Exposure Read Free Page A

double life thing. You’ll be way less stressed out.” She nods
toward the stairs. “Take Delilah for example. Delilah’s never
stressed.”
    Delilah swings from the bottom end of
the banister, her curtain of auburn hair swinging back and forth.
Delilah—EPE’s Jessica Rabbit. Full hips and boobs, tiny little
waist. Huge lips and eyes. She doesn’t just play a vixen on
television either.
    “ I’ve told Evan this a
million and a half times,” she says, sauntering over to us. “You
get used to the cat calls. The free drinks make up for it. Plus the
sex any time you want it.”
    Delilah isn’t like me—she doesn’t have
a pseudonym.
    “ And if I did that then
I’d never get any work done.”
    “ You’d be too busy
fucking.”
    “ Well… no—”
    But she cuts me off. “Who.
Is. That ?” She
leans in toward the computer. “I want to lick every inch of
him.”
    “ You might get to.”
Britain zooms in on Dallas’s picture.
    “ He’s one of our new
boys?” Delilah bites her bottom lip.
    “ No… No .” I put my hands on my hips.
Nothing says serious business like hands on the hips.
    “ Think about it, Evan.
You’d have someone in your own department who understands you. You
guys could be buddies.” Britain bats her eyelashes. “While Delilah
climbs him like a tree for our benefit.”
    I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”
    As I trudge up to my room, Britain
yells, “So you’ll be around tomorrow to meet him,
right?”
    I don’t answer.
    “ Hey Evan, want to have
a How I Met Your Mother marathon this weekend?” Delilah asks.
    “ Can’t. Homework. Always
homework.” I watch as she pouts from below. “Try after
graduation.”
     
    ^^^^
     
    As I lie in bed, I clutch my stomach,
wondering why it’s twisting so much. I’m not jealous of Delilah.
I’m not. I’m making money. I’m getting great grades. I’m going to
get into grad school. The last thing I need is to be distracted by
a bunch of male models. Bringing them in to work alongside us is a
bad idea in the first place.
    When Britain sees that having them
work with us will just turn off male readers, then they’ll leave
and things will return to normal.
    I just have to wait.
     
    ^^^^
     
    When I hang around shoots that aren’t
mine, waiting for my own turn in front of the camera, I usually
wear something comfortable, but much trendier than what Evan would
wear to school. Sexy Rylan comfy. Today, it’s a black romper and
gladiator sandals while Nora does my makeup and hair.
    I guess Nora would be another one I’d
consider to know both of my identities. But I don’t really care
that she knows—she graduated from a cosmetic school on the other
side of town, is not-so-secretly super goth, and wants nothing to
do with us college skanks.
    I kind of like her.
    We don’t pay her much. I’m sure she
only comes in to doll us up from the credit in the mag. She’s
actually had quite a few of our subscribers (or subscribers
girlfriends, I guess) wanting to set up an appointment because of
what they saw in EPE.
    I close my eyes as she sprays on my
makeup. I get the usual Rylan look today—soft, curly hair cascading
over my shoulders, and a shadow palette in quiet browns. Cheeks an
innocent pink hue. My favorite thing, oddly enough, is the pair of
fake eyelashes I get every day. There’s something about eyelashes
that totally changes a girl’s appearance, and makes me look like an
entirely different person.
    When Nora is done, I
examine myself in the mirror. Hello,
Rylan.
    I curl my fingers around
one of my locks and head out toward today’s set. There’s only one
bedroom in the studio side of the house. We use it for most of our
inside shoots, the bed, furniture, and walls covered to rematch our
theme. I haven’t really been paying attention lately to the mag
lineup so I’m not sure what is planned for Delilah’s shoot—which is
why, when I step foot into the bedroom, I’m not expecting to be
handed a bottle of chocolate syrup and have