Ryan Carlos
12th January 2011
New York
"So, Ryan and Mark, let's check the schedule availability for this project. Have a word with your managers, before the event shoot,"
"Mr. Eric and James, don't be late. The interviewer is waiting for you both,"
"How about we do the pre-photo-shoot in an hour? Will that be, okay?" Hazel inquired to her team.
"And where are the other models with their outfits for Vogue?"
"FASHION IS NOT ABOUT TRENDS; IT IS ABOUT IDEAS, PERSONAL TOUCH, AND COHERENCE. WE CREATE."
"Panaché has always been at No.1 to make a difference in the fashion world, topping the Fortune 50 for consecutive years. It has been the town's largest production house and a home for all the models. It is our pleasure…Blah blah blah"
"Yeah, everything is fine, this can be the conference's opening line. Are we okay?" the director asked his team as he glanced over their speech script.
Everyone was occupied with their respective responsibilities for the global conference which was scheduled to happen the next day, so it was complete chaos in the house. We are known for being the team that does everything at the last minute and at the brink of a cliff, with a result of success always. We take our actions precisely and that's what Panaché is known for.
As soon as I entered, Mark began his usual lecture about me being late for most of the shoots, but this time I honestly had a genuine reason because of a prior meeting, but he still continued, "Ryan, when are you going to learn to be on time for..." and Thud! Something noisy had happened near the lounge. We exchanged glances and dashed outside to see what had occurred all of a sudden. That's when we spotted a young girl tripping down the stairs. Most of the staff had come out of their places to see what had happened, all looking down at her from the top floor. Another young man in his twenties rushed over to help her out of the blue.
"Huh, what a weirdo!" I thought.
Hazel immediately commented, " Why do these interns and background artists always fight like cats and dogs? God, they are always a pain in the ass. Even after they know their duties quite well, they are still playing around, creating all kinds of messes. "
That is right, and that wasn't surprising to us knowing one of our interns or the background artist would always be injured during our shoots because of these silly issues. I knew the end of it, but still stood there because it was an intense situation making me assume that maybe they were a couple, "This is what happens when you try to ignore your circumstances. At the very least, you wouldn't have gotten hurt," said the man who attempted to lift her.
"I'm not going to fall for your deceptive words. Leave me..." she warned.
"You will understand once you come with me," he tried to entice her out of the place.
It seemed like she wasn't interested in talking to him and intended to ignore, but he wasn't ready to let her go, trying to pull her into creating a scene in front of all. As I zoomed in on her with my eye properly, I realised that I had never seen her before in our team at all and seemed like a new face. "Hazy, did the company hire new interns already?" I asked Hazel, but there wasn't any reply from her. As I looked back, she had already gone, while Mark was enjoying, completely lost in the happenings and I was talking to myself, all this while.
"Is this some sort of playground where you two can rustle things off? Get the hell out of here, before I fire you," our director yelled angrily at them. The man tried to pull her by her hoodie cap, but she was quick enough to twist his hand and push him against the wall in the blink of an eye.
"Do you need a reminder of who I am?" screamed the girl, which startled us.
"Nah, but instead I would love to see inside you," the guy said in a sleazy tone and began to laugh. She immediately grabbed his hair and slammed it against the wall, smacked him so hard that his nose began to bleed.
"Wow, that was one freaky shot, man," Mark exclaimed in excitement.
"Don't be hard to get, chick," said a man who appeared out of nowhere with a large, sharp knife.
She easily escaped his aim in a matter of seconds, and while he was about to fall on the ground, she grabbed his collar and kicked his balls straight with her knees. I could feel that guy's pain because he looked like he was on the verge of losing his life with that single kick. Another guy from the crowd barged in and locked her neck, while the other tried to stand on his leg after being kicked on the balls. Her body resembled that of a gymnast, as her reflexes were so quick that she kicked him onto the ground with a powerful force. The guy lost his grip on her neck and held onto her wrist instead, when instantly she twisted her body, thinking he was holding her hand and removed her hoodie while standing in her sports bra to escape from his grip. She used an instant move by making him fall with her leg and with the hoodie in his hand, she tied a tight knot of his hands, locking him down completely, making the others get stunned with her fast moves.
