Model Man
When 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 worked Helen to the bone. If Helen wasn’t working at work, she was working at home pretending to be stiff as a Barbie doll. Mindy put a poster of Alexander up on the wall in the dining room and practiced different fashions and makeup styles on Helen all evening every night of the week.
Mindy was determined Helen would be hired as the model. She nearly killed both of them coming up with the perfect style to match Alexander. She went shopping during the day while Helen was at work to find the perfect autumn outfit even though the stores weren’t selling fall shades in June.
By Friday morning, Mindy had come up with the perfect thing. She dressed Helen in a brown corduroy miniskirt and a black off-the-shoulder top. Then she gave her a pair of brown suede boots and topped the look off with a sleek green scarf.
The last thing was the wig. Helen knew Mindy had been nervous about its selection. In the end, she decided on the wig that Helen had worn on Valentine's Day.
“It won’t be good if Alexander is more feminine than you,” Mindy said decisively. “I almost think you should go red for this, but that might be risky since this Collin guy saw you in a blonde wig. He’s expecting a blonde, isn’t he?”
Helen nodded. She had tried on a red wig at the agency once, just to see how it looked and she was surprised to see that it turned her peaches-and-cream complexion into strawberries-and-cream. She could never be a redhead.
Mindy drove her to work herself on the day of the audition and said she’d wait for Helen.
“Don’t hang around,” Helen insisted. “It’s okay. I don’t have any idea how long this will take and parking downtown is really expensive. Can’t I just call you when I’m finished?”
“Okay,” Mindy agreed. “But don’t get picked up and taken out by anyone… unless your meeting goes that long. Call me right away so I can hear how things went. Okay?”
Helen agreed and moved to get out of the car.
“And wear your shades, Vera,” Mindy reminded her as she dropped her off in the loading zone in front of Helen’s building.
Helen slid on the glasses. It wouldn’t be so bad. Mark said he would meet her in the foyer ten minutes before the interview. He’d take her straight upstairs, so she wouldn’t get stalled by anyone if she happened to be recognized.
Helen pushed through the revolving door and stepped onto the marble. Mark was there, leaning against the wall by the elevators.
“You haven’t got any grape gum in your mouth, have you?” he asked coyly when he saw her.
“Hi Mark,” Helen said cheerfully, sliding her sunglasses off her nose. “How do I look?”
Mark looked at her carefully. Then he took her hand and spun her around so that he could have a ‘proper’ look at her. “I should have asked you to come earlier so that I could have taken you to out to lunch before the meeting. Then I could have scored a free date with the popular and elusive Vera.”
“Don’t joke,” Helen said as she took her compact out of her purse to make sure Mark hadn’t mussed her when he twirled her.
“Who was joking?” he said.
Helen glanced up at him. There was definitely a difference in the way Mark acted toward her when she was dressed up. When she was ‘Helen’ she was a child who needed to be guided by him. She wasn’t exactly the competent office professional he needed her to be yet, so when they were in the office together, he was still training her. But when she was ‘Vera’ she was no longer his trainee, but once again the woman he could never have. And from the look in his eyes—he still wanted her.
Helen smiled in response and pressed the button for the elevator.
Once they were inside with the doors closed, Helen started to think. Her relationship with Mark couldn’t be divided, he had to see her for who she truly was whether she was dressed up as ‘Vera’ or not. He couldn’t partition the two in his brain and make her two people.
“You know, Mark,” she started. “Now that you know I’m wearing a wig, doesn’t it seem kind of weird that I’m wearing false hair on my head? How can I possibly still look special to you when you know how fake I am?”
Mark shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn’t make a difference.”
“Why not?” Helen persisted.
“I don’t know. Just because you know something is a trick doesn’t mean it’s not dazzling. You’re like a magician.”
Helen gulped. What was he saying? Shouldn’t he at least try to hide that he thought she looked gorgeous for the sake of their professional relationship? Instead, he was closing the distance between them so their arms touched as they stood side-by-side.
The doors began to open. “Are you ready for this?” Mark asked.
Helen rolled her eyes. “Psyched.”
“Take my arm,” he instructed. “I’ll lead you to the meeting.”
Helen slipped her fingers around his elbow and allowed him to steer her past the reception desk. He was wearing a suit again and the fabric was rough. Helen smiled. Mark was so cute. After checking in, he took her to Collin’s corner.
The zebra blankets had been tucked away somewhere and all the blinds were open. Collin’s office almost looked respectable as Mark and Helen came in and sat down on one of the couches. Helen thought they were early, but Dominic and Alexander had beaten them there.
Dominic sat, looking like every inch the calculating devil. He wore rouge shaded sunglasses and the neck of his shirt was open. When Helen came in, she expected him to get up and hug her or at least shake her hand. Instead, he didn’t move from his position on the couch and only waved slightly with one of his hands. He acted completely indifferent even though he had been the one to set up the meeting.
Alexander seemed friendlier than his brother because he smiled broadly at Helen and Mark when they came in. Yeah, he was handsome. Helen was impressed with his style. She could tell just by glancing at him that it didn’t matter what he was wearing, he was going to look fantastic. He matched everything.
After the introductions and preliminaries, Collin called Helen and Alexander to stand up together to see how well they matched.