Chapter 30

Sean walked into the conference room of his company and everyone sitting down stood up to welcome him, "good morning all," he said, dragging out his seat and sitting down.
Everyone made themselves comfortable and a man with mixed black and white hair spoke up, "Mr. Brand, as you know, the reason of the this meeting is because we need to change the face of Brand, as a highly respected company, we have neglected that for seven months now and we have heard the models complaining about it. That s why we have called this meeting to handle the situation as soon as possible."
"That is true, Mr. Brand," a younger man in his middle thirties said, "we have also decided that we can t make Esperanza the face of Brand again. Before you question us, sir, here is our reason, Esperanza has been the face of Brand for three consecutive years now, from the moment she won the best international model, she was literally the only model chosen for everything. We are not saying that we don t appreciate her hard work, her success is our success but think about it, we have many models here, young aspiring models who would love to reach to the peak of their stars and it s unfair to them if they approach us to help them with that yet we focus on advertising only one model."
"Yes, that and another reason, recently she has been made Face of Fashionista, Brand has always been unique and we never love clashing with people, we can t have the same face as Fashionista, that is not acceptable, so that ruin any chance of Esperanza being our face again." Another director put in.
Sean was busy going through the pictures on his phone, just yesterday he had asked TB to take Athena with him and his models to the photo shoot they were going for and Athena had opted to take a few photos there which he wasn t aware off and TB had just sent him her pictures and he couldn t resist watching them. It has been two months since Athena had been staying with them and when she would be in the midst of the models, it would be hard to tell her apart. TB has done a great job with her skin, her color was brighter and her skin glows. It was impossible for TB to not ask her to join when he would be taking the models to a spa or allow her to reject the skin cares he bought for her.
Sean had known from instant that she was beautiful but not as beautiful as she was evolving to be, even he on the other hand had battled with himself a lot of times in telling her to become a model. He feels like she deserves to make a name for herself and since she was already in their hands, why not make her the next international model? Yes, she is still lacking in a few places but that is something he can handle with his eyes closed, the problem was suggesting it to her. He can remember how she had told him blatantly the first time that she doesn t want to become a model and he doesn t want to force her either.
"Mr. Brand, what do you think?" The first director that spoke called his attention and he switched off his phone s screen light, blanking out the beautiful picture of Athena in white long gown with a high split to her thigh, surrounded by white roses, making her align with their beauty and purity.
Sean blinked continuously to clear the image from his mind; he raised an eyebrow to the director who called to him, silently asking him why he called.
The man sighed, "Sir, we are asking about your take on the current situation."
"Oh," Sean licked his lips, he hadn t been paying attention on what they were saying and he was trying to remember. TB had sent him the pictures when he was in his car and he had opened the message in the meeting so he hadn t been following, "what could that be exactly?" He finally asked with a straight face, no one dares to question why he was absent.
"Sir, we have been saying that we can t make Esperanza face of Brand this time, she had occupied the position for three years now and also, she had been recently made Face of Fashionista."
"I know, I gave her that role," Sean nodded, "so what do you want to do then?"
"We are thinking about using one of the aspiring models, Tatiana looks great for the position, her skin is flawless and her face her greatest asset, she portrays the combination of all the models, but if you don t want her, sir, we have other models, here are the few models we picked out," he handed Sean different photos of women.
Sean took the photos and went through them, some of the faces were new to him, ever since he handed the job of taking care of the models to TB, he hardly knows his models except the one s he had trained himself which are in the same range with Esperanza, they are the seniors while the new ones look up to them. Glancing through the photos, an idea struck him and he picked up his phone and turned on the screen, using his thumbprint to unlock the phone, the picture of Athena in white and white roses background came up on the screen. He watched the picture, her face was like that of an angel, her hair flowing like in the sea, her skin bright and smooth, he bit his lower lip and turned off the phone light, looking up at his directors, he said, "don t worry, make arrangements for the shoot, I have the perfect woman for the job," he stood up before any of the directors can speak and left the room. Leaving the directors shocked and dumbfounded.
As he walked to his office, he saw a group of models entering the floor and one of them he recognized as Gloria, one of his first models, he stopped and smiled to her.
Seeing him, the brown skinned beautiful lady smiled and walked up to him in a sexy catwalk, "Sean, long time no see."
