Fame & Consequences

by Reese A. Stephens

  “We can get a two bedroom suite, if that’ll be more comfortable for you.”

  “That’s fine, but that’s not what I was going to say. Are you sure you want to out our relationship officially? I mean, I know you kind of already did at the show, but this is not actions, this is in words.”

  He nods his head. “Yes, why hide?”

  I smile broadly at him. “I don’t know.” I stand and wrap my arms around him. It makes me ridiculously happy to know that I can just be with him and not have to constantly watch what I say and do.

  “Then it’s settled. Amelia, tell Adam the news and get us a two-bedroom suite at the best hotel in New York.”

  “Of course, sir.” She carries on working as I pick up my drink and my itinerary and walk over with Elijah to the sofa.

  “Are you sure?” I ask as I sit beside him with my knee bent on the couch resting it along his thigh.

  He brushes his fingertips along the sole of my foot and up to my ankle. “Yes. I love you. There’s no reason to hide that. The only reason we were silent was because of my contract, then it was because we wanted to be taken seriously about the movie deal, but now … what is there?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know.”

  “Exactly. We don’t need to hide.” He pauses uncertain. “Unless, you’re uncomfortable.” He frowns slightly. “The attention will probably get much worse.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t care about any of that. I want the world to know you’re mine, but if you think it’ll hurt the movie, then we can wait.”

  “It won’t mess up anything.” He smiles and leans over to give me a kiss. “I’m yours, one-hundred and ten percent.”

  4 Leaked

  A melia stayed at my hotel trying to match Elijah and my schedules with Adam, Elijah’s publicist, until well into the evening. Eli and I lounged around and enjoyed a rare day off by lying in my bed watching movies from the eighties and nineties. Around nine, Elijah sighs and clicks the TV off as the movie credits roll.

  He turns to me. “I need to head home.” I pout. He pushes my lip back in place. “I’m sorry, but I can’t wear this,” he gestures to his body, “to my meeting in the morning. Plus, I have to pack for our trip, and so do you.” He bops my nose as he stands from the bed.

  A sly grin spreads over my face. “I have an idea.”

  He raises an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

  “I’m supposed to check out in the morning anyway, what if I packed up tonight and stayed at your place? You have that guest room.”

  He kisses me quickly. “Sounds perfect. I’ve been trying to get you to stay with me for months.”

  I roll my eyes. I refuse to live with him before we’re married. “Yes, but this is just spending the night, just like we did last night. I’m not staying permanently. We’ve talked about that. I’m not living with you. ”

  He leans down and kisses me. I can see the hurt in his eyes. He’s using the kiss to distract me from explaining myself again. I know he understands. “You can pack my stuff while I’m at my meeting.” He bops my nose again as he grabs his jeans from the chair and starts to put them back on.

  “Hey! I’m not your maid!” I throw a pillow at him.

  He catches it easily and chuckles. “I never said you were, but I wouldn’t mind the help. I have a lot to do before my meeting, and I’ve spent all day here. Not that I mind. I enjoyed today. By the way, how do Mississippians dress?”

  I roll my eyes. “Normally. Well, for the most part. There is a large portion of rednecks in our area.”

  He laughs. “You realize I have a script to review about a guy who is a good 'ole country boy. Maybe you can read the female lines for me in that cute southern accent you’ve got going right now.”

  “What?”

  “When you say rednecks, it’s more like rednicks.” He draws out the word. I throw a pillow at him again.

  “It’ll only get worse when I go home. I’ve worked so hard to shed that but when I’m around people speaking that way, it will come back out.”

  He pulls me into his arms. “I love your accent. I hope it gets really bad during our visit.” I swat his chest as he chuckles.

  “Maybe I should call your brother so you can slip back into your Scottish accent.”

  “No thanks.” He laughs.

  When the two of them are talking, I can’t understand much of what is said, but it’s loud and full of laughter, so I guess they are having fun. “If you start making fun of me, I will call your brother.” This makes him laugh harder. “I’m serious.”

