In the end, I couldn’t get the job at the university library, nor any other job on campus on such short notice. And because I had bills to pay, as well as my tuition, and my monthly public transport pass, and all these stupid things, I had no other choice. 

Panic flooded over me staring at my bank account draining itself lower and lower. And so, I reached for Thomas’ business card a whole two weeks or more after he’d given it to me, and called. Only a few seconds, it rang, and my heart thumped with each sound, until a little shuffle stopped my heart, and a polite woman appeared on the other end of the line.

“Vice President Bruin’s office. How can I help you?” 

With how nervous I was, I totally forgot to answer. Thomas was totally the real deal, huh? With his own secretary, and now, even though I’d already known through my online search, that president title felt all the realer. I gulped, and her voice ripped me out of my thoughts.

“Hello?”

“Um—!” My voice broke, and I clenched my eyes shut, took a few deep breaths, and tried calming myself. “Thomas, uh … I mean … Mr Bruin told me to call you … for some positions.” 

Now, it was the secretary that hesitated. She didn’t believe me! She totally, totally thought I was some gold-digging, stupid kid, didn’t she?! But then, her voice was as friendly as before. “Ah. What was your name?”

“It’s … Felix.” I wondered if she flipped through an agenda, or scrolled through something on her PC with the delay she forced me to endure. 

“Oh! There it is, yes,” she then said, even friendlier than before, and question marks and a thumping heart arose within me. There it is? As if Thomas … had told her? What?

“Do you have a portfolio you could send us, Felix?”

“No, I don’t…” 

“Oh, that’s alright. Tomorrow morning at nine, there’ll be a casting for an upcoming campaign for a new product. I’ll put you at the top of the list, and you can present yourself there in person.” 

“S-Seriously? Just like that?” 

“Of course! Mr Bruin’s recommendations are always welcome, and tend to be the perfect fit.” 

Always, huh? Do you hit on younger guys and girls just to get them to model for you? Is that your game, Thomas? 

Well, I had nothing else lined up, and I had no time to debate about what kind of guy Thomas truly was; whether he had hidden agendas or whatever. Well, it wasn’t really hidden when he’d admitted rather quickly he was flirting with me, and interested in me. 

I can’t tell what he’s thinking at all! I don’t get it! 

“Tomorrow, then … Okay, I’ll be there.”

“Let me write down your email, and I’ll send you all the details.” I exchanged my contact info with Thomas’ secretary, and it only took a few minutes for the location and time of the casting to arrive, and it still felt surreal.

A model casting … ? For me? I had no portfolio, no experience, or anything like that. There was no way they’d pick me. 

Not wanting to come empty-handed, I printed out my resume, instead, with all the stupid side gigs I had had until now, and with my college on it and all these things, but when I arrived at the casting the next morning, skipping class for it, I was completely overwhelmed.

They cared little for my resume, and I was surrounded by so many beautiful people, I felt hidden away, and a little too shy to speak up. 

It was the casting managers calling names one by one, and mine was mentioned at the very top of the list, the very first name, and I followed back into a separate room, where a camera was propped up pointing at a white wall illuminated by a bunch of ring lights.

Instantly, I got the feeling of a professional setting, and in a sense, I was relieved that Thomas hadn’t scammed me or pulled me into something shady. As soon as I entered, the two women responsible for the casting smiled at me gleefully, and one of them immediately approached me, positioning me in front of the camera. 

“Oh, my! You are beautiful!” She giggled, smiling all the brighter as she played with my strawberry-blond hair, running her fingers through it and adjusting it in the way she liked it most. My hair wasn’t short, but it wasn’t long, either — it was in an awkward limbo in-between, but it gave lots and lots of freedom to style it however I wanted. 

“Look at those golden eyes! So coppery, and a little gray … they’ll pop beautifully on camera! What’s your experience, honey?”

“Uh … nothing, really,” I mumbled, blushing at all the compliments they gave me. 

She gasped, as if she couldn’t believe it at all. 

For a test, to see if I was photogenic at all, they took some simple photos of me, checked them at their computer next to me, and altogether, they seemed to be in unison with their opinion. Even the photographer nodded at the two managers, and they smiled right at me and told me to come again in another week, which is when the shooting would take place. 

And that easily, I had gotten my first modeling gig out of sheer … luck? Did they really mean it when they’d said I looked beautiful, and that I fit perfectly for their campaign? Or did they say it simply to please their vice president, who’d recommended me? 

During the photo shoot the week after, it was mostly focused on my face, and I was supposed to hold up my hand, holding onto the face cream they wished to advertise, with some it glossing on my cheek. 

They took some photos where I smiled, some where I simply looked at the camera, and a bunch of different head-tilts and simple poses. 

Of course, I felt awkward having everyone stare so intently at my face, but with every photo they shot, they seemed happier and happier, and in the end, they all clapped their hands and thanked me for the successful shoot. 

And when my payment reached my bank account a couple days later, I couldn’t believe it. 

“H-Hold on, that’s got to be a mistake … right?” I stuttered to myself, twisting and turning in my bed as I stared at the numbers on my bank account. 

I had only worked for about three to four hours that day, and half of that had been them putting makeup on my face. And for those few hours, for that little effort … they had paid me 600 dollars. 

“That can’t be right!” I squeaked. “T-That’s so much more than the other side jobs I’ve had. I had to work, like, two weeks on minimum wage for that!” And now, for one session? No way! No way, no way, no way! 

