The Model Couple [on hiatus]

🌻 Chapter 37

🌻

"Daaaym, did Hometown just get me hard?" 

My mouth drops open in shock, everyone else laughs. I glance over at Haydie and I can see the mischievous twinkle in his eye. He's teasing. I give a playful glare back at his inappropriateness. In my mind, I imagine they will use Hayden's joke as a teaser to get people to come back from a commercial.

I started blushing as soon as our pictures started and I'm sure I've gotten redder and redder as the pictures got more racy. I take a deep breath I'm so glad its over.

Don't get me wrong, the pictures are amazing. It is just hard to see sexy photos of myself up on the screen. Compared to what Cinna created, the other photo edits looked amateur. Cinna was able to get everyone into stunned silence. 

The whisky guy clears his throat. "Is it possible we could see that last one again?" 

The other judges nod in agreement and I even see some models nodding. They want to watch ours again? I cringe just a bit. My cheeks were just starting to go back to a normal color.

But gosh, I am now realizing that those pictures will never be gone. They will always be searchable on the internet. Most of the racier ones go by quickly but once it's on Youtube they can be paused and screenshotted. Max is really, really going to hit the roof over these photos. Pictures of me touching someone other than him? Kissing another man? Come on, he'll never let me out of the house again. And it looks like we had sex, even though we didn't. Max won't care, it looks like we did. I'm toast. Complete and utter toast. The burnt kind.

I don't know how, but Ry can tell I'm freaking out. He pulls me closer and lifts my chin with his finger. He whispers, "You okay?" I just nod but I can see in his face I'm not hiding anything from him. His penetrating eyes see my worry.

Chris starts the whole video over again and I see things I missed the first time around. Placement of fingers, facial expressions. We are totally into each other. The chemistry between us is unreal. Cinna used the dance studio mirror to show Ry's face and hand positions that wouldn't have otherwise been seen. Genius. 

I'm struck this time by Ry's expression of adoration as he looks at me. I'm giving him the same look back. Either we are amazing actors or Ry and I actually look at each other this way. I wish I could say we were acting but I remember these photoshoots. At the gazebo, the kitchen, the bedroom, Cinna never gave us direction about putting love into our eyes, we did that on our own. As if I didn't already have enough to freak out about here.

It goes without saying that we win first place. The whisky guy buys our edit to put on social media and he also wants us to do another photoshoot for his company. But honestly I don't know if I can go through with it. I don't think this is something I want. Modeling may not be for me, it isn't like I ever dreamed to do it. I just wanted to travel. Now that I've gotten that, I'm not sure I can do this for much longer.

I'm caught in my head and I completely miss them awarding the advantage. It barely registers when Hayden chooses to keep Ellie instead of switching to Sharmin. And I'm only marginally coherent to see Sharmin and Karthik leave.

Chris ends things by showing us the new package video. "Next week we have a client that has sold their product for over a hundred years." The theme is Decades, the movie shows old pictures from the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. Iconic pictures. It's hard for me to get excited about it though when I don't think I want to be a model anymore. 

Rhiannon steps up, "Models, take a fifteen minute break then we have a surprise for you in the theater. Don't be late!"

I turn to go but Ry grabs my hand as the whisky guy approaches us. He shakes hands with us and tells us how much he liked our pictures. I try to smile and nod but I'm really having a hard time focusing right now. He tells us about what he has in mind for our photoshoot.