Page 3 of The Prince

But not at her. These people, they came to see the dress. Melodia was, for all their purposes, a hanger. Her voice was not needed. Her opinions not sought. Her mind was only used for counting steps and hearing rhythm. Her body moved with the muscle memory of hours of runway practice, and she made her way.

Usually she thought of nothing. She focused on counting. But today the image of her face, rising up out of the water, flashed before her over and over again. With each step, the droplets sprayed again, catching the sun in his pictures. The man from the beach. She had not deleted a single one. Of the thousands of pictures ever taken of Melodia Harper, she had never once seen a picture that captured something important about her. Not since she was a child.Just as she hit the end of the stage, she jutted her hip, swirled, paused and then her heel caught. It was a tiny catch, but she wobbled. And then her eyes dropped. Faces watched her, they noticed. Eye contact. And they stopped looking at the dress. They watched her.

She was fired. Her agent was going to kill her.

She followed her line, executed all the turns for her return back the other direction, and ignored her team who waited just off the stage.

They gathered round, hustling her back to the Gianco’s room and then began the painstaking process to undo everything they had done. First the dress was carefully hung, zipped and tied just as it was when Melodia arrived.

Then they handed Melodia some make-up wipes and she began erasing the layers of makeup while they gathered her clothes.

Within a matter of another thirty minutes, she was dressed and heading out the door. Her phone rang. “Hello Dane.”

“Babe, what happened?”

“My heel caught.”

“Your heel can’t catch. This is the Gianco we are talking about.”

“Well, it did. Sue me.”

“They might. We fought for this gig. Remember?”

“Yes, Dane. It’s not like I tried to catch a heel.”

“I know, honey, look I’m sorry, I’m just disappointed. I’ve been on the phone since the incident trying to smooth feelings. Luckily, the biggest buyer wanted it anyway. I guess that dress really shines, huh.”

“I guess. That’s great, right?”

His pause told her a lot. “I’ll start working other directions to find you more gigs.”

“So that’s it?”

“That’s the industry, kid. Look, you’ll still get gigs, and maybe we can bring you up this high again, but we gotta play it small for a while. They think you cracked.”

She placed a hand on her forehead. “I didn’t crack.”

“Well, whatever it was, the girls at this level don’t make those mistakes. We’ll get there. It’s just gonna take longer than we thought.”

She hung up, and her phone wallpaper filled the space where her agent’s face had been. Her body, breaking free from the water. The photographer had been attached to a different one, asked that she not erase one that was lovely, but she didn’t think it was the best. This moment, this right here, she was drawn to it. She watched that girl’s skin glisten with falling water, remembered the direction of her thoughts in that moment, and she knew then what she hoped now.

Something was about to change.

Chapter 3

Daniel might never be the same. He scrolled through his images, touching up some edits, testing a trick or two using Photoshop, but he kept going back to the girl from the ocean. He didn’t know what else to call her. He pulled it back up again, and Thad entered his office and came around to look over his shoulder. He whistled. “Now that’s a woman.”

Daniel shook his head. “It’s not like that, brother.”

“I don’t know what you think it’s not, but I’m definitely noticing whatis.”

“Go drool somewhere else.”

“Dude, who is she?”

“She’s not up for discussion.”

He held up his hands. “Ok, you have dibs. I respect that. But if you don’t want to move on that, I’m there.”

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