Sweetest Sin: Bad Boy Bundle

by Delilah Wilde

  "Did he say that?" I was suddenly burning with curiosity. I hoped that Vince hadn't let on about the intricacies of our relationship to my boss. I could see her losing a bit of respect for me if she found out how I had actually got into contact with a guy in such an important position. Contrary to popular belief, sucking dick to get good articles was usually frowned upon in our industry. I would never hear the end of it if Jennifer found out.

  "Yeah, he did. He was kind of worried that he wasn't able to get through to you. But you figured that out, didn't you? I'm sure you've talked to him since then," she said. I nodded. I'd become an expert on lying these days. It seemed to come so naturally to me now that I didn't even have to think about it.

  "Oh yeah, we've talked a lot."

  "That's good," Jennifer put down her coffee cup and looked at me intently, "Look Lola, I know I can be a real hard ass at times. I have high standards and I like to stick to them. But they're only that high because I know that my staff are capable of achieving them. Maybe I don't say that enough." OK, Jennifer's body had seemingly been taken over by aliens because those words couldn't possibly be coming out of her mouth from her own free will. Her tone was gentle. Apologetic, almost. I had no idea how to react so I stayed silent.

  This was the right thing to do. Jennifer went on.

  "I know I was very hard on you in particular. It may have even seemed like I was bullying you, but that really was not the case. I was so impressed by your portfolio when I hired you, you have no idea. I just wanted to keep pushing you until you surpassed what you had done before. You were great, Lola. But I wanted you to be amazing," she smiled proudly, "And it worked! You've really pulled it out for this shoot, honey. I think it's all going to go very smoothly. By the looks of things, this could be one of our best shoots in years. It's all thanks to you."

  This level of praise was far too much for me but I took it as gracefully as I could. I couldn't exactly tell Jennifer that yes, she had been a bitch to me and made my life a living hell. That my idea had only come to me because I was afraid of her. I wanted to say that, but I couldn't. I said something else instead.

  "Thank you."

  It was like Vince's texts always were: short, simple, and direct. I thought that Jennifer's spiel was over now and she'd want to return to yelling at Ernesto's prop placement, but she wasn't finished. She looked at me and took a deep breath, not letting that unnerving smile budge from her botoxed face.

  "I think that hard work should always be rewarded so I've made decision. I want you to continue to work from home four days a week and come in on Fridays. It should cut down the cost of the commute for you and allow you to focus a little bit more on your work. I'm sure you'll come up with a lot more wonderful ideas like this when you're under less pressure."

  I was taken aback. The last thing I expected to hear was this. Working from home sounded like a dream come true to me. Yeah, I had a lot of co-workers who did it but they had been working for Jennifer for years. They had earned her trust. Had this shitty photo shoot really earned me that many brownie points?

  All I could do was repeat myself.

  "Uh...thank you! Really, thank you! Thank you so much, Jennifer!" I said. She looked to be pleased with my reaction.

  "You're welcome. If you keep up this high standard then we can talk about a raise in a month or two. Now, let's get back in there and do this photo shoot!"

  Vince

  I really didn't want to go to the photo shoot. I considered pulling out and telling them to get another company but that would be a jerk move. I couldn't leave them high and dry after I'd promised to be involved. I was a dickhead, but not that much of a dickhead.

  I suggested that Brett might want to go in my place. The two of us owned the company together after all. It just happened to have my name on it. He turned out to be just a little too enthusiastic about the idea.

  "You want me to hang out with models all day? Sure buddy, I can take that bullet for ya," he winked. I groaned. That wasn't going to work. I would just have to go along myself, like I said I would. Brett still insisted on tagging along with me, but that wasn't so bad. I could keep him under control.

  "We literally only gotta go in for five minutes, say hi to everyone and thank them for showing our products. That is it. Then we're out of there. You got me?" I said, trying to make the conditions clear. Brett had a tendency to get distracted by pretty faces and we'd be seeing a lot of them today. He nodded in agreement.

  "Five minutes. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. Wave to the people. I can do that. Cross my heart!" he said. I looked at him doubtfully.

  "You won't get distracted by the girls?" I asked. He looked offended. "I said cross my heart! You have my word."

  Brett's word turned out to mean very little. As soon as the two of us stepped into the studio he got distracted and ran off to see if he could help the girls get into their outfits. The place was chaos. There was a seemingly enormous group of male and female models. Some were getting their makeup done, some were putting on various strips of leather that barely counted as clothing and some were bickering with each other in the corner. The photographer was doing test shots on a girl who sat sidesaddle on one of my bikes as if it was a horse. There were racks upon racks of clothes all over the room and further piles of clothing tossed on the floor.

  Even in all of that chaos my eyes found Lola immediately. She was helping one of the male models apply some tattoo transfers and giggling as she did. I hadn't expected her to look that happy without me.

  She barely glanced at me before she went back to what she was doing. I just stood there, suddenly feeling really awkward.

