by L. L Hunter
“Hey, guys,” I said, walking in.
“Ah, there he is. My favourite movie star,” said my father. “Come, tell us about Sydney.”
I was about to sit down next to my father when my mother rushed in.
“Jack, there you are. You’re awake. I thought there was something wrong.”
“Oh, no. I’m fine. I was just tired. That’s all.” I walked over to hug her. She hugged me quickly, then held me at arm’s length—and then she hit me on the stomach with her tea towel.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“Why didn’t you tell us you met someone in Sydney?”
“I was going to, Mom. It was a crazy few days. Everything happened so fast.”
“Yeah, but we could have heard from you, instead of the internet.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. I…” I looked down at my feet in shame. In the crazy whirlwind and media storm since meeting Chloe, I had completely forgotten to tell those closest to me. I had let myself get lost in the storm. I looked up at my mom and smiled.
“I’m glad you’re here. I missed you.” I pulled her into my chest. “So, what are you cooking for me?”
She hit me with the tea towel again. “Always thinking of your stomach.” She shook her head and muttered something in Vietnamese before walking back toward the kitchen. I looked back at my father.
“I’ll tell everyone at breakfast. Okay?”
“Okay, son.” He turned back to his show, and I headed into the kitchen.
16
A little while later, everyone was at the dining table. I never used this table, and I didn’t want a formal dining room at first, but my mom and aunts insisted, so they could all come over and do what we were doing now—having family brunch. I had to admit, it was nice. I loved my family. They kept me grounded in this crazy world of secrets, lies, and fame.
“So, Jack,” my father began, “tell us about your girl.”
Everyone was busy helping themselves to food and eating, but they paused and trained their ears and eyes in my direction, waiting in anticipation for the juicy gossip. Sometimes, my family were as bad as the media. They pushed and prodded and judged until I fled. Sometimes, it wasn’t uncommon for me to not answer my phone for days. Sometimes, I just needed to get away from everything and zone out.
I felt uncomfortable under their scrutinising gazes, so I distracted myself by pulling apart a pork bun. It was hot, but I didn’t care.
“What do you want to know?”
“What we don’t already know, Jacky,” said my aunt, holding up a copy of a local newspaper. I hadn’t seen this one yet. I took it from my aunt and began to read. The headline read, “Over before it began?” and underneath it said: Hollywood heartthrob Jack Dean arrives home in L.A. without his new Aussie flame. Does this mean the rumours are true? Was it really all a publicity stunt to help save a dying film franchise?”
There was a picture of me arriving at the airport. I rolled my eyes.
“You know the media and how they like to lie,” I said, pointing at the paper before tossing it on the table. “It’s not over, and it was never a publicity stunt. Chloe and I are together. She just didn’t come back with me. She has her own life. Her own career.”
“When will we get to meet her?” asked my mom.
“Soon. After New Year’s. She’s coming over then. We’ll try and squeeze in dinner or something around all our press commitments.”
“Ah, yes. Our boy is a famous actor,” said my dad. “I almost forgot for a second you have all these responsibilities. Not much time for us mere mortals.”
I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I promise you’ll get to meet Chloe, eventually. You’ll love her.”
My mom smiled. “We’re all so proud of you, sweetheart. Just don’t let those vultures pull you down.”
“I know, Mom. Thank you.” I stuffed the pork bun in my mouth and washed it down with coffee. “That reminds me, I have to go sort something out with my manager now.” I stood up.
My mom dropped her fork to the table. It clattered loudly. “You’re leaving? But we haven’t finished breakfast. Can’t this wait?”
“I know. I’m sorry. But there’s something I have to fix. I have a feeling my manager organised for the press to wait at the airport. They were tipped off by someone, and I suspect it was Kyle.”
“What a scumbag. Go give it to him.” My aunt punched her palm making a loud smacking sound. I smiled.
“I will.” I walked around the table and kissed each member of my family before walking out. I had more than just a media storm to sort out. There was also the Alexa problem. If I didn’t do something now, they were never going to leave Chloe and me alone.
I walked into Kyle’s office ignoring the protests of his secretary.
“Mr Dean, you can’t just walk in there.”
“I’m sorry, Cassidy. This is important.”
“But Mr Dean, Mr Rose is not available. He’s with another client.”
“This will only take a second. It’s okay, Cassidy.”
Cassidy chased me all the way down the long corridor of the plain office building. It was all boring, with no art or potted plants, apart from the few movie posters and pictures of past and present clients adorning the walls of the corridor.
I walked past mine, giving it the side-eye as I passed. I’d always hated the picture Kyle had chosen. It was a still from my most successful movie. I was looking into the eyes of my female co-star with the look of desire on my face, our lips close to touching. I hated it because after the film came out and leading up to release, Kyle was on my back. He put way too much pressure on me to be something I wasn’t—a ladies man.
A heartthrob.
A sex symbol.
There was a hot sex scene I’d had to do that I refused at first. I didn’t want to get my gear off on camera.
