Little Favours

Chapter 6

Tom had found himself a girlfriend. Well, a pretend one, sure, but he'd found himself doing more actual boyfriend duties in the past few days than he cared to count.

Monday started with him offering Alisa a ride to campus. She didn't own a car yet and often took the bus, so he'd casually suggested they go together—but when they'd pulled into the main lot together, every head on campus seemed to swivel toward them. With her hands folded primly in her lap and a sweet smile, she declared they do it every time they're going to the university. 

"Solidifying evidence," she'd said with a perfectly straight face, and he almost believed she wasn't enjoying this little ruse at least a little.

Tuesday meant lunch. This, however, was Tom's idea. Alisa's friends, Maya especially, had been especially shocked. Wide eyes darted between Alisa and Tom as if she'd stumbled upon the biggest campus scandal of the year. It seems like Alisa hadn't and had no intentions on answering their questions, keeping her answers vague, a slight smirk playing on her lips, as if she enjoyed dangling the mystery in front of her friends. Tom's bandmates, on the other hand, mostly greeted the news with low whistles and a few pats on the back.

But Wednesday—the day of his music label interview—that was for him. He had gone to an interview regarding his own internship with a music label he'd been eyeing for a while. It was a success. Alisa's text that night had been waiting for him when he checked his phone upon arriving at his room:

"Midnight Vinyl—photoshoot locked in for Friday. We're all set."

Everything was falling into place with Alisa's management. It almost felt too smooth, as if they were following some kind of business playbook with Alisa as the mastermind. Every step felt predictable, methodical. And as much as he respected her drive, he just couldn't shake off this unmistakable feeling of ... disappointment.

Alisa probably thought that, to Tom, this was a one-sided deal, where she was the only one benefitting. However, he knew exactly what he signed up for. Back when Alisa had proposed this, but he also had an ulterior motive. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he agreed to this arrangement with the crazy idea that maybe—maybe—he could make her actually fall for him.

But the past few days had shown him just how focused she could be. It was impossible to tell what was going on in that brilliant, guarded mind of hers. Had Alisa really been so undeterred by all of this?

As he tossed his keys on the counter and dropped onto his couch that night, he found himself staring at his phone, her last text still lighting up the screen. He sighed, maybe it was time to add a little unpredictability of his own.

Finally, the day of the photoshoot arrived. Alisa and Tom had swung by the university first, planning to group up with the band members.They were driving to Echo magazine's headquarters, sandwiches in tow. Alisa had even packed a bag of them for the guys

"Today has to be perfect," she'd said. She glanced at him while chewing on her own sandwich, the corner of her mouth twitching in a way that was so effortlessly charming, he found himself smiling back without realizing it. "The least I can do is make sure these guys don't pass out before the cameras even roll." They grabbed coffee on the way too.

"Alright, so here's what you need to know about today's little event," Alisa began, peering over in the passenger seat, looking at his band mates. "Scary Asian man in a tux? That's the editorial director, Kevin Chua. Try to stay away from him. Trust me, you do not want to tick him off."

Josh chuckled. "Got it. Avoid tux-wearing editorial big shot."

"Then there's Ms. Carson, the creatives manager. She's really friendly, which is refreshing because... well, because she's one of the few that actually is." She paused, tapping her fingers against her knee, as if mentally running down her checklist. "But now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do today. I mean, I'm just an intern, but don't stylists usually have a say over their models' looks—?"