Previously on Cover Star
"Please tell me I got some of these strings wrong and that by correcting them this outfit will magically produce more fabric and seem a lot more decent," I exclaimed, turning my head backwards to see whether I maybe was wearing this thing backwards.
I expected Ginger to be waiting, seeing as I had heard someone rummage outside my changing room, but was surprised when I wasn't spotting her but someone entirely different. My male companion for the day. Who looked at me with somewhat wide eyes, raised eyebrows and a smile.
One of the first things I realized, and came to mind was 'daaaamn'. Since he really looked like the few pictures I had seen of him. So, no to the Photoshop then. I guess that still left the 'shitty character' option. Maybe there was a god in this world and maybe he had decided that Carlos Manoso or Ranger was a very deserving person and was therefore gifted with the entire array of beautiful. Since he was dressed in a tight t-shirt and some very well fitted pants, it seemed like what I could feast my eyes on was never in need of Photoshop. There was still hope for the parts which were currently covered by fabric. Maybe there would be some justice there? Or – again – a shitty character?
"Looks perfect to me," he just exclaimed with a wide and flirty smile and I felt like pulling the curtain shut again. Would that seem childish? And what a great way to make a first impression or how to meet. But then again, it isn't like I would have worn more fabric ten minutes from now when we maybe would have met 'officially'. I would still have looked ridiculous and one step above being undressed and would have still felt as ridiculous and out of place.
It took everything in me, but I was almost proud to not reach forever I could grab and cover myself. Well, at least to a point that would seem decent again.
"Thanks" was finally my oh so savvy response. Yeah, savage Stephanie, really savage. Eye roll anyone? But before he could reply or I could find even more savvy statements, Ginger reappeared, a coffee in hand.
"You look lovely," she said, smiling at me. Somehow lovely was one of the few words I wouldn't have used to describe me or my current look. I saw her approach and a second later, she seemed to inspect almost each string separately. If you wonder what she was looking for...your guess is at as good as mine, really. She pulled on each string and I was almost expecting my getup to get undone and fall towards the ground, leaving me even less clothed.
"Seems like for once I choose the wrong job," I heard Carlos comment and saw him wink at me a second later, followed by a very curious expression and the fact that his eyes seemed to follow each movement the wardrobe girl did while inspecting the costume.
I wasn't really certain what to reply and turns out I didn't need to say anything since she did the replying.
"Carlos, it isn't as if you don't have her in your arms in about ten minutes and do all the inspecting yourself."
I wasn't entirely sure what she meant with that other than that he and I would share the same personal space for a while, but she continued and her comment confused me even more.
"Marcos was having scheduling conflicts, so Enrique is doing the shoot." Marcos? Enrique? Who? What?
"Great," was Carlos' only reply. "That means we'll be at it for a while. I hope you have no other plans, Babe."
I was almost certain his comment was directed at me, but couldn't be entirely sure. I must have looked even more confused since Ginger was looking up, feeling pity for me, and smiled.
"Enrique is known for being a perfectionist. He is great and all, but everything takes forever and requires a hundred retakes. So, when you two found your pose, you might as well get comfortable with it and each other. Could be a rather long day."
'Great, just what I needed,' I thought to myself. Sure, it wasn't like I had made a ton of plans for the afternoon, but I also had assumed this would be sort of in and out within an hour or two. I mean… how long could it take to get one single photo for a book cover and look all… romantic and in love and passionate? I was certainly not an expert on book covers and could proudly state that I wasn't in possession of a single book with an old-fashioned and overdone cover, but I had seen my fair share of covers in passing – or because Mary Lou shoved another one of her favourites almost down my throat.
"It could be worse," Ginger said, seeming to take my silence as a sign of annoyance. "At least you have great company in Carlos. He is really entertaining and a charmer. It definitely won't be boring with him."
I looked down at her, confused, letting her tighten or rearrange some of the strings while my mind drifted elsewhere.
"How.. I mean… what is he like in general?"
"Who? Carlos?" she asked, and I nodded carefully. "Oh, he is a dear, a real sweetheart. I worked my fair share of these kinds of shoots, any kind of shoots really and trust me, I'm used to drama queens on both sides of the gender aisle. And he is nothing but a really great guy. And incredibly hot. First time I met him was at a shoot maybe a year ago and I only had seen pictures. Being in this industry, you have seen it all and have seen everyone being enhanced and photoshopped. Imagine my surprise when I met him and had to realize he wasn't. That he really looks like his pics on Instagram and the book covers. Sure, they sizzle up the look a little, add a bit more drama to the hair and maybe deepen the tan a little. But that's it."
