CHAPTER SIX

MODEL MAN

When Mindy heard the news that Christina 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,” Christina 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,” Christina reminded her. “You can still go. Just work yourself through school while working at the agency.”

“Right,” Mindy said sarcastically.

After that conversation, Christina wished she hadn’t spilled the news to Mindy so soon, because she worked Christina to the bone. If Christina wasn’t working at work, she was working at home pretending to be stiff as a Barbie doll. Mindy put a poster of Alexander up on the wall in the dining room and practiced different fashions and makeup styles on Christina all evening every night of the week.

Mindy was determined Christina would be hired as the model. She nearly killed both of them coming up with the perfect style to match Alexander. She went shopping during the day while Christina was at work to find the perfect autumn outfit even though the stores weren’t selling fall shades in June.

By Friday morning, Mindy had come up with the perfect thing. She dressed Christina in a brown corduroy miniskirt and a black off-the-shoulder top. Then she gave her a pair of brown suede boots and topped the look off with a sleek green scarf.

The last thing was the wig. Christina knew Mindy had been nervous about its selection. In the end, she decided on the wig that Christina had worn on Valentine's Day.

“It won’t be good if Alexander is more feminine than you,” Mindy said decisively. “I almost think you should go red for this, but that might be risky since this Collin guy saw you in a blonde wig. He’s expecting a blonde, isn’t he?”

Christina nodded. She had tried on a red wig at the agency once, just to see how it looked and she was surprised to see that it turned her peaches-and-cream complexion into strawberries-and-cream. She could never be a redhead.

Mindy drove her to work herself on the day of the audition and said she’d wait for Christina.

“Don’t hang around,” Christina insisted. “It’s okay. I don’t have any idea how long this will take and parking downtown is expensive. Can’t I just call you when I’m finished?”

“Okay,” Mindy agreed. “But don’t get picked up and taken out by anyone… unless your meeting goes that long. Call me right away so I can hear how things went. Okay?”

Christina agreed and moved to get out of the car.

“And wear your shades, Tina,” Mindy reminded her as she dropped her off in the loading zone in front of Christina’s building.

Christina slid on the glasses. It wouldn’t be so bad. Mark said he would meet her in the foyer ten minutes before the interview. He’d take her straight upstairs, so she wouldn’t get stalled by anyone if she happened to be recognized.

Christina pushed through the revolving door and stepped onto the marble. Mark was there, leaning against the wall by the elevators.

“You haven’t got any grape gum in your mouth, have you?” he asked coyly when he saw her.

“Hi Mark,” Christina said cheerfully, sliding her sunglasses off her nose. “How do I look?”

Mark looked at her carefully. Then he took her hand and spun her around so that he could have a ‘proper’ look at her. “I should have asked you to come earlier so that I could have taken you out to lunch before the meeting. Then I could have scored a free date with the popular and elusive Tina.”

“Don’t joke,” Christina said as she took her compact out of her purse to make sure Mark hadn’t mussed her when he twirled her.

“Who was joking?” he said.

Christina glanced up at him. There was definitely a difference in the way Mark acted toward her when she was dressed up. When she was ‘Christina’ she was a child who needed to be guided by him. She wasn’t exactly the competent office professional he needed her to be yet, so when they were in the office together, he was still training her. But when she was ‘Tina’ she was no longer his trainee, but once again the woman he could never have. And from the look in his eyes—he still wanted her.

Christina smiled in response and pressed the button for the elevator.

Once they were inside with the doors closed, Christina started to think. Her relationship with Mark couldn’t be divided, he had to see her for who she truly was whether she was dressed up as ‘Tina’ or not. He couldn’t partition the two in his brain and make her two people.

“You know, Mark,” she started. “Now that you know I’m wearing a wig, doesn’t it seem kind of weird that I’m wearing false hair on my head? How can I possibly still look special to you when you know how fake I am?”

Mark shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn’t make a difference.”

“Why not?” Christina persisted.

“I don’t know. Just because you know something is a trick doesn’t mean it’s not dazzling. You’re like a magician.”

Christina gulped. What was he saying? Shouldn’t he at least try to hide that he thought she looked gorgeous for the sake of their professional relationship? Instead, he was closing the distance between them so their arms touched as they stood side-by-side.

The doors began to open. “Are you ready for this?” Mark asked.

Christina rolled her eyes. “Psyched.”

“Take my arm,” he instructed. “I’ll lead you to the meeting.”

Christina slipped her fingers around his elbow and allowed him to steer her past the reception desk. He was wearing a suit again and the fabric was rough. Christina smiled. Mark was so cute. After checking in, he took her to Collin’s corner.

The zebra blankets had been tucked away somewhere and all the blinds were open. Collin’s office almost looked respectable as Mark and Christina came in and sat down on one of the couches. Christina thought they were early, but Dominic and Alexander had beaten them there.

