Raney grabs my attention by bopping my hip with hers. “Did you tell anyone about what happened?”
“Of course I did!” I screech a little too loudly, drawing the eyes of the crowd, which is what we’re hoping to avoid. I drop my head submissively as a token apology to the room before turning back to face my girls, speaking softer. “I told the agency.”
“Anyone else?” Raney says, accepting a napkin from one of the students walking past. Her attention shifts off me and gives me the time to school my features because I did tell someone else: King.
“Pigs in blankets, how quaint,” Heidi says, looking at the pint-sized chipolata wrapped in bacon before smashing it down and grabbing another. “Let me guess, Omega Beatrice is back to her English roots in this semester’s cooking class. We need beer with these.”
Raney takes a bite of hers, before pulling a face and dropping it on Ho’s plate, “Garlic much? Even Koz is going to be offended by the amount in those, and he’s Italian.”
The vibration of my phone has me stopping what I was going to say, and I give the girls a quick wave before making a dash for the toilet to answer.
“Hey, Teddy,” I answer, trying to keep my voice low since mobile phones aren’t allowed during class time.
And then my agent gives me all the details of an urgent job he all but begs me to take. Of course, it’s tomorrow which is when I’m meant to be sneaking off for a dirty few hours with King. Teddy is such a smooth talker, and I know he is laying it on super thick when he offers to double my booking rate.
“How come you’re only calling me now?” I ask, still not trusting him.
“Tristan, honey, I literally just put the phone down. They’re going a bit grungy and asked for our most beautiful girl so of course I thought of you immediately. The boots are stunning by the way. You’ll love them. Actually, I doubt you’ll take them off.”
I roll my eyes at his usual schmoozing until I remember the article. “Oh my God, Teddy, did you see what happened to Nolan’s studio?”
“I know. It’s terrible isn’t it. He literally lost everything. And the poor guy, it’s the second time too.”
I scoff, and Teddy catches on immediately. “That’s rude, Tristan. I get that you don’t like Nolan… “
“It’s not a matter of whether I like Nolan or not, Teddy. You do remember that he hit me because he lost his shit. He was out of line, and you know it. And the agency hasn’t done a thing to change their policy, even after all this time.” I snap back angrily.
In the big scheme of things, I’m past the point of having to beg for work and can afford to be a bit of a bitch to Teddy. I’ve also got enough catwalk, shoots, and billboards under my belt that I’m straddling the line of being one of his agency’s top tier models which means these days I have a lot more say in the jobs I take. And that is not my ego talking, it’s the fact, the money in my bank, the way people in the industry know my name is proof of that.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry, you know if this was my agency I would do certain things very differently, but I can still feel bad for him. Some lunatic seems to be targeting him and burning his studio. He’d only done a reopening a month or so back, and now it’s all gone again,” he pacifies, “Anyway, back to today.”
“Still not getting the point,” I mimic his voice perfectly. “Is he the photographer for today?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be out of business a lot longer this time. I heard he lived in the apartment above too. Apparently, he was lucky to escape before the back door was barricaded. I didn’t tell you that by the way.”
Holy shit.
Teddy takes another dramatic inhale before talking too quickly. “Back to work because you know time is money and I’m under pressure from the top floor.”
“Teddy, you still didn’t answer my question.”
He answers. “No, Nolan is not the photographer for this campaign. He’s still on our books though.”
I look in the mirror, fixing an errant eyebrow which is more interesting than his bland as fuck excuses. Honestly, if Banks Talent Agency doesn’t get their head out of their ass pretty soon, I’m going to start looking for another. It’s not the first time they’ve let me down. The only reason I haven’t pursued other options until now is because I’d rather spend my time with my besties or with my forbidden lover.
“Send me over the booking sheet,” I say after a few moments of dragging him out with excuses for why BTA still has Nolan on their books, and why I should be a little more empathetic to his plight.
I instantly hear his relief. “I’ll send a car to pick you up.”
“No, I’ll get there myself, but you will pay the tab.”
“Check your email, everything is already in your inbox.”
Bookings always include travel time, so it’s just another tactic of Teddy’s to make it sound like he’s looking after me instead of just doing the bare minimum. I hang up and dial King, it goes through to his message bank.
“Hey, give me a call when you can.”
The door to the bathroom bursts open and I nearly swallow my tongue when Raney hobbles in. Her limp is bad today which probably means we’ve got rain coming.
