Chapter 10

Angelina

I wasn’t giving up so easily on Dean. It was obvious that my life with reality television wasn’t for him, but it wasn’t for me nowadays either. I was trying to get out of that world and into a more secure world.

It had hurt the way he said he didn’t want me to talk about us, but I understood what he was really saying. The press went crazy anytime I was seen on a date. They instantly assumed we were in a long-term relationship, going to have a baby, or some other absurd thing. It was hard to just date someone in any sort of normal way.

“Jeremy, I need to talk to you,” I said into my agent’s voicemail as I made my way to the subway.

I didn’t really need to take the subway to get to my hotel, but I had to make a quick getaway from the paparazzi, and I knew they hated riding the subway. So I hopped the train to China Town and planned to grab a quick bite to eat, and then I’d return to my room for the night.

Looking good for the camera took on a whole new meaning when my mother was coming around. She would make sure I sat in a makeup chair for hours if that meant I would look better on screen, and she wouldn’t even care if it affected my movie filming. My mother wasn’t a big fan of me leaving the reality television world because it put the show in a precarious position. The truth was, I didn’t expect the show to last another year with just my mom and sister to hold the viewers’ attention, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

I needed to talk to my sister before she arrived, though. I needed her to be on my side. She understood what it was like to have the press ruin a relationship, just like I did. Abigail also understood what it was like to have our own mother ruin our relationships with her meddling. I didn’t want any of that outside interference in what I had going on with Dean. Of course, I didn’t mind a little media attention; that was normal for me. But I didn’t want them getting all crazy about it all. Maybe it was time for me to start taking some steps away from the social media world. I wasn’t sure yet, but it was beginning to be a thought for how I wanted to interact with the media as I started my career as a real actress.

“Abigail, I need your help,” I said when she answered the phone.

“Do you need my help with that incredibly handsome movie star you’re dating? Because I’ll take him off your hands for you.”

“No, but I can’t get stuck filming all day tomorrow with Mom. Please help me get out of it. I’d like to go see him, and you know how Mom is with her filming days.”

“Hell, I want out of it too. If you can get me out of it, I’ll help you get out of it.” She laughed.

I thought about it for a minute; there had to be a way that we could both get some taping done and then have the rest of our evening to ourselves. We both knew our mother well enough to know there was only one way we could get out of taping the show well into the evening; we would have to give them something exciting to watch during the daytime.

“A distraction?” I asked as I smiled to myself. “Something epic during the day so she will be excited and leave us be for the night?”

“Yes, exactly. Do you have an idea?”

“Yes, I think I do. Alright, I’ll see you two at the studio near the docks tomorrow when you get to town. Trust me; you’ll want to sleep well tonight because you and I are going to go out with Dean later tomorrow night. I’m going to make sure of it.”

“See you tomorrow, sis.”

It wasn’t that we were specifically trying to trick our mother; my sister and I were just going to make sure she got plenty of footage during the day. We were going to help her, and it was something we had done many time throughout the years of taping. Whenever one of us had something we really wanted to do during a taping day, we would cause some sort of incident that the crew could film. Our mother would be so excited about the footage that she would stop the recording early to review the tapes and talk with the editing team.

I made it back to my hotel room with a full stomach and a head full of ideas for the next day. Just as I was getting ready to crawl into bed, I noticed a call from Jeremy.

“Hey,” I said with my eyes closed.

“You didn’t post a thing on your Instagram today? What’s up?”

“It’s nice to hear from you too. How’s your day going? My day was really long and busy,” I joked.

“Sorry, but we are riding a wave here. Did you see Dean today? Were you able to get a photo with him? You really need to keep up on this Angie.”

“I posted a picture on Snapchat from his dressing room.”

“Oh, really, great. I’ll check that; were you two kissing? Was it a photo or a video?”

“It was just a photo of me; I didn’t caption it at all,” I said, knowing that Jeremy wasn’t going to be all that happy.

“Angie! You need to mention him or Instamatch or something in there. Come on; you know better.”

“Dean’s not into the posting to social media thing all the time. Plus, it was Snapchat; I don’t think that is part of the Instamatch contract. Actually, I think I’m going to take a little break and pull back from my posts for a bit too.”

“Are you trying to kill me?”

“What? It’s not that big a deal.”

“You have four multi-million dollar social media contracts right now. You can’t be pulling back from your online activity, that’s exactly the opposite of what you need to be doing.”

“Jeremy, I know what my contracts say, and I won’t go against any of them. But to be clear here, I don’t need to post every day for any of those contracts. I literally only have to post four to six times in the entire month. Plus, two of those I’ve already finished my posts for this month and the other I’ll be posting at during the final weekend of the month. So that just leaves Instamatch, and I think it will be more effective if Dean and I keep dating and I don’t ruin it by forcing him into a social media blitz that he’s not ready for,” I yelled into my phone.

