Read Air for Free Online Page A

charity.”
    “No problem.”
    Four hundred dollars to attend a pajama party? Still, it was only a fraction of the $250K Zeke was making this year in sponsorships. It was for a good cause, but it was by far the most expensive party I’d ever gone to.
    “Do I have time to buy new PJs? Mine are ancient,” I said.
    “Good point I don’t actually own pajamas,” Zeke said.
    “So just go in whatever you do wear,” Chase suggested.
    “Um,” Zeke said, considering how to formulate his reply, before I said, “He’ll buy some.”
    The girls in the group had been chatting to each other and mostly ignoring me, but one of them, a girl called Marisa, asked me the question I always dreaded. I’d been hoping they’d heard my previous conversation with Inga so I’d be spared it.
    “And what is it you do, Iris?”
    I knew from eavesdropping that Marisa was the owner of a fashionable art gallery and appeared to have done pretty well for herself, judging by the Fendi handbag on her arm and the diamonds encircling her wrist.
    “I surf.”
    “To make a living?”
    “Yep, although not much of one.”
    “Not yet,” Zeke said. “But one day. Just you wait. We have the next Steph Gilmore here.”
    I smiled at him. He never gave up. My own personal motivational coach.
    “You know, Zeke,” a Brazilian woman called Ursula said, “you have time to come down to the magazine and do a shoot for us.”
    “Which magazine is this?” I asked, imagining a spread of my boyfriend in Ocean Drive magazine.
    “ Ride . You come too, Iris. You might get a kick out of it.”
    “How long would it take?” Zeke asked.
    “Honey, you’re no rookie; two hours and you’re done. You’d really be doing me a favor. Sergio wants a fresh face for the August issue. He’ll probably put you on the cover.”
    “You should do it,” I said to him, “cover boy.”
    “We’ll have you on a motorcycle,” Ursula said. “You still ride that bike back in Oahu?”
    “Gave it to my brother.”
    “To Garrett?”
    “Wes.”
    “Really? He never seemed like the type. Not to me.”
    Zeke gave her a sharp look. “Why not?”
    It was an awkward moment, and I knew what Zeke was thinking: he thought this was a dig at Wes for being gay. As if gay guys didn’t ride motorcycles or something, which was obviously ridiculous, but a few of the surfers who competed with Zeke on the tour had made snide remarks about Wes and his boyfriend Elijah, and Zeke always pulled them up on it.
    “No reason. Did I say something?”
    “I’ll come down and get my picture taken but we’re only here for a few more days.”
    “So come Wednesday morning. I can have something set up for eleven.”
    “OK, but Iris has to be in the picture too.”
    “Zeke, NO. Ignore him.”
    “Of course,” Ursula said, looking at me with a new expression in her eyes. Appraising me for the first time. “A little make-up. A dress. Hair up. Sure, I can see the potential.”
    I stood up. “Thank you very much, but I’m not at all photogenic and I’d only ruin the pictures of Zeke. You know, I think I’ll give you some time to catch up. It was nice to meet you all. Bye.”
    I turned on my heel before I could get pushed into doing something that I really didn’t want to do.
    “Iris,” Zeke called after me and I waved at him, shouted, “I’ll meet you back at the hotel,” and then turned to keep walking.
    “Wait!” he said, persistent, and caught me up, breathless and sweaty. “Why are you leaving? We only just got here. I want my friends to get to know you.”
    I was just going to answer that I really needed to find a loo, as I was busting for a wee, when his phone started ringing.
    I could hear the deep New York tones of our publicist, and Zeke hadn’t even put her on speaker.
    Whatever she was saying had the effect of making him frown hard.
    “No, no. Tomorrow. Definitely. Tomorrow. I have the email right here. You sure? They never sent another email, Whitney, I swear. No, no