Page 148 of Plus Size Player

“Because if they get away with this, it sets a precedent,” Jacqueline explained. “If they can get rid of Nina like this, they can get rid of any one of us next.”

“We’ve shot all of the promo footage so no matter what, our pictures are the ones that’ll be in stores and on the website and social media.” Jonah folded his arms over his chest. “Our contracts protect us.”

“They don’t protect us,” Taisha countered. “But they do agree to pay us out and—”

Jacqueline put her hands to her face. “After the way they were raving about Nina, if they can do it to her, who is next?”

The door to the showroom flew open. The sound of Angelica’s heels clicked as she approached. “Why are you standing around?”she asked in a sharp tone. Then she pointed to the table with paperwork on it. “Let’s get started.”

The conversation stopped immediately, and we silently rushed over to the worktable. The lead stylist broke down what we were taking with us to wear on our visits to the stores in Atlanta. She took us one by one to the racks and gave us our wardrobe. While I was with her, I heard the others speculating about my time with RLF and being upset on my behalf. After putting the outfits in garment bags, we were sent to the conference room to meet with Lori and Remedy. It was the first time I’d seen them since the last photoshoot, and so much had changed since that day.

“A lot has changed since we were last here,” Remedy started, reading my mind. “You were popular content creators and now you are models for the next ‘it’ brand.” She smiled as Lori held up a large posterboard. “You are officially commercial models!”

Seeing the image, I gasped.

It was beautiful.

Wearing white tops and jeans, the five of us looked incredible. The poses, the background, the editing, the clothes—all of it worked. We all started talking at once.

“Oh my God!”

“This is great!”

“Wow!”

“Love it!”

“Holy shit!”

Our praise for what we were seeing seemed to shake off the uneasiness that clouded our meeting since my arrival.

“You’ll have a busy couple of days in Atlanta,” Lori pointed out. “The images in this series will be in the stores that you’re going to. Your itinerary has been emailed to you. You’ll all be staying in the same hotel, and you’ll be taking the same flight. We have a large market in Atlanta so even though you’ll be traveling together and staying in the same hotel, you will be in different stores.”

Remedy looked around the conference table at each of us. “You will be representing RLF so please review your contract and theterms and conditions of the role. Please reread the code of conduct and fraternization policies”—her eyes lingered on me for a moment too long—“so we are moving into these new heights with no incidents or issues. We are investing a lot of money into the runway show, so we want to feed off the Fashion Week buzz with these appearances. You’ll be in Atlanta first and then New York, Miami, Los Angeles. You…” She grabbed her phone and looked at it for a second before excusing herself from the room.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the call was from her brother.

“You’ll be in New York doing appearances around the city ahead of the runway show,” Lori stated, picking up where Remedy left off. “The show will be on Monday, so you’ll be able to watch it online. Any questions?” Lori looked around inquisitively.

I shook my head. Someone else murmured a “no” but most of us remained silent.

“You have early flights in the morning, and we still need your content posted on social media, so we’ll conclude this meeting if there are no questions,” she continued.

We exchanged goodbyes and as soon as we were at the elevator and out of earshot, we started talking again.

“They didn’t even mention the new model,” Taisha pointed out. “What is going on?”

“Do they think sending us an email with the information is sufficient?” Jacqueline questioned. “Because I think we all deserve an explanation!”

“How are you, Nina?” Jonah asked, rubbing my shoulder.

I opened my mouth to respond but was interrupted.

“Nina, can I speak with you?” Remedy’s voice cut through our conversation.

Jonah’s hand instantly fell from my shoulder, and we all whipped around to face her. The five of us froze, unsure of how much she’d heard. The elevator dinged, highlighting the silence we stood in.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told the other models as they rushed into the elevator. Walking toward the woman with the serious expression on her face, I braced myself. “Hey, Remedy.”

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