My face fell. My thoughts went a little blank. So...that was a no?
“You really can’t see it?”
She glared at me. “There’s nothing there, Mia!”
Slam.
Well, okay then. I wasn’t really sure what had just happened. Sleep deprived moms were serious heroes, but perhaps Leona wasn’t the best person to ask at the moment?
Ididknow that I definitely needed to offer to watch Daniel more often.
Leona clearly needed a break.
Not to be deterred, I systematically hit up every available person on my floor.
Zero people could see the ad.
I slumped into my apartment and dumped the ad and myself onto my ratty, tan couch. I was so confused. There was a possibility that a few needed to put their glasses on, or were preoccupied like Leona. Some could have been lying to me. But the likelihood that ALL of them saying they couldn’t see the ad when it was very clearly there was infinitesimal.
I was staring at it. It was in a big, bold type, with a rounded font. It looked to be in 16 point type even. Plenty big for those that might be optically challenged. I was flabbergasted, embarrassed that I had just gone around to all my neighbors who probably thought I was a little crazy now, and irritated that Draven Leto had been right. And still, so very confused.
As I took another shower to tame my crazy hair and found some presentable clothes to go looking for a job in, I pondered the puzzle. Draven Leto had hinted heavily that not many people would be able to see the ad. I could see it, but no one else on my floor could. It begged the question…if I could see it, did that somehow make me different? If so, in what way was I different? Would others outside of my building be able to see it?
And the scary thought, if I could see it, and others couldn’t, did that make the crazy ad the slightest bit legit? Vampires belonged in fiction, clearly. At least I hoped so. But what about the other people in the world that I’d never been able to get a strong sense of? Could they be different in the same way that I seemed to be different?
My thoughts ran round and round. Should I email him back? Or would it be better, safer, to just let it go.
The irony of my personality was that I was, by nature, a curious person. I’d learned, because of what I dealt with around others, to stymie that curiosity, but only to a point. I still wanted to love people. Heck, I’d love some friends I didn’t feel ick around. And this, this had me wanting to reach out to the irritating Draven Leto for some answers. For curiosity’s sake, sure, but also because I sort of feared that Draven Leto wasother.And that what he’d meant was that I wasothertoo.
It should logically make me want to run. I had a very finely tuned run-o-meter. But, strangely, it didn’t. I felt drawn into something greater than myself, and insanely curious about what that something might be.
There was something nagging at me, too. Like I’d heard the name Draven Leto before somewhere. As I applied makeup, pulled my hair in a half-up twist, and found some shoes I could walk in but were interview ready, I puzzled over the dilemma.
It was when I was reaching out to grab my coat that it hit me. Sometime back, there had been something in the news about a luxury hotel owned by him in Florence, Italy that had burned to the ground. No lives had been lost, if I remembered correctly. This, at least, legitimatized his claim that he was both a businessman and that he had a company that needed secretarial work. Neither of those meant that he wasn’t crazy or dangerous, but I needed a job, didn’t I?
I hung my coat back on the coat stand, sighed at what a woman would do for a job and for curiosity’s sake, then plopped back onto the couch as I reached again for my laptop.
Attn:[email protected]
Re:Your Ad
Mr. Leto,
I amunsure why I’m again corresponding with you, except maybe to put this to rest in my mind. I checked with my entire floor. No one could see the ad. Not a single person.
I have no idea what to say to that.
The ad is there. I’m looking at it right now, in fact.
Can you please explain what the heck is going on?
You can reach me at (212) 617-8974
Mia
I sentit and sighed into the couch. My stomach grumbled, and I placed a palm over the ache and tried to figure out my next steps for my day. I needed more groceries, but I didn’t have any money. I had some mac and cheese in the cupboard. It wasn’t great with just water and no butter, but it would work. I think I also had a jar of pasta sauce and some leftover linguini noodles. I could scrounge around for change and buy a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, and that would have to work for this week. I was just getting up to make the mac and cheese when my phone buzzed. I flipped it over to look at the name.Draven Leto.
I gasped and sat up. Even though I’d given him my number (I considered it networking) I hadn’t expected him to call me!
