Chapter 12

"There really is a connection you know," Sofia said over breakfast. She was eating light as usual, having a croissant and coffee, but I was enjoying a local fruit salad which was quite good.

"What's that?" I gave her questioning look as I stabbed a piece of red papaya.

I felt well-rested after some six hours of sleep, which was still not enough for me probably, but some shoots were like that. Especially the marathon location shoots like the SI Swimsuit. It was much harder work than most people would ever appreciate.

"A connection between you and Paul," Sofia cleared her throat, glancing to her left as she tugged up on her top, a low cut t-shirt really, as if to cover what little cleavage the girl had. She talked about getting implants, but I always talked her out of it. Her smallish tits were perfect.

"I know that," I said with a smile, following her gaze to see Perry, one of Maggie's assistants, entering the restaurant. "Wrong way girlfriend," I giggled. "Pull it down. Give him something to think about."

"Shhh..." Sofia made a face and turned away from the guy to look once more at me. "No. I mean, the reason I found you was because of him. There's a connection between all three of us."

"I thought you said Paul snuck out on you?" I said, chewing slowly around a bit of pineapple.

"He didn't sneak out," she rolled her eyes theatrically. "He just wasn't there when I woke up."

"I dunno. Where I come from..."

"That's not the point anyway," Sofia ignored my grin and sing-song tone. "And I don't mean an obvious connection, more like a cause and effect thing."

"Cause and effect?" I giggled and Sofia bit her bottom lip, flashing her green eyes at me.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" I asked innocently.

"Laugh at me," Sofia said. "I'm trying to explain what happened."

"I know what happened," I told her. "I was there, remember?"

"I mean before I met you," she sighed. "I never would have been in Rome in the first place if it hadn't been for that Paul guy."

"Really?" I got a little more serious then, just as my friend already was.

She didn't think any of it was funny, and why would she? This was her life and Sofia had just found out that it wasn't as random as she thought. Unlike my experience with Paul, the girl was just now learning that someone else held a measure of control over who she was. It was probably a little frightening for her.

"Yeah," Sofia said, pulling her golden blonde hair back as a little breeze went through the open air restaurant.

"Did he send you plane tickets or..."

"No!" Sofia frowned as she thought I was still teasing her. "After that night I just realized he'd been right. It really was like I'd been asleep. I hadn't done anything, you know?"

"You were going to college," I shrugged. "What do you expect?"

"It was more than that. I was boring. I hadn't dated anyone. I hadn't gone anywhere," Sofia said with a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I was completely uninteresting and even worse than that..."

"What?"

"All of my dreams were boring too. God!" she snorted. "I woke up and I dreaded going outside. I didn't want my old life."

"He turned you into a slut, didn't he?" I said with a giggle and then lost it quickly to the girl's emerald glare. "Sorry."

"I decided I wanted to do something interesting," Sofia said. "I wanted to meet interesting people and travel and have fun. I wanted..."

"This?" I stuck my tongue out at her and Sofia laughed finally, nodding her head and looking around with a happy sigh.

"Exactly," she told me. "This is exactly what I always wanted."

"And you never knew it," I agreed, surprised to realize that I was feeling much the same way.

"And I never knew it," Sofia said. "If it hadn't been for Paul ... I never would have found you, Cindy."

I had no way of knowing whether or not that was completely true, but Sofia believed it. She'd come to Rome looking for me, looking for a job after reading about me in Elle magazine. I'd been complaining about how disorganized I was, kind of making fun of myself the way people do, but Sofia had read it like a help wanted ad in a newspaper. A young and beautiful, up-and-coming fashion model was looking for an able assistant. No experience necessary. Must be willing to travel to exotic places, meet famous people, and make a lot of money. Two weeks later she had the job and we'd never looked back.