Chapter 6

Angelina

If there was a heaven, I was in it at that very moment. Nothing about my life outside of that moment mattered because I was sitting next to one of the best-looking men in the world. I had my lips pressed against his, and he was being more of a gentleman than any guy I had ever dated.

To say I was shocked that he was real would be a total understatement.. I had convinced myself that it was a fraud online and had left little room for the real man to even exist. I floundered my words and had been barely able to speak to him, yet the attraction between the two of us seemed to be speaking plenty loud.

When I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes, I felt myself dripping with desire. I wanted to straddle him and feel him sliding inside of me. My cheeks flushed as I imagined what his groans would sound like if I took control of the situation and just took him like I wanted to. He’d be surprised; that was for sure. But that wasn’t the kind of girl I wanted to be around him.

Even though I had totally lied when I met him online, I wouldn’t lie again to him. My heart fluttered just to be there with him, and I couldn’t imagine being anyone else but my authentic self. Being authentic around a man was scary as hell to me, though. Guys used me. They wanted to date me for the publicity. They wanted to be with me so they could brag about it, but sitting there with Dean, I knew he didn’t want any of that from me. So for the first time that I could remember, it didn’t matter that my family had a television show. This man wanted to be there with me because he wanted to be with me; Angelina Kent, the real woman.

“So this is going well, I think,” Dean said cheekily.

His smile made me melt. The way the left side of his mouth lifted up just a little higher than the right, the way his eyes looked at me like he wanted to kiss every inch of me.

“Hmm, I don’t know.”

“What? No way you’ve had better first dates than this.”

“How do you know? I could have.”

“Tell the truth.” He smiled, and I melted.

His grin was pure gold; it was no wonder the man had made such a killing as a movie star. Women melted when he smiled at them like that. I know I certainly was putty in his hands. I would have done anything he wanted.

“Okay, okay, best first date ever. But that’s mainly because I’ve had a crush on you forever,” I blurted out. “Oh, my God I can’t believe I just said that. Forget what you heard. Don’t repeat it. Don’t remember it. Oh God,” I said as I covered my face with my hands.

“So I’m basically making your dreams come true right now.” He laughed. “Yep, best first date.”

I had to laugh. He was so funny and charismatic. He was cocky without being annoying. I couldn’t think of enough witty comebacks to reply to him, though. Every time I managed to respond, he was right there with something else funny to say. It was the kind of witty banter that only happened in the movies.

Soon I found myself with my shoes off and my feet on his lap while we talked about everything in the entertainment industry. We talked about my movie director and how Dean had once threatened to punch the guy in the face. I loved that picture in my head and really wished I could punch the guy in the face. Of course, I wasn’t a big Hollywood celebrity, though; I couldn’t do anything that would label me as hard to work with.

We talked about his movie career and my dreams of my own movie career. Dean told me some terrible stories about working on set, and I told him some terrible stories about the reality television world. I felt like I could literally tell him anything, and he would understand. It made my heart fill with promise that I had met another human being that seemed to really understand where I was coming from and where I wanted to go. That had never even been on my radar as a possibility before. I had relegated myself to dating losers and hoping for halfway decent men who weren’t totally going to use me. Never, had I hoped to find a man I actually felt safe with.

“I have to work in the morning,” I finally ventured to say when the owner of the club peeked his head in to tell us they were closing.

“I think it is morning.” Dean laughed as he showed me his watch.

“Four o’clock. Oh shit.” I jumped up. “I’m going to be such ass today during taping.”

“Here’s a tip. Before you go do your lines, do twenty jumping jacks. It will get your blood pumping and clear your head so you can make it through the day.”

“Really?”

“Hey, you’re talking to a guy who didn’t sleep more than two hours a night while filming a movie in Amsterdam.” He winked at me. “You know there’s a lot of things for a single man to do while he’s in Amsterdam.”

“Oh, I don’t want to know what you were doing up all night,” I said, and then laughed and covered my eyes.

“Let me get you back to your hotel. Is it near here?”

“Literally just down the street. If I wasn’t wearing these heels, I could walk.” I laughed as I held onto my five-inch platform Christian Louboutins.

“I’d carry you if it wouldn’t cause such a scene.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s just the picture I want plastered all over the tabloids. You carrying me through Time Square at four o’clock in the morning.” We both laughed at the idea.

