The Hours

Another chance?

Samantha wakes up slowly hearing the disturbing sound of her alarm. That sound will put her in a grave one day. She groans as she's forced to get up to turn the sound off.
She goes to the bathroom of her little apartment, to quickly take a morning shower in order to fully wake her up. She takes some time to brush her long straight hair, and then picks a outfit.
A nervous feeling comes to her stomach as she remembers what happened last night. Samantha needs to pick her best outfit to at least not seem too shameful when she's being fired. If you're being fired then you may at least look fancy.
She chooses a white top exposing her cleavage with brown flare pants that looks endless on her long legs.
She puts on a white eyeliner and a nude lipgloss to match the fit. She looks at herself in the mirror and sighs. If this is how you must dress when you're fired by Cassidy Vaughan...

She takes good care of ordering Cassidy's daily espresso before heading to Wardrobe office.
As she's about to get the coffee, she puts her hand in her bag, looking for her money. What a bad day!
« Shit... I forgot my money... » She chuckles awkwardly at the waiter as she doesn't know what to do.
The waiter keeps the Starbucks cup in his hand, smirking.
« We can wait for you while you go get it... » He answers.
Samantha purses her lips. She doesn't have time to go back to her apartment, she can not be late today. And she needs that coffee.
« Hum... I don't think- »
« Oh, you're Samantha! » The guy says happily as he reads the ordering name on the coffee cup. « We saw each other earlier this week. I thought you were called Savannah, remember? » He smirks, clearly flirting with her.
« I remember. » Samantha smiles. « But hum... Look, I don't have time to go get my money at home but I really really need that coffee... Please. It's about my life right now. » Samantha almost begs him, worried.
The guy hesitates. He takes a look at the cup of coffee and sighs.
« It's alright. I'll pay it for you. »
« Really? Thank you so much, you're saving my life! » Samantha jumps on her feet, almost shouting. At least she got the coffee.
« You'll thank me later around a coffee, deal? » He winks.
« Deal. » Samantha nods as she takes the coffee in her hand.
She finally turns back to step out. As soon as she's out, she starts running to Wardrobe. There's no time for a taxi right now.

