Disguised as a Nerd

Chapter 18

Vanessa's POV

I'm met with Asher walking towards the direction of us. My heart races as I see how he looks tonight. He is wearing a black tuxedo that compliments his good physique. Yet somehow he decided to do nothing with his hair. It's still untouched giving it a cute but messy hairstyle. 

He reaches us and does a handshake with Noah and Ethan. Then he greets Amelia who is beside me. I'm next so I begin to get nervous but I'm determined to not show it. 

"Good evening, I'm guessing you are Miss Vanessa Lee?" he asks politely.

Right, I forgot. I'm not their friend, Vanessa Collins.

"Yeah that's me, and you are?" I ask fitting into character.

"Asher, Asher Martinez," he says extending his hand for me to shake it. I shake his hand but I feel like I should know something else. Where have I heard the same last name again?

He turns to stand next to the guys and Ethan passes him a drink. 

"So, Vanessa what's happening tonight?" Noah asks.

I advert my attention to him and respond, "well we will have a little runway to show off some new designs soon."

"Miss Vanessa they need you in the back," Rose informs me. I nod at her and look back at the guys. I murmur a quick goodbye and head to the back as quickly as I can. Once I get there I see everything was going fine, everyone looked ready but then I see a girl in her chair with tears threatening to fall. I look to see that it belonged to Liz, my youngest model.

I quickly head towards her and kneel down to comfort her.

"What's wrong?" I ask her with concern.

"Please don't be m-mad," she whispers.

"I won't, I promise," I assure her. She looks up to meet my eyes and extends her hand to reach a part of the gown she is wearing. I look down to see a long tear in the gown. I look up to her again to see her trying to avoid my gaze. 

"Liz, it's fine, we can think of something," I comfort her. I'm honestly not mad. I can't be mad at her when she is like a sister.

A year ago I took her in, to work with me since her family was not in the best financial situation. Her dad died and left her mom, her year-old brother and herself all alone. I decided it would be best for her to work with me and little by little she got to a position where she can help support her family. 

As I think of a solution to this, suddenly I get an idea of how to fix the dress. I ask her to take the dress off while I work on it again. I figured I had enough time to fix it until it was her time to be on the runway.

I sit down and collect all the things I need and quickly get to work.

-

I take my seat in the front of the runway and see my models come out one by one. I can say that so far, they've done so well. I see Amelia come towards me and takes a seat next to me.

"What was the emergency? It looked pretty bad by the way Rose called you," asks Amelia.

I sigh. "One of the gowns that is going to be modeled tonight ripped, I don't know if the people will like it," I admit. 

"Don't worry it'll be okay," she responds. 

I'm nervous, what if they don't like it? I don't want to disappoint anyone. I start praying that what I did to the dress is enough.  

 I see Asher, Noah, and Ethan standing at the other side of the runway. All of them looked focused, staring at every model with stern faces. Shit, they will be disappointed as well but my attention is quickly taken away as I see how the crowd reacts at the new model that has entered the runway.