WineBar: The Complete Story

by Alexis Angel

  When I invited her to live with me, she then got pretty excited about it. But when I showed her the apartment I had in mind, her expression turned sad pretty fast. “I can’t afford this,” she only whispered, and I just squeezed her shoulder and kissed her cheek. “Where one goes, the other follows,” I told her. I also told her that she’d have to sign a contract with her own blood and sell me her soul, and that definitely helped to brighten up her mood.

  So that’s us now, living in a three-bedroom apartment in downtown Manhattan. Top floor, great view over the city, and not a single creaky floorboard in the whole apartment. Sure, we’re not living at One57 or anything as crazy as that, but this is definitely a nice improvement from our ratty old apartment.

  “You could've invited Kane over, you know?” She says out of the blue, looking at me with a devious expression. “You still haven’t showed him how great your new bedroom is? I think he’d definitely love that big, comfy mattress you got in there…”

  “Oh, come on,” I laugh, feeling the burn of boiling blood on my cheeks. “I can’t bring him here. It’d be too much of a risk.”

  “Well, the whole thing is kinda risky, isn't it? But you're having fun, I guess...I can see it by the look on your face. I guess Kane really knows how to use his big —”

  “Ah, Laurel! Stop!” I laugh, taking our chopsticks out of their wrappers. Snagging a slice of sashimi out of the tray, I put it into my mouth and close my eyes, savoring it. Yeah, this definitely is an improvement over microwave pizza.

  “No, I won't stop. You're a soon-to-be world famous actress, dating one of the most eligible bachelors in the word...At least allow me the courtesy of living through you,” she sighs.

  “Oh, cheer up! You'll find a hot producer and —”

  “Even if I do, I doubt he'll be as hot as Kane. He has that whole daddy thing going on, you know?” She continues to say, going trough the sushi tray so fast I can barely keep up. “And you definitely like that, don't you? You slut!”

  “That’s really mature of you,” I frown, even though I know exactly what she means. Kane’s old enough to be my father, but he still appears as if he’s in his thirties...More than that, he’s charming enough to make any woman’s panties melt off. ‘Daddy’ might be a silly dirty word, but it definitely describes how I feel toward him. He’s my daddy, and I love him for it.

  “See? You don’t even deny it!” she says, using one hand to play with her phone while, with the other, she keeps on devouring everything on the tray. “Oh, well. At least one of us is happy and successful,” she shrugs, her eyes focused on the screen on her phone.

  “You’ll be successful too. It’s just a matter of time; you’ll find a producer soon enough. Who knows? Kane might even be interested in one of your scripts, and that would definitely help you out.”

  “I don’t know. Every single producer I meet tells me my ideas aren’t commercial enough. Like, hello? Does anyone even care about art anymore?” She sighs, but then she looks up at me and smiles. “But, yeah...Maybe you could show Kane one of my scripts. That wouldn’t hurt.”

  “I can try to —”

  “Oh,” she cuts me short, shoving her phone under my nose. “Check this one. This blog is ripping Alberta a new one.” I read the headline on the screen and, completely unable to control myself, I grin.

  Is it time for Manhattan Reign to let go of Alberta? the article reads, but Laurel pulls back her phone before I can keep on reading.

  “C’mon, these gossip blogs are always so full of bullshit,” I laugh, even though I feel pretty satisfied about what she just showed me. I don’t consider Alberta as my enemy, but she definitely considers me hers, as such, I guess I don’t have to feel guilty about enjoying the article Laurel just showed me.

  “But they’re fun,” she shrugs, distractedly scrolling through her Facebook feed and binging on the latest gossip. “Did you know some blogs think Stefan and Jasmine are actually a couple?”

  “But they’re not...It might seem like it, but —”

  “Oh, shit!” Laurel suddenly breathes out, her eyes widening as her thumb hovers over the screen. She swallows hard and then, slowly, she raises her gaze.

  “What is it?” I ask her, my heart skipping a beat as I see the worried expression on her face. Without saying a word, she simply turns her phone to me.

  On the screen, there’s a photo of Kane having dinner with Alberta.

