Page 43 of Caught in the Middle

If this was going to be her last bath, she was going to bloody well enjoy it.

Lucy used every product she could find a use for. Shampoos, conditioners, then two more conditioners, shaving creams... everything. It occurred to her that she was probably used her yearly rents worth of products in just one bath.

She laid there for a while, enjoying the feeling of being submerged in smooth, silky bubbles, until a loud thud on the door snapped her back to reality.

'Hurry up! Fucking hell, what are you doing in there?'

Lucy scrambled to her feet, grabbing a warm, fluffy towel off of the heated rack. When she emerged from the en-suite, she was greeted by the girl, sitting on the bed, glaring at her with folded arms.

And what a bed.

Now she had a moment to look around the room, it was even more opulent than the en-suite. The four poster bed almost looked small in the vast cream space, the heavy curtains drawn over the floor to ceiling windows.

It felt like a palace.

'Right, come on, follow me,' the girl leaped to her feet and shoved Lucy, who was still just in her towel, into another adjoining room.

Lucy couldn't help but gasp when she opened the door. It was a huge, dressing room, each wall lined with clothes, - dresses, jeans, shoes - it looked like a boutique. At the far end of the room, there was a lit up dressing table, stacked to the brim with makeup.

Lucy stood there, dumbfounded. She felt like she was dreaming.

'Don't just stand there, choose something to wear!' the girl snapped. 'I'm Emma, by the way.'

Lucy shuffled from one foot to the other, startled, staring back at the girl like just had just seen an alien. After a second, Emma rolled her eyes and started aggressively pulling stuff from the rails and tossing them onto the chez lounge in the middle of the room.

'I'm gonna guess you're a size10?'

Lucy nodded.

'Of course you are,' she laughed sarcastically, Joey only chooses 10's.'

'Joey Leonardo?' Lucy said, dumbly.

The girl frowned and help up a lacy black dress against Lucy. 'Yes, who else?'

'Why?'

'Because he doesn't like fat girls?' she replied, looking at her like she was crazy.

Lucy's mouth swung open, she wasn't sure what was going on, but she had a growing feeling that she was being mistaken for somebody else.

'Um, I think you've got confused -'

Emma stopped assessing whether the dress would fit and stared at Lucy blankly. 'Confused?'

'Yes. Yes, um, I'm not...'

'You're not Lucy?'

'Well yes, I am Lucy...'

'Well then?'

'Joey Leonardo wants to kill me, so why am I getting dressed up?' Lucy eventually blurted out.

Emma stared at her for a minute, as if she couldn't figure out whether she was joking or not. After a couple seconds, she burst into laughter.

'Kill you?! Don't be ridiculous. Who told you that? Don't listen to Frank and Thomas, they are absolute shit-stirrers.'

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