jungle.”
I nodded my consent and for the next twenty minutes I
gritted my teeth while Sabrina pulled, heated, curled and sprayed my hair in a
brutal assault I thought would never end. The results however were breathtaking
and my hair had never looked so good. When I looked at my reflection in the
mirror, all the pain I had endured was completely forgotten and forgiven.
“What do you think?” I turned to Shawnee, who was
beaming at me.
“Damn girl; I’m going to have remember some of those
techniques for the club!” Shawnee complimented me until I blushed. I just hoped
Sabrina thought Shawnee was talking about partying at night clubs and didn’t
guess that we actually worked at a strip club.
Luckily, Sabrina seemed oblivious as she grabbed her
makeup kit and smiled at me kindly. “Now for the makeup. We’re going for a very
seductive look so I’m going to give you very heavy, smoky eyes and instead of
mascara we’ll use false eyelashes. They’ll last all day and won’t melt under
the lights. For your lips, I’m going to give you lip gloss with lots of shimmer
to make them look moist and sexy. We don’t want lipstick because the script
calls for lots of kissing and you don’t want to have to keep reapplying that
all day or get it on the actor.”
Lots of kissing? I’d never done that on film and the
thought made me feel nervous but excited. Swallowing hard, I said, “I haven’t
seen the script yet.”
“Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of time for that
while they set up the lighting and adjust their cameras,” Sabrina comforted me,
but what I really wondered was who would I be kissing? Dimitri never told me
who I would be working with in the commercial and I never thought to ask. Of
course he probably didn’t know. Somehow I doubt he had the same influence with
directors over male actors as he did with female ones. Just thinking about what
a pig he was infuriated me all over again, and I forced my thoughts to other
things. Shawnee was grilling Sabrina for tidbits of gossip over who had the
best skin in Hollywood and who had secret scars she had to cover up that no one
knew about. Sabrina was purely professional however, and wouldn’t budge. She
did delight us with tales of all the traveling she’d done and the exotic
locations where’d she had to apply makeup. Before I knew it, Sabrina was done.
“Wow!” I breathed as I looked at the final results in
the mirror. The dramatic eye makeup was even heavier than what I wore at the
club, but the affects were amazing. I felt sexy, sophisticated, wild, and maybe
even a bit dangerous.
“Now for costuming,” Sabrina said and led me the short
distance to a room that was basically a giant closet. Racks upon racks of
clothes lined the room from one end to the other. A short, heavy-set woman with
steel gray hair attacked me at once with a tape measure and started taking my
size while Shawnee tried not to laugh at the look of horror on my face. I
quickly found out that the seamstress’ name was Maude and she was always in a
hurry and very picky about the costumes she fitted.
“We’re going to go with a midnight blue strapless
evening gown, heavy sequins, very sparkly. Take off your clothes and put this
on.”
Maude thrust a gown into my hands and Shawnee laughed
aloud at my gaping expression as the impatient old woman started pulling off my
clothes. At the sound of Shawnee’s giggles, Maud turned on her and started
pushing her out the door. “You, out! Costuming is no laughing matter. It takes
deep concentration and a lot of hard work or the whole commercial could be
ruined. Get out and stay out!”
I struggled hard to hold in my own giggles of
amusement as Shawnee was physically pushed out of the room by this tiny,
gray-haired woman who was easily half her size. Just before the door closed
shut, I caught of glimpse of Shawnee giving Maude the finger with a spirited
glare, but I knew that somehow she’d be just fine. Shawnee had a way of
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