Hate That I Love You

I picked up the phone and dialed the 9 digits of Alex’s mobile number. I slowly lifted the phone to my ear and heard the calling tone, signaling that my call had connect. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. 11.00am, she would be working. Oh well, she said I should call her when I was in town, I rolled my eyes and waited to hear her voice greet me.

“Hello!?”

I paused, realizing she had answered her phone. I was about to hang up if she hadn’t.

“Alex”? I asked

“Yes, who is this?” he posh voice rang through the phone, in the background was a quiet mumble from a co-worker.

“Its Rory…”

“Shit Rory, I’m at work… what’s up?” he asked, occasionally dropping out to talk to her mate next to her.

“You said I should ring you when I was in town and…”

“YOU”RE IN TOWN!?” she shrieked.

“Yes… and I was wondering if its okay for me to come see you later in the arvo?”

She paused, I wasn’t sure of she was still there, but I could hear her breathing, so I figured she was just distracted.

“Yeah! Of course love, then I can tell you all about my new man…” she cooed.

“Awesome, do I get to meet him?”

“Uh, not today, sorry, he starts work at 2”

“oh well, catch him another day.”

It was late in the afternoon on one sunny Monday, right after Rory had left, she seemed in a rush to leave, I wouldn’t put it past her, and she hardly got out. I was happy to see her go it was and experience she would have enjoyed, and I couldn’t see her pushing that chance away, not for a band anyway.

I’m a model; I chose not to promote what I do for a living, for the fact that models don’t get much positive attention. Even Rory said to me that I should quit, but I love fashion, and guys. You could say I was a typical female living in a big city.

And I loved it

My boss, Ralph, he asked me to stay behind, I was rarely asked to stay behind, for a worked a 40 hour week as it was, any extra hours would have run me down to easily. But I agreed, and I’m glad I did.

“Have you read this?” he asked me, nudging my side.

I glanced over at him, he was glancing down at his hands, which were wrapped around a small sheet of paper.

“What is it?” I asked, peeping over his shoulder at the paper.

“It’s a letter from… Mike Money? Who the hell is that?” he looked at me, lifting an eyebrow.

“Fucked it I know? Why? What does he want?”

He looked back down at the paper, flashed it in front of my face and placed a finger under the passage while he read it to me.

“…Escape the fate have released a new brand of t shirt… They would like you to model these shirts for a charity, and to reveal how effective the shirts are…” Ralph looked at me, then went back to reading the passage.

“Please only choose 3 models, The bands Merch seller and technician will come around and investigate in the modeling.”

I smiled.

“signed, Escape the Fate”

“Hmmm, sounds fancy.” I nudged Ralph, walking past him to collect a drink from the table, the drink which was poured for a previous Model, but she failed to collect it. So I did.

“How about, I make you my model, fuck this ‘3 model’ shit…” he pushed the piece of paper into his pocket and joined me, pouring himself a drink of wine.

“Regulations, Ralph!” I waved my finger, warningly, smiling as I walked over to the newly re-arranged set. I pathetically posed.

“Fuck that, you are worth 3 models.” He wrapped an arm around me, and danced me around the set.

Ralph was a sleaze, I could ignore him some days, but other days I couldn’t.

“Right, did you contact them about it?” I pushed him away.

“Yeah, they are coming to see you today.” He cheeped, happily dancing on his own.

I swear Ralph was gay.

“Uh?... okay?”

“Hey, speaking of modeling, I saw your room mate the other day, she’s a hotty, do you think she would model for me?” he turned to me.

“No…” I angrily stated, if there was one thing I didn’t want Ralph to get his hands on, it was Rory.

He stopped smiling, and was suddenly serious.

“Why not?” he asked, battering his eye lashes.

“Because….” I paused, glancing around the room for an excuse. “…She isn’t the modeling type.” I shrugged, figuring that was the best excuse I could get.

“Oh, but… she would look good half naked” Ralph smirked at me, swishing his hips, while pretending to pose.

“I DON’T CARE!” I screamed.

I instantly covered my mouth, Ralph had stopped his movements and was just glaring at me. His eyes were wide open, his mouth dropped open

“Uh…?” he turned away, ashamed.

“Shit, I’m sorry… I just, don’t think its worth it…” I blushed, noticing that everyone else in the studio had their beady eyes on me.

