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Chapter Three
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Ivy
Ringing wakes me up and I want to kill whatever the hell is waking me from a good dream. But I can't find it. I crack an eye open and wait for the sound to start again. It's my phone. I wiggle out of bed and reach for the purse I was carrying last night. I see a whole bunch of texts and missed calls from Ariel.
Last night I stayed up late talking to her about what happened and inhaling a whole carton of ice cream. Instead of glamorously waking up hungover from too much to drink I'm trying to sleep off a sugar hangover. And I have no regrets. Other than losing some of the innocent crush I had on a flaming ass-clown. I bet if I had more fame and money he would have been down to fuck all night long. Fucking disgusting!
I don't bother reading the texts and just answer.
"What is it? Did someone die? Because someone better have died. I stayed up angry eating with you until four in the morning." And then I still didn't go to sleep until several hours later. But she doesn't need to know that.
"Why didn't you tell me you were bumping uglies with Wes freakin' Marshal? I'm your best friend in the whole world." The hurt is thick in her voice. Why the hell would she be asking me why I wasn't telling her something that isn't going on? My morning brain is too addled for this shit.
"Because I'm not. I hardly even talked to the guy last night and I told you everything that happened. He was an asshole to me and thought I wanted to sleep with him when I was just trying to find someone cool to hang out with. And clearly, I wasn't posh enough to give a roll in the hay to." I roll off the bed and go in search of my robe. It's too cool in here after I've been under my warm blanket. I cinch the belt and pad into the kitchen.
"What are you even talking about anyway? Why would you think I'm having sex with him? Or anybody for that matter?" Ariel knows about my non-existent sex life so she shouldn't even be asking me stupid shit like this. My bathroom is across the apartment from my bedroom. It's a tiny apartment but it's all mine. The thought of soaking my worries away is too great to resist. I deserve a three-hour bath with one of my favorite authors. After the craptastic night I had I should indulge myself.
"Because a picture of you two hugging is on the front of like a million magazines this morning. I just sent it to you. Look but don't hang up on me." Ariel knows me too damned well. I have a bad habit of not being able to figure out electronics.
I pull the phone away from my ear to look at the picture she sent me. It was the one taken last night and both of us are smiling in it. If you didn't know any better it looks like both of us are having a great time. Except I was there and I'm more than aware of what really happened. Fuck! Damn it. I knew better than to let someone take a picture of me without me knowing why they were doing it. I realized it was a bad idea. Now I have two pictures that I never want to see again.
"Okay, but I take pictures with lots of people I hug and it doesn't make news. There's one of me and the whole cast hugging and no one said I was fucking the entire cast." Thank God!
"And celebrity websites are saying you all have been a thing for a while now. They dug up the picture you had me take at one of his concerts and are comparing the two and how long you guys have actually known each other." I roll my eyes so hard I hurt myself. What a pack of lies! Maybe I'll stay in my bath longer.
"Both his agent and yours are giving statements about how the two of you are 'just good friends' which is pretty much Hollywood for 'we're fucking but it's not serious.' So why didn't you tell me you moved and fell in love with the hottie rock god?"
"Because I'm not. I don't even know the guy. I just talked to you last night about how I was heartbroken I wasn't going to be able to listen to his music like before I found out he was a cunt."
"Wow, so it's all like lies. Like you guys haven't even gone out on like a publicity date thing that agents set up? They do that kind of thing you know." Bless her heart, which is southern for she's an idiot but sweet.
"Look, Ariel, I'm not sure what to tell you except the only time I said more than a handful of words to him he told me he wasn't after easy sex and to get lost." Someone knocks on my door and I kill the water. I can feel my temper fraying. One, I'm not going to get that bath if someone keeps knocking on my damn door. And two, I just want my bath, not my Amazon order. It’s probably Steve, the doorman, with a package or something. Steve's nice and about my age. We've talked some, mostly about our families and how much we miss them. He wants to be an actor too. "I really don't know the guy."
As my door swings open I am looking into the same pair of grey-green eyes that tore my ego apart last night. Fuck! "I'm going to have to call you back."
"Why?"
"Because he's standing in front of me."
"Why are you opening the door without looking to see who is there? And in nothing but a fucking robe?" Who the hell does he think he is? He has no right to act all pissed off about what I do in my own home. I pull my robe tighter around me and look down just to make sure nothing is escaping. I end the phone call with Ariel not wanting her to hear any more of our conversation. Last time we tried to talk he said I was an easy lay and not something he wanted. I don't need to have a witness for whatever else he is going to say to slaughter what is left of my ego.
"What the hell does it matter to you?" Last I heard I wasn't what he wanted so why the hell should he be all up in my business. Unless he is here to talk about the mess surrounding the other thing. "Are you here about the picture?"
"What picture?" He seems genuinely lost. I turn my phone around to show him one of the messages Ariel sent me. This one makes it seem like we have been together forever but neither one of us want to say anything because of our careers. "The one from last night of me and you?"
He looks at it but doesn't say anything. The silence is enough. His next words help cement the fact that this asshole is behind all of this. "That's going to happen when you're in this business and everyone wants to know more. I guess we should be glad. They've not even speculated about our sex life and how kinky it is so there's that. There's really nothing you can do about it but just ride it out." He shrugs a shoulder like it isn't a big deal. Ride it out? Our kinky sex life? I choose to ignore those things and move on to what has me most pissed. His high handed ass.
"This building has security. Or so I thought! Steve is there to keep serial killers and stalkers from getting in. So it is perfectly safe to open my door how I want to open it and to whom, not that it is any of your business. Besides I thought you were Steve."
"Steve has a daughter who is a huge fan." I don't know why he says Steve's name like that but it's kind of sexy. No, I am still pissed at him and will not fall for his fake charm. "I told him I left something in your purse last night and needed to come up and get it. He let me up for hardly more than my name."
Sadness hits me hard. "I really liked Steve." I thought he was good at his job and that he actually cared. I mean I wasn't involved with him or anything but it was nice to think someone was close and watching out for my safety. But that's clearly not the case because he wouldn't let just anyone up without calling me first.
"Are you and Steve seeing each other?" his question pulls me out of my reflection on being so all alone and gets my temper back up. That is something he doesn't need to know.
"Look I'm not meaning to be a bitch but I'm not fucking you, I'm never going to fuck you. I don't understand why your team thinks this will help your image when I'm a no-name actress with very little experience nor do I care. I do know I don't want to be a part of this." I shut the door in his face and lean against it for just a second to catch my breath. I just kicked Wes Marshal out of my apartment. Well, he actually never really went over the threshold of my door but I still think it was a win for all of us not perfect girls he doesn't want to fuck! I sag after some of the anger melts. That bath is definitely going to have to happen before I can face anything else today.
