“You okay?” Angela asked.
“Yeah, but as soon as that man starts talking I’ll be even better.”
Angela could not help but smile.
“You got a thing for Richard?”
“Who doesn’t?” Natalie asked. “He is gorgeous.”
“You don’t think he’s a bit old for your type?”
“My type is sexy and he is definitely that,” Natalie said.
“I have to agree,” Angela revealed. She was not sure that Natalie would even remember this conversation later.
“Oh, do you now? It’s good to know that you can take your nose out of the books every now and then, Miss Summa Cum Laude.”
“Yes, I do have a life outside of the books,” Angela said. “But just be careful talking like that around Naomi. She’s liable to stab us with a broken beer bottle.”
Both girls laughed at the extreme imagery. Angela wasn’t sure if Naomi would actually do that, but it was not completely out of the question. Naomi could get very hotheaded at times and she had been in several fights in her life, although most of those were in junior high. All the same, Angela had seen her pull a girl’s hair out during one altercation, but Janie Ackerman had it coming. It was amazing how she still remembered stupid things like that, Angela thought to herself.
“It might be worth the risk,” Natalie said. “Besides, she has to grow up sometime. She can’t be too protective of her dad; you know about his reputation. He beds down any woman who moves practically.”
“I don’t know if that is whole-heartedly true,” Angela said.
“Neither do I, but you can’t deny that some of the rumors have to be true.”
“Says who? This industry is filled with nothing but gossip and rumors and lies.”
“Well, have I touched a nerve? You seem to be defending Richard an awful lot here,” Natalie said, giving her a look.
“What if I am?” Angela said. She felt weird admitting it out loud, but after it was out, it did have a certain liberating quality to it.
“Well, then more power to you. As far as I’m concerned he is fair game,” Natalie said.
“I think I’m already winning.”
“What makes you think that?”
“He just offered to help me get some modeling auditions and told me how beautiful he thinks I am. He was flirting hardcore with me just before you came back.”
Natalie turned to face Angela, a look of disbelief and shock on her face.
“No way,” she said.
“Yes. He’s helping me put together a portfolio and knows a great photographer who’s going to help.”
“That is unbelievable. I told you that modeling was in your genes!”
“Well, hold your horses. There are no guarantees here, but things are looking promising. At least with Richard’s help I might get my foot in the door.”
“But the question you have to ask yourself is what does he want in return?”
“I don’t think he necessarily wants anything and if he does then he is sorely mistaken. I’m not sure I want there to be a real thing with us.”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “You are such a little girl; you’re not a woman.”
“What?” Angela said.
“You know it’s true. I have never met someone who is afraid of relationships more than you are.”
“I’m not afraid. I just don’t like wasting my time and I don’t want to pursue someone if I don’t see the possibility of it being something special.”
“You expect to actually pick out your future husband by knowing someone five minutes? Admit it—that is weak, babe.”
Angela was not sure if she should have been mad or just continue to laugh it off. She knew that Natalie was drunk and that Natalie was still mostly kidding, and she was making some valid points too. That was probably the thing that was pissing her off the most; she hated it when other people were right.
“I just don’t have it in me to casually date,” Angela said. “To me, it just seems like such a hassle.”
Natalie busted out laughing.
“It’s supposed to be fun! Stop attaching so much meaning to everything.”
Angela shrugged. She was trying to find a way to deflect the conversation to something completely different when out of the corner of her eye she saw Naomi waddling back over to her.
“Wow. That was Darren! He looks great and he has a very successful job, but I still can’t talk to him! He was trying to talk to me about how many times he’s been to Harry Potter World. What the hell?”
The three girls shared a hard laugh. Angela wasn’t a bit surprised. She didn’t think anyone could change that much. She always remembered that Darren was obsessed with Harry Potter and magic and other childish things.
“Excuse me, ladies and gentleman.”
Angela’s attention was instantly drawn back up to the podium that had been set up in one corner of the large living room. Richard was standing up there waiting for everyone to stop what they were doing. The music had stopped a split-second before he began to speak and the new silence was odd. Angela felt herself being a bit dizzy for a second but it was over almost as suddenly.
“I am so honored to have you all here tonight. We come here to celebrate a few things. As always we are celebrating being alive and enjoying great times with great friends, and we are ushering in what hopes to be another amazing New York Summer.”
Everyone began to hoot and clap. Richard patiently waited until they were done before continuing.
“But tonight, we are also celebrating the fact that my daughter has just graduated from college. As a father you always want the best for your kids and you want to see them do well, but at the same time you learn not to raise the bar to an impossible level and to let your child know that you are proud of them no matter what they do, as long as they do their best. But when your child constantly blows your expectations out of the water, you just have to shake your head in wonder and marvel at how you are so blessed to have such an amazing person call you ‘father’.”
