Page 22 of Cloud Storm

As Roselynn says, I must begin to see myself as the person I am now: a businesswoman who wants to succeed. I’m no longer the girl who lived on the streets.

Is it possible to reconcile that? I want to improve myself, but I don’t want to lose my essence. Can those lines be blurred?

Isn’t it like mixing water and oil?

“You look beautiful,” Lancelot says when I return to the living room, where he has been waiting patiently, watching a movie on the TV.

“Thank you,” I answer, looking again at the clothing I’ve chosen.

It’s nothing that special, just a gray skirt with a pattern of small flowers, a pale pink top, and taupe flat sandals and today, I’m going to wear a floppy woven hat.

The morning has already flown by, we’re not aware of how much time has passed until someone knocks on the door again.

I open it to see my friend Roselynn there.

“Oh, good thing you’re ready, I’m starving, let’s go to lunch,” she orders. “Chase is waiting for us in the car, our treat.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I have plans already.”

“What plans?” she asks. “Friends reruns again?”

I know that I have aroused her curiosity and with good reason. I hardly ever make plans, much less on a Sunday. It’s my favorite day to make menus at home.

“Hey, the show only will be available on Netflix for a few more months.” I want to brag a little about the way I’m going to spend my lunchtime. “Actually, I was going to eat at Seaport.”

A smile draws on her face. Damn it, now she wants to go there too, and I won’t be able to get rid of her.

“Perfect, then we’ll go there.”

I’m not budging an inch.

“Go, get your bag.”

She enters the apartment as if she still lives here. Generally that doesn’t bother me, but today is different.

Today he is here.

I take a couple of steps, walking behind her, until she suddenly stops when she realizes that I’m not alone.

Lancelot immediately gets up from the sofa, like the perfect gentleman he is, to greet her properly.

Roselynn still doesn’t say a word, this has taken her by surprise. If I didn’t feel so strange about the situation, I would surely laugh.

“Hello…” she mutters as she gathers her wits. “I didn’t know you had company, Ariel, you should have told me.”

Now I’m about to let out a laugh. If I had warned her that I was with someone in the apartment, the tea sucker who lives inside her would have found some excuse to come in to see who it was.

“You didn’t give me the chance,” I reply. “You’re bossy, Roselynn.”

“That’s what Chase says.”

“Well,” Lancelot intervenes, breaking the awkward moment. “Let’s eat together. If you want to go ahead, we’ll leave in a couple of minutes, then we all can meet up at the restaurant.”

Fair point for the former suit, this has cut my friend’s discomfort.

But.

But.

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