model call || h.s

02.

"And that's a wrap!" Nora let out an overly exaggerated sigh as Omar, the set photographer, announced the end of the the Ralph Lauren Tender Romance shoot. "Well done, everyone. We killed it..." He then pointed two fingers at her and her Alex, her campaign love-interest. "You two killed it. Very nice work."

"Thanks Omar, you're the fucking bomb." Nora called to the eccentric photographer, then she held her hand out to Alex. "Alex, hon...it was a pleasure." He kissed her hand.

"The pleasure was all mine, babe." She really couldn't get out of the rural, upstate city fast enough. Granted, Sleepy Hollow had been one of her favorite spots growing up, but she was exhausted. She'd been here for three days now and she desperately missed her cats. Magellan, her Maine Coon was a dick, but he was also the sweetest little snuggle-bug when he wanted to be. Maude was a beautiful and tiny Bengal. Nora also referred to her as the dainty devil, because she could outsmart Satan himself. They were her babies, but they were also huge assholes. Nora had accepted this fact of life long ago.

Her driver was waiting for her on the side of the road, and she was ever so grateful for the set member who drove her the short distance in the golf cart. Upstate New York was fucking cold, and despite living in the gorgeous, eastern state for her entire twenty-two years, it was no less unforgiving. The cold was always a brutal, bone-aching cold. She was glad that she'd already packed up everything in her hotel room, she instructed Martin, her driver to head straight back to the city.

@noradods: buh bye sleepy hollow. my darling kitties, I shall be home soon. be ready for cuddles.

Just after tweeting this, her lovely friend replied.

@GiGiHadid: k coming over. c u soon. xo

@noradods: bb yes can u feed the kids?

@GiGiHadid: of course. they shall get three scoops instead of two from aunt gigi.

@noradods: lol thats why they luv u more.

Nora put her phone away and laid her head back on the seat. She really felt utterly drained. Before the trip to Sleepy Hollow, she had been shooting for Harper's Bazaar in Montreal for a few days, and prior to that, Los Angeles for a week. She just wanted to be home. After a few minutes of resting her heavy eyelids, she opened her phone back up and looked over her itinerary for the month of December. It was only a few days in and she was already ready to give up. Ralph Lauren fragrance shoot, check. The Ralph Lauren Wrap Party in the Meatpacking District was tomorrow night. That wouldn't be all that bad, she thought. Luckily, she had two days off after that, but then it was back to the daily grind. She was flying to London for four days on December eighth until the twelfth to sign with yet another agency. That was surely going to be an exhausting trip, but she happened to like London. She wasn't too unhappy. After London, she was back in New York until after the new year, but that didn't clear up her schedule. Pretty much up until a few days before Christmas, she'd be scurrying around the city doing various interviews and shoots, one gala and three parties. Nora sighed. She was very grateful for her newly booming career, but at the same time, she desperately wished she could be at her family's home in Port Jefferson, baking Christmas cookies with her mom and enjoying the holiday season, carefree with her siblings and her niece. Her sister's daughter, Lola was four and she was quite literally the light of Nora's life. She loved that girl to pieces. But was she cozy at home? No. She was bustling about, being driven from location to location and she barely found the time to watch a Christmas movie. Most of her gift shopping had to be done online, and where the hell was the fun in that? Now, again...she hated complaining. When her career as a model skyrocketed, she went from living paycheck to paycheck, to more than financially comfortable. Money certainly wasn't an issue. Her apartment in Chelsea was beautiful, her wardrobe was better than ever, and she could spoil her cats and Lola rotten. What more could anyone ask for? Her social life was stellar, and she'd had a tryst with Orlando Bloom. Once upon a time, a little girl had dreamt solely of marrying Will Turner. Obviously, the marriage part hadn't panned out, but she'd slept with him and he had continued to call her. That turn out wasn't half bad.

The traffic going into the city was absolutely atrocious, and what should have been an hour long drive, turned out to be closer to three hours. Finally, Martin pulled up in front of her building.

"Thanks Martin. I'll see you tomorrow night."

"See you then, Miss Dodson. Have a nice evening."

"You two, tell Cindy and the kids I say hello." The middle-aged man chuckled.

"Will do." The brisk air was merciless against her skin, and as she walked up the front steps of the brownstone, she felt as though she was wading through the Arctic Ocean.

"Well, it was nice of you to show up!" Gigi called from the kitchen. Nora walked in and literally threw herself onto the couch.

"Fucking...finally." She cursed, "I seriously thought I'd never get home." Her friend waltzed in with a pot of tea and two mugs. She lifted her legs up and sat beneath them.

"You are so wonderful, Gig." Magellan hopped up and began to knead against Nora's chest.

"Hello, you little shit." She greeted him, with a lovely ear rub. "Where's Maude?" Gigi shrugged.

"Judging us, most likely." Nora and Gigi had met almost two years ago, in a Bloomingdales dressing room. Nora had been trying on a set of lingerie for her cruddy boyfriend at the time and Gigi immediately began girl-crushing on her. Nora had already begun doing some small modeling gigs with a tiny agency in Brooklyn, when Gigi passed along her contact information to Lions New York. That's where it all started. The girls became practically inseparable and they signed onto IMG together, as well as New York Model Management. "Do you have a date to the CK wrap party?"

"That depends on you, my love."

"I thought you'd never ask." Gigi sent her friend an air kiss.

"Where's Zayn?"

"Bradford. Since he's spending Christmas with me, he wanted to visit his family for a bit."

"Oh, that's nice. When does he come back?"

"Next Monday."

"Aw, baby, do you miss him?"

"So much. I hate sleeping alone. But...we need some time apart. I love missing him." Nora liked Zayn. He was good to her friend and he was handsome as all hell. He was also quite fun. They got along very well. "Have you talked to Mr. William Turner?" She sounded scarily like Keira Knightly.

"He wants me to stay with him while I'm there. He doesn't have Flynn that week."

"Interesting...are you going to?" Nora shrugged.

"Maybe a few nights...I need my own space though."

"You and your erratic sleeping habits."

"It's very possible that I'll accidentally punch him in the face, giving him a black eye and making the media believe we're in an abusive relationship."

"Only you."

"Only me."

"Are we spending New Year's Eve together?" Nora shook her head.

"Honestly, I think I'm gonna spend it with the fam. Have sort of quiet night in, you know?"

"Gotcha. Zayn and I haven't figured out our plans yet." Gigi massaged Nora's calves as she spoke, "He mentioned London, but I don't know if we're still gonna do that. I'll ask him when he gets back." The two girls spent the rest of the evening lounging around, they made dinner and even found time to watch a Christmas movie. Nora was grateful to have gotten at least a little time to veg, before the whirlwind that was the month of December really started blowing.