Plus, I would make some extra cash. Since this spring break trip had been paid for by selling to the deconstruction contractor in Monaco, this would just be gravy to add to the bottom line.
When I got home, I would have to make a decision on baseball. My cracked helmet served to wake me up to the dangers I faced with pitchers throwing at me. I’d almost convinced myself that the risk of getting hurt made it not worth playing anymore. In the grand scheme of things, playing a few more high school games wasn’t that important to my future.
In the back of my mind, though, something told me I would regret it if I didn’t play. Like football, there were only so many opportunities I would get to play ball with my friends. After I left for college, I would probably never be on a baseball diamond with any of them other than in a pickup game. Did I really want to pass up the opportunity to play with them before I graduated?
I also thought we stood a good chance to go deep in the state playoffs. We’d put together a team with enough pitching depth to survive the back-to-back games. Most high school teams had only one or two starters who could stand up to better teams. We had at least six if you counted Justin, Bryan, Brock, Phil, Trent, and myself, plus Bert if he was having a good day.
I would wait and see what my dad came up with before I made my final decision. He’d taken it onto himself to find a way to make sure I’d be safe playing. As of right now, it could go either way.
It irritated me a little that Brook had dumped the Cassidy issue into my lap. I didn’t have a doubt that Cassidy would flourish wherever she went if she put her mind to it. Pam and Tracy would be a good influence on her, study-wise. USC was also a better school for academics. I felt they would push her more, which would be good.
Not that Oklahoma wasn’t an excellent university, and I was sure Cassidy would do well there too. But a degree from USC would open more doors for her later in life. I used that to justify why I planned to talk to Cassidy about it.
I had to admit to wanting Cassidy to go to the same school as I did for selfish reasons. But Brook had gone to a lot of trouble to arrange this for our mutual friend. I respected Brook’s take on this and would support her. She wouldn’t be pushing this if she didn’t believe USC to be the best place for Cassidy to go.
I slipped into the corner deli and bought all the fixings for lox and bagels. I got enough for the models in the other condo, too. Of course, I realized models didn’t usually eat carbs, but I figured it was a treat they could all get behind.
◊◊◊
After my shower, I found Jill and her mom eating bagels with Tyler. Tyler must have invited them over so we could all go to Jade together.
“Did you teach them the right way to make a bagel?” I asked Tyler.
“David fancies himself a bagel snob. Is he this bossy back home?” she asked the Laciers.
Jill gave an exaggerated sigh.
“He thinks he knows everything. He has rules he makes everyone follow. Has he made you go back and change clothes before you go out?” Jill asked.
I gave her an exasperated look and turned to Tyler.
“Kids these days have no sense of style. If she wasn’t wearing Garanimals to tell her what matched, you would be shocked … shocked, I say. I was doing a community service by suggesting a few changes in her attire.”
That, and her dad would have stroked out if she’d gone out dressed as she had been. Either that or Phil would get his butt kicked protecting her. I shuddered at the visions of what might have happened.
I might have been a touch too dramatic in my delivery because even Mrs. Lacier had her eyebrows raised.
“Eat your bagel however you want,” Tyler suggested.
“Barbarians,” I mumbled.
You try to be helpful …
◊◊◊
On the ride over, I showed Jill and her mother Jade’s website. They were very Abercrombie in terms of style. For past jobs, I’d worn everything from ripped jeans and wrinkled t-shirts to swimsuits to outerwear. The difference between Jade and Abercrombie was that Abercrombie’s clothes sold for about half the price.
It surprised me to see Sarah and me featured on the front page of Jade’s website. I would say it was probably time they updated that. I remembered taking that picture the summer of my freshman year. If I remembered correctly, I’d also recently seen it in their magazine advertising.
“Tyler told me that you’re the ‘face’ of Jade and that that’s something not many models achieve. She also said you’re the main model for Dakora and Range Sports. I knew you modeled for them, just not to what extent,” Jill said.
“Is that a big deal?” Mrs. Lacier asked.
“Over my modeling career, I’ve only been asked to be the ‘face’ of two lines,” Adrienne explained. “Being the featured model is both good and bad. The good is they pay you a lot of money. The bad is they put handcuffs on you as far as who you can model for. In David’s case, he got lucky. Even though Jade, Dakora, and Range Sports all sell clothes, they’re different enough not to trigger the noncompete sections of his contracts.”
“Plus, they like me,” I added. “Jade has been flexible. They let me do jobs with Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch. In most cases, they would have had every right to disallow that because they sell similar types of clothing.”
I flipped through a couple of pages on the site.
“Notice that Jade has their models in minimal makeup. They want us to appear as normal as possible. They don’t try for a high-fashion look,” I shared with Jill.
“I see your shirt is off in a lot of them,” Jill said.
“They want to feature the pants he’s wearing,” Tyler said.
“I’m sure that’s the reason,” Mrs. Lacier said doubtfully.
“You have to be comfortable showing your body. That type of photo sells a lot of clothes,” Adrienne explained.
I knew she’d said that to prepare Mrs. Lacier for what clothing companies expected of models. Jill’s mom seemed to consider what Adrienne had said, and her lips pinched. I would be concerned, too, if she were my teenage daughter. I was happy when Mrs. Lacier let it go for now. She would see how today went before giving her blessing to allow Jill to follow her dream.
◊◊◊
Once we arrived at Jade, I took the lead since I’d been there before. Their home office was more of a warehouse. Jade designed their clothes on site, and they had a corner set up to do photo shoots. Waiting for us was their Vice President of Marketing, Michael Reese. He’d been my primary contact since I first started working for them.
“David,” he called out and rushed over to give me a hug.
Someone was glad to see me. Hugs were new.
“Adrienne told me you’d discovered someone and wanted us to have her first,” Michael said.
Did she, now?
“This is Jill Lacier. She and I go to the same high school. Jill, meet Michael Reese, who runs Jade’s marketing division,” I said by way of introduction.
I saw Michael glance at her chest. Most models weren’t built like Adrienne up top. Larger breasts weren’t the asset you might imagine in this line of work. Designers wanted their female models to be flatter-chested so their clothes hung better. Jill also wasn’t anorexic. She had a muscular, athletic build that looked damn fine on her, in my opinion. I only hoped that Michael agreed.
“I’ll take them back to get ready,” Tyler said.
Adrienne and Michael strolled away to talk. I expected she would convince him Jill would work for what they needed.
For today’s shoot, they’d converted a conference room into our dressing room. Mrs. Lacier had tagged along and looked concerned.
“There aren’t separate rooms for them to change in?” she asked.
“That rarely happens. Yes, the guys are usually off to the side, but they’re often in the same room. It’s not very sexy because everyone’s there to do a job. I sometimes change on set in front of everyone to save time,” I explained.