Authors: Elizabeth Briggs
“You mean, when we’re not trying to claw each other’s eyes out?”
Or tear each other’s clothes off
, I silently added.
“Aw, what a shame. I thought the two of you might have something there. You’re cute together.”
“Please. I’m cute with everyone.”
Trina laughed. “He’s not so bad. And even I can tell he’s damn nice to look at.”
Molly patted my hand. “Since you’re paired up for this challenge, it wouldn’t kill you to be nicer to him.”
“It might!”
Molly sneezed into her arm, then blew her nose with a napkin. “Lordy, I hope I’m not getting sick. I’m so sorry, girls.”
“Are you getting enough sleep?” Trina asked.
“As much as I can. But all these long hours on my feet are rough on me. I’m too old for this.”
“Stop that,” I said. “We’re having just as hard a time as you are.”
“You’re sweet, dear.” She sneezed again. “Oh no. Stay far away from me so you don’t catch it.”
“Are you going to be able to make it through the challenge?” I asked.
“I should be okay. I just hope I don’t make everyone else sick. Probably a lingering illness from my grandkids. I swear, they bring back every single illness in the schoolyard.”
After we finished eating, I washed my hands for a good three minutes under scalding hot water with a ridiculous amount of soap. I was
not
getting sick, dammit.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
T
he next morning we dove right back into work, all too aware we had a lot to get done and only a few hours to do it before the runway show. But we’d only been in the design room for thirty minutes when Kelsey rushed toward us. “I need to talk to you two.”
For once she wasn’t smiling or speaking in exclamation marks. Gavin and I shared an
oh shit
look and waited for her to drop the bomb.
“Gavin, your model is sick and can’t make it,” she said.
“What?” I blurted out. We’d already made the look to fit her measurements. What were we going to do now?
“Is she all right?” Gavin asked. Always a gentleman, at least in public. In private, well…
“She’s fine. Just caught that bad cold that seems to be going around. She’ll be back for the next challenge I’m sure. In the meantime, we’re having Carla come in to take her place for the runway show. Unfortunately, we can’t give you any extra time. Sorry!” She rushed off, like she was worried we would yell at her for being the bearer of such bad news.
“Bloody hell,” Gavin said, leaning against our work table. “How are we going to finish in time?”
“We just will. We have to.”
He slowly exhaled. “I need more coffee.”
“Same. But aren’t the English all supposed to drink tea?”
“I can’t stand tea, much to my grandmother’s dismay. But if we’re going to use ridiculous cultural stereotypes, shouldn’t you be drinking green tea?”
I laughed. “Okay, you may have a point there. Although I do like green tea.”
“Score one for me.”
“Since when are we keeping score?”
“When have we not been keeping score? By my count, I’m up to four. One for that first night, one for the other night, one for picking you for my team, and one now.” He ticked them off on his long fingers. “You’re only at two, love. Better step up your game.”
“Two?” I poked him in the chest. “I have way more than that. And you don’t get a point for the other night since I did all the work.”
“Fine, we’ll take that one off. But I’m still ahead.”
“I have at least three!”
He flashed me a cocky smile and walked over to the dress form, leaving me hanging. Infuriating man! I spun around and stomped back to my workstation to get Carla’s measurements from my supplies.
When I got back, Gavin had written me a note and left it tucked into my fabric.
Your score:
One point for bringing me to your hotel room.
One point for doing lovely things with your mouth.
Care to earn another?
I flipped the page over and scribbled:
Keep dreaming.
I crumpled the note up and threw it at his head before turning back to the table. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him open the note and laugh, and I couldn’t help but smile.
Over the next few hours, we adjusted our dress to fit Carla. She was a little wider in the bust, hips, and butt, but a few inches shorter than Gavin’s model. It wasn’t too difficult to make the changes; it just took time. Time that was quickly running out.
As soon as Carla arrived, we had her try the dress on. The corset was too tight and wouldn’t close properly, the ruffles were in the wrong place on her butt, the skirt’s length didn’t adjust properly, and basically the whole thing was a disaster. We got the dress off and sent her to hair and makeup while we tried to figure out what to do.
