As Charlie looked at her reflection, she was suddenly even less sure than she had been before… If that was even possible.

Why the hell had she had to make fun of Bass's job so much? She'd thought it was funny, but now she was stuck filling in next to him and her nerves were threatening to get the better of her.

Charlie could barely recognize her reflection. She hardly even wore makeup. She wasn't used to the face in the mirror of a girl in dark red lipstick and thick black eyeliner.

Everything about her appearance was strange from the way her hair was tied tightly back into a ponytail of neat curls down to the heels that she could barely stand in. Well that wasn't exactly true. She'd manage to trade the shoes out for ones a little less dangerous after pointing out that she couldn't balance in the first set without breaking an ankle.

Still, she bet that Bass's shoes were a hell of a lot more practical than this. Probably his outfit was too.

The outfit was the part that was really making her second guess her choice the most. Outfit might be too strong of a word for it. Charlie hadn't worn a dress since she was young enough that her mom had picked out her clothes for her and those dresses certainly hadn't been anything like the one she was wearing. It wasn't necessarily that short, it stopped just above her knees, but the slit that went all the way up the leg and the low neckline were a bit much for her liking.

It was far too late to back out though, so she stared at her reflection for a second longer before turning and hoping that this would really be as easy as she'd been telling Bass it was.

She wasn't sure whether Bass's reaction to her appearance was a good thing or not. At least she knew that she didn't look completely ridiculous, but the way that he was looking at her just made her even more nervous about having to pose with him.

What had she got herself into?

Miles' reaction to Charlie's new outfit was the polar opposite of Bass's. She could see his jaw clench and his fists ball up even from across the room. Clearly he was not thrilled with the idea of her stepping in to model with Bass dressed like that.

As Miles watched the shoot, he frowned to himself. He suddenly very much wished that he had brought a flask to work with him today. He could definitely use a drink. It was times like this that he held a particular hatred in his heart for his best friend.

As Bass grabbed hold of Charlie's hips, Miles resisted the urge to throw something at him or yell at him. This was going to be a long damn photo shoot.

"Don't kill me for this, okay?" Bass asked gruffly in Charlie's ear as his hands moved to her hips.

Charlie thought to herself that it might at least make for an interesting picture, but made no comment out loud. She was incredibly aware of all of the eyes on her and the only direction that she'd been given at the start of the shoot was to act like she was into him. Not exactly the most detailed advice. They seemed to be under the impression that she really was into Bass and so they had given her minimal direction.

She wasn't into Bass though... Not a chance. But at least if they already falsely thought that there was something going on between them, then it shouldn't be too hard to keep fooling them, right? Besides, Bass was flirty enough with her all the time that maybe he could just carry her weight in this.

She knew she was overthinking things and she also knew that she needed to just shut her mind off.

Okay, Charlie. Just imagine that Bass is someone that you could actually be interested in...

He's definitely not bad looking. And, as long as he doesn't open his mouth and start driving her insane saying stupid things, she could almost picture herself being attracted to him. Almost.

And, hey, it might be fun to torture him a little. After all, they wanted her acting like there was some kind of tension between them.

Charlie grabbed his hands off of her hips and wrapped them around her waist, leaving her hands over his as she turned her neck to look up at him over her shoulder. An unintentional smirk formed on her lips as she tried to hold back a laugh. This situation was beyond weird and there was definitely no way that she was even going to chance a look in her uncle's direction. She didn't need the look on his face confirming that she looked as ridiculous as she felt like she must.

After a while, she managed to somewhat figure out what she was doing, with a little help from Bass. Or at least the photographer seemed to be happy as he vocalized just how pleased he was with the sexual tension, which may or may not have made Charlie blush a little.

Miles' hands clenched tightly into fists, which he shoved into the pockets of his jeans as he glared over at the pair who appeared perfectly oblivious to how pissed off he was. In fact, they seemed perfectly oblivious to everyone around them and Miles wanted to punch his friend in the face more than he had in a long time. And that was certainly saying something.

