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Chapter 17

Except that I didn’t get to Say what I wanted to say to Mr Stark, I ht awayThat’s because the minute I stepped off the elevator into Stark Corporate headquarters, a swarm of hairstylists, make-up artists and wardrobe assistants descended onme she’d look after her for the duration of the shoot And then I – notAt first I didn’t knoas happening All I kneas that these total strangers were cooing, ‘Honey, what happened? They run out of producton the entire island of Manhattan?’And a wo like, ‘Sowe’re going for the natural look, are we?’And this other wo pulled down a hallway – and went, ‘Yeah, it’s as bad as Kelly said Get the drill file!’Drill file? And were those product and natural look re berated by Norman for my haircare technique (‘So we fall and bump our heads and lose our memory, and suddenly we don’t kno to deep condition any iot you last month? You have to use it for it to actually work ’) and, of course,(‘No! Oh, for the love of God, no Why would you do this? Why, hy?’) by Doreen It wasn’t until the guy doingand I was like, ‘Ow!’ and Noret an owie?’ with all this fake syrabbed his hand and ran it along the raised scar at the base of entler I don’t know if Nor to the others – heontoLike the make-up lady – Denise – told ht and every et out the dirt Then, if your skin was flaking, to use a moisturizerwhich of course I’ve never used before in my life, because my old skin never flaked, it only broke out from too much oilBut apparently I have dry skin nowAnd then Norman told me it was probably better not to wash my hair every daythat it was easier to style and eable if I only washed it two or three tiave me some powder I was supposed to sprinkle into h, so it wouldn’t ever look greasyAnd Doreen the nail lady applied a paste to each one of my nails that quickly hardened to a fake nail that she filed short, then painted black Then she went, ‘Bite them Go on Try ’And when I stuck my nail into my mouth, I nearly broke a tooth on it‘You’ll never bite the as you wear these You’ll corow ’And then drops were being put into ently chastised for crying) while the whole teaotten, like that my skin is too sensitive to wax (like this was actually so to happen), so I have to shave unwanted body hair (including my bikini line, about which Norman said to me, ‘You have to use a BRAND-NEW RAZOR every ti But also incredibly useful, considering what Kelly had told ), and that processed foods aggravate acid reflux (like I hadn’t noticed), and that ( up beforearound with Mischa behind my back (fortunately they told me this while Brandon wasn’t in the roo around behind Brandon’s back with her room-mate’s boyfriend (thank God)All this made the time pass very quickly, so I barely noticed htened, and ernails, and that they were even bleaching my arm hairs (yes)Then they went, ‘OK, off to wardrobe,’ and I was sent to a (barely) curtained-off area of the rooirls, each about a foot shorter than !) and ure out HOW to put on, so it was a good thing they were there actually, to helpThen they would look at what I was in and one of them would take a Polaroid and run out of the curtained area and then come back with a yes or no Finally they settled on this diaphanous white dress that was so low cut it would barely stay on, and these silver stilettos, and no earrings, and finally I was let out of the curtained area and led down a long, plush carpeted hallway, past a lot of stylishly dressed people who stared at me – up at me, mostly, since I was so tall in my stilettos – and a fehom said, ‘Hi, Nikki ’ I tried to say hi back, but whenever I did, I’d get a shocked look I guess Nikki wasn’t known for being particularly friendly while on a shootWhich I could sort of see why, considering how people poked and pulled herThen finally I was led up to a door that had the words ROBERT STARK, CEO written on them in silver letters And the door was thrown open and I was in Mr Stark’s office at lastExcept that Mr Stark’s office was in total chaos because of the photo shoot There were power cords running criss-crossed all along the carpet, and giant klieg lights set up all over the place, shining down hotly on everyone, and skinny guys in black shirts and jeans everywhere, and girls in ponytails with fancy glasses holding cups of latte, and big blackout cloths draped over the floor-to-ceiling s that must have offered a panoramic view of all of ManhattanAnd in the centre of it all was a huge any desk, at which sat Robert Stark in a white shirt unbuttoned about six inches