The next few days were pretty calm. I spent them doing laundry, organizing, and cleaning my things.
On Tuesday I heard from the job interview that I had gone on. They had decided to go with someone else.
I vented to leighanne about it.
“Great, I doubt I’m ever going to find a job with the stigma that company left me with” I complained.
“You will find something, I know you will. In the mean time you are more that welcome to work with me. It won’t be the kind of stuff you are used to doing, but it’s something else to put on your resume” leighanne offered.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive Layla”
“Leighanne, I have no idea what I would be doing right now if I had not run into you again” I was trying not to cry.
Leighanne walked up to me and gave me a hug. A couple seconds later Brian walked in.
“Aww” Brian cooed. He trotted over and wrapped his arms around the both of us. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“So what are we hugging about?” Brian finally asked.
“Layla is going to work with me till she can find something”
“The job interview I went on fell through” I explained.
“Oh I’m sorry”
“Yea well, it doesn’t surprise me with the way things have been going for me lately”
“Stay positive Layla, I’m sure you’ll find something soon”
“Thanks Brian”
“Well, Howie is gonna be picking me up soon, we have a meeting to go to” Brian announced.
“I think I’m gonna go for a run” I told them.
I went up and changed into black shorts and a yellow tank top.
Brian was walking out the door when I came down and I followed him out.
Howie was standing outside of his car texting on his phone.
“Hey Howie” Brian greeted him.
“What’s up Bri?” He looked over and noticed me.
“Oh, Howie this is Layla, Layla this is Howie” Brian
introduced us.
Howie shook my hand.
“You’re the brownie girl” Howie stated. I rolled my eyes.
“I’m guessing AJ told you about that?”
“Yea” we both let out a small laugh.
“So are you coming with us?” Howie questioned looking at me and then Brian.
“No” I laughed “I’m going to go for a run”
“Oh, well have fun, it was nice meeting you Layla” Howie replied.
“Thanks”
They got in the car and drove off.
I did some stretching first. After an hour long run I
came back and took a shower.
Leighanne and I were talking about how I was going to be working with her when Brian came home.
“How did your meeting go?” Leighanne asked.
“It went good” Brian started “oh and one of our producers, Alex, invited all of us to a party at his house this Friday night”
“That’ll be fun” Leighanne replied.
“Yea, Layla you’re more than welcome to come too” Brian offered.
“Really?”
“Of course, Kevin said his wife probably won’t be going, so you can be his date”
“Ok Brian” I laughed at him.
I was a little excited that Brian extended the invitation. After everything that’s been going on it would be nice to get dressed up and be social again. I mentally started going through my wardrobe to think if I had something to wear. I would have to stop at my storage unit to go through the fancy dresses I had stored in there.
The next two days went by pretty fast. I had met Kevin on Wednesday. He made the same joke Brian did about me being his date to the party. So it made me feel a little better that I wasn’t just tagging along.
Friday afternoon Leighanne and I went out to lunch and then went to get our nails done. We stopped by my storage unit before going home.
I dug around for a minute and pulled out what I was looking for. I unzipped both garment bags.
“Ok so it is between these two” I told leighanne.
Both dresses were one shouldered. One was a plum color, it had big diamonds wrapped around the top going over the shoulder, and it hugged every curve on my body. For the other dress, the top part was black and the bottom was covered in metallic grey sequins.
“Wow both of those are beautiful”
“I know that’s why I can’t decide”
“I think you should go with the black one” leighanne suggested.
“Yea I was starting to lean towards that one too” I admitted.
I zipped them both up. After putting the purple one back
I dug around for the pair of shoes I knew would go perfectly with the dress.
We arrived home and Brian was just getting ready to take Baylee over to his friends to spend the night.
Leighanne gave him a hug and kiss. They talked for a couple minutes and then left.
“What time does the party start?” I asked.
“Like 7, I think”
I looked at the clock; it was only 3:30.
We started talking about work. Before we knew it Brian was back.
“I thought you girls would have been getting ready by now” Brian commented.
We looked at the clock.
“Oh crap” It was 4:45 already.
Leighanne and I rushed upstairs. After I got out of the shower I heard a knock on my door.
“Kevin is going to pick us up, he should be here a little after 6” Leighanne informed me.
“Thanks”
I had just enough time to curl my long hair.
When I came down Kevin was already here.
“Hey Layla, you look very lovely” Kevin greeted me.
“Thank you” I tried not to blush.
Leighanne came down a few minutes later.
“We all ready to go?” Brian asked. Everyone nodded.
“AJ said that he and Rochelle are going with Howie and Leigh” Kevin informed Brian
“What about Nick?” Brian questioned.
“I don’t know, AJ said he was going to call him and find out what he is doing” Kevin replied.
I noticed Leighanne roll her eyes at the mention of Nick.
I kind of felt the same way. Hopefully he doesn’t act the way he did when I met him.
With traffic, we arrived a little after 7. There were already a ton of people there. We made our way in and found the others. AJ and Howie introduced me to their wives.
“You talk to Nick?” Brian asked AJ.
“Yea he should be here soon he said something about picking up his date”
I couldn’t help but wonder if leighanne was right about the kind of girls Nick went out with, I would find out soon enough.
The owner of this beautiful house made his way over to us. The house was very modern; it had an industrial feel to it, lots of concrete and metal.
After Kevin introduced me and greeted everyone, Alex showed us where to get drinks and servers were walking around offering appetizers.
Sure I have been to a number of these parties, but I still always felt a little out of place. As much as I loved the fashion world, I would always be a simple girl from a small town.
Kevin was being a wonderful date, introducing me to a ton of people and always including me in conversations.
Leighanne, Rochelle, and I were getting another drink at the bar when we noticed that nick had arrived.
“I’m gonna say this one wants to be…a singer” I heard Rochelle say.
“Possibly, her boobs are too big to be a model, unless she is trying for playboy” Leighanne added.
I just looked between the two women.
“Rochelle feels the same way I do, but she was smart and kept her mouth shut” Leighanne explained after noticing the look on my face. I nodded.
I didn’t exactly like to judge people but I couldn’t help but think they might be right.
This girl was screaming for attention the way she presented herself. She was wearing a bright pink strapless dress. It looked so tight I had no doubt it was probably cutting off circulation to her brain. From this far away even I could tell she was a bottle blonde. And if I ever wore heels that high, I would probably break my neck.
Noticing they were heading over to the bar. I decided to excuse myself.
“I’m going to use the bathroom.”
I spotted Alex and he directed me to where the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms were.
The downstairs one was occupied, so I headed upstairs.
Chapter End Notes:
Thank you for reading. Let me know what you think so far.