“Yeah, let’s get a car,” Dean said as he ordered a Uber from his phone. “The good news is the paparazzi have probably all gone home to sleep.”

“Hopefully.”

He held my hand as we walked out of the club and down to the waiting car. The owner was there and talked with Dean briefly before we slid into the backseat of the all black BMW. When Dean shut the door ,I snuggled up next to him like I had known him for months. I wanted to invite him back to my room, but I knew I needed to grab a couple of hours of sleep before filming started at eight that morning.

“I’m right down the street, that tall building over there,” I pointed.

It did seem silly that we had gotten a car, but I didn’t really know where Dean was staying so I figured he would just take it back to his place too. It was only an hour or two before the sun rose, and the streets were eerily calm. New York was even more beautiful at that hour of the night.

As the car pulled up in front of my hotel, Dean jumped out and asked the driver to wait for him. He lifted me up and carried me into the front doors of the hotel, where we stood in an embrace as he set me back down slowly. Oh, how I wanted him to come up to my room with me, it would have been the perfect ending to a perfect date.

“You were a surprise,” Dean said as he gently touched my cheek. “I’m really damn happy I met you.”

“Me too.”

“You really put my number in your phone earlier, right?” he asked skeptically. “This isn’t some trick to get rid of me and never call me?”

I had to laugh. He was worried that I wouldn’t call him! This was so funny to me. I was worried I wouldn’t hear from him again; I was worried the whole night had been some sort of dream. Of course, I would call him. I would frigging call him right when I got to my room just to make sure he was real.

“I’ve got your number, and I’ll talk to you later today,” I answered.

He pulled me up toward him, and my lips gently touched his. I was ready to have another full-on makeout session with him, but he softly kissed me and then walked back toward the door. Good thing he was being the responsible one, I didn’t have the willpower. Dean was clearly a good guy and that made me want him even more.

“I’m going to let you go sleep so you can rock it at your filming today. It was great meeting you Angelina,” Dean said as he opened the door.

“You too Dean,” I said and watched him walk away.

I was in a daze as I made my way back up to my hotel room. The time of night had finally hit me, and my adrenaline from my date was slowly dissipating as I brushed my teeth and climbed into bed. I called the front desk and asked for a wake-up call at 7:30 a.m. Just enough time to get my butt to the set for hair and makeup.

As I closed my eyes and tried desperately not to stay awake another moment, I thought of Dean and how his hands felt on my body. The tender touch of his large manly hands was something I certainly couldn’t wait to feel on the delicate naked skin of my body. I shook my head to try and get the thought out of my mind, but it was useless. I couldn’t stop thinking about the man, not after that amazing date.

I reached over and sent him a quick text message.

“I’m going to sleep with thoughts of your hands on my naked body, don’t text back, though. I need to sleep.”

I smiled as I sent it and then drifted off to sleep. Three hours wasn’t exactly a full night of sleep, but it would do for one day. I had managed on zero sleep before. If it was only for one day, I seemed to struggle through, but if I went a second night without sleep, that was where I started to really struggle.

***

“Angelina, you look amazing,” Niall, my makeup artist said when I arrived on set.

“Really? Well, I was up almost all night, so I don’t know how that is possible.” I laughed. “You are going to have your work cut out for you today.”

“You have a boyfriend! I can see it in those smile lines around your eyes. Dish me the details, girl. If I have to cover up smile lines, I know something went right last night.”

I loved Niall to death. He was the sweetest kindest man to me, and I requested to work with him whenever possible. When I got the job on the movie, I had even pushed for Niall to be the makeup artist for the production. It was nice to have a friend around when I was in such an uncertain environment.

“I had a date,” I reluctantly answered.

“Oh, yes, yes, yes,” he replied as he started to work on my face.

“It wasn’t all that crazy. Just us talking and getting to know each other.”

“Talking, yes! I love talking. Tell me more.”

“Nothing much to tell. He’s a little older; he’s in the industry, and he understood the pressure I’m under.”

“Girl, you tell me who it is right now,” Niall said in a totally serious voice as he stood in front of me and started to layer on my makeup.

“Niall, I can’t have everyone knowing yet. I mean we only went on one date. I promise I’ll tell you after date number three.”

