In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

her hot cup.
"Why did you want me to see this place? I'm not going to live
there," Penny asked.
"Oh, Dick thought it would make a good office for our
ensemble, with a rehearsal floor, what an idiot," Ula said.
"The fourth floor of this building is vacant, Bobby was telling
me about it yesterday. Why don't you talk to Ramón, he could fill you
in," Penny blurted out.
"Yes? I call him now, his number?" He glanced at Ula, who
rolled her eyes.
"Remember, not down here," Penny said.
He nodded quickly and put his phone away and looked for her
cordless. Over by the machines, like before. With his digital eye staring
at him from every screen, but he didn't see any of it, punching in her
speed dial for the super.
The floor was still available, and as artists they both even
officially qualified. Ula and Sandro got up and left, thanking Penny for
whatever.
She stood in the middle of the room still holding the tray.
Carried the tray to the counter and left it there. Biting her lip she took a
couple breaths, then found her paraphernalia and took refuge in the
smoke.
For how long had they been knocking? Penny made it to the
door and opened it. Ula gave her a funny look letting Sandro come in
first through the swirls of smoke. There he was, right in front of her,
just like the first time, but now she knew she wanted him, wanted to
throw herself at his feet and kiss his body all the way up to his
impossibly symmetrical face, lips, eyelids, gaze deep into those
bottomless dark pools, but it was too late. Ula emerged from the
smoke, standing at his side.
Penny could barely mumble, she was so stoned.
Ula flicked on the light switch to jangle the keys in her face.
Yellow shards of light stabbed at her eyes to a cacophony of brass.
Penny shuffled to the switch and shut it. Now there was just the eerie
stares of the screen savers. Irritated, perhaps a little freaked out, Ula
swept out the door, and through the smoke and the darkness, Sandro
eventually found her eyes. Slowly, he turned away with a husky "ciao,"
and once again it was just her and her monitors in the darkness.
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