read the little bit after the chapter ends please! :)

Chapter Twelve

You know what I hate about elevators? The stupid music they put to entertain you while you’re on it. I usually don’t spend my time on the elevator dwelling on things that upset me, but today is a special occasion. Yep, it’s the second rehearsal of the show. I don’t want to sound like a pessimist, because I’m not. Well not most of the time anyways. The gears in my head turned and I frantically tried to come up with a legitimate excuse to wiggle myself out of this, for lack of a better word, pathetic situation. My head was starting to hurt too. That’s another thing I hate about elevators. When it moves it feels like your head is expanding.

“Earth to Jessica.” A slightly mocking voice broke my train of thought.

Shaking my head, I saw Jake standing at the entrance of the elevator with his hand over the door.

I gave him a confused look. “What?”

“You were standing there not moving for like 5 minutes,” he explained.

My eyes widened and I quickly walked out of it. “Sorry,” I mumbled as I passed him.

Jake laughed. “You better be. My arm was getting sore.”

Instead of responding to him, I just went ahead to my desk. After I put down my stuff, I turned to face Jake who was leaning against his door, waiting for me.

“So,” I said cheerily. “What’s on the itinerary today?”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know that today’s the second rehearsal,” Jake said sternly.

I ignored him. “I bet you have some files that you need filing, hm? Or maybe a meeting that needs to be scheduled. Or do you still need to iron your suits? Cause you know I can –”

“Jessica,” Jake scolded, cutting me off. Rudely. “Don’t you worry about those things today. You need to focus practising your walk.” While he was talking, he was guiding me towards the elevator.

No way was I going back in there.

“But it’s so embarrassing in there!” I whined.

“What’s more embarrassing? Screwing up now, or later in front of millions of people?”

“Well when you put it that way…” I sighed in defeat.

Jake flashed me a big smile then pushed me into the elevator.

“But what if –” I began.

“No what ifs.” He clapped a hand over my mouth.

I squirmed free and stood in the corner of the elevator. “But what if I chicken out?”

“Let me put it this way,” he said slowly. “Either you come to the rehearsal or you can stay with me tonight until you get it right. And I mean it. It doesn’t matter if you fall and trip ‘til 7 inthe morning, we’re, well, you’re going to be walking until you can do with like second nature.”

I was about to take him up on the offer when I remember what happened last time I was in his office. Jake and butterflies and tingly feelings and hugs don’t mix well together. Well, they do but they sure make a hot steamy bowl of I’m screwed soup.

“Fine. Let’s just get this stupid rehearsal over with,” I mumbled.

I stole a glance at Jake and rolled my eyes. He thinks that he’s so slick, persuading me to go the rehearsal. Actually, I can’t even use the word “persuade”. “Blackmail” sounds like a more accurate term.

When we reached the doors to the rehearsing room, I paused.

“What’s wrong Jessica? Would you rather spend a nice 7 hours with me?” Jake teased.

“No,” I snapped and pushed the doors opened.

It’s kind of hard to describe what happened next. At first, even I wasn’t able to figure it out. But, in simplest terms, this is exactly what happened: I opened the doors and all the models stopped talking and looked at me like I was a disease. The tallest and, though I hate to say it, prettiest one, looked me up and down appraisingly.

“Look girls, it’s the ugly duckling,” she sneered.

How thick can a person get?

“FYI,” I snapped. “The ugly duckling turns into a beautiful swan afterwards and all the plain” – I made sure I glared at all the models – “ducks get extremely jealous.”

Without letting them respond, I turned around and stalked out of the room. When I passed Jake, I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I’ll see you after work,” I said through clenched teeth and slammed the door behind me.

I suppose everyone started laughing at me since they hated me anyways but you gotta admit, that was a hell of a dramatic exit.

Jessica – 1

Dumb model bimbos – 0

As I made my way back up to the 35th floor, I wondered what I could do for the rest of the day. Jake would probably be busy with the rehearsal so I wouldn’t have to do anything for him. Since that was my job anyways, it left me with nothing to do. After some thoughtful consideration, I decided that that was perfectly fine for me. Getting paid for sitting around? Who wouldn’t like that?

