The classical music swayed around me as I swirled the dark purple liquid in the glass cup. I bring it to my lips and let the refreshing vintage wine swirl in my mouth before swallowing it. From my side view, I can see I have the attention of a guy currently waiting for his date to come back from the bathroom. His mouth hangs a bit parted as if parched, and his gaze burns a hole in my exposed thigh. I wore a dark green dress with the shoulders strapped around my arms, a little center bow that exposed not all of my cleavage but enough to create a tantalizing mess, the bodycon material tight on my body, and a slight on one leg that reached right above my thong. I had dressed up and yet my date was nowhere to be seen.

So I sat alone in an expensive restaurant by myself, what else could a girl do but turn her gaze to the male looking at her? I give him soft eyes and watch as he visibly shudders at the simple interaction before tightening his tie and making his way to the seat across from me.

He stares at me in awe and I can feel myself sit straighter at his admiration. It wasn't often someone stared at me as if I was their whole world. I had 3 guys on my phone, all saved as different names than their real ones, 2 were married and one was just a side fling, none of them serious. However, none of them looked at me like the guy who was sitting across from me right now, well, maybe at first they did. I was their new shiny trophy. Their wife had given birth and they wanted something else. They saw their wives without makeup and without their masks, but with me, that's all they got, the illusion of what they wanted.

Just like the guy sitting across from me. He had a beautiful date, someone around his age and his level, but yet here he was sitting across from me and trying to think of a great pickup line. So I finally break the silence. "Speak," I tell him as I sip my wine.

He clears his throat and tightens his tie again. Clearly a nervous habit. "What's a pretty girl like you doing alone on this cold day." He stands up, shrugging off his blazer and draping it around me adding, "You'll freeze without a gentleman's jacket."

I grab the jacket in a tight fist as I look at him with an impressed smile. "Is that so?"

He sits down again and cracks a smirk, "did I impress you?"

I can't help but let a laugh flow from my ruby-colored lips. "Very much so," I tell him and tip my wine glass to him in admiration. I lean closer to the table and whisper, "but you know what impresses me more?"

He leans in closer to meet me halfway to the point our lips are almost connecting, emphasis on the almost, because I would never allow my lips to be tainted by a guy like him. "That you would hit on a girl when clearly about to propose to your girlfriend."

His smile faded instantly as he raised an eyebrow, clearly lost on how I knew. I point to the waiter who's been staring at us for the past 3 minutes, let alone the fact that his girlfriend has been gone, probably anticipating this night and freshening up everything, and I mean everything. "He's clearly been waiting for your cue and yet here you are, sitting with little old me."

He shrinks back a little. "I just thought that you were too pretty to give up a chance to talk."

"I am, but I think it's time to leave. I don't go after those who are dating-"

He stands up as I extend his jacket for him to grasp in his hands. Our fingers skim each other until mine has run its length and I hook his wrist. He turns to look at me with a raised eyebrow but my gaze is on my hand. "Call me when you're married- only-" I look him dead in the eye at this part, "if you're rich enough to enjoy my company." I let go of his hands and placed it under my chin again. The waiter brings me a souffle, my usual after eating a medium rare steak.

"Thank you," I tell him as he nods and refills my glass once again. "I'll make sure you get a good tip," I tell him with a wink.

"You always do," he tells me with a smile before retreating as I stab the fork into the fluffy bread. Besides the mild distraction, my mind kept drifting to Brianna and Gracy. Brianna had come back for these secrets that should have been burned long ago, especially from our memories, but they played like a broken record over and over again. She should have moved on, we all had. There was more she wasn't telling us. Brianna's secrets weren't secrets, they were just bone-chilling facts.

