Iona had her hair in adorable rhinestone ringlets before the show. Each tendril of hair was sparkling like the Milky Way. She was supposed to be second after Jessica. Jessica’s last contract had been the highest paid contract in the Jovian region and Iona was number nine, but numbers two through eight were not at the show, so Iona was supposed to go out after Jessica. However, an entire mop bucket full of dirty water had been deliberately poured on Iona’s head just minutes before the show began.
Iona had noted who had done it. Obviously, it was someone she’d never seen before, but she saw their face.
Lucky for her, Iona had suspected that something like that would happen and she had refused to put on her dress until she was standing in line to go out. Yes, it meant changing in front of all the other models, but Iona wasn’t squeamish. She ran her hands through her ruined hair, placed the feather bow on the side of her head, and thanked her lucky stars that the makeup she’d put on wouldn’t get smeared even if she were hit by a meteor.
She came out and spotted Sherman along with the other top-floor bidders. She saw Dante and his little girls who he had not had the foresight to dress identically. He was regretting it because he was feeling less than Sherman. Then she saw a heart-stoppingly beautiful man standing to the side. A man that looked like that didn’t need to hire a model! Surely he didn’t need one. Why was he even there? That was weird enough except for the person in stripes who was standing next to him. Iona’s first thought was that it was a man dressed in drag who couldn’t stop being straight even though he wanted to.
Then she focussed on the stairs. She got to the bottom of the five flights and did a twirl. That was when she saw Gage. He was standing apart from the other spectators with his arms crossed over his glorious torso. She thought he looked so fine in his sunglasses and the slight reddish tinge that he’d added to his hair that she did an extra little twirl for him before she took the stairs upwards.
It was so funny, she thought as she went upwards. She hated men with red hair because of what had happened to her all those years ago, but when Gage tinted his hair red, he only became more appealing. Would she forgive him for anything?
She got to the top and looked and felt as fresh as a spring breeze as she entered the dressing area.
After the show, a Sleeping Beauty Inc. associate approached her immediately. “About what happened before the show? Madam Damsel would like to speak to you about the incident.”
Iona had met Madam Damsel on many occasions in the past and was happy to meet with her. She was going to meet an old friend.
Once in Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s Europa Division’s head office, Iona finally felt like she could relax.
Madam Damsel was a woman in her fifties. She had once been a model who worked for Sleeping Beauty Inc. and she was beautiful still with her silver hair and open smile. Madam Damsel was not her real name, but there were loads of people in their industry who did not use their real names.
“I’m sorry about the difficulty before the show. We’ve already nailed down what happened.”
“Did Cinni make her do it?” Iona asked.
“No. It’s more complicated than that someone merely wanted to make you look bad for the show. It was a model named Loxanna. Apparently, you’re always receiving bids from clients who she has scouted. When questioned, there were actually seven incidents when you were chosen ahead of her. She didn’t know you’d be here and she just snapped. That’s all. She’ll be fined and you’ll get the money as a form of compensation.”
“For frick’s sake!” Iona burst from her chair, rubbing her forehead. “Let her keep her money with my compliments. I think I looked better with my hair ruined since everyone else looked so prim. Surely, I stood out more than the others.”
“You did,” Madam Damsel agreed.
“Look, I’m not sure if I want to do this anymore,” Iona admitted with a puff of hot air.
“Why not?”
“Because I want to crawl down Gage’s pants and stay there. Can’t I pay some fee to stay aboard the Cannonball III and just live with him until his contract is up?”
The Madam looked startled. “Gage? Does he know you feel this way? I knew you bought him for your break, but I also saw how much he trimmed down your contract and that you had to raise the price to get him. Does he want you aboard?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I don’t know,” she replied nervously.
“You’re telling me this because you want me to seal your bids from today?” the older woman asked practically.
“Yes. Please. I’m campaigning and I still have one more stop in Io. I’ll look at all the bids once I’ve finished there. I don’t need to see them today.”
“I’ll put that note on your profile downstairs. Quite a few bidders on the floor think they’re taking you home tonight.”
