“Alex, I need to speak to Ella.” Rowan rushed toward us as we approached the doors.
“Fuck off, Rowan. Pick Amy up and sort her out. I’ll be back soon. Then we can start filming.”
It was only when the doors to the studio swung shut, and we were away from the stifling atmosphere in the studio that I snapped free from my dazed reverie.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” I apologised as I pulled at my cardigan sleeve to wipe my tears.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I find girls crying quite a turn on.” He chuckled quietly. “Look, I can take you to the canteen if you want, get you a drink and a cookie, or we can pop in here.” He stopped outside his dressing room door. “It’s a bit more private than the canteen, but I understand if you’d rather go there.” He inclined his head toward the doors at the end of the corridor.
“In here’s fine.” I sniffed. I didn’t think I’d cope very well with even more people watching us—not at the moment.
Alex released his arm from my shoulder as he ushered me into his room.
“Here, take a seat.” He patted the chair he’d been sitting on earlier, and then strode across the small room. Seconds later he perched himself on the counter in front of the mirror, two glasses and a bottle of whiskey in his hands. It was a welcome sight to look at him as he faced me, rather than my own dreadful reflection.
“Drink?” he offered, holding the bottle up.
“I’ve never tried whiskey,” I admitted.
He put the glasses down on the counter top, and unscrewed the top of the whiskey bottle.
“First time for everything, Ella. And it’s good for shock.”
“I’m not in shock.”
“I say you are. Don’t argue with me.”
I was unable to respond. This whole situation was more than surreal. A couple of tears trickled free from my eyes.
“Hey. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you again. Here. I’ve got some tissues somewhere.” He fumbled along the counter top trying to locate them.
Swinging back into his position in front of me, he tenderly dabbed at my cheeks with the newly located tissues.
“I’m not close enough,” he said, and slid from the counter, stepping near, so near.
“I’m not crying anymore,” I breathed, unsure of how my voice would sound. His face was so close to mine, that I could feel his breath on my lips. What was he doing?
“I know,” he whispered.
“Then why are—”
His lips lightly brushed against mine.
I didn’t move. I didn’t dare to even breathe.
Alex didn’t move either.
It was as if an eternity past whilst we remained frozen in place, but eventually he slowly moved away. His eyes never left mine and he pushed himself back into his seated position on the counter.
I stared at him, still feeling the softness of his lips against mine.
“Sorry,” he said.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Had Alex Denton just kissed me?
“You definitely need whiskey now.” He picked the bottle up and proceeded to half fill the two glasses.
“Trying to get me drunk?” I questioned.
He handed me one of the glasses.
“It’s all part of my interrogation technique I’m afraid.”
He placed the glass against his lips and tipped his head back, downing the liquid in one go.
Banging the empty glass on the counter, he turned his attention to me. “Down in one, Ella. Then wait for the burn.”
I stared at the dark amber liquid in my glass. I wasn’t convinced that drinking whiskey would cure my shock, but then again, what would? I lifted the glass to my nose, and coughed as the strong fumes hit me. I’d never tasted whiskey before and, from the smell of it, I didn’t think this would be something I’d ever repeat.
Alex was watching me, a smirk pulling at his mouth as he waited. Doing as he’d done, I rested the glass against my lips, tipped my head back, and swallowed the amber liquid.
My throat started to burn, and I coughed. Alex laughed.
“Shit. That’s vile!” I complained as he took the glass from me.
“The next one will taste better,” he promised.
“No, no more!” I continued coughing as the liquid continued to burn my throat.
“I didn’t mean today. Good grief, you’ll be fired if you’re drunk on set.”
He poured another glass of the amber liquid for himself. “I, on the other hand, cannot be fired. Cheers!” He raised his glass.
He swallowed the whiskey, reached for the bottle again, and then looked at me.
“Better not have any more if I’m driving you home tonight.”
“You could always get the bus with me,” I suggested, conjuring up the image of him sitting next to piss lady.
“Fuck, no way. I can’t use public transport. It’d be a nightmare.”
I grinned at his expression. “Well then, you could let me drive your car.”
“Oh no, never in a million years. She’s my pride and joy. No-one’s allowed to drive her apart from me.”
I shook my head at his typical reaction. All men were the same. They never trusted a woman driving their cars.
We both sat looking at each other as our laughing subsided. I was puzzled by the changes I’d seen in him this morning, and had to remind myself about why I was allowing myself to even talk to him after yesterday. He’d apologised, and that meant a lot. But something else was bugging me now.
“Alex?” I asked, pushing myself out of my comfort zone. “Why did you just kiss me?”
“I told you. It’s part of my interrogation technique. I was softening you up for my questions.” He grinned at my confusion. “I suspect I know the answer to this, and believe me, I don’t want to put you in any awkward positions.” He paused. “Well, maybe I do, but not in this sense anyway.”
