My dear readers, I do apologize for the excessive delay. uni life turned out to be very consuming :3
I do hope this is worth the while! xx
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A rush of warm night air greeted her. Blinding lights. Sounds, people, crowds, life. So many details, and yet for a moment Louis was lost in a blur of lights and noises. She wanted to take it all in; she wanted to stand there for hours relishing this extraordinary feeling of freedom.
But she knew better.
Josh could only distract Scarlett for so long, and she wanted to be gone as far as possible when Scarlett noticed she was missing. Josh had instructed her to keep walking to the left down the road and take the third left turn and wait for him outside Bloomingdale’s. She’d never been inside of course, but she had heard of the shop plenty of times when she was in university. As a matter of fact, she’d never actually been inside any shop since her father’s death. Scarlett had always left the bare necessary for her in her room during her university days.
Putting her head down just in case a customer she knew was around the club, she walked quickly down the street. Excitement was bubbling up inside her; she had no words to describe the state of ecstasy she was currently in. One turn, she counted…more people, walking, talking, laughing, some of them arguing, others walking in silence. Even though she’d seen it all before, it felt and seemed different now; as though she were seeing everything for the first time, or perhaps through the eyes of a changed woman.
Second turn, she mentally noted as she passed that as well. A hot dog stand was on her right on the sidewalk, and she couldn’t stop her eyes from lingering on it for the tiniest fraction of a second. All she’d been eating since she was 16 was rabbit food; tasteless salads and protein bars. Thinking of all the foods she could now eat, her mouth started watering. Concentrate, she mentally reproached herself.
Third turn; she was finally there. She quickly turned the corner and saw the large board boasting Bloomingdale’s name. Walking towards it swiftly with her head down, it crossed her mind that she didn’t have a penny to her name at the moment. She also wondered how Josh was getting on with his little play…
***
“That’s the one!” taking out a Perrier-Jouet that must have cost at least 10 grand. It had taken him 9 minutes to pick this bottle, but he knew that if he pushed Scarlett a little more she’d become more suspicious than she already was.
Retracing their steps all the way back to the black door, they both stopped in front of it as Scarlett waited for Josh to produce his key to open the door.
Fumbling with his left pocket; the one out of Scarlett’s direct line of sight, Josh drops a set of keys.
He bends down to pick them up quickly, snatching the other set that were hidden for him beside the plant pot beside the door in one fluid movement. Straightening up, he inserts the key in the hole, and, with one last look at Scarlett’s scrunched up face, closes the door behind him.
It was as though the red and gold walls mocked him. They stared at him for a few seconds while he just stood there leaning against the door. Disconcerted by the meaning those colours must have on Louis, he took his phone out and pressed send. Before the minute was up, he opened the door again, and there she was, Scarlett, still staring at the door, only she was a few feet away. Now she stomped towards him angrily, “What else?”
“I forgot to ask you for a corkscrew.”
“There’s one inside!” she exclaimed, the frustration clearly visible on her face.
“Oh-” his phone rang right then, an almost imperceptible sound amidst the loud music being pumped out of the club’s speakers.
“Sorry, excuse me for a moment, I need to take this.” He mouthed at her while he pulled his phone out, “Hello?” he spoke into the mobile.
Scarlett watched his face get scrunched up as if in annoyance, “I see. Well tell them to stay put, I’ll be right there.” Was all he said after a long silence.
“It seems I have a work emergency. Would you mind if I continued this night tomorrow? I must leave now, and to be honest I don’t believe I was...rewarded…enough for my payment.” He said for lack of a better word.
“Be here tomorrow and we’ll see. Thank you for coming.” She snatched the keys from his loosely closed palm, and Josh could clearly see her relax as soon as she had the key in her possession. A 180 degree change took place in her posture as she walked him out to the club’s entrance after she locked the black door.
“Goodbye.” Forever I hope, he thought as he was, in turn, greeted by the night’s warm breeze.
***
He almost ran to Bloomingdale’s. ‘Mustn’t keep her waiting’ was all he thought.
And there, right in front of the glittering window display, a slim woman stood looking a little lost, holding the oversized blazer she had on close to herself. Her silky brown waves shone under the dazzling street lights, the light breeze picked up the ends making the scene look like it was out of a movie. And all Josh could do for a second was stare.
Shaking his head to clear his mind, he walked over and touched her shoulder lightly, “Let’s get you some decent clothes.”
She turned around quickly in shock, surprised by his sudden appearance, but as soon as she recognized him, she managed an answer, “I don’t own a single dollar.”
“Don’t worry, I got plenty.”
“I couldn’t possibly!” she took a step back, her eyes widening in shock and pride.
“You need proper clothes.” He replied calmly.
“When I can afford proper clothes I’ll buy proper clothes.”
“Okay, you know what, we don’t have time to argue. Scarlett will discover that you’ve ran off soon enough, and it’ll take her a while longer to understand that I have something to do with it. I’d much rather we weren’t in the same block when the realization hits her, so why don’t we take this back to my flat, and we can start thinking from there.” It hit Louis then, that she nowhere to go, no one she knew, nothing to do; she was completely and absolutely on her own. Or maybe not completely, she corrected herself as she looked Josh in the eye.
“Come on!” not waiting for her approval, Josh clasped Louis’ hand and starting walking to a parking lot a little to the left. Walking limply behind him, Louis saw his hand slip into his back pocket to take out the keys to a Mercedes. An expensive looking pearly car beeped and lit up when he clicked on the small remote that was hanging on the key chain.
