Single And Rich

by Addison Jenkins

  He turned to me, still in character, and I fawned over his body, licking my lips, and dragging my fingers across his sweaty abs. I was getting so turned on as his hands in turn touched my body.

  My affection for him was rising. We were only acting and the camera was watching us but I could feel his real feelings come through in the way he touched me, softly squeezing my hips. His touch… deep… sensual. Pulling me in like a snake charmer.

  His eyes looked at me. Looked into me. Like, really feeling the inside of my soul. Some people look at you but you know they’re just looking through you. Henry was different. It had been been difficult for us to get together since that time in our trailer in Texas, so this was really our first time together, touching each other the way couples got to do. I had even forgotten about the other people as time seemed to stop.

  It was a testament to him that I could lose myself with him on the beaches of Miami with a small village of people staring at us. I felt his hands crawling up my stomach to the bottom of my bikini top. Panic took hold. I looked at the camera, just a glance, but it was enough.

  “Cut!” Michael shouted and he stomped up the walkway to the boat. “What are you doing, Jane! You looked at the camera?! You ruined a perfectly good shot.”

  “I’m sorry, I just… There’s so many people here,” I stuttered.

  He was pissed, even taking off his glasses to show everyone his bruised face.

  “Get used to it, Jane. There’s gonna be a lot of people everywhere. Henry, control her. Fix her,” he ordered.

  “Fix her?” Henry asked.

  “Yeah, you heard me,” Michael snarled back. His hair was flopping on his sweaty head like a wet toupee.

  “I can’t fix her, Michael,” Henry said with irritation in his voice. “She’s a person. She’s not a robot. Jane’s human, she makes mistakes. Everyone does.”

  I was so glad someone other than me was standing up for Jane. It was about time and who better than Henry.

  Michael wanted to fight. I could see it in his tapping foot, but instead he left the boat as angry as he arrived.

  “Thanks, Henry,” I said, shaken up by Michael’s words. Your boss yelling at you for making a mistake is one thing, but to yell at your employee in front of the whole company was crossing the line. It was just bad taste.

  Henry could’ve been a sex symbol. The kind that beds every woman he meets, including the lunch lady, but instead he was more well-mannered than the boys I’d met in my small town.

  “We’re moving to the next scene,” Michael said into a megaphone. I spotted Rachel coming up to the boat wearing a smaller bikini than I was wearing. The blue bikini she wore was half her size. Her boobs were spilling out and barely anything was covering up her baby maker. I was surprised and yet not surprised that Michael let her wear something like that.

  She walked over with a big smile. The glasses were off, and there was no bruise to be seen of. It was a possibility that the makeup artists covered it up.

  “Hey, Jane, nice to see you here. You look great,” she smiled. And then her eyes set their sights on Henry’s abs like a sentry turret. “And you… Wow. You look delicious.”

  I was in shock that she would say that.

  “Um, thanks but let’s keep it professional,” Henry stated.

  “Oh, this is professional, baby. You look great,” she said.

  I was motionless, unable to cut between them as she gawked at Henry’s shirtless body.

  “Okay, Rachel, places! Let’s go from the top,” Michael shouted.

  “Michael, I’m right where I belong,” Rachel said, drawing a finger on Henry’s abs.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” I said, standing my ground but without touching her.

  Rachel looked at me, her eyes drawing close to a crease. “Jane, know your place.”

  “My place is with my boyfriend, Henry,” I said, raising my voice so the crew could hear it.

  “Really?” she tilted her head, putting a hand on her hip.

  “Yeah. And your place is with your boyfriend. Over there behind the camera,” I reminded her.

  Rachel looked at me. She wasn’t happy. I could see her blood boiling behind the skin of her Botoxed-face, but he was mine and I was ready to fight for him. You always thought your boyfriend had the good grace to turn down a woman, but Rachel, she looked like a serial predator. I’m not slut-shaming or anything, but the way she came between me and Michael was the work of a professional hunter. Some women don’t like dating single guys. They like stealing the ones already in relationships.

