Chapter 1: Prepare For The Celebration

Chapter 1:  Prepare For The Celebration

Karmen Vierra's POV:

I looked out the car window as I was traveling down the road and headed home.  It really made me wonder what kind of evening I was going to be a part of.  A fact is I have worked for this company for five very long, frustrating years and had hoped I would amount to something better than second-grade delivery for the mail room.  Granted it was a job.  It just wasn't my dream job.  I knew how to manage a lot of things and one thing I was really good at was finances.  I remember trying to get a job right after college and no one was hiring as I didn't have any experience at the time.  Knowing all of that, my good friend Jules tried to get me on at the company he worked for.  The same company he has worked at for nearly a decade now.

However 5 years later for me, I was still in the mail room, no further in advancing my career as I thought I would when I previously started as a low-level blogger.  I like to tell stories about the ways I saw things.  Which is why I thought I was successful at being a blogger.  That is not what my superiors thought.  Being a blogger was never my dream job but it was something that got my foot in the door.  I had no problem saying what was on my mind.  Only that was how it was whenever I had it written on paper.  To have a conversation in person was a whole other story.

Whenever it came down to it, I can tell somebody what to do about a situation all day long.  Then, when it came down to the fact of me actually speaking my mind at the particular time, open in person, it was like I dropped the ball every time.  I don't know why but it's like I didn't have a backbone on which to stand to be able to communicate what I really wanted to say.  I guess it was a combination of things adding up to that verdict.  The fact I had a hard childhood didn't help the fact that confrontation and I did not get along all that well.

I knew I needed to make a change.  I knew there was more to life than what I had going for me currently.  I just didn't know exactly which road it was going to lead down.  As I watched the blocks passing by, I knew I was only a few blocks further from my apartment.  It was then I recalled a dream I had on a regular basis over the past few years now.  The dream was of a man.  One who was very muscular and extremely handsome in his features and tall to boot.  However, whenever it came to being able to see his face I was not able to get a clear picture as it was always shadowed.

I could see the outline of his nose but his eyes, mouth, and the rest of his face were shadowed.  As if I was not able to get a clear image of what he looked like.  I do remember seeing the corners of his mouth going up as he smiled at me when he first turned around to see me in my dream.  It was at that moment I could feel the skin on my arms tingle as I thought about who this particular man was going to be.  Who was he exactly?  Was he who I was meant for?  Was he who I was meant to be with all this time but due to circumstance I have never been able to find him?

"We're here," the driver said suddenly, pulling me out of my own thoughts as I looked swiftly at him and then out the window at my surroundings before I opened the passenger door to exit the vehicle.

I was home.  I turned and nodded at the driver as I exited the vehicle without saying anything to him.  I closed the door swiftly and stood there for a moment as I watched the car pull away from the curb.  I turned around and my mind wandered back to my thoughts as I slowly walked up the steps toward my apartment building.  Would I ever meet the man who is meant for me?  All of a sudden I heard something that took me by surprise.

"Karmen!" I heard the voice holler at me.  "Karmen up here.  Hurry up you lazy loach we'll be late!"

I swiftly looked up and noticed Jules was hanging out the window waiving down at me from above.  He apparently had let himself into my apartment.  After yelling at me, he backed up into my apartment window, closing it completely.  As I got to the door of my building, I heard the buzz and pulled the door so I could enter.  I waited there and watched the door close.  Once I heard it click, meaning it was locked back, I turned heading for the elevator. 

I didn't like walking away from the outside door without making sure it was locked first.  One day, one of my neighbors didn't pay attention to her surroundings and a thug followed her into the building.  He followed her up to her apartment where she was later raped, beaten, and then killed.  I tried to make sure I would not be the verdict of somebody else's punch line and another statistic on the evening news.

I touched the button outside the elevator, waiting for the doors to open.  I am not sure why I was nervous but when the doors opened, I swiftly entered the elevator turning around and pushing the button for the third floor for my level.  Before I knew it, I had arrived at my door.  As I reached for the handle, the door immediately was pulled open from the inside.  Jules reached forward and grabbed me by my wrist yanking me inside my apartment, shutting the door swiftly behind me.

"Girl!" He said with an excited tone and spoke in a rushed manner.  "Hurry up and get ready or we're going to be late."

"I know I know," I said responding to his excited attitude.  "I can't help it.  I'm just lost in thought."

"Are you thinking about that same dream again?" He asked concerned.

"You know it," I said as I sighed still standing by the front door for a moment.  "Five long years Jules.  Five long years and I'm no closer to what I had originally planned for my life.  Then these dreams started a few years ago when I turned 21 and that only added more confusion to everything I'm already dealing with."

"I understand," he said in a caring and understanding tone.  "However we can discuss this later as we must hurry.  It is already after 6:00 and we have to be there before 7:00.  Get showered swiftly and I will have a few dress selections laid out on the bed for you to choose from.  I want us to look formal as this is a very special night after all."

"A very special night for who?" I added under my breath sarcastically.  

Jules tilted his head to the side a bit as he scowled at me playfully.  I took my purse off my shoulder and set it on the side table in the hall right by the front door.  As I turned to walk towards the bedroom, Jules placed both of his hands on my shoulders pushing me along as I went.  I walked straight into the bathroom from my bedroom and he closed the door behind me.  I had no doubt that he was headed directly to my closet to pick out something for me to wear.  I tried to distract myself so I could get ready for my shower.

