Aria walked into a huge mansion through the staff entrance a few minutes before 18:00.
The kitchen staff was rushing, occasionally shouting. Sophie, one of the managers from the dance club, smiled at Aria by the door.
"Glad you made it!" Sophie seemed equally excited as nervous. "Not sure if we have time to fix your make up." She mumbled as Aria approached. Sophie led her to the small changing room near the kitchen where a few truly stunning women were already dressed up in their uniform for the night. Aria gulped recognising a few of them. Every other women in the room was wearing a gold skin tight dress with long slit on each thigh.
Sophie furrowed her brows as she started to dig through the hangers. "What size are you again?"
Aria blushed in embarrassment.
"18." She mumbled barely coherently for Sophie to understand. Sophie went though the entire rack of dresses and picked one up.
"I'm sorry." She said apologetically. "It's stretchy though.
Aria turned pale as she realised that the biggest size they had was size 14. She already felt the judgmental gazes from other women. If she could she would have preferred a spontaneous combustion over this.
"Maybe I should go?" Aria whispered to Sophie.
"We are already three people down because of illness." Sophie wasn't best impressed with the suggestion. She pretty much threw a pair of stilettos to Aria. "Did Jess not tell you to wear a smoky eye make up?"
"No." Aria held the dress, looking at the seams and wondering if they will be strong enough to hold her in, if she magically pulls it on herself.
"Oh well. It doesn't look too bad." Sophie assessed the situation before pushing Aria into a small changing room.
Aria hid in a stall and took her T-shirt and jeans off, pulling the dress on with a huge difficulty. She lacked mere millimetres to be able to pull it over her bust. After consideration she took her bra off which allowed her to pull the dress down but at the expense of revealing more of her cleavage and having absolutely no support. She looked at her reflection in the mirror after adjusting her rolls and curves inside the dress. This dress didn't look good on her. The slits in a dress reached her muffin tops revealing much more of her hips than of the other women working the event. She had to pull the sides of her panties up to make sure they didn't show. The resulting wedgie was uncomfortable. The dress barely contained her breasts. It was one wrong move away from a nip-slip. But… the fabric covered her skin and although it was much more revealing than anything she would have ever picked herself, someone with more confidence would have rocked that look.
She came out trying to cover herself with her jacket, absolutely hoping that the Earth will open up underneath her and swallow her before she needs to come out to the guests.
Sophie looked at her studiously.
"Not too bad." Sophie decided before she passed her a tray with appetisers. "Offer it to everyone you pass by. Circle the room until you have less than a half left. Then come back for a refill" Sophie instructed. "Try not to breathe." Sophie looked warily at how tight the dress was around Aria's chest.
"I'll try not to." Aria replied grumpily, putting her change of clothes away and grabbing the first tray. She took a deep breath and put all the effort into focusing on balancing in the platform stilettos that she was not accustomed to. Her motion was very restricted.
Aria walked out into the main room where the party was, realising very quickly how lavish this place was. The room was filled with men in tuxedos and women in ball gowns. The room itself was humongous with at least several hundred of guests. A grand chandelier hung above people's heads reflecting the warm light. The room was tall with balcony running around it and a set of stairs beside the staff entrance leading upstairs. The live music played on the other end of the room, a sound of string quartet and piano intertwined a hum of conversations. Aria wanted to hide, feeling very self-conscious, but she walked with her head high and offered the fresh oysters and caviar on some fancy cracker to anyone nearby and the guests very willingly indulged in an expensive treat.
The night wasn't easy. Aria went back and forth between the room and the kitchen tens of times , refilling the tray every few minutes or less. Her legs were killing very soon, but she maintained the smile on her face. She avoided looking at the rich people she was serving afraid of seeing how they would look down onto her and not only because she was a servant but also because that bloody dress barely held onto her. Aria couldn't stop thinking that the dress was going to rip at the worst time of the night and she will be exposed to everyone around. While working she felt burning gazes from her colleagues, especially the few that she recognised from the previous encounters.
After a few hours, Aria walked into the staff room and grabbed her water bottle gulping in the liquid. A layer of sweat shone on her face, cleavage and arms.
"Oh look, a pig in a lipstick!" One of the women walked in after her. Aria looked back at Fiona who for some reason detested Ariadne and who may have been the reason why Aria left the dance club. Aria wasn't sure how to respond. She kind of agreed with Fiona.
Aria ignored the remark instead and grabbed the newly refilled platter. "You are bringing shame to us." Fiona hissed. "Go home."
"There's not enough of you to cover for me." Aria pointed out.
"We'll manage. With your gammon legs you probably made only like two rounds tonight." Fiona's comment bothered Aria. She definitely pulled her share at work, if not more. She came back with more empty trays than anyone else. It was an unfair comment.
Aria m decided to ignore Fiona and continued on. As the night went on, the appetisers switched to wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic drinks. Aria felt her body heat up, a layer of sweat made her feel sticky. Some men started to comment on the waitresses in the increasingly explicit manner. Being bigger, Aria was particularly noticeable and started to become a target for a lot of those comments. Even rich men who might have appeared distinguished were crude once alcohol was involved.
Every time Aria came across Fiona, Fiona looked at her with pure spite. Everyone made Aria feel insecure. She kept reminding herself that she did it for her friend, and herself, for her new apartment that she was nowhere close to buying.
Aria impatiently checked the time. It was a little over an hour left before the end. But then, maybe it was a false hope that it would finish at the time expected. Her irritation grew as she felt another accidental hand land on her body. A deep breath and she kept on walking.
"Would you like some more drinks?" She forced a radiant smile on her face when she approached a group of men standing in the circle being completely face blind at this stage. Everything was a blur as she was giving out the glasses.
"May I have two glasses of champagne?" A man beside her requested. She passed it with the widest smile.
"Of course."
The man passed one glass of champagne back to her. Aria was surprised but she held onto the glass and awaited instructions.
The men raised their toast which was for one of them and his recent success, whatever it was as her brain didn't quite compute the words they have said.
"It is bad luck if someone doesn't drink the toast." The man said. His voice was deep and unbelievably attractive, sending goosebumps down Aria's back. Aria didn't dare to look at his face. She felt particularly pressured but she complied and drank a glass of champagne.
"Cheers." She uttered. Her eyes were glassy, her hair starting to escape the ponytail.
A regret set in soon after having that glass of champagne along with the dizziness. Between the warmth, tight dress, and alcohol, Aria felt on edge and close to fainting.
Her eyes caught the face of the clock in the kitchen. 59 minutes left, hopefully. And another tray.