Chapter Eight
Ashleigh was expecting Rico to be sitting out the front in some kind of posh, flashy sports car, maybe even with the top down, probably a bright color like red, yellow, or blue. Maybe luminous green. The seats would be leather and plush, and everything would be state of the art, probably with a personalized number plate too.
She wasn’t sure why she expected him to be such a cliché movie star, but she was rather glad when she got outside and saw something completely different.
A motorbike.
She was surprised at the size of plates, and Rico started chuckling at her expression. He was standing there, in front of the bike, leaning up against it slightly with his arms folded, looking all cool and suave.
He was dressed smartly too, in a suit, but with a leather biking jacket over the top, so she was glad she opted for the dress.
“Wow…you look great,” he smiled, glancing her up and down, his eyes roaming freely as he checked out her figure.
She blushed a little and looked at him coyly as she approached, still too overawed at the motorbike to fret over the compliments just yet.
“Don’t worry,” he added, noticing her looking at it. “I brought you a helmet.” And at that, he reached over and lifted up a compartment right at the back, delving his hand in and producing a spare helmet for her.
She took it from his hands in a bit of a daze.
“Have you ever ridden a bike before?”
She shook her head.
“Here, let me help you.” He gently took the helmet back and then carefully lifted up onto her head. “I’m really sorry if I mess up your hair a little.”
“Oh, it’s okay, it’s short anyway,” she laughed, her voice becoming slightly muffled once the helmet was on. The interior was soft and smelt a little like the shirt she was wearing earlier – Rico’s shirt.
Once hers was safely secure, he put his own helmet on and swung one leg over the bike, mounting it.
“Get on behind me and hold onto my waist,” he instructed, and she did as she was told, having to hoist up her dress to get her leg over. It wasn’t exactly the most flattering position in the world, but thankfully her dress wasn’t that short, so when it rode up, it didn’t completely show off her knickers, although it did expose a lot more of her thigh.
She placed her hands on Rico’s waist.
He turned around to look at her. She couldn’t see his expression through the helmet but when he spoke, shouting a bit to be heard through the muffle of fabric from inside, it sounded like he was laughing, or at the very least he must’ve been grinning.
“Are you ready to take her for a spin?”
“Totally!”
He revved up the engine, probably more for dramatic effect than anything, because when he set off, it was actually pretty slow at first.
She soon saw that having a bike around LA was definitely beneficial, however. When the traffic came to a standstill, Rico just weaved in and out of the cars, and took them straight to the top of the stoplights.
He didn’t drive too fast or recklessly, but it still felt quick compared to other cars they were whizzing past, and with the warm night air rushing along her bare skin, Ashleigh found the whole thing rather exhilarating.
By the time they arrived at the restaurant, her heart was pounding – and not with pre-date nerves, but with adrenaline.
Rico found a place to park and they both dismounted the bike, removing their helmets.
Ashleigh was grinning from ear to ear, her eyes sparkling with excitement and delight. “That was amazing!” She gushed, passing Rico the spare helmet back.
“Yeah?” He laughed. “You enjoyed it? You handled it pretty well for a first ride. Some people get scared.”
“No, it wasn’t scary, it was great!”
“Ha. You’re a pretty cool girl, you know that? You’re interesting.” He smiled at her warmly, looking into her eyes a moment, then he put both the helmets away and switched on the alarm on his bike. “Come on. Let’s go inside,” he said, offering her his arm for her to link.
She slipped hers into his, and smoothed down her hair a bit with her other, glancing about her slightly as they began to walk into the restaurant. She could barely believe that she was stepping inside a lavish LA restaurant on the arm of Rico Fernandez. She wondered if anyone would recognize them, see them together. What if some press snapped a photo of them and it got splashed all over the place? Oh God. Was it inappropriate for her to be eating out with him? She hoped she wouldn’t get into trouble.
She tried to keep the nagging thoughts off her mind as they were led by a waiter over to the table in the corner Rico had reserved for them both.
The place was fairly busy but not heaving, and although a couple of people looked up briefly as they came in, it was only in the normal way anyone might when someone new walks into a restaurant. There were no double takes or staring.
People were probably used to seeing famous faces in Los Angeles. Maybe there were some more celebrities in here too. She tried to look around discreetly, to see if she could spot any, but then she was sitting down with Rico opposite her, and it was kind of hard to keep her eyes on anyone but him. He definitely had that mesmerising star quality about him.
They both smiled at each other, then Rico took off his leather jacket and hung it up on the seat behind him, revealing his sparkling white shirt and thin black tie beneath. The shirt was extremely tight, and seemed to cling to his toned, slightly muscular frame, really showing off his arms and biceps.
Ashleigh though he probably had a great body underneath that as she forced herself to look down and pick up the menu.
“Anything in particular you recommend?” she asked, glancing down at the vast choice and wondering how she would ever decide.
“The seafood here is really good, if you’re into that kind of thing,” he answered straight away, glancing up at her then back down at his menu. “And the pasta. Especially the seafood pasta, ha, a combination of the two.”
She smiled and bit her lip slightly, turning the pages and trying to make up her mind as they made small talk, discussing some of the options in more detail, with Rico admitting he must have eaten here at least twenty times.
Eventually, the waiter came back over and asked if they were ready to order.
