by L. L Hunter
I looked at her, cocking an eyebrow in surprise. “You are? In what way?”
“Yeah. Your story is just so beautiful. It’s like a real-life fairy tale. It just sucks the press drags you down and ruin it.”
I studied the pictures. Chloe was walking down a Sydney street, coffee in one hand, and her laptop bag on the opposite shoulder. It looked like she was going to work. I handed Kate back her phone.
“Motherfuckers.” Kate winced. “Sorry, Kate. I don’t often swear. But I can’t believe this. I never wanted this for her.”
Kate placed a kind hand on my arm and gave me a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry. That’s the bad side of Hollywood.”
“I agree.”
“Hopefully, I’ll get to meet her sometime soon.”
The door opened then, and Larry stuck his head out. I smiled at Kate before we entered the room to do our screen chemistry test.
The chemistry test was a success. Larry and Darren told Kate and me we were perfect and promised to call us when it was time do principal photography. Principle photography was where they shot the promo material for the show, all the images that will be used for the network, for advertising, social media, etc. It was all happening. I was excited about the future. If only Kyle and Alexa behave themselves and stop meddling with mine and Chloe’s lives.
19
Chloe was arriving today. And Alexa chose today of all days to want something. I arrived at her Beverley Hills mansion right before six in the evening. Chloe’s plane was due to touch down in L.A. at seven. I’d asked Stephen to pick her up because I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the airport or not. I knew Chloe would probably be disappointed to see Stephen instead of me waiting at the airport, so to soften the blow, I’d booked us a table in the VIP area of one of the hottest new nightspots off the strip. It would be our chance to get photographed together, to prove to the world that what Chloe and I had was real.
I couldn’t wait to see her, to kiss her again. But first, I had to deal with a little problem called Alexa.
I stepped out of my car and jogged up to the front door. It was unlocked, which was unusual for Alexa. She loved security and privacy, despite constantly craving attention.
“Alexa? Hello?”
She’d sent me a voicemail earlier, and in it, she’d been crying. I knew it was probably one of her old tricks, trying to lure me to her once more so she could set me up. But seeing her place all dark and unlocked like this scared me. There were no lights on anywhere that I could see. I was about to turn one on when I heard a crash upstairs. Something didn’t sit right with me about this situation, so I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and made my way upstairs. I’d been to Alexa’s house only once before for a party, so I knew the layout vaguely. I knew all the bedrooms were upstairs.
“Alexa? It’s Jack.”
There was another bang, followed by a moan. I ran the rest of the way up and into Alexa’s room. I found her lying halfway off her bed with her hands on the floor. She looked up at me as I walked in, and I noticed vomit coating her face.
“Alexa! Oh, God.” I ran to her and helped her back onto the bed. She’d vomited, so I rolled her onto her side then pushed her hair back so I could see her face. When I touched her skin, I found she was cold and clammy. She was shivering and moaning.
“What happened?”
I looked around the room, and that’s when I saw the syringe and the vodka bottle. The syringe was filled with a yellow-brown substance. Heroin. I immediately knew what had happened.
“Alexa, when did this happen?”
She looked up at me, and her eyes began to roll back in her head.
“Shit. Alexa, stay with me.” She moaned and rolled back toward me and then vomited all over me. I sighed and slumped on the floor beside the bed. Then I pulled out my phone and began to dial 911, but Alexa’s hand grabbed my wrist in a vice-like grip.
“Don’t,” she managed to say. Her voice was weak and hoarse.
“I need to call you an ambulance, Alexa. you just OD’ed.”
“No. Leave me. The pain… the pain was gone, but…” she grabbed me again. “You have to help me. Help me take the pain away again. Just hand me that syringe there.”
“No. I can’t.” I stood up and stepped away from her. I took the syringe and walked into the bathroom and grabbed the garbage can and began cleaning up the evidence.
