Chapter 6.
O'Hare International Airport.
Brooke awoke from her sleep to see Rachel smiling back at her, "Why are you smiling?"
Rachel continued to smile, "Because I love watching you sleep. You're so beautiful when you sleep."
"I am not, I look horrible, my hair's a mess and my neck is killing me."
"To me you're still beautiful, even if you're angry."
"Flattery will get you nowhere." Brooke said bluntly as she grabbed her overnight bag and made her way off the plane.
Rachel led the way, stopping at the rental place, getting her key and heading off to find her new car for the day.
She helped Brooke with her bags, opened the door for her and then drove off.
After about 10 minutes of silence, Rachel made another attempt to lighten things up, "Have you ever been to a baseball game live?"
"No, I hate sports."
"You were a cheerleader for the basketball team in high school."
Brooke still refused to drop her attitude, "So, I didn't care about the game, it's just something I did. Why, do you like baseball? I can't imagine you liking anything but sex really."
"Meow." Rachel said with a grin, "Well, I had a cousin who played for the Cubs and I kind of followed his career and I'm not a huge fan, but the reason I ask is the modeling company I'm working for offered me to two tickets to tomorrow's game. It's an afternoon game and it's after my morning shoot and before my interview at night, so I said yes. I don't want go alone."
"Why would I want to sit and watch a sport I know nothing about for what, 3 hours, while a bunch of drunks pour beer on me?"
"That's not going to happen." Rachel said with a reassuring laugh, "We have box seats, way up in the owner's box. It's like a mini hotel up there. You can sit and get drunk if you want. But I can explain the game a little."
"I know how to play." Brooke replied sharply, "9 innings, 3 outs per inning, you learn that in grade school. I'm not dumb you know."
"Relax, I never said you were." Rachel sighed, "I'm just trying to do something that we might not fight about."
"Okay fine, I'll go, but I'm not going to like it." Brooke said stubbornly.
"Then you don't have to go." Rachel said with a laugh, "I can give the tickets to someone else."
"No, I said I'll go. So I'll go. Okay?" Brooke said, giving Rachel a very nasty glare.
"Yes ma'am." Rachel smiled, coming to a stop at the red light ahead, "It's kind of late now, but did you want to grab something to eat or just head up to the hotel room?"
"Hotel."
"Short and sweet, I like that." Rachel nodded with a smile, "Hotel it is."
Rachel stopped the car outside the Hyatt Regency, hander her keys to the valet and opened the door for Brooke and walked inside. After a couple minutes Rachel took the keys for room 612 and walked towards the elevators.
Making their way down the hall, they stopped in front of their room, Rachel opened the door and they both walked inside to the small one bedroom hotel room.
"What's going on here? Why is there only one bed? Why didn't you ask for a two bedroom?"
"Look, they booked this for me. They didn't know I was going to have company. I'm not paying for it." Rachel explained as best she could, "I'll sleep on the sofa, don't worry about it."
"Good. I won't worry now."
"Right then." Rachel said, wondering if she should just quit while she was behind, "Would ya like me to leave the room while you change into your pajamas?"
"Very funny, but you know I don't wear anything to bed. I don't really care if you see me naked or not, you're sure as hell not going to be touching me tonight. So gawk on." Brooke said, standing in front of Rachel as she began stripping out of her clothes and hopping into the nice soft bed.
Rachel slipped into her bra and panties and curled up on the uncomfortable sofa, "I sure hope you wake up in a better mood tomorrow, because I don't think I can deal with this cold shoulder forever."
Brooke thought about replying, but chose to get some sleep instead.
Morning arrived with Brooke waking up in her nice soft comfortable bed, lifting her hands over her hand and stretching them up as high as they could go. She noticed Rachel was gone and slipped out of bed and checked the bathroom and sure enough, there was a note on the mirror.
"Hi there sleepy head. My guess is you're still mad at me and that's fine, I get that and I guess I can't speed things up, but I'd like to. I have a couple modeling things today so why don't you fly back to LA and be mad there. There's no use in you being here with me if I'm just going to make you miserable the whole time. I'm not leaving and I'm not trying to push you away, just making a suggestion really. I had hoped we could spend this time trying to catch up and move forward, but if I have to wait a week, a month or however long it takes, I will. Anyway, I have a photo shoot at 10:30, but I should be done a little after noon, so I'll call you when I'm done and see what your plans are. There's just so much I want to say, but it seems like every word I say makes you angry right now, so I guess I'll just say bye for now. I do love you and that's not going to change. Rachel."
Sitting down on the sofa Rachel slept on, Brooke lay back on the cushion and looked at the ceiling, hoping that some how, some way, it could tell her what to do next. Once she realized the ceiling wasn't about to solve her problems, she got up, got dressed and headed downstairs to catch a taxi.
"I need to go to Mekor&Associates on 4th street." Brooke said as she closed the door of the taxi.
Less than 10 minutes later she stepped out of the taxi, paid the driver and walked inside the building in front of her. Moving to the front desk she smiled as she waited for the receptionist to acknowledge her.