I was livid. Jeremy had done good by me for a long time, but I wasn’t against firing his ass if he wanted to ignore my wishes. There were plenty of other agents out there that would be happy to work with me and listen to what I wanted to do with my career.

“Angelina, I understand. I just didn’t want you pulling away just because of a man.”

“It’s not. You know I’m trying to make something legitimate here. I’ve got to do it my way; can you please just trust me?”

There was a long pause before he finally answered.

“Sure, are you still doing the taping with your mother tomorrow?”

“Yes. Abigail will be there too. We will give them a ton to talk about, and then I’ve got plans to go out tomorrow night. If you insist on getting some publicity, have the paparazzi be at Dean’s play. I’ll be there when it gets out.”

“Deal, keep in touch with me this week. I’d like to be able to prepare before any big fallout happens.”

“Sure, talk to you later.”

I knew giving Jeremy my location for the next night would be helpful. The paparazzi were probably already going to be at Dean’s play; it wasn’t like I was handing over some sort of secret agenda or anything like that.

***

“You took my shoes; give them back to me,” I yelled at my sister as the cameras looked on.

“They aren’t yours. I had them first, and you took them; they are mine,” Abigail yelled back at me and then pulled the shoes so hard that I tumbled right on top of her.

It took every acting skill I had not to bust out into laughter as she seriously fought me for a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes. We had our play fighting down, it was our signature behavior when we were younger and our mother insisted on having our family taped.

“Listen here little lady, these are my shoes. I’m trying to get my filming done,” I said as I stood up and tried to play the normal sister.

Abigail wasn’t having it, though, and she grabbed my ankle playfully to stop me. Unfortunately, I was wearing heels from the movie filming I was doing all day. I lost my balance and tumbled right down onto my face. Luckily, my hand broke the fall a little, but I still split my lip wide open and blood gushed all over the place.

Our play fighting was quickly over as Abigail rushed to my side and apologized. Of course, none of the television taping crew stopped recording to help out. Our mother also didn’t intervene until my co-star Matthew came into the room to help us, he clearly didn’t like the commotion that was going on or the attention we were getting. When my mother saw Matthew, then she put on a huge display of affection and concern over how I was doing.

“Can we get a medic in here?” my mother announced loudly.

Within minutes, there were an ambulance and four medics around me looking at my busted lip. If it had been anyone else, they would have laughed it off and continued about their day. I would have done exactly that if I didn’t have a crew full of cameramen and an angry film director standing over me.

“I think she needs stitches,” my mother said dramatically

Both Abigail and I rolled our eyes; I didn’t need stitches. It was a busted lip; it would heal just fine on its own. But before I could stop her, my mom was on the phone with a local plastic surgeon and arranging to meet him at the hospital.

“See what you’ve done,” I whispered to Abigail as I walked with the medics toward the ambulance. “You know I can just ride in a car,” I said to the men.

“Your mother insisted that we take you to the hospital,” one of the men said.

“I’m riding with you,” the cameraman added as he slid into the ambulance with us.

“Of course you are.”

It was utterly ridiculous that my mother was having me see a plastic surgeon. Even more ridiculous that I was being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I just couldn’t play the part anymore; I had officially had enough.

Instead of lying down on the gurney, I sat there with the ice on my lip and my phone in my hand. I snapped a photo, but instead of sending it to one of my social media pages, I sent it to Dean. He was the only one I wanted to tell about the incident.

“You won’t believe the lengths I’ll go to just to get out of taping my reality show … lol,” I captioned the picture.

I waited patiently for Dean to reply. It was still early afternoon, and I knew he would be getting ready for his show. I stared at the screen of my phone hoping a little text bubble would pop up.

“I knew reality TV was dangerous!” Dean replied.

“Got roped into going to the hospital, ugh!”

My phone started to vibrate, and I saw Dean was calling me. I was positive my heart actually flipped over with excitement.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Which hospital?”

“New York Presbyterian, but I’m fine, really I am. My sister Abigail and I were just messing around.”

“I’m with one of my buddies; I’ll be right there.”

“Dean, no, seriously I’m fine.”

“Girl, I’m coming there. Don’t argue with me,” he said firmly.

His voice was calm and sincere, and I wanted him to be there with me. I didn’t want him there because I was afraid or because I was in a lot of pain, but I just wanted him there. It was a moment I didn’t expect, and I couldn’t have planned for.

“Okay then; I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Was that Dean Morrison?” the cameraman asked, pulling me out of my moment.

