Chapter Four

Cher sipped her decaf coffee that night, taking particular care not to ruin her lipstick by bringing the cup and foam too close to her mouth, whilst she snuggled up to the cushions and watched Raquel. It would be nice to live in a place where fashion was considered a necessity. She had always been into it, doing little fashion transformations with Dion as a kid, but this was the big times. She loved when Josh would dress up for her and she would always select the perfect tie for his shirts but Josh wasn't really a part of the fashion world and her father even less so. What did feel good was that it seemed that Dale was the same way for Raquel.

"I wish I lived in these countries," Raquel pointed to the TV where they had been watching some of the international runways and getting ideas on outfits. Raquel seemed to be very impressed with east Asian fashion especially from Tokyo and Korea. It was cute and interesting but Cher's tastes were to the more tailored Italian and Parisian fashions.

"I think they travel around," Cher smiled. "You know, they have their houses in a lot of different places and their entourage and they get to experience all of this. The models who go to these shows are just working for the designer, it's their clothes which they want to see."

"A good looking male model wouldn't be unwelcomed though, just for looking," Raquel said and Cher laughed at this.

"Yes, just for looking. However, I think that designing for women is much more entertaining. I've of course made some items for the men in my life, for Josh and my dad, but it's not as much fun. I mean, there was this guy in high school -" Cher began and Raquel laughed.

"Cute? Into you?" she asked and Cher turned a little red.

"Oh, he was and he still is extremely yummy," she smiled in a way that showed not much was going to happen with anyone but Josh. "I mean, one of those very flashy and stylish guys and I thought, I dreamed, well…I guess that I really really hoped he was in love with me, this was before I knew that Josh was perfect for me."

"And he was hooking up with your best friend and not telling you about it," Raquel guessed and Cher laughed.

"As if, no Dion wouldn't do something like that. No, I had completely missed all the clues that told me that Christian was gay. I mean, it was such an embarrassment at the time but he's now the perfect guy to go shopping with and he compliments me and I compliment him. He's more special to me that way."

Cher put a hand on her chest as she thought of Christian. When she was younger, Christian had always seemed like the perfect guy and she was impressed that he wasn't going after her with the same attitude that other boys did. She had had to try to start that relationship but when it was all out into the open, she was happy that she could see him as a person and a super classy guy.

"There are too many gay guys in fashion," Raquel said with a sigh and Cher blinked up at her innocently. She didn't want to assume that Raquel was racist by those comments. It must have just meant that it was hard to find any eligible straight male designers. Still, she had Josh, she didn't need to have someone in the fashion industry just someone who respected her enough to try to learn about it.

"Hmm, yeah, I guess," Cher said before pointing at a model. "That waistcoat is so classic, I think if I had access to this much fashion I might drown but drowning in Prada and Gucci is a pretty good way to die."

Raquel stretched back and gave a hum in delight of this. Cher watched her new friend and Raquel reached out a pinky finger to her, "Let's both try to do our best through the program so that we can be two new amazing designers back in the States."

Cher smiled, "I'll agree to that."

4.2

Cher and Raquel both made sure that when they entered the mixer the following night, they both looked absolutely amazing. It was a chance for them to show off and although they had already met the majority of the others who had been chosen there was never not an excuse to accessorize.

Cher looked to where a man was sitting by himself with a beer next to him and smiled as she pointed him out to Raquel. "Is he part of the program?" she asked and Raquel grinned with a soft laugh.

"He's one of the mentors or is he the mentor but he's running the program or something like that," she said and Cher didn't want to say that she smelled a slight hint of alcohol on Raquel's breath. Having been to a lot of parties, she had often found herself in rooms filled with underage drinkers. She didn't want to risk a bad impression though. This was her future and she couldn't afford to let anything happen to it.

She smiled softly before meeting eyes with him and he waved her over. She gave a little squeal to Raquel before heading over there and reached out a hand to the man. "Hi, I thought you looked a little lonely sitting here," she said although she could feel a little color in her cheeks.

He was definitely hot.

Still, she wasn't sure what team he played on. There were still a lot of straight designers, weren't there? Even though the only man she had met with an interest in fashion had been gay that didn't mean they made up the majority of designers.

"I'm Andy," the man smiled and Cher laughed hearing his British accent which she hadn't been expecting. She always felt a little heated when she heard someone speak with that accent. Still, he was cute. "Am I lucky enough to be talking to two girls on the program?" he asked and Cher nodded.

"We're really hoping that you'll be impressed by what we can do," she told him, "and our special eye of the designer."

Andy hummed and then looked up to Raquel who was moving with the music, Cher didn't think she was losing it to see that the way he looked at Raquel was with a little less passion than the way that he looked at her. No. She couldn't be thinking things like that. Thinking of things like that was wrong.

She wanted to be with Josh and to think about Josh. Still if this was something that she was doing for her career then Josh couldn't be angry about that. "So, you're from, England?" She asked and he laughed.

"Yes, Surrey," he told her and Cher nodded as she attempted to figure out where that was. She laughed before trying to make a place for Raquel.

"I'm going to go dance, you should come join me soon," she insisted and Cher nodded before switching her attention back to Andy. Cher opened her mouth to protest and say that she should join them but Raquel had already danced away. Cher gave a small smile before her eyes drifted up to Andrew's again, warm deep pools of blue.

"So, what makes you want to become a designer?" he asked and Cher laughed.

"A clothing obsession," she said honestly. "I mean, I grew up in a place…California, Southern California and a lot of people really cared about their clothes, I mean, when you have access to great shops you learn to really cultivate a collection. I take things that I like and I used to have a program on my computer where I pressed a few buttons and could put my own outfit together."

Cher looked at Andy after she had said this and blushed a little but Andy was just sitting there, watching her and nodding. Cher felt that this man was easy to speak to, much easier to talk to than Josh when it came to clothes. Josh couldn't put an outfit together but he was cute when he tried. Andy was well put together with every detail, it made things that much more exciting.

"I really think that you're fascinating when you talk," Andy said and Cher looked at her hands. She didn't want to lead him on and she didn't want to hurt Josh. Hopefully Andy was gay because she didn't want to run even the risk of something happening between the two of them. She looked to him with a polite but apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry. I guess I don't have very good gay-dar," she said and Andy stared at her slightly offended and very confused. "I mean, I don't want to embarrass myself here but nothing can happen between the two of us, I have a boyfriend I love and I don't want to risk anything hurting him. He's my heart."

Andy coughed up some of the beer he had drunk, "Cher, I'm not gay," he said and saw how pale she had become when he had said that to her. "And I'm not flirting with you. I can't. I'm your mentor, one of the assistant instructors of the program."

Cher nodded, a few tears in her eyes, "I am…so sorry. I just assumed that," she bowed her head again. "I am so sorry."

Andy laughed weakly and nodded his head, "It's okay. It's okay. It'll be okay," he told her and saw Cher stand up, look at him a little bit in fear and leave towards the door. He reached out a a hand to stop her and a moment later he saw Raquel follow her. This would be a hard way to approach her when they had a class he was assisting with,

There was always one each year who got strangely attached to him, this year it had taken place sooner rather than later.

End of Chapter Four

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