  I didn't have to stand alone for long as I was soon greeted by the person who was obviously Lola's boss, Jennifer. She squealed when she saw me and ran straight over, wrapping me in a tight hug. She looked exactly as I had imagined -tall, slender and stiff, dressed immaculately without a hair out of place. The warmth of her hug was the only thing that surprised me. Maybe she wasn't such a bitter old bitch after all?

  "Vince, it's so lovely that you could show up. Sorry about the state of the place. It can get a bit crazy when we're doing such a big shoot," A barely dressed model ran past and was unfortunate enough to be the subject of Jennifer's rage. Her voice deepened to an almost satanic level and she screamed "No running on my set! Last warning before you're out! Don't think we can't replace that flat ass of yours pronto!"

  Then she turned back to me and gave me that sweet smile again. Wow. I suddenly had a new found respect for Lola. It couldn't be easy working for someone like that.

  "It's great to be here," I said, "My business partner Brett and I just wanted to see how things are going. We don't want to get in your way or anything, so we won't stick around long."

  It was my way of saying that I really, really didn't want to have to interact with Lola. Jennifer didn't take the hint.

  "Nonsense Vince! How could you possibly be in the way? We need you to stick around to make sure we're showing your products in a way that's true to your brand. We would hate to publish anything that could misrepresent you."

  I tried to argue but this lady couldn't be argued with. Truth be told, I didn't fully want to leave. If I

  did then I might never see Lola again. In the past, that was what I thought that I wanted. I now knew that it wasn't true at all.

  I asked if there was any way I could help out and Jennifer looked around for something for me to do. Her eyes locked on Lola, who was still helping that stupid male model with his shitty tattoos and laughing with him as she did it. I knew before she said it what she was going to suggest.

  "Ah, Lola could probably use some help at the tattooing station. We want the boys to be covered in them. It really adds to the look, I think," Jennifer glanced at my tattooed arms, "Unfortunately we don't have many models that come in like that, so we have to make do."

  "You got it," I said and I walked over to Lola's station. Her conversation with the boy toy ended abruptly as soon as I came over
.

  "Can I help you?" her voice was cold but polite, like she was working in retail and I was a particularly difficult customer. I hated it.

  "Actually, I'm here to help you," I picked up a transfer from the pile that Lola had and pressed it down on the models arm, while he looked on in horror. Lola rolled her eyes at me.

  "That's the wrong placement, Vince. This is all planned out. We don't just slap them on and hope that things work out. There's actually some work involved here," she said. I shrugged.

  "It's my brand. I think the tattoos look better like this. More authentic."

  The model, who had been watching our conversation unfold with a terrified look on his face, finally spoke.

  "Uh, are you guys married or something?" he asked innocently. The two of us responded at the same time with a similar indignant tone.

  “No!” we both said. The model looked genuinely fearful of us now. If it wasn't such an awkward situation it might actually be funny.

  “Why would you think that?” frowned Lola. The model just shook his head.

  “Sorry, it's just the way you guys argue reminds me of an old married couple,” said the asshole. I wanted to punch him but I realized that might not be a good idea in this instance. I wanted to punch him even more when he looked up at Lola with lovey dovey eyes and added, “I'm glad you're not married, Lola.”

  “I'm glad too, Josh. Now let's get these tattoos on you,” she said. Then he beckoned her forward to whisper something in her ear. She giggled again. I felt like I was interrupting an intimate moment between the two of them and it was making my skin burn to think about it. How could Lola get over me so quickly when I still felt so shitty? Yeah, I'd never had a problem moving on in the past so I understood how it worked. You moved on because you didn't give a shit. Lola obviously didn't give a shit.

  We continued to paste the stupid fake tattoos on the stupid model, Josh or whatever he was called. I was silent but the two of them kept laughing and joking with each other. I hated it. What the fuck did she see in him?

  It didn't matter. She was over me and I had to accept it. I didn't have to accept him though.

  Lola

  Vince was just as annoying on set as I had expected him to be. I could see that he wanted to talk to me very badly. He kept trying to nudge me away from Josh or make excuses for Josh to leave. “Why don't you get us coffee?” he said to the poor guy. Josh looked at me, confused. He was handsome but definitely not the brightest spark. He had a little crush on me and the attention was nice but it didn't mean anything. Of course an idiot like Vince would have to interpret that the wrong way. I shut him down right away.

  “If you want coffee you can get it yourself. Josh's job isn't to run around after you. He gets paid to look good, and he his doing a very good job at that,” I said. OK, so maybe I was rubbing it in a bit. Josh looked pleased. Vince looked furious. I had really ticked him off now.

  “Hey, who owns this company?” he said, looking at me. “Are you fucking serious?”

  “Yes, I'm serious. Who owns the company?” he asked. I didn't say anything this time so Josh spoke for me.

  “You do,” he said. Vince nodded.

  “That's right. So if I tell you to leave us alone and go get us some coffee, you do it. Is that OK with you?” said Vince, though it was clear that Josh didn't have a choice. He nodded rapidly and cleared off to get his coffee before Vince could fire him from the shoot.