  Sasha

  “There’s gotta be some kind of mistake,” I whisper, my heart tightening up inside my chest. Reaching for Laurel’s phone, I snag it out from her hands and stare at the screen with both my eyes wide open.

  “I’m sorry,” Laurel whispers, but I barely register her words. Right now, I’m only focused on the picture in her phone, one so blatant and obvious that there’s no way I can spin it: Kane and Alberta went out on a date. I mean, not only are they sitting together in a fancy restaurant, she has her hand on top of his. And the smile on her face...Oh, God, I can barely stand to look at it.

  LOVE ON SET? the headline reads, these big bold letters making me feel nauseous. After everything that happened between Kane and I (and, really, between me and Alberta), there’s just no way I can stomach something like this.

  Oh, Jesus, I think I’m gonna throw up.

  “No way. I can’t believe he’d do this to me,” I whimper, pushing the phone back into Laurel’s hands. Jumping up to my feet, I race toward the living room and turn my purse upside down, spilling its contents all over the couch. The moment I spot my phone among all the stuff I carry inside my purse, I just reach for it and dial Kane’s number furiously, tapping my thumb against the screen so hard that I might shatter it.

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Laurel asks from behind me, her usually confident tone a mere shadow of what it usually is. It’ the first time in a long time that Laurel doesn’t know how to act around me. I can only imagine the look I have on my face right now.

  I wish I could just shrug it off, but there’s no way I can do it with something like this. What happened between Kane and I runs deeper (or so I thought) than meets the eye and, at the very least, I want to hear his own version of events. Even if he prefers Alberta over me, I want to hear it from his own mouth.

  Gritting my teeth, I sit down on the couch and press the phone against my ear, biting on my nails as I hear the tone on the other side of the line. I wait and wait, but he doesn’t pick up. Laurel only watches as I dial his number over and over again, that tight feeling inside my chest growing worse with each passing second. Good God, I’m losing it in here.

  “Sasha,” Laurel finally calls me with a sigh, kneeling in front of me and taking the phone out of my ear. “He’s not going to pick up,” she tells me gently, a worried smile on her lips.

  “Why would he do something like this? And with Alberta, of all people…!”

  “I know, I know...but you know men, they’re all uncaring assholes, and they’ll trample over your heart the minute they have the chance,” she tells me, her whole men-are-assholes speech bubbling up to her mouth.

  “I thought he was different,” I whisper, holding my breath as I feel tears start to sting at my eyes. Pursing my lips, I do my best not to cry.

  “I know you did. I believed that too, you know? Sure, he’s handsome, rich, and charming...But he didn’t seem to be an asshole,” she admits, reaching for me and resting her hand on my shoulder. Sitting down next to me, she looks at me with a worried expression on her face and runs one hand through her hair. “Listen, Sasha...I know it might be hard, but you can’t let this knock you down.”

  “I know,” I whisper, lowering my voice so much that I can’t even hear myself. “This won’t knock me down,” I continue, even though it feels like I’m lying to myself. How the hell am I supposed to survive a season of shooting after this? I have a ton of scenes to do with Alberta and Kane, and I’m no longer sure if I can look into their eyes anymore!

  I hated him for it, but I think that Ryan was rig
ht about sex between actors; it leads to nothing but ruin. But, like the stupid girl that I am, I decided to ignore Ryan’s rule and do whatever the hell I wanted to...And now look at me, sitting here on the verge of tears while Kane is living it up with Alberta! As far as I know, she’s in his place right now, having a private tour of Kane’s sex room.

  “Sasha, listen,” Laurel says, grabbing me by the chin and forcing me to look at her. “I promise you...I’ll get to the bottom of this. But right now I want you to go lie down, okay? You have a lot of scenes to shoot in the morning, and I don’t want you rolling into the set like a wreck.”

  “Okay,” I whimper, pursing my lips as I feel my chin quivering. Swear to God, I have no idea how I’m not crying right now. If Laurel wasn’t here with me, I bet I’d be sobbing uncontrollably.

