Time seemed to stand almost entirely still.  Every minute seemed like an hour and every hour seemed to last as long as a normal day.  It was as if time didn't want to move.  Almost as if it wanted to make her suffer, wait it out longer.  The seconds that ticked hardly amounted to a minute, because it seemed like they were counting down the number of hours she had been waiting in the small kitchenette of the hotel room.

            She rolled a pen between her fingers, nearly dropping it in the process several times.  Dallas tapped her cheek with the pen, either thinking about what to write or what, exactly, was taking Carlene so long to get to the hotel with their little drinking buddies.  The pad of paper that was on the table in front of her was completely blank, just the way she had found it in the drawer.  Dallas had traced the outline of the hotel's label on one of the sheets, but had tossed it into the trash about five minutes before.

            It had been about an hour and a half since she had first stepped into the hotel room for the second time that day.  And she had figured that when she was finished getting ready to go out with Carlene and a couple of the others, she would be able to get out of that room for at least a few hours.  But, it had not turned out that way.  She figured it was only because one of the men that Carlene had invited was scheduled for a later match or promotional shot.  Either way, it was taking them long enough to get it over with.

            Dallas stood, glancing around the floor of the room for her suitcase.  She walked over to it and quickly unzipped the small black bag.  Inside there were many articles of clothing, mostly faded jeans and sweatshirts, as those were the most comfortable things she owned, and some of life's essentials.  Rummaging through the worn out suitcase, Dallas tossed quite a few pairs of jeans out of bag in the process.

            "Aha" she said aloud to herself, holding up a small black purse.  Of course, Dallas normally didn't feel the need to carry a purse around with her on a daily basis, but there was a first time to try everything.  Especially when you needed to come off as something you weren't to a group of people that you might run into again with your job status.  In fact, she hardly looked anything like she had that morning to begin with.

            Dallas' hair was up in a twisted bun, and she had managed to figure out how to put quite a few types of makeup that was very foreign to her face.  She had black eyeliner on, a light gold eye shadow on her eyelids, and even lipstick.  Truly, Dallas would never make herself up to look anything like that, she actually thought too much makeup drew too much away from what should've really mattered in someone.  But, she had to make an impression, even if it was the wrong one, that would last on the people that Carlene brought over with her.

            Just then, there was a loud knock on the door of the room.  Dallas smoothed out the small black dressed, which she had taken from another friend of hers quite a while back, and looked down at her shoes.  Everything seemed to be fine, all things considered.  Now she just had to straighten up and paste a smile across her made-up face.  The way she looked disgusted Dallas, she looked like one of those prissy models about to walk the runway.  Even if it was for her own sake, Dallas suddenly couldn't understand why people did that to their faces everyday, just to go to an office building where they'd sit in a cubical for no one to even to see them.

            In the time it took her to make sure everything looked right, another few bangs pounded onto the door.  "I'm coming!" Dallas shouted, grabbing the black purse she had taken out only a few minutes prior.  It had actually taken her half an hour to figure out how to walk properly in the high black sandals she was wearing, which she had decided to buy just for the hell of it about a month before.  But, being a woman, it wasn't all that hard, even if she had never felt the need to walk in anything like them before.

            Dallas grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door opened forcefully.  She was greeted with the slightly shocked expression from Carlene, who also look quite made-up herself.  "Dallas, is that you, girl?" Carlene questioned, putting her hands on her hips and eyeing Dallas' new look for the night suspiciously.  "Who made you all up like that?"

            Shrugging, Dallas pushed her friend away from the door lightly and stepped out of the room.  "Stop looking at me like that" she said, fixing the strap of the black dress that had slipped down her shoulder slightly.  Carlene shook her head and smiled widely as Dallas continued, "Will you please stop?"

            Carlene laughed and swung her arm around her friend's shoulders, guiding her toward the elevator.  "Fine, fine.  You just look so different" she replied, offering another laugh afterward.  "The guys are downstairs, only four decided they had the time to tag along.  But, I think that's quite enough to have some fun tonight."  Dallas nodded, telling her silently that the number of people for the night was just fine.  Actually, Dallas figured she would have only invited two people, maybe three, so it would've been easier for them both to deny anything.

            "They already decided that we'd spend a little while downstairs in the hotel bar, it's quite good I hear.  Then they want to go out to another local place, but I forget the name" Carlene said as they stepped into the elevator and she pressed the lobby button.  She tapped her fingers on the silver bar that ran around nearly the entire elevator, except for the doors and button panel of course.  "Is that alright for you?"

            Dallas nodded again as the elevator lunched downward, and the doors pulled apart slowly.  The two stepped out on the floor and went right toward the bar.  Once it was in sight, Dallas could clearly make out the four figures of the men that Carlene had invited to tag along.  It was not very hard to spot four wrestlers clad in the normal things one would wear out on the town for many hours of the night.  The largest, height wise, was on the very end, and the one who looked like he was the most dedicated to the gym was seated next to him.  The others looked relatively normal, considering they were very large men who wrestling around the world, mostly in the states though, for a living.

            "Who did you invite exactly, Carlene? The first people you saw in the building?" Dallas questioned, rolling her eyes slightly.  Well, at least they'd be a sight to see out on the streets.  Although, from the back, they didn't look all that bad, not like some of the steroid-using, iron-pumping men she had seen in the arena and on television quite a few times.  Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

            Her friend put her arm around her shoulders once again, "Oh Dallas, don't worry so much.  Are you that anxious to get to know the guys I work with?" Carlene laughed again as the two stepped into the bar.  "Oh guys!" Carlene waved to the group of men as they turned on the spinning bar stools.  Dallas didn't get a good look at their faces right away, since they were quite a ways from them and the bar was very dimly lit, but she could tell that one looked familiar.  Now if only she knew where she had seen him before.