  “Make sure you keep him happy, Jane,” she said to me with a flaring nostril. “Boys don’t like to be lonely.”

  She turned around, giving us a full view of the g-string running between her ass cheeks. I cleared my throat as Henry was still looking at it.

  I elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I think I saw my reflection in her butt,” he joked.

  “I’m glad you were staring long enough to find out.”

  “Jane, she’s not competition,” he said, grabbing my hand.

  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, getting ready to start the scene and see her again. What was I supposed to do? An urge twisted and boiled and knotted in me to pounce on her face like a jungle cat and claw her eyes out but that wouldn’t solve anything because this was my fate. To be abused by my boyfriends or to have the nice ones taken away from me by girls sexier than me. Was that really what it came down to?

  No. I wasn’t going to let it happen. I was going to stand my ground, act my heart out while keeping Henry happy and close to me. Let’s do this.

  “Action!” Michael shouted.

  The shoot for the day ended really well with me giving my best performance, I think, but tensions were high between me and Rachel. She tried to invite Henry to the crew party but I managed to pull him away from her.

  As the air turned icy and the sun dipped below the horizon, Henry and I retreated to a rooftop bar where only strangers were milling about. Perfect. I didn’t want to be seen by anyone that I knew. I didn’t need gossip to ruin this night.

  In the center of the roof was a pool lit purple by neon lights, creating a cool laidback atmosphere. Henry was dressed casually in a tight football t-shirt that made his biceps look so huge. He stared at me in my little black dress, my neck wrapped with a gold necklace that I had borrowed from the costume department just for the night. Hey, why buy when you can borrow.

  He grabbed my hand, reaching across the table. His eyes were so big and dark. Two quarter-shaped pools of kindness and masculinity that was comfortable with itself. He didn’t feel the need to prove his strength to me like other guys. I dated one guy who broke a beer bottle on his head just to prove he could. He had started bleeding and I’d took him to the hospital. Then I left him while he was getting stitches and he texted me: Why’d you leave me?

  I wrote back: To prove I could. I felt pretty good about that one.

  “How ‘bout that Rachel, huh.” Henry raised his eyebrow.

  “Yeah, she’s… something else,” I said.

  He lowered his head. Something serious was on his mind. “I want you to know, Jane, that she’s just a co-worker. She’s not somebody I’m interested in.”

  I stayed quiet. I wanted to hear him say this. Every girl did.

  “My love is only for you, Jane. You’re the only girl in my world,” he said.

  Aww. I felt my eyes glisten with a little happiness but I tried to stop myself from fully puking tears out of my eyes.

  “That’s so sweet, Henry,” I said. “And the same for me. You’re the only man in my life. And inside me.”

  Henry smirked. “That’s good to know. If there was somebody else inside you, that’d be awkward.”

  “Yeah.” I chuckled, drawing a glass of green vodka to my lips. “Mm, this green apple vodka’s so good.”

  “So what’s your goal, Jane? What do you want to do in the world?” he asked me.


  I thought about it for a moment, looking out to the skyline of Miami. The mixture of small and towering buildings, including the one I was sitting on, reminded me of Los Angeles. It was a little stickier here though. Humid. Not fun.

  “I don’t know. I think maybe keep acting, make good movies, and help people. I would like to help people.”

  His lips curved into a subtle smile. “I like that. Your goal isn’t to become famous.”

  “Oh god no. I just like acting. I don’t want to become famous. I like my privacy. I don’t want people digging through my trash and tampons. That sounds terrible,” I said with disgust which made Henry laugh. He had these little dimples in his cheeks when he smiled that were the cutest thing.

  “Your dimples are cute.” I smiled at him.

  “Oh, these things,” he said, brushing it away. “They have cost me many movie parts.”

  “What?” I sat up in my booth, the leather cushion nice and squishy. “But they’re so cute.”

  “That’s the problem. Producers want to see strong. They think dimples are for romantic movies, not action movies,” he said. A tinge of regret was on his face.

  “That’s a shame, they don’t know what they’re missing,” I said. “You’re handsome as hell, if you don’t mind me saying.”

