Beautiful When You Don't Try

Chapter 47

           

It was eight-thirty in the morning. Lauren and Meg had just entered the elevator in silence. Lauren was expressionless, looking up as the floor numbers illuminated. Meg faced forward, mashing her lips between her teeth to hide her amusement while she slowly nodded her head. "It's weird."

"It's weird." The brunette echoed in agreement.

Meg paused. "How's Camila with-"

"Second nature." Lauren cut her off and Meg nodded her head a little quicker.

"How long have-"

"Since seven."

"Have you said more than ten words yet this morning?" Lauren slowly turned her head and met the woman's green eyes. "I'll take that as a 'no'." She teased with a smile. "Damn, she's got you whipped."

The brunette cleared her throat as she fought her growing smile. "Maybe a little."

The brunette arched an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder to the set of cameras focused on them and the audio guy crammed in the corner of the elevator. "A little my ass. She could ask you to shave your head bald and walk around Time Square in a tie-dye tutu and you would smile as you did it." Lauren's smile spread across her face as the blush deepened on her cheeks. "Exactly. You are so freaking whipped."

The pair walked out of the elevator and towards the office, the two cameras trying to follow as they entered. Lauren was hellbent on going about her day normally and not taking time for them to adjust to anything she did. If they wanted real, they were going to get real. She waved her hand in front of her assistant's face as the girl stared at the camera lens like a deer in headlights. "Kim?"

"Oh...right. Calls for confirmation on the magazine shoot tomorrow. You have a request for an interview with Popular Photography. Also, a local gallery is wanting to showcase some of your photos and would like to arrange a lunch meeting with you about it. Your meeting for Friday was needing to be rescheduled but it was only pushed back an hour. I didn't think that would be a problem. And your assistant called and wants to know why there is a camera pointed in her face."

Meg chuckled as she sat down and kicked her feet up onto Lauren's desk, sipping her coffee. "Ask your idol. I only do these things because apparently, I'm whipped." The brunette replied as she pushed her apprentice's feet off the large wooded desk and motioned for her to get up. "Come on. Today is your day. Let's see how well you do under pressure."

Meg pouted but did as she was told with Lauren following close behind. "So, what is on the agenda for today?"

"Emotion."

"Emotion?" The brunette asked as she set her coffee down at the work station, seemingly unimpressed by the brunette's originality for today's lesson.

"Yes, emotion. You can't always rely on a model to do the expressing for you." Lauren paused and met Meg's eyes. "Are you going to get your camera out or are we going to stand here all day?"

"Oh, crap. Yeah. Sorry."

Lauren shook her head as Meg scrambled to catch up after having her morning routine thrown off by the camera crew. The brunette left her to her set up and walked over to a box sitting along the far wall. She cursed herself internally for agreeing to do this for Camila when she caught sight of one of the cameras following her. She was just getting a box. Couldn't they have filmed that just as well from where they were standing? Did they have to follow? It was all very strange but Camila wanted to do it so she was going to do it. "Okay." She began as she approached the brunette with the box. "Here is what you will use to express emotions."