The Way She Wears My Clothes

Taylor Jardine wasn’t on my radar, but not for any reason in particular. She was just another one of the guys. We’d toured once or twice together, but nothing really stuck out in my mind about her. It wasn’t that Tay was plain, or forgettable. Oh, god, she was anything but. It was just that I was too preoccupied with other things. Sure, she was beautiful but I wasn’t seeing her as a woman at that time. No, it wasn’t until later that I found out what I’d been missing.

“What are you up to today?” Alex asked tiredly, as I got dressed way too early. We were on a short break in the middle of tour. Alex and I were sharing a hotel room in New York. But instead of bumming around for the day, I had to go see Mark from Glamour Kills about my new JAGK line. He’d told me that something important was happening that day, but being me, I could not remember for the life of me what it was. Typical.

“JAGK things,” I replied, moving to the bathroom to check my hair one more time.

“What kind of things?” he asked, playing with his hair like he always did.

“I don’t know, really. I just have to do some things. I’ll let you know when I’ll be back,” I said and pulled on my hoodie, zipping it up.

“Okay. See ya, bro.”

“See ya,” I called and left the hotel room. I drove down to the office, humming and tapping along with the radio. I checked the time. I was just barely going to make it to the office on time, not that I really cared.

I was greeted by Mark, who ushered me into a changing room.

“What are we doing today?”

“Well, everything’s been edited and printed, so it’s time for a photoshoot!”

I nodded and unzipped my hoodie and threw it over one of the chairs in the room. I went through the motions, of undressing and dressing, undressing again. It was the same as every other time. That’s what I thought, at least. Until the other “models” came in, and my eyes were drawn to one in particular.

“Hey Jack,” Tay said as she passed. She was wearing just a plain white tank top underneath a checkered blue and purple button-up t-shirt that was opened, paired with black skinny jeans. Her hair was messy and slightly curly, but she still looked good.

“Tay,” I replied with a smile.

“Mark, do you have a flat iron? Before I do anything, this has to go away,” she said, grabbing at one of her loose curls.

“Yeah, in the dressing room, there’s one plugged in. Have at it,” Mark replied. Tay smiled and walked to the dressing room.

“Why Tay Jardine?” I asked.

“She was in here the other day, and I needed one more model. She volunteered, saying how she loved the new line and yeah,” he finished. I chuckled and clapped him on the back.

“One more shirt, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, go put it on!”

I left him and went to put on my last shirt for the day. It was the black t-shirt with JAGK No. 1 and a cassette tape printed on it in white. I pulled it on over my head and headed out to the camera. Tay walked out at the same time and looked at me, wearing the same black t-shirt.

“Nice shirt,” she complimented with a wink. My heart fluttered. She looked so good, and there was definitely something about her in the shirt that we’d designed that just made her so much more attractive to me.