by Laney Castro
“Anything I might have seen you in?”
“Nothing major,” Madison admitted. “Just blink-or-you'll miss me roles in local commercials and one police procedural. I was a Hungover Hooker. I haven't even merited a Victim Number One yet. I also do some catalog shoots and print ads, but Stroke really is my big break.”
She saw him wince. “And I almost made you lose it. Sorry about tha—”
“Ground rules, remember?” she interrupted. “We said we wouldn't talk about that.”
He nodded in understanding and was quiet for the rest of the trip, the silence between them mercifully filled by the Japanese band's pounding beat. Madison wondered if she was too harsh with him but couldn't find a way to take it back. She wanted to touch the back of his hand on the wheel, but decided against it. In the end, she just waited until Aaron brought her to a restaurant in Monterey Park. He didn't seem to mind the drive and neither did she.
She had to agree that the place had a great view. The lights along the freeway darted across the scenery, but it was the restaurant's dramatic pathway with its small lit candles that gave the place a romantic glow. It felt like she was on a first date, and when Madison glanced over at Aaron, she couldn't help but blush and accept that maybe it was.
True to his word, Aaron tried to steer the conversation away from their earlier close encounter. Over grilled chicken nachos for appetizers, he asked, “You're really not swimming in tomorrow's shoot?”
Madison raised an eyebrow. "Haven't you had enough of me in a swimsuit?"
He grinned. “Not really. I wouldn't ask you out otherwise.”
Damn that blush that crept up her face again. “Shut it, hotshot.” She tried to regain her composure. “I can swim fine but I can't do any of the underwater stuff. Maybe I'll get a couple of frames by the poolside or in the water, but nothing that would require serious swimming skills.”
“You never learned?” He sounded curious. “I could teach you.”
“I only learned the basics from the community pool. It's enough, so really, you don't have to bother,” she told him, leaning over to get a generous helping of guacamole and melted cheese on her chip. It wasn't every day that she indulged, so she slowly savored every bit. “Thanks for the offer though.”
“It'll be a skill,” Aaron said matter-of-factly. “Imagine how many more modeling jobs you could job— I mean, book… if you learned how to eat… I mean, swim…” His voice trailed off and she could see him shake his head at his sudden bout with tongue-tiedness.
“Are you okay?” she asked in concern, licking a stray dollop of cheese from her fingers before leaning forward. “You look a little flushed.” And incoherent, she wanted to add. She wondered if it had anything to do with the way she was lavishing attention to her fingertips right now.
Aaron shook his head. “Oh, no. Perfectly lips. Perfectly fine, I mean.”
Madison shrugged as she gave him a knowing grin, but she was considering his offer. He made a good point about advanced swimming skills a plus in modeling and acting. There were plenty she could learn that would give her an edge over the other girls. “Okay,” she said.
“Okay what?”
She laughed. “Okay, maybe I'll take you up on your offer. Are you okay, Harding?”
“Call me Aaron,” he said, pushing the plate towards her. “More nachos?”
She ducked her head in a sudden display of shyness and took another chip to distract herself. “All right. Aaron,” she said softly. “Call me Madison.”
He just sat there in silence, waiting for her to finish eating, with a look on his face that could have melted her. “All right,” he said finally. “Madison. Madison. Madison." It felt like he had been saying it forever. He smiled. “Madison.”
“Shut it, hotshot,” she told him laughingly but all throughout dinner, she felt a tingle in her heart every time he said her name. She teased him over the speed with which he put his bistec del rey away, like it was something she'd done with him forever. Like she had been irritated by his habits forever, like she had counted on his strength forever. Like she had looked for his smile and reached for his hand forever.
“I'll drive you home,” he told her afterwards. He offered her his arm and for Madison, it was the most natural thing in the world to take it, lean against him ever so slightly, and say yes.
