A Model Hero by Sara Daniel

 
     
     
Chapter One
     
     
    “Your career is salvageable, Mother, if you follow my business plan. By this time next year, The Zola Modeling Agency will be out of the red.” Gretchen Meyers made the statement with more conviction than she felt. Silence had greeted her barrage of letters, e-mails, and calls to Kyle Ramsey, the agency’s top model and, since the mass exodus, only client.
    “Have you heard from Kyle yet?” The other woman lifted her head from Gretchen’s couch where she’d made a near-permanent indent over the past eight months.
    “I’m making sure I hear from him today.” With thirty days left on his contact, she could no longer wait for him to acknowledge her.
    “Today?” She looked Gretchen up and down, the flash of hope in her eyes shifting to disapproval. “Darling, you must change into something black if you’re going to meet with him. Those camel pants are not doing your thighs any favors.”
    Gretchen gritted her teeth. She would never be a size two, but Mother hadn’t given up trying to mold her into one or, at least, create the illusion of an acceptable figure. “When I want a favor from my thighs, I’ll wear black.”
    She appeared not to have heard, as her distasteful expression deepened. “And your blouse. If the sales clerk told you that hideous shade of green is turquoise, the designer must have been colorblind.”
    “The color is aqua, and I like it.” She marched across her open floor plan apartment and gathered the files spread over the kitchen table. Studying the financial projections on the laptop screen once more, she highlighted the single column where the agency would make enough commission for her mother to afford her own apartment. Gretchen would convince Kyle Ramsey to return to the modeling world. Failure was not an option she could continue to live with.
    “Haven’t you learned anything from these years around me? Your only hope is to wear all black, accented with a pop of color at your neck. People will look at your face, giving you a chance to show off the lovely eyes you inherited from me. What a shame you didn’t inherit more of my traits.”
    Gretchen snapped the laptop closed and slid it in her bag. Not trusting herself to speak, she flipped the calendar on the wall to reflect the new month. Out with her houseguest’s stifling summer presence and in with the crisp, refreshing air of fall. September was the perfect time to reclaim her life. “Why don’t you come to my office today? I’ll set you up in the conference room, and you can call some of the people on the list of potential clients I researched for you.”
    “There’s no point. They won’t take my calls.” She sagged back on the couch.
    “Plenty of prospective male models are searching for an agent like you.”
    “An agent who will sleep with them?” She covered her face and sobbed.
    “An agent with industry connections,” Gretchen retorted, refusing to show the least bit of sympathy for the scandal created by the lack of boundaries between her business and personal life. “First point on your new business plan is you will not sleep with any clients, especially nineteen-year-old kids.”
    She lowered her hands. “But they’re so cute. And horny. They look at me like I’m brilliant and hot. How can I resist?”
    “Try,” Gretchen muttered. Those cute, horny kids were far too young for Gretchen herself to consider dating.
    “You’d understand how difficult it is to restrain yourself if you had a figure that attracted men like mine does.”
    Gretchen resisted the urge to strangle her mother. “My business sense is going to serve both of us much better than good looks ever will.” She yanked her purse strap over her shoulder and gripped her briefcase. No matter what she did, her physical appearance would never win her mother’s approval. She played the roles of good daughter, savvy business advisor, and long-suffering therapist to compensate.
    But she had to get the woman out