Power & Pleasure

Chapter 14

Both girls storm into my room, going straight to my closet. I laugh to myself, not shocked at all that they were listening in on the conversation. Catalina has always been the nosey type -- and I guess that Valeria is too. As I walk towards the closet, I see both girls looking through my things; Catalina is looking through my clothes where Valeria is looking through my shoes.

"Wow Ella, you've got some amazing taste. I may have to borrow some stuff from you one day," Valeria says as she pulls out some light blue Nike dunks I have. Catalina giggles as she nods, agreeing with Valeria's statement.

"She's always had great style. In high school, she was voted Best Dressed and Most Likely To Become Famous For Fashion," Catalina says, pulling a dress off the rack and holding it up to the mirror. Almost as if she knew that she was planning on doing it, Valeria kneels behind Catalina, holding up a matching pair of shoes. Both girls shake their head and go right back to looking through my stuff.

I laugh to myself as I sit on the bench, crossing my legs and watching both of the girls go through my things, trying to find the perfect outfit. "Well Valeria, since we're friends, I'll allow you to borrow my clothes. Gotta follow the same rules as everyone else: don't damage anything and always give it back."

"Don't worry. I always return everything. Both of you girls can borrow my things too. My room is on the left side, fifth door on the right," She says, smiling at me. I never even asked Valeria how she got involved in this lifestyle -- or if she lives here permanently. But, just as I'm about to ask her a question, Catalina interrupts my thoughts.

"THIS," She says, holding a dress up to the mirror. Valeria nods excitingly, then pulls out a pair of heels and a necklace to match. After they both agree on the outfit, they hold it up to me. It's a short, silk red dress. The back of it is completely open till my lower waist. They picked gold heels to go with it, with the matching gold necklace. I smile, nodding my head. I was planning on a more basic, black dress -- but this looks great. Once I agree, they set the outfit to the side, and Valeria sits on the floor while Catalina admires herself in the mirror.

"You know, lowkey jealous on your size closet Ella. I thought mine was big, but yours blows it out of the water," She says, putting back a shirt that she was holding up to her body -- then sitting on my counter. I shrug, not trying to make a big deal of it. But Valeria has a wicked smile on her face, and giggles quietly.

"That's probably because Mateo had them expand this closet the other night. He said that he overheard you one day at the office talking about the amount of clothes you had, and how you loved shopping. So when you agreed to live here, he had people that night come and make it bigger. Even installed better lighting and this island. The big mirror was my touch -- all girls need a big mirror," She says with a big, proud smile on her face. When she says that, I feel my face heating up. I think it's really sweet that Mateo did that, especially since this isn't a permanent living situation. I put my head down when I feel my cheeks getting hotter and start fiddling with my hands. Just then Valeria gets a text and she stands up. "Sorry ladies, gotta go. I forgot I've got training with Michael down in the gym," She says waving and walking out. Catalina and I both mumble goodbyes.

"Ella, now that we're alone, let's talk. What the hell is going on with you and Mateo? I've never seen him that nice to anyone in my life," Catalina says, moving closer to me from the island. I just look at her and shrug, not really knowing what to say. She rolls her eyes, letting me know that she's going to need more than a shrug as an answer.

"Honestly, I don't know. I like him a lot -- you know that. He's really sweet to me, and he's protective of me... which given my past, you know means a lot," I say, looking down at the floor. I don't really like talking about my past; it's not something that went well. Catalina was there for me, so she knows what I'm talking about. She jumps off from the island, kneeling at the floor and rubbing my arm.