Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hannah
I laid in my bed with my eyes wide open, looking at a blank, white ceiling as if it were telling me every secret it kept. My alarm went off at 8 am, and it wasn’t until then that I realized I had barely slept at all last night. Butterflies flapped their wings around in my stomach whenever I thought about the scene I had to shoot today. Carrie wasn’t there to help calm my nerves because she was out of town for another photo shoot. I was alone, tucked underneath my covers, afraid to move like there was a killer creeping around in the house. Just then, my phone rang on my nightstand, breaking the lucid silence that filled the room.
As I reached over to grab it, I realized that it was an unsaved number. Great, I thought as my thumb hovered over the green button. I decided not to answer the call and let it fall to my voicemail. A few minutes later, the number left a message for me to listen to. “Hannah, babe. Hey. I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked, but I’ve been kind of busy. I know that you have a big shoot today, so I hope you knock it out! I will talk to you soon.” I laid in my bed, stock-still, as Brian’s voice sunk into the depths of my fear. Tears formed at the bottom of my eyes as my hands shook uncontrollably. This was the last thing I needed, especially today.
I steadied my hand long enough to dial Ezra’s number. “Hello?”
“Ezra, he just called me!”
“Who?”
“The stalker! Brian! He just called me! Out of all days, he just called me now!” I grabbed my blanket and held it tight as if it would keep him away from me if he were to creep into my room. “Can you come over, Ezra? Please. Carrie is not here, and I’m scared. I think he is going to find his way up here!”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m on my way over there right now, all right? Just stay in your bed.”
“OK. Please, hurry.”
I hung up the phone and pressed my back against the headboard as I kept my head on a swivel. My limbs shook as if I were in sub-zero weather as I waited for Ezra to arrive. Minutes dragged by like hours, and finally, Ezra showed up. “Hannah,” he called from the living room. “Hannah, it’s me.”
“I’m in the bedroom, Ezra!” I said, peeking my head above the covers. He walked into my room and found me tucked beneath the covers, scared to move an inch in either direction.
“Give me your phone,” he demanded. I leaned my head to the nightstand, pointing him in the direction he needed to go. He quickly scooped it off the table and scrolled to my call log.
“It’s the last number.”
He called and put the phone to his ear, glaring at the wall in the process. I wanted Brian to pick up his phone. I wanted this shit to end right now, and I knew Ezra would at least be able to scare him out of contacting me anymore. Ezra hung up and dialed again. “It keeps ringing,” he said, looking at me. I shook my head and tucked my knees to my chest as Ezra sat down next to me. I could hear the dial tone in the midst of our silence, buzzing over and over like a dream that would never come true. After a few minutes had passed, he hung up the phone again. “What do you want to do now?” he asked, tossing my phone onto the mattress.
“I don’t know, Ezra. I just want him to stop. He said that he knew we were shooting a special scene today. Like, he knows our schedule or something. What if he finds a way to come on set? What if he knows where I am at?” My eyes widened at the number of possibilities that were in our near future. Anxiety paced through my veins like heroin as I sat on the bed, not knowing what to do next.
Ezra slid his hand on my leg. “Baby, if he is dumb enough to show up to our set, I will beat him senseless. I will make it so he can never stalk you or anybody else for the rest of his life or at best, make him think twice if he ever decides to do it again.” I believed that Ezra would protect me, but it didn’t change the fact that he could still show up on the set at any moment. “Baby?” he said as my mind drifted to a time where I would have to meet Brain face to face. “Hannah?”
He finally snatched my attention. I looked at him, lifelessly, as lonely tears rolled down my cheeks. He took his thumb and wiped them away. “I got you, all right? Don’t worry about that. I will be with you from now until forever if I have to. I don’t want you to think about that, though. I know it is hard to do, but we have to get your mind off of it. OK? Come on,” he said, grabbing me by my hand. “Let’s go get something to eat. We can go somewhere far from here.”
“No, no,” I said, pulling back. “I don’t want to go out anywhere. I don’t want to take a chance that he will be there somehow. I just want to make it through this day first, and then we can go from there. I just want to get through this scene. Can we… just stay here and eat? Please?”
He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. I could taste the salty residue that my tears left as they traveled around my mouth. “That’s fine,” he said. “We can eat here. I’ll go to the kitchen and cook something for you. What do you want?”
“No,” I said. “I’ll cook. I want to cook. It will help me get my mind off of it.” I grabbed my phone and handed it to him. “Can you just hold on to this, though? That way, if he calls, you can just answer it right there.”
He took the phone out of my hand and shoved it in his pocket. “It is done. If he calls back, that will be the last time he calls. I will promise you that.”