  He holds his hands up. “I wouldn’t dream of making fun of you.” I roll my eyes again, which causes another grin to spread across his face.

  We spend about thirty minutes packing up my stuff, before heading out into the main area where Amelia and Adam are working. Well they were working, now it appears they are snuggling on the couch.

  Elijah clears his throat, making them both jump. “Hey, Elijah. Uh, we’re just finishing up.”

  Elijah smirks as he nods his head. “Uh huh. We’ll you guys can carry on. Soph and I are going to stay at my house tonight since we are leaving tomorrow after my meeting.”

  “Oh, okay.” Adam starts to gather his things.

  “No, no. Stay,” I insist. “The room is paid for until the morning. Finish your … work, but check me out. Okay, Amy?”

  “Oh, sure. Whatever you need.”

  She doesn’t even scold me for calling her Amy. She’s got it bad. We say our goodbyes and head to the elevator. As soon as the doors close, we burst out laughing. They are such an unlikely pair, but at the same time, it makes total sense. As we descend, I turn to Elijah.

  “Um, how are we getting back to your house?”

  “I drove.”

  I stare at him in shock. “No giant bodyguards following you?”

  He shrugs. “I’m sure they are around, but I drove alone.”

  “See, that’s what I want. But my overprotective boyfriend feels it’s a bad idea.” I give him a side eye.

  He snorts and shakes his head. He leans close to my ear. “Your overprotective boyfriend is only looking out for your safety. It would kill him if something happened to you.”

  “Nothing would happen if those bodyguards of his were following me.”

  He opens his mouth to reply, but the doors of the elevator open on the parking garage floor. He grabs my hand as we are greeted by Brody. “Sir.” His clipped tone is followed by a wink to me.

  “Brody, we’re headed home,” Elijah says.

  “Of course, sir.”

  Brody opens the trunk, takes my bags and sets them inside, save for my purse. As Brody shuts the trunk, Elijah walks around and opens my door with a grand bow, making me laugh as I climb inside. He’s so adorable sometimes.

  He jogs around and gets behind the driver seat. “What do you think?”

  “Of?”

  “This car?” Elijah says with an implied duh.

  “Um …” He starts to laugh before I respond. “I like it. I don’t have a clue what it is, other than a BMW, but I like it.” It’s smaller than a regular SUV, but still not a car.

  “It’s an X5. It’s yours.”

  I stare at him. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s fully loaded, safe, and reliable.” He nods appreciatively. “It’s yours."

  I have no words. “Eli …”

  He holds his hand up. “Don’t say it’s too much. It’s not. I wanted to do something nice for you.”

  “This is beyond nice. Flowers are nice. This is …”

  “Nice.”

  “It is nice. But that’s not a strong enough word. It’s too much. I love you, Eli, but you don’t need to buy me a car. I have money." He takes my hand and squeezes it.

  “I know you have money. It wasn’t about that. Think of it as our anniversary gift. We’ve been together for almost a year,” he finishes with a playful wink.

  “It’s still way too much. But thank you. I can’t wait to dri
ve it.”

  I give in because it’ll hurt his feelings if I reject his generosity. This is who he is, besides I really do love the vehicle. It’s so pretty and comfy. The color is one of my favorite for cars, Gun Metal Grey. I hadn’t bought a car for myself yet because I wasn’t sure what to get or where to start. This is perfect really. It also proves how well he knows me.

  “You’re welcome. When we get back from visiting your family, I’ll take you for a drive.” He kisses my palm.

  “Sounds perfect.”

  Once back at Elijah’s, I settle my bags in the guest room. One of the perks of living out of a suitcase is that it doesn’t take me long to settle anywhere. Actually, that’s just sad. I think when I finish up this next tour, I’ll start looking for something more permanent. With a sigh, I turn and head out of the room to find Elijah. He’s sitting at his kitchen island on the phone, looking really unhappy. When I walk over to him, he turns his laptop so I can see. I gasp.

  “Who took that?”

  He moves the phone from his ear and puts it on speaker. “Adam, Sophie is here. Tell her what happened, please?”