After that, all I got were romantic lead type roles. I was so stressed during that time a few years earlier that I never wanted to go through that again. I was pleased when the few action roles came up, but the scripts still included getting my gear off and doing steamy sex scenes. I did them anyway. That was the point where I sold my soul. And now Kyle was up to his old tricks once more. I stormed up to his office and pushed through the double timber doors without knocking.
And just as I suspected, Alexa was the client he was seeing.
“What the fuck?” shouted Kyle, jumping away from the table where, right before I stormed in, he and Alexa had been reading over something. He spun to face me, and it immediately put a smile on my face to cover up the fact he was hiding something from me.
“Oh, hi, Jack. It’s good to see you. But I would appreciate if you would give me a heads up first.”
“Why? So you can hide your evidence?” I crossed my arms and glared at Alexa. “Hi, Alexa.”
“Jack. Hi.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and straightened up in her chair. In doing so, she pushed out her fake boobs in her too-small top. They already spilled out. I diverted my gaze and turned my attention back to Kyle.
“I shouldn’t have to give you a heads up, Kyle. Because giving you too much time is dangerous.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Jack. But why don’t you take a seat? Alexa and I were just going over the PR schedules for the next few weeks.”
“About that, did you tell the paps what time my flight was arriving yesterday?”
He looked around the room. Looking anywhere but at me. “No. Why would I do that?”
I got him. Filthy liar.
“I don’t know. You tell me? Maybe you wanted to create a little bad press about Chloe and me because things were going a little too well for your liking. It was all roses and fairy tales for a few days. So it became boring for you. You wanted to change it up. Am I getting warm?”
“No. That’s ridiculous.” He laughed nervously. “Do you want to hear what I’ve got planned for you and Chloe on Globes week?”
“I know you�
�re lying, Kyle. Don’t bullshit me. My family reads the news, you know. I had to tell them the truth. My mother was devastated.”
Kyle slumped on the edge of the table, and just as he was about to open his mouth, Alexa stood and came over to me.
“Jack, I’m sorry. It was my idea. When you left for Sydney, Kyle was upset that you might be leaving altogether. When you met Chloe, he was afraid he’d lost you.”
“Thanks, Alexa, but I’d like to hear it from Kyle himself.” I turned to Kyle. “Is this true?”
He sighed. “Yes. It’s all true. I couldn’t lose my biggest asset.”
“You mean your most profitable asset? I am not an asset, Kyle. I am a person.”
“Then you don’t know this industry, Jack. In Hollywood, everyone is either an asset or a dead weight. New and exciting or stale and old. When you stormed out, I had to find a way to bring you back.”
“You knew I was due to come back soon, so you baited me by creating a fake news story about Chloe and I being a publicity stunt. You knew how I feel about her, so by spreading rumours that it was all a stunt, you knew I would come back. What else was your doing?”
“Just that and the premiere.”
“Chloe told me her boss set her up. You contacted her, didn’t you?”
“Yes. You’re a smart man, Jack.”
I’d had enough and refused to hear any more. I walked toward the door. Before I opened it, I turned back to them. “From now on, stay out of my life. No more contacting the press and spreading lies. Just organise the stuff for Globes week, and that’s it. Chloe and I will take it from there.”
Before either of them could protest, I exited the office and didn’t look back.
17
For the next few days, I focused on the script I had to get through before the reading and screen test the following Monday. I was a love interest with a dark past in the paranormal TV show, a dark angel. The part was already mine, and I didn’t have to audition as such, but they just wanted me to do a screen test, which was basically standing in front of a test camera in a tiny room to see how I looked on camera to see if I was suitable. Then there was the group reading with the rest of the cast. I hoped I didn’t have to do a chemistry test with the female lead. But I knew it was a possibility.
I picked out a few pieces of dialogue that were monologue worthy to read for the screen test. Sometimes in an audition or screen test, I had to do a cold reading, which was where the casting director picked the scene for you. And if there was someone else in the scene, they often read those sides. It was hard to prepare, but it was better to go in with something prepared, rather than nothing.
I took a break from reading for a moment. I was sitting outside near the pool at my place on a deck chair in the sunshine. I loved my pool. This was my own slice of paradise in the middle of the insane world that was Hollywood. I snapped a photo of my current view and posted it to social media with the hashtag #actorlife. I hadn’t posted anything for a while, not since the premiere. So I figured I better tell the world what I was up to.
On the day of the screen test, I arrived at the network office a little before I was due to go in and do my test. Before I even took a seat in the waiting room, the casting director walked out.
“Jack, thanks for coming. I’m Larry, the casting director.” He stepped forward and shook my hand.
“Thanks for having me, Larry.”
“We’re just waiting for the brains of the operation, the creator of the show, and then we’ll get started.” The casting director was a youngish-guy, perhaps in his late thirties to early forties. He was young considering how long he had worked in the industry. He had cast some of the most successful shows of the past twenty years. I knew that was an indication of the calibre of the show and part of its early success. The show hadn’t even begun filming its first season, and it already had over one million followers on its social media pages. But that was mostly because this show was an adaptation of a popular young adult book series. I knew I had chosen the right project, and I hoped this would renew my faith in the industry and get me to love coming to work.
