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“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” said Brayden, quickly setting the water pitcher on an empty table and kneeling down to retrieve my now-empty plate.
“It was totally my fault, not yours,” I said, picking a piece of pound cake out of my hair. “I was too excited about my breakfast I guess to watch where I was going.”
I attempted a light-hearted laugh, trying not to think about what my modeling agent would do if she could see me now. Probably fire me on the spot.
Brayden flashed an apologetic smile at me as one of the dining room attendants rushed over with a broom.
“Well, I still think I’m the one to blame here, but thank you for saying that. I’d like to pay to have your clothes cleaned. And I’d be happy to order room service for you…On the house. It’s the least I can do for ruining your morning.”
I waved my hand in the air. “That’s very kind of you, but none of that will be necessary. Trust me, you didn’t ruin anything. I don’t even have any plans for today. I can just go back to my bungalow to change and come right back.”
Brayden looked skeptical. “To be honest, I don’t feel comfortable not doing anything to make up for this. I’m actually off work after the morning shift and as a matter of fact, I have the rest of the week off as well. Pre-planned vacation time.”
We both stepped out of the attendant’s way and Brayden joined me as I began to walk back to the restaurant’s entrance. I noticed he circled around to my other side unnecessarily, so that his scarred cheek was facing the other way.
“That’s nice,” I replied. “I hope you’re going somewhere at least as wonderful as this place. I’m tempted to never go home again, everything here is so lovely,”
“Where are you from?” He asked.
“L.A.,” I informed, not bothering to hide my grimace.
“Ah,” he said with a nod of understanding. “Big city getting to you?”
“You can say that again,” I said drily.
“To tell the truth, I’m not actually leaving the area,” said Brayden. “It’s more of a staycation. Paid time off. My boss told me to use it or lose it,” he chuckled.
I smiled. “A staycation sounds fabulous.”
We stopped by the hostess stand. Britney was gathering a stack of menus and passed us without a backwards glance as she proceeded to lead a family of four to an empty table.
“Listen, I really want to make up for the trouble I’ve caused you,” Brayden insisted. “If you’re interested, would you like to join me this afternoon for a walk on the beach? It’s beautiful, and I’d be happy to show you some of the best vantage points. Maybe around 1 pm?”
I was touched by his offer. “That sounds wonderful. Thank you so much.”
“Fantastic,” he said with a grin. After we exchanged phone numbers, agreeing to text if anything came up, Brayden hesitated a moment as if unsure about something, and then reached over and quickly brushed a piece of scrambled egg from my shoulder.
I burst out laughing as the sweet man in front of me turned bright red.
“Thanks,” I said before waving goodbye, happy to finally have something to look forward to for the rest of the morning.
Chapter Four
Brayden
“Buddy, could I have made any more a fool of myself this morning?” I asked shaking my head as I changed out of my hotel uniform of black pants and white button-down into a pair of khaki shorts and a blue short-sleeved Polo. Buddy wagged his tail excitedly, sensing something new and interesting was in the air.
Interesting was certainly an understatement. Not only was I catfishing a supermodel, but I’d basically head-butted her and ruined her breakfast. Things were not going well, and I was still completely clueless about what I was going to do to come out of this without looking like a total jerk. Maybe I could message her as Ace and let her know that I’d come down ill or something and wouldn’t be able to make the wedding. However, that would leave her without a date, and I’d risk being kicked off the App. for not fulfilling my responsibilities. Even though the extra cash would be nice, I was more concerned about leaving Dani high and dry. She must have been really desperate to hire someone to stand in as her fake boyfriend. I couldn’t imagine what had driven her to that—the woman could have any guy she wanted.
But maybe that was it…maybe she didn’t want someone falling over themselves to get in line to go out with her. I reflected as I shaved my face, moving the razor gingerly over the scarred side, being careful to avoid the raised areas. My skin had been too badly burned in the flight crash for stubble to grow anyway. Perhaps Dani simply wanted a companion who wouldn’t care whether she was famous or not.
“I can’t imagine how it must feel to have everyone think they know you from what they see or read in the media,” I commented, bending down to scratch Buddy under the chin. I knew how vulnerable I felt just showing my face every day. No wonder Dani was glad to get out of L.A. At Hillcrest, it was common to have celebrity and elite guests staying at the resort, so none of the staff batted an eyelash. We were even taught during training to refrain from calling attention to anyone. People came here to get away from their busy lives and we needed to respect that and let them be.
I doubted many people would recognize Dani anyway. In person, she looked very different from her pictures—more natural and fleshed out. Definitely not as bony and weirdly elongated as she appeared in magazines.
Although with her height, I suspected she was still underweight and couldn’t help wondering what she’d look like with another ten to twenty pounds on her frame. Curvy girls had always appealed to me. I loved their softness and feminine roundness that was so entirely opposite from my hard exterior. And it was nice to see the supermodel without makeup on for a change, too. I hated the garishness of false eyelashes or the overblown lips that seemed to be so trendy these days. It was almost as though people didn’t want to look human anymore. I wondered why that was.
In person, Dani was definitely very human, and in fact, appeared a lot younger than her images in the media. If I hadn’t known her age from the App., I’d have guessed she was in her late teens or maybe just turned twenty, certainly not twenty-five.