I turned and looked in the bathroom mirror, alone at last, and lost myself in my thoughts again.  Well, there is no time like the present.  I cross my arms in front of my stomach and grabbed the opposite hem of my shirt as I pulled it swiftly over my head, dropping it on the floor beside me.  I looked at my physique in the mirror as I thought to myself.  I did wish I was a little skinnier.  I could stand to lose some poundage.  For example, there were a lot more women at my job who were in better shape than I was and they seemed to get advancements in position a lot swifter than I have.  Was the fact that I wore extra large clothing the cause of my lack of advancement in my position at my job?  Could the fact be that I was not the beauty that everyone else thought I should be the cause of my own demise?  Just then, I heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"I don't hear the water running," Jules said from the other side of the bathroom door.

"I'm getting undressed and I'll get in momentarily," I responded.

I then grabbed the hem of my pant slacks, pulling them down to my ankles so I can step out of them.  I swiftly stepped out of my slip-on shoes and stood back up, looking at myself in the mirror again.  Now I was only wearing my bra and panties.  At least my bra and panties matched in color.  I reached my hands behind me and swiftly unfastened my bra.  I looked down, away from the mirror to the center of my bra, grabbing the material between my big and rounded breasts.  I pulled the material down and forward to relieve the girls from being bound up all day.  I dropped my bra on top of my pants and shirt already sitting on the floor.  Then I took off my panties and stood there in all my glory.  

I choose not to look in the mirror this time, as I did not want to think of what I looked like naked before the event I was about to attend.  I have seen myself many times before but there was no time for negative thoughts this time.  I turned around and got into the shower, making sure the water temp was perfect and to my liking.  I tried to shower as quickly as I could manage, considering the circumstances.

I soon got out and grabbed a towel hanging on the hook just outside on the wall.  With the other towel, I leaned forward and wrapped it around my hair as I twisted it around and then threw it back over my head before I stepped out onto the rug on the floor.  Before I could make my next move, Jules opened up the bathroom door and came right in with his hands on both of his hips, staring right at me.  

"Girl, could you take any longer?" He asked with a bit of a sarcastic attitude.  "It's already after 6:30 and we really need to get going."

"Need I ask how many dress selections you choose?" I asked as I stood there, turning to face him as I crossed my arms in front of me.

"I have two pulled out if you must know," he said as he copied my movement, crossing his arms as well and swaying his hip to one side.  "You really didn't have a whole lot of selections to choose from that I thought would be appropriate for this evening.  So to help you out, I decided to go and pull some out of my overstock in my closet and bring them here."

Jules only lived two doors down from me on the same floor.  I had a key to his apartment and he had a key to mine just in case it was needed for the other to get in for safety's sake.  However, Jules used his key a whole lot more than I ever used mine as he was always trying to dress me up.  In a way, I guess he was trying to help find me a date.  Ever since I told him about the dreams I have been having, he has been trying a whole lot harder to make sure I was up to par when it came to getting a date.

"Come on, come on...," he said in a hurried tone.  "We really need to get going."

I walked out into my room from the bathroom and saw two seemingly short dresses laid out there on the bed wrapped in thin plastic.  I looked at one, sleek and black with fine mesh on one side.  The other one was a deep burgundy with slits open halfway up one side.  I have never worn dresses this short before and I did not want to give the wrong impression either.

"Aren't you concerned that these are too short?" I asked a bit concerned as I walked up to the edge of my bed, trying to get a better look at the options presented before me.

"No, you will look amazing," he said as he turned to walk out of the room.  "Now hurry!"

With that last statement, he walked out completely, closing the door behind him.  I unwrapped each dress and laid them back down.  Well, I guess I could go with the black one.  The other one is beautiful but I don't want to take attention away from the main speaker.  The black one will help me blend in as I am not one to draw attention to myself.  I then took my towel off, dropping it on the floor.  I then walked over to the dresser to grab my single-strap brazier.  This dress went over one shoulder so it would make it easier to help hold the girls in place, as a woman of my size is usually considered curvy and had extra curves we had to take into consideration whenever we got dressed in anything fancy.

Finally, I had all my parts properly tucked into this dress.  To my surprise, I fit it perfectly.  I walked into the bathroom to admire my appearance in the mirror.  I had done my hair quickly so I did not have to worry about that either.  Jules walked up to the bathroom doorway and was already decked out and ready to go.  He stood there, leaning against the doorway and he smirked at me playfully.  I finished putting on my lipgloss and I turned to look at him in the reflection of the mirror.

"Girl, you are going to kill it tonight," he said as he took a few steps closer to me.

"You think so?" I asked hesitantly.  

"You have nothing to worry about," he said as he reached forward, handing me a small black clutch.  "The driver will be here any minute, let's get going."

Before I knew it, we were in the cab on our way to our destination.  Jules was sitting beside me in a black tuxedo sporting a grey-colored eye-shadow that complimented the dark grey vest he wore.  In a way, my dress complimented his attire as if we were a couple attending this event together.  Technically we were co-workers, nothing more. 

We arrived sooner than I thought we would.  The doors of the vehicle were opened up for us when the cab pulled up to the entrance of The Ballroom Royalle.  There were large spotlights out front and we both walked up the stairs together.  However, I could not shake the funny feeling that I was being watched.  It's like the nervous feeling that I felt when I arrived at my apartment was more intense now.  When I reached the top platform, I looked around to see if anyone was looking my way.  Jules was still walking beside me and he did not seem to be bothered one bit.  Maybe it was just my nerves as I have never attended a celebration like this before.  However, I still could not shake the feeling that I was being watched. 

"Hey, I am going to get a drink," I turned to tell Jules, once we were inside the front entrance.

Jules smiled at me intently as he walked away to meet some of the other coworkers he knew.  The more I thought about this intense feeling, it was like my nerves were on overdrive.  What could be the reason for all of this?  As I reached the bar, I waited to be addressed.  That was when I turned to the side and could not believe what I saw.  There was a woman in a red dress.  The woman was not my concern.  My concern was the man she was holding onto.  I could not believe it.  It was the man from my dreams.