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Huling Na-update:
2022-03-02 23:40:03He was a gem! He had to be an absolute gem! Not only did he not recognize her from before, but he was honestly happy to have her working for him. He said he’d been working his job for the past seven months and he’d been promised an assistant when he was hired. But it was only recently the budget was approved for him to finally get one. He was delighted.
“Now my office will be clean,” he said jubilantly. “And that’s so important in our line of work. I have to invite people into my office all the time and it’s so painful when it’s a mess, but I don’t have time to clean it.”Helen’s first day of work was incredible. Working for Mark was going to be awesome!And he’d never find out she was Vera. If she had to protect her secret to her grave, she’d do it, because as soon as he found out, she’d probably have to leave. It would be a pity. The job had been too hard to get to simply cast it off because she used to be an escort Mark hired once.Knuckles to nose, he’d never find out.***When Helen got home, she told Mindy about her first day at the office and how her boss happened to be the guy who had lost the bid for her on Valentine’s Day.“Holy crap!” Mindy exclaimed noisily. “How the freak did that happen?”“He wasn’t the person who interviewed me. Instead, it was a woman named Elizabeth from Human Resources.”“And she didn’t say that you’d be working for Mark Lewis?” Mindy asked, ultimately perplexed that such a screw-up had happened on her watch.“I’m pretty sure she mentioned it during the interview, but I wasn’t listening to her very carefully,” Helen admitted bashfully. She hated owning up to her stupid side. “I was just so excited to be interviewed for such a great job.”“Well,” Mindy said authoritatively, putting her feet up on the coffee table. “I don’t believe for one second that he didn’t know you would be the same girl. He probably watched you come in for the interview even if he didn’t speak to you himself.”“But I look totally different… and men are stupid. He wouldn’t have known the difference,” Helen persisted.“Even so, if he figures it out, or it comes out in the open, there’s only one thing to do,” Mindy said darkly. Helen wasn’t sure, but sometimes Mindy acted like a gangster when it came to stuff to do with the agency.“What’s that?” Helen asked, almost jumping backward at her cousin’s forcefulness. “We aren’t going to kill him, are we?”“Hmm… You just leave it to me. I’ll take care of you,” she said, pounding on her chest with her fist.Kaugnay na kabanata
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Another JobHelen’s first week at work was a blast. She had no idea dull work could be fun if you were working with the right people. She’d often heard Mindy say things like that. It didn’t matter what your job was, as long as you got to work with fun people. Well, Mr. Mark Lewis had the market cornered on making the workplace fun.For one thing, he was absolute eye-candy. There wasn't a woman who didn’t look on him like he was the ‘golden boy’ of the office. He was charming, charismatic, and he looked positively mouthwatering regardless of the circumstances. And Helen was his partner in crime. She was the little person he took everywhere with him. He took her to meetings and lunches with business partners while he fleshed out press releases and argued with talkative men about upcoming projects. He called it ‘training.' It made her feel instantly popular and accepted by everyone in the office.Mark stayed in his office and wor
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“Do you want me to grab your hair again?” Mindy threatened, towering over her. “If you don’t show up, it might seem like an admission of guilt. Here’s what I say you do. Dominic said he wants to take you to a charity carnival. There is no doubt in my mind that Mark and Laura will be there also. I’ll dress you up in a dark wig. I’ll also find you some brown contacts. You’ll be Cleopatra by the time I’m finished with you and no one will dare think that you are the same person as Helen. You’ll be in the clear if you can manage to trick them into believing that you’re a completely different person. You can pull it off, can’t you?”Helen started to see things from Mindy’s perspective during her speech. Mindy was right. She should grab the bull by the horns and deal with it.“Okay!” Helen said, gathering up all her energy. “When is the date?”Mindy looked at her watch
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“What? Women are insane. You look different today, but you’re so damn flirty that it doesn’t matter if you’re flirting with me, or him. He probably still admires you. I need you to cross the line and—”“Make out with you?” Helen finished for him. “I’m not doing that. But if it would make you feel better, I’ll go breakup with him. I’ll go tell him to forget about me. It might take him a bit longer, but then he might decide to marry your sister after all.”“You’d go that far?” Dominic asked his eyes narrowed.“Of course,” Helen said, pushing his hands off her and moving away. “Do you think I want our little game to ruin his real life? How stupid. Besides, both of you are forgetting something really important.”“Which is?” Dominic asked.“I have a life outside this,” Helen said over her shoulder as she walked away to fi
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Monday MorningOn Monday morning, Helen got dressed with unusual deliberation. She intentionally dressed herself to look prudish. She couldn’t help it. If she showed up at work looking even a little bit playful she knew it was going to be a day of backlash. She wore black trousers, a white collared shirt, no accessories, and only minimal product so that her short hair didn’t look unruly. Her glasses looked thick even after she applied her mascara. She had to look professional and steady.When she came into the office, Mark was waiting for her. Leaning against the wall in the reception area, he said, “Drop your bag off at your desk. We have a meeting with Collin this morning." Then he handed her his half-filled coffee mug and said, “Oh, and please top me off.”Helen took the mug from him and headed down the hallway toward her desk.Collin? Helen had heard the name before from one of the other girls in the office, but what had she said
