Calah
I randomly hear a knock at the door and go to open it, when I look out the peephole I see a pretty young girl, with curly hair and glasses smiling back at me so I open the door.
“Hello, Miss Levine?” she says, grinning.
“Yes, my dear, Calah is fine, are you Midge?”
“Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you Calah.”
“Please come in.”
Midge smiles and walks into the hotel room, I gesture to the sofa and sit down together, “I must thank you for organizing my arrival, you did an excellent job, it was very stress-free.”
“I’m happy to be of service. Actually here, this is for you, I’ve already programmed my number in and your email should be on here too, they are loaners provided by Elite,” she explains as she hands me a cell phone and smiles.
“Thank you, this is perfect.”
“You’re very welcome, I’m not sure what you need from me right now. I’ve organized an office space for us to utilize during our stay and your first meeting will be a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning.”
“Oh well, that’s perfect. I suppose I’m all set. Will you email me the details about the meeting?”
“Of course, you actually should already have them but I’ll double-check. Is there a presentation I can assist with or anything you would like printed for the meeting?”
“Wow, you’re wonderful, thank you. I worked on a preliminary presentation so I’ll email that over to you, if you would like to print note pages for everyone that would be great.”
“Not a problem. Then I’ll see you tomorrow morning, I’ll make sure I arrive at least fifteen minutes early.”
“Wow, you’re so efficient, I guess I’ll just spend the evening exploring…”
She smiles at me as she stands up but then sits back down, “You know, I wasn’t expecting you to be so…”
“So?” I ask but in my head the answers weird, strange, off-putting keep coming to mind.
"Young. I know how to handle my work as I’ve shown you, but the hotel bar was hopping last night. I’m going again tonight, you should come with me.”
“Really?”
“I mean yes, in a platonic non-professional capacity,” she laughs.
“That sounds perfect, thank you for the invitation.”
“Absolutely, it will be nice to hang out, I’ll come by and grab you at seven. Put on your hottest dress!”
“Wow, alright, I will, thanks again.”
“Have a nice day, enjoy Spain… take a nap in the sun…it will be…healing.”
“Thank you, sincerely my dear, I’ll see you this evening.”
She smiles and leaves the room so I plop down on the mattress and roll around in the comfortable bedding. There are more pillows here than I’m used to and they are all perfectly soft. Soft enough that I fall asleep for a few more hours. When I wake up it’s the afternoon and I’m ravenously hungry.
I raid the mini bar because chocolate-covered almonds and then start to pace the room looking for the room service menu. After deciding to order bread and a salad I hop into the shower in anticipation of my night out with Midge. She had seemed so buttoned up and professional but when she talked about going out there was a fire in her eyes. She seems like she might be able to help break me out of my shell, even if I don’t know her as well as I know Rhea.
A waiter in a crisp white jacket delivers my food and then I sit down and watch some Spanish television while I eat my dinner. This time change is going to take a lot of getting used to. After dinner, I pull up the presentation I worked on during the flight and check it for errors before I send it to Midge.
When I decide it’s time to get dressed I wrestle with the underwear choices. Rhea said that Priya told her confidence starts at the foundation. I put on some new sexy underwear I just bought and slip into the dark purple dress Rhea convinced me to buy. Sure it may be a little extra but if there is any night to be extra it’s tonight. Looking in the mirror I start to feel a little insecure, it doesn’t matter if I look like a femme fatale if I have no chat. Before I let myself go too deep into that hole I decide to email Rhea.
Hey Ray,
I’m here, in Spain. My temporary assistant is named Midge, she’s nice but I miss you. I have a meeting tomorrow with the lower hanging fruit to see if I get to see the board. Weirdly I’m not worried, I feel like I’ve got this.
I am worried now though because Midge convinced me to go out with her tonight and experience Spain. I’m wearing the purple dress, you know the one my dear, but I’m afraid that even if I attract attention I’ll mess it up when I open my mouth.
I miss you and I hope my parents are being kind to you, I’ll check in with you tomorrow at some point.
Calah
I take the extra time to put some lashes on to occupy my mind, one of my eyes is practically glued shut when my phone goes off. There is already a reply from Rhea, I hope I didn’t wake her up.
I can’t sleep, I’m having a weird time right now but I wanted to tell you that you are a badass. You look like a princess in that dress and you can have whoever you want.
Be yourself, I love you, I love who you are, please just share that with someone new.
Love, Rhea
It’s everything I needed to hear. I manage to pry my eye open, finish my make-up then style my hair. Just as I think I’m done, I hear a knock on the door.
When I open the door Midge looks totally different, her glasses are gone and her dress is very revealing.
"Wow, you look amazing," I gush.
"Thank you, and so do you."
"Are you ready to go?"
"I feel like we need to pregame a little bit," she giggles but I have no idea what she's talking about.
"Explain this pregame, my dear."
"Right so, is your mini bar on the company?"
"Yes."
She opens the small fridge and hands me a little bottle of whiskey, "Shoot it, on the count of three," she says.
"Are you sure?"
She doesn't answer, instead she just starts to count, "One, two, three!"
I throw the liquor back, and once I manage to swallow it down I take a deep breath and let it out in an attempt to center myself.
"Come on Calah, tonight we party, and tomorrow we work," Midge says grabbing my hand as she pulls me toward the door.
"One minute my dear, I need to make sure I have all of my things," is what I say but really I'm just sort of freaking out.
With no other excuses left I follow Midge out of the room and into the elevator.
