Then again, I used to worry about tampons falling out. Alicia may not be naïve now, but she certainly had been at twelve. The poor dear hadn’t even believed her school nurse mother when she said tampons would stay perfectly in there without a worry.Wore pads until I switched to the cup a few years ago.Tampons? What were those?
“You’re pretty chipper after what happened yesterday evening,” Dee said as they sat to have a late lunch in the hotel café. “Or have you forgotten already?”
Right. Dee knew little about the love mounting between her boss and charge. For all Dee knew, Alicia was a temporary lover for a woman who was used to going through many a year.If only she knew the real Danica Moreau.Alicia wouldn’t hold it against her. Nor would she hold it against Candice, who kept texting for deets and flip-flopping between telling Alicia to go get more rich pussy and insinuating that she was making a huge mistake.
“I haven’t forgotten.” Alicia swirled the cherries in the Shirley Temple she ordered with her lunch.There’s a virginity joke somewhere. “There are other things on my mind as well. Just because I had to hear that terrible tale doesn’t mean I feel any less for Danica.” What did it mean if she felt comfortable calling her by her first name around other people? “I have no reason to believe she’s anything like her father.” God hoping. Alicia didn’t want her heart broken any more than she wanted other things broken.
“That says nothing about her father, though. You get mixed up with this woman, you gotta deal with her dad, too.”
Was Dee supposed to give personal relationship advice as part of her job? No? Then why the hell was she doing that? How dumb did she think Alicia was? “Danica is over thirty now. I should hope she’s able to stand up to her father about relationship choices.” Even so, Alicia did not deny the threats that had been uttered in her direction. “The only real objection he could possibly have is that I’m not from an affluent family. So what? Do they need to make new connections that badly?”
“Ma’am, if I may intervene a bit,” Dee said, not invited to continue, “but I’ve been working for these types of families for a while now. They’re all kind of the same. They only think aboutgetting more money. One of the best ways to do that is to marry into more money. Millions, if not billions of dollars of money.” Dee shook her head, short hair glistening beneath fluorescent lighting. Those dark suits she wore must be sweltering in the heat. “Ms. Moreau is the only child in her whole family tree. She’s the only chance her family’s got to make more money. Of course, her dad wants her to marry rich, even if it is another woman. Honestly? That’s probably why he’s pushing it even harder. It’s how he gets control over his daughter’s sexuality. If he can’t control what gender she’s attracted to, he can control who she marries.”
“Thank you for your advice.” Alicia looked away. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Whatever you want, ma’am.” The resigned tone in Dee’s voice sounded less than enthusiastic. “We can talk about the floral arrangements for your upcoming wedding, if you want.” Ah, there was the sarcasm again.
“First of all, Danica hasn’t formally proposed to me yet, and I’m not even sure if I would say yes. Even I don’t want to move that quickly.” Alicia would cross that bridge when it was suddenly erected before her. “Floral arrangements are lovely, though. Think I’d like to have lilies at my wedding.”
Dee sighed. Alicia pretended not to be concerned, although the back of her mind was filled with shit like,“Run far, far away, Alicia! You’ve stumbled into the wrong black hole!”
Unlike Alicia, though, Dee probably didn’t have some sweet lover to go home to. She more than likely spent all of last night tossing and turning, having one nightmare after another regarding what Julia Johnson-Moreau had to say about her abuses.
Alicia didn’t want to think about these things. At all. So she didn’t, simple as that.If I don’t think about it, nothing will ever come true. That’s how it works, right?There were thingsto occupy her mind with, anyway. She may be traipsing around Chicago with Ben Wa balls in her pussy, but she was traipsing on the road to a new personal stylist.
Now it was easy to let go of her insecurities and let herself be pampered. Whatever these women styling and dressing her thought, they would keep it to themselves. Danica paid them thousands of dollars a session to make women like Alicia look the most beautiful at any party. It didn’t matter if Alicia had fried hair, pimpled skin, or an ass the size of Jupiter and no frame to justify it. These women would make her lookgood. Even at her most insecure, Alicia could not deny that the woman looking back at her in the mirrors was worth at least ten million dollars.
They took inspiration from her emerald ring and dressed her in a dark, luxurious green silk that hugged her thighs and accentuated her bust while showing no cleavage. Indeed, the dress was rather simple – a round neck plummeting to a cinched waist and a pencil skirt that highlighted her calves as they emerged from two green pumps. One of the stylists pulled a diamond-studded belt around Alicia’s waist and tucked in some excess green silk, creating the illusion of an emerald wave overflowing from her aura.
“Wow,” Alicia said as they pulled her hair up into an intricate twist. Green ribbons were threaded through the folds, a simple pair of emerald and diamond earrings dangling on either side of her head. They forewent a necklace in favor of a diamond tennis bracelet. The centerpiece of her look was the emerald ring on her right hand. “I do look like I’m ready for a wedding.”
“If you’re not the best-looking woman at the ball tonight, I’ll eat my gloves,” said the older stylist.
“Ball? I was told it was a party.”
The women exchanged glances. “We were told to dress you for the Senator’s Ball.” When Alicia didn’t react, they continued,“It’s one of the biggest events of the year. Politicians from all over the world will be there. People like Ms. Moreau, too.”
This time, Alicia’s “wow” held a little more oomph.
“What do you think?” she asked Dee at the end of the dress-up game. The bodyguard had spent the past two hours sitting on the side of the room, looking more bored than a child at the stuffiest event in the world. “Do I look like I’m ready to go to a ball?”
“Nah,” Dee said matter-of-factly. “Dress ain’t poufy enough. You need about fifty more yards of tulle or whatever that stuff is called. I haven’t seenProject Runwayin a while.”
“Do you think Danica will like it?”
“If she doesn’t think you’re gorgeous, then she’s a bigger fool than anyone in this room.”
Alicia wasn’t sure if that was a backward compliment. “Thanks, Dee. I feel pretty, too.”
They both had a surprise when they caught the limo later. When the driver opened the door to let Alicia in, she stepped back to see Danica already waiting for her inside.
“Precious,” she said, extending a hand to help Alicia in. Dee showed herself to the front section, where her boss’s bodyguard already sat. “You are absolutely radiant, as always. Did they take care of you in there?”
Grinning, Alicia slipped into the seat beside her and waited for the door to close before answering. “Not nearly as well as you take care of me… ma’am.”
“Speaking of,” Danica gestured to her neck, “you seem to have forgotten something.”
“No, I haven’t.” Alicia popped open her clutch and pulled out the collar. “Didn’t want it to interfere with their work.” She handed her Mistress the collar.