He couldn't unhear any of the numerous conversations that he'd had with Bass where the model had bragged about how half of the time his job was basically walking around shirtless or getting paid to put his hands all over hot girls. That hadn't ever really bothered Miles before, in fact he often responded with comments of how Bass was a lucky bastard, but when it was his niece that Bass was running his hands over it was anything but funny.

"Either you're really into me or you're making my job look even more embarrassingly easy than I thought," Bass commented smugly.

Charlie stretched her body upwards, stopping with her head tilted up towards his and her lips practically touching his as she told him, "Then I guess you should think about getting a new job because I'm definitely not into you."

When the shoot was over, Bass told Miles, "I need a drink. I'm going out. Are you coming?"

"As much as I could use a drink, or twenty, after watching that, no," Miles responded. "I'm meeting up with Nora tonight."

"What? You two haven't broken up again yet?"

"Don't be a dick," Miles muttered back at him. "And don't even think about taking Charlie out drinking with you again because I will find out and I will murder you for it."

"Who said anything about asking Charlie?" Bass questioned. "I really don't have a thing for your niece."

"Sure you don't," Miles retorted sarcastically. "That's why you were trying so hard to get into her pants after you met her and why I had to watch you practically making out with her for that entire shoot, right? I'm not stupid, Bass. I know you want to get in her pants."

"I want to get into a lot of girls pants, Miles. And I already told you that I'm not going after her," Bass insisted. "Did I think about it at first? Yes. I'll admit that. But I promised you that nothing was going to happen with her and I meant it."

"You better have."

When Charlie got home from work, her mother instantly noticed the make-up that she probably should have taken off before coming home and commented, "You look nice."

Charlie knew that it was more of a question than a compliment. Her mom wanted to know why she was wearing the heaviest make-up that she had in her life. It was probably a fair question, but one that Charlie was going to try to evade nonetheless. She definitely had not thought through how she was going to tell her mother about her day.

"Thanks," she responded as she tried to head out of the room.

"Charlie, wait a second," Rachel insisted. "How was work today?"

"Fine," Charlie responded before deciding to add, "Maybe a little weird."

"Why are you wearing so much make-up, Charlie?" Rachel asked, silently praying that it wasn't for the male model she worked with.

"Work thing," she replied vaguely.

"What kind of work thing?" Rachel asked, narrowing her eyes at her daughter suspiciously.

"That's a good question," Charlie told her. "One that would be perfect for you to ask Miles."

"I'm not asking Miles. I'm asking you," Rachel insisted. "Why are you acting so weird?"

"You have to promise not to freak out," Charlie tried.

"You realize that saying that's more likely to make me worried, don't you?" Rachel questioned.

Charlie let out a sigh of defeat before sitting down, figuring that her mother was not going to let her get off too easily. She was for sure going to want a full explanation and Charlie was definitely going to try to leave out any details involving the actual photo shoot itself.

"Alright, well we were waiting at the photo shoot and the other model never showed up," she began. "And, it's stupid really, but I was joking around taking pictures with Bass while we waited. And I guess they really didn't want to reschedule because they kind of, sort of, got Miles to ask if I would fill in."

Rachel went uncharacteristically silent and Charlie's nerves sky-rocketed.

"It wasn't a big deal though, I swear," Charlie added, hoping to avoid a repeat of the speech her mother had given her about how much of a womanizer Bass was and how she shouldn't believe a word he says while he's trying to get into her pants. "I was just helping Miles out."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Charlie repeated in utter surprise.

"If you were just trying to help Miles out at work, then okay," Rachel elaborated. "And I know that you're too smart to fall for any of Bass's tricks."

Charlie smiled and nodded her head as she silently hoped that her mother would never see whatever pictures she had taken with Bass. If there was as much tension between them as the photographer seemed to think, then she knew her mother would probably end up calling Miles and trying to convince him not to let her work there anymore.

A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to sammxhill, priya1008, Siamshipper17, JM2788, ToTheSkyAndBack, BassCharlie, dixie326, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, and the anonymous guest reviewer for reviewing last chapter! :)