The Following Afternoon
‘Paige?’ Poppie’s voice startled me and I jumped, pulling the duvet down to peek out from under it. She’d obviously nipped back during her lunch break for something to eat, as we weren’t supposed to be seeing each other until tonight. ‘What’s wrong? Why are you hiding in here in the dark? It’s after one, I thought you had a shoot today?’
‘Ma whipz uh throwern,’ I mumbled, not needing to pout. That bloody glue had reacted with them and I looked like I’d had a quadruple course of lip fillers at once. ‘Ma dong do.’
‘Ma dong do? What the hell are you saying?’ she giggled, as she padded across the room and flicked on the bedside light, then gasped as she saw my face. ‘O. M. G! Your lips are super swollen and blistered.’
‘Datz wah ah zed. Ma dong do,’ I nodded, sticking it out for her to look at. I’d had to call out an emergency doctor in Paris for an allergy shot and he’d prescribed medication and called Shauna for me, who let Jean-Claude know I’d need at least a week off until my face returned to normal.
‘Ahhh, “my tongue too.”’ She put her hand in front of her mouth, but I could see her shoulders shaking. I giggled when she finally burst out laughing. ‘I’m so sorry, I know it’s not funny, but have you seen yourself? What happened?’ She plonked herself on the bed next to me and gently ran her hand over my hair.
‘Gwoo, on da whips,’ I pointed.
‘Glue on the lips?’ she chortled. ‘O dear. Have you had an allergy shot?’
‘In ze zazz.’ I nodded and pointed at my bottom. ‘Tabiz do.’
‘Tablets as well? I think you need one now, as you look like hell.’ She shook her head as she gazed down at me with pity in her eyes. I nodded, so she reached over to get one, popped it, and handed it to me with my water, which had a straw sticking out of it. ‘Did you get glue in your eyes too? They look really puffy.’
‘Awick made me qwhy.’
‘Awick,’ she frowned. ‘Alec? Alec was there? What did he do to upset you?’ she demanded, anger suddenly flashing in her brown eyes. I shook my head. It wasn’t his fault, he’d not done anything wrong, it was me. Me and my messed-up emotions. I felt tears stinging my eyes again as I looked up at her.
‘Nuffin, Pwoopie.’
‘Pwoopie,’ she giggled. ‘I know it’s not funny really, but Pwoopie?’
I startled giggling again, she started laughing, which made me snort, and she laughed even harder. Before I knew it, I’d forgotten all about my tears of sadness and the two of us were in stitches with tears of laughter rolling down our faces. She decided it would be fun to ask me to repeat things she knew I couldn’t say properly and we spent the next twenty minutes howling with laughter, but eventually my melancholy caught up with me and I started crying for real. Proper sobs like a tiny child who’d hurt their knee and thought they were dying. That was how I was feeling right now. I’d let down my barriers and acknowledged my feelings, and it was both shocking and painful. More painful than my poor lips and tongue right now. She captured my hands and squeezed them tightly.
‘Talk to me, I promise not to laugh again.’
‘I wuv him, Pwoopie. I’m in wuv whiff him.’
Light My Fire
It was four days after my shoot with Alec. Four days since I finally admitted to myself just how deeply my feelings for him ran. The night I had my allergy shot in Paris, Vivian told me that rumour had it Tiffany was telling everyone that she and Alec were serious, that she thought he was going to propose to her soon. That had been the icing on a seriously shitty cake. So when I’d seen a text message from him sent not long after I fled back to The Paris Domville in tears, asking if he could see me before he headed back to New York, I’d replied to say that it was best that he didn’t. I’d also lied and told him that I was seeing someone and was very happy. I hoped he’d believe it, because I wasn’t fooling myself, but his life was over there, with her, mine was here, alone.
Poppie had taken advantage of my inability to talk properly the day I’d confessed that I was in love with him and had given me a stern lecture. She knew how badly I wanted to find someone and to have a baby, and she’d warned me that life was passing me by as I pined for him and approached thirty. I’d argued that I needed time to get over him, she argued that I never would if I didn’t start dating again, and that the fantasy in my head of a life with him could never be matched. She said that I needed to keep dating, see as many men as possible and imagine I was trying on a bra. Throw away the ones that didn’t fit or make me look my best, and keep the one that made me standout, made me look and feel amazing. It kind of made sense, though I wasn’t sure I’d ever find a sexy, pretty, supportive, and cleavage-enhancing man who was up to handling me.
