Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
L ila
I can feel the air dissipating from my blow-up mattress and I sigh as my back approaches the floor. I look around my small apartment and stare out of the window into the night sky. I can't see stars, but there are a lot of street lights that resemble stars. I almost wish I lived in the countryside somewhere so I could stare into an unpolluted night sky, but if I was in the country, I wouldn't be working for Max Spector and exchanging emails with him before I went to bed. I pull out my phone to see if he responded to my last email.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
I think you’re still my assistant at all hours of the day.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
So you’re saying you think I need to work for you all hours of the day.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
No, I’m saying that technically your role as my assistant isn’t based on time. It’s not like you leave work and no longer have a job, is it?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
I am trying to sleep.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Why do I not believe that?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
I have no idea why you don’t believe that, but you’re keeping me up past my bedtime.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Is that an invitation?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
To do what?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Sing you a lullaby?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Can you sing?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Not very well.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Then no thanks.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Did you find out any information on Mrs. Whittington.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
I’m not on the clock right now, but not yet.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Your detective hat came off?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
I suppose so.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
You do realize it doesn’t matter what you find out, right? I still have to do my job.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
And I still have to live with myself.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
You’re an interesting one, Lila Haversham.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Is that a good thing?
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
I guess we shall see. Sweet dreams.
From: [email protected]
Re: My bagel
Thanks! To you as well.
I roll over and get up off of the mattress, then walk over to the window to look outside, then I look back into my empty apartment. I don't have any furniture. I don't even really have plates or pots, but the place is mine. A feeling of happiness surges through me as I realize that I'm doing it. I'm living my life as a single, independent woman. A momentary glimpse of nostalgia enters my brain as I think about Zara and how I miss her. How I've not really been an adult without her in my life.
"You're finally a grown woman, Lila," I say to myself.
I feel suddenly overwhelmed and excited at the same time. I’m entering new territory. It feels weird and wonderful, and I’m hopeful for the future. I move back to the bed and pick up my phone to read the email thread from Max asking me to bring his bagel for breakfast tomorrow.
I roll my eyes as I wait for a response to my last email. It's late and I'm kinda shocked that he emailed me in the first place, but also kind of excited. I lick my lower lip and realize that it's dry so I head to the fridge and pull out a bottle of water. I twist the cap and drink it down halfway before regretting that I'm drinking water so late. I don't have the biggest bladder, so I know that at about five o'clock in the morning I’m going to have a decision to make: get up and go pee or lay in bed and hope that I can hold it in.
My phone beeps again and I grin, wondering if it's Max, but it’s Zara’s name that pops up on my screen.
"Hey, you up?"
I immediately call her.
"Hey," she answers, whispering. "How are you?"
"What do you mean how am I? You're not my grandma."
"What's up, bitch?" Zara says, and we both burst out laughing. We rarely speak to each other like that, but when we do it always makes us laugh. "I was just thinking about you," she says.
"Oh? Before or after your crazy love making with your absolutely gorgeous rich fiancé?"
"Goofy, he's working. Plus, if I was in bed with him, I would definitely not be thinking about you. No offense."
"No offense taken. Thank you very much," I say, giggling. "I was just looking at my apartment and thinking how bare it is and—wait. Do not offer to buy me furniture."
She giggles. "You know me too well."
"Of course I do. I'm your best friend. Duh."
"You are," she says. "But come on. I can get you a couch and a table and?—"
"No, I want to do it on my own. I want to have the exhilaration of scrimping and saving, and?—"
"It's really not all it's made out to be," she says, laughing. "You and I both know that."
"I know, but I feel like I want something to be proud of, you know?"
"Lila, what are you talking about? You have so many things to be proud of. You are absolutely amazing. You?—"
"And I'm mad at myself, Zara."
"Oh, no. Why are you mad?"
"I'm upset that I didn't go to the audition. I mean, even if I didn't get the role, I still should have tried. I can't just not go."
"I know," she says. "But obviously you didn't go for a reason."
"I think because when I saw that long line of women, I really didn't think I was going to get the role and I really knew I needed to get a job. But if I want to be an actress, that has to come first. Even if I can't eat, that has to come first."
"Lila, I love you, but I'm not going to let you be a starving artist, okay? If you can't eat, I will be buying you groceries. I don't care what you say."
"Fine," I giggle. "If I can't afford groceries, I will let you buy them for me, but then I will pay you back when I make it as an A-list star…or B-list, or even C-list."
"Girl, aim for the stars," Zara says. "No one aims to be a C-list star."
"Hey, when you're a zero star, you'd be very happy to be a C-list," I say, laughing. I twirl around the room, my hands in the air as I hold the phone out on speaker. "Can you hear me?" I ask.
"Yeah, what are you doing?"
"I'm just dancing around my very own apartment like I’m Audrey Hepburn."
"I love you, Lila. You're so goofy."
"I love you too. Guess what?" I say.
"What?" she asks.
"My jackass of a boss literally just emailed me telling me not to forget his bagel tomorrow morning."
"No way," she says. "Are you for real?"
"Yeah. I was like, these aren't work hours and you can't tell me what to do."
"You did not say that."
"No, I didn't actually say that in those particular words, but I think he got the hint based on what I did say."
"Lila, you can't speak to your new boss that way."
