Learning to be Beautiful

Learning to be Beautiful ~16~

“No, no, no, no, no! Aislyn, dearest, the flowers go in the powder blue vase, not the royal blue one!” Pierre ran over to me quickly, clucking like a mother hen, and grabbed the flowers quickly out of my arms, setting them in the correct vase. “Honestly? What would people think if they saw the flowers in a blue that totally clashed with the rest of the color-scheme?”

Callie popped her head around the corner, “Pierre, Linc just broke something; you might want to go check it out.”

As he departed, Pierre’s thin arms were waving wildly over his head as he screeched something about ‘stupid, unreliable male model and his inherent ability to muck everything up’.

“Thanks for that,” I sighed, slumping down against a nearby wall.

Pierre had called Callie, Linc and I to help him set up for some kind of charity ball he was hosting the next day. He was selling dances with his models to the wealthier people in the ‘Frisco area and he was going to donate all of the money to the Action Against Hunger charity. It was a fantastic idea, but it meant that the four of us had been cleaning for at least three hours now and with each passing minute Pierre got more and more stressed.

“Not a problem.” Callie grinned and sat down exhaustedly on the couch, her eyes closing and a contented smile flitting across her face as she put her feet up for the first time in several hours. “Warn me when you hear the raving lunatic, will you?”

I smiled at her accurate description of Pierre’s current state, “Sure thing.”

Just then, Linc walked in, dark hair mussed and green eyes wide, “Why did you set that—that thing on me, Calphurnia?” He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles, and threw a glance over his shoulder. “If I didn’t know any better I would say that you didn’t love me anymore.” A wry smile crept over his lips and settled there comfortably.

“Aw, come on, Linc-y, you know I love you loads.” Callie’s light brown eyes shot open and she winked at the tall young man in front of us.

“Why I put up with you is beyond me.” Linc’s tone was teasing as he gave Callie a genuine smile.

I was right. He did look rather nice when he smiled. At the sight of his grin I almost imagined that if we could actually get along I might, maybe, like him. Quickly, I pushed all such thoughts out of my mind and focused on the problem at hand: making sure Pierre doesn’t catch us taking a break. That crazy, blond designer would go nuts if he saw us dilly-dallying around his living room.

“Why do I not hear cleaning?” Pierre’s voice carried through the house to meet our ears.

I clattered forward and picked up a random piece of fluff off the floor and rushed to throw it in a giant trash bag—one of many lying around the house.

“Wow, Ais, that was so useful.” Neither Callie nor Linc had moved from where they had been.

“Aren’t you guys worried about Pierre at all?”