Cover Girls by Pascal Francine

Author:Pascal, Francine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Jessica raised her face to the breeze and let the wind toss back her hair. She breathed in the salt air appreciatively. The real Pacific Ocean makes a much better photo background than Quentin's garishly painted one, she decided.

"So when do we get started?" Lila asked. "We don't have all night. The sun will set in another hour, and I can't take decent pictures after dark without high-speed film—even if this is the world's most expensive camera."

"I just need a minute to feel clean again," Jessica insisted, reveling in the knowledge that the only sand-covered part of her was the soles of her feet. "You would never believe how disgustingly sweaty and sandy I was this afternoon from creating dunes in Quentin's sandbox."

"And that was supposed to be work?" Lila asked. "Fowler Enterprises doesn't even have a sandbox for its employees. How unenlightened. I should file a complaint with the Labor Department."

"Ha, ha," Jessica said, smoothing down the floral miniskirt that wrapped over the briefs of her pink-and-lavender halter-top bikini. It wasn't a five-hundred-dollar Bartucci bathing suit, but she knew she looked terrific in it.

"What do you do at work tomorrow?" Lila asked. "Build sand castles?"

"I don't know about castles, but tomorrow is the day for convincing Prince Charming to ask me out on a date," Jessica planned aloud.

"Charming?" Lila scoffed. "Are you kidding? This Quentin character sounds like an obnoxious control freak."

"OK, so he's not charming," Jessica conceded, checking her face in her mirrored compact. "But he's great looking, and he's totally necessary if I'm going to become a model within the next ten days."

"That's what I like about you, Jess," Lila said. "You don't expect instant gratification of your every wish. You're willing to work for the long-term—"

"Shut up and take pictures," Jessica ordered with a laugh.

"Move a little farther up the beach," Lila instructed. "Your face will be in shadow if the sun is right behind you. That's better. Hold it there. . . . Good. . . . You know, Jess, you are so lucky to have a best friend who's used a superexpensive camera before. You'd be totally stuck if you were expecting anyone else to figure this thing out."

"It would have been easier if you could have brought me your father's camera," Jessica pointed out, throwing one arm behind her head dramatically. "I hated having to borrow this one from Quentin."

"My father took his camera with him on his business trip to Washington, D.C.," Lila said. "But I'm surprised Quentin let you take this one. This thing is worth hundreds of dollars."

Jessica shrugged. She practiced her Simone pout for the camera, stepped forward with one foot, and placed her hands on her hips. "He didn't exactly let me take it," she admitted. "I sort of gave myself permission."

"What?" Lila shrieked. "Are you out of what's left of your puny little mind? I'm taking pictures with a stolen camera?"

"Borrowed," Jessica corrected. "A borrowed camera. Hold on a minute; let me pull off this wrap skirt so you can get my bikini in all its skimpy glory.

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