opia [h.s au]

Chapter 2

This morning was awfully busy, as they usually are for Gemma and I. Today we're shooting a video for the social media channels of Hugo Boss, announcing the brand new cologne they're just released. However the face of the brand is an incredibly handsome guy, I didn't had the time to properly look at him more than twice.

Making sure everything goes out the way it's was scheduled to is harder than it seems, specially when there are so much things happening at the same time and if one of them goes wrong, everything else can and will be impacted. So I spent most part of today, so far, yelling at the phone to be sure things would be delivered at the right time, trusting Gem to manage the photographer and the models while I tried to resolve some last hour crisis with the production scheduled for tomorrow.

Stevie, the photographer we contracted to cover the shooting tomorrow has fallen sick today and let us know this morning he would not be able to work on the next few days. Problem is everything else is already booked, ready and set to go and it is with one of the crankiest fashion bloggers I've ever met and I'm already having headaches over the fact I'll have to cope with her all day long tomorrow.

I've been calling for every contact I have but it's too short notice and no one is available and not even hungry anymore, I have this pit feeling in my stomach that a disaster is going to happen and my head is starting to ache under this much pressure, but I can't help it. I need to find a solution asap or I will have to reschedule everything and lose a few thousand dollars over it.

By the time the video was finally shot, the clock marked around five pm and I'm officially worn out. I haven't eaten nothing since the lamen yesterday and I'm starting to see little black dots in front of my eyes.

"Billie, please, go eat something" Gemma tells me as soon as the director gives us the thumbs up, announcing that he finally is happy with today's work. "You are pale as hell, please go eat while I arrange things with the cast." Her British accent gets even more noticeable when she is anxious, I think that's cute.

"Oh, you sly little b***h" I roll my eyes to her "You want to be alone with that hot model, don't you?"

Gemma gives me a coy smile, shrugging and muttering something that sounds like if she can't touch them at least she can look at them and I giggle, shaking my head at her silly behavior.

We have this placed booked until seven pm, so I can eat peacefully while the rest of the team clean up and organize things for us to leave. There's a huge table set with all kinds of finger foods, juices and sodas, fresh fruits and almost everything one could imagine when they're hungry. That's my favorite part of big productions as today's, the food is always awesome, thanks to Gem who is the responsible for planning and ordering the meals.

I'm inhaling my second pepperoni sandwich when Gemma enters the room, her hair tied up in a messy bun just like mine, her face looking as worn out as I feel.

"Any luck finding someone to cover the shooting tomorrow?" She asks, sitting by my side and serving two big glasses of Coke for us.

"No" I sigh "Guess I'll be vomiting those sandwiches in no time, having to reschedule everything with less than eighteen hours in advance, this will cost a little fortune, Robin is going to kill us"

"Yeah but it's not our fault. If anyone has to die because of that, let it be the asshole who cancelled on us" Gemma shrugs.

"Gem!" I pretend to me shocked "He cancelled because he is actually sick! If he die, you'll be so f*****g guilty about it."

"Oh my God you're right" She covers her mouth with both her hands giggling "Gosh, we're screwed" She shakes her head "Unless..." She suddenly stands up, stepping away quickly and I sigh before standing and following her.

"Unless what?" I yell while I try to reach her "Don't you play that game with me sis, unless what unless what unless wha-"

"Shut up!" Gem chuckles, pressing her phone against her ear "Harry, hey, how are you, bun?" She starts talking at the phone and something clicks on my mind.

Harry, of course! How could I forget about him?

I mean, I don't personally know him but Gemma always talk so much about her little brother it feels like I'm already one of his best friends. He is younger than her, who is younger than me so I probably would look like his babysitter not her best friend but you got my point.

He is twenty-something and is kind of the black sheep of their family. Gemma is always telling me the craziest stories about him, like being catch in a threesome with two Victoria Secrets models by their boyfriends, or how he went out to a party in Ireland and ended up so drunk he woke up the next day dressed like Saint Patrick, sleeping on the couch of some local celebrity. He seems to have a wild life, a "you only live once" kind of way of seeing things and is very adventurous.

It's the total opposite from Gemma, who is the sweetest person I know and it's also very tidy, organized and somewhat predictable. Like me.

Anyway, he is a photographer and ever since he graduated on high school he's been travelling all around the world and what started as a hobby ended up turning to a career and he is quite known in the fashion field as one of the best and more edgy photographers of the current days.

Gemma told me he was going to stay a few days at her apartment here in Manhattan, which I totally forgot until like five minutes ago. I didn't know he is already here, but if he agrees on working tomorrow he will literally save my ass so I'm already grateful for him.

"My brother can cover Stevie tomorrow!" Gem announces, pulling me out of my mental gymnastics and I throw my arms around her neck, hugging her.

"Oh my gosh you're a life saver!" I yell in a high pitched voice "I didn't even know your brother was already here!"

"He arrived this morning" She says, hugging me back "Has been sleeping all day and complaining non stop in every waking moment that I didn't plan anything fun for us to do on his first weekend here" Gem rolls her eyes, but the way she smiles is full of love and care for her little brother.

Oh! Dominic, that's right!

"Well, sis, you resolved a problem of mine so I'll give you the solution for this problem of yours" I wink at her "Dom has invited us to a party at his house this Saturday, we can go and you bring your brother with us."

"Oh, really? How lovely!" Gem smiles "So we managed to resolve all of our problems today, yay for us!"

I give her a big, bright smile, my heart fluttering of excitement in anticipation to Dom's reaction when I tell him this night that Gem not only agreed on going to his party as she will actually bring her brother along.

If her brother is half as cute as Gemma is, I'm pretty sure it will be paradise for Dom's bi-s****l ass.

No pun intended.