The Blind Date Series (Three Romance Stories: Blind Date, Role Play, Pure Fate)

by Violette Paradis

  BLIND DATE: BOOKS 1-3

  (Blind Date, Role Play, Pure Fate)

  By Violette Paradis

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  ©2015 Violette Paradis

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and characters are a product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, places, or people is entirely coincidental.

  Blind Date

  Role Play

  Pure Fate

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  Blind Date

  (Blind Date Book #1)

  “Five minutes until the bachelor shows up!” A long-haired man wearing a headset called out. He was the director of the reality television show, Blind Date, which I stupidly agreed to be on. I inhaled a deep breath, wondering why I had been so willing to do something so dumb.

  Whitney, an actress in my chemistry class in film school, suggested I try out for the show. The job was good money for just a few hours of my time.

  “A free makeover and good money? What’s the catch?” I asked.

  “No catch,” Whitney said. “Just show your personality and meet an eligible bachelor.”

  “Won’t I have to date him? I mean, the show is called Blind Date.”

  Whitney shook her head. “You’ll be one girl in a giant group of them. He probably won’t even pay any attention to you.”

  I believed her until I looked in the mirror on the wall of the makeshift hair and makeup room. The wardrobe department dressed me in a beautiful (and very expensive) Versace cocktail dress, a short white number which contrasted nicely against my California tan. My hair cascaded down my shoulders in dreamy waves. Smoky gray makeup made my green eyes pop.

  I looked stunning.

  Admittedly, it had been a while since I tended to myself. Film school meant late nights and early mornings. It meant class work, conference work, group work, intern work, and work work (that was the kind that paid the bills). My boss at Nacho Grande recently fired me for not showing up for shifts. After classes, workshops, and internships, I didn’t have the time to make tacos, even though my student debt buried me a little deeper every day.

  A part of me was offended that I was being paraded off in front of a man who was going to pick a woman to date, but Whitney assured me that, like everything else in Hollywood, reality television was fake and that it was all an act.

  “I sign up every time I want to practice the new skills I learned in my acting classes,” Whitney said. “Trust me, you won’t be offended once you see the check in your bank account.”

  Whitney and I were both in the same film school, but while she was in acting, I was in special effects. We both shared the same love for movies. We both loved romantic comedies. My favorite genre, however, was action, specifically action adventure movies set in far away lands.

  My all time favorite movies were the Mike Shadow films, about a young man who travels to far away worlds. There were explosions, train wrecks, and dangerous chemical reactions. There were beautiful sets and amazing special effects. But the part of the movie I loved the most was Mike Shadow, played by the painfully handsome Johnny Logan, whose picture hung in my locker all through high school. Looking back, I probably spent too much time watching those movies and not enough time actually getting out meeting real people.

  Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I laughed nervously.

  Blind date. I had never even been on a normal date let alone a blind one.

  I let out a sigh. Why was I even here?

  I almost said no to this whole scenario. I had a big exam to study for and I didn’t have time for this, but the money was enough to cover rent until the end of the semester, giving me all the time I needed to focus on studying. And, to be honest, I was curious about the whole production — the set, the cameras, the crew.

  My fingers trembled as I touched the bottom hem of my cocktail dress.

  I thought about who the eligible bachelor could be and for some reason, in that instant, the heat in my body rose.

  “Everybody on set!” The director called out.

  Letting out a long breath, I nodded to myself in the mirror. It was go time.

  ***

  Heart racing in my chest, I walked into the main filming area, which was the interior of a high-end restaurant. I had been here once before with my parents, when we celebrated me going to school. The food here was divine and very, very expensive. The restaurant’s specialty was dessert, but daddy only had enough money for appetizers and entrees that night.

  Three large cameras surrounded a scene which was lit with dimmed production lights.

  Production equipment sure had a way of making a room look different, I thought.

  In my white cocktail dress and heels, I walked towards the clearing. There were two small bar-height tables, each adorned with red roses and lit with dreamy, romantic candles. The place was beautiful.

  I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for this!

  Although I saw dozens of women earlier, there were only three now. The three beautiful women glittered like diamonds under the lights.

  I wondered if any of them were actresses, like Whitney. After a year living in Hollywood, I came to learn that anyone living here worked in some part of the industry.

  As I waited for the other women to show up, I realized something. Two women stood at one table, the other at the second.

  Two women at each table.

  My heart stopped.

  No one else was coming.

  My heart pounded in my chest. I didn’t have a good chance of melting into the crowd, like Whitney said I would. Rubbing my clammy hands on my dress, I made a mental note to strangle her next time I saw her.

  Aware of all the cameras, I stood a few feet behind the three other girls.

  “You!” The long-haired director pointed at me. “Come up here.” He pointed next to the other woman.

  I stood frozen, staring. All the way up there? I suddenly had the urge to run.

  “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

  Hot in the face, I made my way to the table where I stood next to a blond woman wearing a red cocktail dress, a fancy designer one, like mine. From her name-tag I could see her name was Darla.

