16

“Yeah, I noticed. I didn’t think anything of it, but Mark, you suck. You should have called and said you’d pay a hundred an hour,” Helen said, still thinking with her impoverished brain.

“What? Why should I have done that?”

“Because then I could have got two hundred dollars an hour from dating that blood drinker!”

“You really did it for the money!” Mark laughed, seeing dollar-signs fill her eyes. For one second, he looked like the Mark she knew the week before. He leaned back in his chair and looked content, but then a thought seemed to cross his mind and the mirth left his face. “Can I ask you a personal question about being an escort?”

“Go ahead.”

“I was just wondering how detached you are when you play ‘Vera.’ Is the real you close to the surface or do you almost forget about your true self?”

Helen knew what he was talking about. Only a person who pretends to be something that they’re not will know what it is to deny yourself natural expression. “Well, when I was first doing it, there was no difference between ‘Helen’ and ‘Vera,' except in our appearances. We were the same and I was just putting forth the effort to make the man I was dating was comfortable. But, I think you’re right, as I got further into being her, my only quality as ‘Vera’ was feeling the needs and preferences of the person next to me and trying to do what would make them happy.”

“That’s what modeling is all about,” Mark said. “It’s about feeling out the photographer or the director and achieving the image they want. You’ll probably make a great model, even though I’m against it.”

“Why would you bother being against it?”

“One other question, Helen,” he said, sidestepping her. “Did you really tell all your dates you liked them?”

Helen shook her head. “Why would I do something stupid like that? It’s just a game.”

“What about what you told me?” he asked her, his eyes looking specifically interested.

Helen realized it was a trap. At first, she didn’t know how to answer him. Was it really okay to have an office romance with your boss? Helen had always thought your boss was strictly off-limits. He was the last person in the world you should try to date. It might look like you were trying to use him to get promoted… but Mark couldn’t promote her. He was new, too. All the same, she thought it was best to stay out of trouble. It didn’t matter whether she liked Mark or if she went so far as to think he was the best thing she had ever seen. She couldn’t get involved. “You’re too handsome for me,” she said flippantly, before excusing herself from his office.

“Hey! I didn’t tell you to leave,” Mark called after her.

So, she had to come back in, close the door, sit down like a good little girl, and pretend she hadn’t just been flirting with her boss.

“On Friday, don’t worry about coming in first thing in the morning,” Mark said, sounding like her boss again. “Your timesheet will be the same. I was just thinking it probably takes you some time to affect your transformation into ‘Vera,' so come in at two o’clock for your meeting with Alexander and then you can go home. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to keep it quiet in the office the fact they’re even considering you for the job of modeling for that campaign. If things go well and you’re chosen, I’d like you to keep it to yourself until the last minute. I hate office gossip.”

Helen nodded, seeing his point of view. She guessed ‘Vera’ couldn’t die quite yet.