Dominic sat, looking like every inch the calculating devil. He wore rouge-shaded sunglasses and the neck of his shirt was open. When Christina came in, she expected him to get up and hug her or at least shake her hand. Instead, he didn’t move from his position on the couch and only waved slightly with one of his hands. He acted completely indifferent even though he had been the one to set up the meeting.

Alexander seemed friendlier than his brother because he smiled broadly at Christina and Mark when they came in. Yeah, he was handsome. Christina was impressed with his style. She could tell just by glancing at him that it didn’t matter what he was wearing, he was going to look fantastic. He matched everything.

After the introductions and preliminaries, Collin called Christina and Alexander to stand up together to see how well they matched.

Dominic joined Collin and looked on with interest almost as if he was partially in charge. “Since hair color is an option on Tina, do you think she would look better as a brunette?”

“No,” Collin said quickly. “The thing that’s special about Tina 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 Christina and Alexander. Then he turned to Dominic and started explaining something.

Alexander turned and looked at Christina. “So, how long have you been a model, Tina?”

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“I’m not really a model,” Christina said carefully.

“Really?” Alexander said, looking intrigued. “That’s interesting. So, what do you do? Are you an actress or a singer?”

“No. I just graduated from college.”

Alexander looked confused. “Studying fine arts? Performing arts?”

She shook her head.

“Really? No? Then who recommended you for this job? You know an ad with me is a pretty big break, even if you have already worked as a model for years.”

“It was Dominic's idea,” Christina answered.

“That’s even weirder,” Alexander said, laughing. “I wonder why he’s trying to get you a job. Maybe he wants to be your manager, but that seems odd, too. He never takes on clients. I’m the only one.”

“He thinks I’m talented,” Christina answered. “He thinks I’m good at sensing the emotions of others and supplying them with what they want. He's not the only one. Mark thinks I’ll be able to sense the wants of the photographer and give them what they’re trying to capture.”

“Wow!” Alexander exclaimed. “That’s pretty impressive. But how did you convince those two of that? They’re so different. That strikes me as…” then he stopped, right in the middle of his sentence. At that moment, it was clear to Christina that Alexander realized something and it wasn’t something good.

“Did Dominic tell you anything about me?” Christina asked.

Alexander shook his head like he was shaking off a particularly bad thought. “No. He didn’t say anything. But he never talks about a woman unless he’s insulting her, so the fact that he didn’t say anything about you is a compliment." Here, Alexander actually smiled.

Maybe Alexander thought he was telling a joke. Maybe not. Whatever his thoughts, Christina was one hundred percent convinced Alexander was telling the truth. Dominic was the type of guy who used women. Christina was growing to learn that more and more. The photoshoot was just an opportunity for him to use her. But why?

“How is Laura doing?” Christina asked breezily. “I haven’t seen her since last week.”

“Well, then you’ve seen her more recently than I have,” Alexander said coyly, looking at the scarf at Christina’s throat. “So, I should be the one asking you how my sister is. Was she well?”

“She seemed to be doing all right,” Christina answered cautiously. Alexander definitely had a scary look on his face. He was about to do something.

“Tina, do you know why Collin asked us to talk just now?”

Christina looked at him curiously and waited for him to continue.

“It’s so we can get familiar with each other—comfortable. The plan for the ad casts us in the role of lovers, so we’ve got to get to know each other,” he said, suddenly slipping her scarf from around her neck.

Maybe it was Christina’s experience as an escort, or maybe it was the intensity in Alexander’s eyes which Christina knew to be false. One wolf recognizes another. The reason why Christina was mesmerized was that she’d never seen a guy pull that sort of trick on her before, or be so good at it. He looked like he was interested in her, enchanted by her, and perhaps even more. He wanted her to play along and Christina was so used to the game her bottom lip quivered.

At that instant, Collin rapidly started taking pictures.

Alexander finished the moment by bringing her scarf to his lips. He kissed it lingeringly as Collin shot off with his camera.

“That’s good, Lex,” Collin said, as he pulled his camera away from his face. He started reviewing the shots on his digital camera when he stopped at one of them and looked hard at it. “Hmmm… Dominic, look at this one.”

Christina was impressed he wasn’t already leaning over Collin’s shoulder.

Dominic went up and looked at it. His eyebrows flew up in the air like leaflets caught in the wind. “That’s not bad,” he said, scratching his nose and keeping his tone deadpan.

“Did it turn out well?” Alexander asked, approaching the two of them. Collin showed him the picture. Alexander looked less impressed than Collin and Dominic. He even stepped back quickly to make room for Mark.

When Mark saw the picture, all the air escaped from his lungs and he visibly drooped. “That’s more than I expected.”

“More than I expected, too,” Collin said easily. “Funny, she didn’t look star-struck by Alexander when she came in the door.”

“I’m not,” Christina said urgently.

“Really?” Mark asked leaving space beside Collin for her to have a look at the screen.

When Christina got her first look at the picture, she was stunned. Only Alexander’s back was in the picture. His hands were moving around her throat to remove her scarf. He was hardly in it. The main feature of the picture was her face. The look on her face was like the open heart of a wounded bird. She looked like she was the heroine on the last page of a romance novel where she had just spent three hundred and sixty-five pages tearing her heart to shreds over Alexander and on the last page he was confessing he had been in love with her all along.

