Chapter 4: Just Watch Yourself Kid

Like any other Monday morning, Mary walked into the somewhat quiet office and hung up her coat. "Good morning Murry," she greeted as she went and grabbed a cup of coffee.

"Hey there. How did it go?" Murry asked as he turned adn smiled to her. He had known that the photoshoot was Saturday and that she was iffy on whether or not to do it.

Mary shrugged as she took her cup and sat down at her desk. "It was pretty good actually."

"Yeah?" Murry asked.

"Yeah. I think I'm going to miss him. Daniel left for Chicago last night." The smile that was once on Mary's face started to slightly fade. There was no use in wishing that he was still here, all it did was upset her. But, it was hard to get around. No matter what she did, it was obvious that she wouldn't let it go until a few days had passed.

Murry saw the look on her face. He had known that they liked each other. Anyone could have seen that one, but no one really knew how much. "How serious did you two get?"

"Enough to miss him," Mary answered, gazing down at her coffee.

Ted strolled into the newsroom and joined Mary and Murry. "Hey there Mare. It must have been pretty nice living like a model for the day. Now you know how my everyday life is like," Ted said, trying to show off.

"You spend your day trying on dress after dress?" Murry asked as he turned abck towards him.

Ted nonchalantly waved off the insult. "Sure, laugh. I'm sure no one has asked you for your autograph yet."

On perfect timing, Lou walked through the door and headed for his office. "Morning," he said as he passed everyone.

"Good morning Mr. Grant," Mary greeted.

"Any messages?" Lou asked, continuing with the normal morning routine.

"No, nothing yet."

"Thanks Mary," he said and then closed the door behind him.

Ted waited a minute. "I should go read through my letters, see how many pictures I need to sign." He then waited a second to what Murry's reaction was going to be before leaving and going back to his dressing room.

As soon as Ted was leaving the room, Murry looked up from his paper work and rolled his eyed. "No wonder he doesn't have a brain, his ego took up all the room."

"Ms. Mary Richards?"

Mary looked over to the door. Standing there was a ridiculously thin women, looked to be about mid forties. Her blonde hair was done up neatly on the top of her head. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Ms. Fiona Clements," the lady said as she made her way over to Mary. "Actually, I was wondering if I could help you?"

Mary put down what she was doing and turned her chair to face Fiona. "I'm afraid I don't understand," she admitted.

Fiona laughed as she leaned on the side of Mary's desk. "I saw your photos from the article. You look like you could have a lot of potential in modeling."

"Thank you."

"Have you ever thought of going a step further?" Fiona asked.

Mary was genuinely surprised by the question. The first job was a total surprise to her, let alone all of this. "Oh. I don't, I don't think so," she said.

"Are you sure?" Fiona wanted this girl and was about to try anything to get her to do the show. She was going to do what ever it took to make it sound as appealing as possible. "That money that was paid to you, this would pay triple that for a single photo session. Think about it Ms. Richards, you modeling off the top fashions, wearing clothes that are being viewed the very first time by the public eye. There's a show up in New York in a couple weeks. You can just try it out there and see whether or not you like it."

"I'll think about it," Mary said starting to feel like just giving in.

Fiona sighed as she pulled out a card and handed it to Mary. "All right. Let me know if you're interested. I'm only here until Thursday." She then got up and left.

As soon as Fiona was gone, Murry looked over to see Mary looking over the card. "What do you think?"

"I don't know. I mean, I've never thought of myself doing something like this," Mary answered without taking her eyes off the card. It was a huge opportunity and it wasn't something to just think over lightly. "I could use the money, but modeling just isn't my thing."

"I think you could do it though," Murry said.

Mary looked up to him and smiled. There were truly a couple reasons as to why this was sounding better and better to her. First Murry's comment, and second, Daniel. It took a minute for the entire idea to settle in and she had just remembered that Daniel lives up in New York. On the card it said that she would be needed for a week. That was a week that could be spent mostly with Daniel. "You really think so? Make up's one thing. An entire outfit you have to get in shape and make sure

to stay in shape. Everything has to be perfect." There was still a lot of doubt in her mind as to whether or not she could pull it off.

"I still think you could easily do it."

