Chapter Thirteen Shooting the Breeze

The photoshoot had been scheduled for midsummer and the weather outside was beastly, but because the ads needed to look like they had been taken in the fall or winter, Christina and Alexander’s wardrobe selections were extreme. Alexander was stuck wearing a dark gray sweater and a Matrix-style ankle-length overcoat while Christina was wearing thigh-high black suede boots. Trevor kept on talking about texture, so she was wearing a tweed skirt, an exceptionally shiny cream blouse, as well as an overcoat that wasn’t completely unlike Alexander’s. Trevor had seen the shots of Christina wearing the scarf and decided they needed one as a prop as well. It was boiling hot out. Christina couldn’t see how she was going to make it through without making gigantic sweat stains through her top, though she didn’t dare say anything to anyone.

She sat in a makeup trailer with Mindy fluttering behind her and a gigantic mirror in front of her. Alexander was two feet away snoozing in his chair. His hairdresser was using a straightening iron to make his long hair as smooth as silk. As if it wasn’t already! The trailer had air conditioning, but it was only a matter of time before they were out in that blazing sun. Christina didn’t know how Alexander could be so relaxed.

Christina hadn’t seen Mark for a total of fifteen minutes that day. She saw him in the office that morning before she had to get going. She was disappointed.

Their romance had been… Christina didn’t know how to describe it. She wasn’t sure if it was going well or not. To be truthful, she hadn’t ever been in a serious relationship and so she didn’t know if the feelings she was experiencing were signs of real love or not. Mark was kind to her, attentive when she had his attention (granted, getting it wasn’t always easy), and she felt goosebumps when he touched her and when they kissed. Yet, even with all that, she didn’t feel comfortable. Yes, she had fallen asleep on him that night at her apartment, but after closer evaluation, she felt like it had been an act of sheer exhaustion rather than a sign she was more comfortable with him than anyone else. She hadn’t been able to fall asleep on their hammock date. She hadn’t been even a little bit drowsy. She sensed Mark had been disappointed she hadn’t been more comfortable. He seemed to want them to accelerate the pace of their relationship, but too respectful of Christina’s feelings to monopolize her time. It was clear he thought she wanted space.

The first location for the photo shoot was outside the coffee shop. Christina was supposed to lean against a brick wall, hold a cell phone and smile warmly while Alexander was supposed to be inside the coffee shop looking at her through the window. Christina thought it sounded simple enough. She was also delighted to see Trevor had set up a few fans, not only to give her hair a slightly wind-blown effect but also to stop her from fainting from heat exhaustion.

Alexander gave Christina a reassuring smile as he stepped into the coffee shop to take his position by the window. Christina was surprised. She thought he was supposed to be difficult to work with. He seemed easy enough to her.

Mark, Collin, and Mindy came to wish Christina well before they took up positions behind Trevor and his crew.

“Break a leg, or an arm, or a camera lens,” Mindy said sheepishly before she hustled away. It was clear she was a little overwhelmed by the glamor of working on a real photoshoot. From Christina’s conversation with Mindy the night before, she knew sugarplums were dancing in her head. Her cousin couldn’t stop thinking about where the job might lead if she did it well.

Collin didn’t say anything much. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be encouraging, but Christina knew he had his hands full. He was a busy man, putting out fires. Laura showed up on the set just as Dominic warned and Collin had gone to talk to her before she got anywhere near either of the Lewis brothers.

Mark came up and said quietly. “You know, I have been thinking about what you said about being two-faced.”

Christina smoothed the straying strands of her wig and nodded. “You mean the act I put on when I’m working as an escort?”

“Yeah. You keep saying it has nothing to do with who you are as a person, but I think you’re wrong,” he said, and as he spoke his eyes seemed somehow darker and more intense.

“Oh?” Her eyebrows slightly rose in interest.

“I think your ability to morph into whatever is needed in a given situation is part of you. It might not be the part closest to your heart or the part I need to win over, but it’s the part of you that’s going to carry you through your entire life,” he paused. “And, incidentally, help you get through today, which, by the way, is going to be unpleasant at best. Alexander is a handful. Work hard and if it gets too rough, let me know and I’ll intervene. You don’t have to talk to me. Just give me a look, at least I'll get you a break.”

