Chapter 9: Valentine’s Day is Overrated

Sunday February 14When I got up Sunday morning, both Pam and Kara were still asleep. I put on my running clothes and hit the streets. Adrienne lived only three blocks from Central Park. I had on one of my new hoodies and sunglasses, so I hoped no one would recognize me.

When I got to the park, I picked a running trail and began to lengthen my stride. It felt good to be able to just zone out and enjoy the morning. It was chilly, but not so cold that it was a distraction. I misjudged the trail I was on and ran further than I normally did. By the time I got back to Adrienne’s, everyone was already up, except Adrienne.

What I found surprised me.

“Did you see this?” Pam asked, holding up the newspaper.

I looked confused, so she shoved it at me, got up and went to our room.

I looked at it, and it was Page Six from the New York Post. I read the headline: ‘David A. Dawson Cheats on Baby Mama.’ There was a big picture of Pam and me at the airport. Then they had two pictures of me with other women—one with Tyler and other was Miranda. This was right next to articles about a starlet who used her high heels to beat off a stalker and a singer who fired his staff because they didn’t have the right food at his concert.

I went to our room and found Pam crying.

“Baby, it’s just a gossip rag. Did you even read the story?” I asked.

“I just want to go home.”

“I had a really nice day planned for us,” I tried.

“This isn’t me. I don’t want to be in the newspaper. Even if what they said isn’t true, some people will believe it. I don’t want to live in a fishbowl.”

“I can’t convince you to stay?” I asked, to try once more.

“No. I just want to go home.”

I sent a text to Kendal and she soon knocked on the bedroom door. I let her in and explained what Pam wanted. I suggested that she take Pam home. I would have Tyler with me at work tomorrow. I also wanted someone to be with Pam because I didn’t think she was in the mood to deal with airports and the hassle of having someone either pick her up or get a car so she could get home once she landed.

“What about you?” Kendal asked.

“Call a car service to pick me up in Chicago.”

I was confident that I would make enough this weekend to afford it. I went to the kitchen and found the lox and bagels. The bagels were a day old, so I toasted mine. Everyone left me alone as I took my food to the living room and sat in a chair that had a view of the city.

Kendal came back from the other condo with her bags. Pam walked out of the bedroom and came over and sat in my lap.

“I’m sorry...” she began.

“Shhh. I understand.”

“You hate me.”

“No. I still like you.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Pam, I only want to make you happy. If you need to go home, that’s what I want,” I said.

“I’m sorry.”

I kissed her forehead, and she got up and left. I guess Valentine’s Day was overrated.

“So, feel like working?” Tyler asked.

I just chuckled and shook my head. What the heck. Why not?

“Sure.”

She gave me a smile.

“Good. Go take a shower. We need to get on the road.”

Tyler had made some calls this morning and found that both Range Sports and Jade were willing to have me work on short notice. I was happy to see she’d lined up Jackie Chan to be the photographer. It wasn’t hard to understand when Jackie exited the bedroom with Adrienne. That explained why my host wasn’t up when I got back from my run.

We went to her building where a couple of her assistants were busy getting a studio set up. The makeup girl showed up right after Jackie had done a couple of test shots. They huddled, and Jackie told her what needed to be done. While the makeup girl started working on me, Jade’s wardrobe arrived along with Michael Reese, Jade’s VP of Marketing.

“There he is. I had to break into one of our stores to get clothes for you on such short notice,” he explained.

“It’s good to see you,” I said as I got out of my chair and shook his hand.

“I hear you’re having a baby,” he said.

He must have read Page Six.

“Yes, it’s a boy. I can hardly wait.”

“Are you planning to get married?” he asked.

“No. My parents have agreed to be my son’s guardians until I graduate college. Pam and I are too young to get married, and she’s too young to be raising a child. I owe my parents a lot for doing it. Of course Pam and I will be involved, but it’s nice to know we have the support we’ll need.”

“She’s a pretty girl. I wish we had a maternity line, because I would love to have her model,” Michael said.

“Pam’s not willing to be in the spotlight. She was actually upset she made the paper,” I admitted.