"Gloria," he observed she was looking more beautiful by the day, her skin was flawless, the chocolate complexion complimented her ebony silky long hair. She had long face and honey brown eyes, which was one of the first things that are noticed when you look at her. She was famously known for her beautiful long legs and she never hesitates to show them off. She was dressed in a long white gown, the front was shorter, the length stopped at her thighs while the back was long enough to drag on the floor. Her legs were visibly seen as she walks, and she took slow sexy steps towards Sean. Standing beside him, it was visibly noticed that for a man as tall as Sean, she was almost on the same height with him, but that was because of her heels. Sean knows he was more than three inches taller and he takes pride in that. "I had thought Leo had stolen you away."
Gloria laughed, her laughter was with grace and her black gums highlighted her pearly white teeth, she really deserved the award of best black model, which she had been holding for a year now. "Leo can never steal me from you, if it wasn t for you, would Leo had known a girl like me existed?"
"Well, he does now," he looked behind her at the models who are waiting for her to be returned to them, "I can see you are busy, come see me in my office when you are done, I have a few things to discuss with you."
"Sure, I will be there," she smiled and walked back to her models and they went into the changing room while Sean walked on to the elevator.
***
"What will you be doing today?" TB asked Athena who was sitting in the living room and reading a book, "I need to run to the office, the photos are out."
Athena looked up at him with a smile, "are you indirectly asking me to come with you?"
"I am not indirectly asking, I don t do things indirectly," he rolled his eyes, "come on, there is nothing you are doing here anyway, we will come back with Sean."
At the mention of his name, Athena felt her heart missed a beat; she looked away from TB as a certain brunette with hazel eyes flashed in her mind, she shut her eyes immediately to clear his face and also to steady her heart, "I don t think so." Nowadays, she had noticed her strange feelings whenever Sean was around and she wasn t sure if she likes it so she often does anything she could to avoid him. Not that it was possible since he had been taking her on dance lessons, sometimes they danced too close to each other and her heart always turn into a drumming band and her skin turns hot when he was so closed and so she had decided, if it s not for her lessons, there was no need being close to him until she had gotten her emotion in check.
"Why not, I sent him your photos from yesterday; don t you want to hear his comment on them?" TB asked, picking an apple slice from her fruit plate.
"You did what?!" She asked, scaring TB so much that he dropped the slice.
"What the hell, At?" He glared at her while placing his hand on his chest to calm himself, "you know I have such a very soft heart, why do you have to give me such a scare?"
Realizing what she had done, Athena calmed down, "I m sorry, it s just that I never expected you to show them to him."
"Why not, I don t see anything wrong in showing them the pictures, you looked so beautiful in them and I wanted him to see how like a model you look. Really, you should consider being a model, there is nothing wrong with making a name for yourself."
Athena didn t hear the last things he said, her mind was preoccupied with what Sean would think of the pictures, she didn t want to join in the shoot but seeing how beautiful the models looked, she had just wanted to try out and at the end, TB made her snapped with all the dresses there. And she was even told to stay in some postures and just the thought that Sean would see them made her face turn crimson red, what would he be thinking as he watched them? She covered her face with her hands, how could TB do that to her?
"Hey, what s the matter with you? Why are you blushing and acting like someone has seen your nakedness?" TB asked casually.
Athena glared at him, "this is your fault, and yes, someone has seen my nakedness, you sent the pictures to Sean! How could you do that?"
"Hey, what did I do? I only sent a few pictures," he defended.
"That is what you did," Athena stood up and rushed him but TB saw her action earlier and ran towards the direction of the front door, as she ran after him, he opened the door and ran out, running towards his car. Athena stopped then and screamed at him, "I will kill you, Tobias, just know that."
"Hey, why did you just sound like Sean? This scene just gave me a déjà vu."
"I will déjà vu you when you get back, just have that in mind."
"So that means you won t be coming with me?"
"I want to go see a movie, I won t be coming with you, besides I m afraid I would kill you in the car if I sit close to you."
"Wow, so feisty, where did the loving and gentle Athena go to, I have missed her," he pouted.
"You locked her away, have you forgotten?" She raised an eyebrow, smirking as she folded her arms on her chest.
TB shrugged, "well, Sean likes the new you, I do too so I won t complain. Alright, I will see you when I get back," he said, unlocking his car to get in.
"Buy a coffin on your way back," She said.
"Yeesh, so scary," he shuddered and entered the car while Athena laughed and went back inside, she tried not to picture Sean looking at her pictures but it wasn t possible for that was all she thought about.