The Model's Stylist

30 | likable percentage

c h a p t e r | 30
LIKABLE PERCENTAGE
'99 percent of you makes me
want to throttle you!'
__________

SHE WOKE UP WITH A STARTLE, jerking away with a scared yelp as she came face to face with Parker's crazy eyes, before the clicking of a camera shutter sounded through her eardrums.

"I've forgotten how ugly you are when you sleep," Parker chuckled, looking down at the small LED screen of the camera he had found lying around the living room.

"Oh thank you," she whispered gratefully for her own ears soothing her feverishly beating heart, "Only a dream, only a dream," she reiterated holding a firm grip on the back of the couch, while Parker was clicking through the different images saved on the camera.

"Really, Marshmallow. This picture is 2 years old, why haven't you gotten around to save it?" Parker mumbled as he studied a candid picture of the two of them.

"People use their phones today, that's why?" She retorted, and Parker scoffed, before looking around the room. "I thought we were having a fitting today?" He asked with furrowed brows as all he saw was their usual mess of girl clothes and makeup. "I'm not good in sequins."

"Fitting?" She asked dumbfounded, the dream messing up her track of time, "Yeah, you said we had to wait with the fitting until after the weekend because you were going off shore to meet your future in-laws," Parker winked with a grin, and her stomach dropped.

"I-I..."

"So how was Newcastle? Smaller version of London, just more boring?" He wondered while Tessa seemed to go pale.

"Newcastle?"

"Yeah? You know the spur of the moment trip you and Mr. Right—"

"I did-" She rounded the couch, needing to find her phone but also dreading actually looking at it at the same time.

"Marshmallow?" Parker asked looking up at her, when she was unusually quiet, "What's-Woah!" He tumbled to the side as Tessa yanked a pillow from underneath him to see if the phone was hidden somewhere between the cracks of the couch. "Hey!"

"Marshmallow," he started again this time looking at his friend with worry as she seemed to make an even bigger mess of the place, which to his astonishment actually seemed to be possible despite the already untidy place.

"I forgot okay!" She blurted and looked at Parker with a look that had him lean further away from her. "So you didn't—"

"No, I went to Barcelona—"

"For—"

"Yes! For Hale's shoot. I swear to god, that guy is unbelievable—" She mumbled while she started crawling on the floor to see if the phone had ended up there.

"You forgot you had a weekend trip with Alexander because—"

"Don't you dare finished that sentence!" She thundered and Parker had difficulties hiding his puzzled expression that started to crack with laughter of the absurdity.

"What did Hale do to you?" He asked with a grin, but swallowed too much air which had him coughing desperately as Tessa was glaring at him and getting up from the floor as it clearly wasn't there.

"Did you—?"

"He's Hale!" She promptly responded denying to answer his question which had him study her thoughtfully.

"He got to you didn't he?" He asked more seriously, which had Tessa stop flailing her arms in exasperation.

"We—- No... I—" Her teeth sunk deep into her lip as images from the first kiss to that night in Barcelona infiltrated her mind. Sinful and way too unbelievable images that made her wish for a hole to crawl into and die of embarrassment and disgust for herself.