Chapter Six
When Aaron got back to his apartment, he immediately hit the gym. He still had so much energy to burn after that day. Did that really just happen? Bombshell redhead gets him off and walks away. And he let her. Damn, how he wanted to find out what she really felt underneath his body. She was cream and curves and when he closed his eyes, he could see the fiery look in her eyes when she knelt before him, the impatient way her nipples stood out and begged to be touched. But after he had driven her home, he didn’t try to press his luck. They still had another full shooting day tomorrow and then… who knew? He didn’t want to complicate their strange relationship by sleeping with her so soon, no matter how hard his body ached for her.
Like the unexpected hand job wasn’t strange enough.
He kept replaying that scene in his head. How hot she was when she knelt down in front of him. How much he wanted to pull her up and kiss her full on the mouth before taking her against the wall. How he wanted to hear his name on her lips, those full luscious lips, and feel that tongue of hers that just won’t quit.
Most of the girls he met were vanilla-sweet. Or wholesome, sunny, save-the-world granola.
Madison Thomas, he decided, was neither.
Ever since he had started competing and winning, everyone outside his coach and family had started treading carefully, as if they were afraid to displease him. He’d always thought he was the good sort, being raised in a good home, and the polite side of him would always take over. But Madison had no qualms about telling him off and calling it as it was. He found her directness refreshing and in a weird way, he felt both relaxed around her and sexually wound up to distraction.
But tomorrow was their last day together. After that, he would be back to his old routine with Coach Didion. Early start. Pool at seven. A short break, then back to the pool in the afternoon. Dryland training with his conditioning coach. Cool-down massage to end. With the Splash Circuit meet looming, he needed to make up for the couple of days of training that he had missed.
Splash Circuit was a triple-city meet with one of the biggest prizes around (including a brand-new car), but for Aaron it was the perfect way to get back into the competitive mood. Four other friends from his swim club also qualified for the meet, eyes on the prize. But unlike his teammates at the Downtown LA Aquatics, Aaron was not after the money, not really. He lived from training to training. He had just gotten back from a second-place finish for the 100-m at an international meet, but he had missed a podium finish for the 50-m by a fraction of a second. It wasn’t his most impressive showing this year and they all knew he had plenty of work ahead. After Splash Circuit, it would be off to Colorado Springs for camp and physical testing, then even more grueling training for the Summer Nationals. His last girlfriend hadn’t liked the schedule at all but Madison didn’t seem to be the type to be easily put off by a busy routine. And he wanted to get to know her more.
He was about to start on pylos—best for all that damn energy—when his phone rang. He paused the One OK Rock song to reply. “What?”
“Do you really greet everyone this way or am I special?” a petulant voice came on.
“What’s up, Zoe?” Aaron asked. Despite his curt tone, he actually enjoyed talking to his younger sister. With only eighteen months between them, they were pretty close.
“Did you ask them if I could show up at the shoot tomorrow? Say yes, say yes, say yes.”
Aaron laughed. “You’re good. They said you could come, if it was for school.” His sister was an interactive media major. “Just don’t take photos.”
“I promise.” She paused. “Are you at the gym? You sound happy. Too happy for the
gym. Too happy for ten o’clock.”
Aaron hesitated. But Zoe had a way of finding things out eventually so he decided to just come out and tell her. “I guess I met someone. A model at the shoot. Things look… interesting.”
“What’s her name?” she wanted to know.
“Look, Zoe, I don’t want you to be stalking Twitter accounts or seeing if she’s on Tinder,” he told her sternly.
He could almost see her shrug. “It’s cool. I’m going to be there tomorrow anyway and I bet I can tell which one she is. After that I’m not going to be responsible for any of my actions.”
Little sisters. “Is that the only reason you called?”
Her tone turned serious. “Dad wants to know when you’ll be done dicking around. That’s a direct quote.” She paused. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell him you’re training even now.”