I take another sip of the liquid. Her being back had affected me more than I cared to admit. At this point, none of us could change our past but we pretended that they didn't exist. We couldn't do that if she was about to open Pandora's box. I didn't know if it was good to pretend that the message didn't exist, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't on edge, always thinking about when it might be discovered if it was out there. Brianna coming back was the perfect time to grasp an opportunity that I didn't know I needed. It had been 3 years and it was neither proven to exist but it also didn't mean it didn't exist. Maybe I just didn't know where to look. Besides, I was too busy keeping low all those years. Brianna would help me get the box and burn it to the ground with all its contents in it. The reason it existed was all because of me anyway, so it would only be fitting for me to watch it officially end.

Brianna guided me to the bathroom stall on the 2nd floor with an "out of service" sign pasted to it, hand in hand. The feeling of someone else's hand in mine was foreign to me, but it felt nice. Her hand was a bit bigger than mine, soft and full of reassurance. We enter the bathroom and I gasp in amazement. I had never been to this one and came to understand that it was out of service to everyone except the girls in this room.

I smell the smoke first followed by a string of curse words. The view comes and I see a pretty Asian girl standing on a purple couch near the window as she holds out a cigarette from it. "Fuck, Brianna, I thought you were a staff member," she says with a roll of her eyes before they snap to me and she smiles.

"Well that should teach you to quit smoking," the girl on the left side of the couch says. Brianna just laughs as she pushes me forward and finally releases my hand, making it feel empty, before she hops on the tiled sink. The other two girls look up and their eyes rack over my body making me feel as if I had just been thrown into a den of lions. One of them was reading a GQ magazine with the cover of Zendaya rocking her new Met Gala look. The other one sat on the other end and seemed to be reading the bible. I'm not sure how I felt about God, but at the moment, he wasn't for me. I don't comment, but my eyes can't help but take her in. She wore long clothes that covered her and a rosary on her neck. Contrast to the Asian girl two who wore a black tank top and cargo pants while the African American wore a pink sunflower dress.

"Who's the girl-" the Asian says.

"Right," Brianna jumps out of the sink and stands in front of me, "everyone, meet Gracy Hall." she turns to me, "Gracy meet-" and by order she points them out, "Belinda, Itzel, and Sydney." She pushes me to the center of the couch and smiles widely, "everyone, play nice- she's our new friend." I look at her and watch as Belinda examines me with a grin.

"Why the glasses?" she questions.

"Why not?" I question back with a shrug.

She lets out a laugh before draping a hand over Brianna. "You took in another stray?" I can see Itzel and Sydney's eyes look up and give her a murderous glare.

Brianna chuckles, "just like when I first took you in."

"Your dad's a sheriff?" Belinda mimics Brianna's voice, "let's be friends." Then she rolls her eyes, "if anything- I took you in."

"Whatever," she rolls her eyes, "either way Gracy here is a keeper. You won't believe what she can do."

I start feeling self-conscious as Brianna hunches down and stares at me, placing her warm hands on my knees. "You're special, Gracy, what you have is a gift and if you let me, I'll show you how."

"What gift," Belinda says. The other two girls raise an eyebrow but have their attention on their readings, feigning disinterest.

"She can see what others can't," Brianna says as she looks intently at me as if I were a pearl she found in the deep blue ocean, "and she'll be able to help us." Her attention turns to Belinda, "you won't have to work on the highway anymore." Her attention turns to me, "only if you agree, of course, Gracy. I wouldn't want you to do anything you're uncomfortable with."

I sit up and try to muster the courage I have to say, "what would I have to do?"

Brianna shrugs, "Nothing you already don't do, but, baby steps. For now, we have to make sure we trust you and you trust us."

That's when the girl to my right ear perked up and she turned her attention with a slam of her magazine. "Sleepover?" she says with a squeal.

Brianna bites her lip and smiles. "Sleepover!" she exclaimed. "If you're all in?" She turns her attention to Itzel whose bible is half closed, only pried open by her thumb and index finger as she bites her lip in puzzlement. One of her nervous habits it seems.

"I'm not sure if they'll let me."

"We'll tell them you're at bible camp," she reassuringly tells her.

"Brianna-" Itzel lets out a giggle at her excuse.

"We'll think of something better, Itzel," she says, "trust me."

