My Cover Model (A Love Like That #1) - R.L. Kenderson Page 0,39
so I just smiled at her.
She pointed to the back of the room. “Anyway, you can go on back there to the table and pick up your name tags.”
“Thank you,” Travis and I both said.
“She said models. I wonder if there will be others besides you.”
I had done my usual routine of checking out upcoming authors, but I hadn’t even thought to look at the model list. Probably because I already knew the one I wanted to attend was coming with me.
Travis looked around. “Good question. It’s always nice when I’m not the only one.”
I shook my head in fake sadness. “But, if there are others, we’re going to lose some money tonight. Especially if they charge less than five hundred bucks.”
He put his arm around my neck and pulled me close. “I don’t think I could do more than one round anyway. I only have so much stamina before my penis is begging for a break. You used me up today.”
I grabbed on to the hand that was draped over my shoulder. “Damn it, this is what happens when you start sampling the merchandise.”
We both laughed.
We reached the table, and Travis dropped his arm as we searched for our names in the pile of name tags.
I just found mine when I heard someone call my name.
“Sydney.”
I looked around until I saw someone waving her hand at me. I grinned when I saw it was Vanessa. She was an author I had first become friends with through Facebook and then had met at a previous book signing in St. Louis.
I rushed over to her and gave her a hug. Vanessa lived in Florida, so this was only the second time we’d ever seen each other in person.
“How are you?” she asked, her brown eyes shining when we pulled apart from one another.
“Good. Your hair is so cute.”
She touched the back of her short black hair. “Thank you. It’s a little cold for Chicago though.”
I chuckled. “It’s warmer here than back home for me.”
She shuddered. “Remind me to never visit you.”
I laughed. “Just make sure you come in the summer when it’s hot.” I looked around, trying to find a tall, good-looking black man in the group. “Is Trevon here with you?”
Vanessa’s husband came with her to events and helped her. I thought it was so sweet, and I hoped to one day have a husband as supportive as hers.
Vanessa looked around. “He’s here somewhere. He had to take a phone call for work, so who knows how far he wandered?” She looked back around to me and then behind me. She hit my arm. “Don’t look now, but a nice piece of man meat is coming this way.”
I glanced over my shoulder.
“I told you not to look.”
I grinned. “That’s just Travis. He’s attending the event with me.”
“That man is not just anything.” She took a sip of her mixed drink and shook her head.
Travis reached us then and handed me a glass of white wine.
“Thank you.” I was touched that he’d remembered what I’d had to drink from our dinner together even if he probably had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right just by guessing.
“You’re welcome.”
“Travis, I’d like you to meet Vanessa. Vanessa, this is Travis.” I made the introduction and took a sip of my wine.
“Are you two dating?” Vanessa asked.
Not wanting to spray wine all over the room, I forced it down my throat and, unfortunately, into the wrong tube.
I started coughing, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
Travis started pounding on my back. “You okay?”
I nodded, but then I changed my mind and shook my head. Everyone was starting to look at me, and I felt like an idiot.
“I’ll…be…okay”—more coughing—“I…think.”
Travis rubbed my back and looked at Vanessa. “I’m here to help Sydney.”
I took a drink of my wine, which did help a little. “He’s on the cover…of my new book.”
Vanessa gasped, and her eyes widened. “That’s you?” Her gaze drifted down to his name tag, which was a different color from my own. “You’re a model.”
He smiled a little shyly and dropped his arm. “I am.”
“Where are you from?” Vanessa asked him.
“Minneapolis.”
Vanessa’s eyes lit up. “Did you two ride together?”
I nodded, still not quite confident to speak normally.
Vanessa gave me a look that said, Tell me everything.
I took another drink to clear my throat. I should have maybe gotten some water. “Travis and I met last year at a book signing, and we’ve become friends. Kind of.”