39
Elena
Alex and I had another quiet day at his place, working through his scenes and falling into an easy intimacy.
When he worked out, I settled in to reread the screenplay I’d picked up the day his family had come over for dinner. It was truly an extraordinary piece of writing, pulling the originalPride and Prejudicestory into a darker, futuristic setting with a tighter focus on the relationship between Lizzy and Darcy. I didn’t bother repeating that he was an idiot for not doing it, but I did make him read some of the lines aloud to me, which quickly devolved into us naked in bed.
Monday morning arrived too soon. He had to be at the studio for work stuff all day, so I went home to deal with some of my own obligations.
I opened an email from Victoria that had my proposed schedule for the following month along with dozens of new client requests I needed to review. Her message made it clear this was only the tip of the iceberg.
Thanks to my newfound fame, I was in high demand and she was having to filter down what to even send me. It was surreal that I was only a week away from going back to my old life and my clients.
Looking through it all, I should’ve been excited, but all I felt was weary down to my very bones. The idea of mustering the emotional energy to give each of these people what they needed in a session was too much to even contemplate.
I’d assumed I’d be able to throw myself back into the job I loved to distract me from ending things with Alex, but I suddenly began to question how much I really loved my job. Stepping away from the stress and pressure of it all had given me new perspective. I gave so much of myself to my clients, and if I didn’t have to do it for the money anymore, did I want to do it at all?
Instead of giving Victoria any feedback on what she’d sent, I asked if she would meet me for dinner to talk. She responded almost immediately with a time and restaurant not far from where I lived, which made sense since it was close to the dungeon.
I hated the thought of leaving such a massive pile of work to deal with later, so I forced myself to at least sort through the new client requests, marking the ones I was passing on to make my pile smaller. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I recognized several of the names of people in the film industry I’d met in recent weeks. Why did it feel like a betrayal to Alex that I was reviewing session requests from his friends and coworkers? It was my job and our charade would be over by the time any of these sessions happened, but it made me oddly uncomfortable, which I resented.
I jumped when my phone rang, but I saw it was Alex and answered. “Hey creeper, was just thinking about you.”
“Oh yeah? Clean thoughts or dirty thoughts?”
“None of your business, Mr. Chase,” I teased.
“Are you coming over tonight?” The husky rumble of his voice made it clear exactly what he wanted me to come over for.
“I’ve got an appointment with the stylist and Asha to find me a dress for the red carpet thing and then I have dinner plans, but maybe after?”
“Dinner plans, huh? With whom?”
“Also none of your business, Mr. Chase.” My tone was less teasing this time. I didn’t feel like explaining why I wanted to meet with Victoria, didn’t know if I ever wanted to have that conversation with him.
“Seriously, who are you having dinner with?”
“Seriously, it’s none of your business.”
“Okay…” He sounded offended and I didn’t think he had any right to be. He was prying.
“I’ll text you when I’m finished and see if you’re up and still want me to come over.”
“Sweetheart, I want you to come over even if it’s late. Text me the info and I’ll have a car waiting for you.”
“Sounds good.”
Being dressedfor a red carpet by a stylist probably sounded fun to most people, but I knew what worked for me and preferred to do online shopping without the pressure of trying things on. The dinner we were going to would be my final scheduled public outing with Alex. As though that wasn’t enough pressure, the entire event was to honor my favorite actress, Kate Brannan, with a lifetime achievement award. The very idea of sitting in the same room as her was overwhelming. I tried to focus on that instead of the idea that I was potentially picking a dress for my last date with Alex.
I showed up at the address I’d been given, where I met Asha and the stylist who was named Dawn. She was a boho chic Black woman with full, natural curls framing her face and a lip ring. She was effortlessly cool, exactly the kind of vibe you wanted from a stylist.
When Dawn disappeared to get the dresses, Asha said, “I can’t believe how perfectly this all worked out! It’s been so fun and successful.”
I blinked at her, wondering if she knew how stressful this had been for me and just hownotto plan my relationship with Alex was turning out.
Oblivious, she said, “I mean…I can because I planned it, but the buzz has been even better than we could have hoped! We expected all eyes on Alex when we dropped the casting announcement, but the paparazzi kerfuffle was an added bonus. The producers are thrilled!”
I was spared from saying anything because Dawn returned with a rack of gowns.
