The Devoted Gentleman (EDITING)

Chapter 16

Valeria was laying in her bed, she had just woken up from her deep slumber and decided to contemplate on life first before moving into the rest of her activities for the day. Some people loved to rush their morning routine. Valeria was not one of those people. She loved taking her time and allowing her body to slowly adjust to her movements, afterward she would do some light stretches and then went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth before going to the kitchen and drank a glass of water, then she would fix herself some tea and breakfast. Not coffee. She was not a huge coffee person, they always gave her the ugly jitter.

That morning however, she suddenly received a call so early, it woke her up with an awful jolt, she picked up the phone to see who it was, if it was an unimportant person, or if it was related to the school, she would not even bother because for her, her morning routine was more important than other people's business with her. She looked at the screen with squinted eyes to find Ginerva's name on the screen. What was her younger sister want to do with her so early? She picked it up and heard what sounded like half a squeal from the other side.

"Valeria, you're awake! Good, I need to ask you for a favor. You have nothing to do today, right? I need you to help me with one of the photo shoot, one of the model accidentally injured herself on the way here and we need a replacement asap, I could not think of anyone else but you, the director has agreed as well, would you come with me, please? This is really urgent and you would help me a lot" she spoke in a rushed tone, and she almost could not comprehend the words. Though from what she picked up, her sister had gone crazy.

"You did what? Ginerva you know I can't, I'm not a model!" she replied, yes, she had no class to teach that day, but still, there was no way she was going to do a photo shoot. Who did they think she was?

"It doesn't matter, you're beautiful and has a pretty proportional body, you can still do it. Come on, I'll pick you up in an hour, see you!" With that, she hung up, leaving Valeria speechless. An hour, what the hell could she do in one hour? She immediately went to the shower and instead of taking her usual bath, she ended up taking a quick shower, and applied just the smallest amount of makeup since they would probably put on some makeup anyway. She put on a bit of concealer, mascara, eyebrow and lipstick. For the clothes, she just picked a soft pink dress and pair it with a cream blazer. For the shoes, she chose a classic nude pump that was not too tall, last but not least, she sprayed a bit of woody floral perfume around her neck. An hour later, she was done.

Right on time, she heard a knock on the door, she walked over to find Ginerva standing there with a smug grin on her face, as if she intentionally used the opportunity of the injured model to get her sister out of hiding. Initially Valeria had planned to spend the day relaxing, reading, playing music, and working on her online website, but it seemed her whole plan would be shifted.

Who knows, sometimes life just give you those unpredictable surprises. One time you're planning something, another time something else comes up, oh well, isn't that what makes life so exciting?

While on the way there, Valeria asked for more details of what she was supposed to do, Ginerva just told her that the director would give her a more detailed and comprehensive directions later, and she would be just fine, but she was not convinced. Apparently they were going to shoot for a new perfume release by a designer brand, it required two models, but as Ginerva had stated earlier, one of the model was injured, therefore they needed a quick replacement as everything was ready and they could not find a replacement on a short notice as the other models were booked for something else.

Once she had arrived, she realized the shoot was going to be conducted in the back garden of an ancient looking building, of course they had previously set the stage, cleaned up the place and made it look more picturesque. The director, who was a man in his early forty approached both of them. Ginerva quickly introduced her sister to him, she held out her hand politely as she was being introduced.