“What… are you… doing?” she coughed, and more vomit poured out onto the bed and the floor. The room stank of vomit now.
“I’m cleaning up after you, which is what I seem to be doing a lot of late. And then I’m taking you to a hospital.”
“No. No hospital. No press… They can’t…”
“I know. I know the press can’t find out.” I grabbed what I could find of the drug paraphernalia and the bottles of alcohol and disposed of them. I couldn’t involve the police because they would search her house and the paps and the whole world would find out about Alexa’s dark secret. As I stared at Alexa’s helpless, shivering figure on the vomit-stained mattress, I didn’t know why I was helping her after what she had done to me, but I knew somehow I had to. My family had taught me to always try to see the good in people. I couldn’t let the dark side of Hollywood and fame change who I was.
And so I helped Alexa Long.
I cleaned her up, made her shower, helped her dress, and then I took her to the private hospital downtown. The one place everyone was paid to keep quiet. It was the go-to medical facility for almost all the celebrities in L.A.
When I walked out of the hospital, I realised I had forgot to clean up myself. So I headed home and changed and threw my soiled clothes in the wash.
I had no idea how Alexa had gotten where she ended up, but I felt better knowing I had helped her.
When I turned up at the restaurant where I was meeting Chloe, I was almost an hour late, but it was all worth it. Seeing her, that smile, that dress… I kissed her, and everything was right in the world once more.
I ordered champagne for Chloe and I and tried to forget what had just happened, but no matter what I did, it remained in the back of mind. Seeing Alexa like that, laying half-naked in her own vomit, half on the floor, was one of the scariest things I had ever witnessed.
When Chloe touched my hand and brought me back to the present, I tried to put it off to work stuff as the reason for my distracted state. I didn’t want to ruin our reunion. So I couldn’t tell her about Alexa. Not yet, anyway.
After dinner, I took Chloe back to my place. I just wanted to hold her, to keep her safe and protect her from everything bad.
We made love a few times until we both grew tired. And then we fell asleep in each other’s arms. For a little while, I needed paradise. And I had it now Chloe was here with me. In a world where everything was constantly changing and went from good one minute to awful the next, I needed my one good thing, one constant. And that was Chloe.
20
It was the end of the year. New Year’s Eve. And Chloe and I had an invite to one of the biggest events of the year. It was at the house of Director Redman Glassman, one of the most talented directors in the world. And also one of the sleaziest. Redman loved the ladies. He’d been married four times, all to actresses or models, all of whom were much, much younger. I didn’t want him around Chloe, but Redman was a friend. He was the man who gave me my first big break. So as a thank-you, I attended almost all of his events.
When we pulled up outside Redman’s mansion, there was a row of photographers waiting for us. Chloe tensed immediately. I reassured her and told her it was my doing. I had organised this. I turned to Chloe. I touched her chin and caressed her bottom lip.
“We need to show the world that what we have is real. No one can ruin what we have. Just smile and be confident, and it’ll be over a few seconds. Are you ready?”
She told me she wasn’t, but she took my hand anyway and followed me into the storm. If we were going to make it out the other side in one piece, we had to hold
our heads up high and do it with confidence. Otherwise, the sharks were going to eat us alive.
We finally made it into the party unscathed, but not before I quietly slipped the paps a few Benjamins. They quickly left on their motorcycles, and we escaped inside. From now on, they were going to play by my rules. No one would make up shit or stalk Chloe without me knowing about it.
The party was happening upstairs on the pool deck. Chloe and I grabbed some champagne and joined the party. Redman’s parties were always well organised. The guest list read like the Oscar nominee list.
The music was loud and heavy with bass. It reverberated through my bones, and along with the alcohol, I soon got caught up in the atmosphere.
Chloe swayed her hips to the music. She seemed to be enjoying herself, which was good. While she danced, I looked around at the people. A couple of newbie actresses smiled at me and whispered in each other’s ears. I smiled back politely.