Nika and Derrick walked past on their way to the breakroom, smirking and giggling as they eyed our dress form. Gavin ignored them, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “Got a problem?”
“Just admiring your look,” Derrick said.
“It’s so…
different
from everything else in the room,” Nika added with a snicker.
They kept walking, but I overheard Derrick say in a fake-whisper, “She is so going home today.”
To hell with that. I turned to Gavin and pointed to a spot on the skirt. “Can you raise the back of the skirt here, so the ruffles are higher?”
“If I do that, then the front will be too long. Maybe if I…” He tried to undo the stitching holding the ruffles on. “No, that won’t work.” He changed tactics, but a second later I heard a ripping sound and he yelled, “Bollocks!”
“What happened?” I bent down to check and saw a gaping hole in the back of the skirt, where the ruffles had once been attached. They’d come off, but had ripped the fabric in the process. “Oh my god.”
“It’s this goddamn fabric,” he said, throwing the ruffle on the table. “I told you we should have chosen the thicker one.”
“That one was way more expensive! We wouldn’t have had any money left to buy fabric for the shirt.” I put my hands on my hips, staring him down. “And don’t you
dare
try to pin this on me. You should have been more careful removing the ruffles instead of yanking them off.”
He scowled and inspected the damage. “I think I can patch this up. I’ll try to attach the ruffles in a way that covers the seam. It won’t be perfect, but we don’t have time for anything else.”
“No, you still need to fix the adjustable length of the skirt.” I grabbed the ruffles and searched for the correct thread. “Here, let me help—”
He snatched the ruffles out of my hand. “I don’t need your help!”
“Um, hello, we’re on the same team.” God, what was his problem? It wasn’t like I was trying to change his design or anything. I just wanted to get this done in time.
“You worry about your part of the dress, and I’ll worry about mine,” he said, his voice sharp. “That was the deal.”
I turned away from him, fuming. “Fine. Whatever. Just don’t screw this up.”
“Me? You were supposed to get the corset fitted to Carla. You had one job, and you properly buggered that up. One job!”
I spun back around, glaring at him. “Oh, I’m sorry! Maybe your stupidity is contagious!”
With that, he burst out laughing. A second later I had to join in because what else could I do? It was all so ridiculous, and we were fighting over nothing. But when you’re held captive in a stressful environment, running on very little sleep and stuck with your competitors 24/7, it was no wonder silly little things blew up into giant dramas.
He placed his tattooed hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Julie.”
“Me too.” I took a deep breath. “God, could anything else possibly go wrong?”
“Don’t tempt the fates, love.” He placed his fingertips on the table. “Touch wood.”
“You mean knock on wood,” I said, rapping my knuckles three times on the same spot.
“Why would you knock? Do you expect it to answer? It’s not a door.”
“I don’t know. But at least I’m not feeling it up like some creepy wood-lover.”
“If I remember correctly, you’re the wood-lover.”
A laugh escaped me. “Okay, I’ll give you credit for that one.”
He grinned. “Score another point for me.”
“That totally doesn’t count!”
***
The teams were seated together to watch the runway show, but I could barely hold still while we waited. Gavin and I had worked so hard on this dress, but it was such a risky gamble and I wasn’t sure if it would pay off or not. It was hard to tell what the judges would like.
And if we were on the bottom, I would be the one sent home, not Gavin.
The lights went up and the music started. Trina and Dawn’s model was first, wearing a sheer, floor-length dress covered in tiny flowers and butterflies they’d created with fabric that cleverly hid all of her naughty bits. It was a beautiful dress and definitely had a whimsical fairytale feel, but I could already hear the judges saying it was “too crafty.”
Tom and Jeff’s model was next, wearing a long silvery dress that fell straight down her body and had pointed shoulders, giving it a slight sci-fi feel while still looking modern and sexy.
Carla came out third, and I held my breath the entire time she walked down the long strip of runway. Every step she took felt like a mile, and I was torn between watching her move (and damn, did she work it) and watching the judges on the other side of the stage to gauge their reactions. But with the bright lights, it was tough to see their faces.
