My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Three

~The Next Day~

I go through my clothes, looking for the perfect thing to wear for my meeting with Adrian. My eyes drop onto my mother’s dress and I smile. “Perfect. I can wear that,” I tell myself, picking the dress up. I grab a clean pair of underwear from my drawer and head to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Once I get out of the shower I grab a towel and quickly dry my hair. I put some curly moose into my wet hair and anti-frizz stuff. Then I run my hands through my hair and put my clothes on. I run back to my bedroom and grab my makeup bag. I hold my little mirror up to my face while I apply a bit of eyeshadow, mascara and blush to my face. With that done I take out my cherry red lipstick and carefully apply it to my lips, closing my lips together to make sure it’s firmly set. I put all my makeup back into the bag and place my mirror on my dresser. I flatten out the creases in my dress and grab my phone and purse off my bed.

I look at that time on my phone and see that it’s 11:40am. Twenty minutes to our meeting time. I call for a cab and head to the front door, putting my red flats on. I head outside and lock the door.

The cab driver pulls up in front of the house, I walk over to the car and get into the backseat.

“To the mall please,” I tell him, buckling my seatbelt.

He nods his head and starts moving the car. It only takes him a few minutes to get me to the mall. He stops at the front entrance and says, “That’ll be 5 dollars.”

I take a five out of my purse and hand it to him, saying, “Thanks a lot.” Then I open the door and get out. I pull out my phone and see that it’s now 11:46am. “Perfect. I’m going to be early.” I walk into the mall and head straight for the food court. Looking around the place at other people I look way over dressed, but I’m dressing to impress. I find an empty table and sit down, placing my purse in front of me, on the table. I take out my phone while I wait and decide to text Annabelle. ‘Hey gorgeous, how’s everything going over there with you. It’s been a couple of days since we talked. Just wanted to see how things are going with your sibs and Daniel.’ And send.

I look up to see Adrian walking over to my table, he’s got his dark blonde hair sleek backed with gel again, he’s wearing a tailored suit as per usual and he’s sporting a fairly dark tan. He walks over to me with that confident smile that gets all the girls, just doesn’t work on me cause I’m 100% into ladies.

“Hey there pretty girl. Looks like you got more beautiful in the time you were gone. What did they do to you while you were in captivity,” Adrian asks, pulling the chair across from me out to sit down.

“Nothing good. I just know how to doll myself up, that’s all. But my hair did grow out a bit since I wasn’t able to cut it,” I tell him, not really wanting to get into the details of what happened to me.

“Alright, I get what you’re putting down. I won’t ask about what happened to you. But if you want to talk about it with me you can. I’m always here to listen. Now, about work,” he says, clearing his throat. “They need a model for the new line of sexy lingerie and I believe you would be perfect for that job,” he says, eyeing me like candy.

“How much does it pay? I am only 17 after all, I’m not quite an adult yet,” I tell him, leaning forward on the table.

“Well…” He writes a number down and pushes it across the table. “You’re old enough that it’s not a problem, this is what they’re offering,” he says.

I look down at the paper in front of me and my jaw drops open. It says ‘1000 dollars’. “How many photos am I expected to take? That’s a lot of money for one photoshoot,” I tell him, closing my mouth.

“There’s six outfits and you’d be expected to take two photos in each outfit, in a variety of different poses. What do you say? Are you interested?” He asks me, taking the paper back.

“When is it?” I asked him, curious of the answer."

“Tomorrow afternoon, right after lunch. I can pick you up. You’ll just have to send me your new address, as I’ve never been to your aunt’s place,” he tells me, sitting up straight in his chair.

“Okay, I’ll do it. I’m looking forward to getting back into it. I really do enjoy modeling,” I tell him, grabbing my phone off the table. I see Annabelle responded to my text but I’ll look at that after. I go into my contacts and click on Adrian’s name, then I send off a text to him with my aunt’s address. “Sent.” I put my phone back down onto the table and sit back.

Adrian picks up his phone and looks at the text. “Perfect. How about we get some food and talk about you,” he says, getting up from the table.

I grab my purse and my phone from the table, I stick my phone into my purse and follow Adrian over to one of the restaurants in the food court. “Do we have to talk about me? I don’t really want to go into detail about what happened to me,” I tell him.

