B008GMVYA4 EBOK (15 page)

Madison shook her head a little in confusion; she couldn’t
understand what their problem was.

Dark shadows danced on the brick walls of the towering
buildings. The ally was oddly quiet, almost unnaturally quiet for an alley in
Central London. Most alleyways in Central London would be plagued by the
constant rumble of passing traffic from the main roads, but for some unknown
reason this alleyway was completely different from other alleyways in Central
London - it was deathly silent and un-habited apart from the two houses.
Although Madison had never seen anyone from the neighboring house next to the
bedsit, she assumed that someone still lived there as sometimes when she
returned home from in the early houses of the morning the curtains were drawn.

 There was small proportion of orange light from a
window in one of the neighboring buildings; it lit up a section in the alleyway
about halfway down. Madison knew by meeting the orangey glow that she had met
the halfway mark of the alleyway. The spill of light from the neighboring
buildings had become land marks for her over the last few weeks and they had
become something to aim for in the pitch black of the alley.

She passed the section of light and proceeded through the
remaining darkness as her mind began to play tricks on her. She saw the outline
of people standing in the shadows - waiting to spring on her as she passed.
Cautiously, she jumped several times while walking the remainder of the
alleyway. She knew the shadowy outlines of people were from her imagination,
but she couldn’t help but feel spooked from the threatening alleyway. There
were aspects of the alley which were similar to the re-occurring nightmare she
continued to have, but she told herself that the nightmare was just a dream –
probably some pent up anger from what had happened with Phil.

Madison headed towards the brightly lit street at the end of
the alleyway. She could hear the hum of cars as they whizzed by and the sound
of people laughing in the distance. She quickened her pace closing the distance
between the darkness and the safety of the lit up street ahead. The light from
the street head now penetrated the alleyway, making it easier for her to see
and causing her to relax slightly.

 She turned onto the pavement of the main road and
continued on her ten minute walk to work.

 Outside the entrance of the club was a queue of about
fifty people, they lined up against the outside wall of the building which
continued along road and around the corner towards the estate agents. Madison
gasped and slowed her pace at the sight of so many people. They had no hope
getting in the club tonight; if a queue had formed then
Luxuriance
had
already reached its maximum capacity of people.

As Madison approached the entrance the bouncers moved aside
to let her enter, a few people within the line shouted out in protest.

“She works here!” one of the bouncers shouted to them in
anger.

“Thanks” she murmured, as she walked up the stairs and
through the open doors into the reception area of the club.

Swarms of people lent against walls of the reception area
sipping their drinks, while other groups of people squeezed themselves on the
sofas around the coffee table. Sophie sat behind the desk at the entrance; she
smiled at Madison as she walked past. Madison nodded a hello and continued
towards the main club. Sophie was in her late 20’s and had long blonde hair and
she was very intelligent for her age. She was tall and slim, and absolutely
stunning – model quality. Sophie took the door fees and did all the admin work
for
Luxuriance
. As well as an annual membership fee, guests were
expected to pay a donation of £10 upon entering the club. During the day anyone
could enter
Luxuriance
, but from 7pm onwards the club became one of the
most exclusive places to be in London.

 As Madison entered the main club, the vibrations of
the music ran through the floor, up her feet and into her body. She enjoyed
working at L
uxuriance,
but the loud music made it difficult to bear
sometimes. L
uxuriance
mainly played dance music on a Friday nights and
Saturdays were a mix of chart music and hip hop. They played a variety of all
kinds of music throughout the week days which Madison preferred.

She stood at the edge of the dance floor in disbelief, an
ocean of people squeezed on the dance floor before her. In the weeks she had
been worked at L
uxuriance
she had never seen so many people in the night
club.

Madison had to physically fight her way through the swarms
of people to the entrance at the side of the bar. She ducked under hatch and
stared out to the queues of people, fighting to order a drink at the bar. Faye
was at her side within seconds, a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“What’s going on?” Madison shouted over the loud music.