  “You two stick together,” the director said.

  “Paul!” One of the men holding a boom mic called out to him. I reached out before Paul the director slipped away. He looked up at me, confused as to why I was addressing him.

  “I just wanted to let you know that I wasn’t actually planning on going on the date, so if you could tell the bachelor not to pick me, that’d be great.”

  Paul held up a finger to silence me. I noticed he was listening to his headset. With his finger still up, he spoke into a mouthpiece and walked away, ignoring me completely.

  I grumbled. What was I going to do now?

  Looking around, I became uncomfortably aware of how close I was to the two large, intimidating cameras pointed in my direction, staring at me like empty eyes.

  I weighed the pros and cons of dashing towards the exit. If I left, I wouldn’t be in any embarrassing scenarios, liking interacting with the bachelor, but I also wouldn’t get that big check either.

  My eyes flashed around the room, searching for a clock to see how much study time I had missed so far, bu
t I couldn’t see anything past the bright production lights. I wondered if I’d get home in time to avoid disrupting my study schedule.

  “Are you excited to meet him?” Darla, the woman next to me, asked. She bounced up and down. Her big blue eyes bore into mine. “Apparently he’s an actor!”

  “Oh.” Great, another actor. I couldn’t care less about the bachelor and who he was.

  “What do you think he’s like?” Darla asked dreamily.

  “Huh? I don’t know.” How the hell was I supposed to know that?

  A waiter came by, offering us some champagne. I grabbed a flute and happily took a sip, letting the bubbles fizzle on my tongue. I hadn’t had a drink all semester and this was just what I needed.

  I was seriously getting paid for this?

  “I can’t drink right now,” Darla said, waving away the waiter. “I’m too nervous.”

  The production lights turned on even brighter, bathing us in white light.

  Okay, I thought. This was happening.

  Taking a deep breath, I thought about my strategy. I had to be charismatic for the cameras, but too boring for the bachelor. I couldn’t risk getting picked to go on a date. I didn’t have the time for that.

  Britt, the host of Blind Date, made her way onto a small platform a few feet in front of us. Her overly orange skin clashed with her hot pink dress. Her white accessories matched her unnaturally white teeth which, along with her dimples, she flashed often, as she was always smiling. She flipped her platinum blond hair over her shoulder.

  “Ladies, are you ready to meet your millionaire celebrity bachelor?”

  The other three women cheered.

  What?

  I leaned over to Darla. “Millionaire? Celebrity!?”

  “All the bachelors on Blind Date are millionaires or celebrities, or both!” She whispered.

  “Oh.”

  What the hell? Why didn’t Whitney tell me that either? She knew I didn’t know anything about this show!

  Suddenly it felt very hot under all these bright camera lights.

  Why was I here again?

  I was an unemployed student. What millionaire would want to date someone who got fired from a job where they served guacamole?

  I didn’t belong here.

  I wanted to flag down Paul again and tell him I had an emergency and had to leave, but the cameras were filming and the producers were pointing, signaling me to look back up at Britt.

  Fine.

  I looked up at the host.

  “Ladies, do you think you’ve waited long enough to meet your bachelor?”

  The producers signaled us. We answered, “Yes!”

  Was this weird? This was weird.

  My eyes flashed around the room again, looking for a clock. Or an exit.

  Maybe I could slip away when the bachelor was mingling with someone else.

  “Ladies,” Britt boasted. “I’d like to introduce you to a young bachelor looking for someone willing to accept his crazy schedule. Ladies, meet Johnny!”

  A man stepped out into the light and I did a double take. My heart seized in my chest. The eligible bachelor was Johnny Logan!

  I couldn’t believe the man I had a crush on for years was standing ten feet away from me!

  “As you see, Johnny, there are four beautiful women here who are ready to talk to you,” Britt said, gesturing towards us.

  Johnny nodded. “Wonderful.” He flashed his dangerous dark eyes at me, giving me a subtle smirk. I froze. Johnny Logan looked at me.

  “Go ahead, Johnny. Get mingling!” Britt smiled into the camera.

  Johnny, dressed in a white collared shirt, blue suit jacket, and fitted jeans, made his way towards us.

  “He’s coming!” Darla squealed, squeezing my arm.

  Yes he was.

  I watched him as he approached, he moved as if in slow motion. He flipped back his dark hair.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered to Darla. “He’s hot!”

  “Yes, he is.” Darla didn’t hide the suggestion in her voice.

  Of course I always found him attractive, but seeing him in the flesh was something else.

  Johnny walked right by me, washing me in his delicious masculine aroma. I breathed in deeply, tasting him. His eyes flashed to mine again before looking at Darla and introducing himself to her.

  Johnny Logan was only a foot away from me. I could kiss him if I wanted to.

  I shook myself.

  No, stop. This was a reality TV show. Nothing was real.

  Adrenaline rushed through my body.