« What on earth have you done?! » Lucy stands up as she sees Samantha stepping in, flushed and out of breath.
She leans on the edge of her desk to get some rest after one of the worst running session of her life. She hopes the sweat didn't ruin her makeup.
« Have I done what? » Samantha asks as she breathes heavily.
Lucy raises an eyebrow, like it's obvious.
« Cassidy's furious right now. She wants to see you in her office now. » Lucy says like a furious mama would tell her child.
« Oh shit shit shit... I'm gonna have a panic attack! » Samantha shouts, closing her eyes tightly.
Deep down she hopes it's a bad dream, and she'll wake up soon. It's a nightmare. Somehow, she hopes Cassidy would not say a thing, or would not notice it. But well, Cassidy actually did notice it and she wants to see Samantha. She adjusts her outfit correctly before walking to Cassidy's desk with her coffee in her hand. Though she's losing hope about the coffee. It won't save her. She takes a deep breath before going in.
« You've asked to see me? » Samantha asks quietly, trying to hide her anxiety.
Cassidy slides her gaze from her computer to meet Samantha's, staring at her with her usual cold gaze. Those icy emerald eyes never fail to freeze Samantha's blood. They are as scary as they are fascinating. She stares at her for a minute without saying anything. She just raises her eyebrows, despising her like she usually does.
« I... I've got you an espresso. » Samantha stutters as she slowly puts the cup on the desk.
She can see Cassidy's eyes sliding down to the cup for a second, and then going back to Samantha.
« I have no doubt you love your job Samantha. » The editor finally starts.
There's no anger in her voice, no pain. Because Cassidy is not angry. Not hurt either. She's just... surprised. She actually started to like the way Samantha was doing her job, and last night had erased everything.
« I really do love my job. » Samantha nods.
« But I have a doubt you're made for it. »
Samantha looks down at her feet.
« I really believed in your whole speech about your skills for the job. I gave you a chance. I told myself "Hire that girl, she's maybe different from the others." I thought that someone who actually had a sense of fashion would not disappoint me. But you did. » Cassidy says bitterly as she sighs.
Samantha feels tears filling her blue eyes. She promised herself she wouldn't disappoint Cassidy when she came here. She just ruined that promise.
« I'm sorry for disappointing you... I really did my best. » Samantha stutters, biting her lip not to burst into tears.
The fact that she doesn't even make it through a second week at Wardrobe breaks her heart. Not because she cares about the job, even though she does, there's a bunch of other jobs anywhere else. But right now, as she's standing in Cassidy's office, she can't escape reality anymore. The whole speech about hard work is true. And if Samantha doesn't even work hard enough as a stupid assistant, she'll never work hard enough to become a model. Her dream had just been broken in pieces right here.
Cassidy tries to ignore the tears of her assistant and gets up.
« But your best didn't get you anywhere... » Cassidy replies, opening a drawer full of papers. « Though I'm convinced you did not do your best. And well, that's sad because I was really curious about seeing you at your best. Imagine what you would be able to do... » She explains as she searches something through all the papers and files.
« What does that mean? » Samantha asks as she quickly wipes a tear from her eye.
« That means you're a very lucky girl, because I had all the files about spring printed twice. » She confesses as she puts a few papers on her desk.
Samantha immediately recognizes the papers on the table. It is the exact same papers as the ones she dropped under the rain last night. She can't help but smirk of relief.
« So you're not mad? » Samantha anxiously asks, fidgeting her fingers.
« One more mistake and you're fired. Don't disappoint me this time. » Cassidy says as she tilts her head on the side.
A huge smile appears on Samantha's face. At that moment, she doesn't control herself anymore. She jumps out of joy, her sad tears becoming happy tears. And without thinking twice about it before, she leans forward and takes Cassidy in her arms, holding her slightly.
She quickly realizes what she has just done, as the older woman doesn't seem to react or hug her back. She lets go of her boss to look at her, giggling of happiness.
« Thank you so much, Cassidy. You don't know how happy I am. I promise I will be the best assistant you've ever had. » She says, shaking her head.
Cassidy nods, glancing at her.
« And hum, if you need me at 6pm, or midnight, or even 3am, I'll be there. » Samantha winks. « And if you need three or even four more coffees, you can count on me as well, I will- »
« Samantha. » Cassidy quickly stops her.
Samantha blinks, realizing what she's doing. She can't control herself anymore, and she's starting to say dumb things again. She realizes she's annoying Cassidy, judging on the look she is giving her right now.
« Oh, right, I'm sorry. I'll go back to work now. » Samantha smiles awkwardly as she starts to walk out.
« Mmh. » Cassidy nods as she sits on her chair again, ready to get back to work.
« Thank you again- »
« Leave. » Cassidy orders as she shakes her hand at Samantha with an insistant tone.
« Right. » Samantha mumbles as she turns around and finally steps out of the office.
She smiles to herself as she goes back to her office. She can't believe what has just happened. Too many things happened... First, she didn't get fired, which was honestly a real surprise. And most of all, Samantha had actually hugged Cassidy. Samantha had hugged the lonely fashion queen. If « hugged » was a word she could use, as Cassidy didn't really hug her back. And then, after that unexpected hug, Samantha could swear she had seen Cassidy smirks when she told her to leave. A smirk, a big smirk, a smirk like she was fighting hard against herself not to smile and laugh with Samantha.
« You're the first person I see happy when they just found out they were fired. » Lucy drops sarcastically when she sees Samantha coming.
Samantha laughs.
« I'm not. » She smiles as she sits on the chair of her desk.
« What do you mean you're not? »
« She didn't fire me. Not yet. »

