This doesn’t make sense.
“I mean, you don’t have to,” Brooke goes on as she looks back at me. Her hands suddenly shoot forward and clasp mine. “What she and Adam did to you, that was, so awful. You don’t have to give her a chance at all.”
I slowly frown at Brooke again. “I know…”
“But maybe, now this is just a thought, maybe if you wanted or needed closure, you could talk to her. Over a cup of coffee.”
Wait, what?
“I told Diana that you had moved passed this.” Brooke lets my hands go as she motions at her own heart and head. “You have a new life and you probably don’t want to drag up the past.”
I shake my head slightly. “Wait, are you suggesting I talk to Diana?”
“Maybe it would be good for you!” Brooke exclaims, clearly sensing my baffled tone.
“Brooke, no!”
Brooke smiles softly at me, like a mother would, who wants to show support. “Diana says that you blew her off the other day when she asked you to talk with her. And that Adam has been trying to talk to you too, to encourage you to have coffee with her.”
So that’s why Adam wanted to talk to me one on one. To convince me to talk to his wife, no doubt, on camera.
I can’t believe Brooke would be so easily dubbed by Diana.
Diana doesn’t want to make amends. She wants to get some fight on camera!
Suddenly the sleigh bumps underneath us and Reagan mutters a loud “Whoops.” We continue on, Brooke and I in an awkward silence. A few minutes later we exit the forest and tread through an open, hilly field. I can see Adam and Diana’s sleigh ahead of us. She’s standing in it, her phone in the air and I assume she’s taking selfies.
We suddenly hear a loud rumble behind us, and it makes Brooke and I turn around in our seats. Three snowmobiles are skimming up behind us, quite close together. Paying them no mind, I turn back into my seat. But the varoom of the snowmobiles only gets louder, and after a few seconds, I see them skid up next to the side of our sleigh. Two black snowmobiles and one neon pink one.
“Pass!” Reagan shouts over at them. She waves a hand towards them, while holding the reigns of the horse in the other. I sit up to see the horse suddenly trotting side to side, and letting out a jagged neigh. It’s agitated.
Brooke leans over me and gestures at the snowmobilers. “You’re scaring our horse!”
“Pass!” Reagan repeats with a cry. But they don’t pass. In fact, the rider on the pink snowmobile swerves closer to the sleigh and Reagan pulls the horse to the right quickly. I slide into Brooke and we go hurling towards the other side of the sleigh.
“What are they doing?” Brooke exclaims as she pushes me off her.
I slide back to my place and watch the pink snowmobile veer back towards us, Reagan makes the horse lurch to the right again. We almost crash into the camera crew in the other sleigh.
Are these riders insane?!
“Hey!” I shout down at them, but I don’t think they can hear me over the roaring of their engines. “Stop it!”
All three of the riders come towards the sleigh and this time the one on the pink snowmobile side sweeps the tracks of our sleigh. The horse lets out another frightened neigh and begins to shake its head as it trots. The pink snowmobile picks up speed and sets off, a wave of chopping snow shooting up at the sleigh. The snow flies at the three of us and hits us in clumps. The rider makes a sharp turn in front of the horse which halts the animal so abruptly we all fly forward, our stomachs hitting the front of the sleigh as more snow hits us and the sleigh. Reagan drops the reigns from her fall. After encircling us once, the snowmobiler swerves at my side and stops the machine. I rise up and watch as the rider lifts its sunshield from their face.
A startled squeal escape my lips.
It’s Burberry Coat Girl!
She lets out a laugh as she sees my face then shuts her visor and starts up her mobile again. She rams her snowmobile into the sleigh and I fall onto Reagan, who crashes into Brooke. The sleigh tips and we all scream. We hear something crack loudly and as the sleigh topples onto its side, sending us out like dominos onto the cold snow, the horse takes off in a panic. He is dragging the reins through the snow behind him.
