“I’m Angelina’s mother, Rose,” my mother said as she thrust her hand out to shake hands with Dean.
“Hello Rose, it’s very nice to meet you too,” Dean said as he stood next to me and held my hand.
“Okay, I’m going to have the nurse get you prepped. I’d ask that everyone head out to the waiting room for the time being. You can keep one person here with you.”
My mother looked at me and then motioned to the cameraman. She actually wanted me to send everyone else out and keep the damn cameraman in the room with me! That was my mother, more interested in getting the unrealistic reality show footage than she was about her own daughter.
“Dean, will you stay?” I asked. “The rest of you can go,” I said as I waited for my mother to start moving toward the door.
He looked tentatively at my mother and then back to me.
“Of course, like I said, I’m all yours.”
“Did you get that?” I heard my mother ask the cameraman as they started to walk out.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. The farther I got away from the reality television world, the more absurd it seemed to be. I really couldn’t believe some of the things we had taped over the years and that I hadn’t stood up for myself sooner.
“I’m sorry you got videotaped; we can tell them not to use it.”
“It’s alright. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Just don’t ask me to take an Instamatch selfie right now.” He laughed.
“What? This isn’t a good look for me?” I asked as I pulled the cloth from my lip and it oozed blood.
Dean grabbed the cloth and gently placed it against my lip again. His eyes looked into mine, and I felt my heart calming. Just having him near me did something magical to my emotions. It was like I could handle anything that the world sent my way. I wasn’t afraid of being successful; I wasn’t afraid of being unsuccessful. The way Dean looked at me felt like he loved me, and I thought I was feeling it too.
It was crazy! I knew it; how could I have feelings for a man I had just met? I wasn’t going to tell him, and I certainly wouldn’t say it out loud, but I was having feelings for him, that was for sure.
Chapter 11
Dean
“I’ve got a plan,” I said softly to Angelina as she started to come out of the anesthesia.
“Does it involve Manolo Blahnik shoes?”
“No, but it could if you really want it to,” I smiled.
Angelina opened her eyes slowly and looked around the recovery room. She had only been away from me for about a half of an hour, but she looked really disoriented as she started to come to.
“How does it look?”
“Excellent, the doctor said you won’t even see the scar. I guess that’s what they pay him the big bucks for. See this right here?” I said as I pointed to my old scar on my lip. “That’s what happens when you don’t have a top notch surgeon stitching you up.”
“Wow, that’s really bad. I didn’t notice that before,” she said groggily.
“That’s because you were busy looking at my package,” I joked.
“What’s the plan?”
“Well, my friend Luke is pretty much in love with your sister. I think he’d do anything in this world if it involved her. So I asked him and Abigail if they could take you back to your hotel to relax while I do my show, then the four of us are going to take over your hotel room and turn it into a movie theater tonight. How’s that sound?”
Angelina paused as she looked around the room. She seemed to be looking for someone or checking to see if someone was there. I suspected it was her mother or the camera crew she was looking for.
“Your mother and the camera crew left. Did you want me to call her to come back?”
“My mom left before I woke up?”
“No, she saw that you were alright and then left. I guess they have a lot of editing to do. Oh, and I think she was talking to your agent. Is his name Jeremy?”
Angelina rolled her eyes, and I couldn’t help laughing. I didn’t have family that got into my personal business like hers did, that was probably why I was so amused by it all. Watching how she had to deal with her mother, though, it certainly gave me some insight into what her life must have been like growing up.
“I really am sorry about all of this; I still haven’t learned how to say no to her yet.”
“So is that a yes to my plan?”
Angelina smiled, and as her lip pulled tight, I saw her flinch in pain. My hand squeezed hers, and she closed her eyes to rest for a minute, which turned into her falling totally asleep. It was nearly six o’clock, and I had to leave for my show soon. I didn’t want to leave her, but there were hundreds of people waiting for me.
“Go to your show. I’ll rest and have Abby take me to my room,” Angelina said as she kept her eyes closed.
I looked at the clock and then back to her. I couldn’t leave her; it felt horrible.
“How’s she doing?” the doctor asked as he took at look at her lip.
“I’m doing well, just a little groggy.”
“That will clear up in the next thirty minutes or so, and you’ll feel as good as new. But take it easy the next couple of days.”
“By ‘take it easy,’ do you mean film for fifteen hours a day for the rest of the week?” she joked.
“No.”
“Oh, that’s what I thought you said.” Angelina laughed. “I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all any of us can do. I’ve set an appointment for you at my office in two weeks to make sure everything heals up nicely. The stitching is under the first layer of skin and will dissolve, but call my office if you notice anything unusual or have any pain.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Angelina said as she opened her eyes. “Now get out of here and send my sister in so I can torture her with guilt over my injury.”
“Okay, I’ll come over to your place as soon as the show is out.”
“Deal.”
