Song- Dangerously by Charlie Puth

****

"Rowan, I think if you tilt your head just a wee bit...." Hansen said.

I relaxed on the leather couch and gave a slight tilt of my head. "Like this?"

"Fantastic." Hansen captured a few shots with his Canon DSLR, zooming in and out, he then proceeded to inspect his shots and muttered a few more praises. "You were born to become a model. I just knew it. You gonna make me rich, Rowie, my boy."

I laughed, and Hansen took another shot of me laughing. At this point, Hansen's obsession with fashion photography had sky-rocketed. He wanted to make me a super model. He had been pestering me since the past year in the rehab how serious he was about helping me become a model and as soon as I was out six months ago, Hansen took a break from his therapy at the rehab and got around to introducing me to one of the best modeling agencies and even convinced me to sign with them.

I was a bit reluctant at first, having absolutely no experience in modeling before, but I'd worked out at the rehab gym each day, downing bottles of protein shakes and toned my body. Also, the pay was really good and it was worth a shot. I recalled the time when the staff and the female students of Carmel university told me on more than one occasion that with my height and body, I was more suited to become a fashion model, rather than a teacher. And since my parents had gifted me with such a handsome face, why not make use of it.

I know, I'm getting cocky right there.

An assistant came forward and dabbed some bronzer over my face and neck. Hansen adjusted the lights as a female model with minimum clothing walked into the room.

Hansen had a wide grin on his face as a model tall as a stick walked strolled into the room wearing a thin robe and killer high heels. She came forward and wrapped Hansen in a hug and kissed both his cheeks in greeting.

Hansen turned his grin towards me and said, "Rowan, this is Viktoria Antonova, and Viktoria meet Rowan Masters. She will be collaborating with us for this shoot." Hansen gave us the quick introductions.

I knew Viktoria was a well-established Bulgarian model, and I'd seen her pose with some of the top-notches, on magazines and walked as a showstopper for some well-known brands, but for her to agree to pose with a newbie model like myself only meant that Hansen had put in a good word for me.

The thing I really hated about the fashion industry was how I had to be overly friendly with everyone and keep a fake smile permanently plastered over my face. I pulled myself up from the couch and Viktoria who was wearing a satin thin fabric, passed me her familiar smile and leaned forward, low enough for me to get a view of her assets and pecked my cheeks in greeting. "We finally meet. You are far more handsome than the pictures could tell. Heard a lot of things about you from Hansen."

"Thanks, and I hope those were good things you heard about me." I said.

She giggled, almost forcefully, "Of course."

"Now, now, darlings, if you guys could spare some time out of the flirting for work, it would make me a happy man." Hansen remarked sarcastically.

Viktoria slipped out of the thin robe like a pro, leaving only the lingerie on. She then slid over my lap and circled an arm around my shoulders. The thick scent of an expensive perfume entered my nostrils. To be honest, her closeness was making me uncomfortable. It was the couple shoots that I hated so much, and more so since being a new model meant I had to do shoots that consisted minimum clothing.

"Row, unbutton that jeans and get rid of that shirt." Hansen suggested.

I groaned, getting rid of my shirt. Viktoria took it upon herself to give me a hand as she reached for my denim zipper, but I brushed her fingers off politely and unzipped it myself.

"Now, Rowie, I need to see emotions on your face. Look at Vik like she is your world."

I relaxed back into the couch and placed my hands on either side of the couch, while Viktoria inched closer which was completely unnecessary and placed her palm on my abs. We stared into each other's eyes, Hansen's camera clicking away in the background. Then we changed some poses, Viktoria was a pro at posing and I was learning from her.

There were a few intimate poses, but didn't include me grabbing her assets and that made it better, not that Viktoria would mind, although if Alana was here she would have loved to rip her to shreds.

It took an hour to wrap up the shoot. I was in my dressing room looking through all those amazing shots when I heard a soft tapping sound and the door opened slightly, Viktoria peeped into the room. "Hey, what's going on?"

She walked into the room, wearing a crop top over skinny denims and holding two large cups of Starbucks takeout. "Thought you would like some coffee, I didn't know which flavor you prefer. Hope you like pumpkin spice latté."

"Sure. Thank you."

I liked black coffee, but she didn't need to know that.