Christina gulped. Was Mark beginning to understand a part of her she didn’t understand herself? She had never considered the idea that everything she did—whether real or pretend—contributed to the person she was growing up to be. She pushed the thought out of her mind and focused on the professional part of what Mark was saying.

“I don’t think Alexander will be that difficult. He seems to want to work with me. He just smiled at me.”

Mark shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, I don’t know that him smiling at you means anything. Today is a day of surprises. Did you see Laura? I wonder what she’s doing here.”

Christina was tempted to tell him Dominic's plan but bit her tongue. After all, Collin was dealing with it. Besides, Christina thought smugly, he wasn't going to get any of the things he wanted. It didn't matter what Laura did. Mark wasn't for her. Plus, Christina didn’t think Trevor was the type to try to romance Laura in the way the schooled boys from the escort service had. He just wasn’t that type of guy. He was more of the take-it-or-leave-it variety.

“I’ll try my best,” Christina said, speaking again of the photoshoot.

“That’s my girl,” Mark said encouragingly. “After this, I want to take you for dinner if you don’t have any plans.”

“Do I have to come like this?” Christina said, indicating her appearance.

Mark smiled mischievously. “Only if you want to.”

***

If Mark had a crystal ball that let him see the future, his prediction of how the day was going to go couldn’t have been more accurate. Everything happened exactly the way he said it would. It started out easy. Alexander was in the coffee shop and she was standing outside, so because they weren’t near each other, Christina couldn’t do anything to offend him. However, once they moved onto the next series of poses, she couldn’t do anything right according to Alexander. She did what Trevor told her to do, but apparently, her ‘interpretations’ of Trevor’s instructions were all wrong. It went something like the following:

Trevor would say something like, “Alexander, put your forearm against the wall and lean into Tina. Take your right hand and take a strand of Tina’s hair between your fingers, but don’t let go of the cell phone. Got it? Now Christina, let Alexander pin you against the wall and look at him like he’s your entire world. Hold your cell phone to your heart with your left hand and… bite your lip.”

Christina would put her hand to her heart (cell phone in tow), bite her lip and try to look at Alexander like she was a blushing girl with all kinds of hopes tied to Alexander. She would even begin to feel her cheeks get warm when suddenly—

Alexander would pounce on her. He would look directly into her eyes and then he would say something like, “Trevor, I’m just not getting the feeling like I’m her entire world.”

“Shut up and look pretty,” Trevor would say caustically and the flash from his camera would start going off like mad.

Alexander would break pose and move away from Christina while exclaiming something along the lines of, “This just isn’t working. I’m not getting the vibe from her that Collin described in the meeting. She’s not working with me.”

Then Christina’s cheeks would flush for real and she would find herself saying something like, “Come on, Alexander, and let me try again." But it didn’t really matter what she said or how hard she tried, Alexander just kept right on saying she wasn’t doing it right and she wasn’t easy to work with.

At around ten-thirty he stormed off to the trailer almost screaming, “She’s just NOT model material.”

At a moment like that, Christina half expected herself to burst into tears, but she couldn’t help but feel like Alexander’s temper tantrum had nothing to do with her. He was just a freaking brat! Either that or Dominic told him he had to make things as difficult as possible in order to discredit her. Yeah, she could see Dominic doing something like that. It was just like him. But, that would mean a partial loss of Alexander’s reputation. Was Dominic really willing to sacrifice something that important just to spurn her?

And where was the devil in that critical moment?

Christina spotted him approaching the trailer. He didn’t quite make it to the steps before Trevor got to him and reproached him. Christina couldn’t hear their conversation, but it was clear that Dominic was getting told off. Christina had never seen Dominic cowed by anyone and apparently ‘scary’ Trevor didn’t intimidate him either. He never lost his composure. In a cool attempt at collaboration, they ended up going to talk to Alexander together.

After the door closed, Mark came up to Christina and slipped his fingers around hers as subtly as possible. Christina doubted anyone noticed. Both of them were standing ramrod straight.

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?” she asked, trying hard to keep the venom out of her voice.

Mark rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. You looked good to me and Trevor didn’t say anything before he started snapping off pictures. He would have said something if he didn’t find your poses satisfactory. I don’t think you did anything wrong, but this is crazy. We're already halfway through the morning and haven’t even finished the second series of poses. The more time Alexander spends in his trailer, the less time you have to work on the coffee shop series. We weren’t going to come back here tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah, tomorrow we are taking pictures in the subway, right?”

