"All The Constellations" - Chapter 7: Invitations

Learn about Lacy here: HRD's Constellations


Location: Outside Najae



Natalie: Oh no. It can’t be.


Mia: My oh my. Little Miss Evangeline.
Eva: Oh God. Mia?


Mia: *Getting up* In the flesh.
Eva: What are you doing here?
Mia: I could ask you the same.
Eva: Hey, I quit. I can do whatever I want.


Mia: No need to get defensive. I’m visiting my sister. She’s about to have a baby.
Eva: I’m visiting my sister, too. Well, living with her actually. Until I get on my feet.
Mia: That’s cool.
*silence*


Mia: Eva, look. There’s no hard feelings. I’ve seen tons of girls come and go at my club. I don’t hold it against you. Burlesque dancing isn’t for everyone.
Eva: It was stripping, Mia. Don’t sugarcoat it.
Mia: *shrug* Tomato, tomato, sweetheart.
Eva: Look, nobody here knows I was a stripper in Paris—except you—and I’d like to keep it that way.
Mia: Fine by me.


Mia: See you around, sweetie.
Eva: Not if I can help it. *Starts to leave* Hey, out of curiosity, what’s your sister’s name?
Mia: Josie. Josie Cruz. I’m about to go visit her at work.


Eva: *To herself* Oh, great. I guess I can’t avoid you, Mia Hawkes.

Location: Delaney’s Office at Hiatus Publishing

Delaney: God, why does everything they send me suck?
*knock*
Delaney: Come in.


Delaney: Oh hi, Benjamin. Can you make it quick? I have to go yell at layout.
Benjamin: *Suddenly nervous* Oh, well…erm…
Delaney: Is this about your intern? Have you found one you like yet?
Benjamin: No, no, not yet.
Delaney: *Growing irritated* Then what is it?


Benjamin: Delaney…Would you like to have dinner with me?
Delaney: Oh…*softening* Like a date, dinner?
Benjamin: Yes.


Delaney: Well…sure? Why not?
Benjamin: *Relieved* Great! Tomorrow, around eight?
Delaney: *Smiling* Perfect.


Benjamin: See you later, Delaney.
Delaney: See you, Benjamin.

*A few minutes later…*

Lacy: Hey, Delaney, you busy?


Delaney: *To herself* I am never going to get to yell at layout now.
What do you want, Lacy?
Lacy: Oh, nothing, just dropping by.
Delaney: Have a seat.


Delaney: What’s up?
Lacy: Oh…I just haven’t seen you in awhile, that’s all…


Delaney: Aw, sweetie, you miss Bailey, don’t you?
Lacy: Yeah.
Delaney: I do too. But she’ll be back in a few weeks. That art fellowship in Sweden is something she needed to do. You know that.


Lacy: I know.
Delaney: It sucks now, but think of all the cool stuff from IKEA that she’ll bring back!
Lacy: *Laughs* Thanks, Delaney.
Delaney: We need to find something for you to do to keep your mind off Bailey until she comes home. Hm…Oh, I’ve got it! Your emphasis is in photography, correct?
Lacy: Yeah…
Delaney: Hold on, I need to call someone.


Delaney: Hi, Benjamin? You still need that photography intern, right? Well, I’ve just thought of the perfect person…

To Be Continued...

Just to make it clear, Lacy is dating Delaney's sister Bailey, and Delaney just adores Lacy. Just in case you forgot :D And yeah, Lacy's introduction is a blatant plot device to 1) explain where Bailey is (she's actually about to get customized, and I don't want to introduce her until she's finished) and 2) to explain how Lacy knows Benjamin (they have a conversation in about 10 chapters and I couldn't figure out how they knew each other). Needless to say, you won't see Lacy for awhile, but don't worry, so good stuff happens between now and then :D

And yeah, the only reason I chose Sweden as the place for the fellowship is because I wanted to have that line about IKEA. Because I really love IKEA. Sad, I know.

And funny story about Mia and that cigarette she's smoking...I had taken the pictures for this chapter long before I posted Mia's profile and her introductory chapter. When I was reading over Mia's profile (which was the first one I wrote about six months ago) before I posted I realized that under dislikes it said "smokers." Oops. Needless to say, I took that tidbit out of her profile. And it was after this chapter that I realized that I was basing Mia's character of off Dolly Parton's character in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (she played a madam). Once again, oops. Mia's not a madam, I swear!!!


And in other news...yesterday was a bad day. See, I've been cleaning my grandparents' house all this week. It's been horrible. Yesterday I had to mow their lawn. Which doesn't seem too bad, right? Yeah, well, here's a rough approximation of what their lawn looks like:


Okay, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration. BUT! My grandfather does have about FIVE THOUSAND rosebushes/fruit-bearing trees/shrubberies EVERYWHERE that not only do you have to mow around, but attack you when you try to mow. So my hands are still all scratched up from that. And THEN the mower died when I had about 30 square feet of grass left to mow. Not to mention their lawnmower MUST weigh at least 100 pounds, so you can imagine how hard it is to push that sucker around.

So then I get home and take a shower, during which I drop a full bottle of shampoo on my foot. HARD. It was one of those things that happens and you're like "That's going to leave a bruise." And holy crap, I thought I had broken my foot it hurt so bad. But no. Just a bruise.

So I get out of the shower and start to help my mom make dinner, but as soon as I try to grab a bowl from the cabinet, I pinch my finger in the door. It hurt so bad, I thought I was going to pass out.

Needless to say, it was not a good day. But Kevin and I watched Reaper for about four hours last night, so that was really fun. AND I have some very fun weekend plans, which include going to see Sex and the City and the new Indiana Jones movie, going to Crammed Organisms, and galavanting about on the Riverfront tomorrow morning. It's going to be very fun :)

Obviously, I haven't worked on new chapters of All the Constellations in a VERY long time :) This is precisely why I've stockpiled my chapters :D