“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”
“Go away,” I groaned, tossing a pillow over to where the sound was coming from.
“You have to get up, Olive. You’re all over the internet.”
Of course it would be Lucy trying to wake me up. It was never the sweet Char. Why, you ask? Because Char wasn’t a cruel person. Not like Lucy. Lucy had a real problem with people sleeping peacefully. She was a problem all on her own.
“Awesome. Goodnight,” I mumbled. I turned my back to her voice.
The bed sank with her weight when she sat next to my hip.
“I don’t think you’re getting it, Olive.” Her hand gripped my shoulder and she forcefully turned me on my back. She also had the power of a she-hulk even though she was only five foot three.
“I don’t want to get it. My head hurts, Lucy,” I pleaded, narrowing my eyes at her as I slowly pulled the covers over my face. “Come back in a few hours and I’ll listen to whatever you want. I’ll even nod.”
“Fine. I guess you don’t care that your cozy pictures…with Jason Thorn…are plastered all over the internet.”
“What?” I shouted as I sat up a little too fast for my poor brain. “Ow, ow, ow.”
“Here.” She placed her laptop on my lap and waited for me to take a look with an annoyingly awake and excited face.
As I scrolled down, with each picture I saw, my eyes got bigger and bigger.
“Holy shit,” I mumbled when I started to read the article.
“I know, right? You’re gonna have Jason Thorn’s dimpled babies. I’m gonna be the cool aunt. I’ll babysit. I’ll come and watch your half-naked husband while I’m babysitting.”
I laughed; granted, it was a little forced, but it still counted as a laugh. “Are you on something?” I scrolled through the pictures again. I couldn’t stop looking. “What are you talking about?”
She looked at me as if I was stupid, then sighed and made herself comfortable in my bed—again—by lying down beside me.
“You have to stop getting in bed with me,” I mumbled, trying to push her off the bed.
“He is in love with you, you are in love with him. This is happening.” She brushed her palms together. “My dreams are coming true!”
“Your dreams? Please, tell me what you’re on so I can make it my life mission to join you in la-la land one day.”
“Oh, shut up.” A sneaky maneuver and she was right under the covers with me, stealing my pillow. I pushed at her legs and got down from the bed.
“What am I gonna do?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not Jason who looks in love in these photos, Lucy, it’s me! Can’t you see that?”
“And…?”
“And he’ll never talk to me again. Dylan will lose his head when he sees these.”
“Clearly you’ve gone blind from typing away at all hours on your laptop.” She rolled her eyes and made herself even more comfortable on my bed. “You both look smitten with each other.”
“Babe?” I heard a voice right outside my door. I made my eyes go as big as they could.
“Jameson? Again?” I mouthed to Lucy.
Then Jameson’s head peaked in.
“Oh, here you are.” He didn’t even knock! “I thought I heard your voice.” He opened the door wider, and I got a good look at his naked chest, and then lower…
“Oh god! Jameson, your penis!” I screamed, my eyes hurting. “Put some clothes on for fuck’s sake!” I groaned as I covered my eyes with my hand.
“Oh, hi, Olive. I didn’t see you behind the door.” He laughed. “I thought Lucy had sneaked into your room to get some sleep.”
I peeked through my fingers. Lucy was just lounging in the bed, enjoying the view with a satisfied smirk on her face. Then I glanced at Jameson; I tried not to look down, but well, isn’t it always impossible to do that? Well at least he was covering his man parts with his hand, not that he was doing a good job of it.
I groaned louder.
“Babe, I have an early class. If you’re good, I’m leaving.”
She shrugged and Jameson winked at her.
“Congrats on the book, Olive. Can’t wait to see the movie.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, looking over his shoulder instead of in his eyes. When Jameson finally left and I heard Lucy’s door open and close, I turned back to look at Lucy. Her hair was all mussed up and she had a mischievous grin on her face.
She wiggled her eyebrows. “He has a good size on him, doesn’t he? Which is why we don’t call it a ‘penis’ like you just did. That’s almost like an insult.”
I shook my head. She was impossible…but, yeah, he did have a good size on him. Good for her. “Is that why you made him your boy toy?”
“And you wouldn’t? Didn’t you see the size of his monster just a minute ago? And those tattoos? Damn…even thinking about it is ma—”
“If you finish that sentence, I’m going to deck you, Lucy.”
She laughed and opened her arms. “Do your best, mystery beauty.”
I groaned and leaned my back against the door, just in case. I didn’t want to have a second look at Jameson’s man parts.
“What am I gonna do?”
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing?”