Angela felt herself being moved by the speech as Richard stood there. He spoke slowly and with love and affection entering into his deep, masculine voice. She could hear the kindness and the affection that he had for Naomi.
As Angela glanced at Naomi, tears were falling down her face. It was not often that she received words of praise like this from her father, or at least that was the way Naomi felt. Angela often wondered, though, if she purposely shut her father out of her life a bit because he cheated on her mother and she blamed him for the divorce. It had been so hard on her, but she had to see that her mother left the country and practically left her daughter’s life because she wanted to; not because of the divorce. Her father had tried to do the best he could.
“So, tonight we are gathered to celebrate my daughter’s accomplishments and to wish her the best in her future endeavors as she takes on the world. And I want to wish the same sentiments to all of you who have children in similar positions. I know I’m not the only one. So, everyone have a blast tonight. This drink is on me.”
Everyone cheered, their voices becoming one loud cacophony of sound that blasted inside of Angela’s ears. She was not expecting such a sudden round of applause, but she found herself joining in too. That was one of the best toasts that she had ever heard.
She turned to give Naomi a pat on the back, but she was already gone, running towards her father to hug him. As she and her father embraced, Angela found that her feelings for him grew even deeper still. There was so much about him she didn’t really know, but she was dying to find out. The man was full of love and affection for his daughter— maybe Naomi was finally starting to see it.
Angela hoped so, anyway. It was painful watching her friend exclude her father from her life and reject any gestures he made her way.
Maybe one day Naomi would wake up and just come to her senses about it all. Meanwhile, what was she going to do about Richard? Would he actually do the things he said he was going
to? Was she going to be getting a call from a photographer?
She really hoped so. She had a feeling that her life was about to change.
Chapter Four
“There we go! That’s beautiful!”
The camera clicked about six times as Angela tried to hold the pose. It was not quite as easy as it looked, to keep the same pose several times and to pretend that her mouth was not hurting like hell from smiling for the past two hours straight. But she loved it. It was exhilarating. In fact, she didn’t know why it had taken her so long to make this leap. Even if she never became a huge modeling star, just being in front of a photographer’s camera was enough for her. There was something so captivating about having someone focus that intensely on you that sent shivers up and down her spine and goosebumps all over her body.
It was the sort of excitement, she supposed, that she should have been feeling about graduating from law school and landing a nice associates job at a prestigious law firm, but it didn’t compare to this. That was one of the things about having a passion and having something that you did because it was safe or expected of you.
“Wow, that is great,” the photographer, Nick Barnes said as he sat his camera down. “You can take five while I make a few lighting adjustments. Great work, Angela.”
It had only been three days since the night of the party and Angela was already in the photographer’s studio working on her portfolio. She’d received the phone call the day before out of the blue from Nick Barnes himself. She had not actually heard of him before, but after the call when she googled his name she was surprised to know that he had done quite a bit of great work. He was an up-and-coming photographer who would probably be working with the top models and top agencies in a few years if he continued to climb. The man had an incredibly good eye and an innate ability to grab the perfect shot.
After he had taken the first group of pictures, he’d shown them to Angela to get her opinion and at first she just could not believe that it was really her. She looked like someone had taken the idea of her and somehow transformed her into something perfect looking. It was the way everything came together—the lights, the wind machine, the background sets, the makeup, the wardrobe and the hair. It was all so perfect and it created an impeccable product. For the first time in her life, she realized that she was becoming truly convinced that she could really do this thing. Richard had been right. What a keen eye he had.
Nick and his crew—which consisted of Jessica who did hair, makeup, and wardrobe and his friend Allan who did set design, lighting and wind—went to work on moving things around and changing the background theme. They were working on some office girl type of shots and Angela was wearing sexy versions of business attire, with her cleavage a bit more amped up and the skirt designed to accentuate her curves in just the right way.
She felt a bit weird about it at first, but once the camera started clicking and Nick started giving her direction she very quickly lowered her guard and got really into it. There was something so freeing about just letting go and allowing yourself to become immersed in being someone else. When she was in front of that camera she could be whoever she wanted; she had nothing to answer for and she didn’t have to be embarrassed about anything either.
It was all about her—that was the thing she liked the most. Her whole life she hadn’t really had the freedom or the opportunity to make something all about her. She was surprised by how much she liked it and she wondered again why she had waited so long. But every time she asked herself that question she would always hear an inner voice answering: she had been afraid because of the stigma her parents attached to modeling and her dream. Somehow, she had internalized the feeling and decided that she was not really good enough to make this happen.
But now here she was. And she was good enough. Her pictures were coming out stunning and fabulous.
Her phone buzzed right then. She was getting a phone call from an unknown number. She hesitated for a second, wondering if it was some stupid telemarketer trying to get her to buy lightbulbs over the phone again or a boat of some sort perhaps. She usually ignored these calls, but she was feeling good so she decided that she would answer the phone and maybe even insult this nuisance caller.