“So I see you hooked up with Tyler. Does her girlfriend know?”

That brought a smile to my face. I would bet that by tomorrow there would be a story about how Adrienne had caused Tyler to cheat with me. There was no use getting upset about the gossip pages. Frank would just be happy they spelled my name right.

Michael wanted me to model summer clothes for the website. During the first hour, someone came in with the new clothes that would be featured. Jade’s price point fell somewhere in between Hollister and A&F. They were also more creative in their prints than those two. They’d hired an artist to come up with graphics for t-shirts and shorts.

Jackie loved that I was willing to change on the set. It fit her frenetic style. Michael had several outfits laid out, and Jackie’s assistants would hurry out as I stripped down to my boxers and hand me my new clothes to put on. The assembly-line approach meant we could power through many more outfits than was normal.

Michael was also there to check photos. Tyler had worked enough with Adrienne that she had a good eye for detail. She actually rejected more photos than Michael did. The good news was that Jackie was great at what she did, and there were very few that they rejected.

When we were done with Jade, it was time for Range Sports. I said goodbye to Michael, and Jackie came back to talk to me.

“I just talked to Abercrombie & Fitch. They loved your work. They want to do some additional photos. Do you have plans for tonight?”

“I have reservations for a carriage ride in Central Park, then dinner reservations at The Loeb Boathouse Central Park. Adrienne has made a call to get me into One Step Beyond for after dinner.”

I’d planned to do all this with Pam, but she went home. Kara had plans to go out with friends, since she didn’t want to be a third wheel. I just decided to go by myself and make the best of it. One Step Beyond was a nightclub I was too young to get into, but Adrienne planned to be there and added me to her guest list. She used her magical powers to make it happen, or so she said.

“Do you have a date?” Jackie asked.

“Why, you want to be my date?”

“No. I thought if you’re going alone, we could take candid shots.”

“I’m okay with that. Talk to Tyler about the details,” I said, and went back to getting ready for the Range Sports portion of the day.

We only had one issue with Range Sports: they’d sent over baseball and football jerseys. I called Caryn, and she talked to Mr. Morris who advised not to do anything for now that would raise any red flags. He said he felt I could wear it, but until they gave me the all-clear on my amateurism, I’d better not.

I loved Tyler. She ordered pizza for lunch. It was the New York-style pizza, which has a thin crust. The big slices you folded in half to eat. The only problem was I had grease dripping off my hands. Mmmm, good stuff. I was sure it was good for you, too. Doesn’t it have all the food groups?

When we were done with the Range Sports shoot, Jackie had me shower and change into A&F clothes. Tyler said she trusted me to be good and would see me at the dance club. She had a date with Adrienne tonight. It was late afternoon, so we needed to get a move on if I was to catch my horse-drawn carriage ride. Tyler had left us the car and driver who was my security tonight. He drove Jackie, one of her assistants and me to Central Park.

When I got out of the car, I saw I had a surprise: Miranda Kesh was waiting on me.

“Wait in the car,” Jackie said as she and her assistant piled out.

They hurried over and talked to Miranda, and she came and got into the car with me.

“I hear you didn’t have a date tonight so you thought you’d lure me into your car with the offer of a job,” Miranda said.

“Normally, I just offer candy to little girls like you,” I replied, and then wondered why she was in the car with me. “Why aren’t we outside?”

“Jackie needs to set up and then she wants it to look like we’re on a date. She said you planned this for someone.”

“Yeah, but she had to go home,” I deflected.

“Sorry about that. Is she your girlfriend?”

Someone was fishing for information.

“No, I actually don’t have a girlfriend. Do you have a boyfriend?” I asked, as two could play this game.

“No. Last one thought he could do better.”

My mouth fell open.

“I dated Justin Bieber for like two minutes,” she shared.

That was even worse. I scooted back from her.

“I didn’t catch anything,” she whined.

“You mean you didn’t get ‘Bieber Fever’?” I asked.

“You have to be under twelve to get that, dumbass.”

“The correct phrase is ‘stupid boy.’”

