The Make-Up Artist: Part 2

Chapter Seven: The Favor

Since the next day is Saturday, you allow yourself to sleep in until 10 am, completely out of character for you. After you finally drag yourself out of bed, you decide a nice brisk run in the cool morning air might do you some good. You need to get your car anyway, so you decide to jog to the studio and then drive back home. So, after lacing up your tennis shoes and pulling your hair back, you head out to enjoy a leisurely three mile jog through your neighborhood and on to the studio. You're thankful you don't live further away. You really do love your little part of town that you've chosen to live. It's springtime in L.A. and the purple papery flowers of the jacaranda trees that greet you around every corner bring a smile to your face, and fill you with a promise of new beginnings. The memory of your brief phone conversation with Taron fills your mind and instead of feeling anxiety from the dream and calling him in the middle of the night, you actually feel pleased that he was so willing to talk to you. This feeling is familiar though, and you are careful not to get your hopes up about anything when you know there is no future for you and him. Still, it's a nice feeling to know he still cares.

Once you are inside your car and turned on the ac full blast to cool yourself from your run, the playlist from your phone starts up automatically. One of your favorite Keane songs comes on and you sing along as you drive the short distance home. You've known this song for years, but as the words come pouring out of the speakers, they take on a new meaning and you think how odd it is that you would be hearing it now.

Where do we go?
I don't even know
My strange old face
And I'm thinking about those days
And I'm thinking about those days

I wake up, it's a bad dream
No one on my side
I was fighting
But I just feel too tired to be fighting
Guess I'm not the fighting kind
Wouldn't mind it
If you were by my side

But you're long gone

Yeah you're long gone now

It doesn't exactly make you sad, but it does make you think about the dream again and what it means. Obviously a professional would tell you that it symbolizes you letting Taron slip away all those months ago, and now he's all but gone from your life. But you have to wonder that if you now have some sort of closure, will the dream start to fade? Only time will tell.

After you've returned home with your car and started the coffee machine for your mid-morning brew, you check your phone to see if you've missed anything while you were out. You are a little surprised to see you have several missed texts. Two from Ethan, which is odd since you didn't even realize he had your number, one from Richard...and one from Taron. The latter is the first one you read...

Taron: Hi, just checking in. I'm about to head to dinner and wanted to make sure you were ok before I did.

Richard: Hey you. How are you? I'm in town next weekend, wanted to see if you were available for lunch?

Ethan: Hey there little MUG, how are you feeling this am?

Ethan: Btw, got your number from Hailey...hope that's ok.

Where to begin, for starters, the fact that you have three different men asking over your well-being has you thinking you really need to get your life together.

You decide to respond to Ethan first to get him out of the way.

You: MUG? Feeling ok. Just had a run and got my car so that helped clear my head a little. Thanks for checking.

Ethan: MUG: Make-Up-Girl. Good to hear. I had fun last night, hope you did too before you got wasted.

You are slightly annoyed at his continued and now abbreviated "pet name" for you, and even more annoyed at his mention of your alcoholic consumption. Yes, you had a little too much to drink, but that's not what caused you to leave so hurriedly. Of course explaining that to him would require too much effort and frankly you feel like it's none of his business so you leave him on read. You respond to Richard next.