  What would I say to him? Did I have to act and pretend not to be a fan? Because I wasn’t sure I could hold in my excitement.

  Ever since the first Mike Shadow movie, Johnny’s been the poster boy of my teenage sexual awakening, acting as the object of my sexual fantasies for years. He was the reason I pursued a career in film! And now he was here, in front of me. He was all cleaned up, and all grown up.

  What would Whitney do? What character would she portray?

  I couldn’t think anymore. I watched Johnny’s lips as he spoke. There it was. The famous scar on his upper lip. Some thought it was a fake scar, put on for the Mike Shadow movies. But true fans like me knew the scar was real, from a childhood bike accident.

  Johnny’s brown eyes crinkled as he smiled. He and Darla shared a laugh. The other women stared at Johnny hungrily. And why wouldn’t they? He was indecently handsome in person, and even hotter up close.

  As I admired him, questions popped into my head. Why did Johnny Logan need a reality show to help him get a date?

  Johnny was a professional bad boy. He was a wild card both in his career and his personal life. In addition to taking strange, unexpected roles in movies, he was also friends with many other strange high-profile celebrities. His strange reputation didn’t damage his image, if anything it made him even more desirable.

  The memory of my teenage fantasies starring Johnny Logan flooded back to me, stirring a long forgotten hunger, reminding me why I had Mike Shadow’s photo as my computer’s background for over two years in high school.

  As Johnny spoke to Darla, his steely dark eyes found mine and my heart pounded in my chest. A thrill surged through my body and the muscles in my belly clenched. My champagne glass slipped from my fingertips and I adjusted my grip so quickly I feared I would squeeze the glass into a thousand pieces. I looked up at Johnny. Did he know what I was thinking? Did he know how I used to dream about him? His knowing smirk seemed to suggest so. My cheeks reddened and I wondered why the makeup artist even bothered putting blush on me.

  “Hi, Madison,” Johnny said.

  Oh my god…

  My tongue instantly turned into sandpaper.

  “Oh. Hi Johnny Logan.”

  “You can call me Johnny.”

  I let out a nervous giggle. “Okay, Johnny.”

  “You’re not an actress.” He looked at me with that cool look he was famous for. I was amazed I still remembered to breathe.

  “Am I that obvious?”

  “Actresses are always ready to put on a show. You don’t seem like that.”

  “And what do I seem like?” I took a sip of my champagne as I looked deep into his eyes, hoping to hide the fact that I was trembling.

  “You’re more reserved, but with a twist.” His eyes watched me as he spoke. “There’s a wild woman in there waiting to get out.”

  My lips couldn’t help but curl into a smile. Maybe he did know about my fantasies.

  “Tell me, Madison.” His sultry voice made my name sound delicious. “What’s your ideal date?”

  “My ideal date?”

  He nodded, looking at me like he was ready to fulfill every fantasy I had.

  What was happening?

  My fantasies created a thousand things I wanted to do with Johnny, but none of them were appropriate first date ideas. I urged my brain to think. What did people do on dates? Bowl? Go to the movies? Eat dinner?

  I contemplated telling
him I had never gone on a date before, but I stopped before I embarrassed myself.

  “Well?” Johnny asked. His dark twinkling eyes mesmerized me. I was not prepared for this!

  A strange thought occurred to me. Though I was used to seeing Johnny on the big screen, on the cover of magazines, and as the main subject of my fantasies, I didn’t really know who the real Johnny Logan was. Suddenly, I had my answer.

  “It’s not about my ideal date, it’s about our ideal date. I can’t say what we’ll do until I get to know you better, until I learn what you like.”

  Raising his eyebrows, Johnny gave me an amused smile.

  “That’s a good idea. Let’s start now. What do you like, Madison?” He really needed to stop saying my name because he was doing crazy things to me.

  What did I like? I could only think of one thing right now.

  I looked into Johnny’s searing eyes, the eyes I dreamed of looking into when I was younger…

  My face grew hot.

  Why was it so hot in here?

  “I like science,” I said.

  “You’re a student?”

  I nodded.

  “What field?”

  “I specialize in special effects.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Special effects? Interesting. CG?”

  “Not exactly. I work in production, not post. I like being on set. Have you ever seen the show ‘Mythbusters’?”

  He nodded. “I love that show.”

  “Well, that’s what I do. I plan, I engineer, I build, I destroy. Building something to blow it up is my favorite thing to do.”

  Johnny chuckled.

  “Smart and dangerous?” He crooned. “I like that. There’s something about a woman who can outsmart you, a woman who can keep you on your toes.” He smiled in appreciation, and for some reason this was better validation that any college degree or Hollywood internship. He looked at me with those intimidating eyes I felt I knew so well.

  In that moment, something came over me. I couldn’t stop myself.

  “Johnny.” I reached out and touched his arm. He didn’t pull away. I spoke before I had a chance to think. “I just want to thank you. The Mike Shadow films changed me when I was younger. Those films, and your role in them, were the reason I got into special effects in the first place.”