The Nanny [Jimmy Fallon]

24

-1 AND A HALF YEARS LATER-

"Oh my god, can I take a picture with you?" A young girl, who looked no older than 16, asked me, an enthusiastic look on her face. I couldn't hide the confusion on my face as I looked at her, wondering if she thought I was someone else. "Please?" She pressed. "You are Izzie Rhodes, aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah, I am. Sure, of course." I glanced at Louisa, who was frowning, snapping a picture with the young girl. She said thank you excitedly, before heading off back to her table. "What?" I asked Louisa, who was looking at me in disbelief.

"You, Izzie," she laughed. "You're hilarious."

"How?" I asked, taking another look of the menu, although I already knew what I was having – blueberry pancakes with bacon. I always got the same every time we came here.

Louisa rolled her eyes at me before speaking. "Pretending you don't know why people want to take pictures with you. You're on the front of a shit load of magazines, hon. You're in a fucking movie with Dave Franco!"

"It's just hard to get used to," I muttered, taking a sip of my mocha.

I didn't want to say it out loud as I didn't want to jinx things, but I still wasn't sure about this fame thing. I mean, I wasn't really famous. I could still walk down the street without being recognised, although this month I was on the cover of Marie Claire and Cosmo, so this was becoming a little more of a rarity. It had all kind of come from nowhere in the past few months, after my guest feature on 'Riverdale' had aired and doing a few magazine features, plus I'd been shooting 'Nerve' before that.

I still had to pinch myself every time I thought about the fact that I was in a starring role in a movie, with Dave fucking Franco. Working with him had been awesome and it didn't take me long to get over my initial shyness, but it still felt pretty surreal. Even better, he was an all-round amazing guy and he'd helped me so much with my acting. And he'd been pretty fun to kiss.

Although I'd had this amazing measure of success in such a short period of time, I still wasn't sure why. I'd had a number of small TV show roles, nothing that really got me noticed that much, until I featured on 'Riverdale'. Tom, the original casting director who had hired me for 'Blue Bloods' had recommended me for it, staying in contact with me for the past year and a half and almost becoming like an unofficial agent for me. Everything had been great with him, until he'd tried to come onto me last month and I'd turned him down. Since then, things had gone quiet. It worried me that the only reason I was getting these amazing roles was because of him.

But Louisa, my assistant/publicist/best friend had told me that as soon as this movie premiered, which was in 2 weeks, the job offers would come rolling in and I hoped she was right. I was proud of my performance in the movie, and in the cuts I'd seen I was happy with my acting. However, just because I was happy didn't mean the critics couldn't rip me to shreds. As a fairly new actor in a leading role of a big budget movie it was possible, and Dave had told me to be prepared.

"What time is Cameron coming along?" Louisa asked me, absorbed in her phone, not even looking up as she spoke.

"Uh, I don't think he's meeting us until tonight," I replied, checking my phone and looking over Cameron's last message – 'Gonna have to skip on brunch babe – last minute shoot! See you tonight at Nobu? Can't wait to see that gorgeous face.' "Yeah, he mentioned something about Nobu," I told Louisa. "What time are we booked for?"

"Nobu?" I watched her face drop, finally looking up from her phone. "No, we're going to that Italian place, in West Hollywood! Fuck, Cameron!" Her attention was back on her phone, a frown on her face as she frantically typed away. I just rolled my eyes, finishing off my food. Louisa was high strung, but I loved her.