She shrugged and patted the bed. I walked over and sat down, trying not to fidget any more than I already was.
“You, my lovely friend, are going to wait until Jason calls you,” she said.
“What makes you think he’ll call?”
“His people must’ve seen this already. Trust me, he’ll call you when he sees it.”
***
It was three hours later and I was lounging on the couch with my laptop glued to my fingers.
Someone unlocked the door and my head flew up. Seeing that it was just Char, I greeted her.
“Hey. You’re home early.”
“Yeah, Professor Kindley had an emergency and ended class early.” Tossing her handbag and her notebooks into her room, she came to sit next to me. “What are you doing?”
“Blankly staring at the screen.”
“Nothing new, huh?”
“Nope. I start writing a few pages, but then I go back and delete everything I wrote. I think I might be a one-hit wonder. It’s like all my creative juices just dried up. Or maybe I was never creative in the first place, and the one I wrote was just a fluke.”
“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way, Olive,” Char said as she started massaging her temples.
“Headache?”
“Yeah. I haven’t been feeling well ever since I opened my eyes.”
“You want me to cook some chicken soup for you?”
“Nah, I’m good. Thanks though. Do you have any idea of what you want to write, or you just can’t find the first words?”
“Oh, I’m finding the first words, alright, but I can’t get into the story and end up just tossing the whole thing.”
She looked at me with her bright blue eyes. “Then it isn’t the right story for you to write. You’ll know when it’s the right one.”
“I’m not so sure about that. My fingers are itching to write, but I have absolutely nothing. Nada.”
“Let me know if I can help you with anything. Plotting or otherwise.”
I put my laptop down on the floor and got up. “I’m going to make you tea.” I said over my shoulder. “Your voice is starting to crack.”
She groaned and reached for my laptop.
“Did Jason call about the photos yet?”
“Nope.” I filled the kettle with water and while waiting for it to boil, I opened the cupboard to choose from the teas we had. “Do you want herbal tea or just regular black tea?”
“I’ll have herbal tea, please.” She whistled softly. “You should see the comments on these photos.”
I looked up to see Char scrolling through the photos again. Taking down two mugs, I put the tea bags in them. “They’re talking shit?”
“No,” she replied, looking over her shoulder. “Actually they think you guys look adorable together. More than a few say you are his new girlfriend, a new actress or something.”
I snorted. “I’m adding honey to your tea and I don’t want to hear any complaints about it.” Char hated honey with a passion; whenever she got sick we had to practically force it down her throat. I reached for the boiling water and poured it in our mugs.
“Thanks, mother Olive.”
“You’re welcome, beautiful child of mine.” Grabbing the mugs, I walked back to the couch and handed her the herbal tea.
The laptop still on her lap, she extended her neck and sniffed at my tea. “What are you having? It smells better than mine.”
“Just black tea, Earl Grey.” Sitting next to her, I glanced at the screen.
“This one is my favorite,” said Char, scrolling down to another picture, the one where Jason’s hand was out of sight and under my shirt. “You both look lost in each other.”
“Well, we weren’t lost anywhere, I had weird hot smoothie spilled all over me and he was just making sure I was okay. I don’t know what kind of a creep took our photos, but they somehow managed to capture something that wasn’t even there. They are a good stalker, I’ll give them that.”
“I think I’m with Lucy on this one,” she admitted, and I sharply turned to look at her, almost spilling hot tea all over myself, again. “Ok, don’t kill me yet,” she said, lifting her hands as if to ward me off. “I just don’t think you could capture something like this if there was absolutely nothing there. I mean, it’s not like you are still in love with Marcus, right?”
“Of course not. And well, we already know that I’m still in love with Jason so both Lucy and you are seeing that.”
“Olive.” She closed the laptop and placed it next to her. “You probably don’t want to give yourself false hope, but…”
“But…? But, what?”
“Jason isn’t really looking at you as if you are just his best friend’s little sister. At least not in these photos.” She gestured toward the laptop. “Of course I have no idea how he is treating you when you guys are together.”
I waved her off and took a sip of my tea. “He is just—”
My phone starting ringing and Char lifted an eyebrow as I looked at her in panic.
“Where is your phone?” she asked.
“I don’t know, in my room?”
The phone kept ringing.
She tilted her head. “Well, aren’t you gonna get it?”
I shook my head vehemently. “I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
The damn phone stopped ringing and started back up again.
“It could be Dylan. I can’t deal with him right now. God knows what he’ll say. When we were kids, he didn’t like me running around Jason that much so he sure as hell won’t be happy about those photos if he sees them.”