Then I spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Kate Brooks stood talking to Jennifer Lawrence near the balcony where the view looked out over the hills and toward the beach. I was yet to work with Jennifer, but I knew I would get to one day soon. I smiled and waved. Kate nodded and then turned her gaze to Chloe, who stepped in closer and twisted her arms around my neck. Kate gave me a thumbs-up and a wink and turned back to her conversation with Jennifer. I looked down at the beautiful woman in my arms and smiled. I was glad one of my friends approved of the woman I had chosen.
Then all the party guests began to count down from ten, so I quickly grabbed two more champagne flutes and pulled Chloe over to the balcony. There we counted in the New Year together as fireworks exploded in bursts of colour and sound above us. I kissed her and held her close. I couldn’t believe what had happened over the past year. It turned out to be one of the best of my life, and that was due to one chance meeting. I believed Chloe and I were meant to meet that night on the red carpet. I believed our love was written in the stars.
The coming year was going to be even better now that I had Chloe by my side.
21
The next day, Chloe and I were invited to dinner at my parents’ house.
“Do you think they’ll like me?” she asked as we pulled up in their driveway.
“Yes. They’ll love you. They’ve been begging me since I returned to meet you.”
“Did you tell them about me first or did they find out like everyone else?”
“The picture went viral so fast that I didn’t get to tell them.” I got out of the Audi and jogged around to the other side to open Chloe’s door. She was wearing a knee-length black velvet dress and heels. She looked elegant and sexy, but not too scandalous. She was meeting my family, of course, not attending a Red Carpet event or exclusive party. I thought she looked amazing in anything. She wanted to make a good impression, but I had reassured her earlier they would love her regardless.
I could tell she was nervous as we approached the front door. She gripped her purse tightly and kept wiping her palms against her dress. I reached out and placed a hand on her lower back. She gave me a small smile as the door opened and out stepped my mom.
“Jack! Sweetheart, you’re here!” She ran up to me and kissed both my cheeks. My mom was a fierce hugger and kisser. You had to learn to just go with it.
“Hey, Mom. I brought Chloe.”
She pulled away from me and turned to Chloe. Chloe froze as my mom took her in, and then she was being pulled into her arms. Chloe laughed nervously, and her eyes were wide and pleading, asking me to save her. I grinned and shrugged as my mom hugged and kissed the woman I had fallen in love with.
“You’re beautiful,” said my mom. Then she turned to me and patted my hand. “She’s beautiful. You did good, my boy. You did good. Shall we go eat?” She grabbed Chloe and tugged her along.
“Thank you, Mrs Dean. That sounds great.” She looked back at me, mouthing, “What the hell?”
“Oh, please. Call me Patty. We’ve all been waiting a long time for this moment.”
I followed the two women whom I loved the most into the house and shut the door behind me.
I found them in the kitchen. As usual, the kitchen was a hive of activity. Chloe was leaning against the counter carefully unwrapping a homemade pork bun.
“That didn’t take long,” I said as I walked in. She smiled at me.
“These are so good!”
“I know. They’re my favourite.” Normally, I would be right in there stealing bits of pork mixture, but I walked over to Chloe, pushed my hips into hers, and pinned her to the counter. She gasped.
“Jack!” she hissed. “Your family.”
“Mm. I know. But you know what else my favourite is? Even better than eating one of those myself?”
“No. What?” Her voice shook as the result of my groin pushing into her most sensitive place. She slowly came apart right in front of me in the middle of my kitchen. While my family prepared dinner around us. I was so, so bad.
“This.” Then I kissed the smears of sauce covering her mouth. I took her face in my hands and kissed every inch of her luscious lips. She eventually put down the pork bun and twisted her arms around my neck, pushing herself even closer to me.
We were interrupted by a wolf whistle. I turned to see who had done it but already suspected the culprit to be my Aunt Sue. She loved stirring me up.
