Chapter 28

"So what do you think?" Lucy asked the magazine editor in front of her. "Now granted these are a few test shots, but the man is absolutely photogenic. Just my opinion, of course."

"I will say this much," the editor replied, flipping through Lucy's photos of the dark man, "he looks great from what I have seen so far, not to mention he is quite…well, let's say 'gifted' in quite a few places."

"I won't argue there. Paul is a very suave, sexy and talented individual, and a feature spread would give him the recognition that he really deserves."

"Well, we have used a couple of men from WWE in the past," the editor nodded, "but I have never seen a man like this one. The eyes, the dark looks, the great smile. He's absolutely gorgeous."

"And needs to show more skin," Lucy winked, holding up Paul's current promotional photo that she had shot a few months back. "Not just for me, however."

The editor studied the photos again. "My God, that hair. Is that all his? I know from past experience that some guys tend to 'enhance' a lot of things to make themselves appear even better."

Lucy grinned. "Oh trust me, every hair on that man's head belongs to him. And those are not contacts either, but his natural eye color. As a matter of fact, everything on there is totally natural. It must be the good Hispanic genes."

"Hispanic?" the editor asked, definitely interested now.

"Well, half. His mom was born in Mexico."

"I'd like to really consider him for the magazine. And any additional photos you have to send me will be kept completely confidential and are not printed in the magazine - they're just for evaluation."

"Perfect," Lucy nodded. "I'll look at the rest on the contact sheets back at the studio, and if I see anything else that might be worthy--though Paul has never taken a bad picture as far as I am concerned--I'll send them along."

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Most men that would be inactive due to a foot injury that wasn't quite healed completely would be bored out of their skulls, but not Paul.

In addition to resting and working out, he vegetated himself by watching more movies than the average guy, hanging out whenever possible with the few friends he had at home when he wasn't yakking to Spanky on the phone, going to the mall even if he didn't buy anything (Lucy had been working on his wardrobe 'makeover' anyway).

Even with his foot, Paul made it to as many auditions as possible and a few acting workshops, went swimming in the lakes and springs around town, and driving to New Mexico to visit his mother, stopping at some great little barbecue joints along the way and making a total pig of himself.

And then there was the occasional trip "up north" to surprise Lucy in between phone calls and emails with her.

It may not have been every guy's ideal thing during their time off, but it suited him just fine.

He had called her earlier, but Shelly told him that Lucy had had some kind of meeting with an editor of "some womens' entertainment magazine" and had seemed excited about it.

Well, that's weird, Paul thought. Lucy wasn't a big fan of women's magazines; hell, she didn't even have one in her own apartment. Why would she be excited about a shoot for one?

Someone knocked at the door when he hung up the phone. He answered it, to find a Federal Express man there, asking Paul to sign for a package.

What the hell? he wondered, looking down at the small parcel. I don't remember ordering anything.

He signed for it, and then went inside to open the little box, shaking it to be sure it wasn't anything too bizarre. There were a lot of Mayors of Crazytowns out there; Paul had gotten almost all of them deleted from his MySpace and IM, but there were always a few that managed to sneak through with wacky messages and gifts. They were fucking nuts!

But when he opened it, Paul could see that this wasn't from some anonymous nut. It was a CD, with a card attached to the top of it:

¡Hola, guapo!

This was originally supposed to be for your birthday, but since you may be off for awhile, I decided to make it both a 'get well' and birthday present combined so you might be entertained for at least a little bit.

Take care and be well.

All my love, Lucy

PS: If you laugh at this, I will come down there and mess up your other foot, mister.

Paul grinned, turning over the CD in his hand, wondering who was on it. He didn't see any cover art, but his curiosity was piqued nevertheless. And why would he laugh at this?

He slid it into the CD player he'd had in the living room; within moments, Lucy's singing had filled the room.

Wow, what a set of pipes on that woman, he thought. That and she takes great pictures. Was there anything she couldn't do? If so, it wasn't very much.

Paul dozed off on the couch a short time later to the sound of her voice, the last thought of his being he had to find a great way to thank her. He couldn't think of a better gift anyone could have given him right then.