She knew she wanted to study further, and now she was well-prepared to do so both academically and financially. She decided she didn’t want to just let go of this opportunity.
Twenty minutes later, she got off the bus and walked towards the hotel. She tried to relax her face. She took a deep breath and muttered to herself, “Oof… I’d better get going now and earn some money for myself. I must seize the day.”
Scarlett saw, from a distance, that Sophie was waiting for her at the front door of the hotel. “We gotta be quick. Let’s go change our clothes first.” Sophie said and took her to a locked room.
Scarlett wasn’t shy in front of Sophie– they had been friends for so long, and they had both seen each other naked anyway. They were more like sisters at this point.
“God, I love this dress! It’s just so fitted, you know, I feel like it flatters my figure. By the way, the quality is not bad, huh?” Scarlett zipped the dress up carefully. She told Sophie that she cared about the quality of uniforms because she had had a terrible experience one time when she was part-timing as an usher. She had been wearing a silk dress, and it had suddenly split at a corner when she was struggling to free herself from a client who was gripping her wrist.
“You said it. This is not an ordinary hotel, though. Look! Look who’s passing by.” Sophie said and fingered at a short, fatty but neatly-dressed man.
“Mr. Crawford? The CEO of Y.G. Entertainment?”
“Exactly. So you see what kinds of people are coming for tonight’s banquet. Be careful about what you say and what you do, understand?”
“I got it. Don’t worry about me! You know me, I would never cause you trouble, would I?”
Sophie sighed, “I know you won’t, sweetie. That’s why I brought you here in the first place. But if you get into any trouble, just call the manager or me, okay? I’ve sent you her number.” She said, with a smile, and then left for her own business.
Scarlett’s only task was to stand at the door and greet guests coming in to attend the grand banquet. In truth, she was supposed to lead guests to the banquet hall. But the layout of the hotel was just too complex for her to figure out, especially all in one night, so the other two girls took charge of the guiding job instead. They were more experienced– they’d been working at the hotel for a while.
So, Scarlett just stood there and greeted the guests with a smile on her face. She was probably one of the best candidates for the job because her sexy yet sweet smile pleased the guests and put them in good moods– especially the older male guests.
After about five hours, all the guests who had been invited and had RSVPed their attendance had arrived. This meant that Scarlett’s job for the night was all done.
Scarlett was satisfied with today’s job because this was one of those rare times that nobody had tried to flirt with her or touch her inappropriately while she was working.
“It’s nice working at a top-tier hotel, I won’t lie.” She said and waved at Sophie as she walked towards her.
“The banquet is in the Champs Elysees Hall. Let’s go and get ourselves a free meal!” Sophie took Scarlett’s hand and led her upstairs.
“Is that okay? We’re not invited, and people there are…” Scarlett thought it would be embarrassing if the guests recognized her as the girl who had been greeting them at the door.
“Hey, girl. You know what, my boyfriend launched this banquet and he’s in there now. Why should anybody have an issue with it if I went in there and dined with him? Hurry up now! I’m starving!” Sophie raised her eyebrows and gestured to Scarlett to follow her as she began walking upstairs.
Sophie was just that type of girl– she didn’t care that her boyfriend, Jeff Richards, was some big businessman in the area and that Sophie herself was basically a nobody. Sophie didn’t let that sort of thing get to her– no matter what anyone around her said.
At last, Scarlett and Sophie got to the banquet hall. Sophie was a social butterfly; she could talk and become friends with practically anybody. Scarlett watched her popping up here and there. She was entertaining the guests as though she were the hostess of the party herself!
Scarlett, on the other hand, wished she could just be invisible. She sat quietly and stuffed her face with food, hoping nobody would notice her or make conversation.
A voice shot in Scarlett’s direction and seemed to target her. “You’ve been working hard, haven’t you? You must have been starving all those hours!”
Scarlett turned around and found herself directly facing none other than Jeff Richards.
She put down her fork immediately and said, “Hey, Jeff!” All of a sudden, a loud burp escaped her mouth. Scarlett was absolutely mortified.
She was overcome with embarrassment. Not only because of the burp but also because she realized she didn’t go to thank the host today for this wonderful dinner. Instead, she had allowed the host to approach her. It was supposed to be the other way around, and she knew that.
“You know, this is such a great dinner, and I really enjoy it, as my disgusting burp just now suggested… Thank you so much for this. I feel like I haven’t eaten such wonderful food in ages because, well, you know how school canteens can be. Sometimes, there are even rat tails in the curries and cockroaches crawling about in the salads…”
“Oof, alright, I didn’t need so many details…” Jeff wished he hadn’t heard Scarlett’s stories of the school canteen. He felt a little bit sick.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to gross you out. I gotta go now, thank you again for the dinner.” Scarlett took her bag, gave Sophie a little wink to let her know she was leaving and walked out of the banquet hall.