“I would say get a room, but I wanna watch.” She cackled wildly, and I pulled back a little, just my hips, from Chloe and turned my body slightly. She let out a breath and went back to her pork bun.
“Hi, Aunt Sue. I’d like you to meet Chloe. Chloe, this is Aunt Sue.”
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” said Chloe. She looked down at her hands quickly, but they were covered in dough and sauce. “I would, um, shake your hand, but, um… Your sister offered me one of her delicious pork buns.”
“That’s okay, sweet one. If there’s one thing you must learn about the Dean/Le family is that we aren’t big on handshakes. We prefer hugging and kissing.”
She nodded. “Noted.”
“The main reason is that we are always cooking and eating. Food is life in this family. Jack here will attest to that. He was always in the kitchen growing up.” I grinned sheepishly when Chloe turned to me and smiled. I’m so glad my family seemed to accept Chloe. I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t liked her.
Dinner was outside on the deck. The pool was glowing, and the fairy lights were on throughout the garden, turning the backyard into a magical wonderland. The night was warm and clear, so it was perfect for dining outside.
“So, Chloe, tell me what you do back in Sydney?” asked my father, sipping on his scotch. He and my grandfather only appeared once dinner was ready.
“Oh, I’m a journalist and freelance writer. But I recently wrote a novel.”
“Oh, really? What’s it about?”
“Um…” She turned to look at me, and I could see the panic in her eyes.
“It’s about us, actually. It’s half memoir, half fiction. About the night we met.” She squeezed my hand under the table.
“Oh, wonderful. Because we read the article and saw the photograph. Since having a son in the public eye, we know not to believe everything we read,” said my mother.
Chloe took another sip of her wine. A gulp more like it and swallowed before replying. My family’s comments were borderline judgemental, and I didn’t like it that the whole situation was making Chloe feel uncomfortable.
“Well, this is the truth. What Jack and I have is real, despite what people are saying.”
My family just nodded and went back to their food.
I leaned in and kissed her cheek. She smiled and leaned into me. I love this woman.
22
It was January eighth and Globes day was upon us. Chloe and I each had our busy schedules, so after breakfast, and hair and make-up and a wardrobe change, we were whisked off to our first interview for the day.
Our schedules looked something lik
e this:
9.30am – Interview with Hot Gossip Magazine
11.15am – taping of The Vista
12.30pm – interview with L.A. News
2.00pm – Taping of The Susie Show
4pm – hair, make-up and wardrobe
5.30pm – Red Carpet Arrivals
7pm – 9.30pm – Golden Globes
10pm – late – GG After Party
I didn’t really need much hair and make-up done, and I could dress pretty fast. So while Chloe got herself glammed up for the Globes, I knew I had time to run an errand. I needed to check in on Alexa. The last time I had seen her, she was in a pretty bad way. I knew she was in safe hands at the rehab clinic, but knowing Alexa, I didn’t trust her to stay there and get help.
After our last interview together, I told her I would be back later and headed to the clinic. But just as I suspected, when I reached the clinic, Alexa was nowhere to be found.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” I exclaimed loudly after the nurse in charge told me she had checked out almost a week ago, the day after I put her in there.
“Shit!” I paced the foyer back and forth. I debated going to her house, but I had to get back to Chloe and get ready for tonight. What was I going to do? I tried calling Alexa, but her phone went straight to voicemail.
“Call me, please!”
I left a message for her to call me, and then went back to my place. When I got there, Chloe was sipping champagne and eating fancy chocolates from a gift basket someone had sent. There was also the biggest bouquet of flowers I had ever seen.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” I replied, giving her a kiss and then moving toward the champagne on the counter, then pouring myself some. I then slumped into the second make-up chair beside her and sighed. “What a day.”
“You’re tellin’ me. I don’t know how many times I’ve said, ‘We just kissed. That’s all.’ Or, ‘I didn’t know it at the time, but Jack is the one.’ Ugh. I hate lying.”