Page 28 of We Used To Be Magic

‘I’m sorry,’ she says again. ‘This is so annoying. And you’re being so cool about it, which – thank you.’

‘Were you expecting me to flip a table or something?’

‘You could reasonably be annoyed!’ she laughs.

‘You followed through on the plans,’ I point out. ‘We’re just condensing them.’

‘You’re a secret optimist. Noted.’

‘Open misanthrope, actually. Maybe jot that down somewhere so you don’t forget.’

‘Mm-hm,’ she says, still smiling. I feel the corners of my own mouth twitching to echo it and have to look away, up at the cloudless sky.

AUDREY

‘SO?’IMOGENE PROMPTS.

‘I don’t even know what to say,’ Marika tells her, voice wavering. ‘This is incredible.’

God, she’s good. If she ever gets bored of modelling then she could definitely be an actor.

‘It’s amazing,’ I say sincerely. ‘I can’t wait to get started.’

‘Well, you won’t be waiting long!’ Imogene beams. ‘All the creative legwork has been done. Telling you two was more or less the last step.’

Turns out that the emergency meeting was almost worth having to abandon the nicest morning I’ve had in ages. Lila was right. The Miranda Browning campaign is happening. Marika and I are featuring in it. It’s all real.

‘Do we know who the photographer will be?’ Marika asks.

‘Yes, and it’s agreatchoice – Julian Mars. He’s an up-and-comer so you may not have heard the name.’

‘I know him,’ Marika says. ‘He was shooting backstage at Miranda’s show.’

I blink at her, surprised. If she’s talking about the messy-haired guy who was taking pictures of us then he’s pretty young to be helming such a huge campaign. He didn’t look that much older than us – mid-twenties, maybe?

‘That’s him!’ Imogene enthuses. ‘What Julian does … it’s super-organic. Vibrant, but gritty.’

‘Sounds cool.’ I smile.

‘Very.’ She beams back. ‘This campaign marks a step in a newer, younger direction. And he wants to shoot the two of you beforehand.’

‘Together?’

‘Individually. To get a sense of how you work independent of each other.’

‘But it’s not a casting, right?’ Marika interjects.

‘No.’ Imogene laughs. ‘You’ve booked the job, but there is one more thing.’

Imogene looks to me, then, leaning forward.

‘Audrey – they love your look almost as much as I do. The brows, the freckles – it’s so fresh. The onlyslightissue is your hair.’

I force a smile, bracing myself. I’ve seen enough reruns ofAmerica’s Next Top Modelto know what’s coming next.

‘The brown is gorgeous, obviously, but they want to amplify the contrast between your hair and Marika’s,’ she continues. ‘So – totally your choice, of course, but how would you feel about going blonde?’

Blonde. I falter, trying and failing to imagine what that would look like.

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