Day 1

× New York City, NY ×

"Sorry if I smell like a hospital hallway. Got off my shift and went straight here."

"I don't mind at all." Jessi finished applying some highlighter on Kel, the soft-spoken model sitting in front of her. She gave the model a smile to convince her that she didn't mind how Kel's dark hair and pale face smelled of rubbing alcohol. Both of the model's hands also smelled of hand sanitizer and some cleaning product. "At least you smell clean."

"Been sleeping in the quarters for about a month now. Training requirements," Kel muttered as Jessi worked on her dark brown eyebrows now. Kel's dark lashes and rather thick brows were such contrast to her pale green eyes. They looked beautiful and striking at first glance. "That place reeks of bleach most of the day."

"Quarters?" Jessi repeated in a mumble while flicking a smaller makeup brush. She would be using it for the model's eye shadow.

"Doctors' quarters," Kel replied. She closed her eyes and tilted her head a little to give Jessi better access.

"You work in a hospital?"

"Still interning, but, yeah."

"Wow. I didn't think you were older than me," Jessi commented with another smile.

"Almost 28 now." Kel grinned for a second. "How old are you again? You're so pretty, by the way. Ever tried modeling?"

"Thank you." Jessi giggled at the compliment and started applying eye shadow on the model's other eyelid. "25 soon. Little too old and short to be a model but, yeah. Just some small print jobs back home. Some makeup gigs."

"You definitely have the face for catalogue and runway. Commercials, too." Kel eyed her and sat still in the chair.

They were still alone in the dressing room. The other models were being photographed now. Jessi could hear the photographer somewhat yelling instructions and counting off every half-minute or so. "Thank you. Runway's just not for me but I did some catalogue work last year."

"I wish designers today would opt for older models and girls under five-foot-six. For a change." Kel tutted. "You definitely have the symmetrical doll-face look for makeup, though."

"Really? I always thought my mouth was crooked. But thanks." Jessi smiled at the compliment and put some concealer on the model's eye bags.

Kel had slightly wrinkled and dark eye circles but Jessi didn't expect the model was old enough to be a doctor. Well, medical intern for now, as she had explained. "Yeah. Your look's great. Like a Middle Eastern-Southeast Asian mix."

"Thanks. I actually am part Asian. Mom's side." Jessi picked up another makeup brush. "So...you're in residency training and doing modeling on the side?"

"Before I got back into med school, I did this full-time," Kel muttered. "In Italy. Needed to save up a lot for tuition."

"Oh, Italy. Wow. Sounds nice."

"Yeah. I miss living there," Kel murmured with a faint smile that drew small lines beside her pale lips. The semi-matte lipstick looked almost the same shade as her smooth ivory skin, but a few tinges pinker. "I miss Miles."

"Your boyfriend?" Jessi asked. "Is he in Italy?"

"No. My best friend who lives there. Lived with him for a while, when I was modeling full-time."

"Ah...for how many years?" Jessi checked Kel's brows and decided she needed more gel, even after she already threaded off some baby hairs above the model's lids.

Simple, fresh, but not too formal or bland. Daytime chic. The look for the day. Minimal color gradients. Mostly white outfits. It was what the shoot's creative director said during the early morning brief Jessi received the moment she got here.

The venue was a studio-type unit that looked more of an office now. The other half of the unit looked like a clinical laboratory, but the production set-up on that side was still ongoing.

After the scheduled hour-long photo shoot with the other models, Kel would be doing the commercial shoot. "Almost a year," Kel replied.

Although it wasn't the actual job Jessi had signed up for, she didn't complain when her boss said she had to do the retouches throughout the day and work the next morning, only if the commercial shoot didn't get done by today.

Kel had just arrived. She was a bit later than the other models but the creative director and photographer didn't mind. But Jessi knew she had to finish Kel's makeup fast so the photographer and models could finish the photo shoot before lunch, according to schedule.

At the moment, the photographer and the four other models were still doing some test shots. One looked no older than 18, and the rest of them didn't look older than 35.

Zach, her new boss and the key makeup artist who would be supervising her for a year or so, wanted her to do this "quick New York gig" before he would give her the details of her new job in LA.  Must be a quick test run.

Did Zach want to test her abilities on the job? To check if she could hold up with grace under pressure? Did he want to see if she would be a good enough full-time employee?

After some research last night, Jessi also found out that Zach's brother was co-owner of the production company. To show off her guts, she just said yes to Zach's request and packed up her stuff, booked a flight to New York, and showed up for the job here in New York.

Another big, unfamiliar city.  It was her first time in New York, but, she shouldn't let the nerves get to her. She should just do her best and be professional the entire day.  Best case scenario: the photographer or creative director would ask for her contact details at the end of the day because of a job well done.

"Just a favor for a good friend. Dunno if Enzo will make it but he said he'll try to drop by and watch the shoot since I can't be in New York first thing. He's the client. Italian businessman trying to market his biotech company. If you could please be early at the shoot, that'd be excellent," Zach said over the phone before midnight last night.

Since it was her official first day at work, Zach must be eager to test her abilities, resourcefulness and her adaptability, most importantly. He must be testing her whether she had what it takes, before he gave her a serious full-time job working for the production company. Be it in a TV series, a movie set, a news program, or something else.

So Jessi flew to New York on such short notice and went straight down to business. She had arrived here at the venue an hour early, in fact. She was sleep-deprived, her back was hurting—no thanks to the long flight—and her eyes were starting to feel heavy and sleepy because of the cold temperature. The large air-conditioning units had been running since dawn, she supposed.

But she shouldn't complain one bit. It took years of patience and hopelessly waiting on her part. She'd waited so long for this great job opportunity. Of course she wasn't gonna start acting like a diva, complaining of petty issues and whatnot. She had quite a lot at stake.

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