Page 36 of Falling for Them

I turn around, but she has already gotten up, and she’s picking up an envelope from the floor.

“Oh, the gala ticket,” I say.

“Gala ticket?”She perks up.“Now that sounds like fun.”

The gala ticket had been tucked in my handbag, where I placed it during my shift.I couldn’t bring myself to chuck it in the trash.It’s probably the most expensive thing I own now—it’s worth more than my keyboard, my one prized possession.

She hands me the envelope.

“Do you want to go?”I ask.

“Oh, no,” she says.“Didn’t you say your young man invited you?He’d be disappointed to see me show up instead.”

“I doubt that,” I say, “but I can’t go, anyway.”

“Why ever not, dear?”

I don’t mean for it to all come spilling out, but it does—the dress I tried to buy, Tommy taking the last of my money, the futility of my relationship with Joel.By the end of the sorry tale, I’m struggling not to cry.But after all I’ve laid at this woman’s feet, she just smiles at me.

“There, there.You can still go to the gala, my dear.”

“I don’t have a dress, though,” I say.“Unless you count my maid uniform, which, I gotta admit, would be pretty freaking funny…”

“Stop being so silly,” she says.“Wait right here.”

She disappears down the short hallway.I hear her knocking things around in her room and I start to stand up, worrying that she’s fallen.But she emerges a second later with a garment bag draped over her arm.

“Now, it’s a little old-fashioned,” she says.“I wore this dress back in 1973.But I think with some adjustments, we could make it into a gown you’d be proud to wear to the gala.You could either impress your young man, or maybe find someone more deserving of you.”

More deserving of me…that sounds like what Sebastian said the other night:He can’t possibly deserve you.

“Well?”Mrs.Dali touches the ancient zipper on the garment bag, her gnarled fingers affectionate.“Do you want to take a look?”

“Of course,” I say, leaning forward.

This will be a true Cinderella moment, where my perfect gown is revealed, and I go dancing in the moonlight with my charming prince.

She tugs down the zipper as I think about dancing at the Tyler Gala.And in my fantasy, I’m dancing with Mr.Tyler, and Sebastian.Joel is off to the side, watching jealously while I have a good time and he lies on his phone to someone else about work.Only the woman he’s talking to doesn’t believe him for a second.

Maybe I’m punished because of this petty fantasy.Or maybe I’m punished because of the raw and dirty fantasies I was enjoying yesterday, featuring Mr.Tyler brutally fucking me in his office.

But there is no doubt in my mind that this is punishment.

Because the dress revealed by the open zipper is by far the most hideous article of clothing I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Eleven

Sebastian

A night at Vice with Kingston has lost all appeal.He doesn’t so much as look at the beautiful women who parade in front of our booth.They’re each trying to attract his notice, or mine.Or, the more daring and adventurous ones are trying to attract us both at once.

But Kingston doesn’t care about any of them.And to be honest, neither do I.

Finally, I set down my iced tea and face my friend.

“You want her,” I say.“I want her.What’s to stop us from having her?”

“Who are you talking about?”