ICanBeAnyone

Lottery Winner

Aliyah nodded as Gary expressed concern about the limo fitting in a parking area. It could be a challenge, but one they would work around if necessary. She laughed as Gary expressed dissatisfaction with Duncan's shopping methods. Not that she could complain. She was very much a let me just grab what fits when I need it and call it a day type shopper herself.

They chatted about the day's plans, and agreed to meet back up. She declined their offer of a ride. She needed some space to think about what was happening in her life. She excused herself and headed towards home. She smoked only one cigarette on the way, which for her was a vast improvement, but she had been making strides towards quitting. She let herself into her tiny studio apartment and sighed. She emptied her apron of crumpled bills and tucked them into what had once started life as a 5lb cottage cheese container. She had over time decorated it in many forms. Today it was wearing a lovely wrapping of purple camouflage duct tape. She didn't even bother to count it today. Thanks to Duncan her tips over the last several days had been more than she normally made.

She got into the shower and got ready in record time. She had chosen a pair of skinny legged jeans, a tank top that was fitted near the chest and loose and flowing down to where it hit her mid thigh. She slipped her feet into knee high black boots with a low heel. She ran a brush through her hair. She tied it back before tucking her phone, ID and cash into her back pocket.

She rushed out the door hurrying back to meet up with Duncan.

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They ended up at a shopping center filled with clothing stores, it wasn't quite a mall. It was filled with places that were much nicer than Aliyah was comfortable with, but based on the long suffering sigh from Gary, not quite as high end as HE would have preferred.

Aliyah cheated. As soon as she was able to split away from Duncan and Gary she cornered one of the sales girls and begged for help. She was soon locked in a dressing room with item after item handed to her. She had no idea what she was doing, so she let herself be dressed and redressed like an over sized doll. The sales girl finally decided on a pair of slacks that were red, and a black fitted shirt. Aliyah didn't know that she liked it, but she was going to go with it. ( s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ba/8..)

She wasn't too sure what to think about the Turkish restaurant, she was a very american food kind of girl. She looked on in shock as he spoke in Turkish. He was full of surprises. She laughed as he told her the story of the tea. Yeah a six pack of redbulls would certainly do a number on anyone. She could imagine the scene. Science has said that sugar highs in kids were purely anectdotal, but she disagreed. Kids were little shits on too much sugar.

She looked at him sympathetically when his talking took a downward turn. She reached over and lightly rested her hand on his forearm, giving him a supportive smile. "We all have memories like that." She said quietly. He asked about her and she shrugged a little before tucking her hair behind her ear.

"There really isn't a lot to tell. I am a native to Vegas. My mom had her issues, so we moved around a lot, one crappy place after another. I really spent most of my time growing up in the library. I started at the Omlette house... oh boy it's got to be four or five years ago. I like it though. I've got my regulars." She looked at him and smiled shyly. "and once in a while I get a chance to meet some very interesting people."

"Not Part of the Plan"

Kat laughed at his commentary on the conversation. "Did any of his advice include inheriting your millions?" She asked with a smile. "That's how most of these folks did it. Very few of them are self made men." She tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ear and looked at him. "You should totally forgo the basic cable. I promise you online streaming is where it's at these days." She teased.

She raised an eyebrow as he began to tell her that he was serious about wanting to take her on a date. She didn't know whether or not to believe him, but truthfully, as long as she was wary of his motives, what did she have to lose? She gently took a glass from him and sighed softly. She might as well give it a try. Who knew, maybe it would go well. She lightly touched his glass with hers and managed a genuine smile. "It would be a pleasure Paul." She told him.

They chatted for a few moments before she excused herself and took just a few steps away. She was actually enjoying herself, and didn't want to go too far. She listened to the voice in her ear telling her that the rental company wouldn't be able to make it until morning to pick up the tables and linens. She shook her head a little and told her assistant not to worry about it, that would be fine. She returned to Paul's side and sighed. "The work of the party planner is never done it seems. My assistant was having a minor fit over a scheduling change."