Iona stuck out her tongue. “I don’t know if I’ll ever want to be taken home by one of those men again.”
Damsel frowned, but a light turned on inside her clear desk. She pressed a button and the voice of her receptionist came through the speakers.
“The pilot of the Cannonball III is here to complain.”
“Tell him he’s a hell of a sport and we’ll triple his income for the year as a thank you for not throwing a hissy fit.”
The speaker went silent.
Iona’s brow furrowed in concern. “That was Gage? Wasn’t he here to complain about the water incident?”
Damsel shook her head in the negative.
The speaker came back on. “He says he wants a deluxe food package thrown in.”
“Tell him he’s a shrewd trader and we’ll have the crate loaded on his ship before he lifts off tomorrow. Oh, and tell him that he and Iona can have a honeymoon suite for the night at the bottom of the tower if they want to watch the sea cows swim by. I’ll throw in a privately served dinner and she can keep the dress she wore to the show. Does all that suit him?”
There was a pause before the voice came back on. “He says you’re still lucky he didn’t paint the display window in blood.”
“You tell him that I know I am. I saw the surveillance footage. It was an awful trick I pulled and if I’m ever forced to pull it again, he can count on me to compensate him accordingly. Just remind him to keep his cool and he can stay in space on our dime until he’s a hundred.”
“Will do.” The speaker went dead.
“What are you talking about?”
“Gage. He’s like sixty, maybe closer to sixty-five. He might make it all the way to a hundred if he can stay asleep.”
Iona cocked her head. “Is he trying to stay in space forever, so that everything passes him by?”
“Hasn’t he said so?”
“I guess he has,” Iona said, straightening.
“I may as well tell you. I had a request from someone who wanted to see him. They have wanted to see him for years, but he was never going to be where they were, so they always missed each other. Frankly, I didn’t want to help the bidder. Gage had it in his contract that he would never entertain a contract from this particular person. For a long time, the head office on Ganymede agreed with me and we kept giving the bidder the slip. When the person became a shareholder here on Europa and Sleeping Beauty Inc. finally had enough money dumped in their lap that the head office in Ganymede ordered me to arrange their meeting. It was a lousy thing to do, to make a model see someone they don’t want to see, but that bidder doesn’t just own part of the branch here, they also represent a large portion of the higher bids made on Europa and they were threatening to cancel their contracts and take their business elsewhere. Every staff member in their house is a model from Sleeping Beauty Inc. That said, they’re a below-average master. No one comes back from their tower happy, but Sleeping Beauty Inc. is not particularly concerned with whether or not their models are happy on every single job. You know the deal. It often boils down to giving up a year of your happiness for the money of four years in another job. Anyone can quit.”
Iona tried to think of who had been standing next to Gage when she saw him on the bottom floor. No one had been near him. He had been alone.
“Huh…” Iona mumbled, confused.
“Please thank him for me. It makes everything about my life easier that he didn’t make a scene,” Madam Damsel said wearily. “Want me to send up drinks too?”
“I’ve never seen you this rattled. Who is this person, Damsel?” Iona asked sympathetically.
The head executive rubbed between her eyes. “No. I don’t want to think about that person anymore. They give me a headache.” She leaned back in her chair and waved Iona away. “Go fool around with Gage. I promise you that privilege has not been extended very many times. Nor is it likely to be again.”
Iona got up and said goodbye to Madam Damsel. She waved at Iona and didn’t look back at her.
Iona passed through the office doors at just the right time. “Gage,” Iona called to him before he left.
He turned.
Something about the way he looked in the Sleeping Beauty Inc. office made him look different than he had looked when he was aboard the Cannonball III. There, he was surrounded by the harsh metal of the inside of a spaceship. In the office, he was standing next to enlarged photos of some of the most successful models the company had ever sponsored. Their pictures were touched up to make them look even better than they looked in real life.
Yet he was better looking.
He waved a keycard in her face. “Guess where we’re sleeping tonight?”
“I was already told. The bottom of the tower. Ever been there? Madam Damsel says we’ll be able to see sea cows.”
Gage smiled and offered her his arm on their way out.