Make Believe (6 page)

“Yes, we worked on a film together. She played my boss. She is an amazing woman- beautiful, clever, stunning.” I watch his eyes glisten.

My heart sinks. How could I ever compete with someone like that?

He notices my expression and quickly recovers the conversation.

“But nothing happened; it was just the paparazzi linking me to her. She was already taken by then. It worked brilliantly for my career though. Hudson really pushed it. More wine, Jess?”

“Yes, please. So do you have a girlfriend at the moment?” I nicely lead in to that question.

He looks up at me with a wicked smirk on his face.

“What a question, hey, Jess? Are you asking for any particular reason?”  his phone beeps, breaking his sentence.

  “Oh shit, Hudson’s on the war-path. He wants to know what we’re doing going for dinner,” he frowns.

“Why, aren’t we allowed to go out for dinner?”

He laughs, “No, Jessica. It doesn’t work like that.”

“I don’t understand. Can’t you just be honest and tell him we were hungry?” I suggest, trying to be helpful.

“No, he would never buy that. He likes to control the people I go out with. It’s all part of the lifestyle! I’ll deal with it in the morning.” He starts to eat again.

I return to finishing my spaghetti
bolognaise. He grabs my hand and looks at me.

“To answer your question – no, I don’t have a girlfriend. I haven’t been in a relationship for about a year. It’s really hard in this business.  For one, you never know if someone likes you for you, or is it the money and fame. Two, I’ve been burnt a couple of times and will never go back there and three, the most important, it’s hard to trust someone.” His expression softens.

“I totally understand that. It must be so hard. Well, you are one of the most recognizable men on the planet. I don’t really know how you do it. The pressure of constantly have people following you must be a nightmare, and as for having to be told what to do all the time, I think I would go crazy.” I look into his eyes and there’s sadness in them- I think it’s reality dawning.

“Yes, Jess, it can be hard, but I’m so fortunate to be in this situation. I will never forget that. I just have to deal with it; it’s all part of the job.” His whole composure changes.

Why again do I feel like a child being told off!

“I think we should head off, if you’ve finished. We both have early starts in the morning!” he suggests.

Elliott rises from the table and comes round and pulls my chair out. We head back through the kitchen to his car.

He holds the door open for me and before you know it we are both confronted by flash bulbs going off. There must be at least twenty-five photographers outside shouting his name. I try and cover my face with my hands, it’s blinding. He grabs my hand and pulls me through the mass of people. I manage to get into the car but they are relentless.  They stand in front of the car so it’s hard to move; Elliott has to edge so carefully. He manages to make a path and we speed off.

“You’re right, it is fucking hard sometimes.,” he’s so angry.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come with you. I didn’t realize.” I apologize, not really sure what for though.

“No, Jessica, it’s not your fault. It’s this fucking job! I just wanted to be normal for half an hour, that’s all and now it’s going to be all over the papers about you and me! Hudson’s going to go crazy! Oh fuck!”

“I don’t understand why that’s so bad. We had photos taken yesterday at the ball and that was OK. But not now, what’s changed?”

“It’s not planned, Jessica. It’s all about publicity and the timing of it. Everything’s created to feed the press! This,”  he points to me and him, “This hasn’t been approved; it’s going to change everything. I can’t explain it. You’ll just have to believe me. I can’t drop you at your place as they will follow and see where you live. I’ll have to take you to mine instead - I have private driveway and they won’t be able to get anymore photos there.”

I agree with him. I don’t want to annoy him anymore; he knows what he’s doing.

Elliott punches a couple of numbers into the driveway keypad. The huge wooden gates open and we are greeted by a magnificent driveway that curves towards what only can be described as a mansion.

“You live here?” I croak.

“Yes, this is where I call home.”

“It’s incredible! I have never seen anything like it.”

He pushes a button connected to the garage and the door opens. We drive straight in.

We’re instantly greeted by what I can only presume to be a butler.

“Good evening, Mr. Tate.”

“It’s not really, Simon.”

Simon notices me in the car and rushes to my door, but I’ve already opened it.

“Sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t realize Mr. Tate had company tonight.”

I smile really awkwardly wishing I knew what to say.

“Sorry Simon, this is Jessica, my makeup artist. We were having dinner and then got caught by the fucking paps! So now we’re stuck.”

Elliott semi-smiles at me and then I follow him into the house. We walk through the garage into a huge kitchen where we are greeted with an immaculate view of his garden through an enormous glass frontage.  The kitchen is amazing, all black granite and silver. Very now! His kitchen is the same size as my whole flat back in London.

We don’t stop and I follow him into a lounge. “Jess, do you want a drink?” He sounds so pissed off.  I’m afraid that the dinner has ruined any chance of anything we may have had – work-related or otherwise. I still don’t really understand why he’s so cross or what the difference between the two sets of photos are?

“Whatever you’re having,” I smile.

“Sit.” I do as I’m told.

“Two whiskeys on the rocks, please, Simon. Large ones!”

Err, I hate whiskey! But I’m not saying a word.

“I suppose I should ring Hudson and let him know what’s happened, then he can do damage limitation! I hate it when he’s friggin right.”

My ears pick up. The whole evenings been ruined anyway. I might as well try and find out what he’s talking about.

“What do you mean ‘he’s right’?”

“It doesn’t concern you, Jessica!” he snaps.

But I want to know. I’m not some little fan he can boss about!

“Elliott, please allow me the decency of an answer. You obviously have something on your mind which concerns me,” I bite.

He looks at me, shocked.

I look back directly at him! I’m not taking no for an answer.

