Page 53 of Caught in the Middle

Lucy raised her eyebrows and smiled at her. If she was going to stay here... and she definitely hadn't made her mind up yet, she was happy that at least Rachel seemed like a pretty nice, normal girl, albeit almost disgustingly pretty.

'So, welcome to the club!' Rachel continued, 'Where did they find you?'

Lucy debated going into the whole saga she had been through in the last week... but even just the thought of having to explain it tired her out.

'Oh, it's a long story. I haven't decided whether I'll stay or not yet.'

Rachel rolled over to face her, her eyes widening in surprise. 'What? Why are you even debating it?'

'Well,' Lucy tried to choose her words wisely, 'I don't really understand... what the catch is -?'

Rachel laughed. 'Oh, I see. I was very sceptical at the beginning too. Frank - have you met Frank? - He picked me up to meet Joey when I was working as a receptionist in Joey's lawyer’s office. Almost four years ago that was now. I'd dropped out of university, was earning shit money that I could spend faster than I earned. Credit cards up to my eyeballs.' She rolled her eyes, seemingly at her own stupidity.

'When I had my dinner with Joey - like the one you had last night - well, it obviously sounded incredibly fishy. I remember thinking - you just want me to be pretty? And yeah, he does. That is literally it.'

Lucy stared at her, watching her porcelain cheeks flush pink with happiness. Was she lying to her? She had a feeling that she was telling the truth, but if there was one thing that Lucy had learned in the last few days was that she definitely couldn't trust her gut instinct. It was broken or something.

'So…what do you do? Like, in your day?'

Rachel shrugged. 'Literally anything I want to. He gives you a credit card, a personal bodyguard, and you can just do anything in the world. There's always parties to attend, dinners to go to. It's amazing, all the designers know us by name - I could get up right now and fly to New York on a private jet.'

She rolled onto her back, stared at the ceiling and sighed. 'Sometimes I just think, how the fuck did I get so lucky?'

Lucy's mind raced with possibilities. Visions of going to Paris, getting the wardrobe she had only ever dreamed of...

'Trust me,' Rachel said, 'a million girls would kill to be in your position.'

Once Lucy had slipped the dressing gown on, they talked for a while, and ate the croissants that Rachel had brought in with her.

She liked Rachel. She seemed nice, honest. Her situation was incredibly similar to hers, and now look at her, she's living the absolute dream.

After about an hour of chatting and sharing life stories - Rachel grew up in a town not far from Lucy, so they actually had loads in common - they walked through the extravagant corridors, back to the room that Lucy had been assigned.

They passed maids frantically cleaning plant pots and windows, who all stopped to bow when they passed. Lucy smiled back and said good morning, but found it odd that Rachel carried on chatting away to Lucy, as if these women didn’t exist.

Maybe she was just so accustomed to this lifestyle now.

When they get back to the room that Emma got her ready in last night, she couldn't believe that this would hers if she choose to stay here. She hadn't even stayed in hotels as nice as this room, let alone lived in one.

Rachel is mid-ramble about how she couldn't believe how amazing her room was too when she first arrived here when there was a knock on the door.

'Come in,' Rachel said loudly... even though it wasn't her room.

A butler appeared in the doorway - a different one from last night, Lucy noticed, thankfully, as she was mortified of the thought of what they could have seen.

'Good morning,' he said graciously, bowing deeply. 'My sincerest apologies for interrupting. Ms. Davies, Sir Leonardo requires you in his office in half an hour.' and with that, he slipped out.

Lucy turned to Rachel with panic in her eyes, which was met with a hearty laugh. 'Right, shower and get pretty immediately - all the clothes in that dressing room are yours to use, as you probably know,' she bounced towards the door, 'I'll see you later.'

She stopped as she reached for the door handle. 'Oh, a word of advice. Wear heels. Always.' She grinned, and disappeared down the long corridor.

Lucy groaned out loud, now she was left alone in her new room. She quickly ran herself a bath, and began raiding through the endless designer labels in her newly acquired closet.

Half an hour? She didn't even have time to appreciate the fact that she was in the presence of every Chanel bag released since 2012.

Damn it, she thought, as she furiously ripped at the clothes rail, where was Emma when you needed her?

She eventually settled on a pair of black skinny jeans, a low-cut pink top, and a pair of matching nude heeled pumps.

She quickly scrubbed away her sins in the bath, and tried to emulate whatever magic Emma had performed on her face the night before.

It occurred to her, as she glued on her eyelashes, that if she chose to stay here, she would be able to afford a makeup artist and hairdresser...

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