Chapter 6
Luisa
Los Angeles
“Three more… come on, you’ve got this.”
Luisa gritted her teeth and pushed the barbell up one more time, her arms burning. Kai stood close behind her, his hands hovering near the bar ready to spot her if needed.
“Two more. That’s it.”
She pushed through, her muscles screaming. When she finally racked the weight she collapsed back onto the bench, breathing hard.
“You’re getting stronger,” Kai said, handing her a towel and then her water bottle. “I can see how the definition has come on in your shoulders.”
“That’s because you’re a sadist,” Luisa replied, wiping the sweat from her face, but she was smiling.
Kai laughed. An easy, confident laugh that fit perfectly with his whole persona…
objectively very good looking, a mix of Caucasian and Asian heritage, with the sort of physique that you’d expect from one of LA’s top personal trainers and the self-confidence that stopped somewhere just short of arrogance to go with it.
They’d been training together for six months now and Luisa was well aware of the tension that sometimes fizzed underneath the surface during their sessions.
She’d thought about it, of course. Physically she suspected they’d be amazing together, a man and a woman in great shape and she knew from a friend who’d dated him briefly a while back that he’d been good in bed.
Emotionally, though, they had fun together but she suspected it was only superficial and that pretty quickly they’d tire of each other.
And, for so long as she was his client, she wouldn’t let anything happen…
because when it inevitably went wrong she’d be left trying to find another personal trainer who was as good and, frankly, he was the best trainer she’d had in years, probably ever.
“Come on,” Kai said, offering his hand to pull her up. “Core work then we’re done.”
Luisa let him pull her to her feet and flashed a grin. “Lead the way, sadist.”
A couple of months ago he’d asked her out.
Well, kind of. He’d said he had tickets to the Lakers and asked if she’d like to go “as friends”, his charming smile telling her that wasn’t what he really meant.
Luckily, in her profession she had people hitting on her all the time and she’d got good over the years at letting them down nicely…
so good that it hadn’t affected their professional relationship at all when she’d politely declined.
They finished with planks and Russian twists and by the time Luisa headed to the changing room her entire body felt like jelly. Getting dressed she pulled out her phone and checked her messages. In her chat with Amy there was the message she’d sent her when she’d woken up that morning:
Hey gorgeous, morning from LA. Hope you slept well. How’s your day so far? xx
No reply, but it had only been a couple of hours and, what…
she did the mental arithmetic, smiling to herself at how good she’d got now at adding eight hours to her time.
It was 11am in LA, Saturday, so that made it 7pm in London, also still Saturday.
Amy had mentioned she was going out with her friends today, so she was probably getting dressed to go out.
Luisa was relaxed anyway… they spent most of their days swapping messages at all hours, so a few hours without one really wasn’t a problem.
And, of course, Amy was coming back to LA for a few weeks the coming Thursday, so not long to wait at all.
She tucked her phone away in her pocket and grabbed her gym bag, heading out into the late morning sunshine to go and meet her agent for lunch.
***
Lunch with Talia was brief but useful, the sort of modus operandi they’d established over the years.
Her agent rattled off her upcoming schedule while they ate overpriced salads, talked about some things she had going in the pipeline, and asked Luisa about a few opportunities to see if they were of interest.
"The Cimarron deal... I still think you're making a mistake.
" She looked at Luisa with a stern expression that would have faintly terrified Luisa when they'd first started working together, but now simply left her more amused than anything.
"Seriously," Talia continued when Luisa didn't bite.
"Just take the cash. It's a lot of cash.
Don't waste your time with equity in something that's more likely to fail than not. "
Luisa simply smiled. Talia was firmly of the belief that it was when models started trying to branch out that it all went wrong.
Her philosophy was simple: do the work, get paid.
Cimarron was a perfume brand that had chosen Luisa to be the face of their launch, and she'd got to know Solana, the Texan founder and daughter of some serious wealth, and the people around her well.
