The Mistress of the Mafia

Chapter Six- In Four Days

Four days would pass until Selene saw Lyle again. She would work patiently and with each chime of the bell above the door, she would turn and hope for it to be Lyle, but instead, found it to be another mundane person. Selene did not hide her disappointment well as she dropped her gaze and let out a sigh before going to seat the customer. The only thing that led her to smile was the fact that she had two days off where she could sleep in. She thought of a warm bubble bath and her new Stephen King novel as she unclothed, but with each fantasy she thought of Lyle and his lips between her legs or even his gaze at this point.

It was the evening of the third day as she placed herself into the bath with the book at her side, a glass of wine on a stool beside the water, and a radio used for soothing zen music. She was careful to place the radio far enough away to not cause danger upon herself as she disrobed and slid into the steaming water that felt like pure ecstacy against her aching skin. Having been forced to wear heels for fourteen hours a day for nine days straight, twice, every month began to take a toll on her as she slid her hands over to her book and pulled the pages to begin to read.

After making it past the first chapter of her book, Selene came to hear a noise coming from her apartment. She expected it to be Gia coming home after a night spent with Nico, but knew she would always text first or even a short call. As she questioned this, Selene threw a towel over her body as she would be passing many windows through her apartment and didn’t want to give a show to the entire city. She then slid out of the bathroom and fetched her phone that she left on her dresser across the living room area and pulled it to view, finding no messages, missed calls, or voicemails. She knew her mind could be her worst enemy however, so she tried to convince herself that it could have been her friend being forgetful possibly due to alcohol or plainly having a good time. Nevertheless, she moved to the door and locked each lock she had; which had been a simple key lock, a chain lock, and a little slide lock. It somehow made her feel just a tiny bit more safe, but not enough to forget of the sounds.

She took this as a sign to remove herself from the bathtub and moved back to her room to dress in her nightgown before returning to the bathroom to drain the tub. Just before doing so, she could hear a jingling at the front door, followed by the voices of Nico and Gia on the other side as they were chuckling together. As the door came open but was stopped by the chain lock, Gia shouted for Selene who was waiting nearby with hairspray in case she needed to use it as a weapon. She breathed a sigh of relief from this as she moved to unlock it and found Gia looking at her with confusion.

“Oh s**t, you don’t have company, do you?” Gia asked as Nico was obviously fixated on her, holding her close to him even as he towered over her.

“No, all clear…”

“I promise that you won’t even hear us.” She said as she pulled Nico into her bedroom which was on the other side of Selene’s. As the door shut loudly, Selene then shut the door behind Gia, relocking each lock and turning back to the bath. She was taken aback upon seeing the radio, which was on the other side of the room, having been placed in the bathtub. There was the obvious fear of an intruder but she knew how terror could affect the mind and so she chalked it up to the fact that she had simply forgotten and possibly knocked it in. Knowing the danger to reach it, she unplugged it first with rubber gloves and then pulled it from the tub, finding it completely ruined. She then also found her book beneath it, as it was now severely water damaged with several pages having been dislodged from the spine of the book and floating to the surface of the water.

She then turned and made it to her own bedroom, finding herself to feel uneasy about sleeping in her apartment after such noises. Due to this, she placed her dresser upon the door and shut her curtains completely while placing perfume near her bed in case she would need to use it. Just as she found that she could shut her eyes, she could hear the moaning of Gia from the wall behind her head and the banging of the headboard. She grew frustrated as she threw the pillow over her face and then wrapped it around her ears in an attempt to block them out. When her eyes finally began to close, she became unaware of the silhouette leaving her bathroom and escaping through the front door as if he was simply a ghost.