DARK LONDON NIGHTS // sully from top boy

24 - ready

London
Oct. 14th

Tonight we are going to a house party, we have something to celebrate. Dris and I would love to have you join us. Bless up, Jaq

Nora had to smile.
That was a lovely message and she replied directly.

Hey, sweet of you guys to think of me. I'm in!

Then Nora had to take a deep breath. This was really the only good news that would reach her today. Because it was 12 noon and she had a lunch date with Heath - her first of the five dates. How she was going to get through this was uncertain, but ever since Nora knew that Heath was up for the same promotion, her fighting spirit was up. Somehow, the idea of leading him around by the nose, using him for her own purposes, only to defeat him on the job in the end, made it all a little more bearable.

They met downstairs at the entrance of the building and walked together to the nearest cafe. Nora ordered an iced matcha latte and a wrap. After the waiter took her order and left, Nora was left to Heath's undivided attention.

"Well," he began, leaning forward, "I hear you're up for the promotion, too."

Straight to the point. That would almost be sympathetic, would he not be such a fundamentally repulsive person.

"Indeed," Nora replied, also leaning forward and smiling.

"Then this whole thing will be pretty easy for me I'd say," Heath laughed condescendingly, looking at her as if she were a child. "But for you, I'm sure it will be a valuable learning experience".

Nora raised her eyebrows, then tilted her head and finally smiled in victory.

"We'll see about that," she said slowly, returning his gaze with a grin.

 
This actually didn't seem to please Heath, because he went silent for quite some time while he looked around the room annoyed. Nora was almost a little disappointed when he didn't reply anything snarky, but was obviously offended by her words.

How incredibly boring.

Sully would put her in her place.

Wait, what?

"I'm sure you'll get the promotion, but I'm very grateful for the opportunity," Nora finally said in a conciliatory, saccharine voice. Sure enough, Heath looked at her again and seemed to recover from his bruised ego. Nora was shocked.

How could anyone be so dependent on the opinions of others and so insecure in themselves? As a thirty-year-old man?

Embarrassing.

And the fact that her feigned act of the impressed woman worked too effortlessly with him was also an absolute indictment for him. Everything about this man was more or less pathetic. He really could only deal with women who admired him, did exactly what he expected and didn't talk back. No wonder he celebrated Christmas alone every year.

"That's good to hear," he replied, even smiling.

Nora forced herself to smile.

"So, where are you from anyway?" she asked with feigned interest, trying to instigate a flurry of conversation from her counterpart. It was no big surprise that this worked great. Heath talked about his hometown, his amazing family, sailing boats, and his first car, which was a Porsche.

This topic of conversation solidly bridged the interim until their food arrived. The wrap was downright delicious, which was the absolute highlight of their lunch date for Nora.

They spent the rest of their break in the small cafe before Heath paid and they left the cafe together. Nora noticed that for the fact that he was supposedly so incredibly wealthy and well-mannered, his tip was decidedly small. But who was she to judge, right?

He took her all the way back to her office and at the glass door in front they stopped.

"Thanks for the date, I really enjoyed it," Heath said, hovering dangerously close in front of her. Nora smiled and demonstratively took a step back. Not today, motherfucker. Not today.

He registered her body language, thankfully, and pulled out his cell phone rather than move even closer to her and try another disappointing lip contact.

"I'll send you your money," he said with a wink after turning to leave.

Ew.

Nora sighed and closed the office door behind her. Then she set to work.

Two minutes later, her cell phone screen lit up and she read the notification that Heath had sent her 2600 pounds. A surge of happiness rushed through her body - he was actually going through with this. That meant only four more meetings with him, then this nightmare was over. So at least there was something good in all this.

In the evening Nora got ready for the house party.
She was very happy that Jaq had thought of her and was looking forward to the evening. Maybe she would finally have a chance to get to know everyone a little more personally. She barely knew Dris, Dushane and Jaq, let alone all the dealers or other people who occasionally haunted the run-down house.
The fact that Sully came along had a bitter taste. Nora did not know where the two stood. She had also not yet told him that she had a fifth of the money together.

She applied highlighter and blush, carefully stuck lashes over her lash line, and outlined her lips with a deep red lip liner. Over that, she applied cherry red lip gloss, which made her plump lips shine. She wore her hair in a high bun, pulling one strand out of each side of the tight bun, which loosely curled to frame her face. On her ears she wore beautiful gold earrings that she had given herself as a gift for her college graduation.

Nora slipped into the short skirt and crop top that she had chosen. For once, she wore a pair of sneakers with it, because she didn't plan to have aching feet all evening when she always wore high heels to work.

One look in the mirror was enough to feel good. Nora felt comfortable in her own skin and it felt good to make herself look really pretty again.

A short time later, around midnight, she was in the car with Jaq, Dushane and Sully, driving through the darkness over the relatively empty streets of London. Dushane was driving, Sully was in the passenger seat and Jaq sat next to Nora in the back seat. She narrated as if on continuous loop, and although no one told Nora any more details, she sensed that the group had some kind of success to report. The mood was more upbeat than usual, Jaq was just too hyper and even Dushane laughed sometimes.

Only Sully seemed serious, grinning only sometimes when Jaq said something cheeky and funny again.

As Nora stared out the window at the orange-yellow lights of the streetlamps, she felt a burning gaze on her. She turned her head and looked directly into Sully's eyes, whose eyes roamed over her face, then over her body. Nora heard the loud, excited voices of the others only blurred as static in the background; she saw only Sully. His upper body rose and fell regularly. His face did tell her what was going on inside him.

Noras whole body was swarmed with goosebumps while she felt a tickling sensation in her hands.

Finally, his gaze traveled up again, over her torso, her shoulders, her collarbones, her jaw, until their eyes met.

One second.

Two seconds.

Then he looked away.

'Are we doing this again?' Nora thought to herself, and looked out the window again.

'Because I am ready'.