We decide on a sub place and get a full sub to split between us. Then we headed back over to the table we had been sitting at.

“So you won’t tell me anything about what happened in that two months you were gone for?” he asks me, sounding disappointed.

I take a bite of my sub and chew it up completely before saying anything. “We were forced to dance in a night club for this woman named Dalia. She was violent and cruel. If you weren’t of any used to her she had you killed. I tried to run away a few times. She locked me up in a small room for a whole day with no food or water. She told me if I did it again she would kill me and that would be that.”

Adrian almost spits his sub out when he here’s what I said and quickly chews it to get it down. “That’s horrible Rose, it’s no wonder you didn’t want to talk about it. How did you manage to get away from her if she threatened to kill you if you tried it again?” he asks me, curious.

My face lights up as I think about her and I say, “Another girl was brought in a month and a half after I had been there already. She is the most incredible person I have ever met. She’s gorgeous and genuinely kind. She befriended me and met someone outside of the place we were being held. They fell in love and a couple weeks later she was telling me he was taking her away from there and she convinced him to take me too. We got away, stopped at a police station about 5 hours out and reported what happened. They caught the woman that did this to us and all her people got killed trying to protect her.”

“That certainly is something. Who’s this girl you seem to be all starry eyed for?” he asks me, taking a drink of his water.

“Her name is Annabelle Richardson. She’s 18 years old, or she will be next month on the 8th. She lives in Moncton through so I can’t see her unless we video chat. She lost her parents too and she’s got two younger siblings that she has to take care of now,” I tell him, picturing Annabelle’s beautiful smile as I talk about her life.

“That’s too bad. At least you found each other or who knows what would’ve happened to you,” he tells me, eating his sub again.

I take a bite of my own sub and chew it fully, before saying anything. “I probably would be dead. Honestly. I couldn’t stay there. Even knowing that my parents were dead… I didn’t want to be there, forced to dance for some woman who treated us like slaves. She gave us a small amount of money to spend during the day when she trusted us enough to go out,” I tell him, taking a drink of my water.

“I still can’t believe you can dance. I never really seen you as a dancer. I didn’t know you could dance,” he tells me, putting his sub down.

“I’m not great at it. It took me a long time to be able to get on the stage. Annabelle though, she got up there the same night they brought her in. She’s truly amazing. There’s nothing she can’t do,” I tell him, thinking about Annabelle again. I should look at that text and see what she’s up to. I pull up my phone and open Annabelle’s text message.

‘Hey Rose. What’s going on with you? Everything here is going well. We’re still having hard moments going though, living life without our parents. I found Molly crying in the bathroom last night. She told me she had a nightmare about momma and daddy being killed. I don’t even understand why she would dream about that stuff, she never saw what happened to them and I still haven’t told them anything about my vision, just that I saw it happen. Daniel and I are doing great. Amazingly actually. We have s*x every night now. The way he touches me is just, I can’t even describe it to you. It’s just incredible.’

“Is that her?” Adrian asks, peeking over at my phone.

“Sorry. Thinking about her made me want to see what she was up to. I texted her earlier before you showed up and she answered me while we were talking. After you arrived,” I tell him, sticking my phone back into my purse.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to be sorry. Do you have a picture of her so I can see what she looks like?” he asks me, picking his sub back up to eat it.

I sigh, saying, “I don’t sadly, but I could ask her to send me one.” I take my phone back out and start texting. ‘I’m meeting with Adrian my model agent. I decided I didn’t want to give it up because I really do enjoy it. We ended up talking about my time with Dalia and I told him about you. Do you think you could take a picture of yourself and send it to me? It would be nice to have and I wanted to be able to show people who you are when I talk about you.’ I send it off and wait. “Do you think you could take a picture of me in my outfit? I want to send a picture to Annabelle so she can see how I look,” I ask him.

“Sure, once we’re done eating. We can find a place in the mall that will make a good background for you,” he tells me, putting his sub in his mouth.

