by Naomi Niles
I didn’t mind doing the romantic movies, but I was ready for something that I could go in shooting people, kicking ass, and blowing shit up. Leonard wanted to cast me in another film, but when he said that it was another romance movie, I turned it down. Besides, I didn’t want to put myself in a position to have a romantic fling that could damage my relationship with Hannah. If I could control it, I was going to stay away from it. That was my plan, and so far, it worked. “All right, and cut! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrap! We are done filming Satin Sheets!”
Everyone around us clapped and cheered once Leonard told us that we were finished. “Yes, yes, be excited, everyone! Be excited! This is a very special moment for us. Come, Ezra, Hannah, please,” he said, waving us toward him. Hannah grabbed my hand, and we approached him as he stood front and center with the loudspeaker in his hand. “Everyone, you are witnessing two stars in the making. The way they came into this shoot as rookies, but left as veterans. How they mastered their roles as if they were born to do it. This is perfection, ladies, and gentlemen, and I am sure that this will not be the last time you see them on the big screen! Everyone, clap for our stars!”
They applauded us as we stood in front of the set. “Go ahead,” Leonard urged, “say something! Tell them all something! They are waiting. Ezra.”
I smiled. I felt like I was on top of the mountain that took so long for me to climb. It felt better that I knew Hannah was still by my side in the process and through it all, she had been with me. From the crazy stalker situation to the court case with my ex when she found out that I had my boys around her. I held her hand as we stood in front of everyone. “I would just like to thank you all for your part in helping the filming of this movie. Makeup artists, camera crew, sound crew, directors, supporting actors, and actresses. I mean, the list goes on, and nothing would have been a success without you. I would like to give a special thanks to Leonard for taking a chance on a rookie like me. I know it was rough at times, but I thank you for this opportunity. It meant the world to me. Thank you.”
The audience clapped as Hannah went forward and gave thanks to everyone. “Hi. Well, um, I thank you all for not showing the internet my breasts before the movie came out.” The audience chuckled as she smiled. I remembered the times she was so nervous about shooting those scenes before the movie started, but now, she was in front of everyone making jokes about it. Her confidence had skyrocketed since we first began shooting, and now, she was blossoming into the woman I knew she always was. “I want to thank Leonard for the opportunity to do what I love. Hopefully, it will bring more movie roles my way. The director's crew. Casting agents. Cameramen, sound men… basically, everyone Ezra thanked just before me. I appreciate all of your hard work and everything you did to make us look our best on the shoot. Hopefully, we will cross paths again in another movie or two. I had fun, and I pray that this movie is as successful as I know it can be. Thank you.”
Once we finished, we headed to her trailer. Inside, there was a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers on her bed. I took the card off the mattress before she could read it. I wanted to see who was bold enough to send her flowers, knowing that we were an item. I smiled once I saw the name that was attached to it. “It’s from Leo,” I said, handing her the card.
She sniffed the roses, then rolled her eyes. “You are crazy, do you know that? What man would send me roses? In six months, you’ve managed to scare off any other guy who even thought about coming my way. The only person I knew would have sent these is Leonard. Hell, he probably put a pair of his underwear on your bed and attached some skimpy pictures to it.”
“Yeah, and that’ll be the day he gets punched right in the nose. I can do that now since we are done working for him, officially.”
“Yeah.” She placed the roses on her desk. “It has been a long journey, and I hate to say that it is over.”
“Over?” I sat on her bed and pulled her onto my lap. “No. It is just beginning. From what I hear, you’ve got directors knocking your door down just to get you in their movie. This is definitely the beginning for you.”
“No,” she corrected me with a kiss on the lips. “For us. You’ve got your roles coming up, too. I know it. The action movies will be your bread and butter. It should be with that sexy ass body of yours.”
“All I know is that I will be at your set every fucking day if you do one of those romantic movies. I will be watching whatever prick you have to co-star with to make sure he doesn’t touch you more than he has to.”
“I bet you will.”
She smiled and kissed me again. I would never have thought that my life would end up this way. Living out my dream with a beautiful woman by my side, doing the same thing. With all the ups and downs of my life, I could finally say that things were looking up, and it appeared to be a permanent shift. And to think that just before I got this part, I was ready to give up on everything. Who knows where my life would be if I did? I didn’t even want to imagine.
