The Magic of Hollywood // Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 27

The second we leave the club I'm blinded by flashing lights. "Ms. Porter. Is it true that Charlie Gillespie played here last night?" - "Ms. Porter, what's your relationship with Charlie Gillespie." - "Ms. Porter." Jenny and I try to get through the paparazzi but there's no chance. I knew this was gonna happen, Charlie warned me. I gather all the self-confidence I own and turn to the cameras, smiling. "Thank you for coming, yes Mr. Gillespie played here last night. It was a great opening." A microphone gets basically stuffed into my face. "Are you guys dating?" I laugh a little. "Hate to disappoint you, but last night was strictly professional. I was luckily able to book him and that's all I can tell you. Anyways, have a lovely day, thank you for coming again, maybe I'll see you at the next show." With that I turn away and surprisingly they actually let us walk through. Once we're about two blocks away from my club I take a few deep breaths. Jenny looks at me with concern. "I'm ok. I knew this was gonna happen."

Jenny drags me through a few stores and I swear I'm having a deja-vu. Didn't we do that like... yesterday? Yes, it definitely was yesterday. Lord, please get me out of here. "V, I know you'd rather be somewhere else right now, but a, you wanna look great tomorrow and b, you can go one day without hanging out with him can you?" My cheeks start to blush. "I wasn't think about..." Jenny raises a hand in front of my face. "Oh cut it V. He's all you're thinking about. Now let's get you a flaming outfit so you're all he's thinking about too... even though I think you kinda are already... anyway..." She keeps dragging me through the mall. I try to at least get a guess what we might be doing by what type of clothes she's looking at but frankly, I feel like she's looking at literally everything. "J, can't you give me like a little hint? So I can at least help you look?" She shakes her head firmly. "Not a chance. I'm not gonna ruin the surprise girl." I sigh even though I knew she was gonna say no. Somehow I love that I don't know but on the other hand I'm really nervous. I mean, I would be nervous if I knew but not knowing makes it much worse.

It's crazy, I've been spending so much time with Charlie the past week and I was never really nervous. At least not like this. The thought of spending a whole day with him, outside of the save walls of my club... that's a whole different story. I try to remember the last time I've actually been that nervous but nothing comes to my mind. Sure, I've been nervous going on my first date with Max, but I knew him... sort of. He's been one of the best friends of my friend Kimberly's boyfriend so... it was just different. Even though I'd never properly met him before, apart from at one or two parties, I was much calmer than I am right now. "V! I found something." She holds up a really cute wrap dress. It's very simple, just red with short sleeves and a v-neck. The fabric is really flowy. I grab it and take it to the dresser. It fits great. I look at myself in the mirror. I've never worn much red before, just on very rare occasions but it actually suits me quite well. I touch my necklace, as I always do when I'm thinking about something and my eyes lock on the bracelet on my wrist. I can't help but smile.

We didn't buy new shoes, I'm just gonna wear the black slippers from last night. Even though I wanna look great I'm still on a budget and they fit the dress great, so why buy new shoes. "So what are we gonna do with the rest of the day V? You're my tour guide here." I think hard. I didn't really get to explore much of the city yet. I've been too busy and given the fact that if everything goes well, I'm gonna be living here for... like a really long time I didn't really see the need yet. "You know what? Can we rent bikes and go to Venice? We always said we would." She's right! "Omg yes!" Whenever Jenny and I talked about me moving to LA she said we should rent ourselves bikes and bike down to Venice Beach and then just sit there and watch the waves. I think right now this is the perfect thing to do. We order an Uber to take us back to the club so we can grab some bikinis and drop of my new dress. Luckily, there are no paparazzi in front of the doors anymore. For now my response must have been enough to keep them away.

Once we made it to Venice we walked around the beach for a bit. It's a such a cool area. Even though it's so close to Santa Monica it feels like a completely different world. Watching the waves was exactly what I needed right now. "J, I'm really nervous." I play with my bracelet and don't look up. "I know. But you'll have a great time. He's a good guy." Yeah, he definitely is. But so was Max when we met. He changed... but then again, he's never even been close to the way Charlie acts. Max never got me a present simply because he wanted to make me happy, he never cared about how I felt, let alone realized when something was wrong. In the past week Charlie and I became closer than Max and I had ever been. I have no idea where this is going, but I know damn well it is worth trying. "Yeah, he's a great guy."