Before I could ask anything else or even wondered what to say next, she pulled on one last string and got up, turning me towards a mirror and making me realize I somehow managed to look a little more decent than before. But not much. And I might technically still be naked. Despite the very little fabric, Ginger managed to tie the strings in a way that pushed my cleavage up in an almost impressive way and the way the skirt (if you wanted to call it that) was falling, my legs seemed miles long. All in all, this really could be worse, but it also could be better. For the moment I tried pushing away the thoughts of me, looking like this, and how at one point or another this would be published nationwide and people might see me like that. People like my mother. Who probably would have a lot of opinions?
I was pushed out into the studio and towards a set that was surrounded by several cameras and a lot of people. I wasn't aware a shooting for a romance novel cover required so many people to look important, but it also seemed like all of them had a job to do, running around, clipboards under their arms, fabrics in their hands or phones on their ears.
Ginger pushed me onto the set where I was for the moment all by myself. Stuff was placed in front of my face and people shouted something about more or less light, umbrella-looking fixtures were moved around, tripods relocated and Agnes appeared out of nowhere, a make-up brush in her hand, applying whatever was on it to my face.
"Look that direction please," she instructed me, pointing towards a camera while she looked at a scree to her left, applying more product a second later. Was I looking that horrible?
"No dear, no, not at all. It's just that I need to get rid of the oily parts and need to work with a bit more HD-make-up for you to be able to be seen. These cameras can be brutal and they pick up on almost everything. Yes, pictures can get and also will get photoshopped and we can get rid of everything we don't want in the picture, but it usually is best to try to catch everything undesirable before we have to edit it."
Another brush stroke and gone she was in a flurry, only to be replaced by Carlos all of a sudden to my left and several other people to my right, who kept pulling on my outfit.
"Welcome to the circus," he simply stated with a smile and placed his arm around my shoulders a second after someone had shouted for him to do exactly that.
"It's a little overwhelming," I said when the first pictures were shot. Bit of an odd ensemble for a romance cover.
"They just do a couple of test shots," Carlos explained, probably having seen the confusion on my face. "To check the lightning and how the two of us look on screen. Then they readjust whatever needs to be readjusted and we really start."
"Okay," I just said slowly, taking it all in. There was a lot of energy and plenty of people seeming stressed, running, rushing and stepping over cables and stopping themselves from falling over. Weirdly enough, as crazy as things were around us, we seemed to be the exact opposite. Calm and collected and just… serene. Though that was most likely more of Carlos' doing than mine.
"You know, you can move?" he asked, a whisper in my ear. "All they check is lightning and that nothing that isn't supposed to be seen shows up in the picture. Like… clothing that seems fine all of a sudden turning out to be see-through if photographed and the likes. They don't even require us to do posing. Just… stand here so they look at light."
"You seem to be knowing a lot about this," I remarked, rolling my eyes at myself a moment later. Really? That was the best I could come up with? Of course, he knew a lot about it. This was his main job and he probably did several dozen shootings each month. Okay, maybe not several dozens but more than I did, anyway.
"You pick up on things when standing or sitting around set all day," he replied, without sounding like he wondered whether I was real.
"How… can I ask how you got into this? I mean… being the poster boy for romance novels is very… specific."
He laughed softly for a second, before he replied, and I realized that he had a really nice laugh.
"I kind of slipped into this unintentional. And it is a rather long story, in all fairness."
Okay, I knew when someone didn't want to share or answer a question. And it wasn't like I could blame him. We didn't know each other. And we would most likely never see each other again after today. This was… some weird thing I was thrown into by Mary Lou and he just did for a living.
"It seems like neither you nor me are going to go anywhere else anytime soon," I remarked and wanted to hit myself. What was wrong with me? Why not just let it be and move on to safer topics?
Instead of a reply, he laughed once more, probably trying to be nice.
"That's more a conversation to be held over dinner," he just said after a while and before I could reply, a few people moved in on us, a few pulling on my outfit, a few others freshening up our makeup and someone else looking like they adjusted lights. And then everything went surprisingly quick. All of a sudden, it was called that we were ready for the first shots and Carlos was instructed what to do first. I was told what to do afterwards and the first shot was taken.
I am usually not good at reading people well, but even I had no issues reading Enrique's expression. That first shot was anything but good. Not that I was surprised. I felt weird, exposed, and just… uncomfortable. It wasn't necessarily anything in regards to Carlos' proximity, the poses we did or the clothing I was wearing. It was simply the whole situation, the camera, the awkward movements I made and how I probably looked rather stiff – because that's how I felt. This didn't feel natural and carefree. Which was also mentioned by Enrique and his staff several times as well.
"You don't do this very often, do you?" he asked when several people moved me into some different positions.