  “Oh, sure. Amelia and I were checking the dailies for anything with the two of you and came across an article in one of the lower end online magazines. It’s hardly paid attention to, but because it was the two of you, people have started noticing.”

  “How did they even get that picture? That was in the dressing room.”

  I can’t take my eyes off the photo. It was in the dressing room at the Dave Hartley Show. Elijah is bent over top of my body, tickling me. My head is thrown back, but instead of laughter, it looks like my face is in pure ecstasy. The caption reads ‘Looks like Elijah and Sophia are hot and heavy on the set of their new movie. Will this cause issues with development?’

  Adam’s voice breaks me out of my fog. “I’m not sure how the photo was taken, or leaked. We are working on that now. I’ve been in touch with Anna from DHS and she says that all their security cameras are in tack and nothing odd is shown for that room. There’s not an actual feed on the inside, but there is surveillance on the door and hallway.”

  Elijah clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck. “Babe, do you think your friend could have done this? She did say something about how we sounded on the outside and joked about a leak.”

  I balk for a second. “No, absolutely not. She wouldn’t do something like that.” Would she? I honestly don’t know, I mean, I’ve kept in touch with her, but it’s been less and less since my book took off. My face drops. “I don’t know. I hope not.”

  Elijah pulls me between his legs, where he sits on the barstool, and kisses my cheeks, forehead, and nose. “We’ll figure this out, don’t stress. It’s fine. We’re fine.”

  Tears that I was desperately trying to hold back slip out of my eyes. “I look like a hussy.”

  “Hold that thought,” he whispers to me. Louder he says. “Adam, call me when you find out something.”

  “Will do. Later.” The line disconnects.

  Elijah lifts my chin. “You do not look like a hussy.” He turns me so my back is to his chest. “Do you know what I see?” I shake my head. “Well, first, I know you were laughing and there was nothing untoward happening, but this photo looks like you are in the throes of passion, and I, for one, can’t wait to see you like that for real one day. I bet you’ll look ten times lovelier than you do in this photo.” His fingertips brush up and down the sides of my arms, sending little sparks of pleasure through me.

  “I hate that people have seen this and are thinking horrible things of us,” I answer, ignoring his comments.

  Elijah moves back my hair and kisses me shoulder. “I hate that this photo was used against us, but it’s down now. We will find out who violated our privacy and they will pay.” Elijah is so confident in his reassurance that I fully trust him and his team to get to the bottom of this.

  I excuse myself to get cleaned up. He kisses me softly, promising me once again that everything will be fine. I don’t respond because I honestly see this as an omen of things to come. In my room, I pace. My mind won’t shut off. How could someone do this to us? Money. That’s all it is, they’d do it for money. The world is an evil and corrupt place.

  I grab my phone and face time Krystal. I feel like seeing her reaction will be more telling than hearing. She answers on the second ring. Her hair is mussed and her lipstick smeared. I can see a person’s arm, but I’m not sure if it’s Daniel or not.

  “Soph! What’s up?”

  “Did you leak that photo?”

  Her smile drops to confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  “A gossip rag leaked a photo of Elijah and I. They said it was from the set of our new movie, but it was really from Dave Hartley’s show. The show says they can’t find any foul play, but you joked about us sounding as if we were having intercourse. You joked about it being leaked. Krys, did you do this?”

  Her face goes ghostly white. Daniel’s face appears on the screen. “Does Elijah need me back?” he asks.

  “I’m not sure. You should call him, but I think we are fine.” He nods, then disappears from view. I focus back on Krystal. “I’d hate to think you’d betray me like this, Krystal, but I don’t know what else to think.”

  She holds up her hand in a pledge. “I swear on my Granddaddy’s grave. I didn’t leak anything, Sophie.”

  “Okay, I believe you.” I do, she looks completely sincere. “This is so embarrassing. I have to see my family tomorrow. They’ll think I’ve gone against everything I was ever taught.”

  “Oh, sugar. They won’t think that. No one pays attention to that mess, anyway. They probably haven’t seen it.”