  I sighed and sat down in Josh's seat. The room was so busy and loud that no one had noticed our little disagreement. Jennifer was too busy scolding some of the newer models to even notice. It didn't matter anyway. She had been in such a good mood with me this morning that I couldn't quite see her firing me over a little argument. I looked up at Vince.

  “Was that really necessary? You gave that poor boy a heart attack,” I said. Vince made a face at me, obviously annoyed.

  “Oh he'll get over it. If he wants to be a model he should probably get used to people telling him what to do and being rude. Most people in the fashion industry are like that,” he said. I wasn't sure if that was a dig at me but he was putting me in such a bad mood that I decided to take it that way. “That's really mature of you to insult me like that. So you think I'm bossy and rude?”

  Vince shrugged and poked through the pile of leftover tattoo transfers with a scowl on his face. They weren't the most impressive things, especially to someone as into tattoos as Vince, but Jennifer had insisted that we use them.

  “You're bossy enough and you can be pretty rude,” he answered thoughtfully. That was bullshit. I had been nothing but polite to him since the night we met. If anything I was too polite.

  “How do you figure that I'm rude, you asshole?” I asked. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on me. I just really wanted to call him an asshole, because he was acting like one. "Calling me names like that really doesn't help your case, to start with," he said. There was a small pause before he went on, as if he was thinking whether he should say what he wanted to say or not, "And it was pretty rude of you to flirt with that douche bag in front of me like that."

  It was such a mean thing to say and so blatantly childish too. I opened my mouth to argue with him but was interrupted when Josh returned with two cups of coffee in his trembling hands.

  "I got your coffees," he said, forcing a smile. I didn't blame him for being frightened. I wouldn't have wanted to get between one of our arguments either.

  Vince didn't even look at him. "They look cold, try again."

  "But...but I just made them!" said Josh. Vince waved him away without taking his eyes off me. "If you want this job you'll try again. And make them hot this time."

  Josh didn't argue. He knew better than to argue with a guy like Vince. Unfortunately, I wasn't as clever about that. I needed Vince to hear me out.

  "So I'm the rude one? You don't even know that guy and you're treating him like shit just because you think he was flirting with me. Which he wasn't. Even if he was, it wouldn't be any of your business," I said.

  Vince folded his arms.

  "He was flirting with you and it is my business. This is a shoot for my products, isn't it? And I think he was being unprofessional," he said, and then added, "And you were definitely flirting back."

  I didn't even bother to deny it. What was the point? "Why do you care?"

  Jennifer suddenly bustled past and asked us if we were doing OK. We both forced smiles and insisted that we were doing really well and ridiculously excited for the stupid photo shoot until she left us in peace.

  Vince's expression changed back to serious. I hated when he looked at me like that. It made me feel all sick and confused inside. I felt that way often enough lately.

  "You didn't let me explain what happened the other night," he said solemnly, "You just ran away without even hearing what I had to say."

  "Yeah. Well I guess I didn't think what you were gonna say would be any good," I said, "You can say it now if you want. I'm technically working for you so I'm pretty much obliged to listen." Vince told me about Sophie his crazy stalker. He admitted that he had fucked her, once, a while before he met me. She hadn't gotten over him since and had continued to act in a rather psychotic manner. It sounded legitimate to me. The girl didn't seem quite right when I met her at the mall. Despite that, I still didn't feel good.

  Vince finished his story and looked at me expectantly. He was waiting for me to call him a liar and laugh in his face. I didn't do that.

  "I believe you," I said softly. Vince looked taken aback, even more so when I continued to speak, "But it doesn't matter."

  "Huh?"

  "It doesn't matter. We fucked a few times and it was great, but you don't want anything more from me. And even though the sex was good it's been more trouble than it was worth this whole damn time. I'm so grateful that you could help me out with this shoot and I hope you know that, but I think that whole Sophie thing was a sign. It was the last straw. We shouldn't be together. As boyfriend and girlfriend,
as friends with benefits. Whatever. It's all too stressful for me."

  It was only when I'd finished speaking that I realized I wanted Vince to argue with me. I wanted him to grab me and tell me not to be an idiot, that we were meant to be together and I had meant so much more to him than just a fuck buddy. That I could call him my boyfriend if that was what I really wanted.

  He didn't do that.

  He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine and I had no idea what he was thinking but whatever it was, we weren't on the same page about it by a long shot. Before he could speak Jennifer interrupted.

  "OK everyone! The shoot is starting! Get into your places and whatever you do, do not piss me off today!" she said.

  "OK," said Vince. That was it.

  Vince

  I left soon after the shoot began because I didn't want to be in the same room as her anymore. I just couldn't do it. Jennifer tried to get me to stay but I told her that I wasn't feeling good and that I needed to leave right away.

  “That's such a shame,” she sighed, “We really enjoyed having you around.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. Brett will take over for me, won't ya buddy?” I said. Brett, who was helping one of the models adjust her tiny shorts nodded eagerly at me.