“That was something,” Olive said after a few minutes of silence had passed.
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye to make sure she was actually okay. “Welcome to my world. You okay?”
She lifted her arms in front of her. “A little bit on the shakier side, but still in one piece. You?”
“They rarely get to me any more. You get used to walking down a street with cameras flashing all around you.”
“Comes with the job, I guess.”
Unfortunately, it did. Most of the time, I could get away with wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat and simply blend in, but it didn’t work every single time. “I think we should head straight to my publicist’s office. We need to plan how we’re going to handle this.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. Running away won’t work. We can’t be trapped in a café like this a second time. They won’t just trail me; they’ll focus on you. The more we stay silent, the harder it’ll be to shake them off.”
“I’m sorry, I should’ve handled it better,” she said in small voice.
Taking a left turn, I kept my eyes on the road but reached out to grasp her hand. I was starting to do that a lot lately.
Holding her hand. Keeping her close. Breathing her in. Touching her. Looking at her ass. And more importantly, fucking seeing her.
“If anything like this ever happens again when I’m not around, I want you to call me immediately. If I can’t come myself, I’ll send someone who can help you. If we’re going to do this, I need to know you feel comfortable. I don’t want you to be scared to go out because of me.”
“It’s okay, Jason.” She covered my hand with her small one. “If you tell them who I am, or that we’re together, I’m sure they’ll eventually back off.”
I sighed. “I don’t think so. That will probably take some time. This is too juicy for them to ignore.”
When she pulled her hand away, I had to pull away, too.
I handed her my phone and asked her to dial Alvin’s number.
“Is everything okay, boss? Tom just called me and said you might need help.”
“It’s okay, Alvin. We handled it. Can you find out where Megan is? If she is at the office, I want to go straight to her. Olive is with me, and I think we need to sit down and have a talk.”
“Give me a few minutes and I’ll get back to you.”
When Alvin called back, I was halfway to Megan’s office.
“She is not at the office, boss. She is wrapping up a lunch meeting at Chateau Marmont.”
“Fine then we’re heading there.”
“I suggested the same thing, but she said you’d need to have a private conversation. She said to tell you she’ll be back at her office in fifteen and to meet her there. Do you want me to get back to her?”
“No it’s fine. I’m minutes away, we’ll wait for her.”
When we made it, her assistant was already waiting for us and led us into Megan’s office.
“I know I didn’t ask, but I hope you have time for this,” I said to Olive once we were alone.
“The meeting? Yes, of course. I know I have to sign things.” She gave me a questioning look. “At least, I’m assuming I do.”
“You don’t have to sign anything you don’t want to Olive. I trust you.”
We were interrupted when Megan’s assistant came back to let us know Megan was a few minutes away and to ask if we wanted anything to drink.
We both declined.
“What is she going to talk to us about?” Olive asked once the assistant left.
“Aren’t you going to sit?”
She looked around as if she was only then seeing the big sectional on the far left side of the office and the set of armchairs in front of Megan’s desk.
“I’m good,” she said after a moment.
I walked up to her and held her by her shoulders. “She won’t leak anything we don’t want her to leak. For that, she needs to talk to both of us. Basically, we have to come up with a game plan for the marriage thing. That is, if you are absolutely sure, Olive.”
Rubbing her palms up and down her thighs, she nodded and looked at me. “I am. Like you said, if nothing else, it’ll be fun.”
I let my hands wander down from her arms and linked our hands together.
“It’ll most definitely be fun,” I murmured, her beautiful eyes pulling me in.
“That is exactly how I want people to see you,” Megan said as she barged in.
Olive gave a slight jerk. I sighed and looked at the ceiling.
“Hello to you, too, Megan.” Dropping one of Olive’s hands, I turned us to face my dear publicist. “Olive, this is Megan, a beautiful pain in my ass.”
Megan’s smile was sort of savage, but she still reached out and patted my cheek. “You would be lost without me.”
“If you say so,” I muttered and gave Olive’s hand a squeeze.
She was already smiling at Megan and I was having a hard time looking away from her lips. She gave my hand a tug, but I didn’t see why I should have to let it go so I held on. When she turned those green eyes on me with a small frown, I had to force my hand to let hers go. Immediately, she extended her hand to Megan and they shook hands, exchanging a few pleasantries.
“Okay, let’s sit down and have a chat,” Megan said as she took her seat behind her desk.
Olive chose to sit on the edge of her seat, her body giving off all kinds of stress signals: jumpy legs, cold hands, lip biting…
Lip biting could be fun, though. I could make lip biting into a fun activity for her.
“I assume you’ve come to an agreement,” Megan interrupted my thoughts—and good thing she did.
“Yes,” Olive agreed and turned her eyes on me, waiting for an answer.
I smiled at her and stole a small one right back from her.
“You should save the googly eyes for the press. You don’t have to act around me, too.”
I could’ve killed Megan right then. Olive’s startled gaze flew away from me, and I could hardly get her to look at me for more than a few seconds for the rest of the meeting, which wasn’t anything exciting at all.
“First and foremost we need to apply for a confidential marriage license and get that out of the way. We don’t want them to find out about it on their own.”
“Isn’t them finding out about the marriage the whole purpose of this thing?” Olive asked.
“It is,” Megan agreed. “But we want them to learn about it when we are ready for them to learn about it.” Megan turned her gaze to me. “I need you to buy Olive a ring. Do it before you leave. We want her to be seen wearing it.”
