15

He was looking at her face very closely. It was making her so uncomfortable she started sweating.

“I’m not sure what you’re looking for,” Helen asked, looking over Collin’s shoulder at Mark.

Mark was shaking his head and pacing.

“Do you have a complicated morning routine for your skin?” Collin asked suddenly.

“No. Why?”

“Because, it’s damn near perfect,” he said moving away from her. “You had long hair at New Year’s, didn’t you? Have you had a haircut since then?”

“Not exactly,” Helen answered. “I normally wear my hair shorter than this. I was wearing a wig.”

“And did you always wear a wig when you dressed up as an escort?” Collin went on.

“Always, but I don’t work for the agency anymore.”

“Did you do your hair and makeup yourself for these occasions or do you have someone at your agency help you?”

“My cousin Mindy used to help me. Why?”

“Well, you see, I had heard of an escort called ‘Vera’ before today,” Collin said, picking up his coffee cup and sipping from it.

“What?” Helen stammered, but not as quickly as Mark.

“You’ve heard of her before?” Mark piped up.

“Last night I was talking to a friend of mine about the new ad campaign we want to introduce for the fall, advertising one of our cell phone lines. For ages we’ve only used one model,” Collin explained as he pulled out a black and white poster of the ad from last year.

Helen unrolled it and saw one of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen. It was a perfect picture of his profile as he stood on a corner of a busy city street. The traffic was flying by him and his long pale hair was rustled by the energy of it. He had a headset in his ear and basically looked like the epitome of masculinity. Helen had seen the ad before. It always made her want to buy their brand.

“The model in that picture is Alexander Figura. Since you’ve met Laura you might as well know he is her half-brother.”

“Really?” Helen asked, flabbergasted. She never would have thought.

“The point is,” Collin continued. “We’ve been looking for a female model to work with him, but finding someone has been most troubling. No one is tall enough, pale enough, or flexible enough. I was talking to Dominic last night and he told me that he knew an escort called ‘Vera’ who would be perfect for the job.”

“Dominic!”

“He’s Alexander’s agent,” Mark explained.

All the hair on Helen’s neck suddenly stood on end. Dominic had said something the day before about playing his games. Son of a gun! He wasn’t going to stop.

“Anyway,” Collin continued. “If you can do it, I’d like to see how you look with Alexander. As I said, we’ve been driving ourselves crazy looking for someone to match him and if there’s a chance you would work, I need to try. Interested?” Helen didn’t get to answer before Collin finished up by saying, “Even if you didn’t work here, I think Dominic was planning to call your agency to set up a meeting.”

“Oh!” Helen said. “So you’re not worried I used to work for an escort service?”

“No,” Collin said, sounding impatient. “Everyone has to start somewhere and if you

don’t know how to make some odious person happy then you’re worthless in our line of work. Now all you have to learn is how to smooth talk like Mark and you’ll be the heir of greatness. What do you say to meeting Alexander to see if we can pair you up?”

Helen’s wanted a chance to think, but what Collin was asking for really wasn’t much. He just wanted her to meet a ridiculously handsome man to see if she looked good beside him. She didn’t want to get caught up in Dominic’s garbage, but a chance to model with Alexander… should something like that be passed up just because there are one or two slimy people?

“What do you need me to do?” Helen asked.

“Just dress up like you normally do when you’re going to go on a date with someone. So, if you wear a wig, wear a wig. That sort of thing,” Collin said, getting back behind his computer.

“But normally, I dress up for a particular situation. Could you give me a little more guidance? I’m not an actual model. I used to work as an escort which means that ‘yes’ I specialized in being the pretty little trophy on a man’s arm, but I need more information than which man I’m going to accompany,” Helen said, feeling like she was slipping back into Vera’s shoes.

Collin smiled. “Dominic was right about you. You’ll work splendidly.”

“What did Dominic say about me?”

Collin glanced at Mark.

Mark’s jaw was clenched. Yeah, he looked furious. His eyes were practically on fire.

After a moment’s pause, Collin answered her, “Just dress in fall colors. Last season’s styles are fine. I’ll tell Dominic to dress Alexander in the same thing and I’ll have my assistant contact your office with the day we schedule.” Helen noticed Collin successfully avoided her question. He had to know something about the situation she didn’t know, or something she didn't want him to know.

After that, Mark hustled Helen out of Collin’s office and hurried her downstairs. It was clear things had gone badly from his perspective and from that point on, they were only going to get worse.

***

Helen got an email from Collin’s assistant the next day. He informed her they hadn’t been able to nail Alexander down for a meeting until the end of the week. The meeting was on Friday afternoon at two o’clock in Collin’s office.

Shortly afterward, Mark called her in to see him. He had not been himself since their meeting on Monday. He had been the ‘golden boy’ of the office, but in week two, he was more like the grouch who only surfaced from his trashcan to complain. Working for him the week before had been so pleasant and since the meeting, it was exactly how she always imagined work to be—a chore.

Helen closed the door (under his instructions) and sat down. “Always close the door when we’re alone in here from now on, okay?”

“Okay,” she drawled slowly.

“Sorry about what I said to you at the carnival,” he said. “I realized after you left you were probably right and working a more reputable job had to be your goal all along. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to get a job working as one. If you liked being an escort, then why even finish college? I overreacted and everything you said put things into perspective for me. I was being pigheaded.”

“Yeah, you were,” Helen said easily. “But I appreciate the apology. It shows you’re not really pigheaded. You just had a flare of panic. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks for that,” he said. “If I could, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Sure,” Helen said, thinking how handsome he was when he was humble. The way his head bent down thirty degrees was absurdly cute.

“How well do you know Dominic?”

“I’ve only met him those few times when you were around.”

“Really? It seemed to me you two must know each other much better than that if he’s trying to make you a model.”

“I don’t know where the motivation for that is coming from. I never told him that I wanted to be a model. Modelling isn’t on my to-do-in-this-lifetime list. I didn’t even know what he did for a living. So, he’s an agent for his brother, eh? I thought he’d do something more...”

“More?”

“Evil,” Helen finished.

“You don’t think being the agent of one of the highest-paid male models in our country is evil?” Mark asked dryly.

“Is it?” Helen asked innocently.

“I don’t know if Alexander would be what he is today if Dominic wasn’t willing to do everything he could to make sure he was a success. Dominic’s very persistent, strong- willed and very rich—which is why I couldn’t outbid him on Valentine’s. Sorry, Helen, but if I said I was willing to pay a hundred dollars an hour for you, then Dominic would have paid two hundred an hour. I never would have been able to outbid him. My year’s income doesn’t touch his. Surely you noticed he paid the whole bill for dinner at that fancy restaurant on Valentine’s?”