“What is?”

“My friends say that I’m a ‘stupid boy’ when I make dumb remarks,” I said helpfully.

“Oh. Do they say that a lot?”

“No,” I moaned.

“I bet they do,” she teased. “Look, we’re supposed to get out.”

She reached for the door.

“Hold on. I need to get out first,” I said.

She gave me ‘the look.’

“Don’t get your panties in a twist. A gentleman gets out first for two reasons. The first is to assist his lady as she exits the car. The second is to block the paparazzi from seeing whether she has any panties on if she’s wearing a skirt.”

“Well, then, by all means,” she said, putting on her best haughty airs.

I got out and ran around to open her door. In a limo, there’s room for the man to get out first. In an SUV, I would have had to climb over her. I made a big show of assisting her out. Jackie caught it all, as did several paparazzi that had been tipped off. My security guy made sure we didn’t have to deal with the paparazzi in our faces. I helped Miranda into the carriage.

Jackie waited until we were situated, and then she joined us to arrange how she wanted us to sit and to place the blanket across our laps. Who knew that A&F sold blankets? Of course, it had a red, tan and charcoal tartan design.

“Just act like I’m not here,” Jackie instructed.

Yeah, right.

“So, tell me more about your ‘Bieber Fever.’”

“Is this all we’re going to talk about?”

“No, but I am interested in how he could get a Victoria’s Secret model to date him.”

“His people called mine and set up a date.”

“And that worked?” I asked, as my forehead scrunched up.

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“I’ve done everything in my power to get Kate Upton to go to Prom with me. I even got her a job in a movie I’m in. She went and got engaged instead.”

“You got me a job,” Miranda said.

“Will you go to Prom with me?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yes, I’ll go to Prom with you. I never got to go to my own. I went full-time into modeling when I was sixteen,” Miranda explained.

“We’ll talk about that later. I want to hear about you and the Biebs.”

She rolled her eyes at me.

“Are you seriously going to have me talk about another guy when you have me on a romantic carriage ride?”

I looked at Jackie and she smirked at me. Miranda had me there.

“I, uh, well,” I stammered.

She leaned over and kissed me. For a faux date, this was going well. I couldn’t care less about what’s-his-name.

The Loeb Boathouse Central Park sits on The Lake. As we rode up, it was starting to get dark, and they had the place lit up with thousands of white Christmas lights. The building sparkled and the light reflected off the frozen lake, making it look like something out of a storybook. They had a special Valentine’s event that Adrienne somehow got me an invitation to attend. I thought about how much Pam would have liked this.

I was a little peeved that she’d wanted to go home. It reminded me too much of Tracy and her reaction to the headline that said were dating. I had to remind myself that while she was going to be the mother of my child, she wasn’t my girlfriend. If she didn’t want to be in the news, I had to respect that. It clarified for me that whomever I did end up with would need to be able to handle the press. I didn’t see any way they could avoid it, at this point.

“You went away for a moment,” Miranda said.

I gave her a half smile. I needed to remember that I was with her, even though it was a job. I could tell that there was an attraction between us. What I didn’t know was whether she just doing a good job modeling or whether it was for real. I gave a little chuckle when I remembered my argument with Teddy Wesleyan. I’d accused him of not giving people the benefit of the doubt. Boy, I hoped I never turned into him.

“What’s so funny?”

“I found that I forgot that this wasn’t really a date,” I said, and nodded towards Jackie who had just taken our picture.

“Why don’t we make it as real as we can under the circumstances?” Miranda suggested.

“Let’s,” I agreed.

“You really did plan a nice date. I would never have thought of the Boat House. They’re normally only open for breakfast and lunch.”

“I can’t take credit. Tyler or Adrienne thought of it. It is pretty,” I said.

The setting on the edge of the lake made you forget that you were in the middle of New York. The city really did have some special spots. I would bet that being young and single would be fun here. They seated us in the middle by the window. Someone had told them that we were on a photo shoot, and they wanted the restaurant to get the best possible exposure. It looked like it would be a great summertime place to eat. They had a big outdoor patio where people could dine and watch the rowboats. They actually were open only eight months of the year.