"Try never," I said, turning instinctively towards him to cover some of my upper body at a different angle that wouldn't make me feel as exposed. Instead of saying anything, I could read the question in his eyes. "I… A friend of mine entered me into this competition and I ended up winning this cover shot for a romance novel. And here I am."
"That's your first time?" he asked and somehow, I couldn't help my mind drifting off into way too inappropriate territory at his question? Why? Who knew?
"Yes, and it will most likely also be my last time," I said, more to myself than anyone else, really. What happened next surprised me.
"Guys," I heard Carlos's shout. "Can you give us a moment?" I watched everyone move around a second later, vanishing to God knows where.
"What are you doing?" I asked, confused.
"Helping you to relax," he just said, stepping closer. "This is supposed to be fun and easy. No one will die if the pictures are not perfect. You need to enjoy yourself a little, enjoy the experience. I know there are a lot of people around and everything seems strange and weird, but… just ignore them and pretend they aren't here. That it is just you and me."
"If this was just you and me, I'd probably be wearing something a little more."
"More what?" he asked, seemed amused and also very intrigued. Seemed like I wasn't the only one with interesting thoughts.
"More everything. Especially cloth."
He laughed at my reply and moved his arms a moment later.
"What a shame, I actually quite enjoy the view," he smiled, and I wasn't certain whether he was serious or not. Maybe this was just some way of getting me to relax. By distracting me with flirty banter. And it kind of worked, if I was being honest. But I also was realistic and knew this was all it was. Looking at that guy, he was a twenty on a scale of ten. While I wasn't thinking of myself as ugly or bad, I certainly was no match for him. So any interest here had to be entirely professional, or he had plans for tonight and didn't want to spend longer hours than necessary at this set.
"As you mentioned before, when I was trying on this… um… outfit. Though it seems to be more consisting of strings than something that might make this an actual outfit. Are… these standard costumes at every shoot?" I asked, and saw him grin at me.
"Oh, I wish. But in all fairness, usually the women are more undressed than the guys. At worst we are shirtless, but women wear often enough barely anything that covers the essentials." Despite his words, his expression indicated that he really didn't mind that fact. Of course.
"Now you tell me," I laughed and heard noises somewhere in the background.
"Sorry," he grinned, looking anything but sorry. "Should someone have mentioned that before?"
"Maybe not," I replied truthfully. "Since that would have meant I most likely wouldn't have shown up had I know."
"But then we would never have met," he remarked, and he was just missing the pout that went along with the slight whine in his voice. I let out another laugh and shock my head, bringing my hands up to his rather impressive shoulders.
"I'm sure you would have survived. And you would have done just well with whoever would have shown up as my replacement."
"Not sure they would have been as much as fun as you, though."
"Fun? What fun? All I have been doing so far is freaking out over the entire thing, then freaking out over the outfit and now freaking out over the shot. I'm almost certain fun is neither of these."
"You don't give yourself enough credit," he said ominously and now I was confused. Credit for what? Freaking out was literally all I had been doing so far. Well, that as well as staring at his perfection.
"Because there isn't an awful lot to give myself credit for and it's not like I have actually moved along with regard to getting somewhere with this shoot."
"That's not quite right," he remarked, confusing me and turned me around a few moments later, making me see the photographer and his aids busy shooting photos of us. What? Why?
"Turns out, all you need is distraction," he went on, winking and showing me his perfectly white teeth a second later. Was there any part of him that wasn't perfect?
"Ah," I replied, seeing what he had been doing. "I see. So, you took it upon yourself to provide the distraction."
"I've been told to be rather distracting from time to time," he shrugged, smiling a second later.
"I can imagine," I said, laughing loudly.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but you really should smile and laugh more often. It suits you."
I shrugged, looking at him for a moment. "I usually really do. It's just not really my kind of place."
"What is your kind of place, then? Maybe we should relocate the set. Or us at a later point today," he suggested, and I know he was joking, trying to keep me distracted and involved in whatever it was he was doing. For the moment, it worked.
I thought about his question for a moment. "Everything that isn't here," I finally replied and saw him smile once more.
My smile, however, started disappearing when the shots that were taking while he distracted me didn't work any longer. I mean, I was assuming they wouldn't anyway, because I had seen one or two of these covers over the years and knew that they weren't just staged, but most often the people on these covers were in rather interesting positions.
"This is so not awkward," I replied after having been pushed and pulled and thrown literally into Carlos Manoso's arms by one of the assistants. He laughed, but I was certain he must have felt odd as well, seeing as we did not know each other and yet found us having to pose as a couple in close contact and more or less each other's face.
"It is not as bad as you consider it to be. Sure, when you are not used to it, this might feel a bit odd and overwhelming in a certain way, but you get used to it and need to just go with the flow. Ignore everyone around us, pretend they are not here and it is just you and me and not a few cameras on us, snapping away. And I am certain there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than this."