"Ryan, I am out! This is it, she has me fully now," Mark threw his body on me mesmerised by her actions apparently. We were honestly captivated by her perfect abs and toned arms, but when I looked at Mark, I could clearly see that he had fallen into the pit of love. Suddenly, he jumped out in excitement asking, "Isn't she the model who signed with our company? Damn, I wish I had a duo shoot with her," Mark kept admiring her.
"WHAT!" I couldn't believe what he had said, not about his love but about the model part.
"Were you dreaming when Hazel told us we would be working with new models for our upcoming shoot?" Mark was perplexed.
"What? Her?" I cast a glance at her, who was actively involved in a fight, giving zero shits about her surroundings. Her face was pale though, with soggy, dull eyes, and her hair was completely shambled because of the tough time she was having. The fact that she was a model was too much for me to bear looking at the current condition of hers, but, because Mark is good at making things up, I asked, "How do you know she's the one, I mean the soon to be model?"
"Sources bro. Anyway, I heard that she is a boxer too, so that's clearly a no entry for anyone in the beginning I guess," he quipped and I asked myself, "Why would I even consider that romp as my girlfriend?"
"Man, look at her, isn't she the perfect 36-24-36?" he said, looking at her hourglass-shaped body.
I had no idea how to react to all the mess, and all I did was stare at her to see what was going to happen next. Yes, she had a beautiful body, perfectly tanned skin, and a distinct aura from the rest of the crowd, that was not a fact to be denied. But it was revolting to see her flexing her body and acting like a maniac in front of the crowd, literally creating a ruckus. I couldn't also figure out why Mark had this sudden crush on this messy girl, after just looking at her once. At that moment, a man in a black suit approached her and put his blazer on her, asking "'Babe!' Are you alright? What happened to you?" With a worried expression.
"Is she Jake's girlfriend? No way that dumb kid is dating that beautiful woman," Mark was dismayed.
But why couldn't I even pretend to be surprised? I didn't know that our nerd first-year model had a boxer girlfriend, but yeah, he was a rich kid, so some woman did fall for him.
"Perhaps you know? Something to do with dollars maybe? She does appear to be a money-obsessed girl. Judgement me? A little bit, yes. So, Mark, she isn't the preference you go for," I smirked after assuming who she actually was.
"Who in the world are they? How dare you touch my girlfriend?" Jake yelled at those guys.
"My girlfriend?" I sighed in shock.
"Well, you have your answer now, Mark," I patted his shoulder, who hadn't recovered from the shock of discovering that she was Mr Dumbo's girlfriend. She wiggled her body to push his blazer away from her in disgust. I didn't want to waste my time watching his antics, so as I turned to leave the place, I heard her yell, "Who is your girlfriend? Am I?"
"Yeah, you... are... my... girlfriend," he said, making me wonder about her actual identity.
She picked up the knife from the ground and pursued him until he hit his head against the wall. "Now tell me, who do you believe I am now?" She asked while wiping the knife's blade with a devious smile on her face and he chose not to speak. Soon she grabbed Jake's neck with one hand and squeezed it with her sharp nails, just as Mark was about to say something. With the choking of the nape, his face turned as bold as a plum. He tried to pull her hand away from him, but the knife, on the other hand of hers, was only a few centimetres away from his right eye.
"Don't even try to touch my skin and don't tempt me to thrust my knife into your eyes."
The knife was kept so close, in front of his eyes, sharp, that even a small blink of his could have made him lose his vision for the rest of his life.
Was she even a human?
