Virginia opened the envelope with slow fingers, she knew what the contents would be and was having second thoughts about whether she had done the right thing. As expected. Inside was her ticket to her old school's Valentine's Day Ball.
Virginia, or Ginny as she preferred to be called, hadn't been to a school reunion since she had left some five years previously and whilst she had kept in touch with a couple of close friends she had lost contact with all of her other old school mates. She had taken the decision to go to the Ball as she had ben without a boyfriend for 16 months and was in need of finding some male company; the Ball always had a couple of "singles" tables where those without a current partner were sat with the possibility of a romance occurring or, at the very least, they could hope to find a dance partner.
She gazed around her bedroom and wondered when she would be able to afford to move out of her mother's house. At 23 she felt that this was a step that she should already have taken but the comforts of home were very appealing and she wasn't made to feel unwelcome by her mum or her step-dad.
She got up from her bed and looked at herself in the mirror; she was attractive -- not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination -- but pretty with her blond hair cut in a short bob to frame her petite face. She had sparkling blue eyes, a cute button nose smattered with freckles and ruby red lips. At 5 feet 2 she was on the small side but this accentuated her petite frame and shapely figure. In fact, she thought, I look just like those pictures of mum on her wedding day.
She had a good relationship with Betty, her mum, and Jack, her step-dad; although she had walked in on him masturbating whilst watching porn on his lap-top in the living room on a couple of occasions. Nothing was ever said between them about these moments and life continued as normal.
The Ball was just a couple of days away and Ginny was determined to look her best. With this in mind she decided that she would take a trip to town to get some new make-up. There was a new range out called "Get Lucy" and she wanted to try out some of the range -- in particular she needed some new mascara.
Once at the Department Store Ginny went straight to the new "Get Lucy" cosmetics counter and surveyed what was on offer. She found the mascara which she felt would best suit her and approached the sales assistant; a young attractive woman of about 25. The sales assistant, whose name badge read "Sam" smiled at her, took the mascara and asked if there was anything else she needed. Ginny said "No" and reached into her bag to get her purse out, only to realise that she had left it at home -- not only did she have no purse but no credit cards either -- this was to be a wasted trip!
Upon seeing her dilemma, Sam called her closer and said that she might be able to help her. Sam told her colleague that she was taking a short break and walked from behind the counter so that she could whisper to Ginny.