A Fashionable Affair by Joan Wolf Read Free Book Online

self-righteously.
    “I never thought you did. It’s not something you can help, Red. It’s just the way you are. Wherever you go and whatever you do, there’ll always be some poor bastard breaking his heart over you.”
    Patsy stared straight ahead. “I can’t help the way I look.”
    He chuckled. “No, I suppose you can’t.”
    She put her hands into her pockets and scuffled sand with her feet as she walked. “Well, at any rate I never broke your heart,” she said a little defiantly.
    “Of course you did.” Her head snapped up in surprise and she turned to stare at him. “Me and every other boy at Central High,” he went on imperturbably. “How we dreamed about you. How bleak you made our futures seem. No other girl seemed worth our attention when there was Patsy Clark, shimmering before us like a heavenly gar den of forbidden fruit.” He shook his head in mock sorrow. “We learned early what it was to know the heartache of lost dreams. You made the rest of our lives seem like second best.”
    There was a long pause. “Are you serious?” Patsy asked in astonishment.
    “Perfectly serious.” He smiled reminiscently. “God, how I lusted after you when I was fifteen.” His mouth wore a faint, nostalgic smile and there was amusement in his eyes. It was as if an older and wiser man were looking back on the follies of his misguided youth.
    Patsy was suddenly extremely annoyed. “You’re being ridiculous,” she said crossly.
    “Not ridiculous,” he corrected her. “I was being fifteen.”
    “And now you’ve grown up and know better.”
    “I do,” he said peacefully. “But what about poor Don?”
    “The hell with Don,” Patsy snapped, and length ened her stride, moving ahead of him. Behind her, she heard a distinct chuckle. It was not a sound that improved her temper.
    When he bestirred himself to catch up with her, however, he didn’t pursue the subject that had angered her so, but began to talk about something quite different. By the time they returned to his car, Patsy’s naturally sunny disposition had resur faced. They sang with the radio all the way back to Michael’s house.
     

Chapter Five
     
    Monday Patsy went to her first filming of a TV commercial for a camera company that had signed her to endorse its products. Contracts with big companies to represent them in advertising cam paigns was the surest sign of success in modeling. They did not come along too often, and this was Patsy’s biggest contract since her sports-clothes endorsement.
    She knew the makeup artist, the director, and the cameraman from other sessions. They all got along well and the filming went smoothly.
    “It’s a pleasure to work with you, darling,” the director told her as the session broke up at about six. “You’re a professional.”
    Patsy laughed. “I’ve been doing this long enough, Doug. I feel like an old lady these days. The last magazine I looked through was filled with pictures of fifteen-year-olds.”
    “I know. They burn out, though, darling. Five, six months and they’re finished.”
    She frowned slightly. “I know. Why is that?”
    “They get spoiled, get that tough, bitchy look,” Mark the makeup man, answered. “The companies hire the kids because they want a fresh, dewy look for their products, and once a girl loses that look she’s finished. You can’t fix that hardness with makeup.” He looked at Patsy. “You’ve still got the freshness,” he said. “You can still look better than kids twelve years younger than you.”
    “Thanks,” Patsy said. “I think.”
    Mark, who knew her well, smiled. “The biggest difference between you and the kids is very simple, darling. You’re nice.”
    Patsy wrinkled her nose. “I was older when I came into the job,” she said. “And I had parents who kept my feet very firmly grounded. The rags- to-riches bit is just too much for most of these kids. They can’t handle it. You ought to have more patience, Mark. They’re really rather