Everything She Does Is Magic
It’s Dolce & Gabbana and black and slides over the right bits, conceals the rest. The breasts, the taut belly, the thick ass—the dress makes a promise that I’m more than happy not to keep. But, this is fine. This is written explicitly in my contract. I’m to be a young face, a ready laugh, a woman with a flute of champagne always in hand. Nothing more. THE BOLD SENTENCES (page four) of the staff handbook are meant to scare.
NO PROLONGED CONVERSATIONS
NO GRATUITIOUS FLIRTING
NO EXITING THE EVENT W GUEST/S
INAPPROPRIATE HOSTESSES WILL BE DISMISSED AFTER ______ EVENT
I’m the mystery girl—the paid mystery girl—at the party. The corporate sponsors are worried—the event lacks something. They form a pin-striped huddle and discuss, rubbing their fingers together like drunk Frenchmen on the terrace of the L’Avenue, trying to pinpoint the je ne sais quoi that might be missing.
Aha! Women! Decolletage! Perfumed wrists! Silky skin and stilettos! A sweet voice that will laugh and murmur and make you feel wanted again…
They plant me by the bar or the buffet or the stage. No one knows who I am or why I’m at the MoMa exhibit or the Botanical Garden. The buzz begins. The women in PR and the men at hedge funds whisper behind cocktail glasses and alligator clutches.
This all suits me just fine—as does the pay. Sting’s gig tonight. Maybe he’ll leave me and the other girls a handsome tip. I’ll adjust my dress just so, do the smoky eyes, twist my hair into a blonde chignon… a little piece of magic weaving in and out of the guests, catching their gaze just long enough and then out the door…
Every little thing she does is magic
Every she do just turns me on…
November 3rd, 2005 at 11:55 am
I guess your career is not that far from Mimi’s after all. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
November 3rd, 2005 at 1:16 pm
Nice! How’d you get that gig?
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:26 pm
shit, I need that job!
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Mimi — You have that job … just with less clothing and more contact.
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:47 pm
This post has been removed by the author.
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:49 pm
Sorry about removing my last comment too many spelling mistakes. Oh how I am lost without spell check.
I used to work in a night club that payed girls to come and act as if they enjoyed the company of our clientel. I imagine they were not quite as honest about their intentiona as Mimi and not half as classy as you my dear.
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:50 pm
And yet my spelling is still atrocious!
November 3rd, 2005 at 3:55 pm
Seriously, not a bad gig if you can get it; and you get paid. Those poor suckers at the Oscars filling empty seats don’t get a dime…
November 3rd, 2005 at 5:15 pm
Magic…
November 3rd, 2005 at 7:56 pm
Can we say, dream-job?! WOW! I’m so freakin jealous…LOL…anyhoo…any chance we can see a pic of the infamous dress?
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:29 pm
Um.. I just want to stand in the same room w/ Sting.. please?
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:56 pm
So wait.
You get dressed up, go to MoMa, drink champagne, and you get paid to do it?
Man.
I’m in the wrong line of work.
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:57 pm
This couldn’t possibly be the job you were in holding pattern about, could it?
November 4th, 2005 at 3:14 am
Who said being a writer was dignified? We do what we have to do and make it valuable by sifting it onto the page into language.
November 4th, 2005 at 6:16 am
Nice post …
November 4th, 2005 at 10:09 am
Dear Belle,
You write beautifully and I enjoy your youth. I am a slightly (mmm, little more than slightly) older displaced (re-placed) southenern and I enjoy your blog tremendously. Revel in the now. It too will be gone like other Sunday mornings.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:53 am
On my way to work this morning I was wondering if you would have updated. This one does not disappoint. I love imagining it all, creating pictures in my mind.
November 4th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Bravo Belle. You made it onto Gawker again…aren’t we the media darling?
November 5th, 2005 at 5:11 am
That really does sound like a fantastic job.
You get to dress up, you get to schmooze and if the people turn out to be really stupid you’ve got the booze to dull the pain.
I need this job!
Hope you had a good time.
Bx
November 6th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
More along the lines of what I would do…rather than the offer a friend told me about: a boutique opening in Soho (London) needs photo-shoot models to get covered in papier mache *and sit outside…in November*
Oh, no thank you.
November 7th, 2005 at 5:43 pm
Wonderfully written - i’ve been lurking a bit here, enjoying how you put your life into prose w/out being prosaic.
Bravo on the gig
November 8th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
Seriously…sounds like a great way to make some extra $…knowing the prime time line up does not pay very well.
November 8th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Ahh..to live vicariously though belle…..
November 10th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
Do you have any secrets or anything more interesting to offer us that how pretty you claim to be? There are only so many stories one can stomach about your designer wardrobe and priveleged existence.