Lady Friend

Fifteen - Out the Door

Hurriedly, Angie packed her bags. She stuffed dresses into the bottom of her suitcase and crammed socks into the little netted pockets. Pacing between the wardrobes and her bed, she flung everything that was in the cloest. She didn't want to leave anything here. No, no! Angie didn't want to give herself any reason to come back here and invade German's perfect life that he had set out with Esmeralda.

Once she had miraculously zipped up her choca-blocked suitcase, she sidestepped quickly down the stairs.

Damn these heels! She thought. I could get out of here quicker if I didn't have the responsibility of these four extra inches...

A pleading voice stopped her from walking closer to the door. "Why are you leaving, Angie?" Distantly, she could hear the creak of a chair. German's office. Within seconds he was stood beside his daughter. The question in her eyes was palpable.

"I have to go home and be with my things." She directed her answer firmly to German. Surely she - he - wouldn't question that.

"But why?" Her niece asked.

I told you.

Luckily, to save her the pain of having to explain her ridiculous emotional state to Violetta, German put his arm on her shouder and told her to let her aunt go.

It broke my heart seeing her like that but I couldn't face him. Not with...

Today was Friday but the Studio had already closed. She had no homework that she could ask Angie to help her with. Oh, why couldn't she make up some sort of excuse? Anything would work! She needed her aunt to be in her life more than she would be now. It wasn't fair that her father ruined everything! Why couldn't he admit that he was in love with Angie? He always had been! Angie loved him too! They both knew it, but they refuse to see it.

Esmeralda came behind them and asked if they were okay. They lied and said that they were. Violetta went up to her room.

For a while, German and Esmeralda made small talk. It went from dinner to their favourite colours to their relationship to their families... Her name came on Esermalda's lips.

"Where is she?" Her playful expression almost mocking him.

He swallowed the torrent of emotions inside him, "She left."

Esmeralda was finding it hard to surpress a joyful laugh. Angie was finally out of her hair! She'd hung on a little longer than she had expected but now she was tired. Poor thing. Her emotions had gotten the better of her.

In the morning, she would phone Jade. Not missing a single, wonderful detail, she would tell her how Angie was no longer in the picture. Of course, she wasn't stupid enough to know that she wasn't completely gone. She wouldn't be in German's personal life so much, but she would be in Violetta's.

Violetta. After securing German, Violetta was her next target. So far she believed she was her father's perfect girlfriend. It would stay that way for a while yet.

Confidently, she tugged on German's shirt. He responded and gripped her cardigan between his fingers. She leaned in and placed her lips on his.