I frowned, God this man was a huge and difficult puzzle to work out.
“What do you know about Amy and me, and how did you find out about it?” he asked. There was no sign of hostility coming from him, and considering how easily he fired up, I was reassured by his calmness. But I remained silent. I couldn’t tell him that Rowan had spilled the beans about everything. He’d fire me on the spot, and I didn’t want to be thrown off my work experience on my second day.
Alex cocked his head and tapped his lips with his finger. “Crisp Muncher told you, didn’t he?”
I didn’t respond.
“Ella, I think that because you’re not denying it, it means that it was him that spilled the beans. Did he tell you everything, the full story?”
I couldn’t pretend any longer. “Yes, but only because I asked him.”
“You asked him? What on earth did you ask him?”
“I asked him why you and Amy behaved the way you do. I couldn’t understand how you two could have ever had a relationship together. And you . . . well, you were both horrible to me.”
Alex leaned forward. “So, what did he tell you?”
“That you were in love with Amy,” I said, growing increasingly uncomfortable with what I was saying.
He sighed. “Go on.”
“And that she started seeing Simon behind your back. It was quite a while before you found out about it. Then you had to pretend to be together for the sake of the second film. It’s all so unfair Alex. You got all the shit from the media about your behaviour when it was her who should have been picked on.”
I glanced at his expression, concerned about how he would react to what I had said. To my surprise, he chuckled.
“Oh, Ella. You have a lot to learn about the media and the way it works. Unfair was the least of my worries.”
I frowned, but he didn’t expand.
“She’s the reason you behave how you do, isn’t she?”
“Who? Amy? Well yes, to some degree. I can’t stand her, but it’s more to do with what she did, rather than the person she’s become. We were both young when we starred in the first film. I thought I was in love with her, but I wasn’t. She was a cow doing what she did behind my back, but you know what? I got over it. I had to.”
I took a deep breath, stood up and stepped toward him.
“I don’t believe any of what you’ve just said. And I don’t think you do either. She hurt you, she broke your heart. And all this anger is your way of not letting anyone get close to you. I hate to see you like this, you deserve so much more.”
His eyes locked with mine for a split second before he looked away. I reached for his hands.
“I want to help you,” I said.
“Maybe you’re right,” he offered quietly. “But what if I’m beyond all help?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think you are.”
His hands squeezed mine. “You don’t know how difficult I can get.”
I near enough snorted at his statement. “I think you’ve given me a pretty good indication of your abilities, Mr Denton.”
There was a loud knock on the door. We both froze. Alex’s hand shot to my lips and he held a finger against them.
“You’ve got five minutes Alex,” It was Rowan. “And what the hell have you done with Ella? I can’t find her.”
“I’ll be back on set in a minute!” Alex shouted. “Last time I saw Ella she was heading to the ladies’ room. Try there.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’ll keep him busy for a few minutes. He won’t dare walk in there.”
His finger dropped from my lips and he scratched his forehead, frowning.
“Now, what do we do about this?” he said.
I panicked, suddenly realising that Alex knew Rowan had told me all his secrets. “You promise you won’t drop me in it with Rowan? If he knows I’ve told you it was him that blabbed, he’ll fire me.”
“I promise I’ll not say anything. But even if he does find out, I won’t let him fire you. If he fires you, he’ll have to fire me as well!”
I raised my brow at the ridiculousness of his statement. “Yeah, sure thing,” I mused. “Like Alex Denton would put his job on the line for me.”
“I’m serious. He should never have told you what happened between me and Amy, but in a strange kind of way, I’m glad he did.”
I stepped away from him, ready to head back to the studio.
“No, please.” He caught my hand as I moved. “Don’t go just yet. I kind of like being with you. I hate to admit it, but you’ve probably made me laugh more today than I have in the entire past year.”
“Don’t be daft. However bad things have been, you must have laughed at something, even if it was yourself.”
He shook his head. “No, nothing.”
“What happened to the confident, happy, go-lucky film star that graces all our magazines and the newspapers?”
“He was acting,” Alex said, suddenly serious. “It’s always been an act.”
His spare hand pulled at the collar on his shirt, and the hand holding mine tightened even more. “But if I’m honest, perhaps it has something to do with Amy. I don’t ever want to be hurt that way again. I don’t think I’d survive the heartbreak.” His voice broke on the last word of his sentence.
“You loved her, didn’t you?”
He paused before replying. “Yes.”
“Oh Alex, I’m so sorry.” Before I could register what I was doing, my arms were around him, hugging him. It was an instinctive thing for me to do. I couldn’t bear to see him so broken. I also suspected that I was the first person he had been honest with about the whole thing.
“Maybe I’m ready to try and put it all behind me. Be me again,” he said, his voice muffled on the top of my head. “Will you help me, Ella?”
