The Agreste Internship - Book 2

Chapter 17: We need a Mari-cal

Radiant... carefree... dreamy... and now sexier than ever. Adrien: The fragrance.

Marinette could not help but think the words as she watched Adrien on set in the middle of his live-action commercial shoot. She had seen him half-naked up close and personal modeling swimwear and even secretly drooled over his pictures in his underwear ads, but somehow neither of those images could compare to seeing Adrien in a tux, his blazer unbuttoned all the way to reveal his perfect rock hard abs and sculpted torso.

When he looked up at the camera, his eyes were brimming with full-on smolder. "Radiant, carefree..." something something something... Mari barely registered the words coming out of his mouth as she felt herself slowly melt into the shadows.

Was it hot in here, or just me? Mari took a few swigs of her water bottle and fanned her burning face.

Pierre called for Adrien to do the shot again, and so Adrien turned around and came back down the set stairs. The motion emphasized his profile, and Mari noticed that his hip bones that jutted just above his belt seemed to be a little more noticeable. Did he lose weight?

Granted, he was still sexy as all heck, but now Mari was worried that he wasn't eating enough, or maybe he's stressing over the upcoming marriage, or maybe he was worried about his father's company, or maybe it was all the pressure from the board who was expecting Adrien to fill in the void that his father had left behind, or maybe...

Maybe he didn't want to get married to me after all.

Maybe I should just ask him... is what Tikki would say. Being without Tikki and her earrings still left Mari feeling... naked. As each day went by it was sinking in more and more that this might be a permanent thing. She also wanted to ask Adrien what he thought his father was up to, but she hadn't seen him alone for a few days and that's not something you could just talk about over the phone, especially with Tomoe out there possibly spying on them. It seemed like years had passed since Adrien as Chat-Blanc had proposed to her in the worst possible way. But when he was dekumatized there was no way Mari could cancel the wedding, even though she knew Adrien wasn't in his right mind when he did it and he couldn't actually want to marry her.

"Marinette-Dupain-Cheng!" a shrill voice snapped Mari to full attention. Ever since the engagement, Bridgette had been even more high-strung and bossy than before. She had been responsible for scheduling every minute of Marinette's day, including her lunch, dinner, and bathroom breaks. It was non-stop photoshoots, fake forced social media updates, and zero privacy. If it weren't for Adrien, Marinette would have quit.

"What are you doing here? You should already be finished with your hair and makeup, Hurry up. Alice! Jean-Jaques I need a miracle. We're doing the joint promo for Mari's new fragrance in 30 minutes..."

"We'll 30 minutes should be plenty of time..." Marinette said lightly, but this comment only made Bridgette more upset. She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, then screamed for Alice and Jean-Jaques again.

Like lightning, they both appeared out of nowhere. Bridgette made a motion and Mari was ushered to a seat next to a mirror surrounded by bright lights. She sat down in the chair and stared at herself in the mirror.

"Bonjour, mademoiselle Mari." He said as he quickly got to work with a flatiron and using excessive amounts of hairspray. "Have you decided how you want to do your hair for the big day?"

Mari sighed. "I haven't decided yet..." In fact, Mari hadn't done any planning whatsoever. In her pink journal, she had plenty of different ideas of her dream wedding to Adrien that she had started when she was 14, but now that the dream was closer and closer to reality none of those plans seemed to feel right. She really wished she could talk to Tikki or even Alya, but she barely had enough time to think. Bridgette didn't schedule any time for it.