I’d told Vivian and Shauna to take the week off while I was recovering, they were in as much need of a break as I was, so I’d missed my spray tan after the last shoot and was in need of a top-up for the shoot tomorrow. I talked Poppie into a day away from Justin so we could help each other with some bronzing body lotion and have a pamper night. I never did my face, as sometimes my natural skin tone was needed, so I usually went with a soft body glow and makeup was applied to match. We took a shower and exfoliated each other, in a scene that wouldn’t have been out of place on Pornhub.com if we weren’t wearing G-strings and laughing so much. I wrapped my conditioned hair in cling film, then a hot towel, and hip bumped Poppie out of the way of the mirror to apply my nasal, chin, and forehead pore strips.
‘What’s that?’ Poppie asked as I pulled a tub out of my bathroom cabinet while she cleansed her face.
‘A new masque that a beauty company provided. It has oils, some metallic mineral, and Dead Sea salts, and you need this weird magnet after to pull the gunk off your face. Want to try?’ I offered, holding it out to her.
‘What if I don’t take it off in time, will it set and I’ll end up looking like Iron Man?’ she giggled.
‘It’s great, honestly. I’ve tried it once and it left my skin glowing and soft. I had no adverse reactions either.’
‘Ok, I’m game, but what about getting these pore strips wet?’
‘Just go around them,’ I told her, carefully applying a slick of thick gel under my eyes to help with my "few days worth of crying" bags, then slathering on the dark grey face mask. Poppie copied me, then we washed our hands, and she put on some gloves and started applying the fake tan to my front.
‘Wow, this is dark, should it be this dark? Are you doing a shoot as a non-Caucasian model?’
‘It’s dark so you can see where you've applied it,’ I laughed as I set the timer on my phone. ‘You leave it on for twenty minutes, then shower and all the dark comes off, and in six to eight hours, you’re left with soft, golden brown skin. It’s a near-perfect match to the spray tans Vivian does on me and they look natural, don’t they?’
‘They do,’ she admitted. She finished my front and moved around to do my back and the backs of my arms and legs for me.
‘You’re sure about this?’ she asked, looking sceptical as she pulled off the dark brown-stained gloves.
‘I’m sure.’
‘Well I’m not. Can I skip the tan and see how yours turns out in the morning?’
‘Sure, chicken.’
‘I’m not a chicken,’ she objected as she pulled on her dressing gown. ‘But I have a romantic weekend away planned with Justin next week, I don’t want to turn up looking like I sunbathed in hell for a year.’
‘Chicken,’ I giggled, flapping my arms as I squawked and chased her out to the lounge.
‘Stop it,’ she screamed. ‘Don’t touch me or I’ll be covered in it as well. Go and sit on a bin bag or something. I’m putting on some music and opening the wine.’
‘I can’t sit, I need to stand until the timer goes off, then I can shower and we can order a takeout.’
‘What?’ she shouted, cupping her ear as she cranked up the Now Dance one million and one, or something ridiculous, on the sound system. They did pick goo
d tracks though. She started dancing crazily in front of the TV, so I went to join her, putting my phone on the side to make sure I didn’t over bake myself. With four minutes to go, the two of us panting and screeching as we tried to outdo each other with increasingly bad dance moves, we both jumped and screamed as there was an almighty crash and the front door caved in and landed on the floor, framing a fireman with a large axe in his hand. Even the mask over his face couldn’t disguise his fury. Poppie quickly turned off the music, as I tried to cover my bare breasts without actually touching them. We both grimaced when we heard the unmistakeable noise of the fire alarm going off in the corridor. ‘Shit, I can smell smoke,’ Poppie gasped as she looked over at me, right as I noticed it too.
‘This isn’t a drill, out now,’ he barked, as another fireman appearing at his side. ‘Follow Spence here and I’ll bring up the rear.’
‘But I have fake tan on! If it doesn’t come off in one minute, I’ll turn orange,’ I cried, rooted to the spot as Poppie ran for the door.
