"Do you know how much these shoes are worth?" The female VIP guest asked in a cold voice.
"Sasha..." One of the other guests who was seated beside her called to her gently, placing a hand on her to calm her down, but Sasha shook his hand off and stood up to her feet. She walked over to where Ellie still laid on the ground. Putting one foot in front of the girl, Sasha repeated.
"I said, do you know how much my shoes cost?"
Ellie quickly picked herself off the floor, but she remained on her knees before Sasha. She dipped her head low and begged.
"I'm sorry ma'am." She apologized. "I am very sorry."
Sasha threw her head back and laughed hysterically. She looked so scary laughing with her head thrown back like that. Her hair was cut low, it looked black, but it could have been because the room was dimly lit. If she wasn't wearing a dress, she could have been easily confused for one of the other men, because of how low her hair was. She had on very heavy make-up, thick mascara and eyeliner, and she was wearing the darkest shade of red lipstick on her small lips. She looked pretty, but in a very dangerous way.
"Do you think sorry cuts it?" She said. "You think you can just say you are sorry, and that settles everything?"
"No ma'am. I'm sorry ma'am." Ellie apologized again.
"Will your silly apology fix my dress or my shoes? Were you blind when you spilled wine on me? Are you new on this job? Wait, did you guys bring in an armature to serve us? Is that how lowly you think of us? Where is the manager? I want to speak with the manager now!" Sasha kept nagging.
Olivia stood fixed to the spot she was standing, watching as all the madness went on. Sasha nagging, Ellie apologizing, the CEO of the foundation and ma'am Alma trying to calm Sasha down while her companions sat still and unperturbed. None of them were trying to calm the situation down or get involved. It was as if they were already used to these kind of outbursts from their female companion, Sasha. Olivia couldn't make up her mind on what to do, but when Sasha kept refusing to accept Ellie's apology and asking for the manager, she knew she couldn't take it anymore.
"Ma'am, why don't you hand the dress over to us? We can get it fixed and as good as new for you." Olivia blurted out.
A sudden silence fell over the room and all eyes turned on her. Sasha's cold eyes fixed on Olivia as she began to slowly make her way towards her. Standing in front of her and glaring at her intimidatingly, Sasha bit out in a dangerously, gentle and cold voice.
"Did you just say something to me?" She asked. Olivia reflexively stood taller, refusing to be intimidated or phased. Looking Sasha straight in the eyes with all the confidence she could muster, she repeated.
"If you keep complaining, that wouldn't solve anything. We all know my colleague could never be able to afford your dress nor your shoes, not even if we sum up her entire life's worth right now. So, there's no hope in expecting that she would replace it, nor is there any use in asking her the worth. I pay more attention to fashion trends than she does, and I don't even know the price of this dress. But I can guess it is breathtakingly expensive." Olivia said with a weary smile, hoping that her smooth talking was working as much as she hoped it would work. "So please, why don't you forgive my clumsy friend and give us your dress and shoes? I will personally get it cleaned up and ready for you in no time. I can provide you with something to wear while I fix your dress, the hotel has plenty of those just in case of these kind of accidents..." Olivia was still talking, but Sasha walked away from her. She went up to the wine trolley and filled up a glass. Then she returned to Olivia and poured it over head. The red wine soaked Olivia's ponytail, running down to her plain white shirt and creating an ugly smear. Olivia looked down at the mess on her cloth, and in a moment of rage, she did not think her actions over. She lifted the glass of wine which she was still holding in her hand, and poured it over Sasha's head too, soaking the latter quickly from her hair to her dress.
A cry rose from the room, even the other guests who had seemed passive and unconcerned expressed shock at last. The security men in the room began to step forward, but the mysterious man in a hat at the corner of the room lifted his hand, signalling them to stop, and they did.
Sasha stood still in shock and unbelief, staring at Olivia as if she was an alien that had just dropped out of the sky. When Olivia suddenly leaned into her, she flinched.
"My shirt is cheap, I got it from a downtown thrift shop. Stains come off easily when I apply bleach. And my skin routine? Well I have none. I'll just take a bath and be done. I wouldn't be too thorough on my hair so that the smell of wine can remain, and then I get to smell like expensive wine for a while. But you? I bet you'll have to ditch this expensive dress now, and you'll spend no less than my life's fortune trying to get the smell of wine out of your hair and skin. Good luck with that." Olivia said, then she walked away, stopping by Ellie to pick her up from the ground and they both walked out of the room together.
