Chapter 6

Heidi

“Keep your mouth shut, darling,” Winston, our photographer today, said.

The old guy with the cherubic baby cheeks had a point.

This whole shoot, I could feel Liza’s blue eyes burning into me with curiosity. At the break, she was going to pick my brain for every last detail about my date last night with Charles.

And I absolutely couldn’t spill the beans. Charles had put his trust in me. As much as I loved Liza and would trust her with my life, I couldn’t trust someone else’s to her. It just wasn’t my place.

Right now, we were in the middle of an untimely Christmas shoot. As fluffs of synthetic snow hailed down upon us and we made pouty expressions with our red sparkly lips, it occurred to me that Christmas was exactly six months away. It was July 25th, and even with the AC blasting in this studio apartment room, it felt like it.

As helpers scooted a giant white snowman in between us, Liza wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead, knocking her Santa hat off in the process.

“Hat!” Winston yelled.

The scurrying of four different people for Liza’s hat made her and I smirk behind their backs. Winston was a notorious jerk, although he did get things done. Our agent had booked the next seven hours for this shoot, but if things were to continue how they had been so far, we’d be getting it done in two, if that.

Once Liza had her hat back on, Winston rapped his hands together. All the helpers disappeared from the room, ready and waiting for his next curt command.

“Yes,” he instructed us in his severe British tone, “this snowman, he is your boyfriend, the love of your life, the apple of your eye. He’s everything you ever wanted a man to be. Treat him that way.”

Liza tossed me a saucy smirk, and I stuck out my tongue at her. I knew what she was getting at, and I really wasn’t in the mood.

“Is that how you behave with your boyfriend?” Winston scolded.

A few thoughtful seconds later, he said, “You know what? That could be how you behave with your boyfriend. Do that again. Everyone loves two girls fighting over one boy.”

I did as I was told, wrapping my hand protectively around the snowman as if he were Charles himself. No way was I going to betray him to Liza, who was now tugging on poor Mr. Snowman’s arm.

“Yes!” Winston roared, as if he’d had his own eureka moment.

“More!” he roared. Liza swung her arm around Mr. Snowman, using her elbow to push me away.

“Exceptional!” he bellowed, his monstrous craning camera snapping and snapping away.

It was funny. You got so used to the sound of clicking and snapping, it was just like white noise by now. Although Winston’s yells jerked us to attention.

“New pose! Switch it up and show me how categorically rabid this makes you feel!”

I used the flat of my palm to shove Liza away. She tugged Mr. Snowman’s arm even harder.

“Yes!!!” Winston shrieked in a tone I would have thought he was incapable of.

Which was a good thing, because it came seconds before Liza tumbled to the ground, Mr. Snowman’s snapped-off arm going with her.

An ominous silence.

Winston stood up from behind his camera and called out, “Helpers!”

Half a second later, the room was filled with people scurrying around to fix the situation.

“Sorry, Winston,” Liza said, getting to her feet.

“Forget it,” he said crisply. “You two go and have some lunch.”

My ravenous stomach growled out a thank you as we walked out of there.

“If I’d known all it was going to take was to pull the arm off the snowman for us to get a proper lunch break, I would’ve done that in the first place,” Liza said dryly.

After I closed the dressing room door, I opened the lid of the massive cooler our agent, Ron, had bought us. He had done so in an effort to inspire healthy eating by claiming we could fit “a whole army of carrots” in there.

As Liza looked inside, she let out an appreciative chuckle.

“Oh, if only Ron could see this now.”

I could almost see him in front of us, his little hands on his muscular hips, his over-Botoxed face attempting a mask of horror. Inside our big-ass cooler, in this morning’s sleep-deprived haze, I’d crammed the pizza box Liza had apparently half-polished off last night. The result was a whole half a pizza for the two of us.

Taking two slices each, we cheered.

As soon as one bite was in her, Liza asked the question she’d been clearly dying to ask all morning.

“How did it go?”

I chewed and swallowed slowly, crafting exactly what I was going to say before I said it. I didn’t want to impulsively blurt out something I shouldn’t.

“It went well,” I said, which was true after all. “We really hit it off. He wore this amazing suit and booked out a whole restaurant for us.”

“And then…” Liza said, her sly smile goading me into it.

“Oh,” I said. “Sorry. I forgot to ask him about Henry.”

Now distracted, Liza ogled me.

“You mean you meant it when you said you’d ask him to see if I could get a date with his brother?”

I put my arm around my friend and squeezed her to me.

“Of course I meant it. You’re my best friend, Liza.”

She grinned at me, biting down on her pizza. “You’re not bad either.”

“Pfft, come on,” I said. “Just admit it. You love me.”

“Maybe half as much as Charles does,” Liza said cheekily. My friendly clasp around her arm drooped, and suddenly, I couldn’t even bring myself to bite down into the triangle of pepperoni pizza in front of me.

“I don’t know about that,” I said uncertainly. “I mean, we really did get along well, but he’s…a prince.”

“And you’re a supermodel,” Liza reminded me.

“I know,” I said, “but still…”

My phone went off, and Liza grabbed it, then answered it.

She handed it to me with a smirk.

“Speak of the devil.”

“Hello, Heidi,” Charles said.

“Hello,” I said. “What’s up?”

He paused. “You just called me,” he said, sounding about half as confused as I felt.

My angry gaze went to Liza, who was blowing me a kiss.

“Sorry about that,” I told him, “I think it was my friend, Liza. She wants me to hook her up on a date with Henry, but I know that really isn’t up to me, or even to you.”

Another pause. For a few seconds, I was afraid I’d gone too far. I’d had one date with Charles, and now I was asking him for favors for my best friend?

“I’ll see what I can do,” Charles said. “But could you wait a minute or two?”

“Sure.”

Less than a minute later, he was back.

“Henry’s free to meet on Friday if your friend is free. And I was thinking you and I could join them. Like a double date, if that’s fine with you.”

I gave Liza a thumbs-up. She dropped her plate of pizza on the floor and danced around, punching her hands up and down over her head exuberantly. I bit back a guffaw.

“That definitely will work for both of us.”

“Same limo pickup and restaurant work for you?” he asked. Then he added, “I know we just went there, but it’s the easiest to buy out without people suspecting anything. Not to mention that it’s my favorite anyway.”

“I liked it too,” I said heedlessly, “and our first date was so good, I’d be happy to spend the second at the same place.”

“Great,” Charles said. “I guess this is good-bye then.”

“Good-bye,” I said. “And thanks again.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Charles said, and something about the way he rolled his R made me settle into the chair behind me breathlessly.

Just as I was about to hang up, he said, “And, Heidi? One more thing.”

“Yes?” I said.

“Wear red.”