Falling for a Star (Complete)

Chapter 30 - Important Conversations

***** Dylan's Point of View *****

My cell phone rang and it was my publicist, Brian. It wasn't like him to call this late.

"Hey," I answered, flopping onto the hotel bed in my boxers, letting out an exhale. "What's up?"

"Well, I was TRYING to have a nice, quiet dinner with my family, but it got interrupted by a thousand text messages from people sending me videos of you singing and kissing some random chick in Iowa. It's all over the place."

"First off, her name is Brenley and she's not some random chick. She's the one that won the Spill the Tea with Tammy sweepstakes, and it's nice to talk to you too Brian. My day's been great. Thanks for asking," I said sarcastically.

"Hey, this isn't a catching up, chit-chat type of call man. I'm trying to do some serious damage control here," he said, letting out a frustrated exhale. "People are freaking out. Whatever you have going on with this chick is bad for business."

"Why?" I asked.

"You were voted the Sexiest Man Alive Dylan. Women flock to your concerts and fill up huge arenas because they're under the illusion they have a chance with you. No matter how deluded that may be, the truth is, a heartthrob's popularity always nosedives when they get a girlfriend. Every single time."

"Brian, I'm not some teen heartthrob," I laughed. "I'm twenty three years old and I'm a serious actor and musician. They didn't give me an Oscar and a few Grammy's because I have a pretty face, and the last time I checked, twice as many men watch my movies as women."

"I'm not saying you're not talented Dylan. You're crazy fuckin' talented, but I'm a businessman and you're a product that I'm trying to sell. Men may watch your movies more, but women are the ones buying your merchandise and concert tickets. We need to keep them both happy. It's all about creating the perfect image and brand that they'll want to buy into, and women like talented, hot, young, single men. We don't wanna screw up the good thing we have going on here."

"Who says me being with Brenley has to screw anything up? Look at Ryan Reynolds. He got even more popular after he got with Blake Lively."

"Yeah, well this Brantley, or whoever the hell she is, is no Blake Lively. No one's ever even heard of her before. She definitely wouldn't catch people's attention and make them want to buy a magazine or click on a story. She's ordinary and boring."

I scoffed. "Just because she's not famous doesn't make her ordinary and boring. You would know that if you actually gave her a chance and got to know her," I said, starting to get irritated.

"Ok. Maybe that was the wrong choice of words, but my point is, she's gonna hold you back. If you're lonely and want a relationship, I could set you up with someone on your level that would help advance your career, like Blake did for Ryan. I know plenty of A-list actresses that would kill for the chance to date you. How about I set you up with one of them and if you guys hit it off, we could set up a bunch of photo ops, and if you don't, we could stage a big, explosive break up right around your next movie release to create more buzz for it?"

I laughed and shook my head. "Damn Brian. I hired you because you're the best at what you do, but I'm starting to realize that all you ever think about is money and publicity. You're obsessed."

"Yeah, as your publicist, that's kinda my job kid," he laughed. "You pay me to worry about your public image so you don't have to."

"Yeah well, I'm not gonna get into a fake relationship to get more publicity. I don't need to anyway. I have the number one song and the number one movie in the country right now. If you haven't noticed, my face is already plastered everywhere you look," I said, running a hand up through my hair as I laid back on the bed against the headboard.