𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 〖 𝐰/ 𝐡𝐚𝐳 𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 〗

〖 𝐡𝐞𝐫 ... 〗

His knee bounced relentlessly under the meeting table in his agency's office while his teeth nagged at his bottom lip. Arthur, Harrison's manager's representative, was speaking but Harrison had stopped listening after the proposal fell from the woman's mouth. "It's a great move, Harrison," Arthur said, nudging Harrison's arm with his elbow. "We'll make sure is a classy thing right? Harrison's very particular with the sort of people he relates with." Arthur asked not waiting for his client to respond to the previous observation.

"Of course, you must know my client is a very sweet countryside girl." The honey-eyed woman said with an almost contagious smile. Almost, only because Harrison couldn't bring himself to smile back due to the fact that processing what was being said was a bit hard for him.

"Perfect! He grew up in the countryside as well." Arthur grinned back to the lady.

"We are looking forward to starting immediately, we are in a bit of a squeeze with time."

"Sure, we'll have the answer by tomorrow morning." Arthur got up and the woman, whose name Harrison had failed to catch early on when she introduced herself, followed him leaning over the medium size table and clasping her hand around Arthur's in a firm shake quickly letting go to offer her hand to Harrison. The sight in front of him prompted the blonde to jump off his chair to shake it politely. "You've got some thinking to do, man," Arthur said once the woman was out of the meeting room. "I've seen this girl's stats and network and I think this is a fantastic opportunity for you to grow your own network."

"Yeah, but," Harrison sighed heavily. "Pretend to date her? I don't even know who she is?"

"What d'you mean you don't know who she is?" Arthur looked at him with an incredulous expression. "Man, c'mon! Little Val Attwood? From Cold Waters? The twenty fourteen period drama?" Harrison blinked at him a couple of times, all the information that came out of Arthur's mouth meant next to nothing to Harrison. "Okay, forget it. All you need to know is that this is an opportunity that you shouldn't pass on, mate." Arthur clapped Harrison's back a bit roughly before he opened the door and left the room, leaving Harrison alone with his thoughts.

HARRISON'S EYES SCANNED THE PICTURES on his Instagram explore page, a bunch of screenshots of articles littered the gird. Big bold letters jumped at him with provoking phrasing that even made him want to click on them in a second of poor judgment. Well, maybe more than a second, for he found himself clicking on one of the tabloids and as soon as he did he regretted it. It was the Mail Online's official account. His eyes rolled but he didn't exit the tab he just kept scrolling down.

A pair of adverts flashed as he did, then he came across a clip from an interview that automatically started playing just without sound, mute by the app's default. He looked past the clip and tapped on the caption to read the brief of the clip. « Mark Fender breaks silence about his tormenting relationship with young actress, y/n l/n. » The blonde's stomach sank when he read the girl's name.

It was creepy back when they were dating but now that Mark was thirty-one the age difference between him and y/n just seemed so much grosser. Harrison couldn't understand how the interviewer was easily sympathising with a, dare he say, predator. The grimace on his face came naturally when he dragged the page down a little more so the video was visible again and he debated once again if he should give the arsehole the light of his day.

With one last glare of disdain he exited the app, tossing his phone beside him on the sofa and getting up to make himself some lunch however, he didn't make it far away from the piece of furniture when the device began to ring obnoxiously. Eric's contact flashed across the screen at him and with a sigh, he answered. "Harri! Hey, I'm just calling to know how's the deal going? Spoke with Arthur earlier and said you were a bit on the fence?" Harrison plopped himself back on his sofa, resting his head on the big cushion behind his back.

"Yeah, um, I'm not sure about it," He acknowledged, rubbing his brows applying pressure to them. "I don't even know who this girl is."

"What!?" Eric exclaimed, "Y/n l/n is probably one of the biggest young stars of your generation, Harri. What do you mean you don't know of her!?" Harrison froze when her name escaped his manager's mouth. Y/n l/n, the girl who had her dick of an ex blabbing all sorts of nonsense about her to the press. Y/n l/n, the girl that has been ripped apart by the tabloids for years. Harrison's pale irises danced over the ceiling of the living room as he processed the information.

"I-um," he paused, clearing his throat. "Her name was never mentioned in the meeting." Harrison clarified. "The woman just referred to her as her client."

"Yeah, well. I can imagine, since you didn't agree immediately is best to not mention her name, you know? To protect her." Harrison's teeth clenched and relax, thinking that if Eric had said her name did that mean he had to do it now. "Ehrm, no pressure though. Even if I just said who she is, it's all up to you."

"You say 'no pressure' but she is on a time squeeze which means I need to give them my answer by tomorrow morning." Harrison's blunt fingernails scratched the thick fabric of the sofa as he thought on everything y/n's publicist had told them earlier at their meeting. Then the situation didn't sound so bad. Her client had some lies being spread about her and she needed good press to get her movie released, that was all. But now with the knowledge that was y/n who needed the good press Harrison started to think back on all the awful things the tabloids had said about her over the years, and he feared the stunt wouldn't work and that she would sink him with her.

"Well, you don't sound convinced at all. So, why don't you give Arthur a call and tell him you're not doing it, yeah? If you do it now you'll at least give Marcella some more time to look for someone else." Eric's enthusiasm had disappeared and was replaced by seriousness which made Harrison feel a pang of guilt at the reminder that whether or not a movie got released was practically in his hands. Who was he to take that away from someone? He knew what went into making a movie and even though he could just say no and it wouldn't be his problem anymore, somehow, he felt obligated since the moment y/n's publicist reached out.

"Is just ... how can I be sure that it's going to go well and not the other way around? Like, what if the bad press carries on and I go down with her?" his teeth mauled the inside of his lip as he voiced his concern.

"It won't, Harri. She's got such a good team behind her, why do you think she still gets jobs even though the papers have dragged her all around?" Eric exposed, "And even if it did go bad, which it won't, you're a guy. Men don't get accounted for in this kind of things." It was true, still, Eric's words made Harrison cringe.

Being in a fake relationship as a PR stunt to save a career was something Harrison never thought would happen to him but it wasn't like he had other options. The projects he had been on had been so good but so incredibly overlooked and that kept delaying his big breakthrough so the idea of embarking on a public (fake) relationship with a well-known, very successful actress didn't seem so derange when it meant it could launch him into the arms of big-budget-blockbuster films.

"Okay, I-i'll do it." 

: a.n : not much to say other than please vote this out and leave a comment letting me know if you're enjoying the series so far ♡