My phone dings, it’s a response from Annabelle. ‘That’s great Rose. I’m happy for you. And I’m glad you didn’t let Dalia change your life path. You were meant to be a model if you really love doing it. I just got Daniel to take this picture for me. What do you think?’ I look at the photo and smile widely. She’s wearing another off the shoulder kind of dress with a frilly top and a form fitting body. She curves in all the right ways. Man she’s sexy. She has her curls falling naturally over her shoulders and she’s smiling the way I always see her smile at Daniel. ‘It’s perfect Annabelle, you’re as gorgeous as ever. I miss you so much and I can’t wait to see you again.’ I send it off and open up the photo. “This is her,” I tell him, showing him my phone.

His eyes almost pop out of his head as he looks at the photo. He grabs the phone out of my hand and says, “This is your friend Annabelle? It’s no wonder you seem to be in love with her. She’s like a 20 out of 10.”

I take my phone back from him and say, “Well she’s already got a man and she’s only got eyes for him. So if you’re thinking about trying anything I would think again.”

“Sorry,” he says, wiping the drool off his face. “When I see a beautiful girl I get ideas in my head and she’s beyond beautiful. Just looking into her eyes alone is mesmerizing.”

“It’s fine. I understand. She seems to have that affect on people,” I tell him, putting my phone done.

We finish up our subs then get up from the table and walk around the mall till we find a spot that Adrian deemed suitable to take my photo. I hand him my phone and he takes a couple photos of me in my mother’s dress and hands my phone back to me.

I smile at the pictures, completely stunned. “I can’t believe that’s me,” I tell him, looking at the photos.

“Oh, believe it girl. You’re just as gorgeous as that friend of yours. You just tend to hide it a lot with your boyish ways. You usually only wear makeup when you’re doing a photoshoot. I was surprised when I saw you sitting at the table all dolled up like that. Is this a new dress? I've never seen you in it before,” he tells me, playing with my hair.

“It was my mother’s dress. I kept it for myself because I loved it so much. My aunt told me that my father had gifted it to her for their first anniversary,” I tell him, putting my phone back into my purse.

“Did you need a drive home? I can take you since it’s not far from here,” he tells me, dropping my hair down.

“Sure, that would be great,” I tell him, turning towards the mall entrance.

Adrian links arms with me and walks with me to his car. We get in, don’t really say much else to each other and he drops me off at my aunt’s place. “Thanks a lot Adrian. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I tell him, getting out of the car.

“Anytime buttercup. Don’t stay up too late tonight. I want you looking all rested for tomorrow’s photoshoot,” he tells me, waving me off.

I quickly unlock the door and head inside, locking the door behind me. I run to my room after kicking off my shoes and plop down onto my bed. I pick up my phone and send off the photos Adrian took of me to Annabelle, saying, ‘Got dolled up for my meeting with Adrian and wanted to share how I look with you. I got a job tomorrow shooting photos of me in a new lingerie line. I’m kind of excited about it. I’ve never worn lingerie before.’

‘Smoking hot girl, I knew you were beautiful, you just never believed it. Sounds exciting, Daniel says you look good too, for a child. His words not mine. I’ve never worn lingerie either it seems like a bold thing to do. I don’t know if I could do what you’re doing. But as long as you love it, that’s all that matters. How’s living with your aunt?’

I turn over in my bed, laying on my bed with my feet up in the air. ‘It’s good. And interesting. I found out that my aunt had a lover twenty five years ago and then he had to leave because he was in the military. He couldn’t stay and my aunt didn’t want to follow him cause she had just started her business, which she is not the CEO of. She’s also an amazing cook. I have so much to learn from my aunt. She’s been telling me stories about my mother and father when they first got together and some stuff from when my mom was younger.’ I send off the text. I could talk with her for hours.

Annabelle sends a laughing emoji and a blushing smiley face one. ‘Sounds like you’re doing great over there. I’m happy for you. You have someone to share your life with that can take care of you. I’m going to head out with Daniel and my siblings. We’re going bowling. I’ll text you later. Love you.’

Love you, those two simple words. If only it meant more than a friend. ‘I love you too Annabelle and I hope you have a great time!’ I toss my phone aside and lay back on my back, sighing. “I spent an hour and a half with Adrian. I still have a big chuck left of today. What should I do?” I jump out of bed and take my mother’s dress off then change into shorts and a t-shirt. I run to the bathroom and wash my face off. Looking in the mirror at myself, I say, “Much better. I might look gorgeous with that makeup on. But I don’t feel like me unless I’m natural.” I leave the bathroom and head to the kitchen to grab a drink from the fridge.