I needed to laugh at his suggestion as well as what he said with regards to afternoons well spent. He had a point and seeing that this was how he made his money, I figured there really were worse ways. For him, anyway. For someone like me, who wasn't used to that amount of attention and being thrown in situations where it was required to be very familiar with an unfamiliar person, it was hard.
But we got it done and over with. Eventually. I was surprised how quickly we ended up wrapping and Enrique ended up being happy and satisfied with the results.
"I think that must be a new record," Carlos mused. "Usually, he is never happy with anything unless it is absolute perfection."
One of the assistants called me over and asked whether I wanted to see the pictures and I couldn't deny I was curious. And what I got to see was… unexpected. While the picture definitely looked good, they didn't look like anything you'd put on the cover a novel.
"They will be retouched and a few things will be added or adjusted. The background obviously being one of them."
I hadn't had a chance of catching myself in a mirror prior, with Make-Up, clothes and hair being done, but, despite the fact of how odd it felt, I needed to admit I looked good. Not in a way I personally would step out on the street, but it definitely looked good. More like a date-look. Well, without the clothes, because they were more along the lines of bedroom-territory.
After I had seen the work we had managed to get done these past few hours, I went back to make-up and wardrobe. I got out of my costume and into my clothes and tracked down a bit of make-up remover to rid myself of most of the gunk and colour in my face. My hair I pulled into a lazy and messy bun and went to thank everyone for their work on me and their patience. I didn't find Carlos, despite that I looked everywhere for a good ten minutes.
I asked several people to extend my gratitude and thanks to him, assuming he must have left already, and made my way outside and to the parking lot.
"Since my earlier hinting didn't seem to have the desired effect, I'll try it more direct. Have dinner with me?" he asked, leaning casually against a car which I assume was his. A nice car. A shiny, black, expensive car. I don't know a lot about cars, but even I knew this was a Porsche. And they came at a price.
"Why?" I asked confused and saw him look at me, slightly shocked. This didn't make a lot of sense.
"What do you mean, why? I… I'd like to take you to dinner and just get to know you a little better," he finally replied, seeming more confused at my question than I was at his request. "I don't think anyone ever asked why, when I asked them out."
"I like to be different," I replied, smiling uncomfortably. It was certainly not because I liked to be different, but generally because I really didn't quite understand why. Unless… "Maybe I should also point out that I'm not really the casual-sex kind of girl."
At my additional comment, he looked not just taken aback but also mildly irritated. "I'm not sure what kind of experiences you had so far, and I guess there are a lot of guys out there looking for a hook-up and something unconditional. But I really would just like to have dinner and just… let things flow."
I looked at him for a very long moment, trying to gauge any kind of idea or mood, but came up empty. Since my parents had raised me with the principal of being honest, I figured that might be the best approach, regardless whether I might sound stupid in a second.
"Your list of ex-girlfriends includes a model, some singer and an actress, so… don't take this the wrong way, but wouldn't that make me some kind of downgrade?" It wasn't like I had self-esteem issues, but getting asked out by a guy like Carlos Manoso could easily raise quite a few questions and make you wonder.
"Someone googled me," he simply replied, not seeming too fazed by that fact or my argument. "I think I had it never held against me that I dated a runway model, a rather popular actress and that singer you referred to. I'd like to play being confused at your argument, but I live in the real world as well and kind of get where you are coming from. And how that might seem intimidating. But it shouldn't be. Personally, I think you hold your own very well and are incredibly gorgeous. And I'm not saying that in order to sway you to a yes. But because I really think so. There's something about you that is incredibly intriguing."
I thought about his words for a moment, which he seemed to take as a sign that I was about to decline. "It's just dinner," he said, looking amused at me. "If something comes out of it, good. If not, you got dined and wined and hopefully had a good time. Nothing to lose. Also, I can tell you how I ended up doing this. You had asked about it earlier and I believe I still owe you a proper answer."
I kept looking at him, still entirely sure what was going on, but figured 'what the hell?' He was right. If things took a turn for the worse, I could at least claim of having gotten dinner out of this. And he seemed like good company as well as a genuinely nice guy, destroying my mindset of him having at least a shitty character.
"I still don't quiet get it, but alright. You got yourself a date," I agreed and saw him smile at me widely a second later.
"I think I never had to work that hard for anyone agreeing to go out with me," he said, still smiling at me.
"Again, I'd like to be different," I just said, trying to wrap my head around this entire idea.
I gave him my number, and he told me he'd check his schedule and get back at me with a proposed date in the next few days. And somehow I figured when getting into my car that I would never hear from him again.