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He was looking at her face very closely. It was making her so uncomfortable she started sweating.“I’m not sure what you’re looking for,” Helen asked, looking over Collin’s shoulder at Mark.Mark was shaking his head and pacing.“Do you have a complicated morning routine for your skin?” Collin asked suddenly.“No. Why?”“Because, it’s damn near perfect,” he said moving away from her. “You had long hair at New Year’s, didn’t you? Have you had a haircut since then?”“Not exactly,” Helen answered. “I normally wear my hair shorter than this. I was wearing a wig.”“And did you always wear a wig when you dressed up as an escort?” Collin went on.“Always, but I don’t work for the agency anymore.”“Did you do your hair and makeup yourself for these occasions or do you have someone at your agen
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“Yeah, I noticed. I didn’t think anything of it, but Mark, you suck. You should have called and said you’d pay a hundred an hour,” Helen said, still thinking with her impoverished brain.“What? Why should I have done that?”“Because then I could have got two hundred dollars an hour from dating that blood drinker!”“You really did it for the money!” Mark laughed, seeing dollar-signs fill her eyes. For one second, he looked like the Mark she knew the week before. He leaned back in his chair and looked content, but then a thought seemed to cross his mind and the mirth left his face. “Can I ask you a personal question about being an escort?”“Go ahead.”“I was just wondering how detached you are when you play ‘Vera.’ Is the real you close to the surface or do you almost forget about your true self?”Helen knew what he was talking about. Only a person
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Model ManWhen Mindy heard the news that Helen 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,” Helen 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,” Helen reminded her. “You can still go. Just work yourself through school while working at the agency.”“Right,” Mindy said sarcastically.After that conversation, Helen wished she hadn’t spilled the news to Mindy so soon, because she wor
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Dominic joined Collin and looked on with interest almost as if he was partially in charge. “Since hair color is an option on Vera, do you think she would look better as a brunette?”“No,” Collin said quickly. “The thing that’s special about Vera 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 Helen and Alexander. Then he turned to Dominic and started explaining something.Alexander turned
Huling Na-update : 2022-03-03
Pinakabagong kabanata
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A RoleAfter all was said and done, Helen and Mark were back in the office on Monday, making eyes at each other across her desk. Two days later, Helen got fed up and moved her computer so it faced a different direction. How were they supposed to get any work done if they could see each other so easily? And because they were really part of the public relations department and not models, they had to do press releases and meet with members of the marketing department to make sure the launch of the new phone went well.It was weird. When they went to the meetings where the pictures from their ad campaign were shown, everyone immediately recognized Mark and commented. No one recognized Helen. The first time it happened, Mark went to her rescue and told them she was the model he posed with, but afterward, Helen told him he didn’t need to do that again.“It looks like the company can’t afford real models. Just let them think I’m a glamorous overpriced
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After Mindy was finished, the two girls went and put on their clubbing gear. Mindy wore a gold-colored top and black pants. She looked like a panther. Helen wore a light green dress that gathered over one shoulder and hung loosely over the other. Little beads were sewn artfully across it like a fairy had lost her balance over Helen’s head and dropped stars all over her. As she looked into the mirror in the bathroom, she thought she looked better than she’d ever looked for a date before. Even though she was dressed like Vera, she could still see herself peeking out through the facade.When she and Mindy came out of the bathroom, Mark was waiting for them. To Helen, his expression was unfathomable, but Mindy seemed to think something when she saw him. If anything, it was as though Mindy understood something Helen did not.“You look nice,” he said to Helen as he took her arm and led her toward the elevator.Mindy hung outside as the doors closed,
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Breaking it up“How did it go?” Mindy asked Helen when she stepped into their apartment very late that night.“Badly,” Helen said as she dropped her keys, bag and shoes in the entryway. She came into the living room and threw herself into Mindy’s recliner. “I hate everyone,” Helen said expressionlessly, even though that wasn’t how she was feeling.“Well, I warned you,” Mindy said, shrugging in her more-experienced-than-you manner. She leaned forward and asked, “So, what’s the verdict? Do you get Mark, like you wanted?”“I’m not sure I want him anymore. Did I tell you that he got offered a job in London?”“No,” Mindy gasped. “Bloody Hell! Is that what this is about? You were trying to get him to stay?”“Not exactly. I was trying to get him to like me properly, but you were right about that, too. He’s never going to like me t
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“Goody for you,” Helen said sarcastically. She didn’t care two straws if Dominic owed Laura favors. “When’s the wedding?”“It was yesterday. I think they’ll announce it at your wrap-up party.”“Oh? Really? And why are you here now? Is Alexander bummed about missing out on the shoot?”“Why would he be bummed about that? Like he cares if he blows off Capier! In his mind he was only doing it as a favor to Laura.”“And in your mind?” Helen asked, thinking of Dominic’s face when Alexander walked off the set.“They were important clients,” he admitted wearily. “Any paycheck is better than none, which is where he’s headed.”“And you?” Helen asked suspiciously. “Did you decide to blow him off?”“Soon, Vera, soon. It won’t be long now before he isn’t offered anything new. He ran off the set.
