By: Music Diamond
"She's late." said Iris, impatiently tapping her nails on the counter.
"Relax, she'll be here." said Darla, learning over to pet Iris's Persian.
"Well, as hostess I'm not allowed to relax. Iris nervously twisted a lock of straight jet black hair around her finger.
"I wish I had hair as straight as yours" said Darla, looking wistfully at her hair.
"Comes from being Chinese I suppose." said Iris absentmindedly while she eyed the door. "Where IS she?"
At that moment, Leigh-Anne burst through the door. "Sorry," she gasped, panting, "I was stuck in a traffic jam." she unwrapped the scarf around her neck and took off her coat, "I would have been here a long time before if it hadn't been for that." she shook her hair out and went to sit on a stool.
Darla shrugged her shoulders and said in an offhand way, "Oh well, at least you have an excuse."
"YeahŠ"
"Me and Darla were just talking about wanting different hair." said Iris, as she offered Leigh-Anne a cookie.
"Different hair? Why would you want different hair? You have beautiful hair." said Leigh-Anne, looking back and forth between Darla and Iris, while nibbling on her cookie.
"YesŠ" said Darla, helping herself to a cookie, "I hate my hair though. It's one of the downfalls of being black in my opinion."
"Why do you hate it? It's soŠ interesting. You can do lots of things I can't do with mine."
"Not really. I mean, it's either straightened and everything or dreadlocks, and I am not a big fan of dreadlocks soŠ"
"YesŠ I guess that can be badŠBut you have so much else. I mean, I would die for a body like yours." Iris sighed slightly. Darla was tall and model thin as in Kate Moss, but Darla ate. Iris never had a weight problem herself, so that didn't bother her, but Darla was tall and beautiful. The true model physique-which probably explained why she was a model.
Iris was short-or petite as she preferred to call it. Darla had light brown-red hair that was kept short and Iris had long, straight black hair. While Darla had a sophisticated, city look, Iris had more of an exotic, but elegant look. And though Iris never would've believed it if someone told her, she was every bit as beautiful as Darla, in a different way. Leigh-Anne just had the all American blond beauty look. But, as someone once said, comparisons are odious.
"Want some music?" asked Iris standing up to go to look at her CD's, "Hey, why don't we listen to the new Backstreet Boys CD I just got?" she leaned over and pressed play.
"I didn't know you were a fan of theirs." said Leigh-Anne, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, actually I got the CD because they're cute-especially Brian and Nick."
"MmmŠYes, Brian is quite a man." said Darla, tilting her head to one side and smiling a little smile.
Suddenly, a beautiful male voice filled the room, taking the lead in the song. "Who is this?" asked Leigh-Anne, curious.
"That voice of an angel belongs to the one with the face of an angel-Brian." said Iris, picking up the CD cover. "That's him. He's something isn't he?"
Leigh-Anne looked at the cover and expectedŠwell someone less than phenomenal looking. Instead, she found a man as beautiful as his voice. "Wow." she murmured.
"Um hum." agreed Iris.
"I think we should draw." came Darla from behind them.
"Draw? Why can't we all try?" asked Iris, still looking at the picture.
"Because," Darla explained patiently, "We can't all go after him. That's not fair. How could he possibly choose? Besides," she added, "We don't want anyŠugly situations."
"So we draw from a card deck and however gets the highest gets to go for it right?"
"Yes, and whoever draws it, no matter what, we support her. Agreed?" Darla looked around and they nodded. "And if we all draw the same, whoever has the Heart wins since this involves matters of the heart. And if no Heart, Diamonds."
Iris went over and got a deck of cards and shuffled. Then, one by one, they drew.
Darla was the first to announce, "I have a Queen of Spades."
Iris smirked slightly and showed her card, "Queen of Diamonds."
All that was left was Leigh-Anne. She slowly looked up from her card, almost reluctantly.
"Well?" Darla prompted.
Leigh-Anne slowly turned her card over. "Queen of Hearts."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hi, my name is Leigh-Anne, nice to meet you Brian."