#mc/2
"Sir, your drink?"
"Yes, thank you."
The way this man eyed her up and down sitting next to his own wife was pathetic. But there were many on that list now. She was helping the gallery manager, a sweet guy. She turned away to go and felt a pinch on her back. She jumped in surprise (and pain) and dropped her tray. As she bent down to retrieve it, a piece of paper floated down in front her face.
312, Gold Lane - come for a swim. Party 7pm 12/12/12
She smiled. How quaint. From an artist to temporary help in an art gallery to this. Whatever this was.
Ten o'clock had a nice moon shining in through the kitchen window. The patron was drunk. He had liked her art and already wrote out a check or two to her name...with what hopes, she knew but wisely chose to ignore. She needed the money.
"You're pretty for a nerd... I can't believe that you don't swim. That is no excuse for dressing like this"
Cotton slacks and a tshirt to a pool because she claimed she didn't swim. Well she came to run, not swim. He was holding her hand and pulling it. Her eyes roved the kitchen and gently maneuvered him to the chopping board.
He was still talking, slurring quite a bit now. It didn't make much sense to her...other than his intentions with her, none of which seemed promising. She could hear footsteps approaching the kitchen. She told him quietly, "Lean here, I'll fix you a coffee."
He grabbed her hand with his sweaty ones and empathetically shook his head. She pulled her hand out with sudden force, tripped him with her foot and moved almost instantly to the shelf.
The door opening and her opening the shelf and the patron's anguished cry was altogether.
"Oh my god!", both women screamed. The wife. The gallery assistant.
He wasn't dead yet, he was moaning. His wife ran to him, tried to lift him.
"Call the ambulance! Call 911!", she shouted. No reply. She turned her head to a room empty of anyone else.
Her husband was dying in her arms. The pale girl with dark hair, had it been her imagination? She hadn't seen her anywhere else. She had assumed it would be her husband's mistress or someone. She tried to frantically call for help.
The ambulance arrived a few minutes later to collect the dead body.
- continued.
