Life & Times of S. Miller

Chapter 1

Zelda ended the call and screamed into her hands. Her office door opened a minute later and she saw a long shadow cast over her desk. She looked up and saw Sydney with a look she didn't recognize. He was angry. He stood in the doorway clutching his phone in his hands.

"You sound real tough on the phone."

"You better get out of here!" Zelda was scared as this was a side of him she had never seen. He walked over to the front of her desk.

"Who are you gonna call to get me out of here? The police... your little boyfriend? You really think they can remove me from my own building?" he asked her through clenched teeth. Zelda stood up and walked in front of the desk to face him.

"If I want you to move, you will move!"

6 months earlier...

She stood there watching, trying to analyze and figure out if it were an illusion. Zelda Irvin had just left the gym upstairs in a plaza that housed Publix, a local supermarket with a café and deli. As was her ritual, she would go to her spin class and then work out on various exercise machines. After 90 minutes, she would take the steps to the bottom floor of the building to Publix where she would treat herself to either a tuna or Boar's Head Golden Turkey wrap with spinach leaves, tomatoes, cucumber and light honey mustard before going into the garage to retrieve her car and go home to her condominium which she shared with her ex-boyfriend Mark.. As she was standing at the counter of the deli to place her order, she spotted him! The one person who she hadn't seen in years and whom she thought she would never see again. Here he was with his back turned to her no more than five footsteps away talking to an associate of the store. Before she could be spotted, she turned on her heels and bolted out of Publix. She walked the garage till she found her car and drove off.

She stomped the gas pedal till she was five intersections away and she finally caught a red light. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw the tears flowing down her face. Only this man, Sydney Miller, could make her react this way. It had been as a difficult week as it was. She was informed that there was a new ownership group had purchased the building where she worked as an Assistant Property Manager and her boss Jennifer was in tears as she received a pink slip and a notice of her severance package earlier in the week. She looked in her mail box and saw she didn't have anything in it all week until today where she finally found an envelope and though she didn't open it, she knew it was a pink slip. So she place it in her purse before she left and figured she would open it at home where she would cry in private as opposed to letting everyone see her pain in public. She reached in her purse for her phone and her Bluetooth ear piece and called her best friend Andrea.

Andrea Mathis was a lawyer working in the State Attorney's Office as a prosecutor. She and Zelda had been best friends since freshman year of college at Central Florida. They were roommates from the dorm to their first off campus apartment. She was the one who set Zelda up with Mark, a decision that Andrea regretted every day. The phone rang at least four times and she got the voice mail. Sighing in frustration, she ended the call and drove through the light. As she was driving the phone begin to ring. She answered as she knew it was Andrea by the ringtone.

"Hey Drea."

"Hey Zee. I just got out the office and saw I missed your call. What's up?"

"I need to talk. I am going to the Rainbow Room."

"Ohh shit...let me call Gabby and I will be there in about 20 minutes."

They ended the call and Zelda drove on down Biscayne Boulevard towards her destination. She was there in ten minutes. She parked her car and walked inside the lounge. The Rainbow Room was a gay bar that Zelda, Andrea and their other friend Gabrielle had discovered when they all moved to Miami. Zelda was originally from Providence, Rhode Island and Andrea was from Montclair, New Jersey. They met the first day of freshman year at Central Florida and they had been best friends ever since. They both moved to Miami as the State Attorney's Office in Dade County had an opening for Andrea and the real estate market intrigued Zelda. They started as roommates and they separated when Mark convinced Zelda to move in with him. Gabrielle was a local girl from Hallandale Beach, a city a few minutes northeast of Miami and they met her when they discovered the Rainbow Room while they were looking for a bar they could get inside of and unwind without being hit on by a slew of men.