Mahalia in Cape Town

THE SUPERMODEL

CHAPTER 10

The Supermodel

“Wow, pagkalami sa karne.” Mahalia thinks to herself. (TRANSLATION: Wow, such delicious meat.)

Mahalia, right away, shakes the words off her head as soon as she realizes that it was very inappropriate, most especially in the situation that she is in right now.

She freezes as soon as her eyes are locked with a very cold expression plastered on his face. She could not process what she was doing inside this room and why he is in front of her in briefs while posing for the camera in big lights and green background. A voice popped in the back of her head and she remembers that he is a super well-known model that she had no idea about and she feels bad about it.

Her eyes scanning Casey from head to toe, she is absolute awe of the very toned muscles, godly biceps down to his glorious tight packed abs that seemed like rocks on his abdomen. Mahalia has never seen an almost naked man in front of her and it is making her feel as if her entire face is warm as it reaches to the tips of her ears down to her neck. She feels a little queasy about the sight in front of her and she thinks why these people seemed so not flustered about the unsightly view.

Her mind is in a complete trance as she tries to avoid meeting his eyes even though he is not even looking at her anymore. She is very precise about avoiding to glance at his sculpted abs and his very deep dented v-line because she does not want him to think that she is actually like what she’s seeing. She keeps her eyes glued on her feet instead and listens to the clicking of the camera as the male photographer compliments Casey at the same time giving instructions on what to do.

In the back of her head, she is still confused why she is in this room as she stares at the I.D around her neck.

“Why in hell am I here?!” Mahalia screams in the back of her head because she is still utterly bewildered when the woman placed an I.D sling around her neck without even explaining anything.

Mahalia subtly pulled her head up in hopes that the burning hot supermodel in briefs was not looking. She carefully takes a glance at Casey at the same time Casey was also staring back at her impassively. She flinched in a snap of a finger and shyly pulled her head back down.

“And why is Casey Stefano in his briefs?!” Her thoughts are perplexed and screaming.

She absolutely didn’t like that he was here because the first time they met, it reminds her inside the restaurant a few nights ago. It makes her squirm on the inside remembering how she treated him as if he was a homeless beggar trying to barge in and steal because he was just barefoot.

She thinks more of what she has done and it weighs her down a little bit more, as she is inside the same room with him.

“Alright, that's a wrap!” The photographer hollers but Mahalia is frozen cold.

Everyone, aside from Mahalia, clapped in happiness as the photo shoot was already done. They were complimenting him and praised how amazing he was. She tried to clap her hands too but she shyly stopped as soon Casey was eyeing her.

“I need my robe.”

Mahalia is still staring at her feet as soon as he speaks, awkwardly chanting to herself that she just wants to disappear this very second.

“I need my robe.”

Mahalia feels a nudge on her side which surprised her and as soon as she pulled her head up, she sees Alex eyeing her intensely and she doesn’t even understand what she was going to do because she was confused and wondering why she was abducted here in this room with a man half naked. She travels her head towards Casey who is still standing there and is still wearing his briefs with his hands on his waists.

“Casey says he needs the robe.” Alex grits her teeth as she instructs.

Mahalia, confused, did not know what she was actually going to do but her instinct tells her that she needs to be the one who is going to look for the robe herself. She looked around the room, there were two robes, the black one and white one, hanging on the clothes rack in the corner of the room. She is baffled as she looks back at Alex who is eyeing her to do something, anything, while Casey is also looking at him disappointingly. Mahalia did not understand what was actually happening in front of her and she has no idea what she was going to do but she stuck with her instinct.

Perplexed, Mahalia finally builds up some courage to walk to the clothes rack with her face bravery as her mind screams the words, “Lord kaonun nalang unta ko’s yuta oy.” (TRANSLATION: Lord let the ground eat me alive.) She rethinks her decisions in life and ponders how on earth she got there while she stares eagerly at the robes before grabbing whatever robe she feels like the right one and walks towards the emotionless-looking Casey.

She hands it hesitantly before she looks up to him and realizes how tall he is now that he is this close to her. She studies his godly handsome face, perfect as what she tells herself. In her head, she thought that he looked absolutely different now that he is surrounded with bright lights on compared to that night when she held a knife in front of him and how embarrassing it is every time she remembers it.

Another voice in her head screams the words, “I just want to melt like ice.”

Casey looks over the robe with his cold eyes and looks back at Mahalia before he shakes his head sideways and scolds, “You’re an hour late.”

Mahalia stares at the robe on her hand that Casey didn’t accept before she looks back at him and wondered why he was actually saying that. She answers bravely, “If I knew what was going on before being dragged here, I would have arrived early.”

He blinks at her, amused by this woman who answered him back since no one would even dare to bark back at him. He glances at Alex and shrugs her shoulders to save herself from being scolded, before he looks back at tiny Mahalia as she continues to save herself, “I had a personal excuse why I was late in the first place.”

Mahalia is amazed where her bravery is coming from but then she realized that after what happened to her before in her first job, she had thought that she had to be brave and she had to speak for herself. She didn’t want someone to strip away her opportunity to speak and to at least prove and defend herself as innocent.

“At least you could have gotten the right robe Miss Tardy.”

