"Hi, Maggie. This is, uh, Marie Dwyer." I'm speaking in a hushed voice. Not sure why. No one is around me.
"Ah! Kate's find! So nice to hear back from you. You photograph exceptionally well. You're absolutely lovely." She has a charming Irish accent.
""I think she must have sent in the wrong photographs." I chuckle.
"Oh no, lass. Katie adored you and we want her to snap your pictorial." I'm stunned. I don't know how to react. My jaw drops a million miles.
"Yes, lovely lass, I just heard your jaw drop. You're not the first one. You're hot and you don't know it. We need some brainy brunette Playmates. Hef will love you. When can you fly out?"
I have two weeks off from school with Christmas break so I tell her those dates, but I tell her that my friend Angela needs to come with me. She'd normally book me first class, but books the both of us coach seats and we can crash in the same room at the 'Playmate house' which is a separate building from the mansion. Girls who are testing stay there. I'm really hoping they see how hot Angela is and change their minds.
We arrive and are settled in and we do a Hollywood night out with Hef, his girlfriends and random hanger-ons. E! wants to interview Ang and myself, but we coyly look down and she expertly says, "We're just hanging with Hef." She's so much better at this than I could ever imagine.
"We dance and since Ang and I are both 21, we have some appletinis, and enjoy ourselves. I've got a pretty low tolerance so she cuts me off. I stick to Diet Coke the rest of the night. When people ask, Ang says it's a Jack and Coke.
The next afternoon, we are taken to a nearby photo studio for the shoot and I see Kate and run into her arms. The familiar warms my heart.
"I didn't want you to have some tart photoshoot. I know you're a brainy gal, not that other 'mates aren't smart, but I know how much it means to you. You will be the hot computer programmer. Is that okay? I once aspired to be an accountant."
I numbly nod.
"Okie, dokie. We'll put you in a tie, glasses, and a short plaid skirt and go with it."
I had to drop my shirt for the test pictures. Doing it again isn't any easier. Kate even admitted that these are more relatively chaste than the other pictorials she's shot. I was okay with glimpses of my butt, but not my genitals. She understood that. At least that was off limits. I know I signed up for this freak show, but when it happens to you, you get freaked. Kate had been there and understood. She protected me.
I saw the proofs and I have to admit that I look pretty hot. Kate is a genius photographer. Wow! I was told that after Hef saw the photos, I was to be Miss July. Floored. No pube shots. My new BFF Kate didn't submit any of those sort of photos. Sorry, to be out there. That's de rigueur for PB. At least this will hit the stands during the summer in between my junior and senior years of college. My hope is that by the time I head back for my last year in college, it will be forgotten. If I'm lucky, a celeb will be on the cover and not me. However, a party will be held at the Mansion for a holiday party. I will attend and I'll be touted as a new PM for July as will other soon-to-be Playmates.
The party happens and Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and E! are all in attendance. I make the choice to wear a masquerade mask. Hef is put off. I play coy.
"I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." He sees me play-act and seems mollified. There are plenty of others who will mug for the camera. Angela mugs too, but she just graduated from Georgia Tech with a biology degree and is headed to med school at Emory the next fall. Her sorority membership (we're sisters) won't be an issue since she's a new alum. So glad she'll still be in the metro area. Don't get the wrong idea. I think KD brags about a Playmate sister.
I'm sipping on a Diet Coke and a velvety voice comes behind my shoulder.
"Come here often?"
I roll my eyes and look back at a huge movie star, Edward Cullen.
Rather than be star-struck (I'm sure he's used to that), I caustically respond, "Does that work on all the loser chicks?"
His green eyes light up in laughter and I walk off. I have a zero tolerance for pampered d-bag Hollywood stars. He probably thought that meant, "Try harder." Nope. There's something about him, but it's prob just the star factor... or is it?
I find out that later that PB won't have nude Playmates in the mag. The tall, 'legit' modeling agencies will farm out are their models to Playmates. So I guess I'm a last of a dying breed. Ha ha. Bye bye short curvy gals.
Appletinis are a call out to "The Legend of Green Eyes" fic. I know they're not really a thing now. In that fic, they served the purpose of reminding her of green eyes. Check my profile for the inspiration for her photoshoot. Megan Fox in "Jennifer's Body" minus the horror.
Edward will be a nice guy. He just met her in an unorthodox setting. Having issues with this file.
Will Angela be selected to do a pictorial? She needs some money for med school in addition to her scholarship.