The next day is exhausting. Lucy is sick and the doctors told her to stay at home for a few days, so Samantha is doing twice her work today. But she doesn't give up and she does it all in time, even if she's exhausted. She's mostly working on the spring edition of Wardrobe magazine, just like everyone in the office. She does contracts mostly and she looks for good clothes to add on the magazine, which is something really fun because she has a lot of imagination in terms of outfits. Samantha is really happy Cassidy allows her to do all that work instead of Lucy, so she can bring her personal touch in the magazine.
Today's full of surprise. After looking for new brands all morning, Samantha has now got the chance to ride in the same car as the fashion queen. Lucy told her a few days ago that Cassidy didn't like company in the car, except when it was really necessary. As Lucy was sick today, Cassidy chose Samantha to go to select a few clothes at Balmain.
Samantha got there dressed with a red tight skirt and black corset, filled with a few jewelry. She had tied her hair in a high ponytail and did a red makeup look.
Cassidy was dressed with a black tailor, a white top and a long white coat. Samantha loved her style as always. Very elegant.
The meeting at Balmain went pretty well, Samantha couldn't believe she had assisted to a preview of their new collection as she was a huge fan of it. She couldn't stop smiling the whole time, while Cassidy just sat there and watched.
« My god what's happening there? Why does it take so much time to go back to work? » Cassidy complains as she leans forward to look outside the window of the car.
« I think there's a traffic jam. » Samantha replies as she also looks outside, realizing that the whole road was full of cars.
« For how long do we need to wait? » The editor glances.
« That's going to take quite a few time, Mrs.Vaughan. » The car driver says.
Cassidy shakes her head, sighing. She has work to do at the office, for God's sake. She can't spend her whole life at the back of a car.
« Well, hum, if we're going to stay here for quite some time, we could maybe chat, don't you think? » Samantha asks with a mixture of timidity and boldness.
Cassidy glances at her.
« I do not have time for chitchatting. » Cassidy answers coldly as she looks ahead.
Samantha can't keep herself from giggling, which makes Cassidy glares even more.
« Something's funny? »
Samantha stops slouching on her sit and shakes her head.
« I just think chitchatting is a funny word. » She says with a smile.
Cassidy shakes her head like a hopeless mother and puts on her oversized sunglasses.
The car remains awkwardly silent for a minute, until Samantha decides to speak again.
« So... What did you think of the collection ? » She asks about Balmain.
She knows she's basically not allowed to ask Cassidy a personal question, as written in Lucy's rules, but she can't help herself. She hates when there's a dead silence in a room, and she always feels the need to break it. Cassidy sighs, annoyed. She's really annoyed by her assistant right now, but also very amused. Though she would never show it to her.
« Some pieces were fine. » She just answers, not wanting to take part in a deeper "chitchatting".
« I loved it. Which pieces did you love the most? » Samantha keeps asking, as she sees Cassidy is not totally neglecting her questions.
Cassidy turns her head around to give her a bad glance, but the assistant can not see it because of the glasses that cover it up. However, Cassidy answers the question.
« The two black suits were fine, but too déjà-vu in fashion. In fact, the whole collection was a déjà-vu except the blue lagoon suit with the velvet belt. I think that one was... Considerable. » She explains.
« Those might be déjà-vu but I think if we reworked them around the waist and the shoulder we could do something good and original. But I agree with the blue one. » Samantha answers.
Cassidy nods, silently thinking about her assistant's words. She in fact did have a good idea. She'd definitely reconsider it later on. The silence quickly spreads in the car again. Samantha plunges her hand in her Michael Kors bag and pulls out a snack, a chocolate bar. Cassidy keeps staring at her coldly. She hates those snacks, she hates chocolate. And she can't stand it knowing people that work for her actually eat these.
Samantha clears her throat.
« Want a snicker? » The younger woman asks, showing the bar to Cassidy.
« Those are the cause of obesity, Samantha. »
Samantha takes a bit and swallow.
« One can't kill you, you know. » She says as she enjoys her snack.
« I'm too old to have that conversation. » Cassidy sighs as she rolls her eyes.
« How old are you then? » Samantha asks with a playful smile.
Cassidy's ears whistles hearing that question. She's stunned at the woman's audacity to ask her own boss her age.
« Not as old as you think I am. » She simply answers, putting her hands on her lap.
She's not very enchanted by the question, but she can't deny the fact that she's not as bothered as she would be if the question was from someone else. She basically doesn't like audacity, boldness and curiosity in people, but she finds herself calling that a quality in Samantha.
« I don't think you're that old. » Samantha claims as she bites in her snicker again.
« Well that's good news. Keep it that way because you'll know no more. » The editor affirms, looking away.
That's going to be a long ride, Cassidy thinks to herself.