“One last thing,” I started to say and then stumbled a bit. “I know you have business obligations in the social media world. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was putting down your way of life. I wouldn’t do that.”
“I know. We can talk later; get your ass out of here.”
I leaned down and gently kissed her cheek before going to the lobby to find her sister. In only a few days time, I had come to care about this girl a lot, and I was willing to make some adjustments to my own comfort level with the media if it was for her.
“Luke, leave the poor woman alone,” I said loudly as I walked into the waiting room and saw Luke and Abigail flirting with one another.
“Oh, he’s not bothering me,” she said with a huge smile.
“Could you two get Angelina back to her room, and I’ll come over as soon as my show is over?” I asked.
“Of course,” Luke replied eagerly. “Or I can come with you if you’d like someone to drive. I might be able to get you there a little sooner than the subway.”
“Actually, I’d feel better if you could stay with Angelina; she looked pretty weak and might need someone to help her into the hotel. I’d hate to leave Abigail to do it all on her own,” I said with a totally straight face.
Luke was going to owe me big time for this one. Not because I had actually done anything to push Abigail toward him, but I was giving him the alone time with her and Angelina. It was up to him to make the time worthwhile.
“Sounds good,” Luke said as he jumped up and held his hand out for Abigail.
They did look good together; I wasn’t sure anything would come of them spending time together, but who was I to get in the middle of love? I hustled my butt to the Uber I had waiting out front and pulled up in front of the theater with only ten minutes before show time.
The good thing about being so late was that all the fans were already inside; the bad news was the security guards that normally stood by the back door had been pulled and put inside to deal with the fans. I pushed my way past the paparazzi and knocked on
the back door.
“Is it true that you and Angelina had a fight and she is in the hospital?” one of the photographers yelled.
“What did you say?” I replied as I stopped dead in my tracks.
The door to the theater had opened now, but I was holding it while I turned to confront the jackass who had yelled at me. How dare he try to make Angelina’s accident into something nasty like domestic violence? Normally, I wouldn’t give them the pleasure of actually answering their absurd questions, but I wasn’t about to let a story like this get out.
“There are pictures of Angelina with a bloodied lip; I asked you if you two fought and that was how she got the lip?” the man boldly repeated.
“Dean, come inside; it’s not worth it,” I heard Cat say from behind me.
“Listen here you little shit. Angelina got hurt while filming her movie; I wasn’t even there. Don’t go spreading that kind of crap or I’ll sue you!”
Cat pulled me toward the door and inside the building before I could say any more. It was a good thing too because I felt pretty damn close to punching the guy.
“You have about five minutes to get ready; we will talk after the show,” she said firmly.
I hustled through the makeup chair and into my wardrobe and landed on the stage exactly on time, to the surprise of everyone else around me. I suspected they had been preparing to have a delay. I had sent a text to both Cat and Dale telling them I might be a few minutes late.
The show flew by, and I even had a few minutes to chat with Cat during intermission. She was a good friend, although she really didn’t understand the sort of chaos that a terrible story like the one that guy was trying to write could do to a career. When we finished our final curtain call, I quickly started changing so I could get to Angelina’s hotel and see how she was doing.
“Dean, we need to talk,” I heard Bella say from the hallway.
“What are you doing here?”
“I heard that Angelina got hurt. There’s a rumor that you hit her, I know it’s not true. I’m just here to help. I flew in with her manager Jeremy; he was concerned too.”
“Oh, come on. Did he think I did it too? How is it that you two heard this all the way in Los Angeles when it only happened a few hours ago?”
“Apparently, her mom posted a cryptic tweet and people are drawing their own conclusions.”
“That little …” I started to say something horrible and then held it back. “All her mother wants is publicity; she doesn’t even care about what’s going on. It’s just about the story.”
“Dean I support you, and if you don’t want to post publicly, I get it, but I need to put a statement out there. I need to put something official out.”
“Can you give me until the morning?” I asked as I ran my fingers through my hair.
I had to talk with Angelina. Our lives were crazy, and it was stupid that after two dates we were going to have to post some sort of public comment about our relationship. In no other situation would two people have to make such big decisions when they hardly knew each other.
As Bella and I finished up, I went to leave out the back door, but she stopped me. Her hand held on tight to my arm, and she shook her head no.
“I’ve got to get to the hotel; I promised Angelina I’d check in on her.”
“Will you let me help you please, Dean? This is my job, trust me.”
I did trust her, and within five minutes she had a stage hand leading me through some weird underground tunnel that led to the building across the street. All I could think about was why no one else in the theater had told me about the tunnel before. But I figured they probably liked that I went out the back entrance and took the time to talk with fans on most of the nights.
Fans were some of my favorite people to talk with; I really did enjoy my interactions with them. It was the paparazzi that I hated. The paparazzi were always trying to angle a story or make up something that was totally false. Those were the people I wanted to avoid. Unfortunately, where there were fans, there were also paparazzi; they just seemed to follow each other.
