Chapter 1 : estrogen and escape, by Meredith Garratt.
Crouched in the ‘femme de ménage’’s storage room, Misti lay breathing heavily. Her vision lost its focus and she found herself wondering what her life had come to. Suddenly, her phone began to ring. She jumped, startled, knocking over a bottle of detergent. The bashing sound caused her to squeal. Shit. She could hear the police stalking the hallways of the hotel. Goddammit.
She thought she’d finally be safe in Paris. But no. She sat in the quiet, waiting for the noise outside to subside. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, it stopped.
She dragged herself up, scarlet Louboutins scraping the wooden floor. Her height caused her to stoop low as she stumbled out onto the plush carpeting. She stopped to check herself in the gold framed mirror. Her mascara was smudged, as was her lipstick, and her necklace had shifted in the midst of her panic, her adams apple revealing itself under the diamonds she’d swiped from her last modelling job. She looked around, and, having noticed a rich woman’s coat on one of the concierge’s hangers, nabbed it and almost flew towards the emergency exit. The icy January night air caused her to shiver uncontrollably, and she answered the call.
“Oui allô? Oh, it’s you. Hi Lucas.
Yeah yeah, I’ll be there at 9 am tomorrow for the YSL shoot.
No, I didn’t steal the Cartier necklace, the photographer said he’d lost it and paid the owner back. Wait! I need to ask you something. Have you seen my estrogen?
I could’ve sworn I left it at the café this morning. Ok, well, let me know. It’s not bloody cheap you know. Had to go through about 5 different fucking doctors to get it approved. Tata.”
The phone beeped and she was once again alone with her thoughts.
She shivered in the stolen fur coat that no doubt belonged to someone who still said transsexual instead of trans, and, clutching her purse, hobbled off towards the flat her modelling agency had gotten for her whilst she was living in Montmartre.
index : 1-'femme de ménage' = janitor (directly translates to woman of cleaning)
