Ten Years Later

Chapter 7

"I'm late! I'm late! Oh no! I'm late" I shout frantically fluttering around the apartment, looking for my wallet and shoes.

Eventually, I find them and shoot out the door, bolting down the stairs, and jumping in front of a cab to stop it before climbing in and shouting directions at the cabbie. I comb my fingers through my hair, the curls flying every which way, as I try to use my phone's front camera as a mirror to wipe extra makeup from the night before off.

The cab pulls up in front off a very nice hotel and stops. I pause, glancing at the driver and then out the front window, checking the traffic in front of us and wondering why were stopped considering it was clear in front of us.

The cabbie raises his eyebrow at me, "We're here, Missy. Get out, I have other passengers to pick up."

It clicks that this is the destination so, with a grunt, I throw some money at the driver and climb out, hurrying up the steps and into the Chateau De La Rosa. Once in the hotel lobby, I look around, feeling quite small in this building of grandeur filled with even grander people.

Don't get me wrong, I made quite a good salary and therefore had nice clothes but compared to these people I might as well be street scum.

By the looks the men and woman surrounding me were giving me, I'd say they'd agree too.

Stepping back, I shrink into a corner and pull out the paper Ava had given me before she left for school yesterday, trying to figure out what the hell to do now.

Of course, there's a room number at the bottom that'd I'd missed in my haste.

As I'm about to head towards the elevators, a woman dressed smartly steps in front of me, her teeth glistening behind a smile that looked more like a snarl. Her head is raised so far up that it must hurt looking down her nose so far.

"Welcome to the Chateau De La Rosa. May I help you?" She asks with a peppy tone that clearly said she'd rather pick gum off the bottom of her shoe than help me.

I give her an identical smile and use the same tone as I speak, tilting my head slightly, "No thank you, ma'am. I'll just be on my way."

I go to step around her but she simply steps with me. "I'm sorry ma'am but customers and their guests are the only ones allowed up in the rooms. Here at the Chateau De La Rosa, we provide only the best service to those that spend money on our rooms. Our customers expect that... street folk aren't wandering around their rooms and potentially... miss placing expensive things that said street folk can't afford to replace or pay for," she says down to me.

I almost laugh at the way she looks down on me. Her nose is sharp and beak-like, her eyes beady and black. She's dressed to the nines in a black pants suit. From the way the seams and pleats are sewn, I'd say it was Coutex, a leading fashion house that my company often competed against in the department stores. Her shoes, matching black heels, looked to be Christian Louboutin. I'd say she made a healthy six figures a year if the hotel spent as much on their employee's paycheck as they did on the construction of the building I'm currently standing in. Overall, she was a well put together lady... on the outside.

The snide tone of voice, the flatness in her smile, and the dead look in her eyes told me she wasn't as put together on the inside as she appeared to be on the outside. My bets said that she had a drinking problem if the redness in her cheeks and hands were any indication. The circle of pale skin on her left ring finger in otherwise tan skin meant that she had probably recently been divorced and the picture of smiling kids barely peeking out from behind her jacket said that she most likely lost her kids in said divorce. She probably went home to a nice penthouse with a smile, excited to come home to her children and husband, only to open the door to find it cold and empty. She'd then proceed to get drunk until she blacked out on the couch and wake up there, still in yesterday's clothes with smeared makeup. She'd get up off the couch and get pain killers for her pounding headache before she got dressed and went to work where the only joy she got was looking down on other people to make her feel better about her sorry life before she repeated it all over again.