I hear the snowmobiles rush off loudly, and as I climb off Reagan, hands and knees into the melting snow, I hear a loud scream that echoes throughout the field. I look up, hands stinging in the cold snow, just in time to see Diana fall from their sleigh, legs in the air and phone flying behind her. She’s hits a snow bank behind her. I ignore Brooke’s cries as she wiggles out from under Reagan, the snow melting from my face. I crawl around our toppled sleigh to get a better look at Diana.
All I can see however are her pink boots hanging in the air, and all I can hear, are her shrieks.
I can’t help but start laughing at the sight. I lean back onto my legs, resting my hands on the top of my thighs, and realize I’m not the only one laughing. I look over my shoulder to see Reagan wiping tears from her eyes as she sits on her knees like me.
“Are you guys okay?”
I see Declan jump out of the sleigh he is on with the camera crew. He treks over to us as Brooke hauls herself to her feet. When he gets next to her, she hits him on the chest. “Why didn’t you do anything?!”
“I couldn’t!” He tells her half laughing and half shouting. “I can’t interfere!” After Brooke grunts and turns away to scoop snow out from her neckline, Declan walks over to me and Reagan. “Crew’s making a call to send another sleigh over.”
“I’d like to try a snowmobile,” Reagan’s laugh fades as she speaks. “Looks fun.”
Declan chuckles, “We’ll see.” He then looks at me as I get to my feet. “Are you okay?”
“Great,” I giggle as I brush snow off my legs. I glance over at Diana and Adam. Adam is struggling to pull Diana out of the snow, while Oscar laughs with the camera crew on the other sleigh. I watch my ex-husband heave once, and then come down on the snowbank himself. I laugh loudly, “I’m just perfect…”
We don’t get back to the lodge for another two hours, we had to wait for sleighs to return to the lodge that other guests had taken out. Oscar and his crew managed to squeeze Adam and Diana onto their sleigh, rather uncomfortably with all that equipment, because nobody could take Diana’s whining anymore. She never did find her phone, and our horse never returned.
After returning to my suite, I showered and the makeup and hair team appeared to doll me up for a follow up interview after what happened during the day. Around five o’clock I was done and Oscar and the crew moved on to interview Brooke.
The phone in my room rang as I was shutting the door behind Oscar and I rushed over to answer it. “Hello?”
“Ms. Julie Duncan? This is the front desk. You have some—” Something interrupts the receptionist and I hear her say ‘”Yes, yes sir” ’. After a moment she comes back. “Uh, at the front desk there is some—”
“Oh right, yes,” I interrupt her, as I recall Angie’s phone call from this morning. “I’m expecting something. I’ll be right down.”
“Great.”
She hangs up quickly and I grab my phone and room key.
I get to the lobby about five minutes later to see Declan and Oscar at the front desk talking to Armin. I step up to the desk a few steps away from them, waiting for the receptionist’s attention, and trying to make it seem as if I’m not eavesdropping on the conversation.
“It must have been someone on your crew!” Armin is telling Declan and Oscar. “There is no Phil Hole and Pearl Button.”
I hide my smirk in my hand.
“There was no guest sign in by those names,” Armin says to them.
“Maybe it was Adam and Diana themselves?” Declan suggests, though his tone is anything but serious. “Playing a prank?”
“It was not,” Armin snaps. “I know.”
I look down the front desk and catch
the attention of the receptionist. “Hi. I’m Julie Duncan, there is supposed to be a package down here for me.”
The receptionist begins to look under the desk as I drum my fingernails on the counter. I look over to see Oscar walk Armin away from the desk, arm draped over the short man’s shoulder. Declan walks over to me, with a sigh, “Almost got caught.”
“I’m starting to feel bad,” I tell him, “I don’t want Armin to be out any money.”
“Oh no, they paid,” Declan tells me. “You talk to Reagan?”
I shake my head at him. “I didn’t have time. Though I found out why Adam wants to talk to me, from Brooke. Same reason Diana ambushed me the other day in my room.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Declan says, he reaches into his pocket and takes out his cell phone. “Diana wants to shoot a few scenes just the two of you.”
