Chapter 5 DON'T BE SILLY

One of the benefits Emma enjoyed from working at the Hippocampus bookshop was the proximity to her house. She could easily walk down from 21st Avenue and link up to Killingsworth Street where she lived. Charlie the hobo sat by the street corner with his old guitar which still had a few too many strings missing. He smiled his toothless smile and held out his plate to her.

"Hey pretty, anything for the hustler today?"

Emma shook her head and dropped a couple of cents into his bowl before moving ahead.

"Hi, Emma. Welcome home," Miss Penelope the porter greeted her with a smile at the entrance of her apartment building.

"Hello Miss Penelope," she returned the greeting with a warm smile of her own.

Everyone just assumed Miss Penelope was as old as the huge building itself, because year in and year out, she was always around. One had to wonder if she had any family to go to during the holidays. But she was cheerful and nice so no one seemed to mind having her around.

Emma let herself into her apartment, sweeping her eyes around for any sign of Snowball. She'd been in a hurry to leave for work in the morning and she forgot to feed her. Snowball crawled out from her favorite spot under the coffee table and rubbed her fur against the inside of Emma's leg.

"Hi, sweetie. You missed me?"

Snowball purred in response, looking up to her expectantly. Emma walked into the kitchen with Snowball hot on her tail, her eyes fixed on the cabinet above where her little kitty sense told her food was kept.

"I know you're hungry. Here now, I'll fix you something real quick, okay?" Emma pulled out a box of Purina and poured some out into Snowball's feed bowl, earning a grateful purr from the little feline.

"You're welcome, baby. Momma's gotta do some unwinding herself," Emma said, sidestepping Snowball who didn't seem to mind her departure as she kept her head buried deep in the feed bowl.

Emma walked into the bathroom, a bag of exhaustion weighing down her shoulders. The light bulb flickered and she made a mental note to bring it up with Scarlett to contact an electrician to fix it.

She turned on the taps and stepped out of her clothes in readiness to wash the fatigue off her body. Her phone buzzed in the pocket of the denim shorts she'd just taken off and she pried it out to view the caller; Girlfriend. She rolled her eyes and slid across the screen to answer.

"What's up, honey?" Scarlett's voice carried on from the other end of the call.

"Hi Scarlett," Emma replied, stepping into the bathtub.

"You were already gone by the time I woke up."

"Yeah. Someone has to learn to stop sleeping like a log," Emma teased, playing with the water.

"Oh please. Some of us have to work our asses off at night, literally," Scarlett joked. Emma shook wildly with laughter. "Which reminds me, how'd your date go? Is he there now? How good is he, you know?" Emma could hear the wink in her voice.

"First of all, there's no one here with me, and it was terrible," Emma fought back the anger that steamed up to the surface of her mind as she recalled the memory.

"Oh my God. Did he not show up?" Scarlett's voice carried a hint of shock and Emma could imagine her eyes growing as large saucers as she anticipated some hot gossip. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I wish he didn't."

"That bad?" Scarlett burst into a fit of laughter on the other end. "Sorry, I'm so sorry. What happened though?"

"Let's say he was a jerk and dumbass pervert who couldn't even afford a proper drink. Imagine he made us share a beer. Of course, I didn't drink any of it," Emma carried on amidst Scarlett's roaring laughter.

"Some jerk, huh? It's okay sweetie. I mean it could have gone worse if you look at it differently."

"I'm just so tired," Emma reclined in the bathtub, as the water swirled around her chest.

"Is that water I hear running in the background?"

"Yeah. About to have my bath."

"Aww. Don't worry baby, it'll be fine, alright? I know just the thing for you," Scarlett announced, and Emma raised her eyebrows and looked up to the ceiling. Whatever Scarlett had planned had hints of wildness.

"Remember Cecilia?" Scarlett asked.

Emma squinted her eyes, drawing up with nothing as she thought of the name. It should have sounded familiar, but Emma was a sucker at remembering names, especially when they were not exactly a vital part of her daily life.

"Urrrm..."

"Yeah, I thought as much. You've forgotten her. Remember the bitch from senior high who thought you were too tall to be on the school's cheerleading team?"

Of course, Emma couldn't forget the girl in question. She'd been part of the high-flyers back in their senior high school years; always perching on the shoulders of all the hot guys on the school's football team. No one liked her because she told a lot of lies to keep up appearances.

"Oh, what about her?" Emma was genuinely at a loss as to why a name as insignificant as that would make its way to their conversation.

"She's throwing a party tonight. Supposed to be her birthday or something. You know how she always lied about little details like that," Emma could picture Scarlett rolling her eyes as she spoke and she smiled at the thought. But she still wondered why either of them should be concerned about Cecilia's birthday party or whatever else she was celebrating.

"So me and a couple of other girls from our set are turning up for her tonight at The Pulse. You should come."

"I'm not coming, Scarlett," Emma stated matter-of-factly. As much as she remembered, Cecilia was only friendly with anyone who had something she needed. With Scarlett, it was access to the numbers of all the hot boys in school. Scarlett had a particular charm about her that just made her so irresistible to the boys.

"Don't be silly. You're my plus one for tonight, so bring your ass down to the club before seven p.m., Emma."

"Why not The Red Room though? You work there so there's supposed to be some kinda discount, right? I'm just saying" Emma asked.

"Emma, honey, I work in a strip club where a bunch of perverts and losers with failing marriages come to watch me dance butt naked," Scarlett said in that comic deadpan voice she liked to use when she was attempting sarcasm.

"Fair enough," Emma laughed heartily at the joke.

"Honey, you need this, okay?"

"I don't know. I just wanna lie in bed and cry myself to sleep," Emma sighed.

"Not on my watch. Emma Grace Smith, you get your ass down to The Pulse before seven p.m., or else I'd have to come to drag you there myself," Scarlett stated.

"Oh come on."

"Wear something sexy, alright? Think of it as you being the bigger person and extending the olive branch after all these years," Scarlett reasoned.

"Okay, I'm coming," Emma sighed in exasperation, already wary of what the night held in store for her.

She set the phone on the floor and sank into the cold water, holding her breath and wishing all her worries away.