“What if it’s Jason?” she asked.
That was even worse. “Well, if it’s him, what if he’s angry?”
“At you?” She frowned.
“Doesn’t matter at who.”
Thrusting her mug at me, she rose up. “You’re being ridiculous.”
Both mugs in my hand, I yelled after her. “Char, don’t look! I don’t want to know. Please.”
“Too late,” she said. Keeping her eyes on me, she leaned against the door frame and answered my phone.
“Hi, Jason. No, I’m Olive’s friend, Charlotte.”
Making a sad face at her, I shook my head and whispered, “I’m not here. Out! Out! I’m gone. Say I vanished.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Uh huh. Yes, she is right here. Of course. Take care of yourself.”
I groaned loudly.
She dropped the phone next to me and grabbed her mug from my hand.
“I’m gonna go and try to sleep this headache off. Thanks for the tea. Talk to you later.”
“Traitor,” I announced. “The minute you trust someone, they turn into a traitor. All of you people are traitors!”
She closed her door without a second glance.
Sighing, I steeled myself and reached for my phone.
“Hello?”
“Who is the traitor?” Jason asked in an amused tone.
“All my friends,” I replied tiredly. I closed my eyes, letting my heart do its own thing and flutter at the sound of his soft yet still rumbly voice.
He chuckled. “How are you doing, Olive?”
“Still breathing, so that’s something.”
“You weren’t that drunk yesterday. Still got a hangover?”
“No, no, I’m fine. It’s nothing, really. I’m just having trouble writing.”
“Hmmm. Did you see the photos? Is that why you can’t write?”
I thought about pretending I had no idea what he was talking about, but in the end, I didn’t think I could wing it.
“Yeah, Lucy showed them to me this morning,” I admitted.
“Are you angry at me?”
I frowned and took a sip of my tea. “Why would I be angry at you?”
“For the things they wrote in the article, and well, getting photographed with me. It’s become a part of my life so I’m used to not having any privacy, but you didn’t ask to be plastered all over the internet. Did you talk to your parents? Did they see them?”
“Yeah, no. I’m hoping they won’t come across them. And if they do…well, it was nothing after all, right? I’m sure they already know that. It’s not like we are having a secret relationship like they are saying.”
“Right.”
Drawing my legs up, I rested the mug on my knee. “And, hey, at least they said I was beautiful in the article. That has to be good for my ego, right?” I laughed awkwardly. After all, it had felt good to be called beautiful, especially when standing next to Jason.
“Of course you are beautiful, Olive. You don’t need to hear it from the tabloids to believe that.”
I pretty much melted and became one with the couch.
“Thank you,” I mumbled when I could form words. “Are you angry at me?” I asked when there was a gap of silence.
“Angry at you? Why the hell would I be angry at you?”
“I don’t know.” I leaned forward and put the mug on the small coffee table. “After all that other…stuff that came out, maybe you didn’t want to be seen with…hell, I don’t know.” Silently, I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand…and then hit it again.
“No, sweetheart, I’m not angry at you.”
Sweetheart?
Melted for the second time.
“Now that we’ve established that neither one of us is angry with the other, I wanted to ask you out to dinner,” he said.
“Dinner? Me? Like out, out?”
“Yes. I have something I want to talk to you about and thought maybe we could go out and have a nice dinner together. Better than being cooped up in my house.”
“I don’t think you can ever feel cooped up in your house, Jason. If you do, there is something very wrong with you.” His house was pretty much heaven on this earth, at least for me—especially when he was in it, too.
He was smiling; I could hear it in his words when he spoke. “I’m glad you like my house, Olive. Even though I agree with you, I think for this, I would like to take you out.”
“Should I be scared? Are you going to give me bad news about the movie or something? Because it pretty much sounds like that, and I’m not a big fan of bad surprises.”
“Everything is going great with the movie. The filming starts in a few weeks. You’ll be at the set with me so you can see it for yourself.”
At that, I sat up straighter. “I am? I’ll be on set with you?”
“I thought you’d want to see; was I wrong?”
“No. No. I would love nothing more than to be there. If you can take me with you, I promise I won’t even bother you. Even once would be amazing.”
“We’ll talk about it more tonight at dinner, okay? You’re free?”
“Yes. Yes. Dinner. Tonight?” My schedule was wide open for him. In any case, the only date I had was with my laptop. “Where should I come?”
“I’ll be there around seven o’clock. You think you can be ready?”
I lowered the phone and checked the time. It was almost five o’clock.
“Of course.”
“Great. I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart…
Gah… He was my sweetheart.