‘Lady, if you don’t move it, in one minute you’re liable to turn to ash! Shift.’
‘Clothes, I need clothes,’ I pleaded, my eyes darting to my bedroom. All I needed was a dressing gown, it wouldn’t take a second. I screamed again as I suddenly felt myself being lifted and hoisted over someone’s shoulder, with an arm between my legs.
‘Sorry, sweetheart, no time,’ came the mumbled voice of the man carrying me. ‘Grip my wrist and keep your head down.’ I did as I was told and saw the oak of Alec’s lounge floor change to the cream travertine tiles of the communal hallway.
‘Poppie, where’s Poppie?’ I cried.
‘I’m here, right beside you,’ she replied. ‘God, Paige, it’s serious, there’s smoke billowing under the door of the stairs. How will we get out?’ she asked, a tremor in her voice.
‘Same way we came in and got your neighbours out, through that window up there. Here, put these over your mouths and noses and breathe through it.’
‘Ok.’ I was handed a damp piece of cloth and did as I was told with one hand, clinging for dear life to the fireman’s impressively toned backside as they headed to the front of the building.
‘Spence, you take Lady Godiva down first. I’ll follow with this one, she’s the last,’ I heard the one say. Lady Godiva? O Jesus Christ, I was virtually naked, going butt first out of a window onto a busy street, with a brown-stained body, grey face, and white pore strips. And I was going to turn bloody orange! Not to mention Alec’s apartment might burn, along with all of our belongings. I felt the cold air on my cheeks, all four of them, as the window ledge appeared. I banged my head on the edge of the sash window frame and gasped as I saw the towel from my head floating down three stories to the ground below. Wonderful. Now I had a shrink-wrapped head as well. Could this be any more mortifying? I dropped the wet cloth once this “Spence,” who was carrying me, started shaking his way down the ladder, so I could grab his arm again and tightened my grip on his backside. I quickly closed my eyes, feeling dizzy from all of the drama and being carried like this.
‘I usually go on a date before I let a woman grope my arse,’ he chuckled.
‘So do I,’ I retorted, smacking his as his fingers moved up my legs slightly to brush against mine.
‘Naked and feisty, just how I like them.’
‘Them? Opportunistic, chauvinistic, and pervy, just how I don’t like,’ I retorted. ‘Are we down yet?’
‘Nearly, grope me a bit longer.’
‘Pun intended, you caveman. I bet you’ve got longer from seeing me half naked and getting to put your big mitts on my backside.’
‘Happy to let you do an inspection, sweetheart. I assure you, I’ll pass with flying colours. I was Mr. December in last year’s firefighters’ calendar.’
‘Well, I was on the cover of Men’s Illustrated last month,’ I bit.
‘Wow, the red lingerie shoot? O my God, you’re diamond … girl. Paige Taylor,’ he gasped.
‘That’s me. You should know that my body and face are heavily insured, so don’t you dare drop me.’
‘Hey look, I didn’t know it was a full moon tonight,’ a man yelled, as a load of whoops and hollers filled the air.
‘Shit, do we have onlookers staring at my G-stringed brown bottom?’ I groaned.
‘Yup, plenty of them. Open your eyes, I’m going to put you down and I’ll give you my jacket to cover up.’
‘Thank you,’ I whispered, dreading seeing how many people were out here. Fingers crossed the press hadn't arrived already, they’d have a field day seeing me looking like this. I opened my eyes to find us at the back of the truck, and he crouched and gently set me down. ‘Did everyone get out?’ I asked, quickly glancing up to make sure Poppie was ok. I could see her coming down on the back of the other guy.
‘Yeah, you two were the last, my colleagues are working on the blaze as we speak,’ he confirmed, ripping off his jacket and draping it around my shoulders. I quickly pulled it around me, covering my breasts as I noticed a crowd behind a police barrier staring at me. ‘What the hell have you done to your face?’ he asked. I looked back up at him as he pulled off his mask, and caught my breath. He shouldn’t be December, he should be every month of the year. He was gorgeous. Grey eyes that sparkled as they scanned my face with amused interest, short dark hair, shaved like Jake Gyllenhaal in Jarhead, that made him look even hotter, and biceps that bulged under a tight navy t-shirt, phew.