Opening the door for her like a true gentleman, Josh quickly jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off.
***
Louis leaned her head back into the passenger’s seat’s head rest, and let the evening’s warm breeze rush through her hair. Her eyes closed, she could only vaguely feel the lights flashing by on her eye lid as the car sped through the streets.
“We’re here.” Josh announced.
Blinking several times to get accustomed to the lights on the street, Louis opened her grey blue eyes to an ornately designed tower. The building was a neutral beige, with roman pillars wrapped in strands of royal blue hugging the at least twenty-five feet tall entrance. The amount of carvings on the building made Louis’ mind race, and the glass-like illuminated floor in the foyer did not help her settle down either. She felt as though she had just stepped into the world of the rich and the powerful. The few people who were going in and out of the 6 elevators were all dressed to impress. Everything around her screamed money, luxury, and a very, very extravagant lifestyle.
And she was in an oversized men’s blazer.
“Come on.” Josh ushered her into an elevator gently.
“Hold it!” An elegant woman in her mid thirties entered the elevator with them, her cheeks slightly red as though she had just made it here walking, a feat that seemed impossible in her 7 inch heels, “Oh, Josh, hello! How do you do?”
“Very well, Vera, thank you. And yourself?” he replied politely. He pushed the button for the 11th and the 19th floor and the elevator rushed up quietly. Louis briefly wondered which floor was his.
The lady, Vera, looked at Louis from head to toe with a very disdainful expression on her face, and then pointedly averted her gaze as she replied, “Excellent.” She smiled then, flashing a row of perfect pearly teeth, and Louis couldn’t help but hug the blazer closer to herself. Beside this woman who was clad in a perfectly ironed pencil skirt and a frilly chemise tucked in, paired with the Prada shoes, Louis looked as cheap as the dirty jeans she was wearing.
“Are you going to Frank’s engagement party?”
“Not sure yet, I might have some important business that day.”
“That’s a shame. Julie was just telling me she hoped to see you there to get a chance to chat.” Josh stiffened beside Louis, but remained composed. He was quiet for a second too long, but thankfully right then the elevator beeped “11th floor.” Unsure whether to exit the elevator or whether this was Vera’s floor, Louis hesitated as she waited for either Josh or Vera to move.
After a tense second, Vera exited the lift, “Bye bye. Do try to come to the party!” she waved her manicured hands and her heels clacked away as she walked off towards her apartment.
The elevator doors closed and both Josh and Louis remained silent until the machine announced that it was the ‘19th floor.’
They walked in silence towards 1901, one of the only two flats on this floor. Josh held the door open for her as her feet sunk into soft carpet. The lights came on then, as two dazzling chandeliers were lit up by some magical sensor she could not see. ‘Even the lights come on without buttons here,’ she thought to herself.
“I just moved in so it’s a bit messy,” he apologized quickly as he moved around the room in a perky manner trying to clean up some stray papers and a few empty iced tea cans, “My guestroom is still in progress so please forgive me you’ll have to take the couch for a few days.”
Louis nodded quietly and her mind whirred as she tried to take in the details of the room around her. Her education clicked in as she recognized the marble floor, the natural silk of the curtains, the hand-woven Persian carpets, and the original leather couches. She quietly thanked god that there were absolutely no reds or any gold in the room. The room was decorated with a modern touch; everything from the glossy black furniture and decorated glass separators to the giant LCD screen taking up a whole wall screamed modern. Not that Louis minded one bit. She fell in love with the décor, and Josh automatically rose on her scale. Not that he wasn’t high enough already…
So consumed was she in her reverie, she hadn’t even noticed Josh spread some sheets and lay two pillows and a blanket on the black couch. “Umm, I’ll let you rest for the night. We’ll talk in the morning. Is there anything else you need?”
The seconds’ hand on a clock Louis couldn’t see ticked a few times before she managed to say, “No, thank you.”
“Okay, well, umm, I’ll be in my room right there,” he pointed to a pair of large black doors, “if there’s anything please just ask. Make yourself at home. Good night.” He smiled encouragingly and turned to leave.
“Thank you.” She whispered with a soft smile just before he shut his door.
“I’m glad you’re out of there.”
***
Louis stared into the intricate details of the sponge effect of the paint on the wall directly in front of her. It included a very wide range of shades of turquoise, and added what Louis thought was a beautiful contrast to the black furniture. She forced her mind to empty itself of all thoughts about this fascinating day. For the first time in a long time, she knew she could afford to delay her thoughts to tomorrow, and she knew there was someone out here in this world who would help her arrange those confused thoughts. She just hoped she didn’t have to impose much longer on Josh. Her eyes soon got lost in the irregular sponge pattern, and she fell into a peaceful sleep…
***
Josh turned and for the fifteenth time lit his alarm clock to check the time.
3:29 it read. Sleep seemed to desert him that night. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind of all thoughts, ideas, and, to his frustration, feelings. What was it about this woman that caused him to lose so much sleep!? Josh prided himself about his ability to maintain a very professional relationship with his clients. That was all she was he tried to convince himself; a client. She was a client whom he stumbled upon by chance; a suffering woman who desperately needed his help, and so, being the gentleman that he was, he had to lend his hand, especially that he was more able than most to lend this hand being a lawyer. But no matter how many times he tried to repeat that to himself, he knew that he was only trying to fool himself.
Muffling a frustrated growl into his pillow, he eventually willed himself to sleep.
***