Mary looked back down to the card for a minute and sighed. She needed to talk to a few more people and see what they thought. Putting the card away, she stood up and walked over to Lou's door where she knocked. "Mr. Grant? May I come in?"

"Come in!" Lou shouted from behind his desk. He allowed for Mary to walk in and close the door. "What is it?" he asked without looking up from his paper work.

"I have a question for you."

"Yeah?" Lou still hadn't looked up to her yet.

"Do you think I could be a model?" The question was blurted out from nervousness. She was still standing right in front of the door.

Lou slowly looked up to her. "What for?"

"Clothing. Oufits, that stuff."

"Is that all you came in here for? To ask whether or not you could model clothes?" There was an annoyence that was made obvious as his voice slightly raised.

"Well, whether or not I should go to New York and be a model," she explained. "I was offered a job. I would have to spend some time up in New York and I was wondering if you think I could do it."

"Mary, sit down," Lou instructed as he sat everything aside. When she was seated, he went on to say what he had to say. "Now look Mary, you're a very pretty girl. I mean that, but you have no idea what that means. Going up there and changing your life style. No matter how thin you are, you're gonna have to get thinner. All those people care about is who is the best looking."

"Come on Mr. Grant. They can't all be like that. Look at Daniel," Mary said. She wasn't dumb, she knew that was how most models ran their lives. Finding ways to get thinner, stay younger looking, have the best hair. It was all a huge beauty contest. But this was just one show. That was all she had to do. All of this and in between go and spend time with Daniel.

"Daniel was different. Trust me, most of them are perfectionists, or at least expect the models to

be perfect," Lou explained. He sat back and sighed. The last thing he wanted was to see her get into any trouble. If this were his daughter he could easily tell her no, don't do it. But he couldn't and it bothered him. He thought of this girl as a daughter and yet couldn't fully treat her like one. "You can do it. If you go through with this, just watch yourself."

Mary could see what he was doing and softly smiled to him. "Its sweet of you to worry, but you really don't have to. I'm an adult and I can take care of myself."

"Does that mean you're going?" Lou asked.

Mary shrugged. "I don't know yet. But I will let you know as soon as I know."

"Good, I need to know ahead of time so I can get someone to cover for you," Lou said and then went back to his work.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Mary walked over and sat down on the chair in her apartment as Rhoda sat on the couch going through a magazine. "I don't know if I should go. I mean, Mr. Grant today."

Rhoda put the magazine down and looked over to Mary. "What did he say?"

Mary sighed. "That I have to watch myself. That its a contest."

"And what? You didn't think it was? I've lived in New York before Mare, and trust me, some people go through a lot to get the body that they need to show off those clothes," Rhoda said. "One of my friends even went into modeling for a while. It was insane Mary. She had to go stay with other models, be put on this strict diet, have barely any if any at all contact to people outside."

"Come on, its a week. First Mr. Grant makes it sound like I'm going to completely self distruct and then you make it all sound like some secret cult." Mary was getting tired of all of this. Deep down she just wanted people to tell her to go so that she would feel better about wanting to go. "Honestly, all I want to do is get some pictures taken and spend the rest of my time with Daniel."

Rhoda knew that her decision was completely based on her feelings for Daniel. "Okay, so you go for a week. You're right, that's not so bad. Just don't agree to any more jobs or whatever you wanna call em to stay there with prince charming."

Mary looked over and smiled. "How about you?"

"How about me for what?"

"What if you were offered a modeling job?" Mary asked. She wasn't out to prove a point or anything, she was just curious.

Rhoda took a minute and considered the question. "What if I, Rhoda Morgenstern were asked to be a model?" She thought for a brief moment and then looked to Mary. "I guess I would have to take that man to an eye doctor and get him a pair of glasses. Then pay for his therapy bill after he sees what he was really about to feature in a dress."

"Honestly Rhoda, why do you talk about yourself like that?" Mary asked.

"I'm just that painfully honest."

Mary smirked. "Good, I'm gonna need someone painfully honest with me when I go to New York."

Rhoda sat up in excitement. "Really?"

"Yeah. Everything would be paid for."

"You got yourself a travel buddy," Rhoda said.