Christina got an email from Collin’s assistant the next day. He informed her they hadn’t been able to nail Alexander down for a meeting until the end of the week. The meeting was on Friday afternoon at two o’clock in Collin’s office. 

Shortly afterward, Mark called her in to see him. He had not been himself since their meeting on Monday. He had been the ‘golden boy’ of the office, but in week two, he was more like the grouch who only surfaced from his trashcan to complain. Working for him the week before had been so pleasant and since the meeting, it was exactly how she always imagined work to be—a chore.

Christina closed the door (under his instructions) and sat down.

“Always close the door when we’re alone in here from now on, okay?” 

“Okay,” she drawled slowly.

“Sorry about what I said to you at the carnival,” he said. “I realized after you left you were probably right and working a more reputable job had to be your goal all along. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to get a job working as one. If you liked being an escort, then why even finish college? I overreacted and everything you said put things into perspective for me. I was being pigheaded.”

“Yeah, you were,” Christina said easily. “But I appreciate the apology. It shows you’re not really pigheaded. You just had a flare of panic. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks for that,” he said. “If I could, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Sure,” Christina said, thinking how handsome he was when he was humble. The way his head bent down thirty degrees was absurdly cute.

“How well do you know Dominic?”

“I’ve only met him those few times when you were around.”

“Really? It seemed to me you two must know each other much better than that if he’s trying to make you a model.”

“I don’t know where the motivation for that is coming from. I never told him that I wanted to be a model. Modeling isn’t on my to-do-in-this-lifetime list. I didn’t even know what he did for a living. So, he’s an agent for his brother, eh? I thought he’d do something more...”

“More?”

“Evil,” Christina finished.

“You don’t think being the agent of one of the highest-paid male models in our country is evil?” Mark asked dryly.

“Is it?” Christina asked innocently.

“I don’t know if Alexander would be what he is today if Dominic wasn’t willing to do everything he could to make sure he was a success. Dominic’s very persistent, strong-willed and very rich—which is why I couldn’t outbid him on Valentine’s. Sorry, Christina, but if I said I was willing to pay a hundred dollars an hour for you, then Dominic would have paid two hundred an hour. I never would have been able to outbid him. My year’s income doesn’t touch his. Surely you noticed he paid the whole bill for dinner at that fancy restaurant on Valentine’s?”

“Yeah, I noticed. I didn’t think anything of it, but Mark, you suck. You should have called and said you’d pay a hundred an hour,” Christina said, still thinking with her impoverished brain.

“What? Why should I have done that?”

“Because then I could have got two hundred dollars an hour from dating that blood drinker!” 

“You really did it for the money!” Mark laughed, seeing dollar signs fill her eyes. For one second, he looked like the Mark she knew the week before. He leaned back in his chair and looked content, but then a thought seemed to cross his mind and the mirth left his face. “Can I ask you a personal question about being an escort?” 

“Go ahead.”

“I was just wondering how detached you are when you play ‘Tina.’ Is the real you close to the surface or do you almost forget about your true self?”

Christina knew what he was talking about. Only a person who pretends to be something that they’re not will know what it is to deny yourself natural expression. “Well, when I was first doing it, there was no difference between ‘Christina’ and ‘Tina,' except in our appearances. We were the same and I was just putting forth the effort to make the man I was dating was comfortable. But, I think you’re right, as I got further into being her, my only quality as ‘Tina’ was feeling the needs and preferences of the person next to me and trying to do what would make them happy.”

“That’s what modeling is all about,” Mark said. “It’s about feeling out the photographer or the director and achieving the image they want. You’ll probably make a great model, even though I’m against it.”

“Why would you bother being against it?”

“One other question, Christina,” he said, sidestepping her. “Did you really tell all your dates you liked them?”

Christina shook her head. “Why would I do something stupid like that? It’s just a game.”

“What about what you told me?” he asked her, his eyes looking specifically interested.

Christina realized it was a trap. At first, she didn’t know how to answer him. Was it really okay to have an office romance with your boss? Christina had always thought your boss was strictly off-limits. He was the last person in the world you should try to date. It might look like you were trying to use him to get promoted… but Mark couldn’t promote her. He was new, too. All the same, she thought it was best to stay out of trouble. It didn’t matter whether she liked Mark or if she went so far as to think he was the best thing she had ever seen. She couldn’t get involved. “You’re too handsome for me,” she said flippantly, before excusing herself from his office.

“Hey! I didn’t tell you to leave,” Mark called after her.

So, she had to come back in, close the door, sit down like a good little girl, and pretend she hadn’t just been flirting with her boss.

“On Friday, don’t worry about coming in first thing in the morning,” Mark said, sounding like her boss again. “Your timesheet will be the same. I was just thinking it probably takes you some time to affect your transformation into ‘Tina,' so come in at two o’clock for your meeting with Alexander and then you can go home. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to keep it quiet in the office the fact they’re even considering you for the job of modeling for that campaign. If things go well and you’re chosen, I’d like you to keep it to yourself until the last minute. I hate office gossip.”

Christina nodded, seeing his point of view. She guessed ‘Tina’ couldn’t die quite yet.