by Hazel Parker
“Just my mom and I,” he replied. “Look, I get that you want to make sure that I’m not a jerk before you agree to this, but here’s the thing: I am a jerk. I’m just like everyone else in this city, looking to get ahead. I’m offering you the chance to do something that’s going to help both of us, and that’s it. It’s not about liking each other. If you’re not interested by now, I’m wasting my time.”
Jessica had to admit that it could work, even as much as that last comment made her blood boil a little. It was a bit unconventional, sure; maybe even a bit unethical, but she wasn’t in a place where she could be passing up life-changing offers. If she were being honest with herself, she’d made her decision even before she’d made him go into the details.
“Alright, Jace Oliver,” she said, “you’ve got yourself a deal.” Jace reached into his pocket and tugged out a packet of papers clipped together with a pen.
“Wish I could say I’m surprised,” he bragged, laying the papers on the table. He opened his mouth to explain them, but Jessica stopped him with a raised hand.
“I prefer to read them myself,” she said, not waiting for permission before picking the packet up and skimming it over. Most of the terms seemed simple enough: she’d agree to be his fiancée for two months in the public eye; she’d not be forced to consent to any physical acts beyond holding hands for the paparazzi; she’d never tell a soul that the engagement wasn’t real under penalty of a lawsuit. The rules were simple, she knew, but what she wanted to know wasn’t what was expected of her, but what was being promised. Three pages in, she found the section that entailed her compensation.
“The signatory will gain the notoriety of press coverage of the engagement as well as the assistance of talent agent Nora Thatch during the two months of the contract,” she read aloud. “Expenses of living shall be covered for this time.”
It didn’t seem like much—really, if she’d had a lawyer or even a well-versed talent agent of her own, she probably could have angled for more out of the deal. She clicked the pen a few times pensively. However, ever since she’d moved to Hollywood, she’d told herself that all she needed was one lucky break, five minutes of fame to show people what she was capable of. If she played her cards right, this could be the spotlight she’d been waiting for. Without letting her rational mind talk her out of it, Jessica held her breath and signed and initialed along the dotted line at the bottom of the contract. As soon as she picked the pen up off the paper, Jace tugged it back, narrowly avoiding causing her to draw a black line over the whole thing.
“Oh,” Jace exclaimed, reaching into his pant pocket for a small box, “before I forget. Here.” Jessica took the black box from his hands and opened it, her heart pounding when the light of the moon sparkled off what was inside: a massive diamond ring.
“This is the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen,” she almost laughed. Really, it was an ostentatious ring, bordering gaudy, much flashier than anything she’d normally ever wear and probably six times as expensive.
“It’s not a gift,” he clarified. “Nora picked it out; it’s just until the end of the contract, so don’t get attached.” The insinuation was petty, and she might have told him as much if not for the waitress coming back to the table with two plates of pasta.
“Can I get you two anything else?” she asked sweetly, still barely sparing a glance at Jessica.
“Yes, actually,” Jace said, “could we get two glasses of your finest champagne?” The waitress nodded.
“Celebrating something special?”
Under the table, Jessica felt Jace nudge her with his foot. Already, she realized with an internal groan, she’d have to start meeting his demands. Forcing the biggest smile she could muster, she slipped the ring on her finger under the table and showed it off.
“We just got engaged!” she exclaimed. Ugh, even her fake-excited voice disgusted her. The waitress squealed, her previous jealousy seemingly replaced by sisterhood, and grabbed Jessica’s hand to view the ring in several different angles.
“That’s amazing; congratulations!” she gushed. “I’m going to get you some dessert to celebrate, and then I’ll leave you two alone!” Before they could say another word, she’d already skipped off, leaving Jessica and Jace in an uncomfortable silence. He didn’t feel the need to say another word to her throughout the evening unless there was an audience, so Jessica tried to just focus on getting through the dinner so she could go home and sleep. She decided to take the subway home instead of calling a cab, reveling in what might be her last day of complete anonymity before the tabloids made her face so easily recognizable that she’d never be able to go anywhere again without posing for fan pictures or signing autographs. Just the thought was enough to make her giddy. After a routine train ride home, Jessica washed her face and brushed her teeth, but before she turned her phone off for the night, she remembered one more thing she had to do. She didn’t care that it was almost midnight as she dialed the number to the producer that had called her what seemed like months ago but had actually only been a few hours, waiting until the voicemail picked up.
“This is Jessica Owens,” she announced proudly, “I actually won’t be taking the commercial role you offered me earlier. Thanks, anyway.” She slid the ring off her finger and set it on the nightstand next to her alarm clock with a wide, genuine grin. The two months might be long, but she was sure, now more than ever, that they’d be worth it, no matter how intolerable Jace might be.