“Me. Help you?” Wasn’t this what I’d thought about last night, what I’d dreamt about? In my dreams, Alex hadn’t wanted any help, he’d been determined to stay the bitter and angry man I’d witnessed yesterday.
“I think we’ve got a bit of a connection. Please say you’ll help me.”
“Of course I’ll help you,” I murmured. “You just need to talk, let it all out.”
We remained hugging for several seconds, and then an awkward silence filled the room. I pushed myself away from him, embarrassed at my impromptu show of affection.
“Thank you,” he said. “I think I needed that. It’s been a long time since anyone genuinely hugged me.”
“Any time,” I replied, offering him a nervous smile.
“Sooo . . .” he drawled. “We can talk some more tonight, when I take you home? I’d like to know what you’ve got planned for me.”
I frowned. “I’ve not got any plans. Like I said, I think you just need to talk about it all. Get rid of all this anger you have. I promise to listen, and not judge you.”
“I may have a lot to say.”
“I’m a good listener.”
“And you won’t say anything to anyone about this . . . well, this arrangement?”
“Who am I going to tell? Rowan or Amy? Do you think I would?”
“I don’t know you, Ella. I need to be able to trust you with this.”
“And you can.” I reassured him. “But you need to be honest with me and leave this alter ego, the angry Alex at the door. I’m not going to put up with your snide comments. If you start directing them at me again, then I won’t have anything more to do with this.”
“I promise I’ll leave him behind when it’s just you and me. I can’t when I’m out there with her though.”
I nodded, understanding. “And I promise that I’ll help you as much as I can.”
He held his hand out toward me.
“What’s that for?” I stared at his out-stretched hand.
“Shake on it. We’ve both promised each other something. You’ve promised to help me, and I’ve promised to be my normal self with you when there’s just the two of us together.”
I moved my hand toward his, but suddenly stopped.
“Hey, you also have to be nice to me in front of others as well. I don’t want your nasty comments out there either.”
“Done.” He grabbed my hand and shook it firmly. “You can’t back out now,” he added, chuckling at my exasperated expression. “We’ve shook hands on the deal.”
“You, Alex Denton, are a big kid.”
He raised his eyebrows, pulling his hand toward his body, causing me to lurch forward. I stumbled into his body, only stopping my ungracious fall as my hand hit the mirror behind him. Our faces were incredibly close, and I drew in a shaky breath. I was so easily affected by him it was stupid. His eyes darted from my eyes to my lips as if he was debating whether to kiss me again.
From somewhere deep inside me, I managed to get my priorities in order. Kissing Alex Denton shouldn’t happen. Not now, not again. I playfully swatted his shoulder. “Back to work!” I demanded, as he dropped his head on my shoulder.
I straightened my back as I caught sight of two hate filled eyes reflected in the mirror.
“Alex,” I hissed.
“What?” he was still resting his head on my shoulder.
“Amy is here.”
His body tensed, and he slowly lifted his head, but he didn’t remove his hands from their tight hold around my waist.
I shifted, uncomfortable with the stare that Amy was giving me, and tentatively pushed Alex’s hands away from me.
“Oh no, don’t stop. I was enjoying the show.” Her spiteful voice crashed through the little bubble that Alex and I had created. I couldn’t look at Alex. I suspected that he would have already snapped back into his protective shell.
“Amy,” I said. “We were just—”
“Shhh!” Alex hissed.
“Run along then,” Amy said. “He’s had his fun with you. Just another slut to add to his never-ending list. Out you go.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose. How could she stand there and make such wild accusations about me? And how did she have the nerve to judge anyone when she had behaved how she did behind Alex’s back?
“Oh, sorry, I forgot,” she continued. “You don’t like being called a slut, do you? How about tart?”
“How dare you?” I exclaimed. I hadn’t managed to slap her earlier, but this time she would feel the full force of my anger.
Alex must have sensed that I was ready to fly at her as he pulled me next to him.
“No, Ella. Remember our manners. We have a guest in my dressing room. Errr, Amy, did you knock? We didn’t seem to hear you.”
I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them, expecting to have been whisked away to some parallel universe. Was Alex being nice to Amy? I shivered involuntarily when I noticed his jaw tensing and flexing at an alarming rate. Either he was pushing himself to his absolute limit with his control, or he was about to launch into an incredible hate filled triad of words. Couldn’t she see that the best thing for her to do was leave?
Immediately.
Did she not know him at all?
“Since when do I knock?” she chirped.
“Since you started barging into my dressing room. Now, may I suggest something?” he questioned calmly.
Amy remained silent, obviously as surprised by Alex’s demeanour as I was. The only difference was that I was waiting for him to blow.
“Next time you want to come and talk, you knock on my door and wait for me to invite you in.” He paused before scratching his head. “What did you want anyway?”