I smiled and wiped my cheeks dry, then leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “Thank you, Ezra. Thank you for coming out here at the drop of a dime like that. It really means a lot.”
“Don’t mention it. I will be there for you each and every time you need me.”
He stayed by the bathroom as I took a shower and cleaned myself up. I felt comfortable knowing that he was standing by the door like a security guard, ready to kick anyone’s ass that tried to come through and harm me in any way. “Ezra? You still there?” I asked as I got out of the shower.
“Yup, baby. I’m still here. I’m not leaving until you get out.”
We both thought it was best that he stayed out of the bathroom just to be sure that we didn’t have sex with each other. We wanted to save all of our passion for the scene in the movie so we could be sure that everything looked real between us. After I had brushed my teeth, I wrapped my towel around my body and stepped outside. He sat on the floor with my phone beside him as his eyes were glued on his screen. “So, I found a story about the movie we are shooting,” he said as he pushed himself up. He handed me his phone, and on the screen, I saw a news article that covered the movie Satin Sheets.
“Wow. I’ve never seen this before. How long has this story been out?”
“I don’t know. I think it was published last week, judging by the date on there. I wanted to see if there was any anticipation about the movie and that popped up first.” He pressed the Back button on his browser. “There are more below it. A lot more.” I scrolled through the articles, and there were two pages full of information and small stories about the upcoming movie.
“This… this is awesome,” I responded with a smile. “I guess this just proves that we are now with the big boys. Look at the publications. What’s Now? Hollywood Film? Starzz? These are major movie magazines.” I clicked on one of the links, and our pictures flashed on the front page. “Oh, my God! Look! There we are!” I showed him the phone as the smile widened on my face like elastic being stretched to its limits.
“Look at you,” he said, grinning ear to ear. “You look amazing. I can see why you have a stalker. Shit, I would stalk you, too, if I didn’t know you.”
It felt good to see me and Ezra together like that. I daydreamed of the moment that we would headline other news channels and magazine pages as the power couple I felt that we could become. I handed him his phone and grabbed his hand to lead him to the kitchen. “We are on our way,” I said with our future in mind. “We are on our way.”
After we had finished breakfast, we headed to the mansion in Bel-Air. I didn’t say a word during our whole ride. Various thoughts about my stalker, the magazine articles, and the shoot kept floating in and out of my mind like a revolving door. As he pulled down the long, winding driveway of the house, he put his hand on my leg. “Baby,” he said, “here we are. Now, I don’t want you to get nervous. Any time you get nervous, just look at me. Black everything and everyone out and just focus on me. I will take it from there, OK?”
I took a deep breath. “OK. I got it. I’ll be all right.”
He kissed me on my lips again, then we both exited the car. I didn’t see him again until it was time to shoot the scene. I walked into the room in a velour white robe that pressed softly against my skin. Leonard smiled wide as soon as he saw me. “Ah, there is my beauty queen! My star! How are we today?” he said, approaching me.
“Um, I’m fine.”
“Fine? Just fine? No, you are grand! You are a million bucks! You, my dear, are a star in the making! No? Yes!” He twirled on his tiptoes, and after he had come to a stop, he clapped his hands together like a seal. “All right, you go ahead and take your position on the bed.” I walked towards my spot as I felt everyone’s eyes on me. I felt that at any moment, my legs were going to buckle under the weight of my body. When I got to the bed, I sat down before I fell to the ground. It’s going to be fine, Hannah. Everything is going to be fine. Just then, the bedroom door opened. Ezra walked in, confidently, as the director kissed him on each cheek. Afterward, he winked towards me, prompting a smile to appear on my face.
For that moment, I was calm. Everything going on around me settled, and for once, I could see things for what they really were. This was a movie. I was a professional. This was acting. And I was in love with my co-star. I chuckled to myself as Ezra took his position on the other side of the room. The director positioned himself in his chair and grabbed his loudspeaker. “All right,” he barked, “Action!”
I gulped and stood as Ezra made his way towards me. The scene was silent. Passionate. The only form of communication came in the shape of body language. Ezra’s robe was open halfway. Part of his dick was exposed. I could see it swing back and forth like a pendulum as he came closer to me. My vagina pulsated, but my body tensed up as soon as he put his hand on the back of my neck. “Sssssssh,” he said, softly. “Just look at me.” His words were barely audible. His lips hardly moved, but I heard him. I closed my eyes as his lips connected with mine. He led me backward towards the bed, and when he mounted me, he slipped my bare breast into his mouth while I dipped my head back. At that moment, nothing else mattered. Nothing or no one else was in that room besides me and him, and in the darkness of my mind, we made love. Alone, passionate, and without a care in the world.