Chapter Seventeen: Tour de Eiffel et Notre Dame

Photoshoots and nervous breakdowns for Emily... read to see what exactly happened... (sorry-- I'm so bad at writing these...!! :()

I woke up the next morning with a warm feeling and a thousand butterflies erupting in my stomach. At first I was confused as to the source of the feeling, but soon I realized why. Tanner. To outsiders, it was just a name, but to me it meant the world. I smiled and slipped out of bed, heading straight for the bathroom. After I’d showered and dressed, I ran downstairs to meet my father in the hotel restaurant. Today would be another day full of posing and acting stupid. There was a difference, however. This time I was with Tanner. Disgusted at my suddenly sappy self, I ate my breakfast and headed out. My dad was too eager to get me off, so he could go to some more boring museums. Why go to ordinary museums when you’re in Paris?

‘’Hey, angel,’’ Tanner smiled, opening the limo door for me. I felt a thrill when he kissed me shortly before sliding into the car after me. ‘’Sleep well?’’

I grinned. ‘’Yeah.’’ This was so non awkward it was awkward. Get me? How was I supposed to act around my ‘boyfriend’? I’d never had one before. It felt so normal, yet so weird at the same time.

‘’How about you?’’ I asked, trying to keep the conversation going. Weird, while before our confession we’d always been able to conversate effortlessly, now it seemed like we were meeting all over again.

‘’Good. I dreamt of you, of course,’’ Tanner winked, with this extra cheesy grin on his face. I laughed, and punched him in the arm.

‘’You better have,’’ I warned, glad the atmosphere had lightened.

‘’By the way, do you know anything about what’s going to happen today? I mean, I get that I’m new at this and stuff, but I wish Nancy or anyone would leave me a message or phone me about what’s going on,’’ I said.

Tanner nodded. ‘’You’re right. We’re going to have a photoshoot at the Eiffel Tower. I think it involves jumping up and down in front of that thing and then a few pics at the top. Should be fairly quick.’’

I nodded. ‘’ Alright. Sounds like fun.’’

‘’You know tonight’s the catwalk, right?’’ Tanner suddenly broke the silence.

I turned to him. ‘’Yes. Nancy messaged me this morning and told me about it. I’m nervous.’’

‘’Don’t be,’’ said Tanner. ‘’I’m sure you’ll nail it. It isn’t even that hard, and I’m sure Celina wouldn’t be so harsh as to give you super high heels to walk in.’’

Suddenly, I felt even more nervous. ‘’You think I’ll have to walk on heels?’’ I asked, my voice quivering. Tanner quickly put an arm around me and pulled me close.

‘’Hey, don’t worry. Dash it- I’m always saying the wrong thing. They won’t make you do anything you can’t handle doing,’’ he said, dropping a kiss to the side of my head. I smiled and closed my eyes, all awkwardness completely disappearing.

‘’Thanks, Tanner,’’ I said after a while. Before he could answer, though, the limo stopped, and the doors were yanked open. A bright like infiltrated the dimness in the car and I blinked a couple times before recognizing Nancy’s face in the opening. She was looking at us with mild surprise, her mouth partly open, her eyes widening.

‘’When did this happen?’’ she demanded, as we clambered out of the car. I straightened my ruffly blue top and adjusted my blazer before looking up to meet her eyes. They were twinkling. I smiled.

‘’Yesterday,’’ Tanner answered, dryly. He smirked at me, but before I could ask what he was going to do, he swept me into his arms and I felt his lips on mine. I smiled into the kiss, knowing he was partly doing this to tease Nancy. She wasn’t the biggest fan of PDA.

‘’OH--’’ I heard her exclaim. ‘’Seriously, guys?’’

Tanner pulled back, grinning and I returned his grin happily before turning back to Nancy. She had covered her eyes with her hands and was muttering to herself.

I laughed out loud. ‘’You can look now, Nancy.’’

The photoshoot was fun, a lot of fun. Tanner and I basically just fooled around with the exasperated photographers (including Nancy) trying to take pictures of us. My dress was simple, a vintage beige colour with a big dusky pink bow sash and small grey and dusky pink flowers scattered over it. My hair was done into an amazing waterfall braid, and small colorful flowers decorating the blonde braid.

I wore very light makeup, with just some light pink eyeshadow, mascara and light blusher. Of course, foundation was needed because of the lights, but other than that my face looked very natural. Tanner wore skinny white jeans, a beige and grey casual t-shirt with a white blazer. His hair was styled into a quif, and I had to admit that my jaw dropped when I saw him.

After the photoshoot, Tanner decided to take me out on a date. We went to another little cute french restaurant and then headed to the Notre Dame. The cathedral was simply incredible. I didn’t think a building could be so beautiful.

By the time the evening swung around, I was nervous. Extremely nervous. I was scared they’d make me walk in shoes I wouldn’t be able to walk in, or that I’d be so nervous I’d throw up on the catwalk, or the other models would hate me, or whatever. I knew it was simply my own stupid insecurity that was making me think this stuff, but I couldn’t help thinking it anyway.

My cellphone rang, making me jump out of my thoughts. Quickly, I picked up.

‘’Hey,’’ I said.

‘’Emily?’’

It was Ashley. I smiled. How did she always know exactly when I needed her?

‘’Bae!’’ Ashley’s  enthusiastic voice made me feel a little better.

‘’Hey Ash. How’s everything in good ol’ USA?’’

‘’More like, how’s everything in La Ville d’Amour?’’ my best friend laughed.

‘’Wait,’’ my brain whizzed, and I quickly translated what she’d said. ‘’The City of Love? It’s going well with the Amour part,’’ I said slyly. I heard Ashley gasp.

‘’Tell me everything,’’ she demanded. I laughed. ‘’Tanner.’’

A loud squeal filled my ears and I cringed away from the device in my hand. ‘’Ashley!’’ I shouted, whereupon she immediately stopped.

‘’You’re literally making me deaf,’’ I complained, but I was smiling. I heard Ashley laugh.

‘’I’m still mad at my parents for not letting me come. Tell me all about you and Tanner… please?’’ she begged. I could tell she was pouting and making the puppy-dog eyes at me. I laughed.

‘’Well, I basically told him he was hot, when we were going out for lunch yesterday-’’

‘’You told him he was hot?’’ she screeched. Again I held the cellphone away from my ear.

‘’Not like that!’’ I protested. ‘’It was an accident. He laughed, and I’d never felt so embarrassed, but-’’

I told her the whole story. Apparently it was interesting, because she didn’t once interrupt me.

‘’That-’’ I concluded finally, ‘’-is the whole story. Are you happy now?’’

‘’Very,’’ she grinned. ‘’ I can’t believe you’re finally together. This is crazy! Aah! My BFF has a boyfriend! I’m so happy for you! Wait- what about the photoshoots?’’

I told her about the two photoshoots we’d had here, and about the catwalk show I’d be walking tonight. Ashley picked up immediately on my nervousness and at the end of the call, she’d managed to calm me down considerably.

‘’Remember,’’ she said. ‘’Give it all you got, live your dream and you can’t go wrong. If you make mistakes, learn from them. We’re human, after all, not remote control barbie dolls. If you’re not afraid of making mistakes, you won’t be so likely to make them. Relax. Okay? Now go kick some a*s on the catwalk!’’

Silence.

‘’Oh,’’ Ashley suddenly said. ‘’I’ve always wanted to say that.’’

I laughed then, thankful that she’d phoned. I already felt heaps better. Trust Ashley to come up with the right thing to say.

Author's Note

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