“I’m sorry.” I seem to be in the habit of blurting out words today.
“I’ve seen your work, Adira, and you stand out. It would be my greatest pleasure to have you. If you’re too busy, then I understand.”
“No, I’m not,” I said too quickly then I cleared my throat, “I was just not expecting that. I would be honored to be a judge. I am- thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I could hear the smile in her voice, “I hear you’re doing some sort of documentary, you have my full permission to film on set, but don’t release any clips until I have. You can also bring a plus one. I’ll send your assistant everything you need.”
She hung up and I still couldn’t form any sentences. That was an absolute shock that I was not expecting. Did the Francine Beaufort just call me and ask me to be a judge? Not just that, but she also said she had seen my work. Hearing that from her is as good as her saying she is in love.
She is one of my role models and inspiration; she is also why I tend to lean towards tough love. If you get a ‘nice job’ from her, then it is as good as having your work on the front cover of every single vogue magazine for ten years straight.
“Are you going to let me in on what just happened?” Nathan’s voice snapped me back to reality and I couldn’t even bring myself to get mad at him for ruining my daydream.
“So that was Francine Beaufort and she asked me to be a judge this year.” I relayed the entire conversation to him.
His eyes widened in shock and admiration, “That’s amazing actually; I was at last year’s Couture Week. This is an amazing feat, congratulations. It also means you don’t have to go through the trouble of trying to secure a ticket.”
“Neither do you,” he looked genuinely confused now, “She heard about this and she asked that you come on the condition that you don’t release any clips until she does.”
We spent the rest of the session talking about Couture Week and my expectations going in. To be honest, I don’t have any expectations, I am just super excited and struggling not to pinch myself to see if this is real or a dream.
The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the ridiculous amount of emails and calls I will get the moment I am announced as a judge. Judges will be announced right before the tickets go up and brands will be fighting to get your attention so you can display them on that grand stage. Obviously I am going to rep my own brand, everyone with half a brain knows that, but it won’t stop people from trying to get me to change my mind.
Either way, I am super excited and cannot wait for the event. This will serve as one of the highlights of my career.
We finished on a high note and Nathan was packing up his things when his phone started buzzing like crazy in his pocket. Around the same time, so did mine.
We looked at each other with identical gazes of concern. I know why mine is buzzing, it’s probably a bunch of new articles about me, but I didn’t realize he had his notifications on for articles on me.
“Are you stalking me, Mr. Cowe?” I asked with a teasing smile.
“I just want to know what questions to ask you.” He put his camera down and took out his phone, “Besides, there is no logical reason to stalk you considering that I see you every day.”
I took out my phone and pulled up the first article from Buzz feed and all my earlier excitement and joy evaporated from my body.
Joseph had finally made his statement to the press via his twitter and he didn’t even think to let me know that he was doing so. I tried to pull up his twitter but I realized I couldn’t find it. The bastard must have blocked me.
I tried checking via my finsta account but he had also blocked me there. Of course he would, he knew my finsta username.
“Give me your phone, Nathan.” His normally stoic face held concern.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Just give it to me,” I said calmly, “I’ll see it there or I’ll see it with Marissa’s phone.”
He handed it to me and luckily for me, he already had Joseph’s account open and the first thing I saw was his statement.
He wrote and I quote,“Adira and I are nothing but acquaintances. We have never had a relationship outside of being cordial with one another. I am in love with Bailey and I would never dream of doing something as heinous as cheating on her. It is about time that the media refrained from spreading lies and gossip to ruin lives and relationships.”
I almost threw the phone across the wall as I read it. It wasn’t about him setting things straight, and it wasn’t about him refusing to contact me first, which in itself is very annoying. I’m glad he did because I was receiving at least fifty death threats an hour.
It was how he completely disregarded two years of our lives as nothing. He pretended as if we were strangers and mere business partners when we were a lot more than that.
I was practically living in his house and he was my first everything that mattered. And he threw it away all in a bid to defend his precious little relationship that he built while he was still in one with me.
A part of me wanted to respond with a sarcastic and scathing remark but I knew that doing so would only rehash what had just been buried and bring even more unnecessary drama to me.
I saw that he didn’t turn off comments so I decided to go through them. I almost laughed when I read what people were saying.
