My eyes flash over to Maeve who is frowning as she looks at me. I still see far too many different things in her eyes and I suddenly feel like maybe I’m causing her more problems than I’m solving.
“What we’ll do is this,” Jim turns and walks back to the stool that Maeve was sitting on, moving it to the side, all the while holding up his camera, “we’ll have you wearing matching boxers, and you’ll be behind her while she’s got her back to the camera, all topless and shit.”
“No,” I say and move toward him again. “She said she’s not going to do topless.”
Jim sucks in a heavy breath like he’s running out of patience. “They all say that in the beginning but my assistant here tells me she’s a big fucking deal, that she’s going places, got a lot of fucking ambition,” he raises his voice and glares at Maeve, “so I know she’ll see sense soon enough. It’s not like we’ll even see her fucking tits. I’ll give her five minutes to get changed and get used to the idea.”
“No, I don’t think so,” I say, feeling even more full of disbelief than I was five minutes ago, which I thought was impossible. How did a brand like SAFE book a jackass like this? “She said—”
“For fuck’s sake!” Maeve interjects, loudly. “Would you both stop talking about me like I’m not in the fucking room?”
I turn to Maeve and see her standing a lot taller than before. Her jaw is tense and her eyes are ablaze. “Maeve, I—”
She interrupts me again. “I know what you were trying to do, Loncey, and I appreciate it. I really do, but he should have taken my word for it in the first place.”
“I agree with that,” I say, pinning my gaze back on Jim whose eyes slowly move from Maeve to me and he offers me the slimiest and most disingenuous of smiles.
“But you don’t need to fight my battles for me,” she adds. “And you,” her head turns to Jim, “you should know better than not listening to one of your models and respecting their decisions.”
“Fine. If you really don’t want to do topless, that’s fucking fine.” Jim holds his hands up as if in defeat. “But you’ll not get very far in this business with this fucking attitude. There’s no room for fucking prudes in this industry.”
The last sentence is almost mumbled under his breath, said as he starts walking toward his assistant again and that’s just as well because if he’d stayed any closer and continued to spew such blatantly offensive and manipulative horseshit I would have—
“Okay, I’ll do it,” Maeve says, and it has me swinging my gaze back to her.
Gone are the strong shoulders and the uplifted chin, but something still burns in her eyes. I’m just not sure it’s something good.
“Maeve, you don’t have to.” I step closer to her, lowering my voice. “He’s a fucking dick and you should never feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to with your body.”
Maeve’s smile is painfully brief. “He doesn’t get to call me that,” she says simply and then she walks away to a makeshift changing cubicle that stands alongside one of the walls. “Where are the boxers?” she calls out and one of the people lurking behind the lights jumps into action.
Less than a minute later, Maeve walks out with a towel wrapped around her body. As she marches toward the stool and main set, she points a very straight finger at Jim.
“I will take it off when I’m ready, but I do not want my nipples in a single fucking photograph, you hear me?”
If Jim is taken aback by Maeve’s warning, it only shows for a split second. “Watch out little Irish lady, I like my women bossy,” he says with a sickening wink.
“Fuck off you slimy gobshite,” Maeve mutters under her breath. “Now, where do I need to stand?”
“Well, first I need this gormless idiot to take some of his clothes off,” Jim says, and it takes me a moment to realize he’s talking about me.
“Theirclothes off.” Maeve’s voice is loud. “Their pronouns are they, them, their.”
Jim has the nerve to roll his eyes right in front of me.
“Fine. Whatever. Take your fucking clothes off, will you. We’re all on the clock here so let’s get this fucking job done. You can change over there.” He points to the same makeshift cubicle Maeve just used. “Cheyenne, can you getthemsome undies please.”
I ignore his obnoxious emphasizing of my pronoun, and the kick to the gut it prompts, and take a step closer to Maeve so only she can hear me.
“I’m only going to tell you this one more time because you’re an intelligent woman and I feel like repeating myself would suggest I think otherwise. But if you’re uncomfortable at any point, we can stop this. Both of us. We can walk out and forget all about this fucking joke of a misogynistic human being. I’ve got your back, Maeve, I promise.”
Maeve’s face goes from expressionless to lighting up with something that I am stupid enough to mistake as a warmth or tenderness for me, but then it vanishes and every single featureon her face hardens. Her eyes hold their sharp stare as she pouts at me.
“I’m a big girl, Loncey,” she says. “I know exactly what I’m doing. I don’t need you to have my back. I just need to get this over and done with.”
I do my best to not show how her blunt words pierce a part of me, although I don’t know exactly what part. My heart? No, no way. My ego? Very possibly. My pride? Yeah, sounds about right.
“Fine, let’s do this.”
