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tomorrow morning.”
    “Okay,” I said, rising from my chair. “Well, peace out. I guess I’ll be seeing Ms. Gallagher tomorrow. By the way, what is her first name?”
    He narrowed his eyes at me. “Dalilah. I have to confess that I’m surprised that you don’t know this.”
    “Well, I mean, I don’t know her. I just happened to be behind her on the bus yesterday. She stuck out in my mind.”
    He blinked his eyes and said nothing.
    “Okay, well, then, I guess that I’ll be going ,” I said. “Uh, thanks for this opportunity.”
    He nodded and said nothing. And then he put his head down and started writing something. Something that I would imagine was completely unrelated to what we had just spoken about. I shrugged my shoulders and went out the door.
    I couldn’t stop smiling, though, as I got the elevator and rode it down to the ground floor. I couldn’t believe my good fortune in getting this commission. It was crazy how much I couldn’t believe that I had lucked into this job.
    I couldn’t wait to get started.

Chapter Five
    Dalilah
    The bartender came around, wiping the bar area in front of me. He noticed that I was dry. “You need another one, Dalilah?”
    I looked at my now empty glass, and brought it to my lips. I crunched on the ice, and pushed the glass to him. “Sure, bring it on,” I said. I looked at my watch, thinking that I was going to have to blow off Seth again. Why he put up with my crap, I really didn’t know. It was so obvious to myself that I really didn’t care about him, any more than I did in high school, when he was all about getting me to go out with him just once. Sometimes I wondered why I had even started dating him, if you could call it that. It was just something that I had fallen into when I just happened to run into him when I was at the Met one day.
    Looking back, I realized that it was a particularly lonely time for me. I had just moved out of Nick and Scotty’s home, which they allowed me to do when I turned 18, and Alaina was not yet in the city. She hadn’t started school at that time. So, I kinda knew nobody, and running into Seth was somewhat comforting. He and I ended up having lunch, and then ended up in bed about two hours later, and it was all very…nice. That was really all that I could say about that. It was nice. After all, he really was a handsome guy, with his full lips, hazel eyes, long dark eyelashes, thick sandy hair and rock-hard body. He was the kind who made every girl swoon, always. Every girl but myself.
    Of course, it meant much more to him than it did to me. He told me as much as I laid around in his bed that day, not really wanting to return back to my empty apartment. “I knew that you would come around, Dalilah,” he had said. “I thought it would have happened a lot sooner than this, though.”
    I said nothing, not really wanting to tell him that I hadn’t, in fact, come around. I didn’t want to burst his bubble. Which was probably much of the reason why I continued to see him. That, and the fact that he sometimes supplied me with groceries when I got low. I never could hide my ennui, though, with him, and I felt a little bit badly because of this.
    I went outside the bar, nodding to Tom, the bartender, “watch my drink for me, okay?” I said. “I have to make a phone call.”
    “Sure thing,” he said. “Hurry back.”
    I got outside the building, and dialed Seth’s number. He picked up on the second ring. “Dalilah,” he said.
    “Hi,” I said. “Hey, I need a rain check for tonight.”
    He was silent on the other end. “Okay. Whatever.” He was obviously annoyed, for he didn’t bother to ask me why I needed said rain check.
    “Yes,” I said. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you.”
    “I wouldn’t count on it.”
    “Okay,” I said, simply. Then I hung up the phone. I couldn’t be bothered to care about poor Seth. All I knew was that there was a glass of whiskey that was waiting for me at the bar.
    ∞
    I got