“We’ll go and choose something together?” I offered to Olive.
Before she could answer, Megan jumped in. “No. We don’t want anyone to talk about this. You know what, forget what I said. They’ll probably be trailing you, and we don’t want to give them that tidbit yet. Talk to Alvin, he’ll handle everything.”
Seemingly satisfied with her own plan, she nodded to herself and gave us more details on when we should be seen and how we should act out in public.
“I’ll print you out a list before you leave. I want you to be photographed almost everyday at any of those places until you leave for London.”
“When is he leaving?” Olive asked Megan.
“I’m right here you know, you can look at me, too,” I suggested lazily.
Her cheeks held an appealing blush when she finally looked at me. “Sorry.”
I gave her a long look. “I’m heading to London next week. It’s only for a few days.”
“And you are going with him,” Megan added, looking at Olive.
“I am?” she squeaked.
“Yes. And you’ll start wearing your ring at the London premiere. If you get questions you can answer them as long as you keep the answers short—but don’t talk about getting married—and change the subject back to promoting the movie. You two being there together will be good PR for the movie, too. Other than that, I don’t want you to talk to the press about Olive before you leave. When you are being photographed here in the city, just be yourselves, smile for the cameras…I don’t know, maybe hold hands, but keep it mild. We want everyone to be talking about you, and so far no one is sure if you are together or not. Seeing you two at the London premiere with a ring on her finger will be an answer enough on its own.”
“Don’t I have to sign anything?” Olive asked when Megan was done with her instructions.
Megan glanced at me with a quirked eyebrow. I stared back.
“Jason’s lawyers will handle that part,” she answered eventually. Keeping her stare on Olive, she leaned forward. “It’ll be in the contract, but you can’t talk about this to anyone. Not your parents, not your friends. Don’t even repeat it to yourself after this point. If it gets out that this was arranged, it will undo everything we are trying to do.”
“Well,” Olive muttered, wincing slightly.
Megan’s voice was harsh—harsher than I would allow her to use when speaking to Olive—when she asked, “Who did you tell?”
“Megan,” I said in low voice, silencing her.
“I mentioned it to Lucy, but I swear she won’t tell a soul, Jason,” Olive rushed to say, her eyes focused somewhere over my shoulder.
I ducked a little and caught her eyes. “It’s okay, little one. I trust you, and if you trust her…” I shrugged. “It’s done, Megan. So move on.”
By the time we left Megan’s office after going over a few more details of how we should act in public, both Olive and I were pretty much brain dead.
“Wow…” Olive breathed out once we were sitting in the car and just staring out the windshield. I didn’t even attempt to start the car. “Who knew I had to be careful about so many things. I mean, come on, was she really serious about me looking a little too long at any other actors? Or the part—which was my favorite part, by the way—where she said I’d have to discourage you if you wanted to have a quickie in London?”
“I’m afraid she was very much serious. Also, my favorite part was about you looking at me—oh sorry, not looking”—I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I continued—“gazing at me adoringly in the photos. You think you can look at me adoringly, little one? I wouldn’t mind working on it.”
“How thoughtful of you my soon-to-be-hubby.”
“Ah,” I groaned and closed my eyes. “Call me anything but hubby. For some reason, I hate that word. Hubby, hubster…” I shook my head. “Just no. Call me husband,” I said in a husky voice before I noticed what I was saying.
She chuckled. “Fine, I’ll find another pet name. How about myyyy… Well, looks like I lost a few brain cells in there, can’t think of anything right now. I’ll come up with something, don’t worry.”
I smiled to myself. “Can’t wait to hear it, sweetheart.” That was definitely something I would look forward too.
“Are you ready to back out yet?” I asked mildly as we silently watched a few guys point and whistle at my Spyder as they walked past.
She twisted in her seat to face me. “I said yes, Jason. I want to help; I won’t back out. But if you change your mind…”
“No,” I replied after a brief pause, and then I let my head drop back on the headrest. “You’re still the only girl I want to get fake married to.”
She gave a short, amused laugh and rested her temple against the headrest. “Yay?”
I turned my head to find her studying me. A second later, I was tugging her hair, stealing another sincere smile from her.
“In a few weeks, it’ll all die down, don’t worry,” I reassured her. “And it won’t be all bad, I promise.”
“I’m not worried. Not exactly. I mean, it’s probably every girl’s wish to get married to you these days. Fake or not, it’ll be…something. So, no, I’m not worried. But I think you should be.”
“Why?”
“Well, if we can’t tell anyone about this,” she shrugged, her lips kicking up at the corners. “I’m not going to be the one who tells my parents I got married so hastily. If I have to lie, so do you.”
Now it was my turn to wince. “I think I can charm your mom and dad, but Dylan… Yeah, I’m not looking forward to that talk.”
Closing her eyes, she faced forward again. “So, we are getting married right after we get back from London. It’s going to be a quick thing at your home. No friends, no nothing. That night, I move in with you, and when the filming starts for Soul Ache, I’m to accompany you to the movie set for the first few days so they can get more candid shots of us and essentially start promoting the movie right when the filming starts.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes.
“You’re not Isaac and I’m…not Evie, they get that though, right?” she asked a little hesitantly when I started the car.
“In their eyes, we will be whoever they want us to be, little one.”
