Page 52 of Brat Baby
Once that’s all done, and I have to wait for the microwave to make its magic happen, I open the message.
Unknown:Hi Emery, this is Marie, Darcy Reign’s teaching assistant. Could you please give me a call at your earliest convenience? There is a modeling position available for this afternoon. Thank you, Marie.
I almost choke on the air in my throat. This afternoon? I have a class that finishes at three, but I am more than willing to walk out of that early. Or not go at all.
I can’t tap fast enough and quickly get a call going with Marie. Oakley glances my way as I pace from the kitchen to the door of our dorm and back while I wait for her to answer.
“You okay?” she mouths at me, concern pulling her eyebrows together and lips into a pout.
I nod and open my mouth to answer, but the call connects.
“Emery! Oh my god. Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly,” a feminine voice says across the line, a hint of panic making her sound a touch higher in pitch than what I assume her normal voice to be.
“Hey, Marie, yeah, no problem. You said there is a session this afternoon?” I reach up and run my fingers through my hair, a few knots tangling around my knuckles.
“Yeah, yes! I thought I had someone lined up, but they’ve been ghosting my calls. And even though I put up about twenty posters, you are the only other person who has gotten back to me. It’s fine, though. I checked your details and everything looks great. You know this is a paid gig, that you need to be over eighteen, and that you’ll be nude, right? As in, no clothes, in a room full of people? They’ll be staring at and studying your naked form, in whatever position you’ll be asked to hold for several hours.” She pauses, and I’m quick to jump in with a response before she can keep going.
“Yes, I’m available, eighteen, and fine with being naked in a room full of people while they stare at me.” I rush the words, hoping she can’t hear the slight waver in my voice. Being naked in front of people isn’t a massive deal.
Maybe if I repeat it a few times, I’ll believe it too.
As I turn back toward the kitchen, I come to an abrupt halt and stare at a very annoyed-looking Oakley, with Marie still blabbering in my ear.
“Put it on speaker,” she demands, waving her eggy spatula around.
As quick as I can, I transfer the phone to speakerphone, and then Marie’s voice fills the room for both of us to hear.
“Okay, so Emery. I have you locked in, right? No last-minute cancellation?” Marie calls through the speakerphone. “And you are one-hundred-percent confident with being naked in front of thirty people?”
Thirty? My eyes almost bug out of my head. But I can do this for Darcy. Well, not for him to help him—although, I don’t mind that—but for him, as in, to get him. Plus, where I’d teased Derek and Hudson with the schoolgirl outfit, I’m really going to be able to push Darcy right to the edge with complete nudity that he isn’t allowed to touch.
The thought shoots a bolt of power through my being. Knowing he’ll be struggling, unable to touch or stop me—because he needs me to do this for him, if the stress coming through the phone is any indication. He won’t be able to say no to the model being me, because, without me, his students won’t get their lesson.
My nerves settle. I think I might be experiencing a bit of what Derek feels when he is watching a scene and pulling all the strings.
A smirk forms on my lips as I answer. “Yep, totally locked in and totally fine with the thirty people ogling me for two hours.”
Her laugh is a little tinny through the phone and accompanied by a groan. “Thank fuck. Oh shit, sorry. But if you were a no, or you cancel, I’m the one who is going to have to pose, and I am so not cut out for that sort of thing. So, please, please, do notcancel. I’m begging you. I’ll text you the time and location. See you this afternoon.”
The thought of her posing, nude, in front of Darcy has me frowning. I wonder if there is a way that I can be the model for the entire semester? Or his entire teaching career? “Okay, great. Thank you.”
When the line goes dead, I look at Oakley.
It’s amusing to watch the light bulb go off above her head. And then to watch the range of emotions play over her face as she works out what this means. Eventually, a smile the Cheshire cat would be envious of spreads across her lips.
“After your last class, you are going to come back here, and we are going to get you perfectly ready for your modeling session. Everything will be smooth and glowing. He won’t know what hit him.”
Chapter 30
Darcy
My head makes a dull thud as I let it fall back against the wall of my currently empty classroom. I’m hiding out in the clean-up area that is hidden behind a temporary privacy wall, trying to breathe through the lethargy that has been slowly growing worse since watching Emmy leave the Thai Orchid last Tuesday.
Hints of clay, acrylic paint, and chalk are overshadowed by the scent of turpentine and other acetones as I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. Ever since seeing her and making the decision to wait for Thayne, I’ve been sinking down further into a dark space that I thought I put behind me a long time ago.
I haven’t touched any of my pieces at my studio since our weekend with her. My agent asked for an update three days ago, and I still haven’t replied. What I have been working on is a sketchbook of Emmy. Her face, in particular. Over and over again.
Her profile. Her eyes. Her lips. Her staring directly at the viewer.
