I’d called off work yesterday, even though I hated doing it. I never liked missing work, even when I hadn’t enjoyed what I was doing. What was happening between Alix and me made it harder. Especially when he hadn’t answered his phone either time I’d called. Not wanting to seem desperate, I simply left him a voicemail saying that I was sick and hoped that his not answering hadn’t been due to any awkwardness about what happened last week. We’d been fine together on Friday, but there was always the chance that he’d been acting and the weekend had given him the time to reconsider.

My palms were sweating as I approached the studio. I wasn’t assuming or asking for anything, but I had two contracts with Alix, so I could walk in there without anything but work on my mind, and it wouldn’t be a lie.

Not entirely.

The door was locked when I reached it, but that wasn’t out of the norm. If Alix was focused on something, he didn’t always remember to check the time. I punched in the code he’d given me for instances such as this, then went inside.

I made it halfway across the main floor before I realized I wasn’t alone.

“Sine, right?”

A woman’s voice came from the couch. I mustered a polite smile as I turned to see Giselle lounging there. She had that fake casual thing going on, the kind that said it took a lot of work to be so nonchalant.

“Good morning, Giselle,” I said.

She fluttered her red tipped fingers at me. “When Alix heard my job was completed, he asked me to come back in and finish up his series.”

Was she talking about my series? The one he’d said I’d inspired? The one that he hadn’t been able to see anyone else doing?

“I’ll leave you two to it, then.” I nodded at her before turning and heading to my office.

Alix didn’t owe me anything. The contract for modeling had been at his discretion. Either one of us had the ability to end it whenever we wished. It was for that reason we had a second contract for my work as his assistant, so that even if he chose to discontinue the series, or it reached its natural conclusion, I would still have a job.

Giselle was a professional. It made sense that Alix would want to work with her. My own time in front of the camera had been a fluke, nothing more. I’d told myself that every time I was there, and I thought I’d been listening.

I never imagined how much it would sting to see Alix move to another model. Then again, it was coming as quite a surprise. If it had happened right after we slept together the first time, I would’ve thought that he’d gotten what he wanted. But we’d proven that sex hadn’t needed to change anything.

Or that’s what I’d thought, anyway.

But that wasn’t what I needed to focus on. I’d been gone yesterday, and I needed to get caught up on things. If I fell too far behind, I could lose this job too. And this was a job I was qualified to perform, one I liked and felt competent doing.

So, I did what I did best. I organized and filed and attended to all the little details that most people let fall through the cracks.

I flipped on the radio and tried not to think about what Alix and Giselle were doing on the other side of my door. A door I’d closed on the off chance that they were saying things I didn’t want to hear.

Like how foolish Alix had been to think that I could give him the sort of quality work that could compare to anything Giselle could provide.

I didn’t think Alix would be cruel, but an admission such as that, no matter how kindly spoken, would still hurt. Better to keep my dignity through ignorance than be hurt by some innocuous remark from someone I’d come to consider, at the very least, a friend.

The hours crept by as I struggled to keep from glancing at the clock every five minutes. By the time eleven o’clock came, I couldn’t wait any longer for lunch. I needed to get some air.

I felt a bit childish, opening the door a crack and listening, but I didn’t want to risk walking out into something that would only lead to embarrassment for all involved. When I didn’t hear anything, I ventured out, not taking my usual care to keep my steps as quiet as possible so as not to disturb Alix when he was working. I preferred to err on the side of giving them time to finish whatever it was they were doing, professionally or otherwise.

I didn’t see Alix when I entered the main studio area, but Giselle was difficult to miss. She lay sprawled out on the pillows in the usual staging area, those ebony curls of hers spread out, and every inch of her perfect skin visible.

So much for not taking nudes.

“I hope we didn’t bother you,” Giselle said with a self-satisfied smile. “Things were getting a bit...noisy out here, what with all the moving things around.”

“I had the radio on,” I said, keeping my tone even.

“Are you going for lunch?” she asked, lazily stretching her arms above her head.

“Do you or Alix want anything?” I asked, refusing to react to her attempts at baiting me into making a scene.

“Well, we did work up an appetite,” she said with a self-satisfied smirk. “But I’m not sure if he’s ready to take a break yet.”

“I’ll ask him myself,” I said, my stomach clenching at yet another innuendo. “Just to be sure.”

She shrugged, then stretched lazily, her full breasts rising and falling. “He’s in the bathroom cleaning up. Well, that and making sure I didn’t draw blood.” She wiggled her fingers at me, manicured nails painted a rich crimson. “I may have gotten a little carried away. You understand how that goes, right?”

My stomach heaved. She had to be guessing because Alix never would have told her that he and I had slept together. Unless it’d been brought up in the context of how he moved on from me so sex with her wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes. Maybe I’d had it all wrong from the beginning. Maybe Alix had been playing me from moment one and Giselle was looking out for me.

Either way, I refused to show either of them how my insides were being torn up.

“If either of you changes your mind and want me to bring something back for you, just give me a call.” I made my words even and mild, without a hint of what was lurking below the surface of my skin. Then I turned and walked away, my pace deliberately unhurried, as if I wasn’t dying to rush outside so I didn’t risk seeing Alix.

I’d known this was a bad idea from the beginning, so I didn’t have anyone to blame but myself. The only bright side I could see was that Mam wouldn’t be able to give me her usual I told you so.

It didn’t prevent me from hearing the words echo through my head anyway, each one reminding me of how I screwed up.