Christina had Thomas dropped off at his home, but when she asked Jennifer if she wanted to be driven home as well the girl just shook her head.
"Going with Thomas?"
Brown hair swirled around Jennifer's face once again.
"Girls' talk," Thomas offered from outside the car. "She doesn't have those too often. See you tomorrow Jennifer."
Christina looked after his back as he climbed the short stairs to his door and vanished inside.
"Where to?" her chauffeur said.
"Home. Have them prepare for a guest," Christina said and shot Jennifer a quick glance to see if that was what she wanted.
This time Jennifer nodded.
Seriously contemplating quitting modelling last summer was, Christina realised, the smartest thing she had done. It must have shown, because Vogue dropped more or less all of their draconian demands, which meant she could have friends visiting her.
'So why is Jennifer the first?' Because Ulf wasn't, and Ko-chan would understand that, and Noriko still didn't feel comfortable around her.
"You live on your own as well?" Christina asked.
Jennifer nodded. "Well, there's a body guard now," she added.
"Body guard?"
Another nod.
Christina decided to wait for the girl to continue the topic of her own. Something was wrong, but pushing the freshman into a corner could backfire as well.
They continued the drive in silence. Through the windows Christina saw how autumn truly had come to the city. Later here than in Sweden, by well over a month.
After an awkward silence they arrived at her home, and Christina spent the ride in the lift reading up on her next shoot. Talking could wait until they were inside her flat.
She opened the door and invited her guest inside.
"It's huge!" were the first words here from a voice belonging to someone other than Christina or her staff.
Christina looked at Jennifer. Maybe it was. Ever since moving in she hadn't really given it much of a thought. Her small and rundown flat held more good memories than this one, and years of living in luxury must have made her numb to excesses.
"I thought you were used to it, diplomat daughter and all," Christina said in an attempt to get a conversation going.
Jennifer hung her jacket on a hanger and walked further inside. She was, Christina mused, in for a surprise. The living room might look huge, but it also opened up to another seven rooms, most of which were empty since there was absolutely no way Christina could have made any meaningful use of them.
'Maybe I'd have spent money on furniture if they let me bring friends home when I moved in.' Maybe, but the time for maybes had gone, and living in a world of fashion you either got over mistakes immediately or your were out of a career.
The dining room, apart from her own sleeping room and the living room they had entered, the only one furnished had a dinner for two waiting for them on a grand table for a full dozen. This would be her second time eating here. Ever since that first night crying over a lonely snack in her new home she spent what few meals she had here standing in the kitchen.
The food was, Christina noted mutely, superb, and she waited for the famished freshman to fill her needs before trying to open up a conversation again.
In the end it was Jennifer who eventually broke the silence. She placed fork and knife on her plate in a way that told Christina volumes of a well to do middle class upbringing and pretended to wipe her mouth with a napkin.
"I'm afraid," she said.
'Body guards,' Christina thought. 'So she's just putting on a show after all.' In ways Christina felt relieved. The girl was human in the end. "I'm listening," because this would mostly be listening from her part.
"I'm afraid of turning Thomas away, but I can't stand him touching me."
Christina nodded, but she couldn't prevent a grimace from spreading on her face. "Did he do anything?" But that wasn't the question, was it? More than a few models around her during her first life had been forced to bed men in power, and a couple, Christina suspected, were outright assaulted.
"No, no he's gentle."
He would be. Withdrawn to the point that Christina almost didn't see him as a man, but with something in his eyes that told her he fought with himself every day to behave like a model gentleman.
"It's because of that?"
Jennifer smirked and looked down at her empty plate.
Apart from a genuine interest in fashion there was a reason Christina abandoned modelling and built her empire. She desperately sought the power to prevent that from happening in her own world, but in the end she hurt others instead.
"Should I call a couple of other friends here?" Christina said. She hadn't experienced what Jennifer had. There was little she could do to help.
Jennifer's face suddenly turned into an ugly grimace of fear and loathing. "No! I couldn't stand you looking at me that way."
'I can't do anything! I don't understand. I… oh!' "I could leave you with them. Or just one of them."
"Why? I came to you."
'She needs professional help. I could hurt her, but Noriko, maybe if it was her.' Christina combed her hair with her fingers while she thought of a decent way to force her suggestion. In the end only the truth came to her mind. She'd apologise to Noriko later. "You know Ryu?"
Jennifer nodded, and her panicked eyes slowly returned to normal.
"He told me. Noriko, his sister. She'd understand you better, and I trust her."
Jennifer's eyes opened wide.
'And so I'll hurt a friend, and I'll hurt you as well Ulf.' Gritting her teeth Christina decided that if she was to be a disgusting woman something good could as well come from it.