“Over my dead body,” I reply with a frown.
“I thought you had moved on?” Declan gives me a witty smile and I narrow my eyes at him.
“I have. Doesn’t mean I have to spend time with her.”
“Julie? Julie, darling!”
I look away from Declan to see a man crossing the back of the lobby, towards me. He’s in a white suit and black turtleneck. His dirty blond curly hair is brushed back with product, he’s clean shaven and his smile is board, charismatic, so familiar for some reason. He’s definitely at least 6’2’, with a thin but built frame I can see through his tight suit. He extends his long arms out, holds his bright smile. “Julie! There you are!”
Who in the hell is this? And why does he seem so familiar—
Oh. No.
No…
I feel my body cool and I shudder. My legs are suddenly jello, and my heart begins to slam anxiously inside my rib cage.
This isn’t happening…
He gets to me and grabs my shoulders, pulling me into a tight squeeze. I’m engulfed in the strong grip of his strong cologne. My face is buried into his chest and before I can push him away, he lets go of me but keeps his hands firmly on my shoulders. “I missed you so much, darling.”
“Uh…”
“Speechless,” he laughs and with a finger he flicks the side of my cheek. Then he looks around me to Declan and lets go of my shoulders. He extends a hand to the producer. “Hi there. Name’s Simon.”
It takes Declan a minute but after he manages to take his frown off me, he grasps Simon’s hand. “Hi. I’m Declan, the producer of the show.”
“Stop!” Oscar’s scream makes all three of us jump, and we look over to find him rushing from Armin’s side, signaling the nearby camera man. “Stop! We have to get that on camera. Now!” He looks from behind him and smiles largely. “Simon? Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” Simon laughs, it’s loud and booming. He then gives me a wink, “Anything for Julie.”
Oscar gives him a thumbs up, “Perfecto! This is gold. Simon, come, you must quickly sign release papers…”
Simon leaves my side and I watch as he formally shakes Oscar’s hand.
Oh God. What have I done?
Chapter Twelve
It took fifteen minutes to film Simon’s arrival and greeting. Fifteen minutes of me hugging and re-hugging a stranger. A stranger, whose strong cologne is awakening my dormant hangover.
Now I am in my suite alone with this man.
This man, who I had told everyone was my boyfriend.
This man, who Jill said is hopelessly in love with me, to my ex-husband.
This man, who I have never met until thirty minutes ago.
This man, who is making an unimpressed scowl as he walks around my tiny suite.
“They gave you a really small room,” Simon finally says as he sets his suitcase down on my bed.
“Right, well, probably because I decided to tag along last minute…” I keep my place near the bathroom door, hands in the pockets of my jeans, teeth penetrating my bottom lip.
“You could have asked for an upgrade,” he tells me as he walks towards the windows. He moves the curtains out of the way and peeks outside. “At least you have a fantastic view.”
“I think all the rooms have great views here” I say and Simon glances over at me.
“It’s not too late for you to ask for an upgrade. So we can have more space.”
We?
Okay. No.
“Now that you’re done critiquing my room...What are you doing here?”
He snaps his fingers at me as he lets the curtain fall over the windows. “Right. Okay, so, imagine my surprise when yesterday morning I get a call from my mother demanding to know why I have suddenly decided to shack up with a reality TV star, did I learn nothing after the whole debacle with the soap actress star? What about Princess Daphne? ‘Mother,’ I tell her, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m not seeing anyone.’ ‘But Simon!’ My mother shouts, ‘I can see it all over the internet. Alora’, that’s my sister, ‘says it’s all over Twitter!’”
He pauses his dramatic monologue and gives me a cheesy smile, walking towards me as he’s taking off his white suit jacket. “So I begin to wonder, is that some crazy rumor someone from the show started to get publicity? Of course that’s what it has to be…Until I read those tweets and find that an employee of this resort did in fact say she distinctly overheard a Julie Duncan say she has been dating me.”