  I have no idea how it got to this but, somewhere along the way, the attraction I felt toward Kane grew into something more...tangible. Something real ...or so I thought. Apparently, there was absolutely nothing real about it.

  “I’ll go to bed,” I mumble, forcing myself up to my feet. Dragging my aching body across the living room, I let Laurel grab me by the arm.

  “Listen, if it makes you feel better, I’ll go buy a ninja suit and a sword, and I’ll take care of these two right now,” she tells me, her tone so serious that I’m tempted to believe what she’s saying.

  “You’ve been working out, right? Training for something like this?” I ask her, a sad smile on my lips.

  “Absolutely,” she replies, squeezing my arm.

  Well, at least I still have Laurel.

  Sasha

  Acting is so much easier when you’re drawing from real emotion. And, really, that’s a statement I couldn’t agree more with.

  Standing in front of Alberta, I let the anger wash over me as we look into each other’s eyes. There’s a sinister silence between the two of us, and the only thing I can hear is the steady hum of the cameras around us. We’re shooting a scene where my character is arguing with Alberta’s, the moment our characters finally clash head-on, and I have to thank the universe for giving me this chance.

  “How does it feel?” Alberta growls with a sadistic grin, taking one step toward me. Defiantly, she raises one hand and lays her index finger over my heart, tapping it there twice. “I told you I wanted you gone. You didn’t listen, and now you’re paying for it.”

  “Is that so?” I whisper, forcing a smile to take over my lips. Narrowing my eyes, I allow Katya, my character, to take the steering wheel. Balling both my hands into fists, I then take a deep breath and grit my teeth. “You sound really confident.”

  “Please, spare me your cocky attitude,” Alberta snaps back at me, giving me one hard push. I take one step back, but I manage to hold my ground. Even though the script only called for a soft push, Alberta went beyond it and pushed me hard enough for me to stumble back and fall down on my ass; unfortunately for her, I came prepared for a confrontation like this.

  I’ve never been a fan of method acting, but now I can't feel more thankful toward my acting teachers, the ones who drilled me down on these techniques. I spent the whole night tossing and turning, waking up with cold sweats as dreams of Alberta and Kane pinched at my mind, and all these sleepless hours nursing my hate toward Alberta really paid off. Now, standing in front of her, I’m giving the performance of my life.

  “You think you’re better than me, don’t you?” I hiss, closing the distance between her and I.

  “I don’t think anything...I know it. I’ll always be Daddy’s favorite,” she whispers angrily, and I realize that we’ve moved past all the acting. Even though she’s still spewing the words from the script, Alberta’s the one saying them, not her character. “You come in here with your pretty face and easy smile, thinking that you can take my place...But you’re nothing but a stupid bitch.”

  “That’s Miss Stupid Bitch for you,” I growl, that picture of her and Kane together resurfacing in my mind. Before I can stop myself, I cock my arm back and open up my hand. It happens in a fraction of a second; the palm of my hand flies straight into her face, hitting it with a dry snappy sound.

  Not counting on my reaction, Alberta stumbles back and tries to steady herself awkwardly. Missing the edge of the swimming pool by an inch, her heel sinks deep into the water and all of her follows in a fraction of a second.

  I see it all unfold in slow motion; her eyes widen and, flailing her arms around, she starts falling back. Hitting the water like a boulder, she resurfaces with a murderous expression, her usually silky hair now plastered to her face.

  “YOU FUCKING BITCH!” She growls, grabbing the edge of the pool with both her hands. I just stand there with a smug expression, grinning as she crawls out, her drenched cocktail dress glued to her skin. “I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!”

  “I’m right here,” I tell her with a shrug, opening up my arms. From the corner of my eye, I can see Ryan and the director excitedly waving at the cameramen around us to position themselves better, so that they can get every angle of the scene. Even though none of this was scripted, it seems that our lovely producer is enjoying every second of it.

  With a furious growl, Alberta starts rushing toward me. Her hands turn into claws and, before I can stop her, she grabs me by the hair and starts pulling it hard. “Ahh!” I cry out, instinctively grabbing her own hair and pulling with double the strength she’s using. There’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned cat fight, is there?

