Never Too Soon

I Can't Explain It

POV: Harper

"Dad, I could barely keep my eyes open on the way back to the hotel. There was no way in hell that I could've called you and been able to hold a logical conversation with you last night." I groaned into my phone as my dad scolded me for something far out of my control. Between the stress over Lauren being as violent as she was and the pure anxiety of having every eye in the room on me, I was spent.

My dad sighed, silently accepting my reasoning. "The suit was my favorite. You looked like you owned the place. When a woman puts a suit on it intimidates a man, I'll give you that."

"No kidding." Darius overheard my dad as we waiting for the car to take us to the airport. Since everything has died down and we are leaving at six in the morning, we didn't have to worry about heavy security.

"Darius agrees with you." I rolled my eyes with a smile despite him not being able to see me.

"I'll let you go. We have a lot to talk about when you get back, and before you worry they are all good things. They just need to be discussed for my sake." My dad sounded busy with his delayed responses. He gets to his office at five forty-five Monday through Thursday, so I had no doubt that a stack of paperwork was waiting for him at his desk.

"That still makes me anxious, but okay." I furrowed my eyebrows in thought. What would he want to talk about?

"Love you, Harp. Get some rest on the plane." My dad answered after a minute.

"Love you too." I hung up the phone before he could add any additional fuel to my anxiety fire.

"What makes you anxious?" Lauren asked me as the car pulled up.

"He said he wanted to talk to me about something when I got back, but they were all good things." I happily accepted her hand that she offered as soon as we both got settled. Once again, she spent the night in my bed but made sure to slip away before Max barged in at five a.m. to get me dressed in one last outfit.

"Probably because I sent him a model application for you to fill out with his approval signature." Lauren shrugged as she went on her phone with the hand I wasn't holding captive.

"You WHAT?" I asked in a squeak.

"I want you to be a model for LMJ Magazine and Vogue. Do you not want to?" Lauren looked over at me with a quirked brow.

"Wh- yeah! I mean, I do. I just wasn't expecting it." I didn't really know how to respond to it.

"I know you weren't, and that makes it even better. I'm not looking at you any differently than any of my other models when I offer you this position either. Once the profit-margin for last night's runway comes in, I'll show you it compared to last year's. I hire models that I know will bring me profit. Last night was enough proof for me. Two of the outfits you wore are already sold out to the entire world. The owner of Chanel is going to want to talk to you after what you did for their wallet last night." Lauren gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Holy shit. Check your instagram." Max looked down at his phone with wide eyes.

"Why?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows while opening up the instagram app.

"Check your follower count." Max rushed out and I opened my page to see a follower count I never expect or ever wished for.

"Jesus Christ, Mary and Joseph, and all of the other saints in heaven, what the fuck?" I gawked at the number that was just over six million.

"I don't think bullying will be an issue for you anymore." Lauren chuckled. "Well, if it is you tell me and I'll personally handle it."

"Oh please. Everyone is going to want to be her best friend, be her, or envy her." Max rolled his eyes.