-3-

The car ride home was tense and the silence was killing me. I sighed and stole a glance at him. He had a pensive expression on his face. Exhaling again I decided to break the silence. "Grayson, look she was really in a bad spot, she wasn't thinking right and was about to royally fuck up her life. The damage would be permanent. She just needed someone to care."

"You risked your life. She was unhinged, she could have shot you." He said quietly, still staring at the road intently. I reached out a hand and placed it on his thigh. He didn't react he just continued to stare ahead at the cars on the highway.

"I am sorry. I just saw a drowning girl who was in desperate need of help. She had no allies there ironically she knew all of you longer than me. Nobody seemed to care about how much she was suffering. It hurt me to see her looking so lost and abandoned. She just needed someone to show her some kind of affection. I can see how brash and careless my actions were. Forgive me Gray", he turned to look at me and then exhaled.

"You are too good for your own good," he finally said after a while. I took that as my queue to inform me that he had forgiven me. The atmosphere in the car was now less tense.

"Ooh before we go home can we get some desert," I asked him like an excited kid. He chuckled and then agreed. We got home and warmed up my waffles and then ate them with my blueberry cheesecake ice-cream. We watched a few episodes of Money Heist and then slept. I woke up around 8 am went for a jog and then contacted Ashley. Before i left i realised something had been bothering me about last night. What happened to the gun and did the restaurant really not call the police? When i was done getting ready i found Grayson in front of his laptop typing away. "Last night... what happened to the gun?" I asked cautiously. He looked up, "The one that you two idiots left loaded on the table?" he asked rhetorically. 

"That very one," i responded sassily. "The manager is also a shady character she was like we will throw it away with the garbage and actually that reminds me to tell you. Tell her it was stolen that way nobody will be able to trace it back to the restaurant and we can all pretend like that shitty night never happened." "Bet, i will. I just need to go and give her a hug in person." "Zuhair..." Grayson started. "Babe, please. She went through soething that was really tense, she just needs someone in her corner. I would like to think that if i was ever on a ledge about to dive there will be someone there for me." I saw the haunted expression in Graysons eyes. "I will always be there", he said enveloping me into his bulky arms. 

I called her and we decided we would meet up at sorbe. Her red eyes were encircled in dark rings. "I'm so sorry I look like shit, whilst you look so good." She said shyly. "Nah, babe its chilled. That's why you go to spas to rejuvenate and get pampered. Let's do the full body massages and then the mud soak."

She agreed, after an hour and a half of the massages we met up again for the mud soak. "So where to from here?" I asked her tentatively. "I am going to go away for a bit. Go on vacation to get my head back right. I woke up this morning and the gravity of what I had done hit me. I really could have shot Kian or that bimbo and been in a holding cell and had a criminal case against me. Thank you for helping me."

"Sure babe. I just hope that whenever I am in a situation like that, that feels so hopeless, someone will help me out too."

"I owe you my life babe so you can always call me and please apologize to Grayson for me. We were never friends but he was always nice to me but last night he looked like he wanted to kill me." I giggled at this she had no idea how mad he had been. I thanked her and then pondered for a moment. "Don't you want to cut and dye your hair?"

She was quiet for a moment so I peeked over to look her. For the first time in a while she had a smile on her face. "Something edgy right?" She asked me.

"Yup", I feel like I want to do something too. We finished up our manicures and pedicures and then went to one of the best salons. She had flowing black hair which she traded for a pixie cut, that resembled Tokyo from Money Heist in season 3, and then dyed it platinum blonde. She looked really good.

"Babe, it suits you so well", I gushed. I got my hair washed and dyed a midnight blue that the blue tint would only be visible in bright light. Once the hair was dyed i got a Brazilian blow dry to temporarily straighten it. Afterwards we got lunch and then went to American Swiss, I had bought her a bracelet that said "We rise by lifting one another" a quote by Robert Ingersoll. It also had my initials, ZLM and a heart engraved on it. I had asked them to do it when we were at the Sorbet. I wanted to give her a little gift to remind her of me. She cried when I gave it to her and then we parted ways.

When Grayson saw me, it took him a few minutes for his mind to register what was different about me. "You dyed your hair?" he asked rhetorically. "Yeah, I thought why not", I responded grinning. He shrugged and said it looked good on me and then drove me back home. It had been a while since I had been home. When I arrived I crashed until the next morning, I had to get up to go to work.

I went to the boutique and worked the whole day then afterwards I took an uber to Ed's mansion. I was going to shoot a video today, I wasn't too excited. I arrived and the hair and make-up and tan people did their thing I waited an hour for the spray tan to dry and then went to see Ed. I walked into his office in a robe and my bikini underneath. I was told to return onto the set and get into the risque outfit (if you can even call those shreds of fabric an outfit) once the spray tan had completely dried.

"The prodigal daughter returns," he said in greeting to me with a small smile on his face. I smiled back. "I just needed some space and time to enjoy this new relationship but the bills won't pay themselves." He nodded in understanding.

"I heard from Clermont that you completely stopped stripping?" he asked with one raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I feel like there is a difference between being objectified by people behind their screens that I cant see and being objectified by people live. It just was fucking with my self-esteem in a weird way so I wont be returning to strip anymore. But I hope my privelages at your club wont be revoked", I said batting my eyelashes.