“Who knows?” she exclaimed.

Faye patted Madison on the back in encouragement and smiled
widely before heading back to the other end of the bar.

She took a step forwards, towards the first person in front
of her and started to take drinks orders.

After two hours of continuously serving drinks the crowd
surrounding the bar hadn’t even begun to get any thinner. Madison served one
person after another – as one person left the bar, another person took their
spot. There was no end to the queue of people, it went on forever. All of the
bar staff were working as fast as physically possible, bumping into each other
as they shot around the bar mixing drinks and serving customer after customer.

Scott was working tonight, and had made it perfectly clear
that he was not comfortable with Madison being called in. Since their drink
together and Madison attempting to let him down gently which consisted of her
ignoring all of his advances, he had asked Faye if he could change shifts as he
was no longer willing to work with her. Since then, if by chance they were
scheduled to work the same shift he made it perfectly clear he was pissed at
her.

Faye sensed the tension between them and threw Madison a few
concerned looks over the duration of the evening. All Madison could do was
smiled weakly and shake her head. She had tried to act as normal as possible
with Scott, always making an effort to say ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’, but Scott’s
pride was hurt and he wouldn’t let her off the hook lightly.

The crowd began to thin after another hour of solid serving.
Sections of the dance floor were now visible as people started to vacate in
search of food and their homes. They could now start to breathe a little - take
a break and stand back from the bar. Scott suddenly made a beeline for Madison,
a smirk spread across his face - he obviously had thought of something very
witty to say to her. Over the weeks he had become a bit of a stalker, always
watching her and dropping random comments about her to the other bar staff. A
few of the other bar staff had started to notice and mentioned it to Madison; she
had always shrugged it off and denied any knowledge of any type of tension. But
when Faye had mentioned it, Madison had come clean and told her everything.

Her stomach flipped as she spotted Scott heading towards
her. - Chest tightening and her heart racing.

“Madison, we’re nearly out of glasses” Faye said, looking
from her to Scott.

Madison sighed in relief and grabbed the plastic glass
collector from under the bar before Scott could make the distance towards her.
She ducked underneath the hatch of the bar and headed towards the sofa’s and
glass tables to collect the empty glasses. Once the glass collector was full,
she took the dirty glasses back to the bar and loaded them into the dishwasher
- and started again. Madison headed over to the high tables on the left side of
the dance floor. She collected the empty glasses and popped them inside the
glass collector. Every table in the club seemed to be covered with empty
glasses - it would take her the remainder of the night to collect them all.

 A flash of crystal blue distracted her from what she
was doing; she turned abruptly to my left. Her heart almost stopped completely
as she searched the crowds of people for the source of the beautiful blue
colour. A crowd of people parted allowing Madison to see to the back wall of
the left side of the club.  Stood in the corner of the room against a far
wall was Brendan. His beautiful crystal blue eyes made eye contact with Madison
instantly. They held each other gaze - staring straight into each other’s souls.
His eyes were amazingly bright, piercing through the darkness of the club. He
was even more gorgeous then Madison had remembered, his features waxy under the
coloured flashing lights from the DJ both. Stood next to Brendan was a man with
long dark hair which was pulled into a low pony tail. She took no notice of the
strange man Brendan was with, only staring straight at Brendan. After a few
seconds, her eyes flickered over the man who was standing beside Brendan, his
eyes had followed Brendan’s gaze and he was now also staring at Madison from
the corner of the room. His face was waxy just like Brendan’s was under the
flashing lights. He was good looking, but not Madison’s type. He was looked
quite rough, someone you wouldn’t want to mess with or antagonize. He had dark
brown eyes and was cleanly shaven - not as rugged as Brendan. His hair was wavy
and very shiny; he was taller than Brendan and well built. Madison directed her
gaze back to Brendan - a smile began to spread across his face. Her heart
started to pump hard again, twice as fast as normal – the same response it had
the first time Madison had laid eyes on Brendan. Butterflies fluttered wildly
around her stomach, nerves kicking in once again. She swallowed hard, trying to
contain all the excitement she was feeling. Her mind swam at the sight of
Brendan - the face she had been longing to see for nearly three weeks. It felt
longer since she had last seen him, like a life time had passed and they were
now finally being reunited. Even though his face had remained clear in her
mind, she had forgotten little details like the curve of his jaw, the neat
stretch of flawless skin of his forehead and the pinkish tint of his
cheeks.  The only memory of Brendan that had continued to be completely
clear was the image of his breathtaking crystal blue eyes - they were just as
Madison had remembered. She found herself becoming drawn to Brendan - her body
and soul craved him. She couldn’t move - she was frozen by his crystal blue
eyes. They made her body melt and stick to the floor. Brendan’s smile grew
wider - he lent in towards the man beside him and whispered into his ear.
Madison’s eyes met the stranger gaze as he turned to look at her. She flushed
with embarrassment and looked away quickly. Slowly, her gaze returned to the
two men. Brendan patted his friend on the shoulder and began to walk towards
Madison. The long dark haired man watched as Brendan approached her - then
after a moment he disappeared into the crowd.