I arrived at Angelina’s room and found it was filled with people. Not only were Luke and Abigail there, but her agent and his assistants, as well as her mother and a couple of other people that I didn’t know.
“Look who’s here,” Angelina said with a big smile.
“You look like you’re feeling better.”
“Perfect, I feel perfect.” She gave me a big and fake hug. “Okay, everyone, that was the deal. I spend time with you, and you all promised to leave when Dean got here. Let’s go, let’s go, hustle people,” she said as she started pushing people toward the door.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“Talk to you tomorrow Dean,” Luke said as he and Abigail left together.
“It was nice meeting you Dean,” her agent said as he kissed Angelina on the cheek. “Tomorrow we will go over this some more. Get some sleep you two.” He winked at me.
“You are pretty good at clearing out a room.” I laughed as the door shut behind her mother.
“I’ve learned over the years that I need to give people something if I want something in return. I wanted my night alone with you. Sorry if I ruined your movie watching plan.”
“Heck no. I was just saying that because I thought you wanted to spend time with your sister. Are you tired? Do you want to get some sleep?”
“I do want to go to bed,” she said seductively.
Her fingers started to unbutton her silk blouse, and I instantly became aroused. I thought I was going to be taking care of her and helping her feel better, but apparently, she was feeling just fine.
“Didn’t the doctor tell you to rest?”
“Yes, so let’s get going.” She smiled and reached for my shirt.
I gently kissed my lips to hers and felt the rough skin around her cut. It was held together with some sort of invisible glue like substance, and I felt horrible for what she had gone through.
“You never told me what exactly happened to your lip,” I said as I started to kiss down her neck and explore her body.
“My sister and I staged a fight for the cameras. We were trying to give them enough footage so we could take you out dancing tonight.”
“Oh, man … I was going to get to dance with the two of you,” I joked.
“Yep, but seeing how Luke seems to be in love, I’m sort of glad things worked out the way they did. The two of them hit it off really good. Luke seems like a nice guy.”
“He is. We have been friends since I moved to New York. He’s in my investment club,” I said between kisses to her body.
Angelina held her hand out and pressed on my head until I looked up at her. She raised her eyebrow and stood there waiting for me to offer some sort of explanation why I was in an investment club.
“Don’t you have someone to manage your money?”
“Nope, I’m doing it myself. I lost a lot of money when I didn’t pay attention to the details; I’m not going to let that happen again. I know it probably seems dumb, but I actually really like learning about investing. Plus, I like knowing where all my money is.”
“It’s not dumb at all. It’s really smart; I’d love to learn more about investing. I really have no idea where any of my money is.”
Slowly I stood up and pulled her toward me as my lips slid over her nipple and up to her neck again. The feeling of her skin under my fingers was better than the silk fabric of her shirt. The energy between us electrified my body and drove me to want her right there and then.
“I’m going to stop talking now,” she whispered as I pulled her onto the bed with me.
Our bodies fit together perfectly. We didn’t seem to have that awkward issue that normally happened when you were getting to know someone sexually. The two of us just worked flawlessly together.
My lips would move one place; her hands would move to another place. It was like a beautiful sexual symphony as we made love. My thrust brought her t
o a musical climax that eventually resulted in the neighbors banging on the wall and calling for silence in our room. We curled up in each other’s arms and pulled the covers up to our chins as we drifted off to sleep. It was as if I had known her for years and not just days.
There was a pang of guilt that we hadn’t talked about the social media issues and publicity, though. I knew I needed to talk with my agent in the morning, and we were going to have to put a statement out. Perhaps her agent had already told her about the horrible lies that were floating around? Or maybe I’d have to break the news to her in the morning? It didn’t matter, though, for that moment we were happy right there in bed together. Our arms wrapped around each other, our breaths in perfect time together and our whole future waiting for us to move forward together.
Chapter 12
Angelina
“Let’s leave our phones in my trailer for the day,” I said to Dean as he sat next to me while I had my hair and makeup done for filming.
“Sure, I’m not nearly as connected as you are. I bet it will be easier on me than you.”
“Girl, you are going to go into phone withdrawals,” Niall said as he did my makeup.
“I’m not that addicted,” I protested. “Really, look, I can put it down right now.” I set my phone on the counter and did my best not to look at it.
Both Dean and Niall eyed me skeptically as the notifications from my phone made it buzz on the counter. Dean’s smile made it nearly impossible not to smile back at him. I knew exactly what he was thinking; he didn’t think I could do without my phone. I could, though. I had done it before, and I wasn’t afraid to do it again.
“I’ve closed the set to all media thanks to you two,” Gene said as he stood in the doorway.
He was smiling, though, not at all the expression I expected after the chaos that I had caused the day before. Plus, it was still up in the air if Niall was going to be able to cover up my lip and the bruise that was starting to form around where my face had hit the ground.
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