No, scratch that, this time was different. Usually, the stylist assistant who was working on the shoot was a woman I had slept with. She was distracting me. It wasn’t her fault that I wasn’t a natural at this kind of thing but at the same time, I would have been performing much better if she wasn’t around. I had to physically hold myself from bending her over right
here in front of everyone.
We had gone through three outfit changes and this was the last round of photos. I resented this part of our work usually but it was part of the territory. Branding was everything and we wanted to project a certain image. High-end and professional but still forward-looking and for lack of a better word, hip. We were two guys still shy of thirty with military backgrounds and not that bad to look at; we used that to our advantage. We were different in the market of nerds and old guys and while some people held it against us, our products spoke for themselves.
“Perfect,” the photographer said, looking down at his camera.
“Are we done?” I asked.
“We’ll look at the shots first and then come back and see whether we need to include anything else,” Missy said. The women disappeared with the magazine staff and the photographer into one of the other rooms. I sighed loudly and collapsed onto the couch we had been posing next to.
“Hey, man, are you okay?” Easton asked me.
“What? Yeah, of course. You know I don’t like this kind of stuff.”
“No, I meant with what happened to you. Getting stuck out there in the blizzard.”
“I was in a fully furnished cabin with food, running water, and heat. It wasn’t that bad.”
“You sure about that? I know how much you wanted to get out.” Easton was my oldest friend, there was no use trying to keep things from him. He might have been the only person who I knew for a fact wouldn’t judge me no matter what I told him.
“I wouldn’t do it again, let’s just say that.”
“What was the worst part?” he asked me.
“I wouldn’t recommend getting stuck in the cabin in the middle of the woods with a woman you find very attractive and not being able to do anything about it.”
Easton raised his eyebrows. “You have a crush on Maggie?”
“I don’t have anything with Maggie, I’m just saying.”
“For someone who is used to only entertaining women for a week, tops, that must’ve been hard for you.” Why did your own habits always sound so bad when someone else reiterated them to you?
“It never should have happened.” That went for us getting snowed in, as well as for everything that took place in the cabin while we were snowed in. He didn’t know the details and now I was even more reluctant to share them.
“I hope you’ve learned something from this experience,” Easton said. I made a face at him.
“Learned something? What are you talking about? Some carpe diem shit?”
“Perhaps now you look at relationships with women differently?”
“After a few days snowed in with your girlfriend’s assistant? That was supposed to happen?”
“The experience gave you a lot of time to think. Out there in the woods just taking in the fresh air and nature… unless you spent your time doing something else,” he said. I ignored the suggestion in his voice.
Since waking up this morning with Maggie, I had been thinking about things differently, he wasn’t wrong. I was curious what we could have had if I actually gave it an honest shot. I had been wanting to tell Maggie what I felt, but since leaving the cabin we hadn’t gotten any time alone. I only ever referenced my parents’ relationship when it came to love but they weren’t the only model I had available to me. Easton and Missy were right there. What they had though? I knew I wasn’t ready for all of that; getting married and having a child with someone.
“Let me ask you something. What would you do if you lost Missy?”
“I would do anything to get her back. What happened? What did I do? Whatever the issue was, I would do whatever it took to make it better.”
“What if it didn’t work? What if you couldn’t get her back?” I asked. That one seemed to stump him. He shuffled his feet and looked like he was really thinking hard about it.
“I don’t like this question.”
“Just tell me.”
“You’re talking in hypotheticals. In reality, I would never do anything that would make Missy want to leave. Not on purpose. If I made some sort of horrible mistake, I’d spend all my time making up for it. I would never jeopardize our relationship knowingly.”