Chapter 36

As agreed, Gloria picked Athena up by eight in the evening, TB had changed his mind about joining them after Sean told him about a club he would be going to and so he opted to go with him instead and let the women be, but he had also taken his time to pick out a nice short dress for Athena. It was Augustus famous Red Apple, and it complemented her skin so well that Gloria had made comment about it on setting her eyes on her.
She, on the other hand was dressed in a black short gown, one of Sprits brands, which exposed her beautiful long sexy legs. Together, they got into her car and left while Sean had promised to see her when she returns.
Getting to the party, Athena was a little shy, it was the first time she was attending a party without Sean by her side to guide her, now alone, she was a little afraid of doing something that would tarnish the image that Sean had worked so hard to build up for her.
"I know how you are feeling, trust me," Gloria whispered, "but if you don t get used to being on your own, you would click to Sean forever. This is the only way to practice what he has been teaching you, if you only want him by your side always then you will never know if you will be able to look after yourself when he gets a new model to occupy his attention. So raise that head high, plaster that beautiful smile on your face and let s have some fun," she winked.
Athena smiled at her encouragement and heaved a deep sigh, "fine, let s do this," she said and Gloria nodded.
"That s my girl," she said and pushed open the door to reveal the party, the loud music, the chatting group and the smell of liquor filled every corner of the room, "let the fun begin," she said to Athena and entered while she followed behind her.
All it took was one glance for people to recognize Gloria and soon swarmed around them, from their discussion, Athena knew that majority of the people in the room were models and she felt a little lost being in their midst since she couldn t join in their discussion because all they talked about were runways, endorsements, clothes and jewelries.
She was about refilling her glass when something caught her eyes and she looked to meet a dark shadow, a man was sitting on the sofa at the far end of the room, the light wasn t bright enough and so the corners of the rooms were dark. If not that she could see his silhouette, she would never had known that someone was sitting there. She withdrew her gaze, filled up her glass and turned back to listen to Gloria and her friends discussion. She was also able to pinpoint that apart from models, other socialites were there and majority of them were Gloria s fan.
The room divided itself, the ladies one side, talking, dancing and shrieking and the men were on the other side, drinking, chatting and playing games. All were busy with something except her and the stranger in the room. Although she tried as much as she could to ignore him but she could feel his eyes on her and so she constantly looked over at his side but she always look away immediately.
The door opened and a new guest entered, looking at the door, Athena regretted doing so, standing before the door, with her platinum blonde hair cascading down her bare shoulders because of the off-shoulder black gown she was putting on and her green eyes shining as bright as the Christmas light was none other than Esperanza. Her presence drew half of the ladies surrounding Gloria.
"She always loves making an entry," Gloria whispered in her ear and Athena rolled her eyes, of course she would, she thought.
As Esperanza made her way to sit on the space created for her on the sofa, she kept her gaze on Athena and surprisingly, Athena held her gaze, it was almost as if they were battling each other with their eyes; emerald green against chocolate brown.
As if the fight was not enough, as she sat down, Esperanza turned to her, "I wasn t expecting to see you here, you know, judging by the fact that you are hardly seen on your own."
"Well, as you can see, here I am," Athena answered with a smile before sipping her drink casually.
"Yes, indeed. Anyway, what is with you now? Are you a model or what? I haven t seen you at any show or ever seen you walk the runway. So it s a little confusing." Esperanza said, accepting the drink that was handed to her by one of the models.
"You don t have to worry about that, I will decide when I want to walk the runway, its my choice," she answered.
"Exactly, forgive me for being curious but I just want to know if it is that you are not good enough which is why no one has signed a contract with you yet, despite you being paraded everywhere by Sean," she smirked, sipping her drink.
Everyone in the room remained quiet as they silently listened to the women banter, they would be a fool if they claim not to know what was going on. Word-fight is something very common in their midst and it often happens when a new model challenges an old one or when the two of them fight on who is better, they insults themselves or show of their capabilities in the name of having a discussion. The different in this case is that no one know who Athena is, all they could tell is that she was often seen with Sean in parties but that is nothing new. Everyone knows who Sean is and he is fond of announcing his newest model by making her accompany him to parties but they are never seen together more than thrice and the model would be signed for something. But on Athena s case, they had been seen together an uncountable time which was why a lot was confused on who she is exactly.
Athena chuckled but before she could answer, Gloria did, "that is because we all know how Brand can be, if they want something, they won t allow anyone to use that before them. Right here with me is Brand s newest face."
At that, everyone was surprised, including Esperanza, that can t be possible, she has been Brand s face for three years and there is no way they would change her, no model was better than her three years ago and no one is still, so why on earth would Sean choose to make a newbie the Face? Even if Sean did, why would the directors agree to such a thing? She tried so hard to smile but for once, it wasn t easy for her to do. She had never seen Athena as a threat to her career, she had thought she was only after Sean but to take her place as Face of Brand is something she had never seen happening.
Everyone in the room was surprised at Gloria s revelation, while the ladies tried to hide their surprise and confusion; the men glanced at Esperanza, each with mockery visible in their eyes. Esperanza tried to act unaffected by it and tried to cover up her surprise, "wow, so you are the one he chose, that s a surprise. When I told him I don t want to be the Face this year, I had thought he would choose one of the known models, you know, not an amateur," she sipped her drink like she just made a simple observation.