“Dean? Dean?” A young woman with a business suit and dark-rimmed glasses waved her hand in the air. She barely looked anything like the profile pictures she had on her account. The brown hair and perky breasts were all I recognized and that was enough to keep me interested, for the time being.
Instead of looking voluptuous and sexy, the woman in front of me was frumpy and a bit of a nerd, she certainly wasn’t dressed like she had been in her profile pictures. I did my best not to react to the stark differences between her profile and what she really looked like, but it was difficult.
“Ariel?”
“Yes, oh, my God, I can’t believe it is really you. You look exactly like your profile. And like you did in Forever Never Dies. Wow, that was such a good movie. I’m a big fan of yours. I wasn’t sure it was you. But now, I’m sure. Wow. This is so amazing. Can we take a selfie for my Instagram page? Oh, no I’m sorry, that’s probably not appropriate,” she said as she pressed her glasses back up her face.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said as I tried to steer her away from her fan girl behavior. “This is my first date from Instamatch. You seem pretty normal,” I said with a smile. “That’s a relief.”
The noise around the bar was a welcomed distraction as I looked around to see all the other couples interacting. It was nice to be on a semi-normal date, even if the girl didn’t look as sexy as she had in her photos. I wasn’t about to blow this new gig and if that meant having a conversation or two with a young woman, I could handle it.
“Oh, me too. I’m too shy normally, but the messages we shared were so sweet. I couldn’t believe I was really talking to you.”
I had not paid attention to what Ren had sent in the messages, but I doubted they were so profound that this girl would have come out to meet anyone else, except for me. She was a nice enough girl, though, so I didn’t see a need to run away from her. I’d just sit and have a drink, talk for a little bit, and then leave her to tell her celebrity encounter story to all of her friends. I had my fill of dating fans; it was fun when I was younger, but it was exhausting trying to answer all their questions and be the person they thought you were supposed to be.
“Should we get a drink?”
“Yes, Strawberry Daiquiri for me,” Ariel said to the bartender.
“Bourbon straight for me,” I added.
“I’m going to need to see your ID, young lady.”
I did my best not to smile as Ariel handed her license to the bartender, and he examined it. She did look very young, but then again that was what twenty-two-year-old women looked like. As I made eye contact with the bartender, I felt a wave of judgment flash across his eyes.
Yes, I was more than twice her age.
Yes, I looked like a dirty old man having a drink with this sweet girl.
Yes, I felt a little sleazy about the whole thing.
But it wasn’t the first time I had received a look like that, and it likely wouldn’t be the last time. Age wasn’t an issue to me. I liked women, all of them, and I didn’t mind fielding a few despicable looks while I enjoyed the company of a young woman. The funny thing was, when people knew who I was, there wasn’t a darting look at all. Only when bartenders thought I was some normal New Yorker did they bother to judge me; only normal men were judged for dating 22-year-olds, not celebrities.
“So how long have you been on Instamatch?”
“Oh, my God. I’ve been on there for months, and I totally couldn’t believe I matched with you. I don’t match up with people often. I think it’s the weird pictures.” She laughed nervously.
“Oh, I thought your picture looked good.”
“The first one does, but then the rest are more me and who I am. It’s cool that we matched.”
I cursed Ren for swiping so fast, and then I cursed myself for not paying attention to any of her other pictures besides the first one. But what was done was done, and I was going to try and talk to this girl and enjoy the next twenty minutes before I made my daring escape.
“Yeah, your photos were pretty damn sexy,” I said in an effort to see if she would address the fact that she didn’t look like her main photo.
“I know, I love that main picture. It totally turned out awesome didn’t it?”
Something like that, I wanted to say. Ariel was a nice enough girl, but I could quickly tell that this wasn’t going well. I’d have to cut my losses and take off soon. Even when dating a young woman, I had to be able to have a conversation. Not rocket science conversations or anything like that, but an easily flowing connection was always helpful.
“I can’t stay long. It’s been a rough week. I’m doing eight shows on Broadway each week, so you know…just really tired.”
“Oh, I totally understand. Let’s just chill for a minute and have a few drinks. You know I have to hear about what it was like to work with Mark Cutter. Was he a total ass?”
“Just between you and I,” I said as I leaned in toward her chair, “he was a nightmare. A total diva. I thought I was working with a teenage boy band celebrity or something. He actually requested that the crew pick out all of the green candies from his candy dish and only serve him those ones. It was pretty wild.”
“Wow, that had to be hard for a professional like yourself.”
Ariel was feeding my ego throughout the evening, and the more alcohol I consumed, the more I got into the conversation. She seemed like she didn’t get out much, though, as she knew practically every movie ever made and didn’t really talk about other people in her life. After about two hours and four drinks, I really needed to get going. I had stayed much longer than I had intended and was beyond tired of answering movie-related trivia questions.
“This was a great date; it was nice meeting you …” I started to say as I stood up.
“Should we go back to my place to fuck?” she asked boldly.
Her question threw me totally off guard. She was a pretty girl, but there hadn’t really been sexual chemistry between us. It seemed odd that she so boldly offered to bring me home. I suspected she didn’t get to bring all that many men home with her.