It was only then that Aaron realized how tightly he had clenched his jaw. Things hadn’t been the same between his dad and him ever since he decided to go pro right after college. He thought his dad would be pleased that he was devoting all of his time to training long course but it only seemed to drive a wedge between them. “Let him know the shoot ends tomorrow,” he snapped.
Chapter Seven
“Urgh. Do you seriously drink this?” Madison’s older sister Mackenzie asked, scowling and holding the glass of juice cleanse at arm’s length.
She laughed at her sister’s reaction. Even through a video call, Mac’s doubt was evident. Madison had propped her phone up on its stand by a dresser, giving her sister a good view of her tiny studio apartment. “You’re the one who wanted to eat healthier,” she reminded her. “Just do it for the next couple of days, it’ll be good for you.”
“But orange, carrot, and kale?”
Madison shook her head as she rifled through the laundry on her bed. How many more nude thongs did she need today? “Look, you can’t call me just to question my methods. At least not this morning; I’m heading out. Got that Stroke shoot, remember?”
“I remember,” Mac said. “It’s all Mom can talk about, but Grams thinks posing in a swimsuit is just one step away from doing adult videos. I swear, I think she Googles you and dreads the day she’ll find your name in one.”
She shuddered at the thought of her grandmother looking at porn sites. “Tell her I have better sense than that,” she retorted. Things weren’t so bad here that she’d do those in the first place… well, not yet, anyway. But there was an uneasy knot in her stomach, one that she chose to blame on her own juice cleanse.
Mac smiled, not seeming to notice anything unusual. “So how was Aaron Harding? Is he as cute in real life as he is on TV?”
“Mac, I need to go...”
“What, not even a little update?”
Madison sighed. “He’s not exactly my most favorite topic at the moment.”
Her sister looked disappointed. “Why not? He’s not a douche, is he?”
Suddenly, Madison’s phone rang. She hastily ended the video call with her sister and sent out a silent apology for not saying goodbye . But one look at the name and she knew she had to take this call. “Hi, Sandra,” she greeted. Sandra also worked as a barista at Common Grounds, and was supposed to be filling in for her shift later. “Anything wrong?”
“Plenty,” the older woman snapped. “You know you were supposed to ask me if I could cover for you before my shift started.”
“I did!” Madison protested, tucking the phone between her ear and her shoulder to free up her hands for a last-minute check. Keys. Granola bars. Towel. Change of clothes. Extra thongs (finally). Heels (one never knew). “Days ago! Besides, Pablo knew; he was the one who told me to ask you.”
“Well, he didn’t say a word until this morning,” Sandra insisted. “Which is beside the point because it was your responsibility to tell me, not his. What, not even a text last night?”
Last night she had been too caught up in Aaron Harding to think about her shift, but that was also because she thought everything was already fine. She caught a glimpse of the clock and cursed herself silently. If she didn’t get going now she was going to be late, but she couldn’t go if she didn’t find a solution to her shift. And she wanted to be early, today of all days. “I’m sorry but I swear I texted two days earlier. I even cleared it with Pablo. Are you saying you can’t do it now?”
“That’s not what I said,” Sandra said, which made Madison want to hit her head against a wall.
“So you can cover for me?” Madison asked, trying to keep her voice even. What is your problem, woman? she wanted to scream.
“Yeah,” her co-worker replied. “Just tell me earlier next time.”
I’ll ask someone else next time, Madison thought, but out loud she said, “Thanks, Sandra, I owe you.”
She thought she heard Sandra sniff and mumble something about models before she ended the call, and if Madison wasn’t in a hurry, she might have called back and given the woman a piece of her mind. She was already struggling to make ends meet. It wasn’t easy holding down two jobs in LA, and the last thing she needed was to have someone think that she expected things to be easy for her. For once, she wished people knew how hard she worked to get to where she was.
