“You look beautiful as always, and the scar scarcely shows. With your hair tumbled around your shoulders, it will be easy to cover. Lamoreaux was delighted you could work for him this week. He wants to do the shoot in his apartment, but it will be with a makeup artist, a wardrobe person, and the photographer who does his French ads. Ask someone to go with you if you’d rather not go alone.”
Alejandro immediately came to mind, and she barely silenced a hysterical shriek. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“The contract is already signed for your usual rate. If the shoot goes into a second day, you’ll receive double.”
“Then what’s my incentive to get the shoot done quickly?”
“He’s the one we want to hurry, Ana. If you’re just holding a shoe, even an incredibly beautiful shoe, you’ll not want to spend more than single day on it.”
“Probably not. Is there anything else lined up?”
Paul shuffled the papers on his desk. “Not today, but once the word gets out that you’re working again, we’ll get plenty of calls. The tabloids have kept you on the front pages, and while obnoxious, all publicity is good. What’s happened with you and Alejandro Vasquez? Just so I’ll know and be able to tell people to mind their own business when they ask.”
His gaze kept straying to her cheek. She couldn’t blame him. “Please tell anyone who has the audacity to ask that I won’t discuss him.”
“Oh, I see. Fine. The film news isn’t good. Apparently Almodóvar is reworking the script. It could be a complete rewrite that will delay the filming for months, or merely a tweak or two. I’m staying on top of it.”
“Good. I should have thanked you for the philodendron. It’s doing well in my condo.”
“That’s what I’d hoped. Flowers are lovely but soon wilt, while green plants survive a little benign neglect.” He helped her stand and gave her Lamoreaux’s address before he opened the office door. “Let me know if the shoot isn’t going well, and I’ll come right over. Lamoreaux is infatuated with you, but you’ll be there to work, not hold his hand.”
“I’ll make certain he understands.”
Paul laughed. “Yes, I know you will with a single glance. That’s why you’re so popular, Ana. You can convey whole paragraphs with a slight tilt of your chin.”
She hoped she hadn’t lost the ability. There was no point in worrying when all Lamoreaux needed was a shoe model. She pushed the incriminating evidence left from the pregnancy test into the waste bin in the ladies’ room on the floor above Paul’s, relieved to be done with it. She wouldn’t pretend she wasn’t pregnant, but she had so much to deal with now.
On board the Siren, Alejandro had asked her thoughts on having children. They’d been in a playful mood, but she’d been at a terrible disadvantage when he’d known the truth and she hadn’t. She refused to replay the same tiresome argument when they should be planning for a family. She ought to buy a pair of booties, or a little sweater, some snuggly soft something to make the baby real. That’s what she needed to do, make the dear little child real and love him dearly. Clearly, Alejandro already did.
In the afternoon, she helped Fatima make little nut bread sandwiches with cream cheese for tomorrow’s tea. The ladies had all been so excited by her call, she was sorry she hadn’t entertained them all sooner. By the time Fatima left for the day, they had everything ready. There was the pisto manchego to reheat for dinner, but she wasn’t hungry after nibbling nut bread all afternoon.
If Alejandro wanted
something for keeping still about her pregnancy, then he’d better hurry up about it. Maybe he was so pressured by work for the Ortiz Line he’d forgotten all about her. She might slip his mind for several days, a week maybe, or two. She didn’t have much of a hope, though. When her phone chimed half an hour later, she knew who it would be.
“I’m sorry not to have called earlier. Let’s go out to dinner tonight. I’ve found a place with incredibly good vegetarian food that’s so dark no one will recognize us and paparazzi don’t even know it exists.”
“Is dinner your price for keeping quiet?”
“No, but we need a neutral location to discuss it.”
“Alejandro…”
“I’ll pick you up at eight.”
“Fine. I’d like to get it over with. Good-bye.” It took her a long while to decide what to wear, and she finally chose her Goth look. With heavy eye makeup, her wig, a short black sheath, the jacket she’d worn to their first dinner, and one flat-heeled boot, she was dressed the part of a strong girl who could take care of herself. Alejandro would have to be equally prepared, or she’d make him part of the dinner menu.
Alejandro helped her into his SUV and paused with his hands on the keys. “That’s a startling transformation. You look tough. Is that your goal?”
She fastened her seat belt. “You said once you liked the Goth girl best, so I thought I’d bring her out again.”
“Was I teasing?”
“No, I don’t believe so, but I’m in a Goth mood tonight.”
He pulled the SUV away from the curb. “I wish you’d waited for me in Corfu. It would have been a beautiful place to work out our differences.”
His deep voice echoed around her, soft and smoothly seductive. “We don’t have differences that can be easily resolved, Alejandro, no matter what the setting. You took advantage of me, and I caught you. We were careful but somehow created a baby. The problems keep compounding, and I don’t even want to think about what tomorrow might bring.”