There was something about Solana that told Luisa that her brand was going to be a success and, with one eye on planning for the future, particularly considering the relative lack of longevity of a model's peak career, Luisa had jumped at a deal that swapped most of the cash for a small but not insignificant piece of the equity in the business.
Essentially, Talia was pissed with Luisa about that one because Luisa didn't go through her to negotiate it. It would be fine, Luisa didn't normally bypass her and she'd promised Talia not to do it again, but of course Talia brought it up every time they saw each other.
"I'm getting paid enough still to more than cover your cut. You know my thoughts, we're just going to have to agree to disagree."
Talia pursed her lips. Her expression said models, and not in a complimentary way.
After a few moments, Talia moved past it.
“They want you for the Italy shoot still,” Talia said.
“It’s worth looking at… I know you’re happy focusing on America but if you could break into that market, it could work well. ”
Luisa pursed her lips, considering it. The clothing brand in question had been chasing for a while to get her to be part of the campaign, apparently her look was exactly what they needed, but she’d been equivocal in her replies…
put simply, she’d never been to Europe before and she had more than enough work without crossing the Atlantic.
But… an idea formed. “When is it again?”
“Just over a month from now. Amalfi.” Talia smiled. “There’s a lot worse places to spend a week, trust me.”
“My schedule’s clear either side of it, isn’t it?”
Talia looked at her notebook. “Yes. You’ve got the week before and the week after clear.” She looked back at Luisa. “You’re keen then?”
Luisa nodded slowly. Work in Europe with a week free on either side was, thanks to Amy, perfect…
she’d have the excuse of having to be there, so it would be a much easier way of seeing Amy without making it too pressured or coming across as too keen.
And if, for some reason, Amy’s upcoming visit didn’t work out then she’d just go straight to Italy and it was still good for her career.
A win-win really. “Yes… but keep those weeks either side free.”
Talia studied her intently for a few moments. “Any particular reason?”
Luisa felt her cheeks redden but simply said, “No, just want to see Europe. I’ve never been.”
Laughing, Talia replied, “Well, whoever it is you want to see in Europe is none of my business. Just don’t let them distract you from the shoot.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Only because I’ve been doing this for thirty years now…” She looked at Luisa with an indulgent smile, then switched subjects. “Are you still going to the premiere later?”
“Yeah, Julian’s taking me. My friend Maria is coming too. You’ll be there?”
“Absolutely, wouldn’t miss it for anything.
You know how excited I get about the latest movies.
” The face that Talia pulled made Luisa laugh…
Talia absolutely hated sitting through a movie, but she absolutely loved the wheeling and dealing before and after.
“I’ll see you at some point, I could do with talking to Julian about something. ”
“You want me to tee him up?”
“It wouldn’t hurt, but no problem if you don’t manage it. Make sure you get pictured on his arm when you arrive… it’s good exposure.”
***
Luisa headed over to Julian’s house late afternoon, part of their long standing arrangement.
He was the ‘not-boyfriend’ that she’d told Amy about when they first met, an older and very successful man who’d been refreshingly open with Luisa when she’d had dinner with him on first arriving in LA.
They weren’t dating, they wouldn’t live together or get married, but they enjoyed each other’s company and had a completely open arrangement.
They both could and regularly did see other people, and both knew and understood that the other might end their arrangement if they met someone special.
It worked well, particularly socially where he benefited from having a model on his arm and she benefited from his deep and, in many cases, invisible industry connections.
His house was… well, she’d need her career to go absolutely stellar to have any hope of getting a place like his. Beverley Hills, modern, floor-to-ceiling windows and a tropical garden and pool. She didn’t know what it cost, but she did know that she couldn’t remotely afford it.
Julian opened the door before she could knock, phone pressed to his ear. “…yes, I understand, but that’s not what we agreed to.” He waved her in, mouthing sorry as his conversation continued. “Look, I need you to go back and check the exact wording…”
Luisa slipped past him, briefly putting her hand on his shoulder and smiling her understanding, and headed straight into the air-conditioned interior, aiming for the master bedroom. She’d been to his house more times than she could count and treated it like a second home.