She left the bathroom, walked to her couch, and plopped down on it. Something snapped. The cushion sagged in the center. A spring poked up into her left butt cheek.
“Great,” she said. “Just great.”
Sitting there on her now-broken couch—the one she’d found on a curb that someone had discarded—she looked around the tiny apartment and nearly cried.
“This is a far cry from Musso and Frank’s,” she said with a shake of her head.
Of course, she’d never actually been in the legendary restaurant. But she knew it was a lot nicer than her ratty place.
Auntie Athena’s nursery was a lot nicer than her place, too.
But now it was back to Samantha’sreal life. Back to reality.
And it sucked.
There wasn’t a hot Daddy wanting to take her over his knee here, either.
What was even with that guy? She was still a combination of angry and… well, something else… that she couldn’t quite pinpoint.
Her mind raced back to the events of the day. She’d been awful to some of the Littles at the daycare, like Iris. Why was she like that? Did she have to be such a brat? What if she simply introduced herself—her real self—to the group at Auntie Athena’s?
They were a nice, accepting group of people. Surely they would welcome her.
But she’d gone too far in her charade to back out now. She was Tonya to them. There was no changing that.
Looking around her apartment one more time, she said, “Things will be different one day. I really will be Tonya. I’ll have nice clothes and I’ll eat at Musso and Frank’s and maybe Leo will ask me out. Everyone will see. I’ll be something. Someone!”
An alarm rang on her phone and she hopped up quickly.
Maybe one day she’d be Tonya. But tonight, she was still Samantha Mayfield who worked at a greasy-spoon diner in a not-so-great area of town. And that alarm was reminding her it was time to leave for work.
If she had a car, it wouldn’t take so long. But she’d have to catch a bus, jump off at a different station and hop on a connecting bus, and then walk a bit before she actually reached work.
Tonya wouldn’t have to do all that. She’d have a fancy car. One that went really fast. Of course, she wouldn’t be working at the diner. She wouldn’t work anywhere! Her money would earn all the interest while she went out and shopped and dined and rubbed elbow with the rich, pretty people up on Rodeo Drive.
It would be wonderful.
And she’d have a Daddy. A big, strong, sexy Daddy to take her wherever she wanted to go.
“One day,” she grumbled as she opened her closet and pulled out her stained diner uniform.
“Maybe one day soon…”
Once she was dressed for work, she walked back into the tiny bathroom and examined herself in the mirror.
The uniform was a far cry from the “designer” clothes she’d worn as Tonya. True, they were knockoffs she’d bought over in Fashion District, on Santee Alley. But the other Littles at the nursery didn’t know that.
Kind of like the cars they’d seen her in were all rented. And it had cost her a pretty penny just to secure those rides for a couple of hours! But it was all part of the image she needed to maintain.
It had been fun, too. Jetting around Hollywood in fancy sports cars wasn’t something she experienced every day.
But it wasn’t something she could afford every day, either. Most visits to Auntie Athena’s saw her taking the bus to a few blocks away and walking the rest of the trip so no one would see her arriving on public transit.
She wondered what Kendrick drove. Sometimes he pulled up in the big, sleek van the Daddy Guard used. But not always. She just couldn’t remember what he drove.
Probably a truck, she guessed. Something big that conveyed strength. Just like “Tonya” drove something fancy and expensive that conveyed wealth.
Cars didn’t really matter right now, she reminded herself as she checked the time. Buses needed to be in her immediate future if she wanted to get to work on time.
