Our Romantic Horror Story

IX

Alex

"Earth to Alex." Jake hit me across the cheek lightly with a wad of papers.

Dragging away my eyes from my phone, which had held my attention for most of the evening, to Jake I saw the quirked brow expression he held on his face. Admittedly, I had been incredibly distracted from work, but it was supposed to my evening off and my head was elsewhere. 

"Sorry, what were you saying?" 

"You've made my day a nightmare," Jake laughed, "The least you could do is listen."

"I just want to go to bed, Jake. Can't we do this tomorrow."

"Unfortunately my career rests on your career, so not really, no."

"I just want to sleep." I groaned.

"No, Alex, what you want to do is go giggle on the phone while kicking your feet behind you like a love struck teenager." Jake scoffed, "He hasn't even texted you so let's just get this done."

"He said he would." I defended my non-existent relationship with Dylan.

Jake was my best friend, turned PR manager. He and Jenny worked together to keep my life and career intact, but Jake liked to say that I never made it easy for them. We had pretty much grown up together, from a bad area about an hours drive from the city. When he had gone off to university, I had landed myself an acting gig to make ends meet and it took off more than I could have expected it to. We escaped bad childhoods together; he did it through studying and I did it through acting. 

When my career began to take off, Jake had just finished his degree and was looking for a job, so it made the most sense for me to employ him as my PR manager at the time. Years later and he was one of the best in the industry. Sometimes he said he felt like ripping out his hair from my bad press, but I think he secretly likes it; I keep him on his toes.

The tabloids had picked up wind of me being a homosexual and it had spread like wild fire. Matters were of course made worse by the fact they now thought I was dating a university student seven years younger than me. It wasn't ideal, but it was better to deal with it now since I actually did intend to continue seeing Dylan. If he texts me, that is.

 On our way to my place Jake almost ran over a few crazy paparazzi that were hanging around outside my gates waiting for a photo opportunity. They seemed disappointed that I hadn't arrived with Dylan in the passenger seat, but I was glad he wasn't getting caught up in the brunt of this. It was kind of why I was so okay with ending the date early; I knew if I let it go on any longer the paparazzi would end up showing up as somebody in that café inevitably posted that Alex Hill was on a date there.

What kind of tabloid reporter is so desperate for an interview that they put themselves in front of a moving vehicle? Crazy people.

"Alex, are you sure that all of this is worth it?" Jake sighed, "I know that you like him and I'm happy for you, you know that I love seeing you get all happy like this, but the guy isn't even replying to your texts and I'm fighting a PR battle because of it."

"I actually haven't texted him; I don't have him number." I sighed, "Yes, he is. I haven't felt this way about anyone in a long, long time. He's just so different to the other people I meet nowadays; he's an enigma."

"He'd better be." 

Jake took out his laptop to start typing some emails and I watched over his shoulder, impressed by his cataloguing of different articles about me. He had an entire memory stick dedicated to published press on me.

"I come baring coffee!" Jenny appeared at the archway of the dining room, "I let myself in."

Jake looked relieved that the second member of his two-person team had finally arrived and he thanked her extensively for bringing the nectar of the gods. Jenny began setting up her own workstation on my dining room table and I slumped in my chair, realising that I was going to be forced to sit here and listen to a plan of action for the rest of the evening.