Underwhelmed - Chapter One - Desire

Desire

    Desire held tight to the broom as she strains her ears to grab pieces the conversation in the next room -- whispering about the latest hire coming in on the evening shift. The owner of Seductive Art Tattoo and her best friend, slash guy friend’s hushed tones danced around Des’ lobes in elusive shreds.
    Lexy Peters, said owner, and current boy-toy Britton Truman’s muted words are vague. On any other day, Des wouldn't give two shits about the conversation in that room. However, today, the retching feeling in her gut has her on edge. The marker incident from earlier in the day wasn’t helping. Did she in fact want to greet someone with black smeared across her cheek? No she did not!
    Desire Brooks is the normal, boring and quiet girl that no one ever noticed. So she thought. Despite her flaming red tresses and intentional multihued wardrobe she picked today to stand out, she assumed her life to be simple and as uninteresting as others’ found her. The huge marker streak on her cheek may be an exception. Des had tried to scrub the dark smudge off in the restroom when she got to work.
    Lesson in life number one: Never, ever fall asleep with an uncapped marker in hand.
    Des contemplated asking Lex to allow her go home and get the crap off her face, but she had only back at work a few weeks. Asking for more time off just seemed foolish. Passing several people on the route to work, yet no one seemed to even care. Of course, it was easy for Desire to hide in clear sight.
    Des wasn't sure why her mother had given her this name. She could not live up to the name or even conceive the meaning. She swiped at her face.
    The hushed talk-a-thon produced words like “amazing” and “intriguing” in her curious ears. Lexy Peters had been the sole artist at the establishment for over a decade. She finally decided to hire another artist so she could explore other life options, like settling down with a good man. Rumors had run amuck lately and poor little Des wasn't sure what to make of it all just yet.
    Lexy rounded the corner and caught Des unaware and unprepared. The towering woman stood and glared down at Des for mere seconds before stomping past her toward the front door. Embarrased that she’d been caught, Des pretended to be sweeping.
    "Des. I need you to clean the lounge early today. You think you can get to that for me?" Lex glanced up as she sifted through some stray papers in file she had picked up from the counter. "Britt decided to share his lunch with the floor earlier today."
    "Yes ma'am. I'll go do that now" Desire said as she propped the broom in the corner and stepped away. The broom followed her and slapped loud against the floor.
    "You actually might want to take that with you. I did say the mess was in the floor, did I not?" Lex sneered.
    "Yes ma'am" Des said again as she picked the broom up and took it with her to the lounge.
    Standing in the doorway surveying the slimy heap of whatever plagued the floor, Des sighed when she realized Britt standing in front of her with grin. She straightened her shoulders and stepped gingerly over the disgusting pile in the floor.
    "That's the effect you get when you spill nachos. Gross, huh?" Britt beamed and then his expression took a darker mode. "I was gonna clean it, but Lex said that's what she pays you for. To leave it. Sorry Des."
    Des simply nodded as she pulled a roll of paper towels from beside the microwave. Walking back to the mess on the floor, she watched Britt leave the room with a bag of chips. Hovering over the nachos, she dropped to one knee and swiped a giant glob off the floor. Grimacing, Des tossed the icky wad in the waste basket and tore off several more towels to repeat the process.
    All would have gone well if her glasses hadn't slipped down on her nose and she reached up to push them back in place. This one slight action caused an absurd chain reaction of mayhem. Des lost her balance and the knee that wasn't on the floor planted itself into the nasty junk she had been cleaning. This motion caused her legs to slide apart in nearly split her little body in half.
    Desire took a deep breath as she tried to pull herself and stand. In pain and so glad Britt had already left the room, she used a adjacent table to steady herself on as she stood. She closed her eyes and prayed for the pain to ebb soon. Without even thinking about it, Des used her hand in an attempt to massage the hurt away. She wondered if she could even walk. When she opened her eyes, Lex and the most beautiful man she’d ever seen were standing side by side in the doorway.
    Embarrassment and shame crossed Desire's face as she merely stood gaping at them as they both returned the favor.
    "I hurt myself" croaked Des.
    "Yeah? Looked like something else to me!" laughed Lex.
    Des dropped her head and turned her back to them. Wishing she could just crawl in a hole and die, she kneeled down to clean the remaining goop. After throwing a few more paper towels in the basket, she tried to swipe the yucky stuff off the knee of her jeans as well. She shook her head as she noticed the smell. Great, the man of my dreams finally makes an appearance and I smell like funky corn chips and sweat. Just perfect.