“That’s a nice offer, but I better get going for tonight.”
Suddenly, Ariel unbuttoned the top two buttons on her blouse and slipped my hand inside her shirt. My fingers felt the delicate lace fabric and moved under it to cup her perfectly formed 22-year-old tit. There were a lot of things in this world that I could resist, but perky 22-year-old tits were not one of them.
My mouth moved to kiss her lips, and before I knew it, we were in an Uber on the way to her apartment. I thought it was a great idea to go to her place. I had slept with fans in the past and even had them over to my place, but it always ended up being a disaster. Paparazzi would nab pictures, and I’d always end up having to deal with awkward situations. The best option for me was to go with Ariel to her place and enjoy the evening. Then go home and move on with my life like it had never happened.
“Shhhh,” she said as we walked into her dark apartment. “My roommates are real dicks.”
Her language, her whole demeanor, had really loosened up with the few drinks we had. I could barely see the apartment as we made our way down the hallway, it was cramped and weirdly dark. But I could see the real Ariel more and this girl was much more interesting. I liked the loosened up version much better than the one I met when I sat down to meet her.
“Does that mean we have to be quiet?”
“Yes,” she teased me as her hand slipped down the front of my pants and started to massage me.
I did my best to keep the noise to a minimum as I pulled her clothes off piece by piece and then my own. Her room was too dark to see where the bed was, so I followed her lead as we tumbled into the extremely soft sheets of her world.
“You’re beautiful,” I whispered.
It was a standard line, but it never hurt to pull it out when I was with a woman. I knew women. I had spent years learning the ins and outs of women, they liked to be complimented, appreciated, and adore
d; especially in bed.
Gently, I pushed her back onto the bed and spread her legs as my lips moved up the inside of her thighs. The delicate, smooth skin was instantly intoxicating, and my already hard body was raging with desire. If I had felt bad about going home with this girl before, I didn’t any longer. The sweet sensation of her body was enough to make me forget any trepidations I might have once had.
As my tongue made its way around her delicate spot, I adored the soft moaning that was coming from Ariel. She was adorable and certainly worth my time that night. I instantly regretted wanting to get away from her when I first met her. There was a lot more to this girl than appeared at first sight, and she was clearly in need of a good orgasm.
“Fuck me,” she moaned in a growling demanding voice.
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.
After I quickly grabbed a condom from my pants pocket, I lowered myself above Ariel and positioned myself near her sweet spot. My hips pressed forward slowly, and I reveled in the delicate air that she let out as her body adjusted to mine.
Slowly, we moved together, and then our speed picked up as each of us became more comfortable with each other. My lips found hers, and I gently kissed her as my thrusts got harder and harder.
“I want to be on top now,” she demanded.
I was more than happy to oblige her as I rolled over onto her smooth sheets and let her straddle me. The moonlight shone in from the window onto her face, and as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I was able to see the pleasure on her face as she rocked on top of me.
I let my fingers hold onto her hips tight and did my best to guide her delicious thrusts as deep as possible. More and more she delivered, and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from exploding. Then I remembered just how much energy a twenty-something had and hoped she wasn’t interested in a long night of screwing. I didn’t have that kind of energy anymore.
Luckily, Ariel wasn’t concerned with having a full night of lovemaking, and I felt her body start to tighten around me as I thrust into her. I watched her face for clues that would give me permission to release and finally got permission to fully explode into her. Finally, as her hips thrust one last time and her body collapsed on my chest, I let myself finish.
My arms wrapped delicately around her body as she lay on me. I should have left. At that moment, I should have kissed her and left. I would have looked like a total ass, but it was what I normally did. On that particular night, I was exhausted, tipsy, and I made the decision to sleep it off and just head home in the morning.
After setting an alarm on my phone for early the next morning, I let Ariel curl up next to me as we drifted off to sleep. If I could get out of the apartment before her roommates woke up, that would be best; I didn’t like awkward morning introductions.
There’s a particular portion of your sleep cycle where it’s physically impossible to wake up. During this cycle, your body is so deep into sleep that it interprets what is going on around you and pulls it into your dream. I’ve had my phone ring before and then felt like it was ringing in a dream. So as I started to wake up, but wasn’t fully awake yet, I heard Ariel talking in my dream.
“Stop, don’t do that,” I heard Ariel say. But my eyes were still closed, and I was slowly coming out of my sleep.
When I finally opened my eyes, it took me a moment to get my bearings on what was going on. There was a young blonde woman standing at the end of the bed, and it appeared as if she had just taken a photo of Ariel and me with her cell phone.
“Good morning to you too,” I said sarcastically.
“Oh, my friggin God. Markus get in here. Ariel just screwed Dean Morrison.”
“Get out! Get out right now!” Ariel yelled. She was in tears, and I gently rubbed her arm as we sat up in bed.
The blonde took another photo.
“Young lady. I’m going to ask you nicely to please stop taking photos of us.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said as a young man entered the room and stood next to her.