I accepted the cup from her. Vik's finger's slightly brushed mine, and I had a slight idea that maybe it was on purpose. I let it slid.

"Karl knows what he is doing, doesn't he?" She came up behind me and leaned in from behind.

"He sure does." I agreed. "You were great, by the way."

"Aw, thank you, Rowan." She said in her overly sugary voice like she hadn't even heard those same lines from every fucking possible model she had worked with.

There was an awkward silence in the air, the kind where two people run out of topics for conversation and one of them tries very hard to come up with something intelligent to say. She sat on the armrest while I scanned all the pictures. I'd always struck as anti-social to everybody, and Hansen had warned me to cut it. In this particular scenario, I was hoping Viktoria would take a hint and leave me the fuck alone.

"Are you free tonight?" Viktoria asked straightforwardly. No beating around the bush. "We could grab dinner, and you know...hang out. I know the best restaurants here in Venice."

"I would have loved to, but I actually have plans tonight with my friends."

That was a fat lie. I didn't have many friends here other than Hansen and another male model I had worked with who was also a newbie in the fashion industry.

She smiled, a fake smile that saw right through my lie and was probably wondering why I had turned her down.

"Well, darling, if you change your mind, my number is on your cup." She pecked my cheek noisily, stood up to leave. "Bye."

Well, why exactly had I turned her down?

Viktoria was attractive enough for any man to want her, and someone would be foolish to do what I had done, given the fact that I had been single for the past two years after my break up with Alana. So, why not take a chance at warming my bed when I had one? But, it was instinct.

During the shoot, Viktoria who was almost naked was practically grinding against me to get the right picture and god knows how much time we had spent getting it all right, but not once had I felt the burning urge that I needed to fuck her.

Nothing was wrong with me. She just wasn't the one I wanted.

Any woman that wasn't making me hard, wasn't worth my time, but I knew who fit the bill. I knew exactly who I wanted to have all of me. It wasn't Viktoria, and definitely wasn't anyone else.

Just one girl. Alana.

Thinking about her just made me want to get a cold shower.

I know it was foolish that I was still hung up on her even though I was the one to put an end to things, but there was still a bit of a hope left in me. That maybe she still had some feelings for me.

I walked towards the window and watched as Viktoria climbed a sedan Audi. I rolled my coffee cup sideways and sure enough there was a little message written in black ink.

Vik 392xxxx.

Without a second thought, the empty cup went inside the dumpster across the room in one single shot.

****

"That wasn't a cool move, Rowie." Hansen said over our little dinner date at a famous seafood restaurant in Venice. Tagging along with him was such a bad idea, I realized that after we ordered our food. I couldn't walk out now. I had a travel to Tuscany the morning by road for another major shoot for a local fashion magazine cover.

I was digging into the Italian seafood risotto, ignoring Hansen's sting eye. He continued, "All Viktoria asked for was a good time. If you had agreed with her, god knows where you could be in the next few months. You could have been the next David Gandy, what the fuck were you thinking? She has connections that I don't."

"Do I want to be a successful model? Maybe, yeah. Do I want to be Viktoria's fuck boy? No, thank you." I sipped the white wine. It tasted so good. If Sofia knew I was drinking some wine, she would probably blow a gasket. I was still off limits to any type of alcohol.

"You just blew a major opportunity at becoming famous in a matter of months." He still wasn't touching his bowl of creamy, cheesy pasta that was garnished with bits of shrimp and calamari.

"I don't want to be famous by sleeping with her, alright? When I came into this industry which by the way was your idea, I came with some ideals. I won't do things that I'm uncomfortable with."

Hansen barked a laugher. "Oh, I get it. You want to throw it all away for that girl again. What is this, some kind of a Disney movie? What do you think, that you gonna climb that little tower and your little princess gonna wait for that kiss to wake her up? Fuck no. If love stories were all inspired by Disney, wouldn't everyone get a happy ending?"

"Are you gonna eat this?" I picked up his bowl of untouched pasta.

"No." He scowled at me, while I pulled the pasta to my side of the table and began wolfing down a large bite. I realized Hansen wasn't in a mood to eat, he just wanted to feed me a good lecture. As soon as the pasta hit my mouth, I suppressed a moan as the gooey texture of cheese along with the crunchiness of the shrimp melted in my mouth.