They had a special menu for tonight. I decided on the crab cakes for an appetizer. Miranda had the scallops. We acted like we were longtime lovers out on our special date. I did stop Jackie at one point to make sure that my security and her assistant would get something to eat. She assured me that they’d been taken care of. I guess they were in the bar where my security guy at least could see us.

For the entrée, we both had the lamb chops. It wasn’t something I normally had, but I enjoyed them. For dessert, we had something that was chocolate, on chocolate, on chocolate, made for two. Jackie loved it when we began to feed each other. It was fun, and Miranda was playful and sexy. I found as the night went on that I was beginning to really like her.

One Step Beyond was at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. There was a line to get in, but Adrienne had told me to go to the bouncer and tell them I was with her. A few of the people in line had their phones out; they were taking pictures of and Miranda and me. I guess if you roll up in a big black SUV, have a driver and your own photographer, people might notice.

“We’re with Adrienne,” I said.

“Adrienne who?” he asked.

I just blinked at the guy. In what universe did he NOT know who Adrienne was?

“She’s the supermodel, Dick Chew,” my driver said.

“The fuck you said?” the bouncer retorted.

I took a closer look at the bouncer and, like my security guy, he might have played for the New York Giants. I reached out and pulled Jackie and Miranda behind me. If this got ugly, I wanted room to move.

“You heard me!”

They were now nose-to-nose. People in line began to step back. Then the two assholes broke into big grins and hugged each other.

“I think your boy was ready to throw down,” the bouncer said.

“I really didn’t want to hurt you,” I said.

“Well, thank you for being so considerate. Let me get Rachel, and she’ll take you to your table.”

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly to help calm myself. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body. I put my arm around Miranda’s waist and we followed Rachel to Adrienne’s table. I smiled when I saw an overconfident man sitting next to Adrienne, making a play. Behind them was her security, and he didn’t seem concerned, so I just ignored the man hitting on her.

“What would you like to drink?” Rachel asked.

I needed a beer. Miranda took my lead and ordered herself one. Jackie and her assistant were taking reference shots of the club. They had a DJ and the music was loud. The dance floor was about half full, but I would bet it would be packed soon.

“Want to dance?” I asked.

Miranda just nodded. It turned out she was a terrible dancer. Maybe this was why the Biebs dumped her. Tracy told me once that you could tell if a guy was good in bed by how well he danced. She said that if a man had no rhythm on the dance floor, he had none in bed. I wondered if that held true for girls.

The next song was slow, so I pulled her into my arms to guide her. We were on the dance floor for about a half hour when Jackie pulled us off.

“Thanks. I got what I needed. You two were great, and I’d love to work with you again. If you ever need a photographer, I would hope you’d call,” she said, ending in a sales pitch.

“Where’re you headed?” Miranda asked.

Jackie told her.

“Care to share a cab?”

“Sure. Let me say goodbye to Adrienne and Tyler and I’ll meet you out front,” Jackie said.

Miranda went and got her coat and didn’t even bother to say goodbye.

“Look, Rina, a cute goy boy,” I heard behind me from a girl with a thick New York accent.

Was that New York’s version of boy toy? I turned to find two sisters or cousins checking me out.

“Do you dance?” one of them asked.

I grabbed her hand and led her onto the dance floor. It was more crowded than before, and the music took a more techno turn. Most everyone was just bouncing around. It was more of a mosh pit than anything else. I had fun until the girl I was with was groped. Cassidy had taught me about pressure points. I grabbed the man and he was soon on his knees, begging her forgiveness. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to their table.

She was breathing hard from all the hopping around, and her sister/cousin gave her a look.

“You wanna get out of here?” my dance partner asked me.

“Oy vey iz mir. You can’t shlep home some goy from the club. What would papa say?”

“Feh! It’s not like I plan to marry him, Rina.”

I held up my hand to stop them.

“Hey, I need to get back to my friends. Thanks for the dance,” I said as I turned to go back to our table.