“Hello?”
“How’s the photo shoot going?” the voice said on the other end. She recognized it instantly; it was Richard.
“Oh my God! It’s so great!” Angela said. She was trying to hide the enthusiasm in her voice slightly so that it didn’t make her sound like a complete tool.
“That’s what I like to here.”
“The photographer is fantastic and the pictures are turning out amazing.”
“Yeah, Nick’s the best. And I knew that you were meant to do this.”
“Well, I appreciate all of your support and I don’t know how I could ever thank you.”
“Well, how about you meet me when you’re done. We can have lunch,” Richard said.
Angela had to do a double-take and replay what he’d just said in her mind to make sure she wasn’t dreaming everything.
“I’d love to.”
“Great. I’ll text you the details,” Richard said. “See you soon. I don’t want you to keep Nick waiting.”
Before Angela could say anything the call was disconnected. She looked at the phone as if asking herself if that had really just happened. This day could not possibly get any better.
“Okay, Angela—we’re ready. Jess will show you the new wardrobe for this set.”
Angela nodded and followed Jessica to the dressing room.
The rest of the photo shoot lasted about another hour. Angela was having so much fun she never wanted it to end. It was like the culmination of all her dreams and fantasies of playing dress up that she’d had since she was a little girl. And now she was going out on a date—albeit a lunch date, but still a date—with perhaps the sexiest man she’d ever known.
Jessica showed her the wardrobe and left the room. As Angela got dressed, she wondered what Richard would think of her right now. Would he like the outfits she was putting on and would he like the windows of time when she was not really wearing much of anything?
As she stepped back out in front of the camera, Angela realized that she truly felt like a princess right then. She had always wondered what it would really feel like to be famous or have the spotlight placed on you. And though she was really not famous at all, having her own photoshoot with such an amazing group of people felt pretty close, she thought.
And now, she was ready to go to the ball. Her prince awaited her.
It was perfect. The candles, the basket, the beautiful handcrafted quilted blanket, the bottle of champagne, and even the fancy glasses and the romantic music playing in the background—it was all perfect. Richard had set up everything to resemble something out of a classic romance novel. It was the type of fantasy that every little girl playing with her Barbie doll dreams of but deep down knows will never really happen because no guy on Earth is willing to be that cheesy. But it’s the cheesy things that often pull the heartstrings in just the right way.
Angela had received a detailed text from Richard telling her where to go. He had asked her to meet him in the park. It was a small park that she didn’t even know existed. It was set back from the road in a wealthy neighborhood on the Upper West Side. It had taken her almost forty minutes of weaving through midday traffic to get there and she was really hoping that something exciting was going on or she was going to be very disappointed. Then she saw it.
The picnic was the sweetest thing she had ever seen. Richard must have hired a crew to set it all up so perfectly and if she didn’t know better she would have sworn that he had rented out the park for the afternoon because she saw absolutely no one else there, except for the small orchestra playing beautiful, romantic music about fifty feet away from them. It was four men dressed in tuxedos with finely-crafted and shiny, freshly polished instruments. It was the kind of group you would find at a five-star Italian restaurant, bu
t it was all right here.
Richard was standing in front of the picnic. He was wearing a pair of designer jeans, a black t-shirt and a black sport coat; he reminded her of the Hank Moody character from Californication. She was suddenly wishing she had dressed up a bit more, but he had been very vague about what was going on. She had expected maybe a simple walk on a pretty, early June day, but this was well beyond her expectations.
“Hello, my lady,” Richard said as he reached out his hand. His hand was thick and warm. It reminded her of more naughty thoughts that she kept tucked away for rainy days. She had a huge file in her mind of delicious thoughts about Richard that she was coming to realize might turn into reality sooner than she ever thought.
“Wow, this is too much…” Angela began.
The tears stung her eyes as she came closer to the picnic area he had set up. She was not sure why she was suddenly crying, but Richard seemed to understand that she was just overwhelmed by the beauty and the romance of everything. No one had ever done anything this romantic for her before and it was something she knew that she would never forget. And if things didn’t work out with Richard, she doubted it was something that anyone would ever do for her again.
Richard bent down and kissed her hand before pulling her gently closer and wrapping her up in a warm embrace. She thought for a moment that he might try to kiss her and her mind went into a panic because she was honestly not sure she would have been able to stop him, but she didn’t want that to happen this soon. This was, after all, barely a first date—a lunch date. But of course, Richard had turned it into the most romantic moment of her life, which might have explained why she felt like this was their tenth romantic encounter.
Richard smelled sweet as honey. She could not place the arousing scent that he wore as his cologne, but it was dreamy. That was the best word she would have used to describe it because it instantly made her want to fall asleep in his arms. And if he wanted to have his way with her while she was visiting The Sandman then that might have been okay with her. Of course, she would never really want that so soon, but the temptation was there. Oh, baby, the temptation was there.
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