Strawberry Slices, hanna14 [polar express read aloud .TXT] 📗

Chapter One

My hair was perfect, make-up natural but pretty, and my outfit was simply fabulous. I was getting ready for work. I am a photographer and I love to look my best while I am there. So here I am, at quarter to 7, ready to go and out the door. I strutted down the hallway of my little New York apartment in my crimson red peep toe heels, which showed off newly yellow painted toes, a simple charcoal grey short-sleeved dress and a red and yellow flowered scarf. I stepped into the elevator and pressed the second floor button. I lived on the third floor with my Dalmatian puppy, Popsicle. The elevator came to a stop and the door opened, revealing the river painting in the hallway right outside of the elevator. I stepped out and headed down the hall toward Lucy’s apartment; she was my best friend of several years and lived with her boyfriend Alex.
When I came to the door I did not even have to knock because she flung the door open, held up a finger and disappeared into the apartment. She was wearing a robe and her hair wrapped in a towel. I followed, closing the door behind me. I glanced around, looking for Willy, Lucy’s cat, when I found him I picked him up and stroked his back, cuddling him against my neck. When I set him down, he scurried off to the kitchen. I tossed my purse onto her pearl white chair and sat on the couch. I waited for Lucy to return so we could leave. When she returned she was attempting to put an earring in while she looked for her shoes.
“Which pair are you looking for?” I asked looking around the room/
“The one with the bow on top.” She said, getting on all fours, looking under the coffee table.
I got up and looked in the kitchen, then decided to search the bathroom when I didn’t find it. This seemed to happen a lot; I would come over, and she would still be getting ready, and somehow I always am stuck searching for something. When I entered the bathroom, I saw them lying on the floor by the tub. Which means she probably came home from work and got into the tub, leaving her shoes were she took them off. I grabbed them both by the heel, and headed back for the living room.
“How was work yesterday?” I asked, hiding the shoes behind my back.
“Stressful.” She said glaring at me.
“Aw, I’m sorry.” I smiled.
A few moments later, Lucy shot up from the floor and ran to the bathroom. I followed and when she turned with worry in her eyes, I handed them to her.
“Next time, remember where you take your shoes off!” I said, rolling my eyes and heading back to the living room.
She appeared a moment later, her earrings in, shoes on, hair curly with a sparkly bobby pin holding her bangs out of her face, and her black suit skirt, and shiny blue button down with diamond buttons. I grabbed my stuff and waited by the door as she disappeared into her bedroom to say good-bye to Alex. When she returned, we left.
We headed down the hallway and back into the elevator. I watched as the doors closed on my view of the painting, and down we went. We had a routine because work started at the same time for both of us, 8:30 A.M. Lucy and I first met in high school, and we always kept in touch and visited one another during college. She went to culinary school, and I went to school for photography after that, we ended up both taking the same business course. After college, we decided we should get apartments near one another. We searched for the perfect stores, and ended up finding two right next to each other! Therefore, we decided the Parc East Apartments would be best.
My photography studio, ‘Life captured by Rachel’ was on the left and her bakery ‘The Best by Lucy’ was on the right. The only thing that separated the two stores was a foot long brick wall. The two were in the same building, and shared a parking lot in the back. They were long and short so the distance from the front of the building and the actual parking lot was shorter than most in New York City. The windows in the front had red and white canopies over them, and our store names were on big signs above the front door.
As we walked out of the apartment building the greeter, (Ronald) waved good-bye. I waved back and ran to catch up with Lucy. She was always a fast walker when she was going to work because she was afraid the baker she hired was going to burn down the building if we did not get there in time. We walked in silence as always, listening to the sound of cars and taxi‘s going by. As we passed the dance studio about a block from the stores, Katy Perry was on; she is one of my favorite artists. As we kept, walking by I nodded my head to the beat and saw Lucy tapping her hand on her thigh. We crossed the street and slowed down our heavy pace as we approached the building. Instead of unlocking my studio, I followed Lucy into her bakery. The smell of fresh cookies and muffins filled the air. I smiled to the sight of my favorite thing at the bakery; the strawberry slice muffin. Kaitlin, the early morning baker, handed me one of the muffins and disappeared back into the kitchen. I picked up the muffin and took the top off, taking a bite of the warm bottom. After I placed the top and the bottom of the muffin into one of the brown bags on the counter, Lucy brought me my coffee. She was wearing her white apron that held many stains of flour, chocolate, and batter.
