It was on a busy thursday afternoon three months later teaching an art class in Colorado when I finally made my way out of the maze entirely. I brushed the green paint through my entire painting, ruining it completely. The brush dropped to my feet on the lino floor sending the paint flying over sneakers in front of me.
"Are you okay?" The students asked with concern.
My fingers ran through my dark hair either side of my temple as I gripped my head overwhelmingly.
"I..." I stuttered, looking around like a wild animal at the dozens of student's all staring at my form in front of them. "I have to go" I called out, taking my purse and leaving the room at a pace.
...
"Rachel if this protégé of yours is so rubbish then replace her" Amber said, through a concentrated gaze that was currently on the man's torso in front of her.
She was colouring in the dragon she had inked onto his back for the past three hours. It covered him from his neck down to his over spilling love handles from his denim jeans. Rachel's dramatic cries could be heard from the speaker coming from Amber's desk.
"She fucked up a Winnie the Pooh Amb. Who fucks up a Winnie the fucking Pooh?"
The forty something on Amber's leather recliner began to shake with laughter.
"Rachel your about to fuck up a dragon the size of your entire body if you don't stop with the profanities. I refuse to let this man leave here with a red blob on his back."
"Sorry" He muttered beneath her.
"Rachel take a chill pill and a sip of your hidden vodka in the bottom drawer of your desk and then put out the feelers for a new assistant."
"Can't you just return like a beloved and missed character in a soap opera and save me the trouble." Rachel replied as she took sips from what Amber imagined was the vodka bottle.
Amber dipped more red ink and carried on with her needle work. "I love it here in California Rach. I don't think I can possibly return for at least another couple seasons of that soap opera. I mean if I come back too soon they may kill me off out of spite for leaving and the people won't appreciate my absence for another fifty story arks anyway."
"Oh god Amb, I'm peeking through the office door at her right now and she's working on a stencil that kind of looks like a turd covered in leaves."
Amber felt her lips curl into a smile at the huge gulp Rachel took of her drink.
"What is it meant to be?" she asked, wiping the tatt beneath her.
"A fucking tree" Rachel whispered.
The guy under the needle began to vibrate again with laughter. "Rachel you are doing it again" Amber stated, holding the guy down with her elbow. "Stop stalking her from the crack in the door like a child and go fire her before some poor person ends up with that atrocity on their body, and then put out the ad for help okay? Talking of ads have we heard any more on the beach house sale? You are my eyes Rach..." she reminded her.
After a moment of background noise and papers being shuffled she returned to the phone. "Yes. I have the paperwork here and I'm sending it over right now via fax. It's sold! You gave him your top offer you would accept, and it was met last month. I guess maybe I should have faxed these a while ago..."
"Yeah maybe" Amber said rolling her eyes.
Amber had given Rachel the power to sign off on the house for her when it was completed. She had done her part before she had even left for California.
"Well I better go babe" Rachel sung "People to fire and people to hire... you know how it is"
"Later Rach" Amber called out as the line went dead.
YOU ARE READING
The Girl in the Locket
Romance(Book 1 of 2) Sydney has been missing since her wedding day to Amber five years ago, one minute they were setting sail for their honeymoon and the next a storm and a freak accident stole their life away. Amber has been left to believe her wife dead...
