Heel Breaker

Chapter 8: Knight in Shining Armor

There was no good way to describe dinner with Melissa Adessi.

The restaurant was fancy. And by fancy I mean Parker and I looked like the only people under the age of 30 and everyone was dressed in elaborate gowns and tuxedos. Basically, I felt completely out of place.

Melissa was making me try to walk without crutches. It hurt a lot but I could do it. Maybe it wasn't even sprained. Melissa had also made me put on a long black gown, I didn't even want to check the price tag. At some point her gifts seemed less like she wanted to give them out of the kindness of her heart and more like she wanted me in her debt. But maybe that's just me over analyzing things.

But by far, the most unsettling thing was that her eyes never left me the entire time we had been here.

"I bet you're wondering why I wanted you to come tonight." Melissa began. Finally.

"Yes, that would be nice." I replied, my voice surprisingly even.

"I saw your pictures."

I felt my heart stop in my chest. She saw the picture of Parker and I? Now I was going to be grounded for life and if it pissed Melissa off, my mom's job could be in danger.

"You did?" I squeaked out at last.

Melissa smiled, "Relax, dove, they weren't bad at all." She reached into an over large purse and threw a bunch of pictures of me onto the table.

I let out a breath, she meant the pictures from the park. Of course that's what she meant. And not to toot my own horn, but some of them did turn out pretty good.

"I especially like this one." Melissa pointed to a photo of me looking to the side and smirking, "What were you thinking about in this picture? Think about it more, I like your natural glow. You've got spunk, dove, that natural spunk that makes a good model. I think you're ready to take the next step, because I want you in my show. You have exactly two weeks. You won't be the shinning star of the show, you haven't had the practice the other girls have, but I think you will do well. I want you to go through one week of training. This upcoming weekend you will meet the other models and train with them, you need to be incorporated into their routine."

Once again, she had me gaping like a fish. I was awful at modeling. Plus, everyone else involved must have been preparing for this for a very long time. From what I had gathered it was a big show. And inexperienced little me was just going to waltz in on top of everything? Not a good idea.

I was about to say as much when Melissa slid a piece of paper over to me. I scanned over the writing a little until I saw numbers. How much she was going to pay me.

That's a lot of zeros.

"Sign on the dotted line." Melissa chirped.

"What am I signing for?" I asked.

"You're going to be a model for me. All that big thing says is that you will do what is required of you and I will pay you. It's like a job."

"Can I have some time to read this and think about it?" I asked.

"Why waste your time? I told you what's on it." Melissa replied.

"Well I need to think about it."

"There's nothing to think about. It's a one year contract and if you want out it's easy to break. I only do this to make sure my models will stay with me. The contract states you can't model for anyone else while you're modeling for me. I wouldn't want to train you just to have another company use you." Melissa explained.

"Melissa, perhaps she should read it herself." My mom interrupted.

"Don't you want this for your daughter, Sarah? This is a once in a life time opportunity. I didn't take you as an idiot." Melissa was looking back at me with a pointed facial expression.