"Hi, how may I help you?"
"I'm looking for a Rachel Gattina. She's doing a photo shoot for Mekor&Associates at 10:30. I'm her agent, I need to tell her something urgent."
"Just a moment please." The woman said as she searched her computer for the information, "She's on the 3rd floor, it's one giant room, there are 2 shoots going on there, but I'm sure you can find her there."
"Thank you." Brooke said with a nod, turning and running towards the elevator.
As she reached the 3rd floor she began to feel nervous and anxious as she opened the door to the massive studio. She walked up to the first set, got a look at the models and realized it wasn't Rachel and walked all the way down to the far end of the studio where she got her first glimpse of Rachel in a sexy white mini skirt posing in front of an handful of people.
A gray haired man in his late 40's stood in front of her, taking picture after picture, while bellowing out orders for Rachel.
"Turn to your left, lift up your chin. Stand on your right heel and let me see a big smile." He said, his ponytail dangling down his back as he moved around from side to side switching from one camera to another.
"This is all wrong." He said as he slammed his camera down on the table in front of him, "Why can't you do this? I only want you to give me a sexy look. Is that so hard? You look like you would have no trouble being sexy, so why not pretend you're about to get laid. Smile and try and turn me on. We don't have all day, so get it right would you?"
Rachel nodded and did her best to not to say any of the things she was thinking, choosing instead to focus on the job and the future. So she continued to pose and look sexy, something that seemed to be working for the other people in the room.
After taking a couple more pictures the photographer again stopped, "Look, I don't think you know what sexy is. Maybe you are used to doing shoots for Disney or something, but these shoots are for sexy clothes and they require a sexy woman to model them and I feel as though you just aren't open enough to truly let go of your inhibitions and be totally free with your body. So here's what I want you to do. Take off your top. I think that maybe you need to be totally free before you feel sexy."
Rachel looked around the room at the hair and make up girls, the two guys working the lights and they all looked away, almost embarrassed for her. When she didn't immediately remove her top the photographer lost it.
"That's it. Just go. I don't have time to deal with little girls who cannot follow orders. Now, you have one more chance here before I leave and you lose that dream of being a model. What's it going to be?"
Brooke had heard enough. She stormed onto the set and stood right in front of the surprised photographer, "Hi there, I couldn't help but overhear how horribly you were treating this young woman and I have to say I find it appalling."
"Who are you and why are you on my set?"
"My name is Brooke Davis and if you look at the clothes on the rack there, you'll notice my name on them." Brooke snapped, picking out a couple outfits for the annoying man to look at, "You see, I provide clothes for Mekor&Associates, it's part of a business arrangement we have. In fact, I'm here to see Gwen Mekor to discuss extending our deal, but now that I see the way her photographers treat women, I think I'm going to have to talk to her about that."
"Listen, Miss Davis, modeling is a tough business and these girls need to develop a thick skin in order to deal with the demands of this job. Rejection is part of life for them and so are demanding photographers. I'm sorry, but I don't feel I was out of line." He said, very unapologetic for his actions.
"Is that so?" Brooke asked, looking around at the other people working the shoot, "Well, let's just ask some of these people how they feel. How many of you work for Gwen and how many of you work for this jackass?"
One of the men working the lights stepped forward, "All but the guy holding the camera's work for Gwen."
"I see, so tell me, did you find this young woman to be sexy?"
"Yes, I sure did." He said with a big smile.
"And what about you two" Brooke said, directing her attention to the two women at the makeup table.
"Yes, she looks amazing." The taller woman said.
"I agree, I think she was very sexy the whole time" said the shorter blonde woman.
"Well, isn't that interesting." Brooke said, turning to the photographer, "Everyone else seems to think she did her job, so maybe it's just you?"
"Listen, I don't have to take this abuse. I have many other photo shoots to attend to today, so as far this one goes, it's over."
"Yes and if I have anything to say about, so will your career be over."
Packing up his bags in a huff, the photographer grabbed his meek assistant and hurried out of the building.
Brooke walked over to Rachel and smiled, "I hope I didn't make things worse for you, but I am going to talk to Gwen about this."
Rachel smiled as the man practically fell over trying to escape Brooke's wrath, "As usual, I don't know what to say. Thank you. I think I could've made it through this, but I'm glad I didn't have to."
"No, you shouldn't have had to deal with a jerk like that." Brooke said, still fuming at what she'd seen, "Anyway, I think you look amazing and I know Gwen is going to love the photo's once she sees them."
"Well, I hope so." Rachel said, unsure of Brooke's plans for the day, "Did you get my note?"
"Yes I did." Brooke nodded, "I thought about your suggestion and I've decided to stay here. I'm not really much for baseball, but maybe it would be nice to spend some time together for a couple hours."
"Good. I'm glad you agree." Rachel added, picking up her bag as she headed towards the dressing room, "I just need to change and we can grab some lunch and then head over to Wrigley Field."
Brooke watched Rachel hop and skip into the change room, smiling from ear to ear and she couldn't help smiling right along with her.
End of Chapter 6.