Maybe the fact that I’m so drunk isn’t bad? At least, I don’t dream of him.
I don’t see my Dark Angel.
I don’t see those cold, gray steel eyes lying to me.
Promising me the future we could never have.
He was never my demon.
***
Five months before.
“How do I look?” I ask my best friend while standing in front of the massive mirror in her room, looking over my outfit for the first day of work.
Oh my goodness, this is it. My first official day of work as a big girl.
First day as an adult who is going to make her own way in life without daddy’s trust fund paving the path ahead.
Okay, fine, I still have to use the trust fund because this is technically an internship job, but it has potential. When I prove myself to be useful, smart, and creative, they just might offer me a permanent, paying position, and from there, it’s only up.
My father doesn’t necessarily understand why I just don’t come work for him; after all, he is a widely successful entrepreneur, investor, and lawyer. Working for him would undoubtedly be so much easier—not to mention I’d make at least five times more—but I need this.
I need to prove to myself that I can. That I am not a nobody like someone tried to engrave into my brain. I am not empty and clueless.
I can do anything.
Kate looks over my black leather skirt that goes past my knees but has a longish slit in the front, my white, loose blouse that I tucked into it, and my black, sinful Louboutin pumps with those red soles. My short, shoulder-length blonde hair is down and in loose waves with clean and professional makeup on my face. I am not a model-looking type with long legs and slim figures, but I know how to choose the right clothes to make me look like one.
“Um, wow, I’m actually speechless, Lex,” Kate says and looks me over one more time. “Wow, but are you sure about the leather skirt? Isn’t it a bit too scandalous for an office job?”
I wink at her, “Can’t lose myself completely to a corporation, right? A girl needs to show her true colors.” Kate smiles at me.
I wasn’t born to be blah, so even though I might be working at an office in one of those stuffy, grey cubicles, I refuse to become stuffy. Or grey.
Fashion Linc is my dream job. It’s the largest magazine corporation with headquarters in New York and London. They write about everything from gardening outfits to who slept with who last night. They are the eyes and ears of this world, and I’m eager to become one of their spies.
Now, I will not stoop down to gossip; that is not the branch where I desire to work, but fashion? Hell, yes.
Those are my two loves in life. Journalism and cute clothes. See? What can be better than a position at Fashion Linc?
Exactly, nothing.
So even though they kept refusing my resume for the past two years, I never gave up. I applied again and again and again until the dream response came into my inbox.
I am not a quitter.
I fight till the end, and I enjoy the fight.
I am not ashamed to start from the bottom, and I know that I will end up on top. No matter what. But I would be lying if I said I’m not afraid of this first day. I was rejected a few times before. What if they still don’t think I’m good enough? What if, after seeing my work there for one day, I get that rejection slammed into my face again?
No. I will fight until the end. Fashion Linc, here I come.
My daddy always said that if I put my mind to something, it means it’s already mine. My daddy is the same way, and I am proud to be his daughter. Josh and Briana Ellis are my parents,heroes, role models, and just about everything else they could be. I am beyond blessed with them and am fully aware that Kate was always envious of our relationship. Her parents are snobs who treat her like a doll. Actually, that’s exactly what they call her, but not mine.
Mine taught me to be responsible and independent and get what I want in life, so I’ve always let Kate think of them as her parents also. We did grow up together; after all, we were neighbors since pretty much birth.
Everyone always wondered how Kate and I ended up being friends since all they saw was a shy little Katie, a girl who preferred to stay home and blend in with the walls or dance away at her ballet studio while I was a wild child, a life of the party. Or at least that’s how it seemed.
