Page 15 of Her Dark Angel
When I reach the table, she pushes the glass toward me. “Your favorite drink. On the house, of course.”
I smile and slide onto the barstool across from her. I’m quick to wrap my lips around the plastic straw and swallow a mouthful of the fruity Vodka cocktail. It’s exactly what I needed after the long day I had smacking lips with Wesley.
Sadie smiles at me. “It seems like you’ve had a long day.”
I sigh and rest my elbow on top of the table, swirling the straw around the glass, the colorful beaded bracelet around my wrist clinking against the gold bracelet my parents gave me for my eighteenth birthday. “You read my mind. It’s been the longest day ever. All I want to do is crawl into bed until the sun rises tomorrow, but I wanted to see you first.”
She holds a hand over her heart as if trying to hold it inside of her chest. “You really know how to make a girl swoon, Kin.”
I roll my eyes and lean across the table to shove her shoulder. The blouse is silkier under my touch than I originally thought. Even in high school, Sadie wore the nicest clothes money could buy. There was never a hair out of place and she always dressed in the current style. Thanks to her parents’ wealth, she could have anything she wanted. It was something I envied because although I had my own money from acting, my parents wouldn’t let me touch a single cent. They said it had to go away for savings, but I know that was all bullshit now. They were using me as a piggy bank until I was eighteen.
“How have you been?” Sadie asks, sipping on her drink. “It feels like forever since I last saw you.”
I sigh and sip my drink before answering. “I know. And I’m sorry. I hate that I sometimes let my work get in the way of making time for the people in my life, but I’ll work on it.”
Sadie waves me off with her hand. “You don’t need to apologize. I’m the same. My boss has been giving me a lot more work lately, so I’ve been swamped.”
Sadie works in marketing and is always complaining about her boss and how he continues to have her complete other colleagues' tasks because he thinks she’s ‘more capable’ than any of them. While it’s a nice compliment, it doesn’t mean she should have to take on more work because her coworkers are lazy fucks.
“Have you spoken to him about the extra workload?”
She shakes her head. “No. I tried to a few weeks ago, but he just went on and on about how I’m his best employee, and he wishes he could promote me but head office won’t allow it yet. Blah, blah, blah. It was just a load of shit, really. He just doesn’t want to tell his team to pick up their slack, so I’m the one left drowning in their tasks.”
A pink flush coats her cheeks and I just know that she’s frustrated. It’s her tell. Everyone has one. Just like how Sadie also plays with her right earring whenever she’s nervous or uncomfortable. I’ve known her since the first day of freshman year in high school when I moved to Los Angeles, so she’s like an open book to me.
However, I can’t say the same for Sadie in regard to me.
She’ll be disgusted in you, Kinnie.
Once she knows of your past, she won’t be able to look at you the same.
I shudder at the thought of my best friend unable to look me in the eye if she were to ever learn the truth. But the guilt of having not told her after all these years still lingers in the back of my mind, right next to the demon glaring at me, its soulless eyes piercing right through me.
“I know you can handle yourself, but don’t let that asshole walk all over you, okay? You’re stronger than that. You’re better than that.”
Sadie inhales a long breath and nods. “I know. You’re right. I have a meeting with him next week for a performance review, so I’ll bring it up to him then. Hopefully, he doesn’t laugh in my face.”
I ball my right fist and hold it up to her. “If he does, tell him he’ll have this waiting for him.”
Sadie bursts out laughing and shakes her head. The soft curls framing her face bounce with the movement and I can’t help but smile.
“So scary,” she wheezes through bursts of laughter. She calms herself by taking a long sip of her cocktail and shifts in her seat. “Okay, you’re caught up on me, so what’s new with you? In your world, I’m sure there is lots of crazy shit going on.”
That’s an understatement.
“Well, where do I begin?” I have so much shit I need to tell her, but the information is like a jumbled mess in my brain that I’m finding it hard to pinpoint where to start.
So, I tell her about Wesley and the movie we’re filming together. It’s a high school romance drama where I play the female lead. My character is the captain of the cheerleading squad and Wesley plays the geeky math student who needs to tutor me. Of course, our characters fall in love and it’s a happily ever after, but not without some drama along the way.
“How is filming going?” Sadie asks. She slurps up the last of the liquid in the bottom of the glass.
I shrug, twirling the plastic straw around the glass mindlessly. “Same old, same old. Wesley is a nice guy, although a shit kisser, but he’s okay. I’m pretty sure he has a crush on me, which puts me in an odd spot of wanting to keep my distance so I don’t give him any unwarranted ideas I feel the same way. But he’s my coworker, so I have to spend a lot of time with him on set. It’s a slippery slope.”
Sadie snorts. “Everyone has a crush on you, Kin. You’re Hollywood’s sweetheart.”
I roll my eyes at her words. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that.”
Yes, my career has taken off in the past few years with the movies and television shows I’ve starred in, but I wouldn’t dare think I’m one of the most famous people in Hollywood… am I? I don’t know. I try to stay away from all forms of media because it messes with my head too much. I don’t care to listen to what people have to say about me or my acting.