She chose the salmon pasta, and Rico ordered swordfish, and a bottle of white wine for them to share.
“You can have most of it,” he added with a wink. “I’m driving.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” she asked, allowing herself to flirt just a little.
“Nooooo,” he held his hands up in mock innocence, then waggled his eyebrows and added, “Maybe.”
They both giggled.
When the wine came, they clinked their glasses together and the pair of them began to relax a little more, the conversation opening up between them.
They began by idly discussing their day at work.
She told him about all the boring, unimportant things she’d done that afternoon, which he insisted weren’t boring or unimportant at all, but actually crucial to the smooth running of a good film set, and he described some of the scenes they’d been shooting in the studio.
“I hope I get chance to see some of the filming at some point,” she smiled, excited at the thought of being on a real movie set.
“Oh, I’m sure you will. There’ll be less admin once the shoot really gets going. There’s always more at the beginning. Plus, I can put in a good word for you. Make sure you get to come on set and they don’t keep you in that office the whole time.”
“Thanks. I knew there was a reason I made you spill your coffee,” she teased.
“Ahhh, so this was all part of your clever plan, I see,” Rico teased back.
Ashleigh giggled and looked down, trying to think of where to take the conversation next. “Oh, I saw you the other day actually…on the Walk of Fame when they unveiled your star…”
“Oh, you did?” He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “You should have said hi.”
“Well, you looked a little busy.”
“Mm, true,” he smirked.
“Plus. I didn’t exactly know you then, and it would have been a bit weird to come over and be like ‘oh hey, I’m the runner on your new movie.’”
He smiled and shook his head. “It wouldn’t have been weird at all. But anyway, I’m glad we met the way we did. It was more interesting.”
“Interesting is one word for it. Embarrassing’s another.”
“Nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Ashleigh smiled and took a sip of her wine. “So uh…what film are you working on after this?”
He went on to tell her all about his next project. It turned out the director he was working with was one of her favorites, which led them to discuss what kind of movies they both liked. It was a conversation she could easily have had all night long, and indeed, it did end up going on for a large portion of the meal, even after their food arrived they were still chatting about films.
Ashleigh was pleased to learn that Rico was a big fan of the old classics too, and that one of his favorites was Breakfast At Tiffany’s, which was also one of her top five favorite films. It seemed like they had plenty in common, and after her initial nerves she forgot all about the fact that she was sitting opposite Rico Fernandez. He was just a cool, good-looking guy who was easy to talk to and liked all the same movies she did.
By the time they were on their dessert, she already felt like she knew him pretty well, although they hadn’t really shared any personal information.
“Mmm, you’re right, the food here is so good,” Ashleigh hummed in approval at the explosion of chocolate in her mouth from the delicious brownie dripping with chocolate sauce and ice cream.
“I told you,” Rico smiled, but then his eye was caught by someone else arriving into the restaurant, and he nodded in their general direction, giving a small wave.
Ashleigh turned around to look back over her shoulder and see who it was, giving a small gasp as she recognized Francis Romero walking towards them with a pretty, young girl on his arm in a skimpy outfit barely covering any of her body. She clung to him like a limpet, a slightly smug expression on her face as she looked around at everyone else in the restaurant, obviously pleased with herself at being out with the biggest producer in Hollywood.
“Evening, Rico,” said Francis as he stopped by their table. “Didn’t realize you were eating out tonight.” He turned his attention quickly to Ashleigh and looked her up and down with keen, hungry eyes. “And who’s this fine, young specimen?”
“This is Ashleigh,” Rico smiled.
Ashleigh didn’t much like being referred to as a ‘fine, young specimen’ but she kept her mouth shut as Rico introduced her. Francis was her boss, after all.
“She’s actually one of the runners on the movie,” he explained.
“Ahh,” Francis’ eyebrows shot up. “Well, she’s far too pretty to be a runner,” he remarked, speaking about Ashleigh as if she wasn’t just sitting right in front of him, looking directly at her but still talking to Rico, and referring to her in the third person. “She’s got a face for the screen.”
Rico chuckled a little. “That’s what I said to her.”
The young woman on Francis’ arm looked slightly grumpy and disconcerted by this whole conversation, shooting daggers at Ashleigh the entire time.
Francis stretched out his other arm towards Ashleigh for a handshake.
She smiled and offered out hers.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ashleigh,” he addressed her directly at last.
“And you, Mr Romero,” she answered politely, shaking his hand.
“Oh please, do call me Francis,” he insisted, turning her hand around in his then leaning down and kissing the back of it chastely before standing upright again and releasing her. “I’ll be keeping a close eye on you, young lady. A very close eye indeed.”
“Thank you,” she smiled, although in truth, she found his whole demeanour and attitude slightly unnerving and creepy.
Thankfully, after that, he waltzed off with his date on his arm and they found their own table, leaving Ashleigh with an uneasy feeling about her first meeting with Francis Romero.
Rico, on the other hand, didn’t seem phased by it. She supposed that, having worked with him before, he was used to his mannerisms. She was probably overreacting or overthinking things as always.
“I hope you’ve enjoyed your evening,” said Rico, bringing her attention back to him.
“Oh, I have,” she smiled warmly. “Very much so. It’s been wonderful.”
“Good. So have I. Let me get the check.”