Nicholas's Story
Copyright© 2025 by writer 406
Chapter 19
The three models had seen most everything New York had to offer. Fashion industry veterans, despite their youth, they’d encountered every type of personality—aggressive photographers, temperamental designers, predatory executives, celebrity hangers-on, wealthy suitors. They navigated these personalities daily, deploying an arsenal of practiced responses: professional detachment, strategic flirtation, icy dismissal, or calculated charm, depending on what the situation required.
Nicholas Carter fitted none of their familiar categories.
When they first approached his table, they’d assessed him in the quick, practiced way that had become second nature in their profession. Physically imposing but not threatening. Attractive in an unconventional way, with those striking gray eyes and the broken nose that gave his face character. Not expensively dressed, but clean and put-together. A safe harbor in a room full of potential complications.
What they hadn’t anticipated was how their standard social playbook would falter in the face of his calm, relaxed presence. The quality of confidence he possessed unnerved them.
Maya noticed it first. During a brief lull in Sonja and Valentina’s rapid-fire conversation, she watched how he listened—completely present, without the restless energy of someone waiting for their turn to speak.
When she discovered he was the author of a book, she’d genuinely appreciated during her lonely international flight, her curiosity deepened. Here was a fascinating puzzle—this physically powerful man with his direct gaze and economical speech had written something thoughtful and nuanced.
“Are you really a handyman?” Sonja had asked.
“Yes,” Nicholas replied, without elaboration, neither apologetic about it nor romantically elevating it.
Sonja exchanged a quick glance with Valentina, their eyebrows raised slightly. They were more accustomed to men who oversold themselves.
His straightforward answer left them momentarily off-balance.
“And now you’ve written this ... philosophical book?” Valentina pursued, her accent making the question sound more pointed than she intended.
“Yes.”
Again, no expansion, no yarn about his creative process or his journey to becoming an author. Just confirmation of a fact.
When he did speak, his questions were different, too. He didn’t ask about celebrities they’d met or whether modeling was as glamorous as it seemed—the standard questions they fielded from outsiders. Instead, he asked about how modeling had changed their life plans, a question that cut straight to something meaningful.
He doesn’t do small talk, Maya thought. She found herself answering more honestly than she normally would with a man. Something about his direct, unadorned manner made typical social defenses seem unnecessary.
As the dinner progressed, all three women found themselves increasingly intrigued by their unexpected dining companion.
Sonja, always the most socially strategic of the three, quickly abandoned her usual carefully calibrated charm. Her standard techniques, the perfectly timed laugh, the flattering questions, the strategic touch on the arm—seemed not just unnecessary but almost inappropriate with Nicholas. He wasn’t playing the usual social game, so her counter-moves felt oddly out of place.
“He’s not playing at all, is he?” she whispered to Valentina, when Nicholas was speaking with Maya. “It’s relaxing.”
Valentina, who approached most interactions with an athlete’s competitive edge, found herself similarly disarmed. Her usual hyperawareness of social hierarchies and power dynamics seemed irrelevant. Nicholas displayed neither the insecurity that needed managing nor the ego that required handling. He simply engaged with who was speaking.
“You know what’s weird?” she said later to the others. “I don’t think he even noticed how beautiful we are. Not because he’s not interested in women or something, but because he was looking at ... I don’t know ... us.”
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