched, as I approached the elevator. But all my efforts were useless, as my dress remained the exact same.

Oh, whatever, no one was going to see me.

That had to be the worst night of the week. Not only was I forced to be nice to those dirty jackasses of my customers, but I also had to meet my pimp.
The only 'positive' part of that encounter was that he at least had given me a ride.
Of course, the gentleman didn't even wait for me to open the door before doing a reversal maneuver and leaving the parking lot at full speed.
He stated that he 'couldn't be seen there because Vox's rival also lived there and he could've been accused of betraying him'.

Sure, AS IF anyone gave a shit about his presence. And it was clear that he came there to drop me off.
It was painfully obvious that it was just an excuse, and I hated when he treated me like a burden.
HE was the burden in my life.
My thorn in the flesh.
My pain in the ass.
My stick in the mud.
My-

"Hey."

My whole body tensed up as I heard a voice coming from behind. For a second I almost thought that it was Valentino, who came back to haunt me, as if he could read my mind and he wanted to punish me for my disrespectful thoughts.

But I soon realized that it was impossible, because it didn't sound like my boss at all.
It was a much deeper voice, which was, at the same time, raspy and kind of rough.
A voice that I could recognise everywhere, because it caught my attention from the first time I heard it.

I realized that I looked like a fool, standing there and not even daring to look at the person who was speaking to me. I turned around while fixing my hair, trying to make myself look as presentable as I could.

"The hell are you doing up this late?"

Spoke the feline, who was sitting behind the counter a few feet away from me, with the usual grumpy undertone and the face of someone who is bothered by everything and everyone around him.
I was right. It really was the voice of the hot bartender which struck me from the first moment I met him, but which I never got to talk to properly, since he always either rejected me or ignored me. I was surprised about him talking to me in the first place.
I couldn't waste that chance.