Madison didn’t know where to look, she had been waiting for
this moment since Brendan had left her at the Underground terminal, and now it
had finally arrived all the questions she wanted to ask him had escaped her
mind. She couldn’t move and couldn’t breathe; all she could do was watch as
Brendan approached – almost suffocating in her own anticipation. The few short
seconds it took for Brendan between them both was like an eternity. Madison
felt her legs become weak beneath her and shifted her weight against the high
table to balance herself from falling. She inhaled quickly – her lungs filling
with oxygen.

“Hi” Brendan said, smiling.

“H… Hi” Madison stuttered, catching her breath and exhaling.

“How are you?” he asked, happy to see her.

“Fine thanks. How are you?” she replied.

“Great, thanks. You look really well. Your eye has healed up
nicely; I can see the whole of your beautiful face now” Brendan said,
chuckling.

Madison’s face redden, she felt hot and sweaty as
embarrassment crept back once again. When she had met Brendan in the
Underground, he didn’t seem to notice the damage to her face or he was too much
of a gentleman to say anything at the time.

Her mind swam, not only was she embarrassed that Brendan had
noticed the bruising to her eyes when they first met - she now had to
contemplate Brendan calling her
beautiful
. 

She opened her mouth to say something but no words came out
- the answer to his statement had escaped her mind altogether. Madison now
frantically tried to think of something to say to fill the silence. Brendan
lent in close. She felt his cool breath on her face, her heart raced in
response and butterflies swarmed in her stomach, spiraling around wildly in
excitement. She looked thoughtful for a moment, panicking for anything to say
to him before finally shaking her head as she wasn’t able complete sentence.

“I think your boyfriends jealous” Brendan whispered.

“What?” Madison almost shouted, confused.

Brendan straightened up, gesturing for Madison to follow his
gaze he looked over towards a clearing in the crowd which allowed them to see the
bar. Madison eyes shifted over to Scott who was watching them both contently
from behind the black marble bar. He frowned, shifting angrily on the spot – he
was pissed. Slowly his eyes moved from Madison to Brendan, and then back to
Madison. He gawked at them both angrily, his eyes marking Madison as his
property defensively.

“He’s not my boyfriend” Madison replied irritated.

“Oh… good” Brendan said, turning back to Madison and
flashing his perfect white teeth in a toothy grin.

“I don’t like him” he continued.

Madison couldn’t help but laugh at his bluntness. She stared
into his enchanting eyes, a large smile spread across her face. Her body sang
in the presence of Brendan, the warm fuzzy feeling returning and she felt happy
again. Madison felt true happiness when she was with Brendan - something she
hadn’t felt in a long time and she had been longing to feel since Brendan had
left.