“What’s going on?” the guy said as he looked at me and Ariel in bed. “Oh, Ariel has a boyfriend. Wait, he’s old. What’s going on? I’m lost. Ariel, I didn’t know you dated old guys,” the man said as he looked at me.
Both the woman and the man seemed overly interested in what was going on in Ariel’s bedroom. It didn’t surprise me though, she hadn’t seemed like the kind of girl who was normally bringing men into her bed. Plus, the blonde clearly recognized me, even if the dense dude next to her had no idea what was going on.
“Oh, my God, both of you get out!” Ariel screamed.
The young man seemed to realize how rude they were being and pulled his blonde friend out of the room. It was awkward for sure, but not the first time I had my photo taken while in bed with a woman. Although, admittedly it had been a few years since I had to deal with the trouble. And I had never had my photo take in Hello Kitty sheets!
I cringed as I looked around Ariel’s room at the Hello Kitty decorations that filled the room. If I hadn’t felt old when I had arrived at her apartment, I certainly felt old at that point.
“I’m so sorry,” Ariel said as tears started to flow. “I don’t bring dates home. I don’t actually date much at all. But it was you and I have loved you forever,” she said softly as the shyness from out date returned.
“It’s alright. I'm used to people getting a little out of hand. Let’s get dressed, and I’ll get out of here,” I said as I started to look around the room.
I looked around the room and took in the reality that I had slept with a 22-year-old for sure. She still had posters of her favorite band on the walls, and her super soft bedding was actually from a popular television show. I felt a bit like a predator as I scrambled my clothes together and kissed Ariel quickly before I left.
“It was great meeting you,” she said as her tears dried up.
“You too.”
There wasn’t much time for niceties, and as I made my way down the stairs of her apartment complex, I tried to forget about that night altogether. I had to call my agent. I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to keep working with Instamatch, the crowd of people on that app weren’t really what I was looking for in a woman.
“Bella, is there an out for the Instamatch deal? I don’t think it’s right for me. I’ll come see you tomorrow at your office in New York. You are still in town, right? Well, we need to talk about all of this.” I left the message on her voicemail.
Chapter 2
Angelina
“Action.”
“I’ve always loved you, Ronald, you know that, but I can’t stay with you. This place isn’t for me.”
“Ruby, please.”
“No Ronald. No. It has to be this way.”
“Cut. No, no, no! Angelina, you have no emotion here. I need emotion. I need you to show the audience that you really do want to stay with him. Give me more,” the director said to me and then turned to his assistant, “you would think with the amount we are paying her, she would be better than this crap.”
“Yeah, more, got it,” I replied reluctantly.
I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to throw a tantrum about how he had just talked to me, but I didn’t have the energy. The truth was, I didn’t have more to give. I stretched my arms out and yawned as I tried to wake up a little. I even grabbed a large water bottle and downed the cold fluid as quickly as possible, but I still could barely keep my eyes open. I was physically and emotionally exhausted from my workload, and it didn’t look like things were going to be letting up anytime soon. After arriving on set at five o’clock that morning, I had spent two hours in hair and makeup, and we had been filming for almost ten hours by that point.
“Action,” the director called again.
And again we went through the scene, but this time, I put on my fake reality star smile and gave the director more like he had asked for. Obviously, I had given him my sarcastic version of the scene as I flamboyantly fawned over my costar and played up all the
stereotypes of my character. I should have just put that energy into another real take at the scene, but I didn’t have patience for a director who couldn’t see how exhausted I was and wasn’t interested in what was best for me. It didn’t matter how famous he was; I still didn’t have the energy to deal with him.
This was my first big movie and I felt everyone’s eyes on me. The director, my agent, even the other actors seemed to be judging me constantly. I was new to acting, I accepted that, but they all expected me to be fabulous because of my reputation. It was a lot of pressure and I didn’t know how much longer I could take it.
“Cut. Angelina, can I speak to you in private please,” the director called toward me.
I was in trouble, but I didn’t care. I needed sleep. There was only so much a woman could take before she totally broke down, and I felt like I was nearing the cliff of what I could handle. After only sleeping eight hours in the last three nights, I was barely able to remember my lines, and there wasn’t a possibility I was going to be able to deliver what the director wanted for the part.
“Yeah,” I said as we walked into a back hallway. There were no lights and I could barely see the director, but I felt his hands press against my forearms and knew he was not happy with me at all.
“Listen here, sweetheart. I don’t care if your reality television show was a number one hit or not. You’re on this movie to turn your career around and make a legit actor out of yourself. That’s not going to happen if you screw me over. Do you understand?”
“Yep.”
“Then get your pretty little ass back on the set and do the scene right or I’ll find another worthless reality start with a huge social media following, and I’ll turn her into a movie star! Do you want me to send the doctor over to see you? I’m sure he has something that you could take to brighten up that drab face of yours.”
Gene was a famous movie director, and I knew I was going to have to suffer through the rest of the shoot. It dawned on me that this sort of exhaustion was how actresses got themselves addicted to drugs, though. Instead of offering me time to rest and sleep, he was offering me a drug prescription.
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