Gnawing at my nails, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I’d just scammed them! I was a newbie, and I was sure I had done millions of mistakes, and yet, they still paid me so, so much? It felt illegal! Like I’d broken the law to get this kind of money! 

It was already rather late in the evening when I saw my bank account like that, so filled so quickly, and I gulped. My eyes darted over at my desk multiple times, and before I knew it, I had reached for the receipt that carried Thomas’ phone number. 

My fingers trembled, and I misspelled every word at least ten times as I texted him. I was way, way, way too nervous, and also, I felt bad, because I had had his number for about three weeks or so. Not once had I considered texting him, too embarrassed and too confused to do so, but now … I gulped, and hit send, squeaked and hid my face inside my pillow. 

[22:31: Felix: hello … this is Felix, from the bar. Thank you for helping me out with a job, but I was wondering if there was a typo in the payment …]

I didn’t get a text message back. What came, instead, was a ringing phone shaking me awake and forcing me into a horrendous panic mode. Why did he call me?! Why, why, why?! 

When I picked up, my voice was an embarrassed squeak. “H-Hello?”

His deep voice vibrated through my ears, rumbled deep into my heart. “Hello there, Felix. I’m glad it worked out for you.”

“T-Thanks to you,” I whispered.

“What’s wrong with the payment? I can ask my secretary to look into it if there was a mistake. You should be properly compensated, after all.”

“N-No! That’s not, I mean—I got paid too much, I think…”

“Too much?” Thomas couldn’t comprehend how anyone would ever complain about something like that. A scoff crept out of him, as if he thought it adorable. “Shouldn’t you be quiet and happy about it, then?”

“B-But—“ I didn’t like taking advantage of people. I didn’t want to get paid for doing nothing. “It was 600 bucks … I’m a newbie, though…” 

“Ah.” Thomas chuckled right into my ear. “Believe it or not, that’s our rate. It was an important campaign, and if they chose you, you deserve every cent.”

“B-But I barely worked three hours, sir—“

“Do you always use honorifics when you get embarrassed?”

I blushed on my side of the call, dropped my head into my pillow, and simply grumbled, too overwhelmed with it all. And Thomas just wouldn’t stop with the compliments.

“When you mentioned needing a job, I immediately thought of that campaign for you. That gorgeous face of yours suits our cosmetics perfectly. That pay is rather little, if you think about where your picture will be seen.” 

“H-Huh?”

“Magazines, and online advertisements … At the cosmetic and drugstores, too, of course.” 

I gulped. I hadn’t thought about that at all! If I took pictures like that, of course, they’d be everywhere! Suddenly, I turned nervous and giddy all the same, and my whole body shook, overwhelmed with the nerves of it all. 

“If you did well, they’ll contact you again for further campaigns. We’ve got quite a lot lined up.” 

Could this really become … a good side gig? Could I really make money off of that, enough to pay my bills and go to school without stress? I gulped. “Sir—“

“Sir,” Thomas chuckled on the other side. “Goodness, get that habit out of you.” 

“T-Thomas, I … Can I say that I was a bit disappointed? I don’t know why I thought you’d be there … at the shoot.” 

For a few moments, Thomas was silent, and I could only hear his steady breath. Then, he took an even deeper breath, and his handsome voice robbed me of all my senses. “I am a busy man. But if you wanted to see me that badly, I suppose I should have cleared my schedule for you.”

I squeaked, and muffled my voice by pushing my face deeper and deeper into my pillow. “That’s not what I meant! No, no, no!” 

An attractive chuckle on the other side, and my heart raced. 

“Sir—“

A sigh.

“Thomas … Do you do this … a lot?”

“Whatever do you mean, darling?” 

Stop! Stop, stop, stop! I can’t handle that at all! Stop!!! 

“Your secretary mentioned your recommendations are always great. Is this what you do? Flirt with a bunch, and if they reject you, you give them jobs, instead? Or maybe half the models that work for your companies, you’ve already slept with—“ 

“Goodness.” Thomas sighed again. “It seems you’ve got quite the wrong impression of me.” 

“… I do?” 

“I don’t mix business with pleasure,” Thomas explained with a steady voice, and I believed him instantly, feeling all the more embarrassed to have accused him of such an abuse of power. 

“I’m sorry … I didn’t mean to pry,” I whispered into the phone, and Thomas chuckled once more. It’s none of my business, anyway! What was I thinking, asking something like that?

“Well, I don’t mind if you do,” Thomas said into the phone, his voice as serious as it could be, bringing jitters down my body. He deepened his voice, didn’t he? To provoke me. “I don’t do this a lot either, if that is what you’re wondering.”

“Y-You don’t?” 

“You took my breath away, the first time I saw you. I had to let you know, or I thought I’d regret it.” 

“… Why?” Now, my voice was barely a breath, and my heat already overheated. 

His next words completely ruined me. 

“Because I don’t think you realize how truly stunning you are.” 

A whimper of mine crept out of me. Even if Thomas only cared about my looks, to hear how I had bewitched him … it did something to me. 

And when he heard my silly tears, all Thomas did was chuckle. “My, aren’t you a weepy one, darling. What’s there to cry about?”

His compliments were too much for me, and my heart raced, and I wondered why Vince could never be this nice to me.