Life Begins at Midnight

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Anna was pretty sure she would never get chosen. Not when Richard West was the only name she'd tick-marked against. Richard West, 20 years of age, who has started out in life as a junior swimmer. He'd then been vacuumed into the modelling world, and had his share of pretty women when he should have really been in high school. Then he'd started out with his own line of luxury goods, and they'd been a phenomenal success, not just because he was young, single, drop-dead gorgeous and had contacts. He had a drive for perfection and he always catered to innovative ideas, making his products stand out in the cutthroat markets.

Anna heard it all out from Marie, who could talk about Ricky West all day, and would still have quoted only half the world's journalists who were talking about him. Richard West was a somebody even in the world of somebodies.

"Everyone who knows him calls him Ricky West. Isn't that great?" Marie had prattled away merrily, and Anna just replied with "Oh, yes. Totally." Although she didn't find anything cool or remotely innovative in the nickname. But she did care about her friend's feelings, so she let Marie bore her without showing that she was actually bored with 'The Tales of Ricky West'.

"So why has he suddenly decided to pull in a model from high school?" Anna asked, letting Marie talk away.

"Weren't you listening? He is open to innovative ideas. In fact, it was his idea to get a fresh face with whom everyone can relate. So he'd probably choose someone who'd look good in HD with minimal make-up. He is eccentric, apparently, and he's supposed to be personally present for all his ad shoots... he alone knows how he manages all that and still happens to have his face all over page 3 every single day..." Marie was obsessed with Ricky West. It wasn't unusual. 90% of the ten girls in their class were. Anna was the remaining 10%.