Without really thinking about it Luisa followed her, walking barefoot across the stone of the terrace and round to the side of the villa where there was a low stone wall shaded by trees above.
Arabella produced a pack of cigarettes and a lighter and lit up. She leaned against the wall, resting on the top of it, and Luisa copied her. It felt surreal, both wearing swimwear with thin robes on top, leaning there with someone she’d only seen in a magazine.
After a couple of drags, Arabella looked at Luisa and said, “You’re new.” A statement, not a question, but she said nothing more, just looked at Luisa as she took another drag and exhaled, somehow making smoking look cool as hell.
Into the silence, Luisa said, “Yes.” She wanted to say more but she was star struck, tongue tied, so ended up saying nothing.
Arabella seemed to understand instinctively. Maybe she was used to that reaction. “You won’t be for long,” she replied. She held out the cigarette to Luisa, offering it, and Luisa leaned forward and took a drag while Arabella held it to her lips, not because she wanted to but because it didn’t feel like she could say no.
She breathed in deeply then exhaled, not a smoker normally but she’d experimented enough in her youth to not make a fool of herself by coughing. Arabella watched her and smiled in approval.
“You’re local?”
“Tulum, no. But Mexico, yes. My first international photoshoot.”
“You’ll be fine. We all start somewhere.” She paused. “If you need something, come and talk to me. My friends call me Bel.”
Luisa smiled but wasn’t sure what to say. It was getting more and more surreal by the minute.So can I call you Bel?She wondered but didn’t have the courage to say out it out loud. Instead she simply said, “I’m Luisa,” acknowledged by a nod.
They stayed there in companionable silence, Arabella, no, Bel, giving Luisa another couple of drags, then she stood up straight. “They’ll be expecting us.” She paused and looked at Luisa, seeming like she was about to say something else, but then said nothing before she walked off.
***
From that moment onwards Bel took Luisa under her wing.
On set, when she wasn’t being photographed herself, Bel would stay close, stepping in to correct her stance with a touch on her hips here and a hand on her shoulders there, guiding her chin with a light touch of her fingers on Luisa’s jaw, quiet words of encouragement when Luisa was struggling to understand instinctively what the photographer wanted from her, coaching her and teaching her the professional tricks behind this type of modelling.
When they broke for meals or had a lull in the schedule Bel would find her, inviting her to sit with her at the long table on the terrace, sometimes just the two of them locked in conversation, sometimes with others as well. Bel seemed to get on particularly well with the other models and the stylists, a kind of cool, no-nonsense attitude that the others deferred to, and Luisa soon felt like she was part of the group.
When it was just the two of them, Bel would try her broken Spanish on Luisa before invariably it reached her limit and Luisa broke down giggling while Bel smiled… giggling didn’t seem to be her sort of thing. Sometimes she helped Luisa with her English in return, particularly when it came to some of the more colloquial phrases where it soon became apparent to Luisa that Bel came from the upper end of British society.
Luisa felt welcomed, she felt visible, she felt like she belonged. Even when she realised that Bel had singled her out for special attention, she didn’t want it to stop… she genuinely liked Bel, her calm, no nonsense approach to everything, her professionalism,and not least how much she’d helped and guided Luisa through what could have been a difficult week.
The others on the set noticed. Luisa didn’t realise what it was at the time, but looking back years later when she’d been on too many photoshoots to count, she realised that she’d seen it since too.
It was the way the others glanced between each other, the knowing smiles from the makeup artists, the little well intentioned comments that meant nothing on the surface, the space that they all gave Bel and Luisa as the week went on. It was like they’d all seen this story before, maybe not with Bel but certainly with somebody like her, and they all knew how it ended.
***
It wasn’t until the last night that anything actually happened.
They’d finished early that day, the final shots done and the villa packed up. The crew, the models, everyone headed into town to party, from what Luisa could tell all expenses paid. At the very least it cost her nothing, which was good because she knew she wasn’t getting paid anything like what some of the other models were.
It was an experience and a half and gave Luisa even more of a taste for the life of a model on the up than the days that had gone before. She had a great time, getting to know various people that she’d end up working with over the years to follow… kind of like her induction into the world of fashion modelling. She liked it.
Not long after the sun had started to set, surprisingly early, Bel came over to her. “How do you feel, your first big shoot finished?” she asked. She was smiling, her cheeks slightly flushed, a cocktail in her hand. Bel was relaxed, and Luisa realised that it was the first time she’d seen her relaxed all week, noting to herself that this was what professionalism looked like: focused yet friendly when the work needed to be done, relaxed only when it was finished. Bel’s usual demeanour was serious, albeit with a dry sense of humour that you could detect around the edges, but smiling and relaxed suited her well.
Luisa took a sip of her drink and smiled. “It feels good, it’s been such a surreal week. I hope I do more.”
“I’m sure you will,” Bel replied. She paused, then leaned close to Luisa, close enough that only Luisa could hear what she said next, close enough that Luisa caught the scent of her perfume. “Come back to the hotel.”
Bel leaned back and looked at Luisa, looking her in the eye, and the thought didn’t even cross Luisa’s mind of saying no. She simply nodded, and the two of them left, they didn’t even make their excuses, they just slipped away into the fading light.
Bel’s hotel was only a couple of minutes’ walk away, and they were soon stood at her door. She swiped her key card and opened it, holding it open for Luisa to go in. Once she’d walked through, she let the door shut then said, “Let’s have a drink on the balcony.” As so often that week, a statement rather than a question, and as so often that week Luisa didn’t even think of saying no.
As she walked through to the balcony Luisa couldn’t help marvelling at Bel’s room. It was large, really quite spacious,decorated tastefully with a tiled floor, large dark wood bed, sitting area, and glimpsed in the corner a large bathroom. Luisa had thought her own room was nice, but this was something else. The perks of being the star of the show, she figured.
Bel had slid the balcony door open and Luisa went outside, leaning on the railing and enjoying the sight of the waves breaking on the beach down below in the twilight. It was warm, it felt relaxed, like the whole world was just chilling out.