  “Oh, please, I don’t mind.” He laughed it off, taking a shot of whiskey from a waitress’s plate of shots.

  “What’s your goal? Why’d you come all the way from the UK to LA?” I asked.

  “I like being with other people. Sometimes being someone else feels more comfortable than being yourself,” he said. It felt like a private thought he was saying aloud.

  “I feel the same way,” I said, nodding along as he looked at me.

  “But right now, my goal is something different. Something a little colder.” He stood up and grabbed my hand.

  “What’s going on, are we getting naked?” I asked.

  “Clothes are optional,” he said before picking me up. I tried to pull my dress down before someone saw my underwear and Snapchatted it for all their friends.

  He lifted his arms and I was suspended in the air, watching myself as if time had slowed down to a crawl. Oh my god. He’s throwing me into the pool.

  I landed in the cold water. A pool of purple color flooding my vision.

  “Hey! It’s freezing!” I shouted. The icy water was so cold, it was burning my stomach.

  “Good!” Henry yelled back as he jumped in. A shock of cold water shot up out of the pool onto the customers at the bar, furious.

  He didn’t care though. As my body floated in the water, purple bathed his face. His hands embraced my hips as my teeth clattered like a jackhammer.

  “Are you having fun?” He smiled.

  “I’ve been having fun since the day I met you, Henry.” And it was the truth.

  He brought his lips to my own with all these people around us, kissing me as if we had been married for decades. Slow. Sensual. Confident. He wasn’t trying to prove he was a good kisser or that he loved me.

  Henry just showed me he loved me.

  The film was hard but we worked through three months of shooting. Michael looked like he had given up on sleeping and eating, but he didn’t give up on directing. A second test screening proved that the film was working, leading the crew and even me to give him a standing ovation. It was a powerful moment that felt like a relief for everyone from the assistants to the leading actors. Hell, even Rachel looked like she had crawled out of a war and I’d thought she was bulletproof. There was still some more work to do but I wasn’t sure what was needed specifically. They’d told me they needed me for a couple of more days.

  I had practiced so hard and could even recite the script, not just my lines but everyone else’s lines as well. Hell, I could probably act sleepwalking.

  My trailer embraced me as I sought solace inside of it to make a call to my grandmother

  “Hey, grandma.”

  “Hello, baby, how you doin’?” she asked, her voice frail.

  “I’m doing good. Better than three months ago. I had so much stuff happen on the movie but it’s coming together now.”

  “That’s so good to hear. When can I see it?” she asked.

  “That’s a very good question. I have no idea. I think next summer,” I said. I should probably Google that. “Are you okay, Gran?”

  She coughed loudly into the phone. “Some days are better than others.”

  “What’s wrong?” I was getting worried. I couldn’t bear to lose my mom and my grandma.

  “Just a flu, probably, I’ll be alright, Jane. Worry about your life and have fun. Okay,” she said.

  “Drink some tea,” I said.

  “Hey, that’s what I tell you,” she sharply said back.

  I laughed. “Yeah and I do drink it now. It really helps to calm me down. Okay, it’s late, I’m gonna let you go. Take care.”

  “Take care too, Jane. Love you,” she said.

  I lied on the bed in my trailer alone. Henry was a few miles away doing some extra photo shoots for the posters by himself. Then my phone vibrated on the bed. A muffled rattle.

  I grabbed the phone and turned it around to see a text from a blocked number. I got scared as I read the text. My hair stood on my arms and I even forgot to breathe.

  Be careful, it said. That was it. I relocked my doors like ten times and checked all the windows. Could it be Jake? Did he find me here? He had found me when we were in Texas.

  The trailer felt bigger than it had before. I turned on more lights, burning shadows out of all the crevices and corners to make myself feel safer.

  As the light made it impossible to sleep, I’m not sure it helped. Maybe I should follow my grandma’s advice for when anything goes wrong: drink some tea.

  ***

  I woke up the next day with sweat pasting my body in the bed. The sun hit my eyes from the window and I realized my hand was sore.

