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2022-03-03 03:24:24Dominic came back into the room in the middle of Helen's conversation with herself. He carried a tray, which he sat down on a coffee table. Helen thought about Mark’s stir-fry and examined what Dominic had created. There was a glass dish with shrimp and cocktail sauce, three different kinds of cheeses on a plate, and a myriad of sliced fruit organized on a different plate. Yeah, he definitely knew how to cut.
“I’ve missed the last thing,” he said blithely as he quickly returned to the kitchen. He came back with a bottle of tonic water and two Champagne flutes. “Did I get your tastes right?” he asked as he unscrewed the top of the tonic water.Helen smiled and searched the tray for crackers. Noticing there weren’t any and she found the nerve to complain. “Don’t rich people eat crackers?” she asked, picking up a piece of cheese and putting it in her mouth.“Of course,” Dominic laughed. “How thRelated chapters
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“Now I’m your personal assistant instead of Mark’s? No thanks. I already have three jobs and apparently, I work weekends,” Helen said, indicating she was working at that moment.“Do you know?” he drawled. “I love every word that comes out of your mouth. That is a perfect solution to all this. If you became my personal assistant, I feel positive we could accomplish great things together.”“Please don’t get excited,” Helen murmured, putting her hand to her forehead.“I’m not going to stop working for Mark.”“Why not? I’ll pay you—”“I don’t care about that,” she interrupted. “I’m afraid that once I started working for you, you’d see how inexperienced I truly am. I might have come up with a few ideas you liked just now, but I’m not qualified to serve your every need. It might surprise you, but I don’t know a
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On the CouchHelen pushed open the door to her apartment a little after midnight. She thought she was going to have to stay out with Dominic until dawn, but luckily, he believed her when she told him she was really tired after spending all week getting ready for her interview with Alexander. So, he took her home. He clearly knew how hard the week had been on her after a little explanation of Mindy’s schedule, unlike Mark, who didn’t know anything about women. When Helen thought about it on the car ride home, she wasn’t sure if she preferred a guy who was so inexperienced with women that he couldn’t guess how detailed her primping routine was or a guy who knew everything and therefore knew how to coddle her like a princess.She also didn’t know what to make of Dominic’s 'almost' confession of love. She didn’t know if he meant it or if he was just playing another game with her. She’d have to put the idea on the shelf and wait t
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“I’ve got too much on my mind right now to let you add more. We can talk about everything later, but right now, I’m tired." She paused. After thinking for a second more, she added, “And I want to rest my head on your shoulder and don’t you dare try to attach any strings to it.”Mark looked more confused than ever. “Are you drunk?”“No, I’m not drunk,” Helen fumed. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to make a joke. “I don’t drink—ever. I’m just past my exhaustion threshold. Did you know sleep deprivation is a form of torture? I’m done.”Mark didn’t say anything else, but obediently sat down on the couch and put his arm around Helen’s shoulders. She immediately put her legs over his lap and pulled the afghan over both of them. Helen was used to sleeping with the radio playing, so the noise from the TV didn’t bother her as she rested her head half o
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The Perfect ManHelen sat across from Mark in a tiny booth in a downtown diner. She had never been taken out for breakfast before, so being there with him was a totally new experience for her. She ordered pancakes and drummed her fingers impatiently on the surface of the table while Mark looked over the complimentary newspaper.He looked up at her quizzically. “You seem nervous. What’s the matter?”“You’re an idiot,” she blurted.“Really?” he asked, hardly able to keep his mirth in check. “You know, Helen, you have this way of lashing out at me for no explicable reason. It’s intriguing. So tell me, why am I an idiot?”“I already explained that dating you would be like a dream come true for me. I know you don’t believe me, but it feels one hundred percent impossible for us to be sitting all chummy like this at a restaurant. I’m having a hard time believing it.”He s
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Helen thought Mark intended to spend the whole day with her, but he got an urgent phone call from his brother and had to take off after breakfast. Helen knew she shouldn’t feel happy he was going, but being with him was a little intense and the break would relieve mountains of tension. When he said goodbye to her, he kissed her on the forehead unassumingly and told her he wanted to take her out for dinner that night, so she shouldn’t schedule anything. His business with his brother wouldn’t take all day.When she came into the apartment, Mindy was on the phone laughing her head off.“Helen, get in here,” she yelled.“What is it?”Mindy took the phone away from her ear and said merrily, “You just keep getting into trouble, don’t you?”“What are you talking about?” Helen questioned.“Has your little pet boy gone home for the day?” Mindy asked, biting the phone’s ante
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“Fine,” Dominic said aggressively, like he was already tired of the escapade. “But who are we going to get for tonight if both those guys are taken?”“There’s Daniel and Shane, but if Laura doesn’t like long hair than Daniel is out. However, I don’t think Shane is such a bad choice. He’s blond with big honest eyes. He looks like the boy-next-door, so he’s probably had plenty of women cry on him before. I’ll bet he knows all about healing a broken heart.”“But is he available?”The receptionist, obviously listening to their conversation, smiled and said, “Yes, he is. Would you like me to put a request through to him?”“Right away,” Dominic said impatiently.“We need to talk to him though,” Helen interjected as the receptionist started dialing. “He’ll be dating a girl with really specific needs and so he has to be careful in the w
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A Photographer is Worth a Thousand WordsHelen couldn’t get what Dominic said to her at the escort service out of her head. He said, ‘There’s no way you’ll still want him by the end of it. I promise.’ Where did that kind of arrogance come from? But that wasn’t the only problem. It wasn’t just Dominic’s attitude that bothered her. It was the fact she knew what he said was true. She and Mark couldn’t last, so when Dominic said those words it felt like he saw straight through her. Naturally, it was an unpleasant sensation.It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in Mark. She was. It was just that she couldn’t shake the idea that he liked her false face better than herself. If he just enjoyed having her around because she could put on a good show, then everything she was afraid of would happen when he got bored of her. She'd be brokenhearted and, on top of any other fallout, she’d feel like a fool for h
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“Trevor’s not really a womanizer,” Mark interjected as he pushed her seat forward so he could get out of the backseat. “He’s just teasing you. He’s a photographer. It might interest you to know he’s the one who’ll be doing your campaign with Alexander. The nightgown was probably leftover from a shoot and got stuffed there because there was nowhere else to put it.”Helen stood with her hands on her hips. She wasn’t sure she believed him about the nightgown. If Trevor was really such a chaste guy, she bet he’d have a few more buttons on his shirt done up.“You’re the model who was chosen to pair with Alexander?” Trevor suddenly asked incredulously—like he didn't know.“Yes,” Helen answered, taking Mark’s offered hand and going into the restaurant.“Is there something wrong with that?”“No,” Trevor said, before he took charge and a
Last Updated : 2022-03-04
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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