  I nod, she’s right. They probably haven’t. “I hope not. I should go. I still need to help Elijah pack and he has a meeting in the morning.”

  “Are you staying with him?” she asks. I can tell she’s looking past me, trying to get a glimpse of the house.

  “For tonight. In the guest room.”

  She frowns. “You are so old fashion. You better give it up to that boy before you lose him.”

  I don’t respond. “I’ll talk to you when I get back to L.A. Night.”

  “I’m picking,” she shouts. I know she’s teasing, but I can’t stand it when she picks at me about my sex life. It’s such a sore subject. Especially after what I went through with Carter.

  “I’m hanging up!”

  “Oh, come on!” she cries, but I’ve already ended the phone call.

  The next day after Elijah’s meeting, we are making our way to the airport. This time we are in an SUV with extra dark tinted windows. Brody is driving, Hutch in the passenger seat, and Josh, or as the guys call him, Reynolds, is beside me in the back. He’s been off for two weeks because of a knee injury, but he’s making the trip with us as his official return to work. It’s a cramped ride, but it makes sense, we are all flying out of the same airport on the same flight. I hate flying. I have to do it for work, and don’t freak out anymore, but when Elijah is with me, he tries to either get me drunk, or distracts me in other ways. I prefer the latter.

  I blow out a deep breath as Brody pulls up to the curb. Elijah squeezes my hand. There’s a few paps scattered around looking for their perfect celebrity photo, but it doesn’t seem too over run.

  “I’ll be in after I park. You guys good?” Brody looks in the review mirror.

  “We’ll be fine,” Elijah tells him.

  Hutch and Reynolds get out of the car first and grab our luggage before Hutch opens my door. The paps have caught wind that there may be a person of interest in this vehicle and they have cameras at the ready.

  “Stay between Reynolds and Elijah, and in front of me the whole time,” Hutch tells me. I nod as he helps me out, handing me my carryon. Elijah joins me quickly, taking my hand.

  The paps start to call out, “Elijah, Sophia over here. Are you two really together?”

  “Are the rumors true that you’re back with Keira?” />
  “Who was the girl you were seen hugging yesterday, Sophia? Are you a lesbian?” That throws me for a moment, but before I can react, Elijah wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me inside. They go on and on as the doors shut behind us.

  “You okay?” Elijah asks.

  “What girl? What are they talking about?”

  Josh stops and grabs a magazine. “I think this.” He passes it to me.

  I stare at an innocent enough picture of Krystal and me. We had hugged, and the picture was snapped as we pulled away, but hadn’t totally let go, smiling at each other. Tears fill my eyes. I hand him back the magazine and keep walking forward on my own.

  “Sophie!” Elijah calls as he jogs to me. He grabs my elbow and twirls me around. “Hey, don’t let that crap bother you. We’ve talked about this.”

  I nod my head and wipe my eyes. “I know. I’m just nervous about the trip and flying ... then to see that. She’s my friend, and we were saying goodbye.”

  He hugs me. “I know, baby. Please don’t stress. I’ll have Adam add this on to his investigation, we will figure it out. Let’s concentrate on the flight and our vacation.” I nod into his chest. If it wasn’t for the fear of flying, I’m sure this wouldn’t even be bothering me this much.

  I pull back. “I’m fine. I wasn’t expecting … wait, can I see that again?”

  “Soph,” Elijah says and shakes his head no.

  I look at him and shake my own head, holding up one finger to him, telling him to wait. I take the magazine from Josh. I gasp. “Eli, this was taken from inside the dressing room too. What else did they see?” I start to panic again.

  He takes the magazine and looks for himself. “Let’s get to the first class lounge.” He hands the magazine to Hutch and pulls me down the hall and to the area for celebrities. Once we are settled, he gets out his cellphone and snaps a few pictures before sending them, and making a call. “Adam, I just sent you some photos. They appear to be taken inside the dressing room from The Dave Hartley Show, same as the other. I want this resolved immediately. This is a gross violation of our privacy.” He listens for a bit then hangs up.

  “He’ll handle it.” He kisses my temple. “We’re okay, right?”