I sat down on a plastic chair and looked around the small waiting room. There were posters of the network’s current shows hanging on the walls. It was one of the biggest networks in the US, so I was excited to be working for it. Ten minutes past before the casting director came back, tailed this time by the creator of the show.
“Hi, Jack. It’s nice to meet you at last. I’m so glad to have you on board this project with us. I’m Darren, the creator, writer, and director of the show.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Darren.” I shook Darren’s hand, and they gestured toward the doors Larry had exited out of earlier. I walked through the doors into a small room. The room was basically empty, save for a white screen hanging on one wall, with a light and camera in front of it, and two chairs facing it.
“Please take your place on the mark in front of the screen, Jack,” said Darren. He picked up a tablet screen from one of the chairs and sat down. He tapped a few things on the tablet and then Larry, the casting director, leaned in to look at it. I walked over to my mark and stood on it and waited. There was silence for almost five minutes, and it was excruciating. But it was a regular occurrence in this industry. There was a lot of waiting involved. In that time, you had to learn to fit in as much as possible. Like food, running lines, or sleep—because you didn’t know when you were going to get time to do any of it.
Finally, Darren and Larry looked up from the tablet. “Okay, Jack. Whenever you’re ready.”
I sucked in a breath and looked into the camera. They wanted me to perform something I’d already prepared. So, thankfully, I had prepared something. I read the scene I had gone over earlier, the meeting between the female protagonist and my character.
“Okay, I’ve prepared the meet-cute scene between my character and the protagonist. So, I need someone to do Kaylee’s lines.” Kaylee was the name of the female protagonist. My character’s name was Tristan. He was a brooding, mysterious character with a hint of darkness about him.
“Sure thing, Jack,” said Larry.
Larry read Kaylee’s sides, and I performed mine.
“Okay, thanks for that, Jack. That was great,” said Darren. He turned to Larry. “What do you think, Larry? I’d like to see him do a chemistry test with Kate.”
“Yeah. Me too,” said Larry, standing up. I stepped off my mark when Larry walked over, holding out his hand for me to shake. “We’ll probably get you to come back for a second recall with Kate.”
“Okay, cool. When will that be? I’m quite busy in the next few weeks with the Globes and press and events.”
“Yeah, we know. We’ll let you know. It’ll probably be next week, though,” said Larry.
“Okay. Thanks.”
When I walked out of the network building, I let out a long breath. Auditions and screen tests were so nerve-racking, but I felt confident about this job and this show.
18
There were only a few days until Chloe arrived, and to say I was nervous was an understatement. How would the press receive her here? Were they going to eat her alive or welcome her with open arms? I had hopefully shut down any more nefarious plots Kyle had of organising negative press. But there was still Alexa to worry about. She was going to be at the Golden Globes, and when she eventually met the new love, the real love of my life, I hoped she wouldn’t get out her claws. And then there were the multiple TV and print interviews we had lined up before the Globes. And the various public appearances we had to make together. I wanted to protect Chloe from all of that. I never wanted her to have this life, my life, but you can’t help who you fall in love with. Love dictated where both our lives were heading. And I only hoped it didn’t end in disaster.
I finally received the second recall to come in for a chemistry test with the actress who would be playing my love interest on the show. Kate Brooks was fairly fresh to this industry, but the few film and TV roles she
had done, she looked like a smart, ambitious young woman. And I couldn’t wait to officially meet her.
When I walked into the TV network building where I’d done the screen test last week, Kate was already there. She wore jeans and a plain T-shirt and sneakers. She smiled when she saw me and stood up from her seat in the waiting room.
“Hi, there. You must be Jack Dean.” She spoke with a cheerful voice which had a hint of a southern twang to it.
“Yes. And you must be Kate Brooks.” I kissed her cheek, and we sat down together on the plastic seats. “So, are we early or…”
“Nah. They’re late.” She laughed and pushed a blonde curl behind her ear. I turned to look at her properly, and for a minute, I thought I was looking at Chloe. I gasped. Kate’s mannerisms, the way she clenched her hands and fiddled with her hair reminded me of Chloe. “Excuse me, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you remind me so much of my girlfriend.”
Kate smiled and tucked the stray curl behind her ear again. “Oh, is that the Australian writer?”
“Yeah. That’s her. Chloe is her name.”
“She’s pretty. I saw a photo of you guys taken at the premiere of your film and a couple of paparazzi shots of her walking.”
My heart beat wildly, and I clenched the edge of the chair. “Paparazzi shots? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, you don’t know? TMZ reported it only a few days ago.” She pulled out her phone and googled ‘Jack Dean girlfriend’. I grabbed her phone when I saw the pictures.
“Seriously? What the fuck.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not really into all of that. The press is heartless. Forgive me, but I’m kind of a big fan of both of you.”