Mahalia bites her inner cheeks and thinks to herself that this ill-mannered man, who called her names, is a famous and had an advantage in front of these people right here. He is humiliating her but she tries not to be bothered, “You could have given a better instruction on what color of robe it should have been so that I would not have troubled you, Mr. High Almighty.” She bites back with her fangs.

The entire people in the room are ultimately shocked with what Mahalia had done because everyone knew that no one would dare to answer Casey back because he would get them fired easily. He gets more fumed and annoyed by this little woman calling him names and stares intently at her angrily before he walks away and heads towards the clothes rack.

The entire room is quiet and Mahalia can feel the others’ eyes glued on her.

“You have got a mouth.” She hears Casey holler and she knew he was talking to him.

She bravely turns to him, getting a little angry as well for conducting this scene and humiliating her. She answered back confidently, “Yeah I do, it’s there for a reason.”

Casey clenches his teeth as she answers him back again. She adds, “Ain’t it?”

He impatiently grabs his black robe from the rack and places it around him the next second. He turns to Mahalia and stares at her from the corner of his eye, “You’re a talker. I don’t like talkers.”

“Good. I don’t wish to be liked by the likes of you.” She doesn’t hold her tongue.

Casey, irked, clenches his jaws again and stares at Mahalia with furrowed brows as he gets more angry the more she opens her mouth. Mahalia, on the other hand, sees others gaping in shock and gets the feeling that no one would dare to help her in the situation she is in right now. She sees Casey as the ring leader that everyone is afraid of but she doesn't care after he humiliates her just like that for something she didn’t even know about. Alex, with shocked eyes, rushes to his side and offers him a hot cup of coffee like an obedient dog. Mahalia stares at the two of them and figures out that Casey was the kind of person who is still ungrateful, highly moody and completely bossy. She envisions him as the man who wants to see everyone kneeling down in his presence and she sees it evidently in this room.

No one dared to raise their voice.

Mickey’s words then catapulted her to what he had told her before as he offered her the job a few nights ago. In a snap of a finger, Mahalia finally realized that what she was thinking before coming here was ultimately wrong. She then figures out why she was here and what she was here for that Mickey didn’t even explain thoroughly.

“Ah, it’s him.” Mahalia thinks to herself as she finally begins to patch the things that she got herself into.

Casey walks towards the door as he is being complimented for a job well done and she wonders if they are also complimenting him for humiliating me but then she didn’t want to put her nose into it. Alex begins to approach her with angered eyes, far different from the one she had when she talked with Casey.

“What were you doing?” Alex asks her with hand gestures. “Are you nuts?”

She blinks at Alex.

“Are you trying to lose your job on the first day of your work?” She shakes her head as she stares at the confused Mahalia.

“If you could have told me what I was going to do and why I was here, instead of hanging that I.D around my neck and dragging me then I could have done something right without being humiliated in front of everyone in this room.” Mahalia defends herself. “How were you not able to help me, at least, when you had the chance to?”

Alex’s tongue curls back as she is just staring at Mahalia, also feeling angry at her and how she bravely opens her mouth to answer. “If you’re such a talker, no one would like you around here in this industry.”

“I’m a talker when people are stepping on me.” Mahalia responds.

Alex squares her shoulders and looks down at her as her height towers over the brave Mahalia who’s five inches shorter, “You should know where you stand in this place because you have no idea who you’re talking to, tiny woman. You can’t bring your rudeness here if that’s what your homegrown country has taught you.”

Mahalia scoffs and she hates people like her, “Oh I do know well where I stand but that does not give you the right to belittle me nor call me names.” She barks back confidently. “Aren’t you a little rude yourself? So don’t bring your rudeness here if that’s what your homegrown country has taught you.”

Alex instantly despises the sight of this woman standing in front of her and she just wants to crush Mahalia for being rude to her and speaking to her like that using her own words. “Why don’t you tone it down a little bit and work as you're supposed to?” She states angrily with annoyance, gaining her upper hand as Casey’s manager.

She looks over at Mahalia, “I have managerial stuff to do that’s far more important than talking to an absolutely rude woman like you. If you want to redeem yourself as Casey’s personal assistant, might as well follow where he is heading to. Room 118.”

Mahalia’s eyes follows where Alex was walking to and instantly she knew that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. As wicked as Casey is, Alex is as awful as well. She begins to understand the emphasis that Mickey did when he told her about the job last time and now she finally sees why patience was really needed. It is because of the cold-hearted and impatient monster named Casey Stefano who thinks so almighty about himself is the greatest responsibility.

As soon as Mahalia finds room 118, physically and mentally she doesn't want to be there because of what happened earlier. But then she has to swallow her pride and apologize for what she has done since she needs this high paying job.

She knocks on the door a couple of times and rings the doorbell as soon as no one comes to open it. After ten minutes of standing, the door swings open and there stands Casey, freshly showered with his damp hair and a towel wrapped around his waist and smells like a hint of water lily, modern tones of leafy greens and a tickling musk scent that delivers a modern finish. Like a crisp spring day, he smelled perked up and poised for success, despite being naked under the towel.

His disinterested eyes are staring intently at the flustered Mahalia whose eyes are glued on his hard rock abs and deep dented v-lines on his torso.

“The face is up here.” He speaks with a deep voice.

Mahalia instantly pulls her head up and feels her ears and cheeks burning in heat. But in the back of her head, she couldn’t erase what she had seen, that freaking huge bulge under the towel of this godly man.