Forever Glamorous

Chapter 22

ZACHARY ZOOMED ACROSS THE Siren as if the devil was on his ankles. He grabbed Aura's wrist, forcing her to keep up with his pace. She let him pull her around seeing as she was still dazed from the past events.

The wine was starting to stick to her skin under her clothes. Her voice had left her as if she was Ariel and Ursula had taken it. She didn't know what to say, but just let Zachary lead her wherever he was going.

They passed the main lobby, crossing paths with a few pretentious middle-aged couples, who frowned in their direction, no doubt left aghast by the hideous red stain over her attire.

Zachary punched an elevator button, and soon they boarded the cart. He never let go of her wrist as he pushed the button for the top floor. When the doors opened, she was met with a luxurious hallway. Golden lights beamed down at them creating a resplendent halo atop of Zachary's head as he led the way to the farthest door.

He reached for a key from his pocket and opened the door for Aura. She didn't have time to register how incredible the room was before he was pulling her to the right, saying something about the laundry room.

He opened another door, to a room that was double the size of her bathroom back home in California. He flicked on the lights, and she realized they were in fact in the laundry room as he had mentioned. Racks of towels and cleaned t-shirts covered a wall from top to bottom. She wondered why they would have that there, but decided it was best to follow his lead.

Zachary took a t-shirt from the rack and spread it over the washing machine beside him. Its light blue fabric contrasted with the stainless steel of the machine.

"Change into that and lay out your clothes. I'll be back in a minute." Without another word, he closed the door behind him, leaving Aura in a state of shock and confusion. She stared at the light blue t-shirt in disdain and decided she had nothing to lose.

She stripped from her outfit, peeling off the crop top and pants. She stood clad in her nude strapless bra, lace panties, and golden heels. The cold air hit her skin like a wave, so she stumbled forward to cover herself with the big tee.

The shirt fell down her body like a dress, covering her every curve. She sighed and shook her hair out from the collar. She pursed her lips, not knowing how the night had turned into such a disaster.

Out of everything Millie could have done, she decided to spill red wine on her outfit. Aura would've preferred her unnecessary snappy comments all night, but what was done was done. She couldn't believe a grown woman would act so immaturely, all because she was jealous.

There was nothing wrong with being jealous. Everyone felt the emotion. However, it was how she let it control her actions that made her ugly. Maybe that's why she never landed a big modeling gig. That air of arrogance and entitlement made her stunning outside appear hideous. Her attitude created a mist over her physical beauty, which warned people to stay away.

She wondered what she had done to stay in that group of friends. Not even Iris seemed to be that way.

Aura shook her head. There was a difference between having accidents, and then whatever that was. She had gone through many disasters before, and it was normal. Sure, upsetting in the moment, but she learned to deal with it. Millie could excuse what happened all she wanted, but it was obvious she did it with malicious intent; and that didn't sit well with her.

Zachary opened the door just as she was placing her new outfit on top of the washing machine. He came back with a dishwashing detergent and hydrogen peroxide in his arms.

"I'll fix this," he said. Aura moved to let him do whatever he promised to do. He made a mixture of the dishwashing detergent and hydrogen peroxide, and let it soak over the red stains of her crop top. She frowned as the stains began to fade.