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Devilish LaughThe photoshoot in the subway was pretty fun. After the previous photoshoot, Helen didn’t believe Trevor could have more poses up his sleeve, but miraculously, he did. He did these crazy shots with Helen standing on one platform while Mark stood on the opposite one and the train sped between them. At least, that was what Trevor said they would look like once he was finished with them.Helen and Mark spoke briefly before Trevor started taking pictures.“How are you feeling?” Mark asked gently.Helen looked him up and down. He was wearing the same clothes he had worn for the shoot the day before. So was she. He still looked absolutely mouth-watering and Helen was positive she was right to do what she could to try to win Mark even though her shoulders ached. Essentially, she’d worked from early morning and all day to try to make herself ready—not for the photoshoot—for him. He couldn't even see everything she'd done
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Helen sat quietly for a second, thinking. Mark was leaning against the counter examining her expression and waiting for her reply.It was going to tear her apart to say ‘good-bye’ to him, but she couldn’t stop thinking about their relationship. It always felt like he liked Vera far more than Helen, and she couldn’t tie him down if the one he liked wasn’t her true self. She had always thought he was more than she could handle. Why would a guy like him want to be with a plain-Jane girl like her?“Mark,” she said quietly. “It sounds like a great opportunity. I think you should probably take it.”“You don’t want me to stay?” he asked as he turned around and started scrambling the eggs crossly.“Of course I want you to stay, but I also don’t want to hold you back. You know, it’s a delicate balance, but…”“But what?”“But,” Helen swal
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A Makeover for the AgesHelen eyed Mark on the other side of the set. There was quite the bustle of people coming and going with equipment and extension cords. The talk outside the trailer was all business.The second photoshoot was scheduled for one o’clock in the morning; technically, two days later. The pictures were to be taken in the subway, and since they were to include pictures of the train, they needed to be taken after hours.Helen asked Mark if she should come to work the day before the shoot, but Mark said there was no need. He wasn’t going to work that morning either. Apparently, he simply took over Alexander’s contract, with the exception of pay. Mark wasn’t worth as much as Alexander. She overheard Trevor offering him less than a quarter of what they were going to pay Alexander. Trevor apologized for the cut, but Mark shook his head and said it was part of their agreement that he would model for Trevor whenever he needed him, so
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Helen turned to Mark and said, “This photo was up on my friend Shellie’s wall when I was still in junior high.”“Really?” he asked, looking completely aghast.“Yeah, really. Don’t blush, Mark. You looked hot.”“Which is why I want him to take Alexander’s place,” Trevor said. Helen stared at Trevor. “Can you do that?”“Well, since I can’t seem to get in touch with Collin, I guess I can do whatever I think is best. It would be a hassle to have to rebook all the locations and to rehire the temporary staff. The best thing is just to dress Mark up like Alexander—sans turtleneck of course—and to just get on with it.” Trevor added, “Mark looks terrible in turtlenecks.”Helen couldn’t believe what Trevor was suggesting. Switching Alexander for Mark would make the photoshoot fun, the opposite of hell on earth. Her pulse was already racing at t
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Up the CreekHelen and Mark didn’t tell Trevor where they were going for lunch, which was why they were so surprised when he showed up at their restaurant. He dropped himself into their booth, threw his bag across the bench and stretched his legs out so far Helen was positive he would trip a waitress… but maybe that was his plan.“Hey kids,” he said casually.Mark gave him a funny look, but managed to be polite enough to ask without an attitude, “What are you doing here?”Trevor shook his hand at Mark like he didn’t realize he was interrupting a date. “I’m angry,” he said simply.“Of course you are. A whole morning wasted! What exactly happened with Alexander and Dominic anyway? Helen’s convinced Alexander refused to pose with her,” Mark explained.Trevor nodded. “Sorry, Helen. Try not to take it personally. I don’t think it had much to do with how you modeled or