  My eyes looked down to see why that was the case. I was clutching my phone, hard. I must have been doing that the entire night. Jesus, I needed Henry. Where was he?

  I texted him to see where he was. I needed someone to talk to, just someone that would understand. He had protected me from Jake when he’d ambushed me in my Texas trailer.

  You should probably come out here, Jane, he wrote. I grew anxious and my door seemed to move further away from me. I didn’t want to get up. I wanted to jump in the corner and hope for another day. What the heck was out there?

  “C’mon, Jane, you can do this. Get up,” I said to myself, trying to muster any ounce of strength that was in my body. I got up and walked outside to see a group of people: Michael and Rachel and Henry standing there, their heads turned towards me, gloom and doom painted on their faces. The crew was even joining them.

  “What happened? Did someone die?” I asked from the door frame of the trailer.

  “You should come down,” Henry said.

  I bit my lip. Everyone’s eyes were on me and my heart was throbbing like a frog in my throat. I walked down.

  “Something happened on Twitter,” Henry said. “Some stuff got out.”

  “What got out?” I asked, already thinking of the worst things. My stuff? Henry’s stuff? His dick pictures? Can I see those dick pictures?

  “Your naked pictures are on Twitter, Jane,” Rachel flat out said. Cold like ice. She brought up her phone to me and I saw my legs. My breasts. It was the same bed I’d been sitting on at Michael’s place—oh my god. What the fuck. How did this happen? Michael? Did he leak these pictures? Was he jealous of me and Henry? Why would he do that? He’s dating Rachel now.

  Then I noticed something.

  “How do you know it’s me? You can’t even see my face,” I said and it was true. “Also, why do my naked pictures have like six thousand retweets?”

  “They do,” Rachel said.

  “Look, this is not bad necessarily. We can use this to promote the movie.” Michael shrugged. “Y’know, any co
ntroversy is good controversy.”

  I was fuming. Scorching angry. My fingertips tingled with the urge to claw the skin off his face.

  “This wouldn’t have happened if you could’ve kept your pants on,” I said.

  Michael was speechless. Rachel looked at him, then back at me.

  “What does that mean?” she asked as if to interrogate me.

  Henry stepped in between us. “Hey, Jane’s going through something. How ‘bout some kindness right now.”

  Rachel threw a finger at me. “She’s saying Michael put those pictures online!”

  “I didn’t say that!”

  “Then what did you say, Jane. Tell me,” she demanded. I stared her down. Two wild cats in the street. The crowd was watching us, probably thirsty for a cat fight. I wasn’t sure what to do.

  My phone buzzed in my hand. I looked at it: I know it’s you.

  There it was again. Another message from the blocked number.

  “Who is it?” Henry asked me.

  “It’s nothing,” I said to him but he knew something was wrong. Everyone did.

  “Stop it, everyone,” Michael called out. His head hung low. Ashamed. His hands were plunged in his pockets. He was contemplating something, anything probably to take his mind off these pictures.

  I wanted to leave. The phone sat ominously in my had like a gun waiting to go off.

  “Rachel, I have something to tell you,” Michael said. It caught my attention. What was he going to say? I hopede Michael was going to admit he took those pictures of me without my permission when I was drunk.

  He pulled a small black box out of his pocket. Oh no. He knelt down in the middle of the crowd and gently popped open the box. You have got to be kidding me.

  Rachel’s eyes lit up and she did a small tap dance of happiness in her high heels, her legs constrained by a body-hugging dress.

  A diamond ring sat inside the box.

  “Rachel, will you marry me?” Michael asked.

  I exchanged an angry look with Henry, who was just as surprised as me.

  The crowd was stunned into silence, waiting for Rachel’s reply. She looked at the ring, then back to Michael’s eyes.

  “I do.”

  The applause was so loud, you could’ve mistaken it for a torrential downpour of rain. Three hundred crew members cheering for a man they wouldn’t have necessarily done that for before. Could it be that Michael was trying to win the crew over and Rachel too, before the truth could come out about what he’d done to me?