Dream Team

Sarah

"She was the first person I met when I moved to Miami. I was working on renovating an old apartment into a dance studio and she just walked in" Annalise sighed, smiling at the memory.

"Well I'm not going to pay full price if the mirrors are already dirty when their installed," Annalise yelled over the phone. The floor to ceiling mirrors had just been installed and they were already scratched and smudged.

"No, I don't think YOU understand." She was getting angrier and angrier each second.

"I have had mirrors like this in for over 10 years and they didn't look this bad. EITHER YOU FIX THEM OR YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT GETTING PAID." Annalise yelled before whipping the phone across the room. It hit one of the mirrors and a spiderweb of cracks started to branch out from where it made contact.

"I think you made them worse."

Annalise screamed and turned around quickly to see a woman standing in the doorway. She had long blond hair pulled up in a ponytail. She was wearing tight blue jeans and an off the shoulder green blouse with little flowers on it. She was not very tall, but strappy tan high heel ankle boots brought her up to around Annalise's height. She had large black sunglasses propped up on her forehead and a tan tote bag hanging off her shoulder. She looked very dressed up compared to Annalise, in her white sweatpants and blue cropped tank top. Her hair was a mess, falling all around her shoulders and in her face compared to this woman's hair, puller back and curled perfectly. She was holding a brown paper bag and two smoothies in her hand. She smiled when Annalise turned around, her light blue eyes sparkling under the intense studio lights.

"Shit you scared me." Annalise sighed, a hand on her chest. She relaxed for a minute, before tensing up again. "Um... Do I know you?"

"No." The woman smiled, looking around the room. "those mirrors really are a mess." She signalled at the mirrors with her free hand.

Annalise stared at the woman for a minute. She was just standing there looking around. The woman looked away from the mirrors and back at Annalise. She saw Annalise's face, tense and confused.

"Oh... sorry that was probably really creepy. Me just standing here and not saying anything." She said walking towards Annalise

"Ya, a little bit."

"I'm Sarah, I just wanted to welcome you to the neighbourhood and give you these." She said presenting Annalise with the drink and chocolate croissant from the paper bag.

"Thanks, I'm Annalise." Annalise said taking a sip of the drink. "Oh. My. God. This is incredible." She said taking another sip.

"Sullivan's smoothies. Its just down the street. By far the best smoothies in LA."

"I can tell" Annalise said, biting down on the chocolate croissant.

"mmhmm" Annalise moaned. Sarah chuckled and her reaction.

"So... Yoga? Pilates?" Said signaling to the studio mirrors

"Salsa dancing." Annalise said, "Do you dance."

"Oh god no I am like... the least graceful person on the planet. I own a store just down the block, Sarah Grace. I just wanted to come say hi and make sure you were a nice person. The woman before here was... well, a bitch. 'Im not gonna sugar coat it."

The two women laughed and continued talking.

"Smoothies and chocolate croissants. That was our ritual. Every Monday." Annalise said, her eyes filling up with tears. She smiled, blinking the tears away. "She moved to LA a year before me. She and her daughter were running away from her abusive ex-husband. Those three years I knew her, we never heard from him. And then she came to my house. She said she had seen him across the school from her daughter's school. He found them. We didn't know why, or how long he had been there, but Sarah was convinced he came to take Grace away. I didn't believe her. I told her she was probably being paranoid. That everything would be fine." Annalise took a deep breath and looked up at Rosie.

"But if she was paranoid, it's possible that she was distraught and not paying full attention to the road," Rosie said cautiously, not wanting to upset her.

"Look it's gonna sound stupid but... when I left her she had just settled down on my couch with a bag on chips to watch Titanic. That movie is 3 hours and 15 minutes, she died less than 1 hour later. I know it's not much but I know her. And I know she would never stop halfway through Titanic."

"So... you think she was murdered because she missed part of a movie. I just don't think that's reason enough to open a whole investigation"

"Whatever," Annalise said standing up and walking back up the stairs. "I thought you could help me but I guess I just have to do this alone."

As she grabbed the door handle, ready to storm out of the lab, she heard his voice behind her.

"Annalise" He was talking softly. "I'll help you. It will be hard, but I'll help."

"You'll help." She repeated looking at him. He was standing about two feet away from her, staring at her, smiling. She looked at him, tears in her eyes. As she stood there, he could see her breaking. He could see as the barriers she had put up fell down. She moved her mouth like she wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Suddenly, she flung herself into his arms, unable to hold back her tears anymore. She lung her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing. He just stood there, one arm around her waist the other gently stroking her hair. He stood there holding her as she fell apart in his arms.

I know I've been taking forever to post! I'll try to actually post the next one in a day or two.

xxx

Gill