“its alright…” he was cut off by the constant whispering and chattering about the visitors that just walked in the door. Ralph and I glanced over the heads of the co-workers to try to distinguish who the visitors were, we glanced at each other and shrugged.

“Excuse me… Move please?”

Out from the crowd came a dark skinned, light haired male, and his bulky mate. Both wore some form of tight clothing, I could have sworn that I had seen the skinny bloke before, or some form of relative of his. They approached us, proudly.

“Hey Im Ralph.” Ralph extended his hand the the approaching men. The skinny bloke took his hand, smirking.

“I’m Mike, and this…. Is Mark.” He said, letting go of the hand and pointing to the bulky bloke standing behind him. Ralph waved at him happily.

“I believe that… we had some form of modeling thing?” he asked, lifting an eye brow. He quite obviously didn’t know.

He looked over at me, and I shrugged back.

“Who is this?” he pushed past Ralph and approached me, grabbing my hand and kissing it politely.

“Uh..?” I glanced up at Ralph, who was on the verge of laughter.

“This is the model, Alex.”

“Weren’t you to have two more?” Mark asked, tapping Ralph’s shoulder.

“Mark, it doesn’t matter, this model is beautiful enough.” Mike smirked, leading me over to the set. Ralph and Mark followed like two lost dogs, occasionally whispering between themselves.

“Now, Alex? Right? I need you to stand here.”

“Uh, Mike, you aren’t really a model thingy, please let a professional do this.” Mark laughed, patting Ralph’s shoulder, who was laughing with him.

“Whatever you’s two.”

He rolled his eyes.

The modeling was an experience to remember, but on the other hand, I would like to have forgotten it. Mark and Ralph giggled like school children, while Mike poked and prodded everything I wore, or posed me the way he wanted to. He was a nice bloke, but jeez was he bossy. They day wore on, I was there pretty much all evening and into the late hours of the night.

“Hey, Alex?” Mike called from behind as I was about to exit the building and head home, I turned on my heels, and watched Mike jog to me.

“Yeah?”

“Where are you off to?”

“Uh, I’m about to catch a taxi home?” I smiled, opening the door, keeping it open for Mike to pass through it.

“Thanks…” he smiled “Uh, could I catch it with you?”

I paused

“Sure…”

He hopped into the taxi after me, opening the door politely so that I didn’t have to. We spoke for a while longer, about life, love and other catastrophes.

I sighed, he was a nice bloke, but he could talk me ear off if he had the chance. The taxi came to a halting stop as it nearly passed my destination. Mike and I jolted forward, then re-arranged ourselves as I got out of the car.

“It was nice meeting you.” He smiled, closing the door behind me as I got out, he wound down the window and spoke to me.

I turned to him.

“How about you come in”

My heart raced, I had no idea what he would say to it. Would he accept or reject me? Sweat threatened to break out. He weakly smiled, paused for a while, then nodded happily. My heart slowed down, almost to a complete stop.

“Awesome..” I jumped, skipping up the path the to the steps that lead to my yellow front door. I pushed my house key into the door. I turned to witness Mike get out of the car and then the Taxi drove away, driving into the dark fog at the end of the street.

“This is a nice little house.”

The key snapped the door open. I lightly pushed on the door, it creaked open, the contents of my house were open for Mike to see. I walked in, hushing him in and asking him to close the door behind him.

I walked around to the kitchen, which was pretty cut off from the rest of the house, a wall, which supported a fridge and a freezer, was what cut the kitchen from the lounge room. Rory got sick of people telling her she looked bad when she cooked, so she hired a handyman to build a wall.

I heard the door snap close, silently. Mike hadn’t said a word since he got in the house, I guess he just got caught up at looking at everything.

“Hey Mike, did you want a coffee?” I asked, nipping across the kitchen to flick the jug on.
No answer.

“Mike?”

….Still no answer

I spun on my heels, and attempted to walk about the corner to face the lounge room, when Mike pushed me back into the kitchen, was forced my up against the fridge, pressing his lips to mine. I went with it. It had been a long time since a guy had EVER done that to me. His hands worked their way up into my shirt, caressing the tender flesh they were exposed to. I pulled away, and his lips worked down to my neck, kissing and nipping at my cream skin. I forced my head back, exposing my neck to Mike, allowing him to kiss as much of it as he wanted. My hands snaked into his hair, pulling and grasping his light brown hair whenever I pleased.

Everyone had told me that sex was better in the Kitchen.

….I just wanted to find out for myself.