"I love my job, Jess. It's my life. I don't need to go live in a fancy apartment with a bunch of strangers. I have cake. Cake is better than people," Zephyr retorted, finishing up the piping work on a six tiered wedding cake. It was pink. Really pink. In fact, it reminded her a bit of the couch the 70 year old woman owned in the apartment next door to hers. What a bride wants, the bride gets, and the bride wanted old lady cake.
"Well, guess what? The second you put down that royal icing, I'm ordering you to take time off. A lot of time off. I can do that!" Jessica said, crossing her arms and clearly unaware of the frosting on her cheek. Jess had just taken over 'Baby Cakes' three years before, and hired Zephyr when no one else would. She saw her talent and didn't care that she didn't have any professional experience in cake decorating. She saw raw talent, passion, and an unheard of desire to learn in her.
"You have GOT to be kidding me? Order me? Are you like a queen or something?"
"The Queen of Baby Cakes? I like it. So yes, I am. I decree that you take this chance and, I dunno, have fun."
"I have fun all the time."
"Drunken partying doesn't count."
"If I do this I want a raise."
"WHAT!?"
"You heard me, I want raise."
"Fine. But you better get your ass out the door and on that plane before I change my mind." Jess grinned.
"HA. Cool. I do this weird, sketchy, scam sounding thing for a raise. If I get murdered, I want you charged!" Zephyr yelled playfully, already walking out the door. Once she reached the outside, the absurdity of what she had just agreed to slammed into her like a brick wall. In exchange for a few extra dollars a month, she had just agreed to go on a reality television program and live her life in front of the world. Her crazy fucked up mind would be on display for everyone to see. All of her friends, the people she went to high school with, her coworkers, and a million people she didn't know. People she didn't want to see her, would probably see her. People who had hurt her, people she had hurt.
Salas Brandt.
The name popped into her head like a neon light. It had been years since she had seen him, years since she had heard his voice, but she could remember the way he looked when she had broken his heart. She remembered the lie she had told him and how much of a coward she had been. She remembered how much of a coward she still was. This was why she partied. Memories were too hard to deal with, they hurt too much.
She went back to her apartment, found a bottle of vodka under the bed, and drank while she got her bags together and called a cab. If she was going to do this, you bet she was going to do it drunk and in all of her sexiest heels.
Her luggage was going to cost a fortune put on that plane.
---
The few hours she spent on the plane were the longest amount of time she had spent sleeping in a very, very long time. She usually had a very strict schedule; 4:00 AM Gym, 5:00 AM Get ready for work, 6:00 AM Go to work, 8:00 PM come home from work. After that she would go out with friends and sometimes party till she had to get up in the morning. More than once she had been hospitalized for pure exhaustion, but sleeping wasn't one of her top priorities. In fact, sleeping didn't even make the list. She only slept when she absolutely had to, and usually it was during the breaks she took at work. She'd be lying if she told you that she didn't feel any different after getting a good few hours on that plane. She felt absolutely refreshed, despite the hungover headache.
It didn't take her long to find the apartment, but when she did its beauty took her breath away.