Description: Nervous about meeting Glenn Sabine, the man running the Miss Teenager contest, Eve tries to hold herself together without falling apart at the seams. Meanwhile, at the hotel, Glenn Sabine prepares for her arrival.
The Miss Teenager Pageant. Part 12.
Applying her lipstick in her bedroom vanity mirror, Eve noticed her hand shaking. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Inhale through the nose, exhale long through the mouth. Try the lipstick again. Slower this time. She rubbed her lips together and watched herself in the mirror. Oh, get it together, Eve Jones, she told herself. It was only the most momentous occasion in her entire life: the chance to meet Glenn Sabine himself! My goodness, she thought, was he actually going to be there? At the Devon Hotel where he told her to meet him? Eyelashes. Mascara coating the entire lash. Careful. Don’t overdo it. She didn’t want to look like a clown.
Trying on dress after dress in her closet and shaking her head in the mirror at herself had taken almost an hour. She looked at the clock on her desk and gasped. Now she was going to be late! Picking one of the three dresses that she had chosen as “the finalists” in her closet, she buttoned it up to the neck, deliberately going conservative. After all, this was kind of an interview, wasn’t it? A pearl bracelet and loose gloves to help with the shaking hands completed the outfit. A quick spray of perfume on her neck and she was out the front door.
On her way off the front porch, she heard Pops shout after her. “When’ll you be home?” he asked.
“Don’t know,” she shot back over her shoulder as she picked up the pace. “Call you later.”
Meanwhile at the Devon Hotel, Glenn Sabine was fixing his tie, anticipating Eve Jones’ arrival. He felt relaxed and sure of himself, but caught himself chewing on the end of his pipe. A bead of sweat formed on his brow. What in the heck was he so nervous about? From experience, he knew what to expect from every ‘Miss Teenager’ contestant, especially how innocent and gullible they were. This Eve Jones would be no different.
“You ready, Pike?” he asked his older counterpart who sat on the hotel bed, smoking and fixing the camera in preparation for Ms. Jones to arrive.
Pike was sarcastic, copping an attitude like he had been forced to clean the dung from the elephant cage at the zoo. “Yeah, I got the gall, the camera… and … no film,” he replied with a heavy tone. “Did I forget anything, Bwana?”
“Only your manners, m’boy,” Sabine replied with a calm voice, unfazed by the older gentleman’s impertinence. “Get a firm grip on them before our breathless, gushing little contestant arrives.”
Sabine would be ready when she arrived. Like all the others, Eve Jones was just one more spoke in the wheel of this whole thing coming together. Perhaps their meeting would be just as much a fortuitous opportunity for him as it was for her.
