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“I’ve got too much on my mind right now to let you add more. We can talk about everything later, but right now, I’m tired." She paused. After thinking for a second more, she added, “And I want to rest my head on your shoulder and don’t you dare try to attach any strings to it.”
Mark looked more confused than ever. “Are you drunk?”“No, I’m not drunk,” Helen fumed. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to make a joke. “I don’t drink—ever. I’m just past my exhaustion threshold. Did you know sleep deprivation is a form of torture? I’m done.”Mark didn’t say anything else, but obediently sat down on the couch and put his arm around Helen’s shoulders. She immediately put her legs over his lap and pulled the afghan over both of them. Helen was used to sleeping with the radio playing, so the noise from the TV didn’t bother her as she rested her head half oBab terkait
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The Perfect ManHelen sat across from Mark in a tiny booth in a downtown diner. She had never been taken out for breakfast before, so being there with him was a totally new experience for her. She ordered pancakes and drummed her fingers impatiently on the surface of the table while Mark looked over the complimentary newspaper.He looked up at her quizzically. “You seem nervous. What’s the matter?”“You’re an idiot,” she blurted.“Really?” he asked, hardly able to keep his mirth in check. “You know, Helen, you have this way of lashing out at me for no explicable reason. It’s intriguing. So tell me, why am I an idiot?”“I already explained that dating you would be like a dream come true for me. I know you don’t believe me, but it feels one hundred percent impossible for us to be sitting all chummy like this at a restaurant. I’m having a hard time believing it.”He s
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Helen thought Mark intended to spend the whole day with her, but he got an urgent phone call from his brother and had to take off after breakfast. Helen knew she shouldn’t feel happy he was going, but being with him was a little intense and the break would relieve mountains of tension. When he said goodbye to her, he kissed her on the forehead unassumingly and told her he wanted to take her out for dinner that night, so she shouldn’t schedule anything. His business with his brother wouldn’t take all day.When she came into the apartment, Mindy was on the phone laughing her head off.“Helen, get in here,” she yelled.“What is it?”Mindy took the phone away from her ear and said merrily, “You just keep getting into trouble, don’t you?”“What are you talking about?” Helen questioned.“Has your little pet boy gone home for the day?” Mindy asked, biting the phone’s ante
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“Fine,” Dominic said aggressively, like he was already tired of the escapade. “But who are we going to get for tonight if both those guys are taken?”“There’s Daniel and Shane, but if Laura doesn’t like long hair than Daniel is out. However, I don’t think Shane is such a bad choice. He’s blond with big honest eyes. He looks like the boy-next-door, so he’s probably had plenty of women cry on him before. I’ll bet he knows all about healing a broken heart.”“But is he available?”The receptionist, obviously listening to their conversation, smiled and said, “Yes, he is. Would you like me to put a request through to him?”“Right away,” Dominic said impatiently.“We need to talk to him though,” Helen interjected as the receptionist started dialing. “He’ll be dating a girl with really specific needs and so he has to be careful in the w
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A Photographer is Worth a Thousand WordsHelen couldn’t get what Dominic said to her at the escort service out of her head. He said, ‘There’s no way you’ll still want him by the end of it. I promise.’ Where did that kind of arrogance come from? But that wasn’t the only problem. It wasn’t just Dominic’s attitude that bothered her. It was the fact she knew what he said was true. She and Mark couldn’t last, so when Dominic said those words it felt like he saw straight through her. Naturally, it was an unpleasant sensation.It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in Mark. She was. It was just that she couldn’t shake the idea that he liked her false face better than herself. If he just enjoyed having her around because she could put on a good show, then everything she was afraid of would happen when he got bored of her. She'd be brokenhearted and, on top of any other fallout, she’d feel like a fool for h
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“Trevor’s not really a womanizer,” Mark interjected as he pushed her seat forward so he could get out of the backseat. “He’s just teasing you. He’s a photographer. It might interest you to know he’s the one who’ll be doing your campaign with Alexander. The nightgown was probably leftover from a shoot and got stuffed there because there was nowhere else to put it.”Helen stood with her hands on her hips. She wasn’t sure she believed him about the nightgown. If Trevor was really such a chaste guy, she bet he’d have a few more buttons on his shirt done up.“You’re the model who was chosen to pair with Alexander?” Trevor suddenly asked incredulously—like he didn't know.“Yes,” Helen answered, taking Mark’s offered hand and going into the restaurant.“Is there something wrong with that?”“No,” Trevor said, before he took charge and a
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Model without a Cause“Okay, everybody!” Collin boomed at the front of the darkened boardroom. “As you all know, we are going to be advertising Capier's brand new line of cell phone products called Clickmark."A picture of a mauve colored cell phone appeared on the screen along with a list of features.“This is the concept I have in mind for the campaign. The setting will be an urban metropolis. We will follow a basic storyline, with four or five still pictures comprising the plot. If the layouts look good enough to impress the big wigs, we’ll start production on a commercial before the still photos are released. Hopefully, we’ll be all ready to go by the beginning of November—just in time for Christmas.”Helen shifted in her seat. For some reason, she wasn’t feeling very comfortable. Maybe it was the fact she was jammed between Dominic and Mark at the furthest arch of the oval-shaped table. She could hardly s
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After the meeting, Mark and Helen got separated. He was talking with Collin and Trevor while Helen's only route was to leave the building with Mindy. Helen wasn’t expected to work as Mark’s assistant on days when she was working as Vera, so she only had to make an appearance at work during the morning for the meeting. It was noon and she and Mindy were planning on eating lunch together in a restaurant down the street. At least, that was the plan until Dominic commandeered them.He was on the street outside Capier's building putting Alexander in the back of a limo when he saw Helen and Mindy step out of the building. Abruptly, he shut the door on Alexander and banged on the roof of the limo to let the driver know it was okay to go without him. Then he turned on his heel and approached Helen and Mindy.“Good work today,” he said to them both cheerfully. By that point, Mindy and Dominic knew each other rather well. He took Mindy with him on both his ph
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Helen’s first instinct was to ask Dominic if he was punishing her for choosing Mark over him or if he was truly a sadist at heart. If Laura hung out on the set it was going to be a thousand times worse than just an ‘awkward situation.’ First of all, her presence was completely unnecessary, because she worked in financial services and not in marketing. Second, Helen didn’t think it was professional for Dominic to invite family members on a shoot. After thinking up those two reasons, Helen’s brain short-circuited and a score of other reasons flooded and clogged the logical part of her consciousness. Mark would be uncomfortable. Trevor would be working, and if Laura hung all over him, who knew what the consequences might be—not just for him, but for the project?In the end, Helen’s eye twitched. Then she got up and said smoothly while looking down at Dominic, “You're asking for too much. It seems like you're trying to wrap up all you
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