One More Night

6

When Margo woke up hours later, she was alone in her dark room. Her phone was charging on the nightstand next to her pink bed, and she looked around to ensure nothing was out of place. Her pajamas were still skewed across her vanity stool, and items from her drawers littered the floor, just like before she left for her date. 

Margo stretched as she lay back down in her bed. The fuzzy alarm clock on the side of her bed read 7:30 AM. She groaned and shoved her face back into the foam pillow she had to sleep with every night. She tried to rest her eyes for longer but knew she would fail. Instead of admitting defeat, she tossed and turned for another hour.

With a huff, Margo exited the warm bed and moved the clothes from the pink stool to assess the damage from sleeping in her makeup. Her mascara had smudged around her eyes, and the lip stain she wore hadn't budged. Laziness seeped into her pores as she grabbed a cotton pad and Micellar water. She didn't feel like walking to her en-suite bathroom. All she wanted to do was ignore the thoughts that raced through her head.

Her phone went off with Sandra's ringtone, and she groaned again as she moved from the vanity and back to her bed.

"Hello?" she answered as she put the call on speakerphone.

"Margo, darling," Sandra's rich voice pierced the silence of her room. "I have some bad news."

Margo's stomach lurched as she thought of all the possibilities that could be considered bad news. Her first thought was that Lukas had gotten out of prison.

"Your mother, well, she's here. She showed up at my place all but demanding I take her to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Adara Fowler is at my apartment. You have an hour to get ready for whatever this bullshit is."

"She has my number. Why did she come to your place?"

"Honey, if I had the answers, I'd let you know," Margo heard Sandra's sharp voice shout back to Margo's mother that they'd be leaving shortly. "I wanted to inform you that the devil was returning to you. I tried to send her off, but she's worse than I am."

"I know." Margo sighed as they hung up. This was not on Margo's list of things that she wanted to happen; it was far from it, actually. "Fuck," she breathed out and held her head in her hands.

Margo hadn't seen her mother in six years, not since she cut Margo off financially when she had slipped into a bad place. Adara wasn't interested in enabling Margo, nor was she keen on helping Margo, either. It hadn't stopped Margo from reaching out, but she finally took a hint after the six-hundredth voicemail had gone unanswered.

She stopped reaching out four years ago, and Adara has not spoken to her since then, not until today.

Margo knew that if she didn't look one hundred percent put together when her mother arrived, she would never hear the end of it. Begrudgingly, the brunette pushed herself off the bed and mentally picked out an outfit before doing her eight-minute skin care routine. She thought about the last time she saw her mother and how pathetic she felt as Margo begged for Adara's love and affection.

The woman was strung out on benzodiazepines and had confronted her mother for not loving her. The benzo's had made her aggressive, and when Margo told Adara that she never felt love from her, the older woman slapped her daughter for the first time.

Flashbacks to Lukas had made Margo break down in front of her mom for the first time since she was 12 and had to fend off a grown man at a gala. Her mother - the one person who was supposed to protect her - laughed it off and told her to get over herself.

Margo blinked to dismiss the memories of her past and changed into a long leather skirt with a slit up to her knees. She paired it with a plain, long-sleeved black bodysuit that stuck to each of her curves. The black boots she had worn last night would work with the outfit, and she accessorized the outfit with a gold and black belt, a pair of golden hoops, and a gold watch to tie everything together.