Model without a Cause
“Okay, everybody!” Collin boomed at the front of the darkened boardroom. “As you all know, we are going to be advertising Capier's brand new line of cell phone products called Clickmark."
A picture of a mauve colored cell phone appeared on the screen along with a list of features.
“This is the concept I have in mind for the campaign. The setting will be an urban metropolis. We will follow a basic storyline, with four or five still pictures comprising the plot. If the layouts look good enough to impress the big wigs, we’ll start production on a commercial before the still photos are released. Hopefully, we’ll be all ready to go by the beginning of November—just in time for Christmas.”
Helen shifted in her seat. For some reason, she wasn’t feeling very comfortable. Maybe it was the fact she was jammed between Dominic and Mark at the furthest arch of the oval-shaped table. She could hardly see Collin’s face and she was having the worst time listening to him. Mark was fidgeting, shifting his weight, and glancing over at Dominic and Alexander every ten seconds. Whereas Dominic was sitting perfectly still. One of his hands was sprawled across the side of his face like a spider. He was biting on his pinkie finger. Apparently, he wasn’t having as much trouble concentrating as Helen and Mark, but even so, Helen had an odd feeling he wasn’t thinking about Collin’s presentation. He had probably sat through a million such meetings. Instead, Helen felt like he was only thinking about her.
When Dominic caught her looking at him, he purposefully turned his head and winked at her. He resumed his thoughtful pose when Helen looked away.
The arched table in the dark was quite full. Alexander and Trevor were sitting together on the other side of Dominic, and Mindy was there, too. Then there was a costume designer, another makeup artist for Alexander, two of Trevor’s assistants (one of which was an extremely smart looking girl in her mid-twenties), Collin’s assistant, and one or two other people Helen couldn’t account for. It was a full house and she was the star of the show.
At least, she felt like the star of the show. She had to dress up as Vera for their only full meeting before shooting. It almost felt like a dress rehearsal even though she had no lines and the only thing she had to do was show up. It seemed like everyone else had something important only they could do. She felt like she was a blank piece of paper and she needed someone else to write on her before she would be of any value. And yet, she was the star and receiving far more attention than Alexander, who was a pro in the business. Helen wasn’t sure, but she thought he looked resentful.
Up at the front, Collin continued, “Vera and Alexander will be in the role of lovers playing hide and seek in the city with our new line of products. We hope to make it playful and sexy with an emphasis on the feelings of excitement a young woman could feel when the guy she likes gives her a call on her cell phone. These are cute phones and we want the female market from teens to grandmas. It’s Alexander’s job to look like the unattainable guy who suddenly can’t wait longer than twenty seconds to call Vera. He’s that attracted to her. It’s Vera’s job to look like the girl who’s bursting out of her skin at the mere idea of our darling Alexander calling before three days have eclipsed.”
“So, this is like the… opposite of reality?” Helen blurted, unable to control herself. She doubted Alexander would call her after three months, let alone the standard three days.
A flurry of laughter erupted along both sides of the table.
It was too late by the time everyone laughed for Helen to realize she had made a deadly mistake. She made it sound like she would be the last person in the world to get butterflies in her stomach over Alexander. “I just meant he would never call me,” she grumbled.
“What are you talking about, Vera?” Alexander said, reaching past Dominic to take her hand in his. “I’d call you the day after.”
Dominic flicked Alexander’s hand away and muttered crankily, “She’s taken.”
Collin put a hand to his mouth and pretended to cough before he said in a crystal clear professional tone, “Vera, if a guy is really interested, he really will call right away. You have to look like the kind of girl that would make a guy want to call without waiting. Do you think you can do that?”
Helen shrunk down in her chair. Yeah, she had definitely put her foot in her mouth. She guessed it wasn’t very mature for her to be cracking jokes when she had never done any modeling before. They were taking a chance on her, so she needed to have a better attitude.
She wanted to apologize, but taking back what she said seemed a little childish, so instead, she straightened and said calmly, “I’m counting on you to help me be exactly what you want. I'll try my best.”
Collin smiled as if to say he accepted her non-apology and then he went on to list the locations for the shoot. One would be on the city streets outside a coffee shop, another one would be in an underground train station, and the last one was in their own office.
Alexander groaned when he heard the last one. “You’re not going to make me pose in your office again, are you? Haven’t we been through this already?”
Collin nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been through this before. If you’re not interested in doing those shots, then Vera can do them by herself since she’s being so cooperative. Photo editing is amazing these days. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Alexander turned away grouchily and refused to answer.
“Well, you can think about that,” Collin said crossly. He closed the laptop that displayed his notes and asked his assistant to turn on the lights. “Now we’ll talk about logistics. Trevor will be presenting this segment." Collin took a seat and Trevor stood up to take over.
Trevor didn’t get far into his portion when Helen lost her ability to pay attention. She didn’t understand a word he was saying. Apparently, the upcoming portion was more for the benefit of everyone besides Helen and Alexander, the two who only had to show up and look pretty.
Maybe Trevor was right and modeling was different than being an escort. She had to appeal to everyone who might look at the photograph instead of just one man. She stole a glance at Mark, the one man she had to appeal to. He seemed very interested in his brother’s portion of the presentation, since he had completely given up fidgeting. It didn’t feel like he was thinking about her the way Dominic was, because she was positive the devil's mind hadn’t wavered.