"So now tell me, am I your fucking girlfriend?" she screamed, choking his neck hard. My heart skipped a beat for a split of a second, and I did not know what to do. Why, Jesus Christ, did they let these psychopaths get inside our building? All of sudden, our company head roared, "PUT THAT DOWN!" It was odd because when she heard his voice, she immediately let go of his throat, but still held on to it without backing off entirely. He walked straight towards the lady with bold steps and held her hand which was holding the knife, moving Jake away from her. Jake was coughing and clutching his neck as she let go of him, looking scared to death. "I said throw the knife!" he commanded.
"GUARDS!"
"Call the cops and hand them over to the security team," he ordered, pointing over to the guys who tried to play it rough with her.
"Find out who those morons were, and I want you all to report to me in the next ten minutes," he instructed the security squad. He immediately turned to her and dragged her inside the elevator, saying, and "Come with me," in a very orderly manner. Mark was yet in awe because he had never seen such a beautiful girl who fought that badass and for him, she was completely his ideal preference as he called her, fighting, confidence, and the feminine-power she possessed, made him fall hard. Worst of all, he was staring at the lounge and had fled to his dreamland alongside her.
"Mark, she left. Let's go too, and we have to deal with our own shit. Already wasted 15 minutes, and if we wait another minute, our director will burn us alive," I told him, which didn't seem to bother him much.
After pleading with him to return to reality, and just as I was about to drag him into the room we were supposed to be in, James dashed up to Mark and jumped on him laughing, while Eric was on the phone, talking to someone. He began talking about her again, as soon as he saw James's radiant smile. "Do you know what happened here? We literally witnessed an action movie scene in which a girl with a hot ass body battled two men fearlessly and damn! You should've seen how hard she fought. It was implausible, bro. Oh my goodness, I would..."
"Remember, she's Jake's girlfriend, and she doesn't deserve the spotlight you're giving her right now, Mark. There are also people in this world who do all of this just to attract attention and flaunt their bodies, and you should know this because..." and Mark abruptly cut me off by saying, "yeah, yeah, let's not talk about that."
"Wait a minute. Do you have feelings for her?" Eric inquired.
"He had to have it because she sounded like his ideal preference and what else, Mark?" James stated as he looked into Mark's eyes.
Mark is someone who never expresses his emotions in public unless it is necessary, so he declined immediately. "When it comes to girls, I have a particular taste. But, yeah, I liked how she handled it, and I enjoyed the entertainment for my day, THAT'S ALL! Now let us return to our work," Mark said.
"How about we have a small party after the conference tomorrow?" What do you think guys? Let's do something fun, and it's been really a long time since all four of us went out and did something together," James suggested. If James ever brings up the subject of partying, it means that one of the three, except him, will be spending a lot of dollars on the plan, and also when it came to us, his ultimate goal was to empty our pockets. So, knowing all that, we silently moved away from the spot without a word and ignoring his presence was best, as James and fun; it was just him and his strange drunk board games.
"Come on guys, it can also be fun," James exclaimed seeing us slide away.
It felt different when I met this strange woman today and on top of all that she impressed Mark. It was a very strong first impression and she was able to grab everyone's impression in a jiffy, making me actually get curious about her.
I wanted to start my diary with a beautiful note and write all the beautiful memories in it. But my very first page is filled with such twisted women whom I did not want to have any contacts with. Today was supposed to be the best day in my life but she just spoiled the entire vibe. Things have been going really well and even smoothly, but are things really okay when they are, okay?
The days flew by so quickly that it had been six months already since we were promoted as the creative directors apart from being the models. Though we all were nervous initially and struggled with work a lot, as time passed, we learned to manage our schedules properly and working until ten o'clock at night had become our normal work routine, unlike before.
"The most awaited award of the evening. Mr. Ryan, takes the title as the model of the year. Congratulations on winning it for the third year in a row. You did a fantastic job," said the presenter. While I was on stage accepting my award, James had got so excited that he stood up and had started cheering loudly, which made things awkward for all of us but James being him, didn't care about it.