to reveal a lot of grey chest hair And behind hi a white shirt open to reveal his completely hairless chest Both men looked tanned (thanks, I knew from Denise, to bronzer, which she’d also smeared all over me – and I mean, all overthere is apparently no roohts Robert Stark, though, looked i ready to go up and introduce ether in private – because ht reconsider the wholemy parents pay back the two million dollars if I didn’t honour Nikki’s contract with Starkand also iven Nikki a co softwareBut just as I was about to take a step in Mr Stark’s direction, so‘There you are!’ cried a wo ‘Oh,it’s been! I wanted to come see you in the hospital, but they had those daent! I’m family, I told them No deal Well, let th while a dark-haired ed woman, whippet-thin, in a creaeous, as always,’ she concluded when she was done checking eous Oh, but you don’t have the foggiest idea who I aet a bu past the wo to someone about the cufflinks on his tuxedo shirt, which appeared to keep coht, that’s right!’ She flung her arht If anything had happened to youwell, I don’t knohat I’d have done!’‘Run straight back to that trailer park in the Ozarks to see if she could find someone else to pluck from obscurity,’ said a man in leather trousers with a pencil moustache drily‘Oh, hush,’ Rebecca said to the leather trousers man ToBut you’ve always been a natural and I know you’ll snap back in no ti a naturalhow excited are you about SI? Oh, Nikki, when I heard, my heartwell, I just th

ought I’d cry!’‘Step away from the talent, Rebecca,’ Pencil Moustache said ‘Now that she’s here we can finally get to work ’‘Oh, I’ on to me ‘It’s just that when I think how close she came to death—’I wondered how she’d react if I told her her client Nikki really had died Just not legally in the state of New York‘Yes, well, I’ll take good care of her for now, Bec ’ The man she’d called Raoul took me by the arm and said, ‘We’ve met before, Nikki, but you don’t re blow from which I doubt I’ll soon recover Never hting –’Obediently, I hopped up on to the enor toit was supposed to be covering Which it wasn’t doing the world’s best job of My nipples were kind of showing ‘Yes, yes,’ Raoul said, totally noticing what I thought I was doing so subtly ‘Never mind that noe’ve all seen it before Now roll over and stick your heels in the air – elbows up, chin in your hands – Nore my hair as I let Raoul twist me into a completely uncomfortable – even painful – position on the desk ‘Yes, that’s better All right, gentle on behindto hold my painful pose But I suppose Mr Stark and his son went back to their places, since Raoul said, ‘Good, good Let’s take sorapher, Gwen, started snapping away This isn’t so bad Why had Lulu laughed socan be? It’s not exactly difficultalthough my neck kind of hurts And I think there’s some mascara in my eye And –‘Nikki, Nikki,’ Raoul said ‘Can you try not to look like you’re in pain? I know you are, darling, but don’t think about it Think about lovely things, will you? Lovely thoughts, lovely face –’I realized with horror that I’d been grie smile on to my face‘Not quite that lovely, Nikki,’ Raoul intoned ‘This isn’t a Sears portrait studio Relax your mouth Think dewyDenise, can you make her lips more dewy? There There Now, a few athered around to look at the Polaroids as they developed So I started to sit up Now, I thought, would be the perfect ti,’ Rebecca called sweetly froht thrown by the kliegs, so I couldn’t see her, ‘where do you think you’re going?’‘Ue back into my real clothes?’‘The shoot’s not over,’ I heard Brandon say with a sun ’‘But –’ I looked at the dozens of Polaroids now being dropped indifferently to the floor‘Test shots,’ Brandon said ‘God What, did you get a little tooaround on the back of that scrub’s scooter?’I bristled ‘For your inforwriter, and not a scrubunlike some people I could mention ’Brandon stuck out his chin ‘Hey,’ he said ‘For your inforht nownot tomy own album ’Yeah, I wanted to snarl With your dad’s ht there Checking his emails on his – non-Stark-brand – Blackberry, but still He could have been listeningKnohat I knew about Nikki’s co, children,’ Rebecca called from the darkness beyond the desk ‘And Raoul will tell you when you can relax, Nikki,’And that’s when I began to realize why Lulu had laughed ateasy about itUnless you think it’s easy trying to look dewy and think lovely thoughts while twisting your body into the most unco not tofive-inch heel shoes and trying not to notice how incredibly hot your jerk of an ex-boyfriend isBecause allowit for the first time, and in somebody else’s body