Things were going so well. Kat introduced Paul around and many of her guests were very excited to share with him the things their companies had done, or were planning on doing. She would occasionally catch his eye during these recitations and give him an understanding smile as if to say "welcome to my world"

Lottery Winner

Aliyah turned her head and looked at Gary as he suggested his counter offer. She chewed her bottom lip considering it. She finally nodded and grinned as Gary managed to reign Duncan in on the extravagant tipping. "Deal, but no malls. I do hate to see a good body guard twitch at the idea of such a large unsecured building." She teased Gary before gesturing for him to slide out of the booth so she could slide in to the side closer to the wall letting him have the end to get in and out easier.

She slid into the booth and looked to Duncan as he suggested shopping today and the actual date on a day off. It was cute that he thought she actually took a day off. She thought for a moment and realized she did have a couple of days this week where she was only opening and should be off no later than 10 am rather than working the whole day like she tried to do as often as possible. She enjoyed what she did, and she often took the low tipping tables because most of her coworkers had kids, and needed the money much more than she did. She had grown up with even less than she had now, and so she was perfectly fine with her level of income. She knew she was good at this, and could make a lot more money other places, but this place worked for her, so she stayed. "Not a bad idea. I should be off by 10 am. 11 at the latest tomorrow and..." She paused to think about her schedule. "The day after I think. If you want to wait for an actual day off, I can arrange to have a shift or two covered."

When Duncan began his internet searches to start planning Aliyah turned to Gary and started a conversation. "Should we be running locations by you before we make definitive plans?" She never asked either one why a body guard was necessary. It didn't really matter to her, the fact was Duncan had one, so she was going to make Gary's life as easy as possible.

She turned her attention back to Duncan when he spoke and smiled a little. "Sounds like a perfect plan." She wasn't worried about admission fees. She had given him a budget and was pretty sure he would be able to manage to stay inside of it as much as he didn't particularly care for that part of the deal. "I tell you what. I have to go home and shower, and put on something that doesn't smell like bacon and syrup." She glanced at her watch. "Give me 45 minutes and I can meet you back here if that works for you?" She said.

"Not Part of the Plan"

(dress s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4b/b..)

Kat walked away from the meeting amused. Paul was a damn good looking man, and she had almost wished he had been sincere in asking her out. She had been alone for a long time, and it would be nice to have someone to talk to at the end of a long day. She threw herself into her work, and spent a good portion of the day handling one minor crisis after another. She finally felt that things could progress without her long enough for her to go home and get dressed.

She took a good two hours to ready herself for the event. Her hair went up, and her makeup went on, but the true show of the night was her dress. She had chosen a dress that was light grey, not a metallic silver, or the darker grey that was barely a shade away from black. This dress hugged her curves, and had a built in cape that flowed gracefully from her shoulders. She wore only the thinnest of bracelets around her wrist as her only accessory. Once she had decided she looked as good as she was going to for the night, she called downstairs to make sure that the Limo Grandda had sent was already there.

She slid from the limo at the venue and headed inside. She slipped a small earbud into her ear. It was small, but if you stood too close you would definitely notice it. She needed to keep on top of all the goings on, and sometimes it was not a good time to have others approach, this way she could handle anything that needed her personal attention, but do so subtly.

She stopped and took a deep breath as she caught sight of Paul on the other side of the room. She was only slightly surprised to see him here. So many of their VIP's would welcome the recognition a reporter of his stature would bring. She turned her attention back to the wife of one of the many Vice Presidents and gracefully excused herself. She moved gracefully across the room, pausing to exchange pleasantries here and there. This was old hat for her, she knew all of these people very well.

She slowly approached and lightly touched the arm of the man talking to Paul. "So sorry to interrupt. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy were looking for you. They had a question about the photographer you used for your Daughters wedding." She said with a smile. That was all it took for him to make his excuses to Paul and move on.

Kat smiled and looked at Paul approvingly. He looked even better all dressed up. "You looked like you could use a rescue." She said offering her reasoning for interrupting his conversation.

