Big City Seduction

Chapter Two

The faint smell of motel room air cleaner hit my nose as I wiped down another table and then tossed the towel down. I walked over to the mirror and looked at my reflection. Three days had gone by since my last let down with an audition, and I was now back to cleaning dirty motel rooms part-time and thinking about how much of a failure I was.

I surveyed my reflection in the mirror as I wiped it down. Spray. Wipe. Spray, spray, spray. Wipe, wipe. The smell of glass cleaner wasn't the most pleasant, but the mirror did look good. I took a step back and continued to stare at my reflection in the mirror.

I was complimented often about how pretty I was, and yet it did absolutely nothing to land the job roles that I wanted so desperately. I looked around the room and shook my head. "Is this the life I'm destined to have?" I asked myself aloud. Thoughts of whether acting and modeling was something I was still interested in pursuing, entered my mind.

On one hand, I couldn't imagine wasting three years of my life in hopes of being a popular actress, just to give it up one day because I wasn't making it. Yet, on the other hand I felt like I was letting myself down when I was trying to fulfill my dreams and getting nowhere. I am told I have talent, but it doesn't ever pay off.

As that thought hit me, I heard my phone signal a text message. And another, then another. What? I reached in my pocket and retrieved my phone, only to find Blake's name on there. Now, a little over a week had passed with no call from him, and he was going to text me? Against my better judgement, I opened up the text message.

Blake: Hey baby ... Big news ... I'm coming to your place tonight.

I shook my head; one message would have sufficed just fine. I stared at his message. He had to be joking if he thought he could just waltz back into this equation, without having to fight for it. I typed him back a message.

Elisha: Maybe later. Busy tonight.

I then put my phone back in my pocket and tried to ignore when the message rang through. I got back to work cleaning the room and then had to do five other rooms, before it was time to get off. To my relief, I was able to ignore his message until I got out to my car that afternoon. I felt pretty proud of myself. I grabbed the phone and looked at his reply. In fact, he had left me three messages, obviously confused why I hadn't responded to his first.

Blake: Busy? Doing what? Don't be silly. You'll want to get together to get this news.

Blake: Hello?

Blake: I'll be there at seven. You better be ready.

I shook my head, frustrated that he couldn't even allow me the opportunity to tell him when I was and wasn't available to see him. He had some nerve to think he could just waltz in and out of my life whenever he wanted to. Yet, I didn't send him a message back, because it was only bound to be a back and forth that I wasn't interested in dealing with whatever he had going on right now.

When I got home later that afternoon, I parked my car and hurried inside the apartment. I was home for less than a minute before I realized just how quiet the apartment was. I thought maybe Lucy was out, but when I rounded the corner of her bedroom, I found her there, staring at three dresses on her bed.

"Hey," I knocked on the doorframe. "What's up?" I asked her.

She looked up from her post by her bed and stared at me. She looked a little nervous as she nibbled on her nails. "Which do you like?" she asked.

I walked over to the bed and looked at her selections. "Well, it depends on where you're wearing it and with whom you're wearing it for," I responded.