The wind began to pick up a bit, but it was barely noticeable at first – just a little mini-gust here and there. A few clouds moved in, but they were the pretty, fluffy type that added to the atmosphere in a photo.

Isabelle looked around when a paper cup blew off the table next to her. She leaned down, picked it up, and tossed it in the trash. She checked her phone again for the tenth time in 15 minutes. Still no answer.

Kurt came up from her right and stood next to her.

She slipped her phone into her jacket pocket. She pulled it right back out and checked the radar on her weather app. She saw nothing, but something was niggling at her. "We need to get the photos now."

"The 'life guards' aren't here yet."

"I know. I texted them 20 minutes ago and I've still gotten no response." She looked around at everyone standing around in sweats and coats over their swimwear. "I need you to do me a huge favor."

"Anything. You know that. Do you want me to get you something different to eat or drink?"

"No, it's a much bigger favor than that."

"What then?"

"I need you and Adam to go change into the life guard uniforms and climb up into the chairs so we can get these photos taken. Something is just telling me it has to be now."

"Um, I'm not really life guard material."

"Kurt, I'm begging you. Once you get the uniform on, it will be fine. There's even some rash guard shirts if you don't want to be shirtless. I brought them along in case one of the models had a newly acquired tattoo that we couldn't cover."

That eased his mind. "I'll go get Adam and try to persuade him."

He covered the distance quickly and entered the men's locker room where Adam had taken refuge to study since it was so chilly outside.

"Good afternoon, darling. I trust things are going well."

"Not really. Our 'life guards' are MIA. Isabelle can't get in touch with them, and she has this sense that the photos need to be taken right now. She asked me if you and I can fill in for them."

"You mean like be in the photo shoot?"

"Yes?"

"That wasn't very confident, darling."

"That's because 'swim trunks' and 'confident' don't go in the same sentence where I'm concerned. But Isabelle says there are optional shirts. Will you do it?"

"Darling, I do love you very much, but we're in Rhode Island in April and it's 45 degrees outside."

"I know. That's why all the models are in sweats and coats. Hopefully it won't take long. Isabelle is wanting to start ASAP."

"For you, darling. Just for you." He put his notebook and books away, slipped his coat on, and followed Kurt back to where Isabelle was standing.

"Alright. We'll do it," Kurt said. "I don't want Vogue to lose all of the money they've put into this and for it to fall on you to take the blame. This is your new line and I want it to be successful."

"You're amazing. Both of you. I'll give you whatever you want. I know you were going to stay here for the night. I'll pay for wherever your staying and add an extra day. And I'll cover your train tickets back to the City on Sunday. Oh, and for a nice dinner at a great seafood place I know that's not far from here."

"That's very generous, but–" Adam started.

"No buts," Isabelle insisted. "Go get changed. I'm going to get everyone in position and get the heaters blasting. The water is warm, but not nearly warm enough for how cold it is today."

They stopped by the wardrobe rack and picked up the uniforms. Cheri grabbed some safety pins and followed them into the dressing room and waited until they came out of stalls. She pinned up the left side of Kurt's shirt to make it look form fitting from the side where the photos would be taken.

"Maybe they can just photoshop someone else into the photo later," he offered as she worked to get the shirt to look right.

"You're fine, Kurt. We just needed a shirt one size smaller to fit you right. You'll look fine once me and my safety pins are done working our magic on the shirt."

Ten minutes later, Kurt and Adam were up on the life guard chairs. The two photographers were used to working as a team and the shoot went smoothly and quickly. Since he had seen indoor shoots take all day, the whole process took a lot less time than Kurt had thought it would when the photographers called it a day an hour and a half later.

Everyone who was in the water, climbed out and ran for the building to get in the showers and put warm clothes back on. Since Kurt and Adam weren't wet they slipped some sweatpants and hoodies on and put their coats on and waited outside with Isabelle to give the models their privacy.

Isabelle pulled her phone out when it buzzed. She read the texts and put it back in her pocket. "They were grounded because of sleet and wind in Philadelphia where they had been on another shoot. It's headed this way. When I looked at the radar, I didn't zoom far enough out to see it. Anyway, we're good now. You two were great."

"We sat up six feet off the ground and did our best not to look like we were freezing to death."

"Your acting skills are top-notch," she teased. "Seriously, I can't thank you enough." She looked up at the darkening sky. "If we had kept waiting, we would have had to scrap the shoot and gone with my backup indoor shoot that I didn't really want to do."

"You're welcome," Kurt said. "I think I might keep these sweats though. They're super soft."

"They're yours. You too, Adam. I need to know the name of the place you're staying tonight. No, wait." She reached into her bag. "Take this. It's the card you use all the time at work to buy things that I send you out to get. Use it to pay for your room tonight and tomorrow, for dinner at this place." She showed him the name of a restaurant. "And to pay for your tickets back to New York on Sunday. You can give me the card back when you come to work on Monday."

Kurt balked at taking it.

"Take it, Kurt. You're my PA, and you went above and beyond today. It's an expense account. You're already authorized to use it."

He nodded. "Thank you." He put it in his coat pocket. "We're still on for a late lunch before you leave, right?"

"Yes, of course. Go get changed. I'll be in the car waiting."

They hurried into the dressing room and changed back into the clothes they had been wearing. They folded the sweatpants up neatly and put the zip-up hoodies back on over their clothes before they put their jackets back on since it was getting even colder outside. Kurt picked up both pairs of pants and held his hand out for Adam, who put his bag over his shoulder before taking Kurt's hand.

"That kind of reminded me of the musical synchronized swimming routine for our Glee director's proposal."

Adam examined his face carefully. "Darling, I can never tell when you are joking about things in your Glee Club. You say the most outrageous things sometimes."

Kurt laughed. "Oh, I'm telling the absolute truth. Mr. Schue wanted to impress Miss Pillsbury, so he asked us to come up with ideas for him. The synchronized swimming musical number was Sam's idea."

"He asked his teenage students to help him come up with ideas to propose to his girlfriend?"

"She was our guidance counselor. It was their wedding-that-wasn't that I skipped on Valentine's Day that made everyone so angry with me, remember?"

Adam laughed. "That I remember." He turned to Kurt and kissed him gently. "Darling, you have to wait to tell this story until we're in the car with Isabelle. I'm sure she will love hearing it."

"She has some doozies of stories from Ohio as well."

He began to swing their hands between them as they walked out to the awaiting car. "Oh, I'm sure. I can hardly wait to visit. It sounds positively bonkers."