Every Day is A New Day

Monday

The sun gleamed brightly through the door as she slid across the threshold, the door slamming shut behind her abruptly cutting off the light. She immediately missed the heat on her face, but resigned herself to another day at work.

As she absent mindedly grabbed her time card and looked critically into the mirror hanging above the loud time stamp machine to make sure her pale peach lipstick had not gravitated to her teeth, making sure her bobby pins were holding as they should, making sure she was ready to face the customers. With one last adjustment of her name tag, she ran the time card through the slot, jammed it back into its slot and headed for her locker to stow her purse. She tied her apron behind her back and reached for her order pad and pen. Spinning around, she slammed her locker door shut, straightened out her uniform under the apron and arranged her features into the approachable and yet slightly vapid look she reserved for her days as the waitress.

Giving a passing look around the restaurant and a brilliant smile to the cook (who growled in return) she strode to her first table.

“Hi, my name is Daphne, ya’ll ready to order?”

She blinked twice quickly and settled into her best Southern Belle.

Wednesday

She awoke slowly, stretching a little bit at a time. Each time hoping that her fingertips would find their way to the sun that usually splashed across her bed by early morning. But she knew she wouldn’t find its warmth today. The sun had disappeared yesterday behind an enormous bank of clouds that had gotten progressively angrier as the day had gone on. She knew today would find the outside draped in a cold fog of indeterminate grey.

She shrugged and rolled to the side of the bed, stretching her legs to the wood floor and standing lithely. Taking a moment for one last toe to fingertip stretch, back arching in pleasure. She let a gust of wind escape her mouth as her eyes focused on her naked body looking back at her in the full length mirror. She grinned slightly, showing appreciation for the glory that was her body, and headed for the shower. There was no time for anything more as she had allowed herself to oversleep this morning and knew the data entry she was due at would not be waiting patiently.

Arriving at the tall office building, she walked quickly across the distance to the elevators, glancing swiftly at the huge clock hanging just over the lobby’s security guard desk. She was, indeed, late. The elevator arrived just as she was about to push the button and she wedged herself into the back left corner of the box, paying little attention to with whom she happened to be sharing space. The elevator stopped on the 5^th floor and she firmly nudged her way out, walking almost directly to the receptionist’s desk in the grand office laid out in front of her.

“May I help you?” the receptionist asked in a clipped but professional tone.

“Yes, I’m Nancy, here from the Temp Agency assigned to Data Entry today.”

The receptionist’s eyes lingered on the electric blue scarf that stood out starkly against Nancy’s dark grey suit as she said “Head to office 204, they’ll have your instructions there.”

Nancy barely nodded and headed down the hall. Settling into her desk a few minutes later, she gave one last look to the dreary outside before immersing herself in drudgery.

Thursday

She wrapped her hands around the huge coffee cup sitting on the table in front of her before bringing it to her mouth to gingerly test the temperature. Relishing in the nearly scorching heat of the coffee trickling down her throat she took one moment to survey the coffee shop she was in. At some point it had gotten busy. The wind whipped clouds of dust into the already dingy looking air and rain drops streamed down the huge front window.

Putting her cup down, her fingers caressed the page of the book lying on the table next to her emerald green purse. Allowing herself to become engrossed in her book once more, she didn’t even notice the man walk up to her table.

“Um, hi,” he said. His tone apologetic for interrupting her.

She took her time looking up, not wanting to drag her eyes off the page yet again. Eventually, her eyes met his and although she recognized him immediately, her expression did not register that recognition.

“I’m James, my desk is a few down from yours at the office? You were doing data entry yesterday I think? I meant to introduce myself then, but I never got the chance.”

She allowed her face to widen into a warm smile, but she did not speak.

“I was hoping that I would see you again today, but was someone else there. When I saw you here, I wanted to make sure to meet you.” He smiled in an uncomfortable way. As if he knew that she really did not care one whit about the words coming out of his mouth.

She refreshed the smile on her face, held out her hand and said, “I’m Veronica.”

He momentarily looked taken aback and said, “Oh, I thought Mary said your name was Nancy. I guess she got it wrong.”

“It looks that way,” Veronica said as her eyes flashed quickly back down to her book and then back to his face.

“Well, um, I’m really glad to have met you. I, uh, don’t suppose you’d like to have dinner with me tomorrow night, would you?”

She looked at him for so long he started to squirm under the weight of her stare. His eyes fluttered around the coffee shop, checking to see if anyone was watching or listening to this strange conversation he was having with the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He finally cleared his throat, took a deep breath and returned her stare.

Veronica held his eyes for the length of one breath, batted her eyes at him twice and said “Sure, I’ll meet you at The Bistro at 8pm.”

With that, she smiled quickly at him and immediately dropped her eyes back down to her book.

“Great, I’ll, uh, see you then,” James stammered before slowly turning and wandering away from her table. Summarily dismissed.

