Make Me (Editing)

eleven (edited)

"So you'll pick me up at eight then, yeah?" I asked into my phone, walking into my apartment and unbuckling my heels, relieving my feet from the white death traps.

"If that's cool with you," Conner replied. "I'm honestly ready whenever you are."

"We'll go with eight then," I said, knowing full well that it would take me that long to get myself ready.

"Sweet," he responded. "See you then."

After hearing the line cut, I threw my phone onto the bench, sighing heavily as I sat down on my couch. This was the first opportunity I'd had to actually process the day's events, and I didn't quite know where to begin.

My day had gotten off to such a good start. I'd walked into the office with all the confidence in the world, only to have it torn out from beneath me when I'd walked in on Courtney, feeling Mr Gray up behind his desk. Despite the underlying benefits of alliance that had seemed to bring the two together, it was clear that they really did have something more serious going on.

I honestly didn't know why it affected me so much, seeing them close like that. I guess I'd expected something more from him, especially after witnessing his reaction to my outfit just hours before. He was attracted to me, that much I knew. The sight of me this morning had reduced the man to a stuttering mess. But the day's events had just gone to prove my theory that my boss was completely incapable of having feelings.

I had heard him call my name, as the elevator doors had closed in front of me. The whole office had. But I knew that it had been nothing more than a desperate knee-jerk reaction, an impulse of sorts. It wasn't as though he was going to confess his undying love for me in front of the entire floor; I wasn't naïve enough to even toy with that idea.

The pain that had resulted from the whole ordeal had been enough to cause me to call up Conner, asking him if he knew of any good local clubs, which loosely translated to 'not a strip-joint'. I had never really been big on the whole clubbing scene; the music was too loud, the alcohol too expensive, and the people too drunk to remember anything. But tonight, that was exactly what I needed.

Conner had, of course, immediately had a place in mind, and had been absolutely elated by the prospect of the night ahead of us. Ever since we'd met on my first day of work, just over five weeks ago now, Conner and I's friendship had developed in its own right, just as with mine and Nikki's. They were both great for different things, and had different interests that were common with mine. Out of all of us, however, Conner was the only real social clubber.

Flicking through my small collection of dresses, my eyes fell on a sleek little black number, one which I'd owned for a while but had never had the chance to wear. Tonight was the night. I grabbed it off its hanger, rummaging through some boxes of shoes to find a matching pair of black stilettos. Although my feet were already killing me, I was going to make myself look hot tonight. I would deal with the blisters in the morning.

Before slipping into my dress, I decided that I would put the extra effort in and straighten my hair. I'd always loved the way my hair looked straight, but had never enjoyed the process of actually doing it. Once again, beauty was pain.

After spending a good half an hour on that, I moved on to my makeup, implementing a few of my new products into my routine. Nikki had come around after our little shopping spree and shown me the basics of makeup artistry. I would never be as good as she was at matching shades or blending shadows, but I was already noticing some small improvements.

Slipping into my little black dress, I felt powerful. There was something about dressing up that always got me going. I looked into my small bathroom mirror, pretty impressed with what I saw. I was finally starting to become used to seeing myself with my lighter hair and darker lashes. My favourite part of my new look, however, was definitely my new piercing. It suited me better than I had ever hoped it could, giving my whole look a bit of an edgier vibe.