Serge & Lucia |EasilyAmused & ICanBeAnyone|

She smiled a little as he apologized, and assured her it was her job. "Serge..." She said leaning forward and lightly touching his arm. "Your job is to be here in the unlikely event my identity is discovered, not so much because I need protection, but because footage of me kicking a reporter and calling him a nasty name wouldn't go over well. That being said. I have no intention of ever mentioning this incident again. If it does come up however, my response will be that You left me in a previously secure location to remove what you judged to be a threat, you exercised your judgement that leaving me momentarily alone was the lesser threat than allowing the situation to remain."

She let go of his arm, and pulled her hand back to glance at her watch. It was after 11. She was supposed to be off at midnight. She didn't have any tables currently. "My Shift? I can make it over pretty quick." She turned in the booth and hollered across the room. "Bill. I'm fried... I am done for tonight. Cool?"

Bill set down a glass on the bar and kind of glared at her, but decided better of it. "I was hoping you would pick up the next shift." He said grumpily, "but since you have other plans... I guess letting you go now won't do any harm."

Lu grinned and turned her attention back to Serge. "Officially done as of now. Our best bet is to catch a few hours of sleep, and we can hit the gym in the morning. I am seriously considering taking what my Mother always called a Mental Health Day tomorrow." She said as she stood up.

"I'll be right back." She hurried back to the bar and waited a minute until Bill gave her an envelope full of her cash out from the nights credit card receipts. She appreciated that Bill still did it this way rather than make her wait to get them on a Paycheck. She blew Bill a kiss as she turned to head back to Serge, tucking the envelope back into her apron. "Ready?"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When they arrived back at the apartment Lu handed Serge the key so he could let them in and of course perform his inspection. Things were a little different this time. There was a double size air mattress already set up in the middle of the living room. It looked more like an actual bed than an air mattress. It was one she had borrowed from her neighbor. His mother in law was picky, so she bought one that had a built in pump that ran almost constantly to keep it at a constant inflation. The counter in the kitchen was littered with grocery bags with all non cold items.

Lu walked to the stack of folded towels on the couch and read the note. "Chica, Jesus saw you bought towels, AND that you have an overnight guest. He assumed that the latter was the reason for the former, so he washed them for you. Have fun. Don't do anything we wouldn't do, and we want ALL the details. XOXO Carlos and Jesus"

Lu couldn't help but laugh as she read the note and waited for Serge to complete his inspection before heading to the kitchen. She began looking through the bags and laughed again. She had asked the right guys to go grocery shopping. She hadn't had this much food in the house in forever. Heck she wasn't sure she even KNEW what to do with half of this. She shrugged and started putting away the groceries.

"I love my neighbors." She said with a smile. "THIS is why they have a key to my place by the way. I have a key to theirs too, but I did get a present for you." She said and reached into a brown paper bag marked with the words PRIME NOW She pulled out a brand new dead bolt and a box of long screws holding them up for him to see.

"I figured this would help you sleep better." She told him setting the package on the counter before walking out of the kitchen towards her bedroom. She left the bedroom door open and got down on her knees digging around under her bed to find her drill. She just used it to repair one of the drawers in the dresser, so she knew it held a charge. She would replace the lock before bed so he could get a solid nights sleep.

She got up with a soft groan and headed back to the living room. She sat down on the couch and started to unzip her boots, setting the drill on the coffee table which had been shoved out of the way of the air mattress. She moaned softly in relief as she slid the three inch heels off her feet. She set the boots on the floor and leaned forward so she could reach under the couch and grab a tennis ball. She set the ball on the floor and began rolling her feet over it letting her eyes close slowly. "I am kind of glad I didn't pick up that extra shift. It has been a very long day."

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Let me change that lock, and then I will wash my face and get out of your way so you can get some sleep." She stood up, moving a little more slowly than she had earlier in the day. "My room has windows, but since we are on the third floor, I don't think those are a concern, but I can either sleep with my door open or out here on the couch. Which ever makes it easier for you." She said as she reached for the drill.