Lucky Seven
Page 44
She went for a shower and was in the kitchen drinking tea with Lucy when she remembered that she’d left her phone in the bedroom. She ran down the hall to get it, but not before she had missed three messages.
She laughed at his obvious irritation as she replied.
She giggled and thought that he was being very playful, but he was right, he did win these battles, but the game was on now. She decided that after their fight and agreement on moving forward if not actually making up she felt somehow safer and more secure in teasing and taunting him. She might even go as far as to goad him a little later.
Tasha travelled into town with Lucy armed with Jim’s charge card but wasn’t entirely happy about using it.
As they sat on the crowded tube, Lucy broached the subject of work. “Suzie text this morning. She reckons the Natasha Winters collection is a goer and the store have contacted Angie with an offer.”
“I’ll speak to her today and ask her about it.”
“Will you do it?” Lucy asked curiously.
“I’d like to, it’s fun and pays well, plus if the dates work, I could invite Lizzie along.”
“Lizzie, Jim’s daughter?”
“Yes. She wants to be a model and has the height and the look, but is only fifteen.”
Lucy got to her feet as they approached her stop. “Chase it up with Angie and I’ll speak to Suzie later.”
Tasha headed straight to Angie’s office armed with coffee and muffins.
Angie looked seriously hung over with her pallor, heavy eyes and obvious discomfort that made Tasha laugh.
“You’re about early,” commented Angie.
“Yes, I have a busy day planned.” She grinned.
“Doing what?”
“Shopping. I am going to find lots of very pretty little things to wear this weekend, albeit briefly,” she smiled as she passed Angie a muffin.
“You are a very lucky girl with that Jim. I could really go for him.” She lit a cigarette. Then as she spilt coffee down her front shouted, “Fucking bollocks,” before she rummaged through her desk draw for headache tablets.
Tasha laughed as she thought that Jim would not go for a smoking, hung over, swearing Angie at all, mainly because he seemed intent on only going for her, Natasha Bailey. God, she hated that name, Bailey, and yet she always reverted back to being her when things were kicking off.
“Angie, I know you are a little delicate, but have you had anything come through about a collection of my own from the modelling shoot last week?” she asked, refocusing on the more important subject of her career. Her future rather than her past.
“Yes. It came through last night. Let me get my emails.” Angie grimaced, washing the tablets down with her coffee. “Right, here we go. A spring collection, to include: lingerie, casual, formal, evening and swimwear. They have increased your rate by twenty five percent and they would like it done in July. They are using some shots from the shoot last week in mags and papers too to launch the whole thing. So, you want it or not?” she asked bluntly.
“Yes, but let me check with Jim. Are the dates flexible?”
“Yes, as long as it’s July,” said Angie. “When will you speak to Jim?”
Tasha checked the time. “Ten a.m. now, so two a.m. in L.A. Jim is usually up at six, so that would be, after two this afternoon.”
“Just let me know ASAP and I’ll call them and get contracts sorted.”
Angie’s phone blasted into life making them both jump.
“Angie Carter,” snapped Angie. “Oh, hi, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, okay, yeah, yeah, no, no, okay. Email it me now and I will speak to Tasha and get back to you immediately, bye.”
Tasha was staring at her expectantly.
“That was Niall, you didn’t get the defence barrister role, but you must have been a complete bitch yesterday because they have offered you the role of the prosecuting bitch face cow. They were concerned by your age, but they reckon make up will age you.”
Tasha leapt up, jumping up and down clapping.
“That’s a yes then. I will get the details verified and contracts ready to sign. You are going to be really busy for a few months, Tash. I hope your man isn’t expecting too much time with you.”
Tasha shook her head, figuring that the change in studio location hadn’t been disclosed to her agent. “On the contrary, I am going out there in a few weeks and will come back for the collection shoot. I can probably get back to L.A. before I have to start being the prosecuting bitch face cow and once the location shoots are done it’s back to L.A. for the studio work.”
Tasha explained the change in studio location.
“Which studio?” Angie asked suspiciously.
“Jim’s, but he didn’t organise it, I checked. But I didn’t want Niall to think he had to give me a job because of my boyfriend or because of you and his wife.”
“Ah, he mentioned us then?”
“Yes, he did, but didn’t hold it against me. Now I am going to spend some money on pretty things, so I will call you later when I’ve spoken to Jim.”
Tasha bought three new pairs of shoes; a pair of black sequinned high courts, a nude pair of high peep toe sling-backs and a pair of silver, glittery, strappy high sandals. She was shocked at how easy she found it to buy things, but had struggled to use Jim’s card so had split the cost between his and hers. That seemed a little crazy when she remembered that he had paid off her credit card bill. She decided she would charge further purchases that afternoon to his card.
When she sat down for lunch at a coffee shop, she saw it was already half past two. She ordered a cappuccino and a chilli chicken wrap and composed her text.
They were definitely moving into sexting with his play on overcome and cum over making her giggle out loud, oblivious to anyone around her.
<‘Tis already warm, positively hot and rather wet now. Tx>
Her teasing of Jim was backfiring slightly. She was beyond turned on now and she still had an afternoon of shopping and two more days and nights to get through without him before she was likely to get any kind of relief unless she could talk him into another date.
As she eyed her lunch that had just arrived, Tasha called Angie and gave her the green light for both jobs. She then forwarded the dates to Jim and Amanda, the latter who immediately emailed her back with her revised schedule that now had other entries for her free time in July and August. A quick text to Angie with available dates for the shoot was followed by one to Lucy to confirm she would be doing the collection. With her phone away, she ate her lunch and had just finished it when her phone beeped. Tasha hoped it was Jim. It was Lizzie.
Tasha laughed out loud again, but this time at Lizzie’s ability to act so innocently, yet so inappropriately. She’d actually told Jim about boys at school offering to buy pictures of her scantily clad. That really was funny. He had quickly told her about the trip in July so maybe he felt guilty about not letting her tag along this time.
With Lizzie hopefully on her way to school, Tasha headed back to the shops. She bought some very soft and expensive nightwear; a silver grey satin chemise, a sheer chocolate brown baby doll and a full length, black satin and lace negligee with a front split to the thigh. She didn’t really need underwear, but bought some anyway; a lilac set, a nude set and an ivory set from the bridal collection, complete with suspenders and silk stockings. She also bought a taupe wrap over dress with a plunging neckline, but appropriate with its length reaching her knees. She’d probably got everything she needed when she received a text from Jim.
Nervously, Tasha waited for a response. She knew he was likely to take exception to her not charging her shopping but it didn’t feel right. It made her feel uncomfortable so maybe they could discuss that when they discussed money at the weekend. She hadn’t even considered how long she could claim to be refusing to discuss marriage and anything related to it when his response arrived.
So, whilst she was thinking of discussing money and how she wanted to spend her own money and not feel as though she was being procured as some kind of kept woman he was intent on discussing marriage, a marriage that would see her more kept than anything else.
my ass pink. I think next two days will be very long. I may choose not to discuss marriage, but I do want to discuss money. Tx>
“Bastard,” Tasha muttered to herself as she realised her playing, tormenting and goading had backfired in spectacular style and if anything, all she had done was torment and tease herself into something of a frenzied ball of arousal. Friday really was going to seem like a lifetime away.
She went back to the same shop she’d visited the previous week and picked up the items Jim had asked for and threw in a couple of other items too.