He stands up and walks directly towards me. Shit! I feel the panic mounting. He grabs my hands and pulls me hard onto my feet. It’s all happening so fast. He grabs my face gently with both hands and kisses me, pushing his tongue forcefully into my mouth, I relax letting him, I don’t  want it to stop. I place my hands on his hands and pull my face away from him. He doesn’t want to let me go, but stops kissing me. He rests his head on mine. I look up at him and he opens his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“What for?” 

“Everything - for kissing you, for snapping at you, for being an asshole.” I smile, but he doesn’t move his head from mine.

“It’s all fine. I just need to know what’s going on that’s all.” I stroke my hand down the side of his face.

He looks so relieved.  I grab his hand this time and pull him over to the sofa.

“Sit, it’s now my turn,” I smile at him.

Simon appears with the drinks and places them on the table in front of us. I clutch mine and take a sip. Dutch courage! I feel it burn as it goes down.

Chapter 5

“Elliott I need to ask you something, something important. But now’s not the right time. Just remind me, OK?”

“You’re being very cryptic, Miss Ing. Should I be worried?”  he smirks.

“Maybe…all in good time, Mr. Tate.You first. What’s going on, Elliott?”

“It’s nothing, it’s just all this drives me crazy sometimes!” He gestures around the room. 

“What, your lifestyle? Your fans? Hudson? What?”  It’s so hard to get a straight answer out of him.

“It’s everything combined. It just drives me nuts. It’s the fact I can’t go out for dinner and not be photographed. I’m not even allowed to choose who I date; it all has to be manipulated.  I find it so frustrating sometimes when an asshole sticks a camera in my face and I can’t retaliate and smack them in theirs! It takes some restraint to ignore it.  Take, for instance, yesterday. I’m going to be honest with you, Jess, so please don’t be offended.  It was Hudson’s idea that you come to the charity auction. He knew that a story was going to break this morning about me and some bitch. He was doing damage limitation with it. You had no history to speak of.  There’s nothing nasty in your past that will affect me.”

I look at him. “How do you know I have nothing nasty in my past?”

“I know because Hudson ran checks on you before we employed you. He does it to everyone. We have to be careful with our employees so that nothing gets leaked to papers, hence the contracts.”

What is he talking about? He doesn’t make sense. Hudson told me it was Elliott insisting on the checks, not him. That bastard was lying to me. I feel my self-esteem drop straight to the floor at the realization that Hudson was already manipulating me.

“Jess, I’m sorry if I scared you. We have to do it to everyone It’s nothing personal.”

“No, it’s OK. I understand,” I replied, but I didn’t understand. I felt used. What other revelations did he have to tell me?

“You see, you coming to the auction meant that our pictures would appear in the papers at the same time the bitch’s story was breaking, therefore diverting hers. We would take precedence and hit the front page first!  People would be more interested in who you were and how we met rather than “Look at that asshole, Elliott Tate, fucking up someone else’s life again”. But now tomorrow’s papers are only going to feature secret pictures of us, and the shit’s going to hit the fan. God knows how it’s going to affect filming. Hudson’s going to do his nut!”  He looks exasperated.

The phrase “fucking up someone else’s life” doesn’t leave my mind. I need to ask him about it.

“Elliott, what do you exactly mean about messing someone else’s life up? You can’t leave me guessing like that,” I smile.

“Can’t I? I don’t do it anymore, it’s way too dangerous.  I used to love the fact that every time I went out drinking, I could get laid!  It was simple. Girls would throw themselves at me, literally! I’d have to peel them off me. I am now still shocked at what lengths these ladies go to for my attention. They would pretty much do anything I asked - no matter how dirty!”

My mouth falls open, I feel myself tugging on my necklace as he relays his words. Why am I so goddamn naïve!

“Like what?”

“Anything – literally, Jess! Whether it was kiss another woman or have a threesome. Any kind of kinky shit! Whatever I was in the mood for, they would oblige.  But the last girl it happened with has just sold her story to the papers. And I admit it was terrible. If only she had said something before, I would never have been a part of it! She was a goddamn virgin, unbeknown to me. For God’s sake, she was nineteen! There were a couple of them hassling us at a club one night. We decided to take them back to our hotel. We had them performing everything, it was like our very own personal porn show! I’m not proud of it. We had been drinking and thought it was a bit of fun to make them go further and further whilst we filmed it. The whole thing ended up on YouTube and screwed her up - big time! She was the reason I stopped.  Even though it was all mutually consenting, she ended up trying to kill herself afterwards.  It now seems that all she’s out for is money and revenge, that’s why the story’s now in the paper. You see, Jessica, I haven’t always been this nice!” He raises his eyebrows. “I’d had to hit a few lows before reaching my highs,” he continues, staring at the floor.

I don’t know what to say to him. How could he treat another human being so badly that they would try and take their own life?

“Jess, look at me. Please, say something?”

“I don’t know what to say to you, Elliott. Honestly. How is she now?”

“She’s fine now. Like I said, she’s trying to make as much money as she can out of it.”

“And that makes it all OK then?” I reply appalled.  I so don’t belong in their world; I don’t think I ever will.

“No Jessica it doesn’t, but you can’t change the past, can you?  What did you want to ask me anyway?” He changes the subject.

I can’t believe he used someone so badly. I can ask him anything now because he’s already pissed at me anyway.

“You’ve answered it already, really. It was just… Hudson had warned me off you the other night when we were dancing. He said that you had basically been stalking me for the last year and you had insisted that I work for you on this film or you’d leave.

He laughs.

I feel my cheeks turning red. Am I really this big of a joke to him?

“I’m glad you find it amusing,” I glare at him.

He stops and turns to look at me, then brushes his fingers down my cheek.