A Box Of Roses

Chapter 5: Last Day

Chapter 5: Last Day

My eyes start to open and I take a deep breath as I stretch. Good morning, today will be a good day. Today, I am quitting my job, I have enough money to last me three months if I don't find another one. Today, I am getting what I want and I don't want to have this job anymore. It puts way too much pressure on me and I don't like that I never have time for myself. Today is for me, it's about time I get some time for myself, that I do something for myself.

I jump out of bed and into the shower. I finish in record time and I take my favorite dress out of my closet and put it on. The dress is blue, it's a little longer than mid-thigh and it compliments my figure perfectly. My hips look slightly bigger, my stomach and waist look smaller, my bust looks bigger and so does my butt, as well as my legs looking longer. I match my favorite pair of silver pumps to go with it.

I stand in front of my full-length bathroom mirror and admire how great I look. I haven't felt this good in as long as I can remember, I say to my mind. It replies back to me with, that's because you don't let yourself feel this good. You're right and it's about time I start letting myself feel good.

I turn from the mirror and march into my living room. I gather everything and pack it into my car. My boss will not be happy, but that is not my problem. I am unhappy so I will do what is best for me this time. It is not my company so I don't care about its problems.

When I pull into my reserved parking space, I sigh and start to feel guilty about what I'm about to do. Stop thinking about it; stop feeling guilty, this is what's best for you. If you don't leave now then you never will and you'll never have any time and never be happy, my mind reminds me. I take a deep breath and gather everything from my car.

I march straight into my boss's office, throw the papers down on his desk. "It's finished, all of it, all of YOUR work is finished just like you asked. I hope you had a good weekend because this next one may be a little hard for you. I finished what needed to be done and now I quit."

He quietly sits and listens as I speak my mind to him and when I'm finished he just sits there surveying me with a dirty little smirk on his lips. What a bustard he is, I'm not sure why I ever accepted this job.

He lets out a little chuckle before he begins, "You cannot quit, Andria and you won't. You need this job too much for you to ever quit. Nice dress by the way, but it isn't the work attire I accept here. That is for the clubs, I expect to see you again in fifteen minutes wearing the proper work attire and sitting at your desk working hard, after all, that is what I pay you to do."

I smile a wicked grin at him, trying my hardest to seem pleasant. "Oh, but you see 'Mr. Boss-Man, this job just isn't doing it for me anymore so, I'm quitting. I don't care if that means I have to sleep on the street for a few days. I am willing to take that chance because anything is better than working here, than working for you. Now, I am going to walk out those doors and you are never going to see me again, never going to call, text, email, nothing. This is my life and my job here, ends now."

I turn and strut out of Charles's office and right out the front door of his company. As soon as I am out of that stuffy place in and in the fresh air, I feel myself relax as I breathe a sigh of relief. That's finally over and done with, now where to get a job. First I'd better go home and change into normal-people clothes before going anywhere else.

After changing, I decide to stop by the art show like I promised I'd do today anyway. I may as well stop by there now before I get busy with something else because knowing me I will find something to get busy with.

I walk through the doors and into the gallery. A smiling face welcomes me warmly. "Hey, Justin," I walk over and give him a hug. "Have you sold anything else?"

"Not too much, I sold one of my sculptures and the painting of the sad lady."

"Oh, that was a really nice painting too. I liked how you made her look like there was no hope in the world for her, but you could still see hope in her eyes."

"Yeah, that's how she felt when I painted her."

"You did a fantastic job on that painting. Oh, that reminds me, did you by any chance put my painting into storage for safe keeping?"

"I did because you forgot it. I figured that you'd want that seeing as you paid for it and you were really excited about getting it." His eyes light up when he talks about the painting and how I reacted over the painting. "By the way, thank you so much for starting off the buying yesterday. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have sold anything if you hadn't come along and bought one."

I smile, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. "It was nothing; I mean that is a beautiful painting. I just couldn't help myself, I had to buy it. I knew that if I didn't buy it someone else would have and I'd regret not having bought it for the rest of my life."

"I'm so glad that you stopped by again today, if you hadn't I'd just be here all by myself all day."

"Oh, I can't stay all day, but I came to stay for a while. Did you put anything else out on display?"

"I didn't mean all day, I just meant that I'm glad that you showed up today. No....well, I did put one thing. I started working on it the day after yesterday, that would have been, saturday and I actually finished it last night so I decided to bring it down here. Do you want to see it?"

"I'd love to see it! I just know it'll be beautiful, all of your work is."

He leads the way through the crowd of people walking around looking at everything. We are on the far side of the room and he leads me to the far corner and there in a big glass case sits a painting. I stare at it for a few seconds and realize that it must be me.

The painting resembles me in so many ways. It has brown hair, almond shaped, hazel eyes. It even has the little nip on the left corner of the mouth, well I suppose that from this angle, it would be the right corner. I have that on the left corner of my mouth, I am actually a little self-conscious about it, but he noticed that about me. I usually try to hide it with makeup, but I didn't put any makeup on on Saturday when he first saw me. Actually, all the times I've seen him I haven't once been wearing makeup.

"Ummm....Is that me you painted?"

"Yeah, it I, how did you know?" he looks surprised that I figured out who the painting was of.

"Certain features and one in particular that I am self-conscious about."

"Oh, I'm sorry that I painted that one in them. May I ask which feature it is?"

"It's the nip in the corner of my mouth." I reach up to cover it with my hand.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I can paint over it easily, it's very small, but if you don't want it there then neither do I."

"Oh no, that's fine. It's a fine piece of artwork. Leave it just the way it is. That's the way you saw me and that's the way that the buyer should see it." I smile, feeling better about the nip.

After wandering around the gallery with Justin talking and laughing and looking at his paintings, I decide I'd better get home. I still need to search for a new job. I hug Justin goodbye and promise to be back again tomorrow.

On my way home, I get this great idea to open my own store. If I'm done with men for now, then I should at least be working on myself and going after what I want. Secretly, I've always wanted to own my own business. I know it's going to be a lot of work, time and energy and not to mention blood, sweat, tears and money.

Then I get thinking, maybe the more that I was seeking isn't a man, at least not yet, but it's me. The more I'm seeking is more for myself. At least if I'm going to own my own business, I'm going to use everything that I have now that I bought to use for my last job.

Once I get home, I start making the preparations for my business. I start by ordering all the supplies that I'll need to stock my store and then I buy a piece of property. This is going to be quite an adventure. I can't wait for everything to be official.

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