Chapter Four: Jace
The next morning began the filming for the final episode of Code Blue, and though Jace was determined not to show it, he was nervous. Always one of the last stars to emerge from hair and makeup, he stepped out onto the set to find that the news of his engagement had spread even faster than he’d anticipated.
“Hey, Oliver!” Kirk, the man who’d been his costar and at least more than a passing acquaintance for the past eight years, called, looking up from his phone. “I think you’ve got some tabloid headlines to straighten out.”
He sighed. No one in the cast of the show would be particularly surprised by the fact that he could have a secret fiancée that they’d never met, even Kirk, but he was the only person who might be a little disappointed that he’d never even heard about her.
“Yeah, Jace,” another one of the show doctors, a young woman named Missy, added. “Somehow everyone’s got this story that you’re getting married to some girl that was an extra on the show in season three.”
Jace sighed. “I don’t tell you guys everything,” he said simply, bracing himself for the uproar.
“Wait, so it’s true?” Kirk squawked, somewhere between offended and just plain dumbfounded. Jace shrugged innocently. “No way!” Kirk exclaimed. “How long have you two been together?”
Panic suddenly gripped his stomach as he realized that he hadn’t gone over any of the details that Nora had typed up about their fake history. He had no idea how long he’d supposedly dated Jessica, anything about their relationship, or even when their wedding date was. Luckily, Missy was still reading the tabloids.
“Hollywood Daily says that you’ve only been going out for six months,” she said.
“Yeah,” he agreed, hoping that the story that he was agreeing with matched the one Jessica had been sent and that he wasn’t perjuring himself on the very first day of the lie. “We ran into each other and started talking about the episodes she’d been on, and one thing led to another.”
“Jace, didn’t you go home with one of the extras, like, last month?” Kirk pointed out. Damn, he needed to stop bragging about his sexual conquests like that—it was biting him now. The director saved him before he needed to answer, which at least could buy him some time to prepare a story, but looking around the room, it was clear that Kirk wasn’t the only person who didn’t believe the news. Several of his other co-stars were gossiping amongst themselves, all eyes on him while they shook their heads and whispered. Thinking quickly, he took out his phone and typed up a one-handed message
to Jessica.
Code Blue cast doesn’t believe the engagement. Have lunch with me.
A moment later, her response came.
What if I’m busy?
She was irritated, he could tell, that he was making demands of her. Well, whatever. She literally signed up for this, after all.
Noon. Something homemade. Nora will give u the address.
Not waiting to see how that went over, he returned his phone to his pocket and silenced it to focus on whatever the director was asking.
The morning passed slowly. Since they were performing the series finale, the directors and producers were committed to perfection, which meant that they had to do twice as many takes as an episode would normally take, not to mention that it was an hour-long special event as opposed to a regular twenty-minute episode. Jace’s arms were sore from all the fake CPR, and the surgical cap was definitely starting to affect the shape of his hair. Finally, the cameraman sat back, and the studio lights dimmed back to normal.
“We’ll take an hour for lunch,” one of the directors called irritably. They were always angry about something or another. Jace took the blue cap off his head and ran a hand roughly through his shoulder-length hair, then turned to head back to his trailer for lunch before he spotted Jessica standing off to the side and remembered that he’d asked her to come.
“Hey, you,” he greeted loudly enough for the rest of the cast to hear. Suddenly, everyone was descending upon the couple all at once.
“I didn’t have time to make anything from scratch,” Jessica said, distaste heavily coloring her tone, “so I just stopped at a deli.” She opened an unlabeled brown bag to reveal takeout containers from Jace’s favorite spot on the corner and what looked like a tin of his favorite soup—she must’ve asked Nora what he liked.
“That’s perfect, sweetie,” he returned. Jessica smiled in relief, and he put one arm around her waist, careful to be gentle enough not to knock into the soups. “Everyone, this is my fiancée, Jessica,” he introduced to the still-growing crowd. Kirk enveloped her in a hug.
“Remember me?” he asked, and Jessica laughed.
“Of course I remember you all,” she said. “I’m surprised that you know who I am.”
Missy held up her phone. “We’ve been reading trashy magazines all morning,” she admitted. “It’s the only way to get to know anything about Jace’s personal life, apparently.”
Jessica nodded. “Oh, everything I know about him is from gossip panels,” she said, garnering laughter from the crowd that had no idea how honest she was being. Jace gave her hip a tight squeeze as a warning.
“I have to ask,” Kirk started, creeping in close to Jessica as if to edge Jace out of the way, “why Jace? I didn’t think there was a girl out there who could stand him for more than a few hours. Is there some kind of soft, romantic side to him that he keeps hidden from the world?”
