fangirl 02 - an unexpected entanglement

by E V Darcy

  Fuck the lot of them!

  26

  ‘Well, I’ll tell you this, Casey,’ Mack said, around his cigar. ‘You are definitely my most entertaining client. The biggest pain in the ass, but you keep me on my feet. You’ll either keep me eternally young or send me to my grave early.’

  Casey held his head in his hands, nursing the biggest hangover ever experienced. His head felt ready to explode, and he was considering asking Julian for his gun. Bert whined from the floor, his paw trying to pet Casey on the knee, almost as if the boy was trying to say there-there.

  ‘The Demon Rises,’ Mack read aloud as he skimmed another gossip page on his tablet. Casey still wasn’t sure he liked his agent being all modern. Mack had arrived fifteen minutes ago and found Casey passed out on a sun lounger, dressed in his damp shirt and trousers, sans socks and shoes. Casey had no idea where they’d gone, but he had a vague recollection of Julian bringing him in off the beach… perhaps out of the water, but that might have been just a dream.

  ‘It’s too early for this, Mack,’ Casey moaned as he reached for the glass of orange juice his agent had thoughtfully poured him when the man had gate-crashed his house. His service maids must have been again because Casey swore there was nothing to drink but booze. Or maybe because he’d only been drinking booze for the last week or so, he hadn’t realised he had anything else.

  ‘For Christ’s sake. It’s two in the afternoon, Case,’ Mack snapped, pulling his cigar from his mouth and staring at his client across the patio table. ‘It’s not my fault you went on a bender and fucked yourself over.’ He waved his tablet at Casey. ‘This is going to sink you, Casey. What the hell where you thinking gate-crashing a live recording?’

  Casey clutched his head, muttering, ‘I was just acting on instinct.’

  ‘It’s that instinct that’s held you back all these years. I thought you were serious this time, kid. I thought you wanted that Glynn West role.’

  ‘Mack, I’ve always want the roles,’ he snapped, glaring at the squat man opposite him. ‘I wanted Bond, I wanted Bourne. I fucking begged for Iron Man and all I ever get is a no. I’m never really considered. We start up the rumours, we get the papers to mention it here and there and I play it off as nothing when all I’m thinking inside is See me! Want me! Ask for me! Fuck, we even offered to do Batman for a fraction of the cost Bale did it for! Nobody wants me, Mack, because I’m shit. I’m shit at acting and I’m shit at life!’

  ‘Kid—’

  ‘Mr. McManaman.’ Julian’s Aussie twang silenced the arguing men as they turned to see the giant walking through the patio door, an English breakfast in one hand, a phone in the other. ‘These will make you feel better,’ the bodyguard said, putting the plate down on the table, but it was the phone he held out in front of the star’s face.

  Casey glanced at the phone’s blank screen, before looking back up at Julian. The man merely shook it slightly to get him to take it. ‘Um, thanks?’ Casey said.

  ‘Swipe the screen,’ Julian commanded.

  Casey unlocked the phone and saw a Twitter feed loaded. He started scrolling through the Tweets and comments Julian had searched for. They were positive, they supported him, they still used #Pacey Forever, only now there was excitement over the fact it was real, that the baby was his, and they’d all been vindicated. There was one mentioning a petition on one of those sites to get him back on Legacy, while another told them Casey deserved better and he should be glad to be off the show that sucked worse than a two-dollar whore!

  He chuckled at that. He’d have to remember that one.

  ‘Forget what the journalists say, Mr. McManaman, and focus on the fans. Hasn’t that always been your main support, anyway? Your fans who kept you on Destiny when they were looking to drop you...’

  Casey opened his mouth to respond, to ask him how he knew that, but he closed it again without asking as he realised the man was completely right. The fans had always been there for him. They’d been the ones to get him what he’d wanted for so long… Maybe they’d be able to help him now?

  ‘Mack,’ he said, handing Julian’s phone back to him. ‘I know how to keep me on the Glynn West maybe list…’

  Paige was putting away clean dishes when the buzzer to her apartment sounded. She frowned as she looked up at the clock. She had to get to work in an hour; she hoped whoever it was would be quick so she could head out sharply.

