𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲

Four | Interview

TOM

"NO MAN, I'm just out with the boys. What's up?" I said into the phone, excusing myself from the table where my brother Harry, my best mate Haz and my other best mate Tuwaine sat. It's cool they all came to Los Angeles with me; means we can all fuck around as lads. Harry usually travels with me but I think Tuwaine and Haz came along to support me after the break up.

Walking outside of the bar to a small terrace balcony, I plugged my other ear with my finger to try and hear better. The loud music mixed with my moderate alcohol intake made it difficult to understand.

"We need you to come to the studio. It's urgent," one of the Sony lawyers said bluntly.

"I'm kind of busy at the moment, can't it wait for tomorrow?" I chuckled.

"You either come to the studio now, or you go to the airport tomorrow on the first flight back to London. Your choice," he said again, more menacingly than before. I recognised his voice from that immigration meeting I had where they said they would 'handle everything'; obviously they hadn't.

"Fine. But I'm kind of drunk, just warning you guys," I laughed, hanging up when he said it was okay before heading back inside to the boys and sighing.

"Work shit, I've gotta head to the studio," I groaned, pulling my jacket from the back of my chair and throwing it over my shoulder.

"Everything good man?" Tuwaine asked, tapping his pinky against his beer glass which was semi-annoying because of his ring.

"Yeah yeah, just reshoots. I'll see you guys back at my place," I said leaving and jogging down the narrow bar staircase down to the street. I hailed a taxi and got in, telling the drive the address and sighing with my head pressed against the leather seat.

"Sony pictures? Wow, you must be important to be invited to work there," the man said as he performed a u-turn and looked at me in the rear vision mirror.

"Oh you're the Spider-Man! It's an honour to drive you sir," he smiled. I nodded and smiled back, looking out the window to politely indicate that I wasn't really in the mood for talking. Normally I wouldn't catch a public cab at all but time was of the essence.

The boardroom was full when I arrived, the same lawyers from before sat on one side and my manager was on the other next to a girl fidgeting with her fingers.

"Ah Tom! Thanks for making it," the nice lawyer said before the mean lawyer told me to sit down. My manager and the girl turned around to look at me, which was when I recognised her as the assistant from work.

"Is- Is everything okay here? I'm sorry I've had a few drinks and I'm not particularly in the right mind to talk about law shit," I joked, slumping down into the chair and reaching across the table to pour myself a glass of water - spilling it in the process.

I wiped the small puddle with my jacket sleeve, the denim not absorbing it very well and just smearing it across the wooden top.

"We just wanted to apologise firstly for asking you here at almost midnight, but thank you to the three of you for meeting with us. Tom, as you know we recently advised you of your expired visa and promise that we would rectify it. We did so by using Y/N's name as a de facto partner on your extension application and unfortunately the bureau has launched an investigation into the legitimacy of the application," the nice lawyer said to us apologetically.

"An investigation? Into me?" The assistant said anxiously.

"Into the two of you... Have you ever seen the movie The Proposal?" He continued.

"Oh Ryan Reynolds! I love that film," I grinned.

"Just think of this like that... We um, we need you both to pass the interview section of the investigation. Luckily for us, give that Tom here is obviously an A list celebrity, we can cover up the fact you two don't have any public knowledge of this fake relationship. But you two will have to pass the face to face tests," the nice lawyer nodded.

"Fake relationship?" I clarified.

"The government now thinks the two of you are in a serious relationship and for your visa to not be revoked, avoid extended deportation and potentially jail time, we need the two of you to learn about each other's lives to pass the immigration interviews," the mean lawyer started bluntly.

"Jail time? I was uncomfortable doing this in the first place b-" the girl started saying before I interrupted.

"I'm sorry, you told her what was happening and not me? That doesn't seem right considering it's my career and my visa on the line," I scoffed, the alcohol probably making me sound cockier than I had intended.

The lawyers further explained that they had made my management aware and that their first option was to write Zendaya down as my false de-facto partner. Of course, that wouldn't have swung well with either parties, the relationship was publicly over.

"So uh, what are the things that this interview will ask us? And how long do we actually have until they question us?" The girl asked, which made me realise I've only ever heard her name once and that was tonight. And I've already forgotten it. Fuck.

"In about a week. We will email it to the both of you. We want you both to stay exactly how you love your lives currently. Nothing will change in that aspect. And once this interview is over, just make sure any partners you have stay out of the public eye for several weeks in case the investigation continues," the nice lawyer smiled.

"I'm single so that won't be an issue," the girl laughed before quickly taking a sip of her water, she seemed a little awkward but I couldn't tell if it was this situation making her act like this or if she was naturally awkward.

"Same here. So if we live our lives the same as usual, how will we get to know the answers to these questions? No offence but I don't really hang out with my film production crew on a daily basis. And paparazzi might take photos of us if we go out," I asked.

"You will exchange phone numbers and run through the answers whenever you're both free. You also can book meeting rooms here on set and we can pass it off as work related. Remember, we need this to sound as legitimate as possible so it would be best to actually get to know each other on the phone over several calls. Don't let it sound too scripted okay?" My manager stated.

"I'm an actor man, making people believe me telling lies is basically my job," I laughed, looking towards the girl and stretching out my hand around my manager Jason.

"I'm Tom, I'm your fake government boyfriend," I chuckled. As detrimental to my career as this could actually be, I knew the lawyers and my management had my back. This would be easy, secret and nothing in my life had to change except this dumb interview.

"Y/N, your fake government girlfriend and real assistant to the executive producer on our film," she said smiling back, although she looked quite worried.

"Great. And by the way, you'll both probably look back on this in Marrakech and laugh about it," Jason smiled.

"Marrakech?" The girl asked timidly. Is she working on my next film? Hm, cool. Sony must like her.

"Yeah, the first filming location is in Morocco. I heard you were offered the associate producer role after Billy DeMarcus randomly dropped out? Tom here found out he got one of the lead roles about a week ago. Congrats kid," Jason smiled.

"Nah man, she's like my age, don't call her a kid. But hey, nice to know we're working together again," I smiled.

"Yeah, maybe we will laugh about this one day then."