‘What?’ I asked, my wandering mind taking me off target.
‘What’s on your face? And your head?’
‘Crap,’ I moaned, reaching up to tear off my pore strips. ‘Do you have a hose I can use?’
‘Is that your way of asking me on a date?’ he grinned.
‘No,’ I exclaimed, whacking him, then tearing the cling film off my head. ‘I’m about six minutes over on a fake tan, I need a shower, now.’
‘It’s cold water.’
‘Well I didn’t think it would be heated with massage jets. I’m being serious.’
‘Chunky, can we spare some water to hose Miss Taylor down?’ he asked, as his colleague reached the bottom of the ladder with Poppie.
‘Who the hell is Miss Taylor?’
‘Diamond tits,’ Spence coughed, flicking his head at me and having the good grace to at least look embarrassed. I rolled my eyes. Someone at Alec’s office had leaked a shot of me in my luxury lingerie and it had spread on social media like wildfire, leading to that nickname. I wondered if it had been done deliberately to create a buzz.
‘Diamond … that’s Paige Taylor?’
‘Yes, yes it’s me. I’ll sign a photo for you to put up in the station if you want, but please, I need to wash off this fake tan, right now. For a model, this is like … defcon one, it’s serious.’
‘She’s not joking,’ Poppie added, checking that her dressing gown was secure.
‘Strips.’ I pointed at her face, reminding her to take them off. Then I giggled when she was left with white streaks in the grey mask instead.
‘Razor, how are you looking in there?’ Chunky asked over the walkie-talkie contraption on his jacket.
‘All under control,’ came the static-sounding voice.
‘Do it,’ confirmed Chunky, with a disapproving shake of his head, ‘but I didn’t approve it if he bollocks you.’
‘Follow me,’ Spence grinned, grabbing my hand. He led me around to the other side of the fire engine, where a fat grey hose came up from the street and ran towards our apartment block. It was writhing with the force of the water being pumped through it. We still had an audience, but right now I didn’t care. I watched him unravel the other hose and go and secure it to another mains further along the street. ‘Jacket off and brace yourself, it will be cold and forceful.’
‘Not my first time,’ I sighed, thinking of my cow shit shower. At least that time I'd had some clothes on.
‘Give me the jacket.’ Poppie held her hands out and I slipped it off and passed it to
her as I heard a load of whistles and claps going up from the crowd. I nodded at Spence and he turned on the water, obviously not full force, but I still screamed as it hit me.
‘Don’t stop, please don’t stop,’ I yelled, shoving water out of my eyes as I hopped up and down, my breasts bouncing so hard I was liable to end up with two black eyes as well. He burst out laughing and I tried not to focus on how many people were watching as I scrubbed myself down and let the water rinse my hair and my face. I wondered if not using the special magnet would have a detrimental effect. Not that a messed-up complexion was going to matter. By bedtime tonight, I was likely to have a glowing body that you could spot from Mars. Spence turned off the water and grabbed me a towel from the truck when I was done. Poppie held up his jacket as I rubbed myself down, while he used his frame to shield me as well. ‘I don’t know why you’ve turned your back now, you’ve already had a good eyeful.’
‘I’m not a total arse, thanks,’ he replied. Poppie raised her eyebrows at me and grinned. She was like a shark sensing blood when it came to men flirting with me. She always knew before me.
‘Really?’ I mouthed at her.
‘O yeah,’ she mouthed back with a nod. ‘He’s hot, too.’
I shook my head and turned around, slipping my arms into his jacket and rolling up the sleeves before doing it up, then used the damp towel to squeeze as much water as I could out of my hair. Poppie grabbed it off me to wipe my face for me, before starting to try and get the grey mask off her own.
‘You can turn around, I’m decent now.’
‘Paige Taylor in the flesh, no pun intended. You realise I’m going to be a rock star at the station now?’ he winked as he checked me out all fresh faced.
‘I’m a model, not a Playboy centrefold,’ I reminded him.
‘Trust me, you’re the top fantasy with most of the guys,’ he nodded. Poppie elbowed me in the back.
‘Am I your top fantasy?’ I asked with a blush.
Until We Collide Page 12