Awake, My Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 7

"Aw, Bella, come on!"

"No!" Bella laughed and crossed her arms, "I'm not doing it."

"I'm sure you're great," Susie repeated for the tenth time. They were standing at the boardwalk that lead to the beach. Susie had a pink feather boa wrapped around her neck and wore a large straw hat with a fake florescent orange flower attached to the side. Every one who passed gave Susie strange looks but she didn't seem to notice or care.

"Susie, I'm not going to sing, I'll just ... collect the money, or something."

Susie groaned and raised her hands. "Fine, suit yourself, chicken soup."

And with that Susie turned around to face the other people near by and grinned from ear to ear. "Ladies and gentlemen, and tourists from other lands! I introduce to you the divine divineness that is I, Susi Breslow! A one and a two, and a one, two, three, four..."

Susie broke into a show tune while Bella stood by awkwardly holding out Susie's large pink purse. As Susie jumped from side to side and wiggled her "treasures", as she always called them, a few people laughed and clapped as Susie went on singing. Bella had to give her new friend credit – she had the pipes of a professional singer. Bella felt a small tug and looked to her side to see a few people putting in dollar bills, five dollar bills, and even a twenty!

Bella's mouth formed a small "O" from surprise. She'd heard about people singing on the streets to collect money but never did she imagine some of the people would be giving out twenty dollar bills. She looked up to see a tiny elderly man with grey hair on the sides of his head in a navy blue suit (that seemed to be too big for him) smiling warmly at her. Bella forced a smile and thanked him.

"Oh don't thank me," the old man chuckled nervously, "Your friend there has quite a voice!"

"Yeah, she does, doesn't she?" Bella smiled when she looked to see Susie wrapping her feather boa around a man's neck as she sang to him flirtatiously.

"Listen," the old man smiled embarrassingly as his cheeks turned pink, "My name is Don Guido Lombardi I own this piano bar just a few blocks away from here, give your friend my card. I'd like to see her this Friday at two o'clock for an audition."

Bella gaped, "Really? Oh she's going to be thrilled!"

Don Guido grinned and raised his hands, "It's only an audition. Although with what I'm hearing now, I really like her. Tell her, okay? Two o'clock sharp."

Bella grinned and nodded, "I will Mr. Lomb..."

"Lombardi," he repeated and chuckled. Bella nodded, a little embarrassed as Don Guido walked away.

Winters Manor

"I can't believe I broke down in front of him."

"Oh, Arthur its fine, Ricardo understood," Christine comforted her husband in their study. She hugged him from behind and kissed his cheek. "He seems like a nice young man."

"He does. I think doing business with him and his father is going to be a pretty smart move for us."

"Well, just relax. We've all been under stress and ..." Christine's voice trailed off for a minute as she tried to compose herself, "Heaven wouldn't want to see us like this. You know, Estelle keeps getting worse."

"Oh?" Arthur turned on his chair to face his wife. "What did she do?"

"She completely humiliated Esther," Christine frowned. "She was drunk again, obviously. Whenever she's sober she doesn't say these things but whenever she drinks ... she turns into a monster. She goes after poor Esther and taunts her."