“Hello
there, darling. I am Olivia Diamond Mullhollind-VanHurst, but you can call me
Olivia. You know I’ve been dying to meet you and get to know you as a
prospective client of mine.” The voice
was a clear, concise second soprano that would be pleasant to most who heard
it. Olivia knew it and used it to her advantage.
Perhaps
there had been hard times in her life recently, but she was holding together
rather well, if she didn’t say so herself. However, she did say so, every day. “I’m
just fine. Holding together marvelously aren’t I darling? Timothy are you
listening to me?” She was now waving her hands up and down in front of the
newspaper, but nothing short of taking the paper from the reader could make
Timothy answer. After all he had grown used to tuning her out after over twenty
years of marriage and three kids. “You look as lovely as the day I met you,
Olivia dear.” Was his reply as he picked up the paper and scanned it for new
job opportunities.
Now
we find darling Olivia in a bookstore coffee shop at a table that was made of
two small tables put together with generic plastic chairs around them. Her
silver laptop gleamed as she filled out information from the middle aged woman sitting
across from her. The whole space was filled with her laughter, voice and a
constant clicking of keys.
She
had taken extra care to look good today. It was bad enough to have to give up her
private home office for a public space like this, but if she had to do it, she’d
do it with classic Olivia style. Being closer to fifty than she would admit,
she had put on a fake tan for that “natural glow”, but it had such an unnatural,
orangeish tint to it, that there was no way to make it feel real for anyone
other than Olivia. She had thick makeup on, “The more the merrier,” she used to
say. Still, after a whole day out, it had settled into the fine age lines on
her face doing more to age her than aid her.
“Black is the color that professionals wear,”
was her remark as she walked out the door after Timothy had asked her who had
died and sent his sympathies with her. “I have to look good for my clients, and
in this case, black is best. Besides the faux suede faux fur lined boots are
dark grey, so what does he know.” In reality she knew she had gained a few
pounds that she had never lost after having her children. In actuality the
number was closer to 20 than a few, but Olivia never admitted defeat to anyone,
especially herself. If she did, her whole world was likely to shatter, “and one
does not shatter in good makeup and sparkling costume jewelry.” As Olivia would
observe, “It just wouldn’t be decent to do such a thing, darling.”
