Getting Styled by Jillian Kim

She could already smell the delicious aroma of hamburgers grilling before she opened the glass door to Papa Pete’s Down Home Diner. The restaurant was fifties decor—all original—with shiny maroon vinyl booths, chrome and Formica countertops, and alternating black and white floor tiles. She wondered how she didn't know that an old school location like this still existed despite the bustling and everything in the City.

She received a call from Bianca before she could enter the room.

"Hi sis, have you had your lunch?" Bianca's bright color rang from over the phone while Bella pulled over to the side.

"Did you call in the break of the afternoon to know my appetite?" Bella shot back without remorse.

Bianca smiled cheerfully as if it was nothing but behind that smile was pure hatred for her stepsister. "C'mon don't be always serious. Did mum Call you? I just called to see if you're still alive"

Bella was puzzled, "What did you mean? Are you up to your cheap tricks so that I could come home for you and your mum to shame me again?"

"No sis, hearing this I guess your don't know yet?"

"What did you mean?"

"We gave Agatha your life as a collateral to help my uncle. But since you haven't gotten any clue that means you don't know yet. Sis have you see the boss of Agatha?"

Bella was speechless. What is this lady taking about? Her head rang in shock. They gave Agatha the contract to kill her? Why?

"Will you go straight to the point right now?" She barked angrily.

Bianca smiled sinisterly Again. "Yes, Yes, Agatha rejected! I heard from Uncle that the boss rejected the offer to kill you, so sis, will you share your lucky tip with me."

Bella was stunned, she angrily ended the call. Even if she want to give up on finding the boss of Agatha, she had one more reason now.

But how? Miguel!

The room was packed with a lunch crowd, and when she stepped inside, Bella suddenly understood what a bug felt like under a microscope. A stranger in a small-town diner always drew attention, and she felt several pairs of eyes on her as a large woman with big platinum hair bustled toward her. Embroidered on her white uniform—the design also out of the fifties—was the name “Madge.”

“You waiting for someone, sugar?” Madge’s smile was friendly as she led Bella to a table.

Bella noticed a few heads turn in her direction as she slipped into a booth. “No, I’m alone.”

The diner, noisy with conversation and busy bus boys only a moment ago, had grown strangely quiet. She felt like the person in that financial ad where everyone stopped to listen at the mention of a certain company.

Madge laid a plastic-coated menu on the table. “Aren’t you the photographer staying at the hotel up at the lake? You were in town a few days ago, at the minimarket. Tracy told me you were right keen on apricots. Said your name was Bee”

There were limits to small-town charm, Bella thought, and decided she was going to have to be cautious of her purchases in town if she didn’t want to be the center of attention.

Too late, she realized. Everyone in the diner was already staring or listening.

What the heck. The youngest of five, and the only girl, was used to being the center of attention.

“Not Bee.” She smiled at the waitress. “Bella. Bella Trump. And you must be Madge. Walt at the repair shop said I should order a hamburger, that yours are the best.”

“He likes her buns, too,” a blond waitress called out from the counter, and several patrons laughed.

“Watch your mouth, Dixie,” Madge called back, but it was all in fun. “The boy’s a little sweet on me, that’s all.”

“We’re all a little sweet on you, Madge, you know that.” A young man wearing a cowboy hat winked at Madge, then tipped his hat to Bella. “How do, ma’am. Luke Sanders.”

There was a sparkle in Madge’s big brown eyes as she shook her head. “Watch out for these cowboys, sugar. Can’t trust them as far as you can throw them.”

“You threw Dutch Johnson clean into Mesa County last time he sassed you,” a tall, lanky man called out from his bar stool at the counter.

Madge propped a hefty arm on one thick hip and glared at the man. “You’re gonna be next, Leroy, if you don’t mind your own business. And you’re so skinny I could probably pitch you all the way to San Antonio.”

Bella watched in awe as several customers, men and women, joined in to taunt Madge and Leroy. Mock insults flew like missiles, and within seconds the entire place had erupted into laughter. Just like dinner at her house when she was growing up, Bella thought with a smile.

Or on those rare occasions when her father was still Loving managed to be in the same place at the same time. She hadn’t realized until this
minute just how long it had been, and how much she missed him.

She finished ordering her lunch between salvos and somehow felt as though she’d been initiated into the town by participating in the diner’s free-for-all. Madge finally stomped off, supposedly to get a frying pan to bean Luke, the cowboy, for starting the whole thing. After a few more verbal attacks, the diner settled down.

That’s when the questions started.

What’d you say your name was, honey?

Where you from?

You really come all the way from Liverpool just to stay at the Hotel?

Before she knew it, a married couple had slid into the booth with her, and two ranch hands had pulled up chairs alongside. Everyone else was either listening or adding to the conversation whenever they could get a word in.

That’s how Miguel found her when he came into the diner.

Surrounded by townspeople, people he knew, people he’d grown up with, worked with. His eyes narrowed at the two ranch hands glued to Bella’s side: Biff Hornsby and Luke Sanders. There were also a few he’d caroused with, he thought with a frown, remembering the two men.

Blast that tailor for taking so long with the fitting. It was bad enough being stuffed into a monkey suit and chalked up like a baseball field, but he’d also had to endure Drake’s and Victor’s incessant questions about Bella.

He made his way to the table, caught the tail end of a story Bella was telling about someone who told her up and how she freed herself but not mentioning his name tho. What the two wives had done to their unfaithful husband when they found him made the men wince and the women clap with appreciation.

Shaking his head, he struggled to hold back a grin. He should have known better than to leave her on her own. A woman like Bella was bound to draw attention, not only because of her looks and because she was a stranger in town, but there was something else about her, something…engaging, was his first thought. She made a room come alive just by walking into it.

Bella Trump is really a gem but how would he convince her against poke nosing into Agatha? Even though his words is the final say in thr organization, he know pretty well that if his grandfather could know that she came to spy, then he'll ignore the fact that she had slept with him (Miguel) before and won't hesitate to kill her.