Eloise

My eyes flew open at the sound of my alarm going off, waking me from the dream I was in the middle of. A dream that consisted of me and Christian rolling around in crisp white sheets as the ocean air blew through the window of our room, leaving me with a feeling of an unfinished orgasm.

“Shit,” I whispered to myself as I sat up in bed.

I sighed as I hopped into the shower and got ready for the photo shoot, leaving very little time to finish off what he had started in my dream. I wasn’t going to let this affect me. I wasn’t going to let him affect me. I needed full concentration for the shoot and I couldn’t afford any distractions. Just him being there would be distraction enough. While I was putting on my makeup, there was a light knock on the adjoining door. Walking over, I opened it and there stood Christian with a tube of toothpaste in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

“Good morning. I figured you needed both of these.” He grinned.

“Good morning. I definitely do. Thank you.”

I took the coffee and the toothpaste from him and went back into the bathroom.

“I took the liberty of ordering breakfast for us,” he spoke. “It should be here shortly.”

“Thank you. I’m starving. Are we going to have time to eat?” I asked as I looked at the time on my phone.

“We’ll have to eat fast,” he replied.

He left the adjoining door open and went back into his room. From where the bathroom was positioned, I could see part of his room in the mirror. I kept glancing as I twisted strands of my hair around the barrel of my curling iron. I could see him standing there putting on his watch and then he took a seat on the edge of the bed and slipped on his shoes. The ache down below that never fully went away grew stronger. Just looking at him reminded me of the intense dream I had. It was one of those dreams that would stay with me for a while.

Just as I finished getting ready, there was knock on the door. Christian walked over and answered it while I put on my shoes.

“Breakfast is served,” he spoke as he took the silver tray over to the small round table with two chairs that sat in the corner.

Right when I sat down to eat, my phone rang and it was Claire calling.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Have you seen your blog and your YouTube channel since you posted those videos?” she asked.

“No. I haven’t had a chance to look.”

“Tell Claire I said hi,” Christian whispered from across the table.

“Well, you need to look right now!”

“Christian said hi,” I spoke. “And why? What’s going on?”

“Tell him I said hi. Just look, Eloise!” she demanded.

“Okay. Okay.”

I got up from the table and grabbed my laptop from the bed. Logging into my blog, I sat there and stared at it with my eyes popped out of my head. My subscribers had reached over a million and my videos had over five hundred thousand views. Clicking over to my YouTube channel, I already had over seventy thousand subscribers and each video I posted had over fifty thousand views so far.

“Oh my God, Claire!”

“I know, right? When you get a chance, read the comments! I think you’re onto something here with #Delete, Eloise.”

“Thank you for letting me know. I’m so excited!”

“You’re welcome. Good luck with the shoot today and call me later!”

“I will. Bye.”

I inhaled a deep breath and let it out as I looked at Christian.

“Congratulations.” He smiled.

“Thank you. I honestly can’t believe it.”

“I do believe a celebration is in order tonight. You in?” He winked.

“Sure. I’m in.” I smiled.

The photo shoot took approximately seven hours. Between the street shots, hotel shots, navy pier shots, and numerous dress changes, I didn’t expect it to take any less time.

“Great job, Eloise. How long until we can get the proofs?” Joe asked.

“Thanks, Joe. I can have them mailed out to you as early as next Thursday. Will that work for you?”

“I’m actually going to be in New York on Thursday, so just bring them by Christian’s office. Let’s say around one o’clock. I’ll have Christian order us in some lunch and we can view them together.”

“Sounds good.” I smiled.

“It was nice meeting you, Eloise. I look forward to seeing those pictures. Have a safe trip home.”

“Thank you.”

After Christian said goodbye to Joe and the rest of the Chanel staff, he walked over to me as I was packing up my camera equipment.

“You were amazing today,” he spoke.

“Thanks. Everyone was super nice and easy to work with. Especially the models. Sometimes they can be quite difficult.” I smirked.

“I bet they can be. I’m sure you want to shower before heading to dinner.”

“I do. Being a photographer can get pretty dirty.”

“You were on the ground an awful lot.” He laughed. “Reservations are for eight.”

We took a cab back to the hotel and Christian followed me into my room and set one of the equipment bags he carried down on the table.

“I’m going to go change. Just let me know when you’re ready,” he spoke.

“I will. This celebration we’re doing, is it fancy or casual?”

“Casual.” He winked as he started to walk to his room. “By the way.” He turned and looked at me. “I hope you’re not afraid of heights.”

Before I could get any words out, he walked to his room and shut the door. What the hell did he mean by that? I wasn’t a fan of heights. Now I was worried. I took a quick shower, and when I got out, I sat down on the bed with my laptop and began looking through the hundreds of emails from women around the world. As much as I loved photography, I loved helping women more. It was at that moment while reading the emails that I decided to take a break from photography and make my blog and YouTube channel a priority. It was a risk. A huge risk. But, like someone told me, “Some of the greatest gifts in life are on the other side of fear.”

I picked up my phone and sent a text message to Mobile Man.

“We didn’t touch base today. How are you?”

“I’m great. How are you? I was wondering if I’d hear from you. I didn’t want to bother you because I knew you were busy.”

“I’m good. I had a really good day and now I need to get ready to go to dinner.”

“How are things going between the two of you?”

“Things are going good. Maybe too good. The part that sucks is that he’s always on my mind even when we’re not together.”

“Why does that suck?”

“Because I don’t want to think about him. I don’t need the distraction, but I can’t help it.”

“Listen to me, Digits. You can try to fight your feelings for this guy all you want, but you’ll lose and you know it. That’s why I think you’re so scared. Just give in to those feelings. Obviously, the guy feels the same way about you. Take it slow. One day at a time. Open yourself up to the possibility that this guy is the exception of all other men.”

“You think?”

“I know. I spent the day with the woman of my dreams today. And you know why? Because I took your advice. Take your own advice, Digits. If you like him, let him know. Because one day, you’ll wake up and he won’t be there and then you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.”

“Thank you, Mobile Man. Have I ever told you how much I love our conversations?”

“I’m sure you have and I love them too. Conversations with you are the highlight of my day.” He sent the winky face.

I sent him the winky face back and told him to have a good night. My feelings about him and our text friendship were starting to change. He met the woman of his dreams already, so him falling for me wasn’t even a consideration. Maybe it was time me and Mobile Man met. Maybe a man and a woman could just be friends.