  ‘Yes, yes, I’m coming,’ she muttered as the buzzer went again and she waddled over to the intercom panel. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Paige! Thank fuck, let me in!’

  ‘Deanna? What the hell are you—’

  ‘Paige, let me the fuck in, right the fuck now!’ Deanna said urgently into the speaker. Paige pressed the button and let her friend up, bewildered as to why Deanna was a week earlier than planned. She was meant to fly in the following Monday for the start of the Christmas period. Paige unlocked the door and swung it open, trying to make it look as if Deanna’s sudden arrival, all the way from Chicago, completely unannounced, and clearly in a hurry, wasn’t worrying her. Really, a sudden urge to be sick sat heavily in her stomach.

  ‘Paige!’ Deanna said, panting as she hurried into Paige’s tiny home. She shut the door behind her and merely stared Paige.

  Paige stared back, waiting for Deanna to catch her breath, and trying not to wring her hands. Finally, she could take it no more.

  ‘Deanna, it’s lovely to see you, but what the hell’s going on?’

  ‘Daniel.’ The one-word answer made the sick feeling in Paige’s stomach threaten to rise up. Her ex-husband’s name couldn’t mean anything good.

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘No, I am! I’ve tried so hard to stop him, to shut him up, but he won’t!’

  ‘Dee, just tell me what that bastard is up to, and how it’s going to hurt me.’

  Deanna took a deep breath before closing her eyes and finally spilling her news. ‘He’s claiming the baby is his.’

  ‘What!’ Paige screamed.

  ‘He must have watched the broadcast the other day, he’s claiming that the two of you did get back together—’

  ‘But we didn’t!’

  ‘I know. But he’s saying you did and the baby could be his.’

  ‘Oh my God!’ Paige sat down on her small couch, hands over her face as the news sank in. How could he? Why would he?

  Fuck, she knew the answers to both of those. He was a spiteful little dick, pissed that she didn’t need him and that she’d come out here, secured a fan-fucking-tastic job, and that she was having a child… He was pissed she almost had it all, while that miserable bastard wallowed in the fact that he’d screwed it all up, that he’d been the unfaithful one, the spiteful one, a completely immature idiot.

  ‘What the hell did I ever see in him?’ she asked, slapping her hands on her thighs as she gazed up at Deanna. ‘Seriously, Dee, what the fuck ever made me think I loved him? Was he always like this?’ Deanna shook her head. ‘Then when did he change?’

  ‘He changed when you got your reviewing job. He hated that you were successful, that you were going places, while he wasn’t.’ Deanna sat down next to her friend and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. ‘When you were both climbing the ladder, he was happy you were who you were. He was a good guy, supported you. Hell, he used to tell me how proud he was of you, how much he loved your drive and ambition. But when his career stalled, and you kept going, he couldn’t cope with seeing you succeed when he was failing.’

  ‘Selfish,’ Paige muttered, leaning into her friend’s hug. The two sat in the quiet for a few moments before Paige sighed. ‘So, what do I do?’

  ‘Well,’ Deanna said, sitting up. She had her business face on. ‘You can go after him for defamation of character, but the problem there is it’s merely your word against his. No one can say for sure that you did or didn’t sleep with him even if the baby is proven to be Casey’s with a DNA test.’

  ‘But I never slept with him! Wait,’ Paige said, sitting
up right properly. ‘There’s a nurse. She was there when I kicked him out. She made him leave for me.’

  Deanna shook her head. ‘Doesn’t prove you didn’t go back to him for a fling afterwards.’

  ‘Fuck’s sake!’ Paige cursed. ‘I swear, I’ll kill him if I ever see him again!’

  ‘You and me both. There’s not really much you can do in this instance, other than keep your head up, shoulders back, and a smile on your face.’

  Paige dropped head her in her hands. ‘But I don’t want to smile.’

  ‘I know,’ Deanna said, wrapping her friend in a hug again.