“Enough,” Jace interjected, cutting off whatever cheeky reply Jessica might have given. “I’m sure she didn’t come here to be interrogated. We’ll be having lunch in my trailer if you need me.”
As he turned Jessica toward the door, Jace tuned out the complaints of his curious co-workers and ushered her into his trailer, where he closed the door behind them but opened the window blinds. Maintaining a loving smile, he began to unpack their lunches, but his tone was anything but kind.
“Don’t pull those little cutesy remarks again,” he warned. “You might think it’s funny to say things like ‘I don’t even know him,’ but if anyone puts together that this isn’t real, there will be hell to pay.” Jessica’s eyes went wide, stunned at the rapid change in demeanor. “Keep smiling,” he scolded, “because I know people are watching. Remember your contract, Jessica.” Reluctantly, she pretended to laugh at a joke and forced a happy expression despite what felt like a dark cloud over the table as she picked at the soup she’d picked up from the deli. He could see that he’d upset her, and part of him almost felt bad about it. Jace found himself biting his lip so as to keep himself from apologizing. After all, he’d done nothing wrong—Jessica needed to take this seriously because it was too late to turn back now. Still, something about the ashamed blush on her cheeks and the way her pink lips seemed to waver in the smile she held, the sadness in her green eyes and the way she used her red hair to hide her face from him… she was too pretty to look so sad.
As punishment, he decided to let the issue lie and to avoid saying another word to her while they ate. Several times, she looked like she wanted to ask him a question or at least alleviate the tension by chatting, but he kept his line of sight cast firmly down at his meal until she seemed to give up on him entirely and turned her attention to her phone, texting friends and playing silly app games. It wasn’t a fun lunch, not for either of them, but the lack of idle chatter made it not unbearable, as she wasn’t an unpleasant presence, and she was certainly something to look at. He hadn’t noticed the night before, so engrossed in thoughts of business and his own desires, but Jessica Owens was a beautiful woman. Not stick-thin like so many other female actors, she didn’t quite fit the Hollywood cookie-cutter mold, but her curves suited her, and the extra weight that she carried in her chest and hips made her look more like a woman than a child, unlike so many of the models he was used to working with. Her hair was long and curly, flowing gently over her shoulders like honey over a spoon, and even though she hadn’t fulfilled all his requests, she’d definitely dressed like a woman who was going to see someone she had a crush on, in a lacy, tight dress that hugged her body in all the right places.
“Can I help you?” she asked in an irritable yet teasing tone, tugging him out of his thoughts for long enough for him to realize that he’d been staring.
“Thanks for lunch,” he muttered. Even just that amount of decency was enough to make her smile for real, which was even more dazzling than her put-upon one.
“What are contractual fiancées for?” she joked, packing up the empty bowls and beginning to tidy the table. She put the trash into the can and allowed Jace to open the door for her, leading both of them back out into the studio.
Unexpectedly, the rest of the cast hadn’t left the studio for lunch. Jace had forgotten, in his quest to sell them all on the idea that he was actually engaged, that lunch was being catered for the final day of filming, so no one had gone out. Instead, everyone, both cast and crew, had remained on site, and many of his friends were crowded around the stairs of the studio, blocking their entrance.
“How was lunch, lovebirds?” Kirk teased, still seeming convinced that Jace was pulling something.
“It was great,” Jace replied, “but Jessica has to get going.”
Missy frowned. “Aw, I was hoping we could get to know you a little,” she pouted. “Can’t you stay just for the hour?”
Clearly knowing that Jace didn’t want her there, she shook her head. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It was nice to meet you all, though. I wish I could stay longer.”
Before Jace could usher her out the back way to her car, Missy spoke up again.
“You’re coming to the party though, right?” she asked hopefully. “The closing party for Code Blue. It’s this Friday. Jace is going to be there, and everyone gets a plus one.”
“Yeah,” Kirk added, “it’d really be weird if you didn’t come.” Jessica flashed nervous, uncertain eyes at Jace.
“I don’t really think—”
“Of course she’s coming with me,” Jace curtailed, talking over whatever excuse she might have come up with. She tensed but forced a giggle.
“Right, I’ll definitely be there,” she said firmly. Missy and Kirk looked pleased enough, so Jace dragged her away after some swift goodbyes and walked her to the cab he’d called for her.
“A party?” she near-whined, looking like he’d asked her to go to an awkward high school reunion rather than one of the most exciting Hollywood gatherings of the year. “Jace, I’m not much of a party girl, and I’m not going to know anyone.”
&nbs
p; “You’ll know me,” he argued. “Look, everyone brings their partners to these things, so it’d be suspicious if you weren’t there. Nora bought you a dress to wear; it matches my suit and tie. I’ll bring it over when I pick you up.”
