“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. News gets around fast, and it’s very bad business to walk out because of a temper tantrum. He already has a bad reputation and now I suppose it’s going to get worse. I won’t have anything to book if he keeps this up. So, whether I drop him or not is unimportant.”
“So, what about your career? Alexander acted like he was your full-time job. If you don’t have him, what do you plan to do?” Helen asked suspiciously.
Dominic seemed to slither as he moved toward her. “I’ll have to scout new talent of course.”
“So, you want to be my agent?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“I really think you have potential.”
“Do you?”
“I want to make you an offer.”
“What sort of offer?” Helen asked sceptically.
“I have a job for you working as a fashion model. It’ll last about four months and then we’ll see if we can find you something new after that.”
“Where is it?”
“London,” he said and the word seemed to hang in the air like a glowing moon between them.
“Oh crap,” Helen said out loud. She couldn’t help thinking about what Mark had told her that afternoon about moving to London for a job in public relations. Helen put her hand to her forehead. If the job offer wasn’t just some lame trick of Dominic’s than it was her way to go with Mark to London legitimately. Mark could take his great job offer and she could take hers. They could still see each other while not being in anyone’s way. She was sorely tempted. She really didn’t want to let Mark go, but she didn’t know what she could offer him that would make him want to stay.
“Are you tempted just because of the location?” Dominic asked coyly. “How curious!”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Helen said quietly.
“That’s all? You just need to move to London? You don’t care what the pay is, or what the job will be like, what hours you’ll work, what clothes you’ll wear, or anything? All that matters to you is that you’ll live in London.”
Helen rolled her eyes. “Don’t pick up on things so quickly,” she said wretchedly. “Or if you do, at least have the grace not to talk about them out loud. But now that you’re mentioning it, I do have one question.”
“And that question is?” Dominic asked as he flicked away his cigarette.
“What’s the catch?”
“What catch?”
“There has to be something you want me to do for you in exchange for this marvelous opportunity. You’d better tell me that part before we go any further.”
Dominic hesitated before he said sweetly, “It’s nothing really. A token.”
Helen waited for him to finish with her hands on her hips. She drummed her fingers on her hip bone.
“Oh, don’t be so grouchy!” Dominic accused as he came right in front of her so that her toes on the step above brushed his shins. He took off his sunglasses and showed her the purple circles under his eyes. “I just want to make up with you. You said those horrible things about me. I’ve been miserable ever since we weren’t friends.”
“Okay, then,” she said, feeling sorry for him. “I accept your apology.”
“I didn’t apologize,” he said, squinting. “Yet,” he said and then without warning his hands were gripping her cheeks and his mouth was on hers.
Helen didn’t have a chance to do anything; not to push him off, not to bite him, not to scream, or do anything else before a harsh voice interrupted them.
“Vera!” Mark barked from the trailer door.
Dominic pulled off her, but quickly maneuvered Helen into a sideways hug so that her arms were pinned to her sides.
“Let go of me!” she yelled, but Dominic did no such thing.
He simply answered Mark by saying, “You’re interrupting.”
“Am I?” Mark said with his eyebrows arched.
“Mark! Help me!” Helen screamed. Dominic wasn’t telling go.
Mark took a deep breath and came down the steps. “Let go of her, Dominic.”
“Or what?” Dominic asked, holding tight to Helen while she struggled.
“I hate you,” Mark said weakly, and Helen wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or Dominic.
Then Mark punched Dominic squarely on the jaw. He let go of Helen and fell back onto the pavement.
“Leave her alone,” Mark said, taking Helen’s hand and striding quickly away from the trailer.
“Not on your life,” Dominic yelled, still lying flat on his back. “She’s going to be my new model.”
Mark whipped around and looked Helen in the eye. “Is that what you two were talking about?”
Helen nodded. She was stuck, but if she lied it would be worse.
Mark looked incredulous, but he gripped her hand tighter and hurried her toward his car. He opened the door for her and even helped her inside.
He got behind the wheel and pushed the button so all the doors locked automatically. “He was attacking you, right?”
“Yes,” Helen said. “But he wasn’t lying about the job. He offered me one.”
“And you? Did you want to take it?”
Helen was about to answer when Mark interrupted her, “So, I take that P.R. job and move to London and you become Dominic’s new feature model, is that it? No hard feelings between us because we’ll break up for the sake of my job and then you can do whatever you want.”
“The job he offered me was in London. I listened to him because I want to be with you,” she squealed. She had to get the truth out before he exploded.
“And the only way you can think of to get us to be together is to whore yourself off to Dominic? Why not just ask me if you can come with me? You’re my assistant, whether we’re lovers or not. I’d still have asked you to come. You are a great assistant.”
“And that’s what you love about Helen? That she’s a great assistant?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what, Mark?” Helen yelled, as tears formed in her eyes. “Forget about me. You wanted me to be Vera, so I became her. If you take me to London, then you want me to be Helen, so you’ll have an assistant. Don’t you understand? I do not have the energy to be both people! I am either Vera or Helen. If I’m Helen, then you go to London by yourself because she would never go that far for a man who would never love her properly. She’d stay and work at Capier for a different P.R. officer.”
“And if you’re Vera?” Mark asked quickly.
“I don’t know,” Helen said thoughtfully. “She’s the kind of girl who makes big demands and gets what she wants. She won’t come just to be your girlfriend, and she’d make a mess of your office because she’d flirt with everyone. If you want her to come, you’ll have to make her a pretty impressive offer.”
“What kind of offer?”
Helen frowned and risking everything, she said, “It would have to be big. You’d have to promise to love her forever. You know, give her something worth giving up her boring self for and worth giving up her flirtatious self for. You have to make it worth her giving everything for you. Big.”
Mark started the engine and turned on the headlights. “And you’d come to London with me?”
Helen nodded her head in the darkness.
“What about Dominic?”
“I don’t think he’s going to be easy to get rid of. I never dreamed he would go that far for me.”
Mark smirked in the darkness and threw his car into reverse. “I told you,” he said sharply. “Vera makes guys want to do that.”