"I'm not planning on staying there long. I think I just need to get a couple of paychecks because I'm making so much money. Then I can buy a couple of pieces of furniture and then really focus on my acting."
"A couple of paychecks?" she says. "What does that mean?"
"Girl, I don't think I'm going to last working for him, and I don't even know that I actually like the work. We met with one of the clients today that we’re supposed to be taking care of through his divorce from his wife, and he was such a jackass and he was hitting on me and he was the biggest slime ball, and I was just thinking to myself, you're going to represent that douche bag? I don't want to be a part of that."
There's silence on the phone.
"Hello? Are you there, Zara?"
"Yeah, I'm here, but you do realize most people who need attorneys are slime balls, right?"
"No," I say. "Most people that need attorneys are not slime balls. Maybe most people that need criminal attorneys are slime balls."
Zara giggles. "Oh, yeah, you're right. For some reason, I was thinking of Law and Order: SVU and everyone that needs an attorney on that show is an asshole."
"Well, you mean a defense attorney. If they're with the prosecution?—"
"Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean, Lila."
"I do. I don't know Max. Obviously, I just got this job and obviously, I don't know the law that well, but I would think that if I was an attorney I would want to work with and for people that I respect. And just because Jack Whittington has a lot of money doesn't mean that he should…" I pause. "Oh my gosh. I hope I didn't just break the Hippocratic Oath."
"What?" Zara says.
"Isn't that that the oath that they take as attorneys to keep your mouth shut?"
"One, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, girl."
"Oh, yeah," I say, giggling.
"And two, Lila, you're not an attorney. So you wouldn't have taken any oath."
"I know, but I work for an attorney and I feel like maybe the client information should be confidential. I mean, it's not like Max told me I can't tell anyone, but I assume I can't tell anyone."
"It's not like I'm the New York Post or the National Enquirer , but yeah, I wouldn't go blabbing your mouth," Zara says, laughing. "You do want to get a couple of paychecks, right?"
"Yep. I looked at the paycheck schedule and I don't even think I have to be there a month to get my first two paychecks, and then I will be like, ‘sayonara bitches’." I giggle.
"There's no way you're going to say that to your boss."
"I don't know, but he's a jerk."
"He's a jerk, huh?"
"He's a jerk with the biggest sparkling blue eyes I've ever seen, and?—"
"So he's got blue eyes, does he?"
"Yes, he's hot and yes, if I'd met him in other circumstances, I would bang him all night long. I'm not going to lie. He has got a body that could give Magic Mike a run for his money."
"Not Magic Mike!"
"Girl, he's got the body of Magic Mike, but the face of fricking Brad Pitt, but cuter."
"He sounds very delicious."
"He is, and that's why I can only work there for a month or so, because he's either going to drive me crazy or I'm going to have my wicked way with him, and neither one of us is going to want that."
"If you're feeling him that much, why don't you just have your wicked way with him? I mean, when we spoke earlier..." She pauses. "Nothing happened, did it, since we spoke earlier?"
"No, Zara. I'm not the wicked whore of the east."
"Did you just say the wicked whore of the east?"
"Well, yeah. Wouldn't that be kind of a cool name?"
"I could just see it on Broadway," she says. "Lila Haversham starring in The Wicked Whore of the East ."
"With my co-star Max Spector as the timid scarecrow."
Zara starts laughing. "Oh my gosh. If I ever meet him, all I'm going to think about is a timid scarecrow."
I giggle. "He doesn't really look like a timid scarecrow, but once the wicked whore of the east has had her wicked way with him, he'll be one."
"It sounds like you've really thought about this a lot, Lila."
"I totally haven't, I promise. I literally just made it up in my head."
"So you're not going to have your wicked way with him?"
"No, because knowing me, I'd be the one that got burned and I do not have time for heartache right now, especially after Hank."
"Girl, he did not leave you in heartache," Zara says, and I can tell she's rolling her eyes. She couldn't stand Hank.
"No, he didn't leave me in heartache, but I did feel a little bit used and I did feel?—"
"Girl, you only made out with him. It's not like you guys had sex."
"I know, and he wasn't even a good kisser. He's lucky he got my lips on his." I burst out laughing. "Anyway, I want to do way more with Max than kiss. Not that I would ever tell him that."
"You should see..."
"No, Zara. I'm not going to see anything. Anyway, I have to get up early tomorrow because I guess I have to go and get my boss a bagel and coffee before I get to work."
"You're going to do it?"
"Oh, girl. Of course I'm going to do it. I'm going to be the best little employee he's ever had so that when I leave in a month, he's going to regret the day he was ever rude to me and made fun of me and acted like I sucked."
"He did not act like you suck."
"I mean, he didn't say I suck, but he and I both know that I am not the best assistant on the market." I giggle. "Like I said before, I don't really know why he hired me. I don't really care why he hired me, but it's just weird."
"It is weird," she says. "Did you ask him?"
"I did ask him and he didn't really say. Maybe I'll ask again tomorrow?"
"No, girl," Zara says. "You don't want to give him an excuse to say, ‘oh, you know what? I regret the decision’ and fire you before you ever get those first two paychecks."
"That's true," I say. "That would be the last thing I need. Anyway, I'm going to go and wash my face and maybe I'll look to see if there are any other auditions coming up. I love you, Zara."
"I love you Lila. Talk to you soon?"
"Okay, bye."