“Yeah. See you later.”
Hanging up, I ran to Char’s room.
“He’s going to take me to the set!” I announced as soon as I threw open the door. She was on her phone, texting. “Oh, sorry. You busy?”
“No. No. Come in.” She waved me in and pushed the phone under her pillow. “So you’re going to the set. When?”
I walked in and sat at the edge of her bed. “He said the filming would start in a few weeks. God, it all feels so surreal, Char. I think I’m starting to freak out on the inside. It’s actually real and it’s actually happening.” I was already bouncing on the bed.
She smiled. “It definitely is real.”
“He said he wanted to talk to me about something so he’s taking me to dinner tonight. I should get ready. I have to hop in the shower first.” I rose up, but didn’t move. I wanted to ask for her help, but she’d been acting weird lately. One day cold, one day hot… I didn’t know what to make of it, but thought it was the pressure of the last semester.
“When I get out can you help me pick something to wear? I’ve been staring at my laptop the entire day, I feel like a mess.”
“Of course. You go ahead and get into the shower. I’ll be in your room when you get out.”
“Thank you, Char,” I said and kissed her on the cheek.
She smiled. “You don’t have time to get mushy. Go ahead.”
I skipped all the way to my room.
***
That night when Jason picked me up, I was a big ball of energy. I could’ve used a pep talk from Lucy, but she was studying with other girls from her class, and Char was…well other than being sick, she wasn’t the best person to go to when you needed a pep talk.
When Jason called me to let me know he was just a few minutes away from the apartment, I chose to wait for him outside to avoid Marcus’ intense glares.
His Spyder pulled in, and I practically ran to the passenger side before he could get out.
“Why are you waiting outside? What’s wrong?” he asked as soon as I was inside.
I took a deep breath and his scent hit me. My eyes rolled into the back of my head.
“Huh?” I asked distractedly. “Yeah. Nothing. I didn’t want to make you wait.”
“You look beautiful, Olive,” he said, his eyes moving over me slowly.
Since I had no idea where he was taking me, Char had thought it would be the safest bet to keep it simple with a black dress. I ran my hands over my thighs, smoothing and pulling the dress down a little in the process, which wasn’t all that helpful, so I linked my hands in my lap and let it go. While it felt like it was too short at that moment, I knew it looked good on me when I was standing. I especially liked how it looked from the side; the dress curved around my ass perfectly.
“Where are we going?” I asked after I was buckled in and he pulled away from the curb.
“I thought Soho House would be best for privacy. At least we won’t get photographed.”
“Oh, the private club thingy? You have a membership?”
“Yeah. I’m not a huge fan; I prefer the privacy of my own home, but sometimes I have to meet industry people there for lunch or other business meetings.”
“I understand.” Did that mean we were about to have a business meeting?
The rest of the ride was awkwardly quiet. Apparently neither one of us had anything more to say, which I didn’t think boded well for me.
After he pulled into the garage and completed the check-in, he casually put his hand just above my bum—practically jumpstarting my heart—and guided me to the elevators.
When the silence became too much, I asked, “Is everything all right?” I didn’t mind comfortable silences, but I had a feeling that something else was going on with him. He looked distracted.
He was frowning when he looked down at me. “Yeah. Why?”
I gave him a sad smile. “I don’t know. You aren’t talking. You seem tense and not so happy to be here.”
His eyes softened and he gently tugged at my hair. “It’s not you, little one. Just had a stressful day.”
Nodding, I swallowed and looked away from his warm eyes.
Exiting the elevator at the top floor, we walked up the stairs and through the somewhat crowded bar, and then into the coolest dining area I’d ever seen in my life.
The entire rooftop was filled with lush olive trees and other plants. The lanterns and twinkle lights hanging through the branches lit up the whole space and created the perfect setup for a romantic evening. But, from the look on Jason’s face, I could see that this was far from a romantic evening for him. Trying to ignore the beautiful view of LA, we followed the front desk girl to a table that was mostly out of the sight of the other patrons.
“Jason!” some guy yelled just as we were about to sit down. I couldn’t see the owner of the voice, but Jason waved at someone and sat down across from me.
“One of the producers of my last movie,” he explained with a smile on his face. I smiled back at him.
Without any further conversation, we ordered our drinks and food, and then I simply waited for Jason to spill the beans.
“I thought you would enjoy the atmosphere here,” he said right as a waiter brought our drinks. Jason had downed his whiskey before the poor guy could even place my Lemon Drop in front of me. He ordered a new one for himself and suddenly pushed back his seat and rose up.
