“Cool, thanks.” I didn’t pick it up. I never knew how to handle this. If I politely turned her down, I sometimes looked like a jerk, but I also didn’t want to lead her on. She continued to stand there, close enough that I could tell she smelled sweet like cupcakes.
How long could it possibly take Rami to pee?
He mercifully appeared in the doorway to the bathroom headed back to the table, his shrewd eyes taking in the situation, so he pulled his wallet out and extended his credit card to Alicia.
“Thanks.” She tucked it into her apron, but continued to stand there awkwardly. She pulled her phone out, and I knew what was coming next.
“Um, can we take a selfie?”
“We’d prefer not…” Rami started to say, but I could already see her face falling. Not only would we ruin her night by saying no, but the story of me being an unapproachable asshole would likely end up online.
Alicia’s request was simple enough, even if it felt like I didn’t have a choice.
“It’s fine, Rami. I don’t mind.”
Before I could stand up, she squatted down next to me, throwing an arm around my shoulders and pressing herself against my side. Just as she pushed the button, she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.
I was uncomfortable and wanted to ask her to delete it, but was still conscious of not making a scene. Things could get misconstrued so easily. She flitted away, leaving the scent of cupcakes clinging annoyingly to my clothes.
Rami mumbled, “I told you the hat wouldn’t work for shit…” He spun the napkin around to read it and decided to take one last stab at convincing me to let go of my plan. “No need to hire Lady Elena, the dominatrix who’ll eat you for breakfast. If you want a girlfriend,Aliciaseems enthusiastic about the potential opening.”
“The messed-up part is, Alicia may well be amazing. That could be the woman of my dreams right there. But I don’t know how to get past the unnatural power dynamic between us.”
If I’d still been a normal guy, I would’ve been giving her a call. I was impressed she had the balls to give me her number. But if I called her knowing she knew who I was, I would always be wondering if she was putting up with things about me because she liked the idea of being with Alex Chase…or whether she was really into me—Alex, just a guy. And would she be making herself who she thought Alex Chase wanted or just being herself? Would she respect my privacy or post pictures of me while I was sleeping? When we broke up, would she air our dirty laundry to the tabloids? It didn’t seem worth the risk. I knew myself well enough to know it would be impossible to trust her.”
I couldn’t help comparing her to Lady Elena, who’d never in a million years have deigned to ask for a selfie with me. On paper, the power dynamic between us should’ve been skewed too since she wasn’t famous either. But she felt like my equal, like she was above any of the rest of it mattering.
Rami asked, “It’s not even worth a shot? Maybe not with Alicia since she clearly can’t respect boundaries, but with someone? You’re lonely.”
“I’m Tantalus, man. I’m dying of thirst, surrounded by water that I can’t drink for fear it’s not really there for me.”
Anyone else might have laughed at me or mocked the fact that I was complaining about being famous. But Rami wouldn’t. He knew I wasn’t saying it to feed my ego. I really didn’t know how to deal with it and there wasn’t exactly a how-to book for this stuff.
He said, “I guess that’s why celebrities usually stick to other famous people. Then you both know the nature of the beast.”
“Yeah, but that’s what I did last time and even then it can get weird. Who’s more successful? Is my career taking off or am I old news that’s going to hold her back? If she has the chance to get a leg up by putting me second, will she do it? And can I even blame her if she does given what I know about this industry?”
“Bleak, dude.” Rami nodded, slurping the last of his milkshake.
I appreciated that he didn’t offer platitudes or tell me I should have known this is what my life would be like. To be fair, the rest of my life was awesome.
“So the solution is to date a dominatrix who dislikes you because then at least she won’t pretend to like you?” He looked thoroughly skeptical. “How do you even know we can trust her? NDA aside, she’s got a lot of eyes on her right now. She wouldn't be the first person to try to cash in on that.”
I paused to think about what he was saying. My instincts said I could trust her, but instincts could be wrong.
So I considered the facts instead. “She could already be cashing in on the VP stuff, giving interviews, fanning the controversy. But she’s doing the opposite. We don't know who most of her client list is, but the ones we do know trust her implicitly. She and I just have to be convincing as a couple.”
I pictured what it would be like in the coming weeks to have her on my arm, gazing up at me adoringly…and found I liked the idea of her murderous glare better. I wanted to find a way to shatter that icy facade and make her laugh, but I didn’t want fake affection. As long as I knew where I really stood with her, it would be fine.
Rami stood up from the booth. “So there’s no convincing you? We're moving forward?”
“Yeah, let’s loop Chad and Asha in first thing, but keep it to the immediate team.” My agent and publicist would need to know what was happening. “I want the negotiation done quickly, so don’t dig your heels in like you always do. The clock is ticking.”
I would normally have stepped back and let him do his job at that point, but I had every intention of participating in the meetings on this one.
And it had nothing to do with how eager I was to see Lady Elena again.
Nothing at all.
