Page 30 of Love Me Gently

Twelve

Trina

Then

Stella tuggedmy arm so hard she almost yanked it right out of its socket.

“Stella! Slow down!” I was laughing as I shouted to her, but she paid me no mind.

Dodging and weaving through the late summer crowds in Times Square was dizzying on a good day. With Stella pulling me along behind her, it was a wonder I was still on my feet.

I couldn’t blame her, though. I was so thankful I had found a friend as good as she’d been to me. For the last year, ever since I stepped foot into our small, run-down apartment that kept falling apart on us, she was there, supporting me. Encouraging me.

Hugging me on the days when I truly didn’t think I could sit through another photography session—with either Robert, or my new agent, Steven. I didn’t have to tell her why I came home crying.

She never asked.

But the first time it happened, she swept me in her arms and let me cry for hours. Then she went and bought us a couple of bottles of wine, and kept my glass refilled. Since I first met with Steven in April, my life had been a roller coaster.

Photo shoots. Model calls. Jobs booked. Everything was moving at lightning speed.

I wasdoingit. I was making it, and I, more than anyone, knew how special this moment was.

And yet that pit in my stomach continued to grow, making me feel sicker as we approached our destination, until Stella came to an abrupt stop, and I slammed into her back.

“Look at you.” She wrapped her arm around my lower back and hugged me tight to her side. With her free hand, she whipped open the magazine spread she had earmarked to my face.

My face in a full-page spread featuring a new, low-priced, line of makeup that was going to be in all drugstores across the nation.Iwas the one, at least my face, who would be associated with all of it.

This was it. The beginning. I’d be able to get Stella and me into a better apartment once my checks rolled in. I’d be able to go to Fashion Week. I’d be able to doallthe things I dreamed of…

As long as I continued to keep Steven happy.

A shiver rolled through me at the thought and the rush of the crowd and music pumped from speakers pulled me back to the present. Now wasn’t the time to mourn how I got to this place. It was a time to celebrate. Soon I’d be so well known, I wouldn’t have to do the things Steven demanded of me.

Soon, I’d be popular enough I could find a new agent who would take me on because of my skills and my résumé. Doing what Steven made me do was temporary. Someday, I’d be free of it.

“Look!” Stella cried and held up the magazine.

My gaze followed and excitement flittered through my veins. I glanced up, beyond the magazine in Stella’s hands and found it. A matching billboard to the magazine spread.

My face was on a billboard in Times Square.

Iwas on a billboard in Times-freaking-Square.

“Holy cow,” I breathed, and my limbs trembled. “I can’t believe it.”

I leaned against Stella as tears burned my eyes. Of all the horrific things I’d had to do to get here, I was still here. Still standing. Still chasing dreams and then wrangling them.

“I’m so proud of you,” she exclaimed and shoved the magazine into my hands. “Turn around. Let me get a picture of you being so beautiful and awesome. Soon everyone will know your name and I’ll get to say I was the one who helped make you into the awesome person you are.”

I barked out a laugh, shaking my head. “Of course you did, Stella.”

“Well, outside your parents and all. Have you told them yet?”

I glanced down at the now crumpled magazine in my hands. It’d be on the shelves in their grocery store any day. If I told them, they’d buy every single copy and hand it out to their friends as they left church. They’d be thrilled for me, I knew it. They’d supported me with their words ever since the day I left, even though they desperately wanted me to come home.

They’d be proud of me. Happy for me.

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