" why are we here, if you don't mind me asking," I say, turning to see Zuri. 

" Well, since your closet is being cleaned out, I figured you needed new clothes asap...". She replies as she turns to a group of people and gestures for them to come over.

 " Oh, Ayah this is the design team six, their manager, Marcus, and the photography team. Everyone, this is Ayah our new model." While she introduces us I go around shaking their hands. 

" Marcus here will be in charge of your new wardrobe," Zuri says, eyeing Marcus and me while smiling.

 " Hello Ayah, why don't we just get into it since we're late enough as it is," Says Marcus as he leads us to the back of the huge room where rows and rows of outfits are displayed.

" So, what exactly is going on here, am I just gonna be fitting clothes all day? or... " I ask looking at Zuri. She in turn eyes Marcus and suddenly clears her throat. I guess Marcus catches whatever that was cause he, not very convincingly says he has something that he forgot to check up on then excuses himself. 

Zuri then moves so that she's in front of me and says" Okay well today is your debut as our official model so apart from finding you a new wardrobe we're gonna be modeling all of our fits on you and taking different pics on different sets."

" Welp, there goes my day then, huh" I reply as she goes around grabbing clothes with a trolley as she moves. 

" Why don't we go move to the fitting room and start on these," she says as she leads the way to a door with the name fitting room written on it. 

Everything moves so fast, people are all around carrying clothes, cameras, and props in all directions of the room. But even in this madness, Zuri is the only person I notice, she moves elegantly to the room while pushing the trolley full of clothes. 

" Why do you always have that look in your eye when I look at you" Zuri says, breaking the mist in my mind.

"Um, what look?" I reply while I try to get my footing.

 " That look you have right now, it's like you're on cloud 9 or something. .. and now you're blushing."

" I honestly don't know what you're talking about" I reply as I try to get rid of the pointed-out expression on my face.

" Okay, madam honest." She giggles "Well take your clothes off, we have a lot to do today and not a lot of time" She starts sorting out the outfits then suddenly stops as she notices I'm not doing anything but standing still. she stares at me with a blank face and a shirt in her hand. I stare back at her while scratching my head, wondering if I heard that right. 

"Aah, just to clarify. are you telling me to get naked?" I ask, with a cocky smile. 

"Oh! No, I meant dress down so I can take your measurements, but not all of it. Just up to maybe your bra and... you know what, you can just stay like that, whatever you're comfortable with...." She keeps rambling on for a few seconds looking at everything except me, playing with the shirt and scratching the back of her head, so adorable. I think I broke her, She seems to be having a malfunction. Taking pity on her and this whole situation, I decide to end her misery, " It's okay, I know what you meant" I reply to her as I give her a warm smile and start slowly undressing, 

" So, where do you want me?"

 Zuri slowly points to the circular stand in the middle of the room while staring up at the ceiling. There's a thick tension in the room as I pick up my clothes and head to the stand. She slowly lowers her head to the ground and starts to untangle the measuring tape, blush decorating her cheeks.

" Is this what you always wanted to do, be a designer I mean?" I ask, trying to strike up a conversation. She smirks and moves closer to me. "Yeah, I've always had that passion for the art, making outfits from my own hands gives me a certain feeling of accomplishment that I just can't seem to get from anything else I try to do" she gestures for me to put my arms up as she stretches a measuring tape to my mid waist. " what about you, Is modeling all you've ever wanted to do?"

"I've always wanted to open my very own cozy coffee shop" She writes something down after taking my waist measurement then moves to my hips. "But Jaden, scouted me before I was old enough to leave the orphanage, and so here I am. But it's not that I don't like my job now, it's only temporary. One day I'm gonna retire and open the Coffee shop."

She jots down on the notebook and then moves to my shoulders. "Oh, you were raised in an orphanage? That must've been tough."

" Nope, it was not bad. The sisters were like mothers to us and they provided the basics we needed. They didn't even have a problem with any of us getting a part-time job as long as we kept our grades up. Anyway, what about you, how was your childhood?"

Zuri goes quiet for a while then answers "It's exactly what you'd think, I'm from a well-of house, Both my parents are loving but they like to push me to my limits, hence the whole publicity thing. Anyway," she clears her throat "we're done so just fit these outfits for me and we'll pick it up from there" she replies as she laughs and hands me a pile of clothes. 

"You have nice abs," she compliments as I head over to the closed dressing room. 

"Thanks, I have to look good for the woman I like and for work of course"

"I didn't know you were dating, not that I have to know. that's none of my business." I can practically see her now, blushing and scratching the back of her head.

"Well no, I don't have one, but I do have a crush on someone. She is this amazing woman, who has accomplished a lot at her age but she doesn't seem to be getting the hints I throw at her, what do you suggest I do if you were in a situation like mine?" I step out and look at her for approval. The outfit is pretty basic just an evening dress. She blushes, takes a few pins from the table next to her, and walks up to me

" Oh, I wouldn't know, I've never been in a situation like that, but maybe you should just flat out tell her" She adjusts the dress at the bottom with the pins while I stare at her, she abruptly stands up and we meet eye to eye with our faces inches away from each other. 

Zuri quickly moves away, blushing" Umm, you should get out of the dress, be careful about the pins then we'll take it to get sown down for the shoot in the meantime you can wear this for the first shoot"  She hands me another dress then clumsily gathers her sewing pouch and heads to the exit.

Maybe I should take her advice, who knows this might be her way of communicating with me. As I stand there staring and the exit door, I feel a smile creeping in, A high feeling of a new challenge unlocked