Our steampunk saloon girl look definitely stood out from the others. The over-bust corset was made of a beautiful dark-brown-and-gold brocade, with matching laces in the back and black leather piping and trim. We’d also added buckles along the front and thin chains that hung across her ribs, along with a pocket watch Gavin had found somewhere.
Underneath the corset, Carla wore the white, long-sleeved shirt Gavin had created, which dipped low to show off her cleavage and had big shoulders to give it more of an authentic period look. Below it, Gavin had created a bustle skirt in a nearly identical shade of brown as the corset. It was tiered in the back with three layers of ruffles, each one edged in black lace, which hid the rip he’d made earlier. The skirt fell to the ankle, but the front could be raised to Carla’s thigh while remaining long in the back. The raised front would then clip on to metal rings at her hip, giving her a Wild West saloon girl feel with a distinct steampunk edge. Assuming it worked, that is.
The entire thing fit Carla perfectly, even with all the problems we’d had redoing it for her. We’d also given her knee-high brown leather boots and those awesome goggles I’d found in the accessory room, which were perched on top of her head.
When Carla reached the end of the runway, she posed for a split second, then raised the front of the skirt up to mid-thigh, showing off her beautiful dark legs. It worked! I let out a little squee, unable to help myself, and Gavin laughed beside me, sounding relieved. Carla posed another instant longer, then turned around and walked back down the runway.
Once she was gone, I could finally breathe again. Gavin leaned over and whispered, “Great job, love.”
“You too.” I reached over and gave his hand a quick squeeze.
When the show was over, Lola announced that Dawn and Trina were safe and could go into the lounge to wait. The rest of us stood on stage, and our models joined us. They talked to Tom and Jeff first and said they loved the dress, but thought it might not be sci-fi enough for the challenge. They called it “gorgeous but safe,” although Lola said she would wear the dress herself.
Next, the judges critiqued Paige and Molly’s look, which I had rightly guessed would be in the bottom. They’d picked fantasy and had gone for a pretty generic Renaissance princess gown in burgundy velvet with gold trim. It wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t argue with Ricardo when he said it was too frumpy and not sexy. Paige tried to throw Molly under the bus, saying she wasn’t pulling her weight because she was sick. But the judges had the biggest problem with Paige’s part of the dress, so I wasn’t sure who would be going home if they lost.
We were next, and I had no idea if we would be on the top or bottom.
“Gavin and Julie, your genre was historical,” Lola said. “Please tell us about your look.”
Since Gavin was team leader, he did the talking. “We didn’t want to make something boring or predictable, so we decided to go with a Wild West steampunk look. Julie did the corset and a lot of the detail work, and I did the skirt and shirt.”
“I absolutely love this look,” Kiara said. “I would wear it to a Hollywood costume party in a second.”
We were in the top three! For once I wasn’t in the middle or the bottom! Oh my god, I might even win this challenge! I grabbed Gavin’s hand, and he smiled at me, his eyes sparkling under the bright lights.
“I love it too,” Ricardo said. “She looks fierce and tough, yet also feminine and sexy. It’s a fun blend of historical and fantasy, perfect for the movies.”
Lola tapped her notecard against her hand. “I like that you took a risk with the challenge and made something unexpected, even knowing we might kick you off for it. But I am not entirely sold on this look.”
“I am,” Kiara said. “I want to see a movie with this character in it. Maybe I need to find myself a steampunk role next!”
Beverly pursed her bright red lips. “I can definitely see this in a movie, although it might be even too costumey for the challenge. Whose idea was it to do a steampunk look?”
“It was Julie’s,” Gavin said. He sounded almost…proud.
They moved on to Derrick and Nika’s dress next, but I already knew we weren’t being eliminated, so I could relax during the critique. For horror, the two of them had made a black backless dress with long sleeves and high slits on both legs. They’d kept it fairly simple, but had red fabric trailing along the sleeves and down the back of the dress to the floor. They called it a sexy vampire queen dress and said the red represented dripping blood, but I didn’t quite see it. The judges had mixed feelings on it, but overall thought it was a bit too trashy. I hoped one of them would be going home instead of Molly, but it was hard to tell what the judges would do.