Felicia Christie Dalton loved almost everything. She loved the sound of the soft rain echoing in her bathroom. She loved how the warm water soothed her skin. She loved how the cold air gently shook her awake as she carefully climbed off the bathtub to get ready for work. She walked into her closet, absolutely excited to attend her meetings later. She had her itinerary set for the day: hairstylist at six, fashion news at seven, breakfast while viewing business news at eight, merger meeting at nine-thirty, launch meeting at eleven, lunch with Patrick and his family at twelve-thirty, coffee meeting at two-thirty, shopping at five. Everything was going to be perfect.
She donned on a beautiful pale blue suit and slipped into a pair of well polished white stilettos. She looked at herself in the full-length mirror right in front of her and gave herself an appreciative nod. She wanted to have her hair up in a nice chignon or probably a nice French twist.
“We’re here!” She could hear the front door open and close.
“Almost ready!” Felicia called out from her closet. She passed by three shelves of bags before settling on a nice shiny white leather bag. On her way out, she picked up a pair of sunglasses and slipped it on her head.
“Felicia, R is here.” Sarah, her amused PA, gave her an appreciative once over. “You’ve lost some weight.”
Felicia beamed as she turned around to give Sarah a better view of her outfit. “I know, right?” She paused and pursed her lips as she examined her PA. “I think you should lose the tie.” She reached out and undid the pink tie around Sarah’s neck. “Better. Let’s go.”
“Felicia Christie! You look gorgeous!” A tall woman with dark long hair hugged Felicia and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “Let’s look at that beautiful hair of yours.” She guided Felicia to a seat facing a huge full-length mirror. “You mentioned you wanted a french twist?”
“Or a chignon.”
“Going conservative today? Why not make your beautiful blond hair wavy and wild. It’ll make a good contrast to your very smart outfit.”
“Oh my gosh, R! You are such a genius!”
“I know, right?”
“I am so conquering London today.” Felicia leaned backwards, closed her eyes, and imagined going home to her California apartment in the next three weeks designing the next line of clothes and jewelry her company was going to release. She wanted to have Ruth Wilson in a photo shoot together with Beyonce and Shakira. Once the acquisition contract was signed by Y Company, her people can start the overhauls that the Y brand badly needed.
“Sarah, how far are we done with the details for Y?”
“So far, so good. Felicia. Callahan’s people will be transitioning the company next week after you and he discuss the plans and human resources.”
“Good. Where’s my coffee?”
“It’s still on it’s way. Would you like some water?”
Felicia smirked at her reflection in the mirror. She loved how professional and flirty she looked. The pastel scarf around her neck was a touch of genius on her end. “R, this is perfect!” She stood up to show Sarah. “What do you think?”
“It looks perfect.” Sarah said after a quick once over. “Water?”
“You know that I don’t like the taste of water.” Felicia folded the sunglasses she had placed on the table beside her bag. “It’s icky.”
“You need to drink at least ten glasses of water.”
“Sarah, we’re in London and it’s always raining.” Felicia slipped her glasses into her bag. “Where’s my tablet?”
“It’s in the bag with your phone and powerbanks.” Sarah walked after her employer. ” All of your devices have been fully charged. Felicia,” she paused to open the door. ” Hydrating is essential to make sure your whole body will extend its youthful appearance.”
“Where did you ready that from?” Both of the girls walked into the kitchen. Felicia automatically picked up a glass of water and handed it over to Sarah.
“I read it from Cosmopolitan.” Sarah received the glass and offered it to Felicia.
“A slice of lemon, please.” Felicia said with resignation.
“We’re off schedule.” Sarah insisted.
“Is the car waiting, you think?” Felicia was starting to feel sweat forming on her nape.
“Yes, it is waiting.” Sarah responded matter-of-factly
“I still want my slice of lemon.” Felicia wasn’t going to back down.
“I’ll add extra soy.”
“Deal.” Felicia received the glass of water, drank it in four long gulps, sighed, and placed the glass on the counter. “Shall we?”
Sarah nodded and guided her outside her apartment and into the elevator.
“What exactly happened to my coffee?” Felicia unlocked her phone and quickly checked on her messages. “Ugh. Talk about old news. Did you know that Lauren just found out about TJ and Wella? I mean, that’s so yesterday. I got their wedding invitations, like, weeks ago.”
“Apparently she didn’t get a wedding invite,” Sarah scoffed. She wasn’t all too fond of Lauren. “About your coffee, Justin said that even if he walked all the way here, he wouldn’t reach you in time because of a road accident.”
Felicia raised her eyebrows. “Piccadilly isn’t very far from here, you know.”
“We can swing by and pick it up. That way we know you still have coffee to drink.”
Felicia gave a tired sigh. “Well, I think you’re right. He is very good at being clumsy.” She looked at Sarah who was nodding slowly and trying to hide her smile. Their eyes locked and they started laughing. “Okay. To his credit, he has never spilled anything on me.”
“He’s scared he might get fired.”
“That’s a very important thing to worry about.”
“You know, Felicia. You shouldn’t really be too lenient on him. He’s broken five of your porcelain vases.”
“I thought he only broke two!”
Sarah groaned in frustration. “You really should fire him.”
“Come on, Sarah. He’s a kid. Kids make mistakes.”
“Not thirty thousand dollar mistakes.”
“Well, those porcelain vases were gifts from Shah Ahmeed. Let’s just say that Justin’s doing me a favor.”
“I don’t think you’ll be as amused if he actually breaks your mom’s vase.”
The elevator door opened and the ladies stepped out. Felicia suddenly stopped walking and slowly faced Sarah with a look of horror. “Did he or did he not break one of mom’s vases?”
“No, he only broke all five of Shah Ahmeed’s vases.”
“Good! The last thing I want is my mom dragging me back to the mansion.”
Sarah knew that Felicia doesn’t hate a lot of things. She did know that there are five things Felicia really didn’t like:
1. Not having coffee.
2. Dirty and stinky places which also means getting dirty and stinky.
3. Long aimless meetings. Also, long aimless relationships and conversations.
4. Rude and noisy people.
5. Her mother.
Felicia loved her mother. She just didn’t like spending so much time with her especially when vases are concerned. Recently, Mrs. Dalton has been so obsessed with pottery she had sent ten of her handmade vases to Felicia’s apartment in Cali.
“Sarah, come on. I’m hungry and I want to have my heavy English Breakfast.”
Sarah hurried out and into the car.
Author’s Notes
I haven’t edited the chapters yet. I will get around to it after I’ve completed my drafts for Chapters Four and Five. Thank you for reading!
The Night Whispers 