I just shook my head when they began to argue with each other in earnest.

I noticed my driver/security guard had been watching me.

“I think you dodged one there,” he offered.

“I think you’re right. It looked like too much drama for tonight.”

Adrienne and Tyler were dancing, and I looked around. This was getting to be a bit much.

“You want to take me home?” I asked.

“Sure. Let me tell someone we’re leaving,” he said, and he went off to find Adrienne’s security.

When he returned, he drove me to her condo.

When I got back, I found a note from Kara telling me to come down to the models’ condo when I returned. I wanted to be comfortable, so I rooted through my bags and found a pair of Hollister sweats and an A&F polo shirt. I went downstairs to where Kara lived, and knocked. I heard some movement and then everything was quiet. I heard a muffled “It’s open” called out.

I opened the door and found soft music playing and the room lit by candlelight. A small smile lit up my face as I looked around for Kara. I was shocked when I saw Miranda in a sexy purple floral-lace babydoll, which I remembered her wearing in her most recent Victoria’s Secret photo shoot.

“You look surprised,” she said with a coy smile, and then did a little turn. “You like?”

I nodded numbly. I was confused.

“I thought when you left...”

“Come sit on the couch and let me explain,” she said as she sat down and patted the seat next to her.

I sat next to her, and she took my hand with her two and held it on her lap as she told me her story.

“I was discovered in a mall in Dallas. A young man approached me and told me I should be a model. I was with my girlfriends and they all warned me it was just a pickup line. He assured me it was true and gave me his business card. My mom and dad checked it out, and the company he represented was legitimate, to a point. They charged you to have your headshots done, and then they would send your model card to different agencies. Only a small percentage ever really did even a single job.

“I was their big success story. I’d developed early, and looked the same at fifteen as I do now. My now manager saw my pictures and sent them to Victoria’s Secret. They were on the hunt for new talent. They wanted to see me, so she approached my parents and they signed a three-year developmental contract,” she explained.

She saw my look of disbelief.

“I know. My parents and I were naïve. She told us that she would have to spend a lot of money up front to get me the exposure and training I needed. That was why she would only charge me fifty percent of my earnings.”

I about fell off the couch when I heard that.

“It gets better. I have to pay for my own travel expenses if the client doesn’t pick them up.”

“You need to get out of that deal. You’re getting screwed,” I said.

“We’ve tried, but we signed a contract.”

“I would bet Tyler could do it, or at least that she knows someone who could get you out of it,” I suggested.

“It doesn’t matter now. It expires in six weeks and I’ve been advised to just wait it out for now.”

“So why all the cloak-and-dagger? Why did you leave suddenly at the club?” I asked.

“My manager has been selling information about me to the tabloids. I discovered that Justin Bieber didn’t contact my people, she contacted his. I was excited that a celebrity would want to go on a date with me. I found out he thought it was a booty call. He wasn’t about to turn down a Victoria’s Secret model. Once we figured out we’d been set up, he was nice about it. He took me on a couple of dates, but he still tried to get me into his bed,” she admitted.

“And he succeeded,” I said.

“Yeah,” she admitted.

“You really did catch ‘Bieber Fever’,” I teased.

“Let’s just say I got a life lesson and have no wish to repeat it anytime soon.”

“So, what happened tonight?” I asked.

“I’ve come to the realization that my manager is only looking out for herself, and everything I do will end up somewhere on the Internet. Tyler told me how upset the girl you planned our date for was about the press she received, and I felt horrible for the role I played in it. The thing is, I like you, and I didn’t want to feed them any more info that might hurt you.”

“Let me think ... David A. Dawson seen out on the town with a Victoria’s Secret model. You’re right! That would destroy me in the eyes of the press and my fans,” I said in mock horror.

“‘Stupid boy,’ I was worried about your girlfriend.”

“First of all, Pam and I are good friends. She’s having my baby and will be in my life from now on, but she’s not my girlfriend. She doesn’t want to be in the press herself. I, on the other hand, can’t avoid it, so I would rather it be about something true than made-up stuff.”