Back from the BanquetAs Scarlett arrived at her dorm room, she jumped right into her bed. Five hours standing in high heels numbed her legs and exhausted her body all over.“You’ve finally come back. Hey, don’t go to sleep just yet. I’ve got something to ask you.” Bell, Scarlett’s roommate and best friend at school, came to her and patted her face softly. Bell Harper had been by her side through the years.“Shoot!” Scarlett felt like she had no strength left, not even to talk.“Did Mr. Howard talk to you?”“The thing about the letter of recommendation?”Bell nodded and then lowered her voice. “He said t
“What? An online friend?” Scarlett couldn’t help herself. How silly of Bell to trust a stranger on the Internet, she thought.“Shhhh, shut up.” Bell covered Scarlett’s mouth, “It’s not like that, okay? I’ve known him for a long time, and it’s not like I just agreed to meet a total stranger. I’m not that absurd, okay? We’ve even video chatted a few times. He seems chill to me. Totally legit.”Bell dragged Scarlett out of bed. Scarlett didn’t want to get up and go out on this date with Bell’s online friend, but Bell had left her with no options. Scarlett pulled out a casual graphic T-shirt and a pair of denim shorts from a pile of clothes on the floor and put them on in a rush.She sat on the bed for a while and looked at Bell ru
Scarlett laughed out loud. Dan continued, “Can you believe it? It’s my fifth Tinder date this month alone. I wouldn't say I like it, but I still can’t stop. I feel like I gotta keep trying my luck.”Scarlett took a closer look. “Well, you never know, maybe you’ll have fun! Maybe she’ll turn out to be a good match for you. You gotta stay hopeful, right?”Dan shook his head and sighed. “I’m not as optimistic as you.”“Well, by the time you find the one, you’ll be so experienced. Things will go smoothly and fall into place.’ Scarlett laughed again.Dan gazed at her lovely face, and a sudden sadness rose from the bottom of his heart. Would he ever be able to confess his love to Scarlett? Woul
Sophie put the cigarette back unwillingly and said, “Oh, did I tell you about the casting next week? It’s for an art class, and they’re looking for a model for figure drawing. I recommended you for it, so I gave them your number.”Scarlett muttered with some sausage still in her mouth, “Can I? I am not a professional model, though.”Sophie gazed into her eyes and said, “Don’t you want to make money? Just go!”Scarlett finished her sausage and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. As always. You’re right, I guess I’ll go and see what happens.”Sophie took out her cell phone and made several calls, “Hmm, okay. Yeah, tell me everything. What? Where are they? Alright, alright, calm down. O
“What are these for?” Scarlett stared at a whole row of luxurious sports cars in wide-eyed excitement.“Racing cars. They’ve got a racing game here every Saturday night.” Sophie turned to her and explained.“Ah. Got it!”Even as Scarlett dealt with socializing with Jeff and Sophie’s friends, she couldn’t move her eyes away from the rows of high-configuration sports cars only 10 meters away. They were all modified supercars, some even outfitted with nitrogen tanks to speed them up. This was a visual feast– she felt her mouth grow wet with desire.Scarlett narrowed her eyes. The silver car that stood parked on the far left captured her imagination. She breathed in deep and saw thick wads of dollar bills float down
Chunk touched his chin and asked curiously, “Then what do you want?”“This one.” She pointed to the reflector, and she was estimating its worth. “So, what do you think? What’s this worth, like 15k?” She grew excited at the thought of the fortune awaiting her.Chuck was surprised at her choice, “Ya know, you’re pretty bad at business. I gotta hand it to you.”“Deal? Or no deal?” Scarlett had her own set of principles.“Of course!” Chuck Sandler couldn’t wait to watch the show.The final race was just about to start. The cheering crowds were full of excitement; people screamed and shouted to no end.
Although Scarlett had made a fortune, she still kept a low profile. There was only one person she wanted to share the news with her younger brother, Skyler. So, she gave Skyler a call and asked if they could get dinner in the coming week.Scarlett arrived at Skyler’s lab 20 minutes earlier than their appointed time. She leaned against a tree and played some games on her phone to pass the time.At a top science and engineering school like the one Skyler went to, there were usually many more male students than female. So, as one would expect, Scarlett drew a lot of attention on such a campus.The school was always worried about the disastrous consequences of having such a hypermasculine institution– it further discouraged women from entering STEM fields when they saw how skewed in favor of women the demogr
You have to think of yourself now. It’s your time.”“Do you think it really necessary? I mean, it’s just… a language.”Skyler’s face grew serious at once, “Don’t you want to study further? You could become an expert in no time! I’m sure you’ll find work somewhere, or you could even become a Russian professor at the college. Just like mom!”“How boring it is to be a professor!” Scarlett didn’t think that becoming a professor would be all that exciting to her. That wasn’t really her goal, as far as her career went.“Alright, even if you are not going to be a professor, it’s still necessary to further your education. It’s quite possible that you could be an int