Chapter 17

Athena went down to join Sean for breakfast, dressed in shorts and top and barefooted, TB had told her he would leave early to the company because he need to make preparations for the models who would be leaving with them to France for some fashion show. She was happy when she found the dining room in one try and happily jogged to meet the already eating Sean. Sean looked up from his plate of breakfast and examined her; he frowned when he noticed she was not wearing any footwear, "didn t Tobias show you the shoes I got for you?" "He did," she answered, pulling a chair back and sitting down to dish out her food. "And?" "They are all heels, I can t walk on heels, there is not a single flat something there so I said to myself, since it s just breakfast, I could come down like this." "First of all, it s not just breakfast and second, barefoot is not allowed here," he cautioned. "But they were all stilettos!" "And I got them for a purpose, you are not to go anywhere without them, in fact, if you can sleep with them on, it would be allowed." "What?" "You heard me, now go up there and put on some shoes," he looked at her, daring her to try to disobey. Athena pouted but she still stood up and left the dining room, murmuring to herself as she left. Sean went back to his feeding and was done and settled in the living room when Athena emerged again, grabbing onto the wall to walk. Sean wanted to laugh so hard but he clenched his teeth and looked back on the book he was reading. Athena glared at him and continued in her funny walk to the dining room, she missed the smile that enveloped on the handsome man s face when she passed. Done eating and ready to relax on the chair before taking the long climb up to her room, Athena managed to enter the living room and slumping on the couch with a relieved sigh. She closed her eyes to enjoy the moment of freedom of standing on those death heels when Sean emerged from nowhere to ruin her moment. "Get up, Athena," he said and she opened her eyes to glare at him, "glare all you want but get up, let s get to business." She heaved a sigh and got up, her legs shaking softly because of how imbalanced she was, Sean was alarmed when he saw that and was afraid she would break her legs and couldn t stop himself when he blurted, "take them off." Athena looked at him with gratefulness in her eyes and immediately bent to take of the death heels before he changed his mind. She stood up after, really energized and smiled to him, "what do you want us to do?" Sean rolled his eyes at her action before leaving the room with a "follow me." They passed through doors until they got into a room. The room was spacious and empty of much furniture but a table, a stool and a crystal piano with the name 'KAWAI written on it. Athena was frozen staring at the piano, "there is a crystal piano?" She murmured but Sean heard her and smiled, his piano was one of the things he is very proud of and which many pianists that came to his house all wanted to play its keyboards. He had gotten it from an auction with a huge amount of money and he was very satisfied with it. "Yes, that was the first one they ever made, although they are more like it, but this is the first of all," he said with pride laced in his voice, he took his eyes off the piano and looked at Athena, "do you play?" "No but I have always wanted to, a friend of mine back home had a Yamaha and he never lets anyone touch it," she shrugged, "oh and he makes beautiful melodies with the keyboards." Sean smiled, "that s good, well, piano lessons are not why we are here, we will practice that one later." "Why did you keep it here, don t you play it always?" "I have another one in the living room, didn t you see it?" "Honestly, I haven t looked around." Sean nodded, "I play that one on daily basis but this, not so much, this is a prize, I will offer it in an auction some time again but that won t be anytime soon." He walked to the table and picked a very big hardcover book; he walked back to her and removed the hair band which she used to hold her hair in a ponytail. "Now, try to walk to that extreme and back with this book balanced on your head." Athena stared up at him like he has gone nuts, "that s impossible!" "It s very possible," he said and placed the book on her head, "don t touch it and don t try to hold it steady with your hand. Start," he turned her around, "remember, it must not fall off from your head." Athena wiggled a little, trying to keep the book steady, she took a step, her eyeballs up, trying to watch the book and at the same time, keep it from falling. "You are walking like ugly duckling, Athena, stand straight, keep your back straight, your head held high and arms by your side then take your steps and not so sluggishly like a slug." Athena tried to do everything he said but all she took was one step and the book fell off from her head, she tried to catch it but she missed her step and she fell on the floor, on top the book. She groaned and turned to see Sean pinching the bridge of his nose, she pouted and complained, "I told you it was impossible." "No, it s not, you are just not getting it right," he walked up to her and held out his hand, she took it and he helped her up and bent down to pick up the book. "Here, watch me," he said, balancing the book on his head and without further ado, walked to the extreme in perfect movement and he turned with the book still on his head, walked back to her, "see?" Athena was watching with her mouth open, he looked so perfect and graceful, "you should be a model, Sean." "No, I train models, now come here," he waved at her and she went up to him, "try to relax, don t act like there is a book on your head, just forget it totally. The purpose of this book is to help you keep your head high and walk straight. You slouch when you sit, you slouch when you walk and you slouch when you do everything. This book would help keep you in shape; Tobias could walk perfectly with five thick books on his head. Esperanza could walk with ten; do you understand now that it took her hard-work to get to her place? Now she enjoys it and she walks around with the tag 'best international model . You don t think she woke up and became that, do you?" Athena bit her lip and shook her head softly, "let me guess, you trained her?" "I trained all my A-list models, now stop questioning me and do what I say," he gave her a light push and she started walking but it was so hard to forget the book that was dangling on her head and soon, it fell off and she turned back to see Sean frowning. She wanted to say something but he shushed her with his eyes, walked up to her, picked up the book and placed it back on her head, "just know that from now on, you will be eating with a book on your head. So the early you master walking with one book, we can go to two, then three and so on and so forth." Athena couldn t believe what she heard; he is not training like his models right? She doesn t want to walk with ten books on her head like Esperanza, "just so we are clear, Sean, I don t want to be a model." She didn t know if she imagined it but she could swear she saw his lips lift up briefly in a smile, "as long as you are here, I am going to train you like one." He replied and nodded at her to continue walking. She groaned but still did as he asked. They were at it till late in the afternoon when TB came back with reports for Sean, he told him to watch Athena and left to take a few calls. Athena looked at TB tiredly and he smiled in pity at her, "sorry, been there. During my time, he told me 'if you want to handle my models then you must be a great example to them , so, just deal with it, soon, you will be good in it," he said to her. Athena heaved a sigh, "I know but can I ask you something?" "Go on." "Is he really that strict when teaching someone?" "Girl, if you are able to make Sean smile for one second when he is teaching you, then you must be special because he never smiles, and once after the lesson for the day, he would be laughing and telling jokes and you would be wondering, is he still the same Sean or does he have a twin that comes out only during lesson periods?" "I believe I told you to watch her not chat with her," Sean said behind him and they both shrieked. "Would you stop creeping out on someone," TB complained and with a huff, left the room. Athena didn t say anything and just placed the book on her head and started walking, when she turned from him, she missed the smile that curved on his lips before he went to sit on the chair to watch her.