What She Doesn't Know

Annie

The venue I was hired for tonight, according to my cell's GPS, is a twenty minute walk from my apartment in the heart of the Financial District. On any other day I'd make that stretch without a second thought but as I look down at my feet the red blotches manifesting on my heels confirm that in fact there's no way that would be possible. Other than the sorry fact that I'm no good at walking in heels I am very much looking forward to my job this evening. Any time I get the opportunity to play piano in front of others, networking my self all the while, I bask in blissful delight. Playing piano is my favorite part of any day and now that I can make a living out of it makes it that much sweeter. Leslie, the woman I was hired by, met up with me early yesterday morning to do the fitting for this gown I'll be adorning tonight and while it is an exquisite work of art that someone spent much admired dedication creating I'm afraid I do it no justice. I'm not a naturally elegant person so this dress and I will have to familiarize ourselves. The gown was delivered a couple hours ago and I've had it on ever since ensuring I don't look completely foolish garnished in its cubic zirconia crystals.

Suddenly my apartment doorbell chimes and I immediately perk up as I know my best friend Georgie awaits me. His presence is sure to send my confidence further than my pitiful self talk ever could. I rush to the front door, grabbing fist fulls of dress material as I go. "Georgie," I scream as I swing the door open. The site of him energizes me like my own personal energizer bunny. I sweep him into one of my "thank you for coming to my rescue" hugs before planting a kiss on his cheek.

"That dress Annie," Georges says eyeing me, holding me at arms length assessing my attire. He seems just as impressed as I was when I first met the beaut. "Annie that dress is going to get you into so much trouble! I didn't know you had this sexy side to you miss Annie." We step just inside the apartment's threshold while Georgie continues to gawk at the dress. I realize he's never seen me this dressed up before, hell I've never been this dressed to the nines in my life. "Really I don't know if my make up job could compete this."

"Oh please Georgie you weren't hired by Beyonce for nothing," I remind him, shoving him playfully in the chest. "Besides what's really going to end up happening is me drowning in a pool of eye shadow, bronzer and this all too expensive dress."

Georgie eyes the gown, giving me all the elevator eye action. "You are so getting laid tonight my little Annie."

"Inappropriate," I exclaim, huffing all the back to my bathroom where Geogie will attempt to turn me into something other than a total music geek who sports plain tanks and t's, tattered four year old jeans and buys the same pair of while slip on Vans year after year. Those are the things Georgie does know about me but what he doesn't know about is my sex life which may I say, even calling it a sex life is giving it way too much praise. I've only ever slept with one guy and it was a total drunken mistake. This event led to two major life decisions; never getting drunk again and absolutely never sleeping with someone I wasn't in a relationship with for at least a year. Because that's the smart and logical thing to do right? I figured I would just ward myself of men and booze not realizing my horrible deflowering occurred due to the toxic mixture of both of those things. Anyways back to my current drama episode of figuring out how I'm supposed to pull off this epic look. "So what are you thinking Georgie?"

I glance up at his reflection in my vanity mirror as he stands behind me whisking a strand of my tangled hair around his index finger. "At first I was thinking of going with a version of my Ice Queen look I did on Beyonce a while back. But in all honesty you deserve something totally kick-ass original." He stares a bit more, playing with my unruly locks with a furrowed brow. "Let me do you hair first and by the time I'm done with that I'll know exactly what to do."

I, of course agree to his terms because who would I be to question such a master. As Georgie pins up strategic chunks of hair, curling whats left hanging then unpins and re-pins I hum the melody of a few of the ballads I'll be playing tonight. The neat thing about this gig is I was given full control on what I get to play. Well I shouldn't say full control but it's more than I'm used to. The only arena I had to stick within was a list artist which was endless. It only took thirty minutes for me to know my playlist, after that it was straight to the piano for practice. I hummed the last line of Awakening by Paul Taylor as Georgie finishes curling my hair. The style he went with is something I could totally agree with, loose waves cascade down past my shoulders effortlessly. He placed the curling iron aside, unplugging it from the wall to cool, and stepped over to the bag of goodies he brought. A few moments pass of sifting sounds until he pulled out a small blood, red velvet jewelry box. It had to be a necklace, I thought but no, it was something so much better. Georgie walked back over to where I eagerly sat and unhooked the latch that enclosed whatever was inside. Out he pulled what appeared to be a crown, something of royalty, hundreds of diamonds bond together by what looked like copper twine. It was absolutely breath taking.