When I entered the world of Panaché fashion, I had never imagined it would give me the power to rule the world single headedly. More than just being the model, we had started to be known as fashion trend setters, and were thankful that our fashion designs would be adored by the rest of the world. We relocated to New York's hotspot, a larger building with stunning architecture and on top of all that I was given a larger office with a floor-to-ceiling view of the city. Manifesting wasn't a single word adequate to describe the size of my office, I often wondered. Not to mention, because we were such outstanding Creative Directors and ruled the world with our charms, we were given a seat at the Panache's table and not boasting at all. So, I'm not just a model; I'm also the creative director and a major shareholder in Panaché which excited me.
There were only a few days left until our new magazine shoot, and it was a Saturday, so I was in a plan for a full day of sleep for my tired eyes to look good for the upcoming shoots. Eric must have received a text from his team, as he called us right away, disturbing my plan.
"Heard the news?"
Eric exclaimed, and yes, Mark and James were also on the line.
"What's the latest? Is it something important?" I inquired, half-asleep.
"We have our first board meeting of the year, on Monday," Eric said excitedly.
"WHAT? So, are we going to be the official shareholders of the company? Damn! Should I rejoice?" James was completely out of control.
"So, on Monday, James will enter our office like a boss, owning a part of the company and making all decisions in the meeting. Eric and Ryan, don't forget to get our exclusive autographs from Mr. James, who will be the talk of the day from Monday as he will be formally dressed to the office, that too for the very first time in the company's history. Rest of us are just going to be his assistant, he shall have the spotlight," Mark mocked.
"That's for sure. Anyway, I am tired, see you on Monday then," I said as I hung up the phone, because I was too tired to laugh more.
The new week, I expected it to be my best start, but unfortunately it was a buzzard, as I arrived in a complete disaster. The meeting was getting really delayed, also I noticed the excitement in James' slowly fading away as time passed.
"I heard that the board meeting was supposed to be held next month, and this is an emergency meeting for some reason. So, an interesting event shall take place today boys," Eric said to us. It's fallen into my ear that Mr Paul, a major investor, has a special talent of criticising everything the people around him did and also has a small hand in a few smugglings. So, was he going to get fired this time at least? I honestly wish he did. It was almost an hour, and our patience had been turning into frustration. I couldn't wait any longer and we had a new project coming out in about five months, for which we were already breaking our schedules to fit everything in and this waste of time was costing me money.
"I never expected our first board meeting to begin this way, and can't take it any longer guys, I have to leave," I said, as I button my blazer, getting up.
"Ryan…" Mr Robert, the senior executive director, rushed inside the hall as Mark called me. "I apologise for keeping you all waiting for so long," Mr Robert said.
James pulled me into the chair back, and my expression showed that I had already lost interest in the meeting. My thoughts were racing about what was going to happen in our design room with the new collection. While everyone was taking their respective seats, Mr Robert stated, "The major purpose of this emergency meeting is to inform you all that we are going to have a new shareholder, joining us at our table soon."
"Please join me in welcoming our new COO, Ms. Williams," he said as she entered the hall. The temperature dropped the moment she stepped inside. WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON?
I couldn't believe what my eyes had in front of them. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming, and was completely blank, not able to believe it all. I was at a loss for words, IS THIS TRUE? No, it should not be. I had a fixed gaze on her. Mark waved his hand to get my attention as my eyes stood there, popping out like a blowfish.
"Ryan, Ryan, Isn't she that lady from last time?" He spoke in a hushed tone.
I did not know how to respond to his shocked expression and this question because I myself was trying to figure it out. James and Eric, who sat between us, were completely clueless. "What the hell is happening? Why do you two look this pale? Who is she?" James asked as he nudged Mark's leg.
"How can you forget about her, dude?" She was the one who nearly stabbed Jake the other day. Remember? It was the day before our first global conference, after all. The action movie? Does it ring a bell guys?" Mark responded. Mark's glittering eyes revealed he was excited and Eric was astute enough to figure out what we were talking about.
And then Robert turned to face us and said, "Ryan and team, I hope you guys can get along with her really well too."
"Congratulations Ryan Carlos, on winning the model of the year award," were the first words she said.