He looked utterly disappointed in me as he went back to doing my makeup, and I closed my eyes to get a little rest. I felt one of the hair ladies start working on my hairstyle and did the best I could to stay sitting up and not fall over as I drifted in and out of sleep. Soon, the hair stylist had propped a pillow under my neck, and I was resting comfortably as everyone continued to work on me.

“Are you sleeping?” I heard Gene yell as I opened my eyes quickly and sat up.

“I was sitting still so they could do their jobs,” I said emphatically as I looked at Niall and the stylist.

“Today’s a big day; let’s not act like a reality star today, okay?” he asked but then left before I had the chance to answer.

I could tell that Gene was annoyed with me by the expression on his face. Not really me as a person, but probably the pressure he had been put under to hire me instead of a seasoned actress. I had done well so far, though, or at least I thought I had. It would all be up in the air though until the project was completed. I secretly hoped the film would be a huge success, not just because I wanted to be a legitimate actress, but to prove to everyone that they hadn’t made a mistake by hiring me.

One of my biggest fears was that the movie would do poorly and everyone would blame me.

I stood up and did twenty jumping jacks before walking out of the room and heading into the wardrobe. Niall’s eyes were on me like a hawk, but I avoided answering any questions about my new and strange ritual.

Our first scene came and went without a hitch. In fact, I felt like I had really nailed it, and even my co-star seemed a little impressed with how quickly I had my part down. My acting was on point throughout the morning, and by our first break, I felt like people were actually rooting for me. Whatever had been wrong with me while we were taping in Los Angeles was clearly not there anymore.

“You’re doing great, Abby,” Matthew Morgan, my co-star for the show said as we sat and ate a sandwich in one of the back rooms.

“Thanks, I feel good today. Maybe New York is just more my speed.”

“I love it here. I’m going to see that play with Dean Morrison in it before we leave, maybe Thursday, do you want to come with me?”

I wanted to laugh at how he was suddenly flirting with me. This guy had pretty much treated me like crap throughout our filming; he hadn’t stood up for me at all with the director, and now suddenly he wanted to hang out with me. No, thank you.

“I’m trying to rest up this week. I’ll be sticking close to my room; thanks for the offer, though. I’ve heard the show is amazing.”

“Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me,” he said with a wink.

I barely was able to keep my eyes from rolling into the back of my head. The fake smile that crossed Matthew’s face was hardly new to me. I had seen him flirt with and hit on pretty much every woman on the set; the only thing surprising was just how long it took him to start hitting on me.

When I finally got a moment to myself, I went through my text messages, social media notifications, and emails. The first thing I looked at was a text message from Dean.

“Is it safe to tell you I dreamt about you and that white dress? I’m not going to tell you all the things we did, but you should be really tired today from them all.”

“Sorry, it took so long for me to answer. It’s been a good day on set, though,” I replied.

As I went through all my other notifications, I saw a Google notice that Jeremy had set up for when new stories came out from Entertainment Weekly. I didn’t care if I had stories in the tabloids, but if a legitimate entertainment group was talking about me, I wanted to know. Most days, I was too busy to care about all that, and often I missed the notifications altogether, but this time I saw it, so I clicked the link.

“Reality Royalty Angelina Kent Spotted Kissing Hollywood Royalty Dean Morrison,” the headline read.

“Angelina, you’re wanted on the set,” a production assistant yelled from the hallway.

I smiled at the idea that someone had actually gotten a picture of Dean and me kissing. I didn’t care at all. For the first time in a very long time, I was actually a little proud of the man I had been caught kissing. Certainly, no one was going to have anything bad to say about Dean and I dating. We were a good match for each other.

“You better tell me what’s going on young lady,” Niall said as he freshened up my makeup.

“Okay, I can’t keep it in. I went on a date with Dean Morrison last night, and a tabloid got the picture, and now mainstream media is running with the story. And I don’t even care because it was the best date of my life.”

“I’m going to pass out,” Niall said as he started to fan himself. “Girl … are … you … telling … me … that … you … had … sex … with … The … Dean … Morrison?”

“What? You’re sleeping with Dean Morrison?” Gene said as he walked past us.

“She is. Can you believe this?” Niall responded.

“No, actually I can’t.”

“I’m not sleeping with anyone. It was one date. And why can’t you believe it, Gene?”

“You don’t seem like his type. I thought he only dated models?”

“Yeah, he dated that one Calvin Kline model; what was her name?” Niall asked.