“I need to say hi to a few people, I’ll be right back,” he said and walked away from me.
Staring at his back in shock, I reached for my cocktail, took a sip, and then another big one.
The waiter came back with Jason’s second drink, but Jason hadn’t returned yet. I had to force myself to smile when he gave me a snobbish look.
“Awesome,” I muttered, taking out my phone to text Lucy.
Me: I’m sitting on a beautiful rooftop, surrounded by olive trees and twinkle lights—alone.
Lucy: What do you mean alone?
Me: I don’t know what exactly, but something is wrong with Jason. We just sat down, ordered our food and drinks, and he jumped up and left to say hi to a few people.
Lucy: That doesn’t sound too ominous. I’m sure he’ll be back.
Me: Well, it is. He’s been acting weird from the moment I got into his car. No eye contact, no nothing.
I leaned forward a little to see if I could spot him. Sure enough, he was standing next to a group of ten or twelve people who were having dinner. A beautiful blonde woman joined the group and instead of sitting down, she came to stand next to Jason when she saw him. She touched his arm, leaned in to whisper something into his ear, and said something funny enough to make Jason throw back his head and laugh. Then his hand sneaked around her waist…and I sat my ass back down.
Perfect.
Remembering I wasn’t out with Jason but with Jason Thorn didn’t ease my worries. I’d take the other guy any day.
Me: I don’t think I’m feeling well. I want to come home, Lucy.
Lucy: Hey, it’ll be okay. You are a cat. A purring, content one. I’m sure he wanted to talk to you about the movie. Didn’t you say so yourself? If he upsets you, I’ll kick his ass, don’t worry.
There was no way that cat crap would work this time.
Before I could text back, Jason returned to the table, muttered an apology, gave me a strange look, and reached for his drink again.
Feeling deflated, I played with the edge of the table and kept sipping my drink as I tried to focus on the beautiful view.
At some point, he asked a few questions about how my new novel was coming along, and I answered all of his questions with unnecessarily long answers. Eventually though, I gave up trying to engage him in conversation when he started texting with his agent.
Our food came—we had both ordered salmon—and—surprise, surprise—we ate in silence.
If picking at the poor fish counted as eating, that is.
My phone vibrated twice, but I didn’t check to see who it was. No matter how many times she texted, I was no cat—especially not a purring one. Halfway into our awkward and very disappointing dinner, I gave up on the food too and just leaned back in my seat to gaze at the city skyline. I hated sulking in general, but sitting across from Jason and sulking…well, it was all kinds of wrong. Even so, there was no way I could act like I was having the time of my life at that moment either.
“Olive?”
So lost in my own head, I flinched when I heard Jason’s thick voice.
“Yes?”
He tilted his head and furrowed his brows. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Are you?” I asked back.
He scratched at his stubble. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve barely said a word to me ever since we sat down, Jason. Not that you were a chatterbox in the car, but you literally spoke maybe twenty words to me. Since you were the one who invited me out, I have no idea what’s happening, but I’m going to wait until you finish your dinner so you can take me home. Better yet, if you can tell someone to call me a cab…do they even do that here? Anyway, if they do, I can get myself home.”
A few tables to our left, a group of people roared with laughter, drawing my attention away from Jason. Why couldn’t we be laughing with joy like that? Jason was going to take me to a movie set, the movie set that was being set up for the world I’d created. I was going to see Isaac’s room, touch the bed where he woke Evie up in the middle of the night just because he couldn’t wait to kiss her for the first time. I should’ve been the one laughing my ass off with joy, not sulking in front of a sex god.
He wasn’t my sex god, but I was in his vicinity, and God had given me eyes for such occasions after all.
I glanced back at Jason and saw his troubled expression.
“Fuck me,” he muttered almost to himself.
I would happily fuck you if that’s your problem.
Reaching for his second glass of whiskey, he drank the last bit in one big gulp, pushed his chair back with a loud noise, and came to my side.
I had to crane my neck to look up at him.
He offered me his hand. “Come on. I can’t do this here with all these people around. Let’s go.”
“Go where?” I asked, my eyes suspiciously jumping between his hand and eyes.
Clearly done with waiting for me to decide, he pulled back my chair while I was still sitting in it and took my hand himself.
Grabbing the small clutch I had borrowed from Char, I let him pull me away from our sad table and tried to ignore the warmth that was travelling all over my body from feeling his warm skin on mine again.
Even holding hands with him could count as accomplishing childhood dreams, right? And it had already happened more than once. I should’ve counted the night as a success. Only I had no idea what was coming next.
Talk about childhood dreams…