  27

  Casey watched from his hiding place behind the curtains, on the set of The After Show. Not that he was hiding. He was just waiting… without anyone knowing he was there.

  Okay, so he was hiding. But if Julian and Mack knew that he’d flown the coop, they’d skin him alive. He was in such deep shit for his stunt on Monday, and five days of good behaviour was not going to give him any reprieve for disobeying them about leaving his home.

  But his studio pass wasn’t going to be renewed after this week, so he only had that night to get a chance to talk to Paige without the press sticking their oar in. He had been planning to give her some time and was going to contact her after the week was done. He’d planned to arrange a meeting with her, somewhere neutral, so they could discuss the whole situation and see if they could get their act together.

  But after Daniel’s little reveal… Well, at first, Casey had seen red, felt vindicated in his initial thoughts and smug that he’d called it once again. But the feelings had been fleeting, momentary, as he realised that once again he was merely a fall-back. Not actually good enough to be the father, but a big enough paycheck to support them.

  But now, he sighed, now he just felt bereft. He’d convinced himself Paige was different and that he hadn’t just wanted it, he’d wanted it with her, and no matter what—even if the kid proved to be his—he could never trust her. He’d never really know if she had lied about Daniel and had merely been hedging her bets…

  This was why he’d never stuck around. Why he’d had the whole love ‘em and leave ‘em mentality; he never wanted to feel like this.

  He watched as she played with the pretend question cards, shuffling them as the crew moved around. He’d considered not contacting her at all, just forgetting about her, putting it all behind him, and marking it down to experience. Again. But that thought hadn’t settled well with him, and he hadn’t been able to sleep until he finally decided to confront her; he’d give her one more chance to tell the truth, and realised that it had to be that same day. He had to do it right now as his studio pass expired at midnight and trying to get together anywhere other than in the studio would risk too much external interference. That was the last thing he needed.

  He caused himself enough problems, he didn’t need anyone else adding more to the mix. He cursed as Sampson Smith walked onto the set first, taking a seat on the far end of the couch. Bless the man for his friendship, but he didn’t want Paige being treated like crap. His baby or not, she was still pregnant. And call him old fashioned—more like traditional, testosterone-driven alpha, Tanya’s ghostly voice taunted—but he believed expectant mothers still required common courtesies. It wasn’t about the mother, it was about the comfort of the child.

  Even as he said those words in his head, he knew even he wouldn’t believe him if he said them aloud. He didn’t have any connection to the baby, his or not, but to Paige…

  Why couldn’t he get over the damned woman?

  A minute later, Paige waddled up. He hadn’t really noticed before, but at—he did a quick calculation—twenty-eight weeks, she was certainly a lot bigger than she’d been when she’d stayed at his back in October. He was captivated by the roundness of her stomach, at how it was possible for tiny, little Paige to grow so large…

  She had another twelve weeks to go; how the hell was she supposed to get any bigger? How was it possible for such a tiny woman to carry another human being inside them?

  The scene from Alien suddenly popped into his mind, and the idea of Paige’s daughter bursting through her stomach made him turn his nose up. Of course, he knew that that wasn’t how babies were brought into the world, but the mere thought of ever witnessing a birth turned his stomach.

  Paige rubbed her back as she sat in her seat. He noticed that even with all her makeup done, she looked pale. Her eyes had large rings under them and he assumed that she wasn’t sleeping after being caught up in her web of lies and deceit. She said something to Sampson, who merely looked at her from the corner of his eye, before returning his focus to his phone. Her shoulders slumped and Casey ground his teeth as a surge of protectiveness washed through him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, hold her close and give Sampson a piece of his mind for dismissing her so easily.

  He seriously needed to put this to bed and get her out of his head, to stop thinking of her all the bloody time, so he could move on with his life, even if that life was going to be different from how it used to be. Now, he realised that something was missing.

  He took a deep breath and tried to get Paige’s attention.

  Paige rubbed her aching back as she eased into the chair, ready to do the final live recording of the week. Sampson Smith sat opposite, the once-friendly smile he’d offered her so easily gone now, making Paige feel more miserable. Since Wednesday, when Daniel had made his false allegation, things had been… tense.

