CHAPTER 289: CHAPTER 289 - SHOOT DAY: MORNING BANTER

"The designer won’t be here today! Ember trusts us to execute his vision!"

Maia called out from wherever she was, plenty loud enough for the entire studio to hear. I know she yelled loudly during the negotiation, but I guess there is a reason she is good at it. Like a foreman on a jobsite... it helps her touch base with everyone all at once.

Wouldn’t radios work too? Well, it’s *cheaper* this way I guess.

Through some combination of imagery that included a wolf moving from one den into another, I got the gist of what the idiot spirit inside me was getting at. I tried to hold it in, but ended up hissing a curse in my native tongue before mumbling something that I didn’t need anyone to hear.

"...I don’t care that it would be cheaper to live with her, it’s not happening..."

"Hm? Worried because the one who liked you so much isn’t here?"

"What?"

I may have glared up at the mirror a bit and made Devon flinch. Because I misunderstood what he was thinking I was thinking. But of course he meant Mr. Laurent and not Ms. Voss, as unless Anise opened her mouth none of them should know.

"Look, we all know he fell for your particular look, but I’m not accusing you of anything. I saw the test shots too. Also he’s not actually *into*..."

He waves flat fingers to either side of my chest and then points the tips a bit lower. It takes me a moment longer than it should to understand he meant ’women’.

"No, I’m sorry. I only mistook part of what you said and related it to something else I was thinking of."

"...Oh. Well, never you mind my own mouth too, then! Guess I’m nervous working with a first timer."

My phone chimed with a message and I glanced at the direction of my bag while the make-up was applied. It’s not that I’m addicted to knowing immediately what someone has sent me, but apparently I *looked* like I was.

Because Eddie lifted the purse and sat it on a little table beside me so that I could reach. He smiled and nodded in the mirror while running his fingers through my hair to assess its texture.

"Feel free to check it whenever. We’re used to working around models who may need to keep track of their tight schedules. It’s not like all of them can afford assistants."

"Well, some of them can’t afford not to hire them. They’d get so stressed out dealing with that."

As the two bantered about the career field and their side of the experience in front of me, I decided if they were going to be so fairly relaxed, it wouldn’t hurt for me to loosen up a bit as well.

BK: [How’s the glamorous model experience so far? Don’t let them make you too famous - might go to your head.]

C: [I’m already insufferably pretty in the head. I’m afraid that’s too late.]

BK: [Yep. Sounds like why boss lady-]

I clicked off the screen quickly, not wanting to think about Kyrie any more this morning. Devon chuckled at my expression as he applied what felt like the most expensive moisturizer in existence to my neckline.

"Oh, I know that look. You have someone trying to get in your head. Fling already in progress, or still in flirt stage?"

"Neither. Just a friend being annoying."

"If you say so. Don’t know you well, but I’m still saying that was the ’stop thinking about them’ face. And the *them* is always the kind of person that makes you swallow your saliva."

Getting ’girl talk’ with his voice is one of the more disharmonious experiences I’ve had in this world. However, it’s good to know that I might have a tendency to make that face in public - as I may have been doing it in private without knowing.

Oh, you would not have told me that! You want me to be obvious on things like that to her, why even pretend?

As my wolf wags its tail without shame, I find that overall... the professional attention mixed with open banter was oddly soothing. People whose job it was to make me look good, just attempting to get me to relax more with some chat.

Rather than people trying to figure out what I was hiding or what I wanted from them, while keeping me as unbalanced as possible, like in noble court. The straightforward positivity of it all was just really very refreshing.

"Excuse me."

A familiar accented voice made me look up in the mirror to see Simone sticking her face around the cubicle with a slight smile on her face. There was something different about her today - focused, but also... even warmer?

"What’s up, doll?"

"Dev, I told you my husband doesn’t like that nickname."

"I know, that’s why I still use it. Tell him not to duck out on the next dinner party and he can give me his list of acceptable ones face to face."

This confuses me, as I seem to recall she claimed to be in charge of the makeup artist in the interview? He doesn’t seem very well controlled...

"Such boys... I’ll be stealing her for a moment. Just need to check the first outfit fit and verify that measurements are still solid."

"Go ahead. Timing’s perfect as always. So, Eddie. Did you see the match last night?"

"...Recorded it. Got in late."

Tuning out their sudden ’boy talk’... I followed the woman with the same braided updo as before. She waited until we were a few steps away from the hair and makeup station before speaking.

"I should mention - you’ve made quite an impression on Zoé."

Her voice was a notable pitch lower and more personal. It made me feel more guarded, as while I did talk to the girl’s mother on the phone that time... I hadn’t really spoken to this sister since finding out that they were ’related’.

"Oh? A good one, I hope."

"Well, a bit early to tell. But I caught her grinning at her phone yesterday. Thought she was mooning over that boy again in between her studies."

"You mean Paul. So you know about that... dynamic."

Simone’s smile was kind. But also a little brittle. Like she understood I wasn’t judging her, but also that she may have been judging herself? Not that I understand why she would.

"She’s my kid sister, of course I keep some tabs even if I’m not home much these years. Anyway, it turned out when I was about to tease her that it was a photo of you two together instead. Then she told me what you did."

Assuming that she means the recent bully situation is all I can do, since the teenager did ask to take a picture together after that. With her own phone. I made her take five and delete four.

Wait, I was not actually dressed very nice then, was I...

Blue eyes open in my mindscape rooftop garden, that was still *filled* with glory-of-the-snow... just to have a bit of internal revenge against the stupid wolf for what happened in my apartment parking lot... Vrika yawns and closes its eye again.

It’s boredom with my methods and vain worries is entirely, drastically self-evident.