Okay…maybe going out of town is a bad idea. I can’t just leave the horses. I sigh. I have this week and next to figure it out. The new guy might not need as much care by then, but I don’t know. He has the drive to get better. I just hope that carries over into him actually healing.
“So, Aiden is still at your house?” Lori asks.
“Yeah. He was sleeping when I left.”
“Oh my God. How the hell did you force yourself away from that?”
I laugh softly. “It was hard. He’s so…he’s perfect, Lori.” I let out a deep breath and push on the gas. “Am I completely crazy?”
“Not at all. Sexy celebrity status aside, he seems like a really great guy who really cares about you. And,” she adds quickly. “It’s normal to be freaked out a bit when you start a relationship. With anyone. Especially one as passionate as what you guys have. Fuck, I’m so jealous. Seriously. This isn’t fair,” she laughs.
I nod, then realize she can’t see me. “Thanks.”
“What is he doing? Isn’t it killing you to know he’s in your freaking bed right now?”
It does, but half of that is because I’m so tired. “Yes. He sleeps naked too.”
“You are killing me!” she says, and I laugh. “What is he going to do? Just hang out?”
“Yeah. For today and tomorrow at least. He has to go back to California for some talk show, then he’ll come back to finish filming the movie. He’ll stay here again until next Thursday when he flies back home to L.A. for another interview and then the premiere. I’m leaving Friday after work.”
“Oh my God,” she says again. I hear her car door slam shut. “Ugh. I’m at work, but I don’t want to go in.”
“I hate work,” I grumble as I turn onto the street the press is on.
“Maybe you won’t have to work!” she exclaims.
“Way too soon for those thoughts, Lori,” I correct.
“Celebrity couples get married after like five or six months all the time. You’re like halfway to a diamond the size of your fist.”
I laugh and shake my head. “We’ll see.”
“Oh, before I go,” she starts. “What are you wearing to the premiere?”
“I don’t know. Aiden said he’d take care of everything.”
“That is so romantic!”
I shake my head but smile. “I suppose it is, and it’s not the first time he bought me a pretty dress.” I pull into the parking lot at work and cut the engine. “I’m at hell too. I mean work.”
“We should go in. On the count of three, hang up and march our asses inside.”
I get out of the car, not bothering to roll up the windows or lock the doors. “One, two, three.”
I end the call and drop my phone into my purse. I make a face but suck it up and go into work. I should be grateful I got a job in my field right out of college. Lori is still working at the Super 8, being bored out of her mind behind the front desk.
“Hey, Haley,” Shondra says, looking up from filing her nails.
“Hi,” I say with a smile.
“You look good today. Did you do something different to you hair?”
I flick my eyes up, like I could actually see my hair, and shake my head. I washed it last night and let it air dry. I went so far as brushing it and pushing it back with a headband this morning. I had to forego doing makeup since I lay cuddled up next to Aiden for ten extra minutes. “Uh, no. But thanks.”
She nods and goes back to her nails. I get as far as putting my purse on my desk before Mr. Weebly comes up behind me.
“Haley!” he exclaims. I turn, and his eyes go right to my chest.
“Hi,” I say with a pressed smile.
“So, it’s been a while. Put any more thought into that picture?”
Picture? What picture. Oh, right. The one he wanted me to get by using Aiden, the one he asked for weeks ago and won’t freaking let it drop. I tell him no every time he asks. I thought he’d stop after the second time, getting the hint I wasn’t going to illegally sneak a picture into the press. If it’s that important to him, he should creep around and take it himself. Geeze. “No,” I say and debate on telling a lie. It would be believable to say I hadn’t seen Aiden lately, really. He was busy and I was, well, just some girl from Montana, ya know, not the typical person an A-list actor hangs around. “If you want pictures, you need to contact his agency.”
His eyes narrow and he strokes his jaw. “Huh. Well, I’ll let you think about it for a few more days. You two must be pretty close by now.” He winks and my skin crawls. I know exactly what he imagines goes on between us. “The article you wrote about the horses was good,” he says. I just smile and nod, knowing he hasn’t even read it.
I sit at my desk, trying not to let that get to me. It makes me mad that people don’t think of Aiden as a person, only as a celebrity. He is so much more than that.
Chapter 24
I should be sleeping. I should be in bed, tucked in, catching up on the sleep I didn’t get last night. Or this morning. I dozed on the plane but never fell into a deep sleep.
I miss Haley, and being alone in my house is unnerving. I miss the Montana farmhouse, the tight fit in our sleeping arrangements.
I miss her.
She is worried coming back here will remind me of the life I used to love so much, but she is wrong. It reminds me how fucked up this life it, how all of Hollywood is. It stirs the darkness and it creeps up and takes a hold of me.
I should be sleeping, but I’m sitting at a private table in a bar with several cast mates from Shadowland. The place is packed and loud, the smell of body odor and perfume mixed with bleach and alcohol. It’s one of the hottest places in L.A., and fucking hard to get into. Unless you’re me, that is.
I down my third shot of Scotch and feel my mind unwind, yet the more I drink, the harder it is to hold back the darkness. It’s a battle, and for a brief moment the darkness wins. Then I drink more and drown it out completely. I don’t want to get to that point, especially when I have to be up early for filming, but I don’t want to feel the pain of the dark even more.
Everyone is talking and laughing, and I’m playing my part like I was born to do it, fooling them all. I’m deep in conversation—well, as deep as any drunk person can be—with my co-star on Shadowland, Sam McGuire, about who’s going to get killed off next, when someone slides into the booth next to me.
“Hey, Aiden,” she says into my ear.
I stiffen. Kennedy. I turn, and she’s right up next to me. She’s wearing a low-cut red dress and a full mask of makeup. I can’t deny that she looks good; Kennedy is a very beautiful woman. But her over-the-top look is too perfect and turns me off. From her airbrushed makeup to her surgically enhanced tits, everything about her screams fake, and it reminds me just how fake her affection for me was. Once, she noticed the cuts on my arm and made a snide comment about how ugly scars were.
“Hello, Kennedy,” I say without missing a beat. I relax my shoulders and smile—just like I should.
She leans in and puts her hand on my thigh. She’s drunk, or acting drunk, probably. She did that a lot in the months we were together, just for attention. “I haven’t seen you in so long,” she says. “How are you? You look good.”
“So do you.” I put on the charm without thinking. It’s what I do. It’s who I’m supposed to be. “And I’m good. Really good.”
“Aww, that makes me so happy to hear.” She bats her lashes. “You’re such a good guy, Aiden.” She scoots closer and flicks her eyes across the table. I see the flashing lights from the dance floor reflecting off a camera. Oh, for fuck’s sake. I move away from Kennedy. I haven’t kept track of her career since she parted ways on Shadowland, but I know she hasn’t worked on anything big. Is she getting so desperate for attention she’s staging a reunion between us for the fucking paparazzi?