Perseverance

Chapter Thirty Four ~ May

I'm in an absolutely fantastic mood, strutting down the street in my ridiculously high heels, a grin on my face as I make my way home to Ellis. It's been two weeks since I met with Alice, and since then two of her friends have reached out; Dora with the no nonsense demands for a black dress, and Meg with the expectation of a 'showstopping' pink marshmallow style gown.

My second meeting with Meg done, I head away from the restaurant, my mind flourishing with ideas on what I can do to impress the girl. How the hell can I make a big fluffy ball of puffy fabric look good on an eighteen year old girl? She's going to look five. This may be my biggest challenge yet.

Luckily I finished Alice's purple, figure hugging, knee length dress yesterday, dropping it to her this morning on the way to my meeting.

I cannot wait to see Savannah tonight, Ellis and I invited round to visit her and Brett for dinner and dessert. She'll be so proud of me, I can practically see the grin on her face now, squealing as she pulls me in for a tight hug. She'll lecture me over how she told me it would all work out, how I was wrong to doubt her, she always knew I could make it. For once, I'm going to let her have it because it seems as though everything may actually be working out for me.

"Becky?" I grit my teeth at the deep voiced call from behind me, whirling around to face the fucking idiot with a glare on my face.

"Eric," I greet. He smirks.

"Still trying to make it over on this side of town then?"

"Yes," I reply honestly and he raises an eyebrow.

"I wonder how long it will be until you give up."

"I don't know." I tap my hand against my jaw, taking a step towards him as I pretend to think. "But seeing as my list of clients is going up every week, I wonder how long it'll be before you give up."

"Why would I give up?" Eric snorts. "I'm hired by Tommy Ross."

"So?" I smirk. "I'll be putting them out of business in no time." With a laugh, I shove my hair over my shoulders, turning and walking away from the smarmy jack-ass before I say something else that I may potentially regret. Sadly, the man has high up connections at the moment, and keeping everything I say legal is therefore a must.

Once I've made sure he's been fired though, I'll be sure to say whatever I damn well please to him. It's hardly like the guy doesn't deserve it.

One day when I worked there I spent the entire day – eight in the morning until eleven in the evening – remaking a new design Eric had approved, only for him to turn around the next morning and advise me that my work wasn't good enough so the entire project would need to be restarted by someone better than me.

Sav came home that day to find me two bottles deep into some vodka, hanging out of the living room window and giggling about how amazing alcohol is. Dragging me inside, she forced some Chinese down my throat before we spoke everything over, her rage that evening at Eric absolutely adorable.

I had enough the day Eric took scissors to one of my dresses in front of me. Ripping the fabric from his hands, I chucked it out of the window before telling him I quit. Best decision ever.

And now that I'm on my way to defeating the fucking jerk. I think I deserve some prosecco for the controlled conversation I just had with him, my comebacks mature yet biting him where it hurts. Sav will laugh, I know it.

It takes me just over twenty minutes to get back to Ellis' apartment block, letting myself in as I hum happily to myself. I hold the door open for an elderly lady as she exits, her smiling at me in return.

Skipping up the steps, I get halfway before I reach down, pulling the stilettos off my feet to run the rest of the way.

I get to the front door, dipping into my purse for my keys, finding them missing once more. I curse out loud, dropping the bag to the floor and rifling past the notepads and pencils inside, eventually finding the stupid things right at the bottom.