Friday

She took great pleasure in smoothing the bright red lipstick across her full lips. As she pulled back slightly from the mirror she watched her pupils dilate subtly as a slight flush colored her cheekbones. She was looking forward to the evening.

Slowly she pulled her red dress, matching her lipstick perfectly, up over the perfectly proportioned curves of her body and pulled the zipper up. She stepped lithely into her red stiletto heels, grabbed her shiny black purse and walked out the door hooking her keys and pashmina on her way out the door.

The cab pulled up in front of the restaurant and she stepped out with incredible care so as to miss all of the scattered puddles studded with hail.

She crossed the threshold to the restaurant and was immediately met by James.

“Hi Veronica! Wow, you look amazing!”

She took her time appraising him, found him satisfactory enough and shed the pashmina into his waiting hand. Taking great joy from his audible gasp as his eyes found her bare shoulders and skimmed the territory of her cleavage; she turned to him with a huge smile.

“Please, James, call me Eva,” she lowered her eyes slightly and looked up at him with her mouth in full pout and her eyelashes batting.

“Oh, ok, yeah sure, that’s great.” He seemed to be mildly confused now, but was willing to do just about anything she asked.

She led the way behind the maitre d’ to their table and took the chair facing the wall. Eva played with her earring for a moment while her napkin was placed in her lap. By the time she looked up James was seated next to her eyeing her with open admiration. She coaxed another slight blush into her cheeks under his stare. He smiled widely in response.

Dinner went as she expected. Making small talk, mostly about him, enjoying the food and watching him rev himself up after the check was paid to ask her back to his place.

“Oh, silly James,” she crooned “of course I’d love to have a drink at your place.”

He beamed as he draped her pashmina back over her shoulders and guided her back outside to hail a cab. The rain was streaming down in sheets now.

The cab ride was short and she waited in the car while he ran inside to grab an umbrella to shield her from the downpour on the walk into his apartment.

She slowed her pace to squeeze against him in the doorway into his apartment locking eye contact for a moment. His eyes widened as he drew in a sharp breath in surprise.

Eva dropped her head coyly and walked all the way into his apartment, shrugging off her pashmina onto a chair in the entry. She looked over her shoulder at James who was looking at her with wide eyes.

“James, why don’t you make us drinks while I tidy myself back up.”

“O-of course Eva.”

She coasted in the direction he pointed her and easily found the small, but well lit, bathroom. She could hear the rain battering against the window as she tucked a few stray hairs back into place and reapplied her lipstick. As she stood staring at her reflection in the mirror she thought through how the rest of this evening would probably evolve. James would stutter and stammer his way closer to her on the couch, nervously sipping his drink while she tried to remain patient. No. She simply did not have the self restraint tonight. The buffeting wind and rain had all but driven her insane already.

Quickly, she made the decision to take the remnants of the evening into her own hands as she teased her dress off and let it drop to the bright white tiled floor. She smiled seductively at her own reflection, picking up her purse but leaving her dress where it lay.

Boldly, she walked back out into the living room and strode directly over to James who had started audibly panting at the sight of her. She gave him a mildly amused smirk in return as she grabbed both of his hands to lead him to the bedroom.

She reached the bedroom and turned to face him, her own breath coming faster now, in anticipation.

“Lie down, and close your eyes,” Eva whispered into his ear.

James shivered and did as he was told.

Eva watched James as he clumsily climbed onto his tall bed, hastily laying down in the middle and snapping his eyes shut with a growing smile on his face. Grabbing her purse she moved to the bed and with nimble fingers unbuttoned his shirt. She pulled him up into a seated position as she stripped his shirt from him. “Hm, he’s actually quite nice to look at,” Eva thought to herself, pleased that she had chosen him.

With one finger pressed firmly to his chest she pushed him back down into a prone position. She paused to look at him for a moment, taking in his glee laced with the smallest hint of apprehension. Her fingers traced the curves of his face, angling down his neck and along his collar bones. She felt goose bumps rise beneath her touch as her fingers slide down his ribs. Out of her purse she slid a long gleaming blade and with utter relish she slid it gracefully into the space between his third and fourth ribs angled just slightly so as to guide the blade directly into James’ heart.

His eyes flew wide and a gasp escaped his lips as he tried, and failed, to scream. All the air that had been present in the lung the knife had punctured bubbled out around the blade.

She beamed as she slowly leaned over him to kiss him, long and lusciously, on the lips, simultaneously delighting in the feeling of the warm blood rushing over her hand, pooling deliberately at the point of her knee.

Saturday

Her face was ablaze with joy as she pulled the curtains back to allow the bright sunlight to splash across the bright yellow walls in her bedroom. She stood for a moment, basking in the warmth and then turned back to her mirror.

Grinning lazily, she pulled focus on her reflection in the mirror, “Hello Sara, how are you today?”