Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross Read Free Book Online

again. I pull up her number, knowing her phone is tucked away in the bag on the floor beside me, and send her a quick text.
    ME : There. Now you have my number too, so if you don’t hear from me, you can tell me again how I’m a bad New Yorker for running on treadmills
    I get another text from Wes while my phone is still in my hand.
    WES : Meeting postponed. Need you to go to Buenos Aires tonight.
    ME : Tonight? Seriously?
    WES : Why? Are you busy? Don’t answer that. You’re not busy.
    ME : I’m not busy.
    WES : I’ll send you the flight info in a few minutes. I’ll need you back in forty-eight hours for a Macy’s thing.
    ME : Macy’s! You rock. Seriously.
    WES : Just wait. There’s more. We’ll talk Friday morning.
    If I wasn’t pumped up before, I sure as hell am now. This is good. Really good. The only pinch of disappointment I feel at the moment is that I might not be able to take Eve up on her offer to join the Hot College Girls’ Running Club.
    Maybe next week.
    I don’t know what Wes did to book me these fairly big last-minute jobs, but I’m not about to ask. Or do anything to ruin this winning streak I seem to be on at the moment.

Chapter 5: Eve
    October 2, 6:30 p.m.
    I’m still standing in the middle of my dorm room, staring at the letter in my hand, when my roommate Stephanie comes in. I haven’t seen her since this morning before the Seventeen shoot.
    â€œYou look like you’re in shock. Are you in shock?” She moves closer, lifting a hand to wave it in front of my face.
    I peel my eyes from the paper in my hands and glance down at Steph. She’s barely over five feet so I have to look down at her blond head. “I’m a finalist. For the Mason scholarship.”
    If I could have chosen any way to conclude such a crappy day, it would have been this.
    â€œSeriously?” Steph squeals and then pries the letter from my fingers, reading it quickly. “Oh my God! Do you know how many people enter this competition every year? Like thousands. Holy shit. You have to do an interview with the committee. And get letters of recommendation. Professor Larson likes you, right? He’ll help you out.”
    Breathe. Breathe again . Good job, Eve.
    My heart starts to speed up and then slow down again, returning to normal. “Right. Larson. I’ll ask him first. We won’t even get our interview scheduled until the end of next month. I have time to find more people.”
    I walk to my desk to tuck my letter carefully back in its envelope so it doesn’t fly away. That’s when I notice the red business card sitting on the desk. Wes Danes. Agent. One Model Management Agency . I spin around to face my roommate and hold up the card. “Where did this come from?”
    Steph’s face breaks into a smile, such a contrast to my utter panic. “Oh, you mean the much older, extremely well-dressed hottie that stopped by asking for Eve and looking like he might die if he didn’t see you right this second?”
    Now I need to sit down. “Wes,” I mutter under my breath. “How did he find me?”
    Steph’s eyes are wide with alarm now. “He didn’t come to the room. The front desk called me down. He only knew the building. What are you not telling me?”
    I take a deep breath, staring at my roommate, trying to decide if I can confide in her and if I even have a choice. “That was Wes. My agent…or he used to be my agent anyway. Until this morning, I hadn’t seen him for nearly two years.”
    â€œAgent?”
    â€œModeling agent,” I say.
    â€œModeling agent,” she repeats like it’s a foreign language. It probably is, considering the Eve she’s known for an entire month.
    â€œI moved to New York when I was fourteen to work. But I used a different name—Eve Castle.”
    Steph’s mouth falls open, but it takes her several seconds to say something.