Itzel looks hesitant before nodding her head and they all turn expectantly to me as Brianna raises a questioning eyebrow. I can't help but let a small smile graze my face as I nod. My first sleepover, with possible lifelong friends?

"I'm sorry I'm late dear," Peter says as he slings his jacket over my shoulders. The second guy to do that in a span of 30 minutes, but he was too late. He takes a seat as I stand up and let the jacket fall from my shoulders.

"I already ate, but please, go ahead. I'm heading out'' I state as I sign the check the waiter has brought me. I extend my hand out in front of him and he sighs while pulling out his credit card and giving it to me. I give it to the waiter with a smile, who smiles hugely at me, could be because I'm pleasant or the fact that I signed over a hundred dollars as a tip.

"Belinda- please-" Pete says as he stands in front of me.

"You're late and you know I don't like being stood up. I have more self-respect than that," I wrap my hands around myself as he sighs and covers his face in anguish.

"I told her, Belinda. That's why I was late."

My face falls as I stammer, "You-you- told her?"

"I didn't tell her about you but that I wanted to leave. That I was in love with someone else."

"Pete-" I practically yell but remember to keep my voice low. "That wasn't our deal and you know this-" I whisper in a harsh tone. I grab my wine cup and down it in a gulp. "You're going to order your wife's favorite meal after I leave and tell her it was all to surprise her."

He stares at me dumbfounded. "But- Belinda-" he starts but I cut him off with a glare.

"Shut up," I say getting up, "try this ever again and it's over." I start to walk away before turning around one last time, "also, never stand me up again."

"Belinda-" he grasps my wrist but I pull away and walk over to the table from the guy earlier and look at the smiling girl who admires her ring. He meets my eyes and his face falls as mine only grows. They say karma is a bitch, but I'm a bigger bitch when in a sour mood.

"You want to get out of here?" I ask him.

"I'm not married yet-" he says as his girlfriend's eyes widen at him.

I turned to her, "What's his job?"

"He's in the tech industry," she stammers.

"Rich or not?"

"Rich-" he answers standing up.

"Then let's go if you want."

He follows me like a puppy dog while his girlfriend stares in shock. Normally I would never let a guy who wasn't married and just in a relationship sleep with me, but one-nighters would work greatly.

The cold wind nitpicks my skin as I grab him by the neck and kiss him deeply. I make sure to lock eyes with Pete who stares at me from inside. He needed a reminder that a girl like me could get any guy she wanted. I grab him and walk away from the restaurant before stopping him when he goes in for a second kiss. "Not happening," I tell him.

"What?"

"You just ruined a relationship so important for marriage for me, but I don't date unmarried men. I have a rule."

"Why?"

The question doesn't throw me off, I've been asked that plenty of times, but I wasn't going to answer a stranger. I begin to walk away. No one could blame me for my choices. Married men were the best to have affairs with because it would never get serious. Rich married men were even better. Some might consider me a gold digger, I wouldn't, but some would. However, if they knew what I had done for money back then, this was paradise to me. All I had to give was attention and I got showered in diamond necklaces, fancy cars, and beautiful gowns. It was never supposed to end because they could never reveal their discrepancies. Yet, fucking Pete almost made me doubt what I had learned long ago. You only had yourself to count on. 

>>>>>

Okay, so I'm really trying on this story which is why updates are probably bad because I had the idea but now actually making it come alive is very different. Anyway, I have never written from a point of view of like 5 different girls, so if they sound similar, well they all come from me but also they are all connected. I think we tend to pick up some behaviors of those we surround ourselves with. 

Also, please let me know if you ever feel like it's dragging or maybe I'm repeating. I can't say I will change some scenes but I can definitely revise so it's not repeating so much. I think I do it because some people are overthinkers (like me) so most things are constantly on our mind. 

Anyway, let me know how it's going. Please don't forget to vote, comment, and share. Also, follow my TikTok and Instagram. It's phoenix_lve to see some reels for this story and the others. :) 

Love yall.