Oh my god…Please don’t be my mom…Please don’t be my mom…
I lay staring at the ceiling for several seconds before turning to my side to see who had walked in on us.
Joan?
“Umm,” I sat up and adjusted my dress. “I’m sorry…I didn’t hear anyone knocking at the front door…”
“Of course you didn’t,” she smirked, looking at Ethan and then back at me. “Something extremely important has come up. I need to talk to you for a second.”
I quickly moved off the table, avoided looking back at Ethan, and followed her into the cafe room.
I sat down in a corner booth and tried to ignore the fact that my lips were still tingling from that mind-blowing kiss.
“So,” she clasped her hands together. “Us Weekly called me today to say that they have an audio tape of you and Phillip talking to each other on set. Once they clean it up they’re going to release it to the public.”
My stomach churned. “Will the tape make me look better or worse?”
“They wouldn’t tell me. They were just giving notice. They were more interested in finding out where you’ve been hiding and trying to get you to release an official statement about the alleged affair. So, in the coming weeks we need to be very careful. We—”
Yes, careful. I told Ethan I wanted to take things slow and I almost slept with him on a table! I can’t let him kiss me again—at least not for a while…He’s too damn good at that…
Joan paced the floor. “We need to keep things simple, Selena—small statements here or there, making sure we’re keeping just the right amount of public interest—”
Good idea. Simple. If he’s really interested in me he won’t pressure me into sex, and I can control the pace of our relationship…Maybe we could read books together, watch movies, or sew a few quilts… I need to stick to simple things with him until I know him better. I need to—
“What do you think about the plan?” Joan raised her eyebrow. “Hello? Hello? Selena!”
“I heard you Joan. I completely concur.”
“You concur?” she narrowed her eyes at me. “You concur what? What did I just say?”
I don’t know! I wasn’t listening!
“It doesn’t matter,” I gave her my red-carpet-worthy smile, “because I said I heard you and I’ve concurred. Is there anything else we have to talk about tonight? Actually, could you get me some more Girl Scout cookies this week? I ate all the other ones you bought already—and I kind of snuck in your room this morning and ate yours too…”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “You have four degrees and you speak three languages…You graduated from Yale at the top of your class…This can’t be your life…”
“What’s that Joan?”
She coughed. “Do you still need a ride back to the hotel later? Should I come back in an hour? Two hours?” she darted her eyes towards the kitchen then back at me. “Tomorrow morning, perhaps?”
My jaw dropped and I felt my face turning red. I fixed my mouth to say, “You’re fired Joan!” but nothing came out.
“We both know you can’t afford to do that right now,” she laughed as if she’d read my mind. “Call me when you’re ready to leave, whenever that is.”
She flipped her hair over her shoulders and tapped her phone before walking out.
I hate you…
I waited a few minutes before going back into the kitchen. I needed to re-commit to my game-plan: I wanted to be head over heels in love the next time I was intimate with someone, and I wanted to be completely myself for a change.
Since Ethan claimed he had no idea who ‘Selena Ross’ was to begin with, I figured I could let some of my public façade down—he seemed to see through parts of it anyway.
I walked into the kitchen without saying a word to him and began washing a set of mixing bowls.
Chapter 18
Ethan
I picked up all the silverware that had fallen to the ground during our kiss and dropped them into a bin. I picked up a washcloth and began polishing the other utensils, wondering why Selena was suddenly acting as if I wasn’t a few feet away from her.
She hadn’t said a word to me ever since she returned from talking to her personal assistant, who surprisingly looked more like a supermodel than an aide to the stars.
I looked Selena over for what must have been the millionth time and smiled. The cream-colored dress she was wearing had held my attention all night. It was almost the shade of her skin, and if the sparkly pink flowers hadn’t covered certain places, she could’ve easily been mistaken for being nude.
“I saw one of your movies on TV yesterday,” I tried to strike up a conversation.
“Oh yeah?” she turned around. “Which one?”
“I didn’t catch the name of it. You were in bed making out with some guy though…A lot.”
“Awww! You sound jealous!” her eyes lit up. “Were you?”
A little…
“No,” I laughed.
“Well, the love scenes are always the most awkward scenes to shoot,” she sighed. “There are like thirty crew people standing around watching so it’s not romantic at all. I always have to dig deep to pretend we’re ‘making love’ because I’ve never experienced that in real life… I’ve only had sex and everyone says there’s a huge difference between the two. I would like to find out for myself…Maybe you can show me what I’ve been missing one day.”