You'll Never Know

1

I sighed loudly after putting my Starbucks cup down on the freshly polished wood table. It was already noon and I been sitting in the conference room since nine. I was tired of listening to business bullcrap that had virtually nothing to do with me, I simply wanted to go home and look for something to cure my pounding headache.

“And that is why I think that Miss Brenham should be a part of not only this shoot, but your company as well.” My agent, Stephen, concluded. He was trying to convince the CEO and head photographer of Vogue to sign a contract with me. Of course if I signed, he would get all the money I worked for. At this point, I didn’t care who owned what. I was just glad to have a rough over my head and enough money to order pizza once a week.

If I was being honest, I hated my job. Being a model was literally the worst career ever but I didn’t have a choice. Before I was offered this job I was living in my friend and her fiance’s apartment trying to finish college. However, I didn’t have the time or mental capacity to finish college. I hated it, but because of my lack of a proper education nobody wanted to hire me. That was until I met Stephen. He brought me to the top of the modeling business within a matter of months. But no matter how much I enjoyed the lifestyle of a model, the job itself was awful. All day I was either surrounded by wealthy, lonely, and annoying businessmen or stuck-up, bitch-y girls.

I guess the deal was done because I was brought out of my reminiscent day dream by Stephen handing me a pen and pointing to the bottom of a piece of paper.  

“Just sign here and we’ll be wealthier than you could ever imagine,” he whispered into my ear and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I signed quickly, just glad that I was going to be able to leave this stuffy conference room in a matter of seconds. Just as I hoped, Stephen placed the now signed contract in front of the two, surprisingly young, men wearing boring black suits. I stood up quickly, not bothering to say goodbye, and left the room with Stephen following closely, already calling his driver to come pick us up.

“We did the right thing, Lex.” Stephen said, sensing my edge.

“I know. I’m not angry, I just need to get some more sleep.” I said, slipping into the backseat of the shiny black Mercedes Stephen bought with my first paycheck.

“Well you better rest up tonight because tomorrow is going to be a long day. Not only do you have a morning shoot tomorrow, but also a business party.” Courtney, Stephen’s assistant, informed me as she turned around from her spot in the front seat of the car to face us.

“I trust you’ve already entered all of that into my calendar?” Stephen asked, not bothering to look up from his phone.

“Of course. And your’s too, Alexandra.” She said, smiling.

I gave her a weak smile, the coffee still not kicking into my system. “Thanks, Courtney. How do you find out all of this stuff?” I questioned, being genuinely interested in her answer.

“Well Stephen always puts my number on anything he gives to other companies, so Vogue has already contacted me with this months’ schedule.” She smiled triumphantly, holding up her phone as if I could see the tiny text from my place in the backseat.

“Oh, I see.” I said, smiling again to her and turning to look out the window.

***

I rolled out of bed with a major hangover and tried my best to be presentable. After my awful photoshoot this morning I made the stupid decision to go drink away my sorrows. When I came home and plopped into bed, I completely forgot about the business party I had to attend tonight. Thankfully I still had all my makeup on from the shoot earlier today and my hair was reasonably neat. I threw on a black dress and matching shoes before grabbing my coat and purse and running out the door. When I made my way to the bottom steps of the upscale New York City apartment, I saw Stephen’s driver, David, waiting for me outside. I made my way into the car and we were off to MoMA for the party.

***

I had already greeted the CEO and was walking around the large area of the museum the business had rented for the party. If I was being completely honest, the party was incredibly boring. Sadly, the museum hadn’t changed out it’s inventory since I had recently spent hours analyzing the works. This left me bored, at the small makeshift bar, scrolling through instagram. I sighed, completely unaware of Stephen’s whereabouts and figured David had left and was going to coming back once the party was over. However, I was uninterested with the party and figured I could walk around until I was bored with that, too.

I made my way out of the building and decided on taking a left. After several minutes of mindlessly walking around, simply listening to music and people-watching, it started to rain. I slumped my shoulders and began looking through my purse for the umbrella I always made sure to carry with me. Thankfully I found it before getting too wet and started to open it. Upon my attempt to shield myself with the shiny black material, I ended up hitting someone.

“Oh! I’m so sorry…” I trailed off, looking up to make contact with the most beautiful pair of green eyes I’d ever seen.