The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,1

I, on the other hand, was not exactly model material. I might have had the figure for it, but I was pretty sure that the blue highlights in my dirty-blond hair and my silver hoop nose ring didn’t fit in with the glamorous aesthetic that most models had.

“You ready for this?” he asked once he set me back down onto the ground.

“Oh, you have no idea! I’m so excited!” I squealed.

“I knew you would be,” Arlo laughed. “As soon as I decided on this line, I knew you were the perfect one to design it. The whole concept is right up your alley.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself because this was sounding too good to be true. “How many designers are you bringing on board for this project?”

“Just one—you.”

Oh my God, this was going to be my show. I couldn’t believe it! If Arlo was going to let me design all of the pieces for the entire line, then that meant I could put my name on the show. If it was successful, which literally all of Arlo’s runway shows were, then this single event would propel me to the front of the fashion industry scene. I was too ecstatic to even speak as I felt my cheeks start to get hot with pent-up excitement.

“What’s wrong with her?” a beautiful woman said as she came up to stand next to Arlo and looked at me with a small measure of disgust. “Is she ill?”

“God, Kerynne, why do you always need to be so dramatic?” A gorgeous-looking male model came to stand beside them both.

I recognized him; I’d seen him in other shows before.

“Shut up, Cai,” Kerynne snapped at him. “You’re definitely not in a position to talk about being dramatic. You’re the most dramatic male I know.”

“I’m surprised you stop to actually get to know any of the men that you sleep with,” Cai sneered.

“Okay, you two,” Arlo said as he interrupted their petty squabble. “There’s nothing wrong with Hensley; she’s just excited. She’s also a creative genius, so I’d suggest being a little nicer since she’ll be the one dressing the two of you for everyone to see. Unless that is, you’d like to be wearing burlap sacks.”

“I highly doubt you’re serious about that, considering it’s your name on the line,” Kerynne snarked.

She was a real piece of work, just like Arlo had warned me. They both seemed like a lot to handle.

“You are so rude,” Cai said as he stepped in front of her and extended his hand out to me. “Pleasure to meet you, my lovely beauty,” Cai said as he lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed the top of my fingers.

Kerynne made a gagging noise. She didn’t say hello to me at all. She simply flounced her hair over her shoulders and tried to pretend that it didn’t offend her to breathe the same air as me. I could already tell that she was one of those models who thought themselves to be way above their designers’ paygrade. Which I guessed in most cases was actually true, unless you were a big name like Arlo.

“So,” Arlo said as he sat down at the big workshop table with me. “Kerynne and Cai will be the two models at the forefront of the runway show. The pieces that they wear will be the first pieces and the last pieces seen on the stage. They will be the ones to linger in the minds of the audience, which will be packed with icons in the industry, as well as potential corporate buyers. Kerynne and Cai will also be the poster models for our photoshoots and media presence. What that means is that you need to study their appearances for a few minutes to get an idea of what designs will work best on them before you start sketching out the whole show.”

He turned to look at his two models. “Well,” Arlo said as he waved a hand in the air toward them. “Do something inspiring.”

On cue, the two models began to strike some of their well-rehearsed models poses.

“No, no, no,” Arlo said, shaking his head. “This is going to be a different type of shoot, that’s the entire point. Your regular cookie-cutter poses won’t work for this.”

“Can I make a suggestion?” I asked as I stood up from the table.

“Of course.”

I walked over to Cai and Kerynne.

Kerynne was stunningly beautiful, and she had an esoteric beauty that struck me with