  “Jesus!” I hear Jasmine cry out and, even though she isn’t supposed to be on camera, she jumps onto the set and races toward us. Grabbing Alberta by the waist, she tries to pull her away from me—not an easy task, since Alberta seems hell-bent on murdering me.

  Joining the fray, Stefan rushes toward me and, grabbing me by the arms, he pulls me back. Alberta and I finally let go of each other, but our eyes remain locked. Her face is red with anger, and she’s breathing so hard you’d believe she just finished a marathon.

  “CUT! This was beautiful!” Ryan cries out, clapping his hands together. “You really out did yourselves, girls!” He continues, and both Alberta and I turn toward him. Judging by the happy expression on his face, I’d say he didn’t notice that we were no longer acting but simply trying to kill each other.

  “She hit me, Ryan, you saw it!” Alberta cries out, walking toward the producer and gesturing at me. “She threw me into the pool!”

  “I know, I know,” Ryan replies, clapping his hands together once more. “It was great!”

  “Great? She’s insane! We can’t have her on set!”

  “You’re the insane one!” I find myself saying, and I’d rush toward her if Stefan didn’t hold me back. “You’ve been trying to sabotage me ever since I stepped foot on set.”

  Looking at me with murderous intent, she looks at Ryan with her teeth gritted. “I want her gone,” she tells me, spitting out each word. “I won’t shoot another scene until that bitch is gone.” With that, she marches off the set like a woman possessed, the anxious click of her high heels the only sound on set.

  “Yeah?” I shout after her, placing both my hands around my mouth. “Then that means you’re never coming back...I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”

  TV Roundup!

  Chase: Hello and welcome to TV Roundup! Your one stop shop for all the news, gossip, and speculation on today's top TV hits! I'm your host, Chase Worthington.

  Nadia: And I'm your co-host, Nadia Moore.

  Chase: Well, if the rumors are true, audience, then we have some pretty crazy shenanigans going on backstage on the set of Manhattan Reign.

  Nadia: That's right. Multiple confirmed sources report that a major rift has developed between Sasha and Alberta - the two leading ladies of the show.

  Chase: I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the rift between the ladies has a lot to do with one Kane Parker.

  Nadia: I'm absolutely going to join you on that limb and confirm parts of it for you. The fighting really started between
the two starlets while filming was being done for a scene. This was the first time that the two women had been on the same set since pictures surfaced this weekend of Kane and Alberta enjoying a day together and even having dinner at a fancy New York City bistro.

  Chase: It looks like Queen Bee might not be letting the newcomer play in her playground.

  Nadia: But Sasha doesn't seem like a scaredy-cat from what we're hearing.

  Chase: That's right. Witnesses report her slapping Alberta causing her to walk off the set angrily saying that she wanted Sasha fired. Will she be able to push her weight around?

  Nadia: That's right Chase. And I personally don't know. It's tough because viewers seem to have taken to Sasha playing the foreign exchange student with remarkable love. The loyalty to Sasha is evident. Anywhere you go where the show is posting on social media and you can't help but see #TeamKatya all over the comments.

  Chase: Especially after that sex scene. Just wow.

  Nadia: I know, right? God, it's ranked up there as one of my top ten fave TV moments. I know I'm going to probably never forget how the two of them looked as they began to go at it.

  Chase: Kind of makes you wonder how much time they spent rehearsing. And what rehearsing even entailed.

  Nadia: I mean, given the chance I'm sure any woman would want to rehearse with Kane Parker for a sex scene. I mean, hello? Excuse me while I go just come to that thought.

  Chase: Sasha isn't bad either. Just seeing the two of them must have given America a collective boner.

  Nadia: Or made America collectively wet.

  Chase: Right. You can understand why Alberta would be upset.

  Nadia: Well, we'll have to see won't we? I know last time we watched Manhattan Reign you filled all my holes up with so much cum that I didn't need to eat dinner.

  Chase: That's the power of TV, folks.

  Nadia: Until next time, audience. Till then, enjoy the countdown to...

  VOICEOVER: Manhattan Reign