Epilogue
Hannah
3 Years Later
I woke up in a king size bed on the 32nd floor of the luxury hotel. I hardly had time to myself with the way things picked up for my acting career. Since Satin Sheets came out almost three years ago, I’d starred in two more movies and became one of the biggest new names in show business. I had to start turning down movie offers because there wasn’t enough time for me to shoot. My schedule was hectic, and because of that, I had only seen Ezra a few times in the past three months. Our careers were beginning to create a strain on our relationship, and at one point, I thought we were going to fall apart, but each time, we managed to reconnect and get back on the same page.
I felt his arms wrap around me from behind as I stood at the window, looking down at the streets in Dunedin, New Zealand. His lips pressed softly against my neck as I rested in his warm embrace. “It feels like it has been forever since we’ve been back here.”
“Forever?” I responded. “Yeah. It has only been three years, but the way we have been so busy, it can easily feel like 10.”
“Yeah, easily.”
I faced him as he stood in a bathrobe with nothing but his boxers on underneath. We were on vacation together, and we wanted to go to the place that we first visited together as a couple. Ezra had just wrapped up his filming of a blockbuster action movie called The Last Time. He had to cut his hair off for the role, but it wasn’t much different from how he normally wore it. He had a few tattoos on his forearms and one on his shoulder that just had the letter “H” inside of a heart. I joked with him about how simple it was.
“So, I guess that, ‘H’ will be easier to cover up if we don’t make it, huh?”
He laughed. “Cover up? No, I don’t plan on covering it up. Why would I need to? You’re going to be with me forever, and if you’re not, then I’m going to have to kill you and whoever that you leave me for. I already made that up in my mind.”
“Oh, really? Wait a minute. Can you say that again? I want to get my phone, so I can record the evidence.” I tried to get out of his arms to grab my phone, but he lifted me in the air and carried me to the mattress. He climbed on top of me, his muscles bulging as he held his body above mine, but he didn’t take it any further. “Why did you stop?”
He kissed me. “Because we have to go. I have plans for us today, and we need to get on the beach by,” he looked at his watch, “7 pm.”
He got off the bed and pulled some clothing out of his suitcase. “Baby? It is only 12! We have time! Get your ass back over here and give me some dick!”
“I will later, trust me. But right now, we have to get going. Come on. Get your dirty ass in the shower so we can go!”
I laughed out loud. “Whatever, Ezra. Ugh. I swear you better make up for this! I’m already wet! I don’t need a fucking shower!”
After we had got dressed, he took me out to eat, and we ended on the beach right at 7 pm. The grains of sand slithered through my toes as we walked along the sandy shore, hand
in hand. The yellow sun shifted to a dark orange is it started to descend beyond the horizon. Seagulls flew past us, echoing their soothing chants each time they flapped their wings. “So, why did we have to come here by 7 pm? You got something planned?”
He smiled as we stopped right in front of a sand castle. It was built 3 feet high, and the water that brushed onto the shore stopped just feet from it. He kneeled and patted the castle as I looked out to the shore as far as my eyes could see. Once I glanced down again, Ezra had made a dent in the castle. “Ezra! Why are you messing up some kid’s sand castle! That is so rude!”
“I was trying to fix it. I guess I pressed it too hard. Can you help me?”
I kneeled beside him and grabbed sand from the side to reconstruct the small building. Suddenly, I saw a black case buried in the mound of sand that had crashed on the side of the castle. “Ezra, what is that?” I asked, leaning in closer to it.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see it there before.”
When I reached for it, I saw that it was a small, black box, and as I held it in my hand, my heart felt as if it had stopped beating. I looked at Ezra as he kneeled beside me. I shook my head as tears rushed to the bottom of my eyes and everything around me grew silent. “Hannah, baby, I’ve known from day one that you were the woman I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, and there wasn’t a time that I ever doubted it. You are my life, and I don’t know how I made it as far in my life as I did without you, but I don’t want to have to find out. You are a part of the puzzle that I’ve been missing and I–”
“Ezra, just ask me, damn it! I’ve been waiting three years for this!” I said as tears flowed from my eyes in rivers.
He smirked. “Will you... stop rushing me!”
“Ezra!”
“Baby, will you marry me?”
I lunged into his arms, then demanded him to put the ring on my finger. “What took you so long to ask me, Ezra? You make me sick!”
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Naomi Niles