That was why she was in a bad mood by the time she got to the shoot. Even though she still arrived five minutes earlier than she had yesterday (a moment of victory for anyone who has had to brave LA morning traffic), she was still feeling shitty. The icing on her pity party came when she was wandering about and saw Lakeisha talking to Aaron Harding, only to have a laughing Anna join them a minute later. Both girls were already in monokinis that showed off their trim bodies. Anna' swimsuit in particular was cut awfully low and—did that idiot's eyes just go there?
She stomped away in search of wardrobe.
“Madison!” she heard a voice shout behind her.
Madison quickened her pace, pretending not to have heard Aaron but the swimmer easily caught up with her. He grabbed her arm from behind and she brushed him off, irritated. “I need to get changed,” she told him as she whirled around.
Why did he have to be so damn handsome? Madison had an unobstructed view of his clear gray eyes. He was already wearing racing trunks that emphasized the powerful muscles on his legs. She remembered having such a good view of them yesterday… Then she blinked and blushed and the moment was gone. She stepped away from him.
“You didn't even say hi,” Aaron said, surprise in his voice.
Madison tried to soften her tone. “Hi, hotshot.”
“Hey, I was thinking, maybe we could ditch the catered lunch and—”
He expected her to roll over and thank her lucky stars? After she caught him flirting with those other models? “Tell you what,” she interrupted him. “Let me go and get changed and see what shots I need to do first and we can talk later.”
He raked his fingers through his hair, mussing up what looked liked his already styled 'do. "Oh. Right. Of course. Work first." He backed up and threw her a tentative grin. "Sure, let's talk later."
Seeing his puzzled expression made Madison hesitate. "Aaron…" she began then sighed. "Look, you don't have to come and be all nice to me on set. It's—" She was about to say that it was 'embarrassing' but another look at Aaron's eyes and she softened the blow. "I don't like calling attention to myself. People already have this low opinion that every model’s a prima donna. You probably won’t believe me but I'm actually a bit shy."
"You? Shy?" Aaron looked incredulous. "Aside from…" Madison's eyes widened when she thought he was going to mention yesterday out loud, but instead he just cleared his throat. "Well, you certainly make your opinions known."
She shook her head. "Just to you, hotshot. Believe me, this is not a habit of mine."
"All right, as long as we're cool, I should just let you go on to wardrobe, right?" he said, giving her a once-over that told her that he was already picturing what she would look like in today's swimwear.
Madison rolled her eyes, pushi
ng him away. "Go, will you?" Despite the abruptness of her words, Aaron still smiled before jogging back to rejoin Anna and Lakeisha, a move that summoned Madison's bad mood back. This was going to be a long day.
Chapter Eight
Aaron had had girls throw themselves at him and even encountered the odd proposition now and then. But he hadn’t been with a woman who did all that and then suddenly act like she couldn’t wait to get away from him. He shook his head. He didn’t want to even guess what went on inside a woman’s mind, even if she was as intriguing as Madison Thomas.
Maybe Madison was really just shy and wanted to keep things professional while they were here. That he could understand. When he was at a meet, he tried not to let anything wreck his focus. It was just him and the water and the wall. Everything else faded into the background.
But a photo shoot wasn’t the same as a competitive meet, at least not for him. There were just too many distractions here. Case in point: Anna something or other. The older blonde was pretty in a Barbie kind of way and she certainly made it known that she was attracted to him. If she were food, she’d be an overripe mango—luscious and fragrant but probably a messy affair when you got right down to it. Aaron was glad he didn’t return the attraction, because it definitely made talking and flirting with her much easier.
“Do people recognize you more now?” she asked, leaning forward. They were seated by a bench, waiting for the crew to fix the underwater strobes according to the photographer’s demands. Chatting with Anna was a good way to pass the time.
“They did during the few weeks right after the Olympics, but only a number of hardcore fans stop me on the street,” he confessed. “I guess I look different with clothes on.”
Anna giggled. “I can be a good judge of that,” she said with a coy smile. She leaned back to where her robe was and retrieved a phone. “I think a friend and I saw you one time around USC. It was around lunchtime and you were wearing some kind of sweatshirt.”