He deserved an Oscar for his current performance. I knew that he was doing it to show me that he could be civil to her. I also knew how much effort it was taking for him to remain so calm.
“I wanted to talk to you about her!” Amy nodded in my direction.
“Her name’s Ella.”
“Whatever. I want her off the set. She knows too much. All she’s doing is scouting around for information about us. I hope you know that this will be all over the papers tomorrow.”
I frowned in her direction. She was completely disillusioned.
“No,” Alex said. “Ella is going nowhere.” His hand reached for mine.
“I’ll make sure she is though, Alex. If you don’t back me up with this then I am prepared to sue her for the way she deliberately attacked me in the studio.”
“What?” I shrieked, completely flabbergasted by her accusation.
“I have witnesses.”
“I didn’t attack you! I knocked into you. It was an accident. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
Alex started to laugh. “Amy, if Ella gets fired from her work experience then I will walk out on the movie.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, looking at Alex, then me and back to Alex.
“Let me put it simply for you.” Alex straightened up and forced the full iciness of his stare onto her. “She stays, I stay. She goes, I go. Clear enough?”
His voice was becoming louder. This was it. He was going to let her have his vile words. I leaned away from him, as if expecting some sort of explosion.
“Now get your scrawny pathetic ass out of my fucking dressing room before I throw you out!”
Amy turned and fled Alex’s dressing room. The door slammed shut behind her.
“I give it under a minute before Crisp Muncher’s knocking my door down wanting to know what I’m doing to you.” He turned to the mirror and started straightening his shirt up. His reflection grinned. “I look like you’ve molested me.”
I pulled at the hem of my dress, just to make sure that there were no signs that could be misinterpreted by Rowan when he arrived.
“You did really well,” I said. “Not blowing up at her as soon as she came in.”
“Hmmm, yeah, well I blew it at the end. Sorry. But she deserved it. Regardless of how she normally winds me up, I think anyone would have lost it at her little scam to get rid of you. I just don’t understand what her problem is. You haven’t done anything to her.”
I raised my eyes heavenwards. Could he not see it?
“Alex, she thinks I fancy you, and more to the point that you fancy me. She’s jealous.”
“Really?”
“Don’t tell me you never realised.”
He shook his head. “She’s got what she wanted. She got Simon, and all the blame pushed onto me. Why on earth would she be jealous?”
“Because even though she doesn’t want you, she doesn’t want anyone else to have you either. The thought that you could be happy with someone else doesn’t quite work for her.” It was the oldest trick in the book. I’d seen my friends use the exact same behaviour with their boyfriends.
He spun on the spot to face me, not talking through his reflection any longer. “We could have so much fun with this.” The mischief in his voice was easy to hear.
“No. Whatever you’re thinking. No.” I wasn’t willing to play games with anyone’s feelings.
“I haven’t even said anything.”
“Whatever you’re going to say. No.”
“Pretend to go out with me,” he said, a ridiculous grin sweeping across his face. My heart melted a little at the image and his crazy suggestion.
“No. I don’t want any part of it. We hardly know each other, and I’ve agreed to try and help you with things. This would only complicate our relationship, whatever that is, and make it all just too . . .” I struggled to find the right words.
“Go on Ella. Pretend to go out with me. Let me be your boyfriend.” He paused, suddenly serious. “You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”
“No, not at the moment, but . . .”
Relief flooded across his face.
“No!” I repeated for the umpteenth time.
“But it will be fun—”
The door to the room swung open, hitting the wall. There stood Rowan, with Amy smirking behind him. “What will be fun?” His voice boomed into the room.
“For fucks sake, does nobody knock around here anymore?” Alex snapped.
“Ella, are you okay?” Rowan asked.
I nodded in his direction. “I’m fine, why?”
“It’s just . . . well.” He nodded to where Alex stood.
Alex stepped toward him. “What the hell do you think I’m doing to her? Keeping her hostage? Holding her down whilst I fuck the living daylights out of her? What’s wrong with you people?”
“I’m sorry,” Rowan said before looking at Amy.
Alex spun around, his arms in the air as he growled.
I grabbed his arms. I had to do this. I wanted to see the smug look on Amy’s face disappear. I wasn’t going to let her play with Alex’s emotions any longer, and it was time to let her see that I meant business.
“So,” I queried, pulling Alex toward me. “What restaurant are you taking me to tonight?”
His eyes widened, momentarily questioning me, then they sparkled with mischief as he understood. “I think we’ll stay in. Food can wait. I’m hungry for something else.” He hooked his arm around me, letting it settle upon my waist as we headed to the door and brushed past Rowan.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at his stupid reply. Instead, I sidled up to him.
As we levelled with Amy, I paused, halting Alex’s stride. I moved in front of her, invading her personal space.
“He’s mine now,” I hissed quietly. “So back off, bitch.”