But I didn’t.
Ivy went over to her bag in the corner of the studio to check something on her phone—she keeps her phone in her bag so she doesn’t get distracted during shoots. And when she did, she bent over and gave me the most ridiculous view of her unbelievable ass I’d seen since she started working for me.
Like the animalistic man I am, I completely forgot about what I was doing and started staring. My eyes locked on to her womanly curves, and my mind got sucked into a fantasy about all the things I’d die to do to her, and by the time I was snapping out of it, Christine and Zack were walking in the door. I hopped up to greet them and left the SD card sitting there on the table without loading it into the camera, meaning every single shot I took of Christine just went off into the ether.
Shit. This girl is really fucking up my professionalism.
“Is there a problem?” That’s Christine. She’s not just a great model, she can also tell when something’s up. This is one of those times that I wish I was working with a less-professional girl who was just here to make a good impression.
“Um, yeah…” I say, turning to her and Zack. “We had a little…technical difficulty with the camera and…lost all those photos we just shot.”
“What?” Zack blurts out.
Christine’s jaw drops. “You lost them?”
I put both hands up, trying to calm the situation. “Look, you nailed that shoot. We can knock it out again if we start now. We’re both professionals, right?”
“One of us is!” Christine counters.
“Wait a second here,” Zack snarls. “You said you had a technical issue with the camera. Isn’t that her job?”
Zack points to Ivy, his eyes filled with anger. Ivy takes a step behind me, placing her hands on my back. A protective instinct I’ve never felt before instantly floods through me.
“Listen, Zack, this is nobody’s fault, okay?”
Zack steps forward, trying to get around me. But I quickly sidestep him, keeping myself between him and Ivy.
“Yeah, that’s what you say,” he growls. “What are you, fucking this bitch and that’s why you gave her this job? You even look at her resume?”
Zack raises his hand toward Ivy and I just snap. I swat it away like a fly, causing him to react and come at me. He throws a right hook, which I just manage to duck and counter with my own right to his stomach. I hear Christine shouting as he stumbles, but it takes a knee to the face for me to knock him on his ass. Only then does he stop his assault.
“What the hell are you doing!?” Christine cries out at me, racing to her boyfriend’s side.
“What is he doing?” Ivy shouts back. “Did you not just see what happened?”
I try not to smile at Ivy coming to my defense. I turn back to her and whisper, “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she whispers back as Christine helps Zack to his feet.
“I want you out of my studio,” I tell him as he holds a hand to his nose. This definitely ranks number one on the list of craziest shoots I’ve ever had in here.
“You piece of shit…” he mutters. “You just screw my girl out of her Vogue shoot?”
“I’ll shoot you, Christine,” I say. “We can redo the photos, but only if Zack gets his ass out of here now.”
I already know what her answer’s going to be. Christine may care about her man, but she cares about her career more. She’s on her way to the top, and she’s not going to let this one incident hold her back. They exchange a glance, and she leans in and whispers something in his ear, which he clearly isn’t too happy with, but a few seconds later, he turns around and heads for the door.
“You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?” he calls to me before he leaves. I don’t even reply. It’s not even worth it. I just want to get this shoot over with and put this whole day behind me.
Christine seems to have the same idea; she’s standing in front of the backdrop in her wardrobe as soon as I turn around. I can tell she’s got a few things she’d like to say, but she’s maintaining her professionalism. I take the camera from Ivy and double-check that the SD card is loaded.
“It’s in there.” She smiles, a smile that nearly melts me. “Don’t worry, I made sure.”
This girl is going to be a problem. I knew it when she showed up for the job, but now I really know it. In the 10 years I’ve been shooting as a professional photographer, I have never made such an egregious mistake as the one I just made. But now, two weeks after hiring Ivy and being distracted by her unbelievable beauty, I go and screw up like that.