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17
Model Man
When Mindy heard the news that Helen had been invited to a trial photoshoot with Alexander Figura, she was ecstatic.“It’s all because of me!” she proclaimed happily. “It’s because I’m a genius! And I get to dress you up for your meeting on Friday, don’t I?”“Of course,” Helen agreed quickly. From her perspective, she had no chance of getting the job without her cousin's expertise.“I should have gone to beauty school instead of screwing around with the escort service, don’t you think?” Mindy said, crawling into one of her many makeup bags looking for supplies.“It’s not too late,” Helen reminded her. “You can still go. Just work yourself through school while working at the agency.”“Right,” Mindy said sarcastically.After that conversation, Helen wished she hadn’t spilled the news to Mindy so soon, because she worRelated chapters
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Dominic joined Collin and looked on with interest almost as if he was partially in charge. “Since hair color is an option on Vera, do you think she would look better as a brunette?”“No,” Collin said quickly. “The thing that’s special about Vera is that we can match her hair to whatever shade we want, as long as it complements Alexander’s. Also, her eyes—a blue-eyed girl wouldn’t have filled the bill. I still haven’t discarded the idea of having everything in the photos black and white except for their eyes.”“It doesn’t matter,” Dominic said, looking at her and Alexander together. “Your graphics wizards don’t care what color her eyes are. They’ll make them the color we want.”Collin frowned and picked up his camera. “You two talk!” Collin yelled at Helen and Alexander. Then he turned to Dominic and started explaining something.Alexander turned
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Helen swallowed hard. “Does that mean you want to hire me?” she asked huskily.“At least for the still photos,” Collin said, nodding approvingly. “You don’t have an agent, do you?”Helen was about to answer ‘no’ when Mark piped up. “She doesn’t need an agent. I’ll look out for her in the place of one.”“That’s ridiculous,” Dominic rebuked. “Mark’s not qualified for something like this. She needs a real agent.”“Does that mean you want to take her on?” Collin snickered.“Well, I—““He doesn’t have time,” Alexander interrupted. “He keeps telling me what a full schedule we have and we truly do. The only reason why I was able to come here today was because of the importance of our business with Capier Inc. We pushed some other things aside to make room.”“We’re happy to
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Out of the OfficeWhen Helen got into Mark’s car, she was more relaxed than she thought possible. It wasn’t a fancy car, but an ordinary Toyota sedan, very much like the one her parents owned. The interior was almost the same.She gave Mark directions to her apartment. Partway through her discourse Mark stopped her. “Couldn’t you just give me the address? It seems like we’re just following the number twelve bus route.”Helen shuddered. They were following the number twelve bus route. She wasn’t very familiar with the city, even though she had lived there for almost a year, and she didn’t know how to get anywhere without taking the bus. She blushed and gave him the address.Mark changed lanes and look them onto a much faster-moving road. Apparently, they had really been going the slow way.Finally, he parked in front of her building. “Do you want to come in?” Helen asked nervously. She had never invi
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“Are they uncomfortable?”“They feel okay for the first couple of hours, but I can’t wear it for more than eight hours or I’ll have a legendary headache. But it also depends on how heavy the wig is. This is a heavier one because of its length. The wig is the last thing I put on before I leave for a job." Helen combed it before she put it away in its bag. “Next thing to come off is all this jewelry,” Helen said as she started stripping her ears of their dangling earrings. “None of this stuff belongs to me,” Helen explained.“Whose are they?” Mark asked.“My cousin Mindy’s. She’s the one who got me into escorting. She owns a lot of clothes, a lot of jewelry, and a lot of makeup. She could probably start her own agency just on her personal stash. The wig is borrowed from the escort service though. Mindy has beautiful hair and would never degrade herself by wearing a wig. She’s more
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“Or something like that,” Helen said clicking her tongue on her teeth. She noticed he left out what he thought of her—Helen—but she’d have to let that slide. It would be too humiliating to ask him about it twice. But she could ask him something else, “So, what was the deal with you and Laura anyway?”“Nothing much. She chases me and I keep running. That doesn’t mean I haven't got stuck going on dates with her once and awhile, because I have. It was just never as meaningful for me as it was for her.”“Why don’t you like her?” Helen asked.“I don’t know. She’s a nice person. She’s smart, successful, well-connected, and sort of pretty, but I can’t force myself.”“Why not? If she’s all that?”Mark thought for a moment before he answered, “Laura is very disciplined. She eats the way she is supposed to, works out as much as she
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Mark frowned and said, “Well, if you don’t mind having supper with the two of us, then why don’t you join us?”Helen’s heart fell as he said it, even though she knew he didn't have much of a choice. If he sent her away, it might be considered the epitome of rudeness as far as their friendship was concerned. Besides, it wasn’t like Helen and Mark were in the middle of a hot date.“I don’t want to interrupt,” she said mildly, but still not budging from her place.“You’re not interrupting,” Mark said smoothly.“Well… if you’re sure,” Laura said as she stepped into the entryway and took off her shoes.Helen followed the two of them back to the kitchen and bit her lip. Biting her lip as a reaction was mild. She wanted to roll her eyes back into her head in aggravation. She did not want to have dinner with Mark and Laura.“Hey Helen,” Mark said, trying
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Into His CarHelen stepped onto the pavement outside Mark’s apartment complex and looked around for Dominic’s Jaguar. It wasn’t hard to find because his car was the only one on the street with its headlights on. Helen went up to it and peered through the windshield at the driver. Yeah, with those shades, it couldn’t be anyone else besides Dominic.She reached for the car handle, but the door was locked. He had to be that kind of jerkwad, didn’t he? She tapped on the window with her knuckles and Dominic unlocked the door. With that, she dropped her bag onto the backseat before getting into the passenger side herself.“You really are the devil,” Helen said nonchalantly as she hooked up her seatbelt.Dominic took off his sunglasses and turned his body a whole ninety degrees to get a better look at Helen. “Vera, is that you?”“Of course, it’s me,” she answered, flicking him an annoyed expres
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Dominic came back into the room in the middle of Helen's conversation with herself. He carried a tray, which he sat down on a coffee table. Helen thought about Mark’s stir-fry and examined what Dominic had created. There was a glass dish with shrimp and cocktail sauce, three different kinds of cheeses on a plate, and a myriad of sliced fruit organized on a different plate. Yeah, he definitely knew how to cut.“I’ve missed the last thing,” he said blithely as he quickly returned to the kitchen. He came back with a bottle of tonic water and two Champagne flutes. “Did I get your tastes right?” he asked as he unscrewed the top of the tonic water.Helen smiled and searched the tray for crackers. Noticing there weren’t any and she found the nerve to complain. “Don’t rich people eat crackers?” she asked, picking up a piece of cheese and putting it in her mouth.“Of course,” Dominic laughed. “How th
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