The Substitute Bride

The dim light of the restaurant, the smokes, booze and the girls serving the customers with an all giving attitude - it was a perfect scene out of a third grade x rated movie. After dinner, almost everyone got out of the room with a girl he liked. Charles still kept sitting at the bar counter. Eric watched him for a while from a distance.

Then he approached to Charles. Somehow, Charles wanted to get drunk so he poured himself a fresh peg and poured it down his throat in just one go. Then another and then one more. Eric sat next to him and watched him pour alcohol down his throat incessantly one after the other. It seemed that he was just trying to find a hideout where nobody could find him. And he felt that alcohol could help him to find it.

"Charles, what's wrong with you?" Eric asked him in a speculative voice. Eric could not believe Charles did not make love for three years. Charles looked up at him with annoyance. "Don't misunderstand. I didn't mean anything," he explained. "I just find it to be unbelievable. Do you always satisfy your needs with your hands? That's hard to believe..."

"Shut up!" Charles interrupted him abruptly while still looking at his unfinished drink. If Eric were not his friend, he would have taken him down on the ground. Charles cast a glare at Eric and said,"Why are you still a spoiled brat? Even your so-called friends are utterly disgusting."

Eric sneered back and said,"They are not my true friends. I know that."

He tried to change his topic to Charles' sexual need and said to Charles,"I don't think it works in this way. Actually, I think the girl just served you is pretty good. Moreover, she is a virgin. How about you have sex with her?"

Charles' face turned red and he shouted at Eric,"Just keep your mouth shut before I lose my temper."

Charles used to hang around often with his bad friends before he married Autumn. But he had never seen these friends after getting married.

Autumn was just like an emblem of purity. She always looked clean and tidy. She didn't like makeup or perfume and the only fragrance in her body was that of the body shampoo she used. After having stayed with her, Charles had developed aversion towards strong smell of perfumes. All these girls and the ambiance around him made him feel suffocated. He had just come here to drink his heart out so that he could get some sleep.

Eric realized that he couldn't convince Charles and had to ask someone to escort him home.

In the hotel, Sheryl had been waiting for Sue for a long time.

Sue brought breakfast to the table and sat down beside Sheryl. For some reasons, she was fuming. She kept muttering under her breath. Sheryl stared at her perplexed for a while and asked,"What hap

eryl up for the rehearsal in the afternoon, Sheryl was still looking very pale.

Sheryl pulled herself up from her pillow. As she tried to stand up, she could literally feel her lower back pulling her down. In the last few years, she had been through very painful pre-menstrual syndrome that was way beyond her tolerance level.

Sheryl tried to sit up and tried to cheer up. She had to put a confident face on the stage.

The hotel reserved a big room for their rehearsal. Soon it was Sheryl's turn to walk the ramp. Bogged down with severe stomach ache, she almost pulled herself on the stage. Her pace was slow and she could not even stand straight. Immediately, it was pointed out by the director who did not spare a moment to reprimand her in front of the whole team.

"Who did allow her to pass the interview? How could she debut with such poor performance?" The director's voice echoed through the hall and suddenly there was a pin drop silence among the models. Sheryl felt so guilty that she got off the stage immediately. However, the director had lost his temper with the staff.

One of the staff went close to the director and whispered something into his ears that pacified his anger for the time being. Yet he still spoke in a stern voice with a brow arched,"I don't care whether your boss decided to employ her or not. I don't allow her to take part in my show with such poor performance. Tell your boss that I can only give her three days. If she can't meet my requirement and if your boss doesn't fire her, then, you can count me out of the show."

"Director Ang... Director Ang!" That man kept crying and following him as the director walked out of the hall fuming in anger. All his measures to persuade him fell flat on the face. Finally he had to call the boss and tell everything to him honestly.