Description: Eve arrives back at the hotel for a second round of acting lessons, but finds that Glenn Sabine has disappeared and left her in the hands of his creepy assistant, Pike Setter.
The Miss Teenager Pageant. PART 28.
The following evening was round two. Eve Jones had signed on to become the protégé and disciple of the one and only Glenn Sabine who had taken her under his wing for the whopping price of only 100 big ones to start. And what a start it was! After only one hour of her studio-style acting lessons in Mr. Sabine’s hotel room, Eve had learned voice projection, pitch control, and… probably much, much more… although she couldn’t really remember anything after that. Mr. Sabine had completely captured her heart, and the only thing that she could bring to mind of their first lessons as she lay in bed that night were his white shorn teeth and his alluring eyes.
Now it was time to return to the hotel where Glenn would no doubt be longingly waiting for her with breathless anticipation.
Meanwhile, back in Room 32 at the Devon House, Sabine was fitting his Porkpie hat on his head when he turned to his indelible and always implicitly devoted assistant with an attitude, Pike Setter. Pike was leaning back in the plush armchair with his legs crossed and reading the paper like he hadn’t a care in the world. Probably trying to find his name in the funny pages, Sabine deduced, based on the fact that every five seconds, Pike would break out in an uncontrollable snicker. Nobody knew why.
“Back in half an hour,” he announced to the only other dude in the room. “If the Jones kid shows, hold onto her, Pike.”
“A pleasure, master,” he said sarcastically without even a glance up from his paper.
When Eve arrived at the hotel after dark, she skipped up the steps leading to Room 32. There her heart went again with its stammering and skipping beats. She paused before knocking, taking a deep breath as she smoothed her dress down the hips. She just wanted to give Mr. Sabine her best, but there was always that nagging question in the back of her mind: what if her best wasn’t good enough? Would he throw her out of the contest for the mistakes she made in acting class?
The door opened before she could even knock. Apparently, Glenn had heard her muttering to herself outside their door and didn’t want to wait.
Confounded beyond belief, she was suddenly speechless at the sight of the assistant Pike answering the door instead of the man she had expected.
“Oh, Mr. Setter,” she gasped, retreating into her shy persona. “Is Mr. Sabine here?”
“Heading this way, ma’am,” he responded. As always, a cigarette lazily reclined on his bottom lip and popped up and down when he spoke. “He said for me to keep you entertained.”
Something suddenly didn’t settle well with her about that word “entertained,” especially when it came to the creepy assistant and his devilishly quiet ways. Perhaps it was best to take a seat in the armchair and wait for Glenn.
“Why waste time, Miss Jones?” said Mr. Setter, running his fingers through his hair. His button-down shirt was somewhat open at the top, revealing a hairy chest . “How’s about you and me running through a few scenes from, say… ‘The Harry Ape’?”
The hairy… what?
Eve clutched her purse that she kept on her lap. “I … I don’t think I know that play, Mr. Setter,” she said, her pulse quickening in time with her nervous heartbeat.