Christina didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know she was capable of that much emotion. It hadn’t been over-acting, had it?

“Did I go too far?” she asked Collin.

“Not at all,” Collin said pursing his lips together. “Actually, it makes me feel like you might be capable of a lot more than a simple still photo. We might be able to get a commercial out of you, but let’s start with the photos.”

Christina 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?”

Christina 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 be your valued customer, Lex,” Collin said soothingly. “And I wouldn’t dream of letting Dominic represent Tina. Mark will do nicely.”

“Why do you get to make that decision?” Dominic asked crankily. “Shouldn’t a decision like that be left up to Tina?”

Collin raised an eyebrow and gave Dominic a curious look. “It’s okay. Tina doesn’t mind, right?”

“Of course not,” she said quickly. “That’s most appropriate.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Collin said, setting a hand on her hair.

Dominic held his peace after that and the rest of the meeting was smooth. They took more photographs. Collin liked them. They made arrangements for the time and place of the photoshoot. Mindy was going to be happy. Not only had Christina gotten the job, but she had also got Mindy an interview. Collin wanted Mindy to do Christina’s makeup.

By the time the men finished gabbing it was almost four o’clock. They left Collin in his office and Dominic, Alexander, Mark, and Christina made their way down to the foyer. Once they arrived, Christina shook Alexander’s hand and told him she was really happy to have met him and she looked forward to working with him. Alexander smiled but he seemed weary. He had probably heard the same speech from at least fifty other little girls. It was just another day at work for him. Their project wasn’t special.

Dominic said good-bye to Christina like she was a stranger. He didn't even turn his head for one last look at her as he left the building with Alexander. Christina couldn’t figure out what was going on in his head. Was he happy he had helped her or was he honestly irked Mark was going to be her ‘agent?' Well, whether he regretted it or not, she was going to model with Alexander.

“Thanks, Mark,” Christina said once she could stop waving at Dominic and Alexander.

“For what?”

“For protecting me from Dominic. Does he want to be my agent? Is that what this is all about?”

“I wish I knew. Maybe it’s something that simple.”

“Welp, you said I could go early, so I’m going to shove off now,” she said brightly, pulling her sunglasses out of her bag. “See you on Monday,” she called cheerfully as she headed out.

“Wait a second,” he said, grabbing her arm. “Where do you think you’re going looking like that?”

“I was going to go call my cousin. She wants to hear how the meeting went. Come on! I can’t hold out on her. I have to let her know Collin wants to meet her.”

“But where were you planning on going after that? Do you have plans for this evening, Miss Christina?”

Christina’s mouth made a perfect O, but no sound came out.

“Well?” Mark persisted.

“No,” she managed.

“Well, can I take you out to dinner?”

He was asking her for a date. He was honestly asking her for a date. Was it because she was dressed up and that was unusual?

Christina frowned. “Mark,” she said, suddenly stepping very close to him and slipping her fingers between the buttons on his shirt. “If I went home now and took off my wig and this outfit and came out with you looking the way I normally do at the office, would you still want that date?”

He hesitated. The moron hesitated.

“I don’t think I can go on a date with you,” she said, backing away from him. “Sorry. I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Wait,” he said, grasping her upper arm and stopping her. “I don’t understand. Why do you have to change?”

Christina sighed. She bet he wouldn’t chase after ‘Christina’ like that, but he couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer when ‘Tina’ was involved. “Look, Mark. Do you remember our conversation in the elevator? This person you see in front of you isn’t the real me. It isn’t anything like me. It’s a fabrication, a facade—nothing. It’s professional bunkum. Surely, you must understand that. It’s a show. I know you must put on a show when you’re doing your public relations thing, so you should know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“I’m not sure I do know what you’re talking about,” he said seriously. His black eyebrows pulled tight. “Of course it’s necessary to be a little more congenial when you work, especially in P.R., but I think my personality is the same whether I’m working or relaxing.”

“Well, I don’t feel that way,” Christina said, pulling her arm out of his reach. “I change completely when I dress this way. I become outspoken, I think about how I turn my hips so I can make the most of them, I put myself completely aside for my date’s comfort, and I even think I can get men to like me who would never look at me twice otherwise.”

Mark clenched his jaw and swallowed. He clearly didn’t know how to answer that because it didn't make sense to him. Christina expected him to look mad, but when she looked at him carefully she saw concern for her as well.

“This job of yours has really screwed you up, hasn’t it?” he said finally.

“Maybe it has,” she said, breathing deeply.

“Listen, I have a better idea,” Mark said, closing the distance between them. “Instead of taking you out for dinner, why don’t I cook you dinner instead? We can even swing by your apartment on the way there so you can break the news to your cousin. Will that suit you?”

Christina cocked her head. Events had suddenly taken a very strange turn. What exactly was he planning?