He smirked, "You are family. Never, you can still jump the queues and have open tabs."

"Thank you, Ed,", I said turning around to leave. "Will you be making videos until the end of your contract?" He asked hesitantly as an afterthought. I paused at the door and exhaled, "Yeah, its just two more years. That's okay but afterwards I don't know if I will be renewing or not."

"Good thanks", he said dismissing me. I then returned to the dressing room to be fitted with the outfit for todays video.

Nate one of the directors explained todays concept. "So, Peaches, you are going to walk into Andreas' office as his secretary. You will inform him of his itinerary etcetera and then we will do a clock thing to show that time has passed then the day will end and then you will return to tell him you are leaving. He will fuck you over the table and against the window.

We will get a drone to record outside the office to get some good angles and shots there. The long wig that you have on can cover most of your face to help you maintain your anonymity. There might be times where we need to adjust things here and there but it should be fine."

We all headed to the designated office that we used for these types of conceptual videos. Everything was setup and the other director who was operating the drone was outside on standby. I read through the script that they had. The scripts were usually very short and we usually improvised. I was told to remove the bikini and had on just the coral pencil skirt and tight white blouse that revealed my nipples. They had put ice over them to make them stand out more. The cold also helped by keeping them erect.

After an hour they told me they were ready for me. I walked in said my lines until they had the perfect cut. We had been shooting for a couple of hours so we went on a short recess and then  we returned we filmed the scene with "Andreas" fucking me over the table. I was used to the cameras that were in my face trying to get the best angles.

Nate yelled cut and then we touched up on makeup and hair and then moved to the window to film that scene. Andreas had one arm around my mid-stroke the other was holding up my left leg as he fucked me from behind. Nate yelled cut, mid-stroke and Andreas groaned whilst I whimpered annoyed by the disturbance. They did some touch ups to my hair and face and then we finished off.

About 8 hours later we were done and I was showering. Thankfully Grayson was away on an intense training camp so he wouldn't be blowing up my phone. After I had finished my shower I put on a baggy white shirt and my burgundy biker shorts and white adidas slides with my white adidas socks. Min Jae was also done with his shooting so we got an uber to his place. I was so exhausted and had to be at work by 7 am.

We arrived and I went straight for his bed. Min Jae also worked as a writer for A magazine a popular fashion magazine. He claimed that he didn't want to be a model, he was content with doing porn and writing. He had a really nice modern apartment with traces of Korean décor style. He woke me up at 6 am to get ready for work but I went back to bed and then he woke me up at 6:30 am as he was leaving. I quickly got dressed and then went to work. It was a long day because we also had to do inventory. I was so tired I really wanted to just break down and cry. I felt so thinly stretched out.

At 8pm I locked up and then headed home. My mom greeted me at the door. "How's Park Min Jae?" she asked. She knew that whenever I didn't sleep at home I was either at Grayson's or Min Jae's.

"Fort the millionth time mom, Park is his surname and Min Jae is great. We managed to finish that article just in time to send to his boss." We told my mom that I helped him with some of his articles which was not a complete lie. I would help him now and again and he would always include my name in the magazine.

My mother was so proud that she regularly bought the magazine claiming that her daughter was a writer. It was a good cover up for days where we would film porn. I met Min Jae on the first day that I had started out. We hit it off well and just had a lot of banter. He was really easy going and charming. Ed liked our energy together so I ended up filming my first video with him.

We were fuck buddies for a while and then decided to call it quits because I was starting to catch feelings. We didn't want to not be in each others lives so we decided to strictly be friends. Min Jae is also bi so that also complicated things further. The biggest fight that we ever had was over this guy named Xavi. He was casually seeing Min Jae but Min Jae hadn't told me about him.

Xavi got my details from Min Jae's phone and then we hooked up a couple of times. When Min Jae found out he was livid and felt betrayed luckily Xavi was an egotistical asshole who told him straight up that he had been seeing me behind his back. That was the last time we ever kept the people we were seeing a secret from each other. Min Jae had become my best friend because he knew everything about me and didn't judge me. In fact he tried to make life easier for me wherever he could.

"One of these days your name will be in every paper and they will be praising you for the book that you will have published", she said to me. I laughed and then advanced to the kitchen to help her finish clearing up. Helping out around the house and doing mundane chores kept me grounded. It reminded me that everything I was doing was for my family.

A few weeks passed and the training finished and Grayson came back. It had been 3 weeks since I had last seen him. I had been busy with a shoot so the first time that I was going to see him was at a game. I had asked to finish early so that I could go home and get dressed. Grayson had given me one of his black and white football jerseys which I wore as a dress with my black Balenciaga's and Louis V fanny pack unde.

My make-up was in the team colors as well and I had on my right cheek Grayson's number 85 in glitter. I had invited Min Jae who invited a few other people to come and support my man. The first half was amazing. Grayson moved like a machine and caught 8 out of the 12 passes that had been thrown to him.

We were all cheering and having a great time. What made everything that much more fun was our proximity to the field. We were also drinking ciders which created an entire vibe. He blew me a kiss after his first touchdown and I was glad that the camera man had missed the moment because I didn't want to be on the jumbotron. His team was in the lead, the Old England Vipers with 65 points to 48 for the Canadian Capers. We were having the time of our lives until the second half began and it all began to go to shit.