Thankfully, before his father could continue Adam"s mother entered the room. "You"re here." She said to Adam warmly. "Lunch is ready, come along."Both men followed her downstairs, one apathetically, and one begrudgingly.
As Adam looked at the spread on the table his face paled. He felt full just looking at all the food. "Mother you didn"t need to cook so much." He said politely.
"It"s not a bother." She said as she sat down. "You rarely come home to eat, and you must be so tired from working so hard. I made sure to cook foods to replenish your energy. Eat a lot."
"He"s not working that hard." Adam"s father grumbled as he began filling his plate.
"Father please." Adam said politely. "You know how mother hates talking about work at the table." In truth, Adam didn"t care about his mother"s opinion. He just didn"t want to have to listen to his father"s lecture.
"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Hayes asked with a frown.
"He found a model he wants to use for MK"s event, but she rejected him."
"Is that true?" Mrs. Hayes asked with surprise. MK was more successful than ever; who would reject such a golden opportunity?
"It"s true, but the situation is a bit complex." Adam said lightly.
"What"s complex?" His father protested. "You can"t even convince a single girl?"
"I"m in contact with her, I just need some time to convince her." Adam a.s.sured them.
"You have her number?" His mother asked. Adam"s heart sank as soon as the words came out of her mouth. "Contact her right now."
"I thought no work at the table." Adam said innocently.
"Screw that." His mother said excitedly. "Contact her. I want to see if it"s true."
Adam tried to decline, but he had to fold under his parent"s pressure. He pulled out his phone and sent Elle a simple text message. "Won"t you reconsider?"
Her reply came quickly. "I"m sorry to disappoint you Mr. Hayes, but I think it"s best you use someone else for your event."
"There." Adam said showing the response to his parents. "I don"t know what you expected."
"What sort of model would reject MK?" His mother asked, stunned by the fact that someone had actually rejected the offer.
"She"s not a model." Adam said without looking up for his food.
His father slammed the table, enraged. "Are you trying to make a fool of us?" He bellowed.
"Calm down father. I told you before, I will prove my capabilities with my results. You should just patiently wait for the event, I"m sure you will be satisfied then."
Mr. Hayes mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and Mrs. Hayes let out a sigh.
"He"s right dear," She told her husband, "It"s not good for your health to keep poking your nose in the business. Just leave him be, I"m sure it will be fine."
His father let the topic drop but only because it wasn"t worth it to go against his wife. The three enjoyed a nice meal. Every time Adam finished what was on his plate his mother would pile on more. It was only after he was so full that his stomach began to hurt that his mother finally conceded.
She sent Adam and his father to the living room, while she returned to the kitchen to brew some tea.
The rest of the afternoon pa.s.sed uneventfully. Adam and his father both had quite personalities, but his mother made up for it. Mrs. Hayes filled the silence by telling trivial stories, Adam and his father didn"t contribute to the conversation, but she didn"t seem to mind.
Adam was only partially listening, when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. When he took the phone out he saw that had received a notification that Elle had updated her story. He looked at the notification for a moment, but this time he didn"t open it. Instead he put his phone back in his pocket and continued listening to his mother"s story indifferently.
~~
It was already quite late when Adam finally drove back home. His mother had wanted him to stay for dinner, but he was still so full from lunch that he had to decline. His mother packed some food for him instead, Adam suspected it would last him several days.
When Adam returned to his condo he put most of the food away in the fridge. There was a container of soup that he decided to have as a light dinner, he poured it into a pot and put it on the stove.
As he waited for it to heat up he opened Elle"s latest update on his phone. He raised his eyes in surprise as he saw how long it was. In the past few weeks her updates had only been two or three sentences. This time her update was almost four pages long.
Adam leaned against the countertop and began scrolling through it. In the story Rina was an actress, and while working on her latest movie she met a male actor. Most people were demanding of Rina and expected a lot from her, because of this Rina was often pushing herself past her capabilities. However, this male actor was gentle with her, and allowed her to be herself and go at her own pace.
Towards the end of the update Rina had a breakdown. She felt like she wasn"t capable enough to continue acting. Elle had written "Every night, while the world is busy sleeping, I"m caught up fighting shadows in my mind. When I reflect on myself I can"t help but feel that I"m not good enough."
Seeing Elle"s update at the party made Adam suspect that Elle was using the novel to write about her own feelings. Did this mean this is what was keeping her from being the model for MK? If so his job was simple, he simply had to account for her insecurities.
Adam was distracted by his phone and forgot about the food on the stove until it started boiling. He snapped out of his thoughts and quickly turned the stove off. He left the soup to cool and went into his home office.
He looked through several files on his desk until he found the one he was looking for. Inside one of the files concerning the upcoming event were detailed doc.u.ments regarding the setup of the event.
His dinner was all but forgotten as he went through the doc.u.ments, adjusting the entire event for the sake of one model.