If looks could kill, I’m sure the way I looked at the man he would have exploded. I didn’t answer him; I simply rolled my eyes and went back to scrolling through my phone as a means to ignore the man.

By the time we arrived, the plastic surgeon was there and waiting to see me. Luckily, he didn’t laugh in my face when he looked at the gash in my lip. I supposed he was used to famous people wanting him to rush and fix their tiny cuts.

“I can give you some shots and numb it up to do the stitching right now or we can put you under and do it that way. Which would you prefer?”

Suddenly everything was getting real, and I felt the room start to spin. I didn’t want to be put to sleep to have my lip sewn up; I was alright with having a scar there, really I was. My breathing became labored, and I looked at him without answering him. My mother came running in shortly after, and the doctor filled her in on what was going on.

When Dean arrived with his friend, they stood in the doorway, and I smiled at him, but it hurt so I just reached my hand out for him to come near me. He pushed past the doctor and grabbed my hand; it was the best feeling in the world to have him there with me.

“I thought you were fine?” he whispered.

“Me too, but they need to stitch it. I’ve never had stitches.”

“Okay, young lady what did you decide?” The doctor asked.

“Um, I guess you can just numb it and do the stitches here,” I said as I looked at Dean and then over to my mother.

“Honey, wouldn’t you be more comfortable if they put you to sleep and did it really quickly? The doctor said you’d only be out for ten to fifteen minutes.”

I adamantly shook my head back and forth. I didn’t want anesthesia; I didn’t want to be put to sleep all for a cut lip. What if something happened to me? What if something went wrong?

“Do you want my opinion?” Dean asked as he looked at me and then glanced at the cameraman.

“Yes.”

I saw a look on my mother’s face as she started to butt in but then decided not to. It was amazing what control she could have if she thought something made for good television.

“I’d let them put you to sleep. It’s your lip, and that’s a very delicate part of your body. You want the doctor to be able to do the best job possible, right? Doc, would it be easier if she was asleep.”

“Yep.”

I looked at my mom and then Dean. Never could I have imagined I’d be in an emergency room when the two of them met for the first time. Hell, that morning I wasn’t even sure Dean and I were going to last the week, but there we were. Making my mother the happiest reality television mom in the world.

“Okay, I’ll let them put me to sleep, but only if you can stay,” I said to Dean.

“Of course. I’m here babe.”

“What did I miss?” Abigail said as she came running past Dean’s friend and to my bedside.

“Oh, my God!” Dean’s friend said as he started to go pale.

“He’s in love with you,” Dean said calmly to Abigail as we all looked over at his friend.

“Abigail, this is Dean,” I said.

“Nice to meet you,” Abigail reached her hand over me.

“Abigail, this is my friend, Luke,” Dean said as he pointed to Luke who was holding himself up against the doorway.

“Nice to meet you, Luke!” she yelled at him.

I wasn’t sure if his friend Luke actually heard her or not; he just stared over at us as he tried to gather himself. It was pretty adorable actually.

“I’m Angelina’s mother, Rose,” my mother said as she thrust her hand out to shake hands with Dean.

“Hello Rose, it’s very nice to meet you too,” Dean said as he stood next to me and held my hand.

“Okay, I’m going to have the nurse get you prepped. I’d ask that everyone head out to the waiting room for the time being. You can keep one person here with you.”

My mother looked at me and then motioned to the cameraman. She actually wanted me to send everyone else out and keep the damn cameraman in the room with me! That was my mother, more interested in getting the unrealistic reality show footage than she was about her own daughter.

“Dean, will you stay?” I asked. “The rest of you can go,” I said as I waited for my mother to start moving toward the door.

He looked tentatively at my mother and then back to me.

“Of course, like I said, I’m all yours.”

“Did you get that?” I heard my mother ask the cameraman as they started to walk out.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. The farther I got away from the reality television world, the more absurd it seemed to be. I really couldn’t believe some of the things we had taped over the years and that I hadn’t stood up for myself sooner.

“I’m sorry you got videotaped; we can tell them not to use it.”

“It’s alright. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Just don’t ask me to take an Instamatch selfie right now.” He laughed.

“What? This isn’t a good look for me?” I asked as I pulled the cloth from my lip and it oozed blood.

Dean grabbed the cloth and gently placed it against my lip again. His eyes looked into mine, and I felt my heart calming. Just having him near me did something magical to my emotions. It was like I could handle anything that the world sent my way. I wasn’t afraid of being successful; I wasn’t afraid of being unsuccessful. The way Dean looked at me felt like he loved me, and I thought I was feeling it too.

It was crazy! I knew it; how could I have feelings for a man I had just met? I wasn’t going to tell him, and I certainly wouldn’t say it out loud, but I was having feelings for him, that was for sure.