"What are you? Alana's loyal doggie? She forced you to give up your teaching career and you were so invested in that relationship that you almost killed yourself, and now you want to throw your modeling career. Do you recall what she did to you, I still remember the way you looked like when you walked into that rehabilitation like a frickin prune living off dope."

"That last line, is that supposed to make me feel insulted?" I chuckled. "Because, you gotta try harder man."

"Give me that here." He snatched his now almost empty bowl of pasta. "What do you think you're doing? This thing has tons of calories. It isn't good for your body."

Hansen was going to burst a nerve. He began swirling his fork in the pasta. "You're going to walk into your town next time and find her in someone else's arms. And when that happens, you're gonna tell me how right I was and what a bad idea it was to pass up an opportunity like Viktoria Antonova."

I threw the fork on my plate in frustration that landed with a loud clank and I kicked the nearest chair which toppled on the ground with a thud. The patrons around began staring. I didn't care that I was putting up a show.

It's the Rowan Masters Freak Show guys, Free tickets!

Hansen needed to understand that he had crossed a line. He hadn't even flinched, we were a piece cut out from the same cloth.

"I thought I gave you enough chances to SHUT THE FUCK UP! I don't care what you say to me, but you talk bullshit about Alana like that again, and I swear to god that I might have to forget that we are even friends. I will walk out of this contract and you can forget this deal we had."

I saw from the corner of my eye that a waiter was staring at the exchange from the sidelines, not making a single attempt at trying to calm us down. Nobody in my twenty-nine years had every told me what to do, not that I'd every listened. I downed some water and tried to calm my myself.

"You don't understand..." Hansen started again.

"This conversation is over. One more word, and you won't hear from me tomorrow." I threw the napkin on the table, placed the overturned chair where it belonged and reached for my wallet. Hansen waved it off, yet I placed some money on the table.

I took the glass of wine and downed it, couldn't afford to leave that drink hanging in there.

****

It was a little past midnight when I reached the hotel room. I was depressed with the fact that I couldn't have the tiramisu that I was looking forward to. I climbed into the bed, not even bothering to take off my shoes.

I heard the soft beeping of my phone, I swiped the screen to find several texts from my friend who was also a model, asking me if I wanted to join some club. He would be boozing until dawn and then would drool over the backseat on his way to Tuscany. I liked to keep my head clear hours before work.

I was just ready for bed when a notification beeped. I checked it to find a voicemail from Dwight. My first thought was to ignore it and go to sleep, but my instincts told me I shouldn't.

Curiosity killed the cat. I pressed play.

"Hey brother, hope your modeling career is skyrocketing." Dwight said, I rolled my eyes at the sarcasm. The voicemail continued, "There's something important that I want to talk to you about. Call me ASAP."

Beep.

I dialed Dwight's number. He answered on the third ring.

"You're fast." Dwight said from the other end.

"If this another of your attempts at annoying the shit outta me, than we can talk tomorrow, because it's midnight here in Italy and I need my beauty sleep."

"It's about Alana." He said.

That had my attention.

"Alana? What about her? This better not be some bait."

"You need to reschedule your shoot for later and catch the next flight to Carmel."

I bolted upright in the bed, feeling tensed all of a sudden. "Did something happen? Alana is fine, isn't she?"

"She is fine. Look, I can't explain everything on phone. I need you here."

I sighed. "Okay. As soon as I'm done with the shoot tomorrow, I'm coming on the next flight."

"Great." He said. "Good night."

"Night." I said and lowered the lights.

I compartmentalized my conversation with Dwight because it was best I didn't think about it at all and wait until Dwight told me in person. On another thought, a wave of excitement washed over me as I imagined meeting Alana. I explored the photo library in my phone and found a picture of her that I'd clicked when she'd been to Denmark. The same night I'd broken up with her.

I stared at her photo."Soon, baby." I whispered.

"Soon."

****

A.N: Thank God it's Friday! Hope you'all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please don't forget to Vote and Comment telling me what you think. Your constant support means a lot to me. And, I'm so excited for you guys to read the next chapter because...*cough*...you may guess whats gonna happen. ❤️

Have a Great Weekend ahead!