CHAPTER 22:
Hailey’s POV
My phone buzzed just as I stepped out of the warehouse into the brisk evening air.
Checking the caller ID, I felt a grin tug at my lips.
Anna!
“Hey girl, you’ll never guess what just happened!” I answered breathlessly.
“Oh my god, did you finally nail that psycho director’s ‘audition?'” came Anna’s familiar raspy tone.
I could practically hear the air quotes around that last word.
“Not just nailed it – I blew the damn thing to pieces!” I exclaimed, the rush of achievement still coursing hot through my veins. “Miles is giving me the lead role!”
A squeal of delight crackled over the line. “Get out! The same part Lindsay Ford played in that award-winning romance?”
“The one and only,” I confirmed with a proud grin. “Apparently putting the great Miles Prescott in his place was all it took to prove myself worthy.”
“I’ll say – from what you’ve told me, the guy’s either a certified loony or some sort of genius-level prick. Probably both.” Anna’s tone took on a sly edge. “Sooo… does landing your dream part call for a night of unbridled celebration, or what?”
I chuckled ruefully, already envisioning the marathon ordeal of grueling rehearsals and psyche-shredding emotionalism sure to follow over the coming months.
“You know it, girl. If I’m going to survive having my soul flayed night after night, I’m going to need one final outing to recharge the spirit!”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Anna crowed. “Give me a few hours and I’ll swing by your place. We can get dolled up and really live it up for once!”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” I agreed with a grin. “See you in a bit!”
By the time Anna arrived, decked out in a purple halter top and skinny jeans that accentuated her waspish figure, I’d showered off the evening’s accumulated grime and tension.
She wasted no time ushering me into the bathroom for a full makeover.
“This is a huge milestone, babe. You’ve got to look the part of the newly anointed starlet worth celebrating!” she insisted with an impish grin, spinning me around to face the mirror.
Over the next hour, Anna worked her makeup artistry with the zeal of a master painter layering acrylics on a fresh canvas.
Lush sweeps of eyeshadow, expertly winged eyeliner, and lashings of mascara transformed my face into a vibrant explosion of glamour.
“Damn girl, you’re making me look like a troll beside you!” she complained as she fussed with my hair, teasing it into an intricate cascade of auburn waves and curls.
I just laughed and batted her arm away playfully. “Oh please, everyone knows you’re the hottie in this friendship. You’re just making sure I clean up well enough not to embarrass you tonight!”
Finally, Anna stepped back and gave an approving nod at her handiwork. “Okay, now for the final touch!” She retrieved a black cocktail dress from her overnight bag and shimmied it up over my hips with a flourish.
The garment wasn’t overtly risqué – halter-style with a sweeping neckline and hemline that fell just above my knees.
But the flowy, body-skimming material clung to every curve in a way that made me feel deliciously, undeniably sexy.
“Oh yeah, that’s the look,” Anna grinned in approval. “A woman flush with success and ready to celebrate by drinking the whole city dry!”
I did an exaggerated spin and blew her a kiss. “Well? What are we waiting for then, hot stuff? Let’s go get what the night owes us!”
Less than an hour later, we were waltzing through the velvet ropes and into the pulsating, shadow-strobe interior of one of LA’s premier nightclubs.
The driving bassline of the music thrummed through my bones, beckoning with its primal siren call as Anna led us toward the bar.
We seized a couple of stools and parked ourselves amid a thicket of other immaculately presented night prowlers looking to indulge life’s finer excesses.
“You ready to get this party started, Superstar?” Anna leaned in close to holler over the cacophony.
My grin turned wolfish as I eyed the array of top-shelf liquors lining the bar’s mirrored shelves. “Hit me with your strongest stuff first. I get the feeling I’ve earned a serious head start tonight!”
For the next couple hours, we settled into an almost ritualistic cycle of downing increasingly ridiculous cocktails, savoring the warm blossoms of oblivion spreading through our systems with each addictive sip.
The dizzying lights and roar of bodies swaying to the relentless basslines began to blur together into one intoxicating, almost hallucinogenic synthesis.
My focus narrowed entirely to the glowing feedback loop of Anna’s wild, raucous peals of laughter ringing off the liquor’s spreading numbness. Of deliciously tart, neon-colored libations finding their way into my open, waiting mouth again and again.
We danced. Oh lord did we dance – clinging to each other in a sweaty, sloppy tangle of limbs and intoxicated feminine abandon.
Surrendering completely to the pounding bass thudding our forms into motion with each visceral backbeat.
At some point, my cocktail dress rode up scandalously along my thighs to facilitate the frenzied contortions.
But I only dimly registered the delighted whoops and catcalls from surrounding revelers whenever my high kick or dip exposed inches of gleaming tanned skin.
This night wasn’t about propriety or restraint, after all. I’d earned every last primal delight after the harrowing artistic gauntlets I’d endured to reach these dizzying heights.
So, I whirled and gyrated and swayed with eyes closed and head thrown back in total, blissful abandon.
“I’m so grateful to have you, Anna.”
Anna’s hands scalded incandescent trails along my sides, her throaty chuckles and growls of drunken encouragement transmitting electric currents of pure unfettered ecstasy through my veins.
When the DJ kicked the thumping bumps up another notch, my body simply followed the cadence.
“Yeah, let’s go!” She shouted.
Writhing and churning like a serpent, hips swiveling in sinuous undulations that stirred whoops from our now obvious audience of onlookers.
At some point, Anna tugged me stumbling off the dance floor and back toward the bar where a sweating bottle of chilled water awaited our parched forms.
I accepted it gratefully, sucking in deep gulps while my bestie grinned up at me in a lazy, drunken slant.
“Girl… you are ON FIRE tonight!” she hollered over the din; her hand still splayed across the small of my arched back. “The whole damn club is eating you up!”
I tossed my hair in an exaggerated gesture of indifference, already floating on the combined high of alcohol and sheer feminine revelry.
“Just enjoying my last true taste of freedom before…” My smile turned impish before I finally finished: “Well, before the torment truly begins!” I sighed knowing the coming days would be hell with Miles.
Anna’s eyebrows quirked in surprise. “Torment? I thought we were celebrating you landing the role of a lifetime, not psyching yourself up for an uphill war!”
“What’s happening babe?” She asked concerned.