Xander

I don’t know what made me say that. I guess there were a few reasons. For one, I’ve realized Elsie is far too sweet to use and discard the way I’d originally intended. My first view of her in lingerie obviously gave me the wrong idea about her but she’s far too special to be another notch on my bedpost.

In fact, she makes me want to throw my bedpost out and buy a new one, one that’s just for her.

“But you’re leaving tomorrow,” she says, her eyes searching mine.

“Changed my mind. Turns out this hotel is a great place to hide from the media. Plus it has the best assistant manager in the country.”

I sit back in the chair and pull Elsie onto my lap. She drapes her arm around my shoulders and I squeeze her tight against me.

“I’m glad you’re not leaving in the morning.”

“Me too. As long as this means dinner in the VIP area again tomorrow.”

“I’ll be working all day so I’m free in the evening. There’s here again, or we can always leave the hotel. There’s this great bar I know. Tarzan’s is always fun.”

“I’m hiding, remember? I’m not leaving the hotel. I don’t even want to go in the lobby in case someone recognizes me.”

“Oh right, I’m not used to this whole hiding-out-from-the media lifestyle,” she says, looking off into the air dramatically.

“It’s a tough life,” I say sarcastically.

“It must be tough playing a pretend boyfriend on reality TV. How do you live the rest of your life? I mean, if everyone in the world thinks you’re Luna’s boyfriend then how do you live your… normal life?” she asks thoughtfully.

I shrug and say, “I don’t.”

“But then that means your whole life is fake.”

“Pretty much,” I say.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned today it’s that I’m tired of my plastic life. The media stories already made me realize that I don’t want to keep living my life the way I have been, with all the fake this and pretend that just for the sake of the TV show. Not to mention all the posers my non-television life has been surrounded with, all for the sake of the people around me trying to get on Lunatics. Or at least just be able to tell their friends that they are my friend.

No one gives two damns about anything other than themselves and I’m ashamed to say I’ve been living my life that way.

“Don’t you get tired living like that?”

“I didn’t used to, but I am pretty fed up with it today.”

“Then I guess today is a good day to change it,” she says with such a genuine tone that it makes it all painfully obvious.

Elsie has been an epiphany. We sat here and talked for hours and not once has she worried about her hair or fixed her makeup or ask to be on Luna’s show or talked nonstop about the show or her latest purchase or what party she’s going to next or who she met or on and on and on about things that don’t fucking matter.

It’s no wonder I said this wasn’t a one-night stand because as far as I’m concerned it isn’t. Elsie is a breath of fresh air and I intend to bundle her into my arms and hold on tight.

The fact that she’s not a one-night stand or even a sex-on-the-first-night kind of girl just makes her more appealing to me and for once my dick can wait.

“Believe it or not, I am going to change my life.”

“Yeah, sometimes it takes something really bad to happen to make us see what we’re not doing right in life and change.”

“Change like take-sexy-pictures change?” I say with a coy smile.

Elsie presses her finger against my dimple and twists it around, her eyes gleaming in the moonlight. “I’ve wanted to do this all day.”

“I won’t tell you what I wanted to do all day.”

“I think I can guess. Anyway,” she says pulling away her hand, “what are we having for dinner tomorrow?”

Each other, I think but I say, “Chinese?”

My cock stiffens with the thought of burying my face between Elsie’s thighs and I immediately force myself to think about baseball. Coming up with an all-star team always clears my mind and right now my mind needs clearing or I’ll have to go back on my decision not to fuck Elsie tonight.

“Do you get to New York much?” I ask, steering the conversation to safer territory.

“Almost never. Usually I go in for some Christmas shopping but that’s about it.”

That’s going to have to change. “You should come in more often.”

“Is that an invitation?”

It is. I definitely want Elsie to visit me so I can introduce her to my bed, among other things. But something in my chest tells me to hold on, to slow down. This isn’t just hooking up with some random chick, this is me changing my entire life and entering into a relationship with a real, regular girl.

Maybe I need to think it over and figure out the best way forward. Sort out things with Luna first. Somehow extract myself from Lunatics. And extract myself from my entire life, at least if I want to get rid of the posers.

That means rebuilding my entire social circle with genuine people. Not that Luna isn’t genuine, she’s just genuinely fake.

Either way, it makes sense to take things slow with Elsie rather than change my entire life for the first regular girl I happen upon.

“I can show you around,” I say.

“What about Luna and the media?”

“The media will move on soon, especially after Luna comes clean about her lies.”

“And Luna herself? If she’s your TV girlfriend still is she gonna be okay with you running around with other women?”

I laugh and say, “Supermodel, do you think I haven’t been running around with girls while the shows been on?”

“I don’t really want to think about you and your manwhore ways.”

“Hey, who are you calling a manwhore?”

Elsie quirks a brow. I pull her into me and brush my lips over hers. It was a bad move. My cock stiffens in my pants and I struggle to stop myself from bending her over the table and fucking her senseless.

I go back to rebuilding my all-star baseball team.

“Do you like baseball?” I ask.

“Love it,” she exclaims.

“Yeah? Who would be on your all-star team?” I ask.

We spend ages discussing who we would want on our teams, and whether her team would beat mine. Our conversation rambles and we talk for ages, Elsie sitting on my lap the entire time.

Everything feels real.

Elsie yawns and looks at her watch. “Holy shit, it’s after two and I have an appointment first thing in the morning.”

“What kind of appointment?” I ask.

“Nothing important, I just can’t miss it.”

“Does that mean you’re leaving me?” I tease.

“Afraid so.”

I can’t resist asking, “Is there a tuck-in service?”

“Not tonight there isn’t.”

Elsie gets off my lap and I stand beside her. She leads me through the door into the hotel and I followed her down the flight of stairs that leads from the roof. We end up taking the stairs all the way to the ground floor and we go halfway down the stark white employees-only corridor.

She stops at the door and says, “My car is parked right outside this door, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you in a few hours, supermodel.” I mesh my fingers through her hair and press my lips against hers in a chaste kiss that quickly turns into a deeper one.