He Strikes at the Hotel

Chapter Thirty Two

I almost fell asleep in the time it took for Nerissa to finish her 'surprise'. I couldn't tell how long it had taken her, but even whilst my eyes were closed, I could tell that the bright afternoon light was fading slowly into a dimmer hum of light through the windows.

"And... You may now... Open!" Nerissa said enthusiastically, and I could hear that she had cupped her hands together waiting for my reaction. I was looking forward to seeing the creation, of course, but I failed to show enthusiasm as strongly as most, which often dampened the mood. But this time, it was different. I opened my eyes and gazed at my reflection, not knowing what to say. My mouth gaped open with no words forming, simple silence and the odd squeak of me attempting to put a sentence together, but failing through my shock. I couldn't afford to let my eyes well up, not after how long it took us to do our make up. I restrained myself, and tried to conjure up a coherent sentence to show Nerissa my gratitude.

"Oh, wow. Nerissa, this is beautiful, thank you so much. I can't believe you can do these things so effortlessly with hair! You are the hair guru I have always needed, especially for tonight. I absolutely adore it." My words were minimal to what I was actually feeling. What she had done with my hair was not even something I could have imagined. She pulled the majority of my hair up into a very loose bun which sat delicately on the top of my head with the help of the hair pins, including my special one. Lots of loose curls draped themselves down from the bun and across the nape of my neck, along with those few strands falling by the side of my face, framing my features. Nerissa had made a tiny little plait with part of my hair which wrapped its way around the bun and across my head, acting like a tiara, which she had pulled at slightly, to make it look more natural and create more volume. She finished it off with adding in a couple hair clips that she had, which had little gems on the end of them, which she buried into the creases of the bun, which made it shine and sparkle in the light. I really did adore it, and I felt pretty. I felt like I would not look out of place tonight. I felt as if I didn't look like the chambermaid that cleans all of their rooms. It was wonderful.

I looked to Nerissa, who was now showing her full blown pride over her creation. I couldn't blame her, it was amazing. She was looking at both of us in the mirror, beaming with happiness over how beautiful we were both looking, and she gave me a hug around my shoulders as she still stood up beside me. We were both in a trance over this event, and how we were able to completely transform into the vision of people we never get to be. To finalise this transition, we only needed to put on our gowns, and then we were complete.

We both got our gowns, with Nerissa going into the bathroom again to change, hopefully with a bit more ease than last time, whereas I had the delight of putting it on for the first time to look forward to. I laid the gown on my bed so that I could see it in all its glory before I tried to pry it onto myself, making me despise the thing.

I began to slip my clothes off and try to step into the gown as gracefully as I could manage, making sure not to step on a seam and rip it. I was able to pull the gown up to cover myself, with the pale blue material draping over my shoulders perfectly. I put my shoes on, which were my regular shoes, considering you couldn't see them anyway, and waited patiently for Nerissa to finish so we could do each other's corsets up. Nerissa came out of the bathroom moments later, looking as radiant, if not more so, as when she first tried it on. We both took it in turns to do up the ribbons on the corsets, turning them into an intricate criss cross design, ending in a perfectly tied bow at the bottom of our backs. Nerissa and I both looked at each other in awe, and it seemed like the world had stopped for a moment, along with our hearts. Before the moment could go any further, we both burst into fits of giggles, jumping up and down the best we could with such heavy gowns on, and began twirling each other around my room, having our own little appreciation party.

We both slid on our gloves, Nerissa opting for a pure black pair which went just above her elbows, whilst I chose a bright white pair which were slightly shorter than Nerissa's, and only just kissed the crook of my elbow. We were now completely ready for tonight, and it was only 6:30pm. Which meant that we had almost an hour before Pierre and Zachery were due to pick us up. This meant that we had some time to pour ourselves a glass of wine and try to calm the nerves which were building inside of me again. It would seem Nerissa felt the nerves too, but for different reasons I can imagine.