I feel my cheeks redden and have to look away from him as he stops a few feet away from me. “Which is weird because I don’t know a Julie Duncan, I’ve never heard of a Julie Duncan before in my life, so I get on Google. I find out a little bit about you. Now you would think I’d be enraged that some strange, probably mentally unstable woman started a rumor like that but then my mind gets churning.” He twirls a finger against the side of his temple. “And I think, ‘Hey, this woman must have had a reason to lie, a reason to say my name instead of some other guy’s.’ So I find out who her agent is, and make a quick call.”
“You called my brother?”
“Yeah,” Simon remarks sarcastically. “So I talk to the agent and find out that she used my name on a whim, taking advantage of the fact that I have been out of the public eye for a while. He apologizes profusely and I tell him I’m not angry at all. I tell him that I called to make a deal. See, during my Google of you, I discovered who you are, all about your television show and most importantly, who your mother is. A European traveling socialite and heiress of Duncan Chocolates and Sweets, the number one selling chocolate brand in North America.”
Right. Of course.
Simon takes a step closer to me and smiles. “I told your agent, I will play along with this outrageous lie as long as I get some TV time. He said he bet the director would have no issue with letting me on the show. I book a flight for the next day and bam! Twenty four hours later I’m here. At this lodge, meeting my new girlfriend for the first time in the lobby.” A silence sweeps between us and while he keeps grinning at me, I can’t stop frowning.
I tie up his speech in my mind slowly. “Wait, so you’re going to pretend to be my boyfriend? Just like that?”
“Yup,” he nods and crosses his hands over his chest. “As long as you get me in front of the camera as much as possible.”
Another Diana.
He claps his hands together and points at the room, “Okay, so. Where should I sleep? Sharing the bed?”
“No!” I practically shout appalled. “I don’t even know you!”
“But you do,” Simon winks. “We’ve been dating for...how long did you say? A few months?”
I put a hand to my head and shut my eyes.
I can feel my headache tap against my temples.
I need to lie down, or a stiff drink. Probably the later.
Okay, Julie, you just need a second to figure things out.
Somebody knocks on the door and I open my eyes.
Simon feels obligated to call out, “Who is it?”
“It’s Declan.”
“Uh, hi.” He pushes a brown package towards me as he frowns. “You forgot this downstairs.”
I take it from him and hold it against my chest. “Great, thanks. Listen, I need a favor.”
He smiles like a goof. “Of course you do.”
“I need you to book a room for Simon.”
“Why?
I clear my throat loudly as I panic for a lie. “Well, cause…he…because he snores. He snores so loud, I can never sleep. And he forgot his sleep machine, thing.”
“He has sleep apnea?” Declan guesses, looking back at the door.
“Yup, that’s right. Sleep Apnea,” I nod smartly.
“He’s so fit though…” Declan mutters.
“It’s genetics,” I lie with a click of the tongue. “So sad. But anyway, the room for Simon?”
“I could talk to Oscar about it, but I don’t know if it will fly. He’s not a cast member,” Declan explains. “Can’t he book one himself?”
Something tells me he wouldn’t dare. It’d be me forking over the 300 dollars a night.
“Uh, yeah he could but, well,” I stutter a bit before a thought comes into my head. “He doesn’t want to use his information because he has a crazy ex-girlfriend who stalks him.”
Declan’s hands slip into the pocket of his pants and his frown intensifies. “Okay…”
He doesn’t believe me.
“I’ll try,” Declan sighs a moment later, “but no promises.”
I squeeze his arm, “Thank you!”
“Sure,” he gives me a quick smile as I remove my arm and then turns to head back down the hallway. “Oscar threw in a late dinner for everyone tonight. 9 o’clock. Private chef.”
“Great, wonderful.”
“Oh, and,” Declan smirks suddenly as he turns around to face me, continuing to back down the hall. “Don’t forget to bring your Olympian boyfriend.”
Reuniting Reality Page 15