“Michelle something, I think,” Gene responded. “She was stunning. They made a really good couple; I wonder why they broke up?”

“I think she was too dumb for him. She could barely add, but didn’t he start dating his co-star; what was her name?”

“Guys, I’m going to the set, you two can keep talking about my date’s previous dates or come join me,” I said as I stormed out of the room.

They didn’t know if Dean and I were a good couple or not. How would they know? Neither of them had felt the chemistry that was there between the two of us. I didn’t care what they thought; obviously, I was Dean’s type or he wouldn’t have gone out with me.

We were killing it as we filmed well into the evening. I felt on top of the world and wasn’t tired at all. Even my co-star seemed to be hitting all his lines. We pushed through into the next day’s schedule and ended up the evening a little ahead of ourselves, which was totally unheard of in the movie industry.

By ten o’clock when I finally crawled into a car to head back to my hotel, my exhaustion was finally catching up with me. I knew I was going to have to talk to my agent before I could go to sleep, though. There was no way he hadn’t seen the news, and I was sure I had a lot of explaining to do.

“Wow, forty-seven missed calls.” I laughed as I looked at my phone. “I guess people wanted to talk to me today.”

“I keep my phone off while I’m driving. It’s the best way to relax,” my driver added.

“Yeah, I like that plan.”

I dialed Jeremy’s number without even listening to his voicemails. I knew he would just tell me it all again; there was no use wasting my time or energy by listening to the voicemails.

“Finally you call me! What the hell is going on? I’ve got everyone calling and asking for a statement, and I can’t even get a hold of my client!”

“Hello Jeremy; I’m doing great. My day of filming went very well, and I think I’m actually getting along with the director.”

“I’m sorry, but come on. You go out with a legend of Hollywood, and I hear the news from the media.”

“He surprised me; I met him on Instamatch and thought he was trying to catfish me. But it was really him.”

“Is it my birthday? Tell me it is my birthday. You can’t be serious? Did you actually meet him on the app?”

“Yeah, I was messing around when I got to town, why?”

“Thank you baby Jesus; I love you so much. I’m going to send you my first born child and call her Angelina. Or if it’s a boy I’ll call him Angelina too.”

“Jeremy, what are you going on about?” I laughed as I curled my feet up onto the back seat of the Lincoln Towncar I was in.

“I’ve had at least three dozen requests for interviews. Even NBC called. The actual network news station. This picture of you and Dean kissing is everywhere. It’s like the lottery of free publicity. Now I’m going to need you to post something on social media with Dean. Just a little picture from a date, anything that you can tag the company in so we can really drive this deal home. You are going to make millions!”

“Jeremy, I’m not going to force the poor guy to post on my social media page. We only went on one date.”

The phone went silent. I could tell Jeremy was was trying very carefully to calculate his response to me.

“Angelina, darling, you know I want what’s best for you.” He took in a deep breath. “Will you be going out with Dean again?”

“I hope so, but I haven’t talked to him today because I was busy filming.”

“Okay, so how about you just work out another date with him. You like him right?”

“Yeah, it was the best first date I’ve ever had.”

“From the look of the pictures, it seemed like the two of you were getting along very well.”

“Send me the pictures you’ve seen. Were they at the club?” I asked as I finally got a little worried about where they had snapped the photos from.

“He was literally holding you and had carried you into your hotel. The series shows him setting you down, and the two of you kissing goodnight. It was quite romantic actually.”

“Well, I’m not promising you anything. I’ll let you know,” I said without giving him confirmation that I would post anything. “I’m not required to disclose that I met him on Instamatch. I’m only required to post about the dating app. I need to think about this. I don’t want to be overexposed.”

“Alright, but please just post about it. Your story is a good one; it will inspire others to find their true loves,” Jeremy said as he tried to manipulate me.

“You know I don’t like it when you do that.”

“What?”

“Tell me what I want to hear, so I’ll do what you want me to do.”

“Okay, just at least go on another date with the guy. As your friend, it really did look like he liked you, and you looked really into him too.”

“I’ll talk to you later Jeremy. I’ve got to sleep. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Angelina; we can talk more tomorrow. I won’t confirm anything until we talk, but I need to reply with something more than ‘no comment.’ You know how much I hate that.”

“Okay, tomorrow we will talk again.”