Breaking Free (Tom Holland) Book Two

BFB2 Chapter 16

"That's a wrap!" the director of the photoshoot shouted into the void. A thunderous round of applause sounded as everyone breathed a sigh of relief. We had been going for close to nine hours and everyone was ready to go home. Well, everyone except me. As soon as we were dismissed I took off for the dressing room. My stylist helped me get out of my last outfit and ran to put it away. I got dressed in my street clothes before opening the dressing room door. Uncle Travis ran in and began helping me gather my things. I didn't even attempt to wipe off any of my makeup as we ran to the waiting car and jumped in.

"How far away is our next shoot?" I asked. I scarfed down a protein bar in an attempt to quell my hunger.

"An hour," Uncle Travis replied.

"Just enough time to get a small nap in," I declared. I leaned back in my seat as far as I could. Before I knew it Uncle Travis was shaking me awake.

"Come on Vanessa. We're here."

I rubbed my eyes as the world began to take shape around me. It was now completely dark outside save for the few streetlights that were outside of the studio. I yawned as I followed my team into the building.

"There she is!" Bruce the photographer for the shoot exclaimed when he saw me walk in. I smiled awkwardly. I had never seen this man before in my life. And I was not afraid to show it.

"Nice to meet you," I said politely. I was too tired to engage in further conversation so I quickly followed my team to my dressing room. I had to fight hard to not fall asleep in the makeup chair. I wished Tom wasn't at work so I could call and talk to him. But I was pretty sure he was probably wishing the same thing.

A mug of coffee appeared in front of my nose. I breathed in deep and savored the scent of it before taking it from my uncle. He feebly attempted to dodge the daggers coming from Susan's eyes. I tried to sip the coffee as carefully as I could so as to not mess up my lipstick.

"Hopefully this shoot doesn't last too long so we can get you some sleep," Uncle Travis said.

"But I have more work tomorrow right?" I wondered.

"You do but they're all in the late afternoon."

I gasped. "You mean I can sleep in?"

Uncle Travis looked proud. "I'm such a good uncle aren't I?"

"If you two don't stop talking I'm going to set the both of you on fire," Susan threatened.

When I was finally all ready to go I was led to the set. A guy was talking to Bruce when we arrived. He turned around when Bruce waved to us. He looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't put my finger on where I knew him from.

"Wow, we scored the jackpot getting you for this photoshoot," Bruce commented as we approached.

I smiled thinly. I already didn't quite like him and he was making my dislike grow by the second. "I look forward to working with you," I replied curtly.

Bruce seemed to not notice my demeanor at all. Either that or he just didn't care. "This is Kyle. He's an up and coming model. He's already taking the world by storm."

Kyle held his hand out to me. "It's nice to see you again."

Bruce looked shocked. "Do you two already know each other?"

"We met briefly a few weeks ago," I replied.

"Excellent. Then we can skip introductions. Let's jump right into this concept shall we?" Bruce said. He clapped his hands loudly before leading us over to the concept board. He spent way too long going over his ideas and expectations for the photoshoot. I could already tell that this photoshoot wasn't going to go by quickly.

When Bruce had finally tired of hearing himself talk we got started. We began slowly as Kyle and I got used to each other. Our chemistry was perfect as we fell into a sort of routine. Every pose felt natural and every gaze was captivating. Bruce was loving it. He was hopping around snapping photo after photo. Once the first set was over we headed off to get changed for the next one.

"Wow, the energy between you two is amazing!" Uncle Travis exclaimed.

"Is it?" I wondered absently. I was so tired I could barely focus. Susan was doing my eye makeup which made things even worse. I was fighting sleep and losing horribly.

Uncle Travis paused at my tired tone. "Are you alright? Am I putting too much work on you?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm fine. Really. I've just got to make it to the end of this shoot."

"Well luckily you have a great partner this time around so it shouldn't take too long."

Uncle Travis was both wrong and right. Kyle and I flew through each set beautifully. It was Bruce who ended up holding us up. He kept asking for "one more pose" over and over again. Uncle Travis had to give him constant reminders that we needed to move on. Eventually we wrapped everything up and began to get ready to leave. A soft knock on my dressing room door interrupted me from packing up. Thinking it was my uncle I simply called for whomever it was to come in.

"It was a great pleasure working with you today," a voice that was not my uncle's said.

I whipped around and faced Kyle. He was wearing a small, lopsided smile and his posture oozed confidence. I looked behind Kyle and saw that he had closed the door behind himself. Maybe it was the exhaustion but my senses immediately kicked into overdrive. I stopped what I was doing completely and turned so that my entire body was facing Kyle. I gave a small thin-lipped smile as I said, "It was a pleasure working with you as well. But I have to get changed now so if you don't mind..."

"Oh not a problem! I'll just step out for a minute then."

"We'll probably just head on home once I get changed. I'm pretty tired."

"Then I guess I'll see you at the next shoot," Kyle said. With a small wave he exited the room.

I breathed out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding in. As soon as I did I wondered why I had done it. It wasn't like he was a threat to me. And from his words I could gather that we would most likely be working together again in the near future. "I guess I had better get used to him," I whispered to myself as I locked the door and slipped off my outfit.