More than Fashion

8

“So it doesn’t bother you that you won’t see him again?”

“Not at all.” I mean, maybe it bothered me a tiny bit that he hadn’t even tried to keep in touch with me. Not that I would do it, but damn, he was ridiculously hot. And good with his mouth. I was curious if he was good with his other body parts, too. But he lived in London, and I was going on the show, and it didn’t matter what I wanted because it was over. Just a memory and nothing more.

Besides, I’d made a total fool of myself last night. I cringed at the memory of how I’d begged him to stay with me. God, how embarrassing. It was better that we never see each other again. No one needed to know just how pathetic I’d become to get some action from a hot guy. Better to leave the entire night behind and forget it ever happened.

“Are you nervous?” Carla asked. I wanted to kiss her for changing the subject.

“A little.” I yawned and started to rub my eyes, but stopped because it would mess up my makeup. “Mostly I wish I had some coffee. And some greasy food.” I leaned back against the seat and groaned. “I’d murder someone for a cheeseburger right now.”

Carla pulled some sort of organic vegan gluten-free low-fat blah blah blah energy bar out of her purse. “Here, eat this.”

“I’d rather sit here and suffer.”

She shrugged. “If that’s your choice.”

She unwrapped the bar and took a bite and chewed…and chewed…and chewed. My god, was she ever going to stop chewing? And it was so freaking loud, with all that crunching. Who knew chewing could be so damn noisy? It made the pain in my head crank up to max.

“Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, stop that.”

“Stop what? Eating?” She took another bite. Crunch crunch crunch.

“I hate you a little right now.”

She pointed at me with the offensive thing. “Hey, I didn’t make you stay up all night drinking and sexing it up.”

“It was worth it. No one looks back and remembers the nights they went to bed early.”

To distract myself from her noisy eating, I gazed outside my window at the city scrolling past us. I’d never been to New York before, although I’d always secretly dreamed of moving here, and I wanted to soak it all in. Sidewalks overrun with people in suits and black clothes rushing to work. Tourist shops with I <3 NY T-shirts and snow globes with the Statue of Liberty. Pizza places that all claimed to be the best in New York. Skyscrapers towering over us, gleaming in the sunlight.

A grin broke out on my face as I craned my neck up to glimpse the Empire State Building. I was really here. In New York. Going on Behind The Seams.

Forget last night. Today was the beginning of my new life. I knew exactly where I was going, and I was never looking back.

The car pulled up outside a brick building with no signs or other identifiers on it. Our driver got out our luggage, while a brunette with chunky blond highlights bounced out to meet us, exuding perkiness.

“Hi! You must be Julie Hong! And Carla Jackson! I’m Kelsey—with a K—and I’ll be your handler!” She spoke in a high-pitched voice at a mile a minute and seemed to use an exclamation point after every sentence. Or every word.

“Shoot me,” I muttered to Carla.

“That’s us,” Carla said to Kelsey, nudging me in the ribs.

“Great! It’s so wonderful to meet you both! Please follow me!”

I gave Carla a please make her stop look, but she rolled her eyes at me.

“You know, it’s unheard of for designers to have met their models before the show starts,” Kelsey-with-a-K continued. “We usually pair them up randomly, but in your case, we made an exception! How great is that?” She beamed at us, like this was the most amazing thing she’d heard all day. I wanted to tell her to lower her voice and calm the f**k down. Excitable people and hangovers did not mesh.

“We’re very grateful we can work together,” Carla said.

“There’s just one teensy little thing we need to discuss first,” Kelsey said, still sporting her giant smile. “We would prefer it if you didn’t tell the other designers that you two knew each other in advance. It’s not a big deal if they do find out, but we don’t want the other contestants to think Julie has an unfair advantage.”

Honestly? It was an unfair advantage. Knowing Carla was going to be my model gave me a huge confidence boost. After all, I’d designed or modified clothes for her plenty of times. But it made me uneasy knowing it was a secret we had to keep for the next few weeks. If it got out, it might turn the other designers against me. Then again, I wasn’t going on the show to make friends. I was there to win.

Whatever it took.

“Not a problem,” I said, and Carla nodded.

“Great! I knew you’d understand!” Kelsey said, as she led us inside the building. “We’re going to have so much fun this season!”

I didn’t trust myself not to say something bitchy, so I stayed silent as I took in the lobby of the building they used for Behind The Seams. It was super modern, all tarnished metal, sharp angles, cement walls, and exposed ceilings. Like the people who designed it had been screaming, “Look how cool and edgy we are!”