  The media had started hounding her and poor Deanna was doing her best to field them off. Despite the fact Paige had refuted the accusation publicly on her Facebook page, she couldn’t leave the house without photographers snapping away at her, reporters shouting questions. She’d had to suspend comments being posted on her Facebook page and had deactivated her Twitter account.

  The Christmas shopping trip she’d been planning with Deanna was out of the window. Deanna had had to go and get Paige’s groceries, and also hired her two bodyguards! To say Paige had been a tad surprised when the pair walked into the apartment dressed like the Men In Black, would be an understatement. At least—she sighed with a smidgen of satisfaction—her order for the nursery furniture was already placed and due to arrive after the holiday period, even if it was the cheaper alternative to the gorgeous stuff Deanna had shown her on a site whose name she couldn’t even pronounce, let alone afford.

  Her back twinged, and she shifted in her chair to try and get comfortable. Her lower back and abdomen had been aching all day and it felt like she wanted to vomit a river. Whatever the hell Blueberry was doing in there, she need to calm the fuck down. Paige just needed to get through this evening and she’d be able to relax for a month until the holiday hiatus was over.

  ‘Psst.’

  For a moment she could have sworn she heard—

  ‘Psst, Paige!’

  She glanced around, frowning as she tried to see who was calling to her. The crew going around doing their things, Sampson was sitting reading his phone, and the director and producers were up in the booth; nothing was out of the ordinary.

  ‘Paige!’

  ‘Man, just come on out here, already,’ Sampson said with a put-upon sigh as he turned around to where the noise was coming from. Sampson shook his head as Casey stepped out from the curtains behind the couch. ‘Dude,’ the other actor said with a pitying shake of his head.

  Even though she knew she’d done nothing wrong, Paige internally grimaced at the thought of Casey’s friends looking down on her, and on him for lowering himself to come and speak to her. But to see him here, the fact that he was willing to talk to her, gave her hope and a chance to believe that Casey wanted her and wanted. It gave her hope things could work out for them.

  Casey looked at her just as a searing pain chose to pierce through her stomach. She winced, biting her lip to stop the little squeak that wanted to escape, and Casey must have mistaken it for a looking of squirming at being caught out. It seemed to embolden him as he sc
owled at her shifting in her chair, and Paige felt the little bubble of optimism burst inside her chest.

  He wasn’t here to sweep her off her feet; he was more likely to pull the rug from under them.

  ‘Paige,’ Casey said as he came around the couch. A few crewmembers looked at him but carried on about their tasks.

  ‘Casey,’ she replied, returning the greeting, trying not to sound as if she was about to hyperventilate. She felt the knot inside her gut twisting, turning almost painfully as she watched him step around the couch and sit next to her. He glanced at Sampson briefly, silently asking for him to give them some space.

  ‘No can do, man,’ Sampson told him without glancing up from his phone. ‘I’m a better cover for your ass if I’m sat here than if I go.’ Casey sighed at the logic and turned back to face Paige. She licked her lips and decided to jump in first.

  ‘Casey, Daniel is talking out of his—’

  ‘Shit!’ someone said loudly next to them. The three occupants of the set’s furniture turned to see the floor manager staring across to the screen that blocked the door; her eyes were wide, disbelieving whatever she saw.

  As one, Paige, Casey, and Sampson all turned to where the other woman was gazing and the two men joined the manager in cursing.

  ‘What?’ Paige asked, as she watched a small group of smartly-dressed people stop just in front of the screen, while someone hurried over to them. ‘Who are they?’

  ‘The Powers That Be,’ Sampson said, his voice hushed. His dark eyes held a hint of trepidation before he glanced towards Paige. Then she saw dawning realisation in them and a flicker of relief as he focused on her. ‘Ah.’

  ‘Paige, you’re not going to like this,’ Casey told her, his own eyes turning to her as the group began to walk in their direction. ‘They only turn up for one of two things—’