“Bye Lucy! See you at lunchtime.” I said, grabbing my stuff and heading to the door.
“Bye. See you then!” She yelled back.
AS I got to the door and old man was coming in, so I let him pass and proceeded through the exit. I walked over to my studio, put the top of my bag in my mouth, and dug through my purse with my free hand. After I found my keys I grabbed the zebra striped one and stuck it into the key hole. I turned the knob and opened the door. Grabbing my bag out of my mouth and proceeding inside. I let the door close and headed into the back. I put my purse away, set my muffin on the table, and headed back to the front. I turned the lights on and flipped the sign to open. I sat at the front desk, waiting for someone to come in before my first appointment. I sipped my hazelnut coffee and sat, with my legs crossed, on my lime green swivel chair. I glanced around the room, looking at my every other lime green wall, and my every other white wall. I looked at all of the mirrors I had, and wall decorations. For example; I had a big flowered painting above a small row of seats, a few wired flowers above another row of seats across from it, and some photos I had taken hung on a small wall from floor to ceiling. I looked around behind me and stared at the circle mirrors that hung all around the back wall. I glanced down at my desk and looked at how messy it was. Therefore, I decided to tidy up, by placing all of my gel pens into the diamond studded pencil holder, placing my un-used sticky notes into a pile, and writing down all of the important things on the calendar that I had not done the day before. I then opened the bottom drawer and pulled out my appointment book, which sadly weighed almost 20 lbs. I set it on the desk with a slight thud, and opened to this week’s page. It read:
Tuesday: William’s family- 10 A.M. - Cameron
Spring family- 11:30 A.M. – Cameron
Donna Martin- 12:30 P.M. – me
Evan’s family- 2 P.M. – me
It seemed as if Cameron, my assistant photographer was getting more business than I was… However, that does not quite matter, due to the fact we share the actual money.
I waited for what seemed to be forever until someone came into the studio. It was an older couple, in the fifties or so, and they walked around looking at all of the wall decorations, and the studio down the hall.
“Hello.” I said to them as they approached the desk.
“Good morning.” The older gentleman said, placing both of his hands on the desk.
“Good morning, how are you today?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair.
“I am very well. Thank you.” The man said turning to his wife.
“We were wondering if you could take some photos for us, it’s our 50th Anniversary tomorrow, and we wanted some pictures for ourselves and family.” The older women said, standing next to her husband.
“Of course I could. Here are our packages and their prices.” I said as I handed the list to them. They stared at it for a few moments and then they handed it back.
“We will take the Simple Life Package.” The women said holding her hands together against her chest.
“Ok. Now will that be with one or two photos?”
“With two please.” The women said, grabbing her husband’s arm and pulling him closer.
“Ok, follow me, and you will pay after the photo shoot.” I said and started walking toward the studio on the side. They followed. I told them to stand in front of the faded blooming flower’s background and hold one another’s hand. They did as I said and I took the picture. Next was a solid red background that I thought, made the wife’s pearl colored shirt look very good. After I took six shots, not including ones with props, I showed them all of the photos so they could choose their favorites. They chose a photo with and one without props. As we went back to the front of the building, there was a family sitting on the chairs, waiting for Cameron. I grabbed the paper with the different packages on it, looking for the price of theirs. After putting their money into the cash register and giving them their change, I went into the back again. I had to print out two 8’10, four 5’7, and a sheet of ten wallet sized photos. I placed them into a manila envelope and placed the studio sticker on the right hand corner. As I passed through the studio, Cameron was taking photos of two children, while the parents watched.
“Here are your photos, and here is my business card.” I handed them both the giant envelope and my little card that had my business hours and Cameron and I’s face, along with the phone number and address.
The couple left with a smile on their faces and that made me feel good. I checked the computer’s time, 10:15 A.M. Because I did not have to technically, be here until noon I decided to visit Lucy. When I walked next door, I sat in the way back, waiting for the line that reached the door to go down.
“Rachel!” Lucy screamed with joy from across