She left Blue sitting at the table to go get dressed. The bedroom was still in a state of disrepair from last night. Shirts and pants were strewn about the room and the blankets were in a tumble on the bed. She wondered what it would be like to really be with Blue. If they were boyfriend and girlfriend, what would their day look like? They could make love anytime they wanted; they could sit and watch TV together, eat dinner, go to restaurants, be a normal loving couple. But she had said goodbye to normal when she signed up for her record contract. But if she had known Blue was an option would she still have signed on the dotted line?
With a sigh Chelsea began to get dressed when she saw that she had about a dozen missed calls on her phone. They were all from her manager, Lauren. There were about ten text messages and none of them were good news.
“Ryan is ready to talk to you.”
“Ryan texted you, be sure to text him back asap!”
“Do you want me to respond?”
“It’s been fifteen minutes. DO NOT MAKE RYAN WAIT.”
As she was looking at her phone the screen lit up as Lauren called again.
“I’m so sorry. My phone died and I just plugged it in and saw all these text messages and calls. I’m so sorry for not getting back to you,” Chelsea lied as she closed her bedroom door behind her.
“Your phone died? Do you think I’m an idiot, Chelsea? You’re twenty-three years old; you know how a phone battery works by now, right?”
“Lauren, I apologized. I can go back in time and fix my mistake.”
“Call Ryan back, right now. He wants to talk to you and he’s sitting in his living room waiting for you, so call him back the second this call is over. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Chelsea sighed.
Without another word the line went dead.
Just do it, Chelsea thought to herself, just call Ryan and tell him you’re flattered, but not interested.
“Hello?” A deep voice said on the other end of the line. Chelsea could easily picture Ryan Baron; she had seen his face on billboards, magazines, and TV commercials for his new movie. He looked like a model, he was tall and lean with a swimmer’s build; he had a jaw that looked like it had been etched from marble and sparkling blue eyes. She still couldn’t quite believe she was actually talking to someone so famous at that exact moment.
“Hi, Ryan? It’s Chelsea Riley. I’m so sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but my phone died.”
“Glad to hear it. For a second I thought you weren’t into me.”
“Oh, no,” Chelsea stammered. “Although, this whole thing is so weird, and I don’t know...”
“Oh yeah, I forget you’re kind of new to all of this. I’ve been in the business since I was six, so this is kind of the only way I know how to contact people,” he sounded a little embarrassed, but even more he sounded like a real person. “I thought maybe I could run into you at a party or something, but then I found out you were out of town.”
“Yeah, I’m visiting my mom with my sister.”
“I still can’t believe you’re single and I didn’t want to miss my opportunity and have some other guy ask you out first, so I got in touch with your manager...”
“Yeah,” Chelsea said. She didn’t know what to say. Ryan was surprisingly nice and normal and turning him down was harder than she thought. Plus, she still didn’t know what he wanted; did he really want to be with her, or did he just want something that would look good in front of the press?
“So, when are you going to be back in town?” Ryan asked. “I’d love to take you out somewhere. Maybe we could grab dinner at the Ivy and then hit up Brentwood.”
Brentwood Market and the Ivy were two places celebrities went when they wanted to be seen. Ryan wasn’t proposing a private date to get to know each other. He wanted people to know he was out with Chelsea Riley.
“Look, can I get back to you about this?” Chelsea asked. “I just have a lot of family stuff going on right now and I can’t really focus on anything else. But could you not tell my manager? She’s been riding me really hard about this.”
“Of course,” Ryan said. “I totally understand. It’s like people don’t understand we’re real people with real emotions. It’s like they want us to be these robots who just go and go and go without a break. Your manager and publicist and agent act like they’re on your side until you really need them and then they’re telling you to man up and move past whatever’s bothering you and get back to work. In the end, most people only care about the bottom line.”
“Yes,” Chelsea said as Ryan put to words all of the complex emotions she had been feeling recently. Her manager was pulling her one way but her life was pulling her another and she was worried she was soon going to split in half.
“No worries. Take care of your family stuff; just promise me you won’t meet some other guy before I have a chance to get to know you.”
Chelsea laughed into the phone and said. “Thanks for being so understanding.”
“No problem. Text me later if you feel like it.”
“Okay,” Chelsea said and then she hung up and fell back on her bed. Ryan Baron, in another life this phone call would have had her jumping up and down on the bed and screaming. But now she had Blue and she wasn’t interested in anyone else, no matter if the relationship was fake or real.
Chelsea jumped as her phone rang again, but it wasn’t her manager, it was her mother.
“Mom? Is everything okay?”
“Is everything okay? No, my daughters have accused my fiancé of arranging fighting pits and forcing his son into them. There was a huge, embarrassing scene the other day, so things are not good.”
“Mom, I’m sorry, but everything we said is true. Terrance is not a good guy; we’re just trying to protect you,” Chelsea pleaded.
“Enough! I don’t want to hear this nonsense anymore! You’re not a child anymore Chelsea. I would hope you would just be happy for me for once in your life. You have everything, Chelsea. You have a record contract and big house in LA and I’m still here in Snowbird trying to find my happiness. I’m sorry you’ve fallen for Blue’s lies, but you’re still my daughter and I love you and I want you and Jamie to come to dinner tonight with Terrance and I so we can talk about all of this.”
“I want to see you, Mom. I’ll go to dinner with you, but not if Terrance is there.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s the liar, not Blue. If we all sit down for dinner together it’s just going to turn into a big fight. Will you come to dinner with just me and Jamie?”
“No. Terrance is going to be my husband and you and your sister need to accept that. If you want a relationship with me, then you will have one with Terrance.”
“Mom, I can’t...” Chelsea whispered and then the line went dead as her mother hung up the phone. Crap, Chelsea thought. She hadn’t handled that well, but she didn’t know what else she should have said. There was a soft knock on the door and Chelsea sighed out the words, “come in” and Jamie entered closing the door behind her. “Mom called. She wants us to go out with her and Terrance.”
“Gross. No,” Jamie said.
“That’s what I told her, but, you know, in a nicer way. She said it’s either her and Terrance or nothing.”
“Great, she’s gone to the most dramatic place possible,” Jamie sighed. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have the kind of mom who bakes cookies and makes scrapbooks?”
“I would be happy if she would just have better taste in men.”
“Speaking of taste in men, how’re things with Blue?”
“Almost too good. My manager is going to lose her mind,” Chelsea said.
“Forget her, you deserve to be happy and I, for one, am very glad you and Blue and banging like bunnies,” she gave a low giggle and Chelsea couldn’t help but join in. “So, I brought back some groceries and some beer, and now I’m gonna head out and I’m probably not going to come back tonight, so you and Blue should feel free to do whatever you want without fear of interruption.”