“You’re quitting for good, aren’t you?”
She furrows her eyebrows. “How did you know?”
I sigh and sit up. “You’ve been a humungous fat ass lately. I mean, sneaking down for a spoon of cookie dough at two in the morning? Come on.”
She doesn’t look the least bit ashamed. “Hey, now, coming out of the erotica closet took a toll on me.”
“Bullshit,” I counter. “The only thing it took a toll on was your spare tire.”
“Whoa, bitch.”
“Evan.” I put on my super serious face. “So, you quitting, or not?”
She bites her bottom lip. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m quitting.”
I fall back onto the comforter and rub my eyes. “Fucking fuck, fuck. I’m so effed in the A.”
“Oh, give me a break, Brit. You literally have a million or more girls all over the U.S. who would die to take my place. The new leading bitch doesn’t have to be from East Park. She can be from anywhere. Just put an ad on Craigslist or something.”
“Oh, okay, put an ad on Craigslist. That sounds like a great idea to keep my studio nympho, exhibitionist, and STD-free.”
“Come on, you know we’re all exhibitionists here,” she says. “Well, except for you. You’re a little voyeur.”
“Not anymore,” I reply. “This little audition stretch has cured me of wanting to see naked women fake an O-face.”
She giggles, and then there’s an awkward pause between our banter. “I’m really sorry, you know,” she finally says. “It’s not like I wanted to fuck you over. It’s just, balancing Harvard and EPE, even as a part-time model, is going to be way too much.”
“Even when your boyfriend will be in Costa Lalaland?”
She flops down on the bed next to me. “That will probably make it worse.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Worrying about Dallas on top of worrying about staying afloat in classes on top of moving so far away from home on top of being in a place where I’ll be freezing my sorry ass off in the winter….”
“I got it, I got it.” Well, actually, there’s one thing I haven’t. “Why are you worried about Dallas?”
“You know… for his safety… against the monkeys.”
It’s almost creepy how easily I can figure out what’s going through her head. Maybe we need to be a couple. “Who’s the girl?”
Evan groans. “I don’t want to talk about the girl, okay?” She sits up. “Can we please not talk about the girl?”
“Alright, alright,” I say, even though my curiosity is piqued to the extreme. “Instead, why don’t we talk about how the hell I’m going to explain you throwing in the towel to A.J?”
“Absolutely not.”
A.J.’s underling, Melissa Wayworth, says it almost flippantly.
“Uhh… well, even though I’m her best friend, she has a mind of her own, you know. I can’t force her to stay in EPE if she doesn’t want to.”
Melissa leans back in her computer chair—my computer chair. I had to move my work computer into the studio after A.J.’s “assistants” decided to make regular trips and watch my editing like a hawk. Shouldn’t they have better things to do than hang out in a smut house?
“You can force her, and you will. End of story.”
“But…”
“I’m here to talk business. Please, let me finish. Mr. Harrison has decided that the first national issue of EPE will be in October. We’ll launch the new image with Halloween.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Halloween and porn... talk about a party.”
“And what better place to have a Halloween-themed issue than in New England?”
I open my mouth to respond, but only a strangled squeak emerges. Finally, the words come to me. “You want the first issue shot in Cambridge, don’t you?”
“Cambridge, Boston, you know. The general area. We’ll boost model morale by sending everyone over there, book the whole venue for a week or two, have a bit of bonding time.…”
“What about school?”
Melissa deadpans. “Your models will be paid more money than they’ve ever seen for posing naked and you’re worried about a bit of school?”
No, not really. I’m not worried about my models and the amount of money they’ll make. I’m a bit more disturbed at the fact that Amora Acquisitions wants to follow Evan out to Boston to make sure that she’s in the first national issue. Isn’t that considered stalking?
Melissa swivels around in her chair and grabs a folder, handing it to me. “Here’s a list of selected models that Mr. Harrison himself has chosen to be featured in the issue. You’ll need to make sure that each of them fills out the correct paperwork and gets it back to a rep by the end of next week.”
I flip through the papers. “When will I see a rep?”
“There will be one at the auditions, of course.”
I glance up at her. “Auditions?”
“On Wednesday.”
I narrow my eyes. “I never scheduled an audition.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Melissa responds calmly. “We did.”
“You scheduled an audition.”
“For Wednesday. Don’t worry, we got the advertising handled and everything.”
“So it won’t just be hobos off the street showing me their diseases.”
She shoots me a fake grin, stands, and brushes off her pin-striped skirt. “Hopefully not.”
I flip to the front page of the file and see that the top two models listed are Rylan and Dallas. Mr. Harrison is going to be a very disappointed man. Being that Melissa seems to be in a don’t-argue-with-me-and-just-do-it kind of mood, I decide not to say anything.
Chapter Two
Evan
“She said what?”
Britain stands in the kitchen like she’s trying to be evasive but knows she can’t be. I sure as hell won’t let her leave. She pushes her hair back and mumbles, “Shesaidthey’reshootinginCambridge.”
“And you told her no, right?”
When Britain flinches, I know she didn’t. She quickly straightens and says, “Dude, it’s not my fault. I kept telling her no and she told me to force you.”
I bark a laugh. “That’s a joke.”
Britain narrows her eyes. “Hah.” She sighs. “Sorry, Evan. There’s nothing more I can do other than continue to say no and get hounded.”
She’d do that for me—I know she would. But I don’t want her to. “I guess I’ll give Amora Acquisitions a call tomorrow and tell them to not waste their time flying their asses out to Boston.”
“Because you’re so full of yourself that you’re convinced Amora is taking our entire team to Boston just to work with your school schedule?”
I know she’s kidding. Well, half-kidding. She cracks a smile.
I jut my chin in the air like a douche and say, “Yeah, dude, I’m fucking hot,” and she laughs.
When Dallas gets home from his orientation for the new semester, I show him the file Britain gave me. The first page has both of our names written on the top of a list of models Amora Acquisitions wants to take to Boston.
“I don’t know if they’re stupid or persistent,” I groan, falling back onto my bed.
“Persistent,” Dallas says. “That’s how business works. They’re hoping we cave and they’re using force first.”
“You think they’ll follow me all of the way out to Boston to get me in this shoot?”
Dallas shrugs and says, “I think they can follow you and still make a great shoot even if you reject them over and over, but they’ll be hounding you the entire time they’re there.”
“Well, what about you?”
He’s stretching himself out like a cat on my bed. The pose looks really feminine for him and makes me laugh. “What about me? I’m headed to Costa Rica. They know that.”