Sitting at my desk, I clicked open the internet and began browsing around.

At around five, Stacy and Jenna popped up behind me.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the rehearsal?” Stacy asked.

I swivelled my chair around, facing them. “Yeah but…”

“Didn’t feel like going?” Jenna finished for me with a knowing smile.

“Mhm,” I nodded, smiling back at her.

Stacy rolled her eyes at us. “I don’t get you Jessica. You get this amazing opportunity to model for a nearly worldwide famous fashion company but you don’t? You know people are saying that La Ballerine is almost matching up to Louboutin and Chanel.”

“I don’t think I caught that during our last 4 hour branch wide meeting,” I said sarcastically. “And besides, it’s not like I’m not going to rehearse.”

“Oh really?” Stacy regarded my sceptically. “So how are you going to rehearse?”

I stayed quiet for a second. Thinking back to yesterdays little elevator scenario, I really didn’t want to tell her. I can just imagine her jumping with joy with her silly innuendos spilling out faster than a volcanic eruption. Of course, a little hesitation on my part was all it took for Stacy to go into an all out lecture.

“You know Jessica,” she started. “There are tons of young girls out there who would kill to be in your position. Working under the hottest guy alive, modeling for La Ballerine, already an interview with Us Weekly…and the list just continues to grow. Think about what this could do for you. You’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer and –”

“Stacy,” I said quickly, interrupting her. “I’m going to rehearse. Jake’s helping me after work.”

“Why don’t you just go do it now?” Jenna asked curiously.

Thank God this girl cut in and at least bought me some time from facing Stacy.

“Because all the other models in there hate me,” I explained.

Jenna looked at my empathetically and I gave her a small smile.

“Ugh, enough about the models,” Stacy said impatiently.

Jenna and I looked at each other. We didn’t mention that we had only said two sentences about the models.

“What I really want to know is this thing about you and Jake,” she continued. “What’s up with that?”

“Nothing. I told you yesterday.”

This time, it was Jenna and Stacy who exchanged looks. I didn’t fail to recognize the doubt in their eyes.

“I mean it guys.” I tried to sound convincing. “There’s nothing going on.”

Jenna grinned at me. “How long are you going to stay tonight?”

Shrugging my shoulders, I picked at the hem of my shirt. “I don’t know. He said as late as we have to.”

“Oh my God,” Stacy cried. “He’s so into you.”

A deep blush crept into my cheeks and I have to turn around so that Stacy and Jenna couldn’t see. “He’s married,” I said quietly. Even though I already knew that, it still kind of hurt to say it out loud.

Stacy let out a big sigh. “I have told you this before and I will tell you this again. Him being married means nothing if he’s showing interest in you especially since he’s married to Scarlet and you’ve been telling me what a bee eye tee see ache she is.”

“Stacy…” I said, turning around.

She looked at me softly. “Okay baby girl, I’ll stop. But you know, if he does have feelings for you, you can’t just let him slip through your fingers. He’s a good catch.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“But hey, you know what the good part is?” she added.

“What?”

“You already have feelings for him – and don’t try to tell me otherwise – so you already have half the deed done!” she said happily.

Instead of replying, I just let out a big huff of air, using it to blow a stray strand of hair out of my face. I watched as Jenna and Stacy waved goodbye and headed out the door. Turning back to face my desk, I put my head in my hands with my elbows propped up against the table. I thought about what Stacy said.

You already have feelings for him – and don’t try to tell me otherwise – so you already have half the deed done!

I groaned inwardly. Tell me something I don’t know.

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thank you guys so much for voting for the last chapter! i almost got twice as many votes. that's amazing!!

but yeah, i'm not going to go higher. still aiming for 90, so if you could just vote that would be awesome :)

okay i know that i said that this chapter would be AMAZING. turns out, it went on longer than i had hoped, so i had to break it off. now i know - no more promises. so, if the next part turns out as i hope, then it would be pretty cool.

and lastly, please check out this story

http://www.wattpad.com/968304-emerald-eyes

it's a good story :)