The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

An Unassuming Space 
by Lee Mitchell  

.

“She said she wanted it colorful.” Ava stood in the middle of the street, her head cocked at an angle and eyebrows knitted tightly together as she assessed her work. “Think maybe I went a little too far?”

Tanya smacked at her gum, one hand pressed against her hip, while she joined her associate in evaluating the building’s new appearance. “Considering she had you do it instead of hiring actual painters, I’d say it looks damn good.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tanya shrugged. “I think she’ll like it just fine.”

“Maybe it won’t be so bright in the evening light.” Ava tried to imagine all of the various contrasts a few shades darker.

“Totally.”

“Sure you aren’t just agreeing with me because you’re hoping she likes it? I mean, this is my head on the chopping block, so I really need your honest opinion.”

“I think it’s fine.” Tanya pulled a pair of leather gloves from her pocket and slid them on. “Help me with the box?”

Ava nodded with a sigh and followed Tanya back through the building. The smell of drying paint was still just noticeable inside, with fresh, clean shades of off-white and azure-gray dominating most of the interior walls.

“People like bright things,” Tanya volunteered. “The Master just wants a place that’s inviting and unassuming. We’ve got this.”

The two women entered the back parking lot and filed up a ramp onto a truck bed. They had a hand truck, but it took both of them cooperatively to move the heavy wooden box onto it and then gently maneuver the thing off of the truck and into the building. They rolled it past the bright rooms, then slowly took it down the steps and into the finished basement.

“Hopefully we won’t have to move again for a while,” Tanya continued. “With Christina gone, maybe we won’t have so many mistakes.”

Ava nodded. “Yeah, we’d still be in Milwaukee if she hadn’t let her dumb ass get involved with the clients.”

“Hope she didn’t give the Master indigestion,” Tanya whispered. She wiped a trickle of sweat from her brow as she and Ava rested the box longways at the bottom of the staircase.

“If she did, I’m sure it was worth it,” Ava whispered back. “I never liked the bitch.”

Tanya stretched. “I thought she was okay. Maybe a little stupid—”

The Master banged on the wood from the inside of the box. “Hey! Could you take your conversation somewhere else? I was sleeping.”

Both women went silent and still for a moment, exchanging a hushed glance, and then Ava said, “Sorry, we were just getting you secured downstairs. We’ll leave you to get back to it.”

The two hurried up the creaky, wooden steps and shut the basement door.

Ava clutched her head. “Think she’s mad?”

Tanya shrugged.

“God, what if she doesn’t like the paint?”

Tanya smacked at her gum. “Then it was nice knowing you, I guess… but really, I think she’ll like it just fine.”

Fiction © Copyright Lee Mitchell.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com