“Kara explained that to me, but I guess I didn’t understand,” Miranda said.

“I expected to see Kara here. How do you know her?” I asked.

“We’ve modeled together. I think she secretly loves you, but I begged her to set this up.”

“What is ‘this’?” I asked.

“You really are a ‘stupid boy’ if you can’t figure that out.”

She was right. I pulled her into my arms and gave her a tender kiss.

“I want to do this right,” she said, and led me to Kara’s bedroom.

I looked around, and all the candles reminded me of my attempt at setting a romantic stage for Tami and me. That didn’t work out very well. Maybe Pam had been right when she tried to get me to forget about the bad memories at the lake and how I associated it with Jeff. I needed to replace the memory of Tami and insert a new one with Miranda.

“I think someone has too many clothes on,” Miranda said.

I smiled as I got undressed. Her eyes were glued on my Calvin Klein boxers. When my semierect penis was exposed, her eyes got big.

“I didn’t know they got that big,” she admitted.

I could tell she meant it. Some girls will throw out a dick comment like that to stroke your ego, but she was too fascinated with Mr. Happy for it to be otherwise. I jumped on the bed and laid back. Miranda joined me. She grasped my member and gave him a squeeze. Mr. Happy did his imitation of The Hulk as he thickened and got longer. Well, he didn’t turn green.

Miranda was fascinated with my dick. Her eyes never left it as she gave it another squeeze.

“Stroke it,” I encouraged.

She looked up at me and then back at my dick. She tentatively began to run her hand up and down the length of my shaft.

“Like this,” I said, as I put my hand over hers to show her how to do it.

I had the impression that she wasn’t very experienced. She smiled when I moaned.

“Is it okay if I get a closer look?”

“I was hoping you would get much closer. Please,” I said.

She laid her head on my stomach so she could get a closeup view. She continued to slowly jack me off, which caused pre-cum to begin to leak out of the slit of my cock.

“Did you cum?” she asked.

“No, that’s a guy’s lubricant. Just like when you get wet,” I said.

She got some between her fingers and rubbed them together. She looked at her fingers and then sniffed them.

“Give it a taste,” I suggested.

She stuck her tongue out and the tip touched her finger.

“It really doesn’t taste like anything.”

“I’ve been told it tastes better from the source,” I said with a grin.

Miranda thought about it for a moment.

“I’ve never actually done this before,” she confessed.

I went into coaching mode. I first gave her an anatomy lesson and pointed out the sensitive parts. I then told her the best ways to find out what your man liked. I repeated a lot of the things I learned at the sorority house with Harper.

We then jumped to the practical portion of the training. Miranda timidly began to suck my dick. I stopped her.

“Why don’t you get on your knees between my thighs. I like a little firmer and varied approach,” I suggested.

I taught her how to use one hand to jack my length as she sucked on the upper third of my cock. I also had her use her other hand to fondle my balls and use her fingernails on my taint. She was a quick learner, because I was soon shooting my load into her mouth.

She looked startled and unsure what to do with a mouth full of cum. I smiled when she finally decided to just swallow it. It made cleanup so much easier.

She surprised me when she went back to sucking my cock. I’d lost some of my firmness, but she soon had me rock-hard again. I could tell she wanted more time doing this, but I wanted to give her some pleasure also. I directed her to get into a 69 position. I’d guessed right; she didn’t have on any panties.

While she played with her new favorite toy, I dove in and began to feast on her tight little snatch. She had a fat little pussy that cried out that it needed to be eaten. It was her turn to moan in appreciation.

As I pleasured her, I noticed that she was taking more and more of my length into her mouth. When she came, she did something unexpected: she shoved her face down and took my dick in her throat. I almost came from the feel of her, crying out in desire. I loved how she had taken to sucking cock.

Her cock worship put a kinky idea in my head. I admit that I watch some porn. I’d seen a man do this and had never had anyone I thought might do it.

“Want to try a different way to suck my cock?” I asked Miranda.

“I think I’m a slut. I never knew I would even like to do that, let alone how much I’d like it,” she said, and then nodded her assent.