The bouquet in her hand drops to the floor. Mila isn’t anywhere to be seen.
“I don’t think I want to marry you anymore,” the bride says as I close the door. Some shouting occurs, but I pay it no attention. We move to the next floor. Again, loud music is being played. The heavy beats nearly vibrate on the old floorboards.
“Do pornos have hip hop music?” I wonder.
Dax shrugs. “Wouldn’t know. Never watched.”
“Me neither.” This time when I throw the door open, I see nearly naked men lounging around an orange sofa, but Mila is nowhere to be seen. I scan the room, my eyes falling on Lauren, who is bent over a table peering at something. She shifts, and I spot Mila.
“Mila!” I say sharply. Her head pops up, and her eyes meet mine.
“Jay?” I see her lips form and then it all turns black. The lights, the music, everything is off. There’s a half moment of silence and then utter pandemonium. My cell phone starts ringing. Out in the hall, I hear doors opening and footsteps pounding. Inside here, there’s the sound of something crashing to the floor followed by curses.
I answer the phone, knowing exactly what the voice on the other end is going to say. “Power’s off!” the guy crows.
“Turn it back on,” I sigh.
“Uhhh, how do I do that?”
“The opposite way you turned it off.”
“Okay. Give me a sec. Oh—ouch—oh my God!”
The lights flicker for a half second and then blackness again.
“Jay, is that you?” Mila says in a soft voice. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” I ask, hanging up on the guy. He shorted the entire building. I turn to Dax. “Call an electrician,” I order quietly.
He takes off without a word but thankfully they flick back on again.
“I’m here to help Lauren. We’re having an underwear shoot.”
“Not anymore you’re not.”
seven
MILANA
In my whole life, I’ve never imagined someone could become sexier as they get more bossy. If anything, it should be a turn-off. Too bad my body didn’t get that memo. The ache between my thighs is a testament to that. I stare up at Jay and his stupidly handsome face that makes it hard to say no to and do the only thing I can think to do.
“No,” I say sternly, pointing my finger at him in the same way one of my dads does when Charlie, our family dog, is trying to do something he isn’t supposed to. He’s always trying to steal food off the table.
It’s a terrible habit and one I’d given him as a child. I could never resist giving him food under the table. How could I not? Charlie’s furry face might not be as handsome as Jay's, but it’s still pretty freaking adorable. I’ve always been a sucker for Charlie, and he used that to his advantage.
Jay actually cocks his head to the side, and I wonder for a brief moment if I’ve done it. If he is actually going to listen to me. To be honest, I don’t even know why he’s here. Part of me would have thought our whole date and everything else that went on last night was a dream except for the fact that Lauren kept bringing it up. She doesn’t trust Jay. Keeps saying he’s a liar face. But I don’t feel the same way. I think it’s a bit kickass that he stole another man’s date. If that’s not a power move, I’m not sure what is.
Plus, it was only a small lie. We all tell them, don’t we? Just like I told my dad Rick I loved his pot roast. I know it’s awful to lie, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I didn’t have it in me to tell him it’s terrible. Charlie loves it, though, so it worked out. Well, kind of, 'cause now he’s always trying to steal food from the table.
“No?” He repeats the word as if he doesn’t quite grasp its meaning. He doesn’t look like the type of man that people say that word to often. For some reason, I get a tingling in the back of my neck, so I turn to see that everyone is watching us.
“Back to work!” Lauren shouts at them, knowing in half a second the attention I’ve somehow drawn because of Jay will fluster me and I’ll end up doing a big oops.
It’s the last thing I need right now. I’ve already had one of those today when one of the models asked me if I knew where the filler was. I was confused at first until he explained that it was the filler to make his dick seem bigger.
I stumbled over my words and ended up telling him I could make it as big as he wanted in Photoshop. He was enthralled with that and started to follow me around, asking me a million questions. In the end, I murdered a whole thing of cupcakes trying to make an escape from him and his glistening abs. Thankfully, Lauren came prepared and had a change of clothes for me.