Mark nodded.

“Well, since Alexander’s in the trailer, can I sit down for a few minutes?” Christina asked.

“Probably, since Trevor’s in there, too.”

Mark found her a folding chair and sat her down. Then to her immense surprise, he stood behind her and started rubbing her shoulders. And of course, every muscle in her body seized. Did he have to do that in public?

“Don’t tense up,” Mark rebuked.

“But—”

“But nothing. I’m your agent and in a situation like this, I think you need something to help you relax.”

Christina tried to do what Mark said. No one was looking at her funny or even really noticing what she and Mark were doing. Trevor’s crew had all gotten themselves drinks and were mellowing on equipment carriers. Collin was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Laura. A few minutes after Trevor and Dominic went into the trailer; Mindy and the other makeup artist were shooed out.

Mindy came over to Mark and Christina with a frown the size of an upside-down rowboat. “Whoa,” she said, “That guy is something else. Isn’t he?”

“Did he say anything to you?” Mark asked.

“No,” Mindy said, “but I was having a serious conversation with Sapphira about makeup and he comes trouncing in… argh!”

“Well, she’s right over there,” Mark said, pointing to Alexander’s makeup artist. “And they might not be out of the trailer for a while. You might get more time to talk out here.”

“Of course I was going to go talk to her,” Mindy said, sounding offended that Mark pointed out something so obvious to her. “I just wanted to come see how Tina was holding up.”

“I’m fine,” Christina said earnestly. “I just hope Trevor isn’t disappointed with me.”

“Well, he’s not out here explaining how you’re the screw-up, now is he?” Mindy reminded her before saying to Mark snottily, “And Mark, if you want to be alone with Tina all you have to say is ‘scram.’ Okay? It’s not like I’m her mother." Then she stalked away to go stand by Sapphira.

Mark kept on rubbing Christina’s shoulders, but she was pointed toward the door to the trailer and couldn’t stop worrying about what was happening inside. Was Alexander really being chewed out?

The minutes seemed to be going very slowly as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. Soon it was past eleven and lunch was scheduled for noon. Mark got Christina a bottle of water and a couple of guys from Trevor’s crew went for a cigarette break. It was eleven-thirty and the door still hadn’t opened.

Finally, at a quarter to twelve, Trevor came out of the trailer. His eyes looked dark and angry. He came over to Christina and Mark. “Where’s Collin?” he asked briskly.

“I don’t know. He hasn’t been back since you went in,” Mark said.

“Whatever,” Trevor said grouchily as he took his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialing. Then he moved away from them and over to his camera.

“Stay here,” Mark said as he followed him.

Soon Trevor was surrounded by a small cluster of people, but Christina didn’t see if he got Collin on the phone or not. Her attention was distracted by Alexander coming out of the trailer. He was wearing his own clothes and Dominic was following after him quickly with his cell phone pinned to his ear. It sounded like he was arranging for a car to pick them up. Alexander didn’t look at Christina or anyone else as he left the set. He merely covered his eyes with a pair of dark sunglasses and disappeared behind the fans.

Christina would have loved to go have a chat with Dominic at that moment, but he was clearly not in the mood to hear how wrong he was. If Trevor looked like a thunder cloud when he came out of the trailer, Dominic looked like a typhoon—the kind with shrapnel in the wind. Despite a perfectly healthy Alexander walking in front of him, Dominic looked like he had just committed murder, infuriated beyond understanding. Christina would have loved to talk to him.

Mark came back over to Christina and explained, “Obviously, Alexander has refused to model.”

“With me?” Christina asked carefully. “He doesn’t mind doing the photoshoot, but just not with me, right?”

Mark ran a hand through his hair. It was obvious he desperately didn’t want to answer that question. “That isn’t what Trevor said, but the photoshoot has been put on hiatus for the time being. I guess we’ll be back in the office tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Christina said slowly. She was still absorbing Alexander’s rejection and deciding how she was going to deal with it. Once again, she thought she was in a situation where she would normally want to cry, but she didn’t. Who cared if Alexander didn’t like her? He was so bratty not even Dominic could reel him in.

“They were going to have a catered lunch here, but I think everyone would understand if you and I didn’t stay for it. Can I take you for lunch and dinner?”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“Yeah, and if we don’t get out of here quickly, I’m going to fail.”