The room remained silent as the two girls walked out. Nobody moved, not even Sasha. They all remained still, watching the girls leave. They were all too surprised to react. But the mysterious man who sat in the corner did not appear surprised. He was more amused than surprised, a little impressed even. A dark smile curled up the side of his lips as he watched the two girls leave the room. He coughed up a small laugh that startled the others out of their shock, and when they turned around to look at him, he broke into a full hysterical laughter.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Are you insane?" Ellie asked Olivia when they got outside. She had finally snapped out of the shock paralysis she had been in when Olivia poured wine on the guest, and now that she was finally in control of her mind again, she still couldn't believe what her best friend had just done. "What did you just do? Why did you do that just now? What was that for?" Ellie cried in horror.
"Calm down, Ellie. Don't get yourself worked up, just calm down." Olivia said, trying to calm Ellie down. Now that she was no longer in the spur of the moment, the reality of what she had done began to dawn on her and she was feeling nervous, but she tried to hide it from Ellie, to avoid the latter from getting even more anxious.
"Calm down? You want me to calm down? You really think I can calm down after what you just did in there?" Ellie cried in hysteria. "Ollie, we are not allowed to be rude to guests, even with average guests. But what you just did now? You insulted and assaulted a VIP guest! Didn't you hear what ma'am Alma said?"
"I neither insulted nor assaulted her Ellie! I was trying to be reasonable with her..." Olivia began to argue.
"You spilled wine over her head Ollie! Was that you being reasonable?" Ellie asked. "Now, we might loose our jobs!"
"Ellie, we were going to loose our job anyway. That haughty witch would have made sure of it." Olivia said.
"She would have punished only me, Ollie. She would have taken it out on just me! You didn't need to get involved." Ellie cried.
"If I didn't do anything, she would have harassed you and made you loose your job too. But now that I stepped in, she at least got what she deserved. I'll live happily now, even if I loose this job, knowing that I gave her a taste of her own poison." Olivia smiled. Ellie looked appalled at the sight of Olivia's smile.
"Are you smiling right now?" She asked Olivia. Olivia threw her head back and laughed out loud. Then her gaze returned to Ellie.
"This is a blessing in disguise actually! How long has it been since we've been working at this job? Four years? Five? We've been working nonstop for years, day and night! Barely getting any days off! This is good for us. Let's take a break for a while, go on a vacation maybe. Then when we get back, we can find another job. We could work part time, that way we can get enough time to do other things. Who knows, chase our dreams." Olivia said with a nonchalant shrug. Ellie gazed at her as if she had suddenly gone insane.
"Why do you talk as if you are in a dream?" Ellie asked. "You of all people know how impossible that dream is. You know we can not afford a vacation even if we were to sell off all of our belongings right now, except if by 'going on a vacation', you meant chilling out at your backyard! Because that's literally as much as we can afford right now, that is, until your rent gets due. And you know what I have to deal with. There's Sally, with her health bills and medications. A part-time job, no matter how many I take up, just won't cut it. Stop being so unrealistic Ollie."
"Yeah, that's true." Olivia said, frowning. But her face quickly brightened up. "Still, we can always find another job, right? Cheer up. Here!" She said as she pulled the ribbon from her ponytail and let her hair down. She combed her fingers through it, and then she did the same for Ellie, pulling off the ribbon that held her blonde hair in a ponytail, and then running her fingers through the golden hair.
"Hey! What did you do that for?" Ellie cried, putting her hands on her hair and trying to pull it back into a ponytail. But Olivia knocked her hands off playfully.
"Let your hair down and live a little. Let's have fun today, just for today, let's live like we don't have a care in the world. I will treat you to an expensive dinner, to celebrate our retirement from Grand View. Then tomorrow, we delve fully into job hunting. Just trust me, I promise, I'll make everything alright." Olivia promised.
Ellie was still very anxious, but the assurance she saw in Olivia's eyes made her calm down. She still could not see how Olivia planned to fix the mess they were in, but she was determined to trust her anyway. Olivia spread out her arms, offering Ellie a hug, and the latter embraced her.
As Olivia stroked Ellie's back, she sighed inwardly. The truth was, Olivia understood just how much of a mess they were in, but she was determined to carry the weight of the anxiety alone. She couldn't let Ellie worry about it. Ellie already had the weight of her sick twin sister to worry about, Olivia couldn't let her worry about this too.
As she held on to Ellie, Olivia decided within herself that she would do all she could to make things right. She had made the awful mistake of letting her foul temper get the best of her, but now, she was determined to fix her mess, without troubling her best friend, Ellie.