The sunlight had already settled by the time Rina returned to her room. A soft, golden glow from the evening sun still lingered on the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of amber and lavender. The faint scent of jasmine from a candle she had forgotten to extinguish in a haste to see Zayn, lingered in the air, wrapping around her like a familiar embrace. Laying on her bed, she rolled over to her abandoned phone on the nightstand, her eyes widening when she realized she had missed George’s calls ten times. She returned his call at once, armed with a properly constructed sentence intended to assure him that she was doing alright, and wasn’t one bit affected by Regina’s drama.
But when she pressed the phone against her ear, she heard a chirpy and ecstatic tone instead. Narrowing her eyes, Rina sat up and folded her legs against her chest. The soft fabric of her duvet crinkled beneath her, and the distant hum of city life beyond the window seemed to fade. “George, you have to slow down. I can’t hear a thing.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath, audible from the sound coming from his chest. “I just got a mail and before you go on about how the last mail didn’t yield anything positive, you should actually listen to what I have to say.”
“I had no plans of saying that,” Rina muttered, rolling her eyes. Regina was just only a small part of the huge world in front of her. Outside, the sun dipped lower, casting long shadows across the room. The quiet ticking of the vintage clock on her dresser filled the silence, each second stretching the anticipation. “What does the mail say? Is it a job offer? Something local? Lead role?”
“Now you’re the one I’m going to have to ask to slow down,” George said, chuckling. “It’s from a foreign fashion and modeling brand with the most popular magazine in the world.”
Rina let her legs fall. “You are pulling my legs, George.”
“Where is the time for that?”
“Are you sure you aren’t talking about O. S. N?” Since Rina left the fashion house, Joel’s brand had topped the charts, receiving recognition from brands in the country. It was being tagged the most popular fashion brand locally, just because Joel had stayed silent when he’d been asked about the reason for his asking Rina Power to tender in her resignation letter. A part of Rina had hoped Joel would deny that assertion when she came across it on Instagram, but instead, he just smiled and moved to the next. That minute, different theories started flying on the internet, the most being the fact that Joel had finally realized who Rina truly was and wanted nothing to do with her. Up till that very moment, he had done nothing to change the narrative.
But Rina couldn’t blame it. The business world was cruel and brutish. He was only trying to survive with what the cosmos presented to him.
“O. S. N is the most popular fashion brand in the country, Rina.” She could almost imagine him rolling his eyes. “I am talking about world-class popularity. A brand even Joel Osteen can only hope to partner with. It is that big.”
“You don’t by any chance mean Claire McGregor, do you?”
“One and the same.”
“The Pages of Claire?”
“The fashion Icon.”
“Fuck!” Rina screamed suddenly, dropping her phone on the bed, and burying her face into her pillow to mask the rest of her scream. The muffled sound of her excitement blended with the rustling of the silk pillowcase. She heard footsteps in the hallway before her door was pushed open a second later, William’s head popping through the space.
“Ms. Power, are you alone? Are you fine?”
She raised her head to look at him. “I’m … I don’t know.” She grabbed the phone again, while William watched her with confusion etched on his features. “George?”
“I’m still here,” he replied, sounding just as shocked as she was. “When I got the mail, I had Isaiah read it to me just in case I had misread the first time. Then, I went online just to confirm if I was missing their logo. I wasn’t, Rina. You are going global.”
“Wait a second.” She didn’t want to believe it that easily. “In what capacity am I being requested for?”
William, realizing it wasn’t the situation he feared, closed the door quietly and disappeared down the hallway.
“Claire was at the O. S. N’s fashion show where you walked the runway and revealed yourself as the anonymous model. She thought you were fabulous and is interested in working with you for one year. The contract might be renewed, but is subject to your performance and relation with the brand.”
“Oh. My. God!” It was still too much to take in. “I can’t believe this is happening. I thought… the fashion show was horrible because of that revelation. I got attacked by my anti-fans.”
“But she thought it must have taken a lot of courage to do that, and it is exactly what she’s searching for in her models. The mail contained the specification of your occupying the front page of their weekly e-magazines, and their monthly publications as well. You would also be required to be present at every shoot and wear their products on your social media pages, despite the hate you might receive. But there’s something else you would need to do as well.
“What is it?”
“You would have to leave the country. The contract maintains that you must always be there at every shoot, and some shoots last as long as two weeks. The Pages of Claire would take care of your accommodation, feeding, and flight ticket.”
“And all-expense paid profession?”
“Every single time there’s a shoot or public appearance.”
“And what do I have to do?”
“Sign the contract.”
Rina felt her heart thrumming excitedly, and she felt the innate urge to get on her feet and break into a dance.
“I take it that you know where the brand is based, right?”
“Hong Kong.”