Behind the Scenes

Chapter Eleven

After the appearance on GMA, I have the whole day free. The first thing I want to do is nap, followed by calling Millie, and I do both in order. It's mid-afternoon by the time Millie's phone rings somewhere in Toronto, so she should be available to talk. 

          She answers on the third ring, her voice thick with sleep. She works as a bartender most nights, and stays up designing and sewing clothes the other nights.

          It only takes her a moment to become fully alert upon hearing my voice.

          "Tell me everything," she says. I excitedly go over the details of the last couple days. I've been keeping her in the loop as much as possible via text, but with such opposite schedules and without the usual benefit of crossing each other's paths on our way in or out of the apartment, we've only exchanged snippets of conversation. 

          As I'm wrapping up my recap of my date with Joe, Millie interrupts me. 

          "Wait, wait, wait," she says. "You're telling me this man threw himself at you outside your hotel and you didn't sleep with him?"

          "Listen, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he actually likes me back. It's asking a lot to go from that to 'Fuck me, daddy' in less than four hours." 

          As I'm speaking, I hear the sounds of Millie shuffling into the kitchen and flicking on the coffee pot. 

          "Besides, what if I sleep with him, and then that's it? He flies back to England next week, and I fly home on Saturday. The situation isn't exactly conducive to starting a relationship."

          "I hear what you're saying," Millie says over the sounds of her spoon tinkling off the inside of her coffee mug, "and it sounds like you've already written off the possibility of a relationship--so why not just go for it while you two are still together?"

          I rest my forehead on my knees. 

          "You know I'm not like that," I tell her. "I care too much. I fall too deep."

          "To be fair, I don't think not sleeping with him will prevent you from falling any harder. You're already in way over your head with your feelings for him. I can't remember the last conversation we had that wasn't about how amazing Joseph King is."

          Ouch. 

          "And if, after all that suffering, I have to hear about how you ignored your chance to sleep with him when women all over the globe would literally kill to have the same opportunity, I'll kill you myself."

          I squirm in my seat as my heart pangs with jealousy, knowing Millie's right about all the women constantly clamoring for Joe's attention. I've seen them myself. 

          "Speaking of which," Millie says, her tone changing to something more conspiratorial, "did you know that the back of your head is now semi-famous?"

          "What?" I ask, genuinely confused.

          "Google lover-boy's name and see what comes up," Millie says. "Scroll past the latest interviews for your movie and you'll find the internet sleuths trying to figure out who Joe was looking so smitten having dinner with while on his press tour in New York."

          I do as advised and gasp when I see that Millie has basically repeated one of the headlines word-for-word. The article is from some trashy celebrity gossip site and goes on to say that according to the initial poster, Joe was definitely on a date, as "he could be seen at one point holding the woman's hand." I click the linked text and am taken to an Instagram post by someone called JosephKingLovurr. The blurry photo was taken from inside the restaurant behind our booth, so only the back of my head is visible, whereas Joe's pictured in profile smiling at me while we talked.

          I scroll down to the caption. 

💔💔 Spotted #JoeKing on a date 2 night in NYC. Couldn't get a picture of the girl. So sad. Wish it was me. U can do better Joe!! #JosephKing #BrothersInArms #DarrylBeckett #NYC #sobbing #imrighthere

          I can't lie, the comment that he could do better stings. I scroll down to the comments and immediately wish I hadn't. It's much the same--thousands of Joe stans lamenting the fact that he might be taken and "dying" to know who I am. 

          I close the app with a shudder. 

          "Well, that's definitely disturbing," I say. Millie laughs. 

          "At least they didn't get your face," she says. "Who knows, someone might be crazy enough to put a hit out on you."

          "And on that cheerful note, I'm hanging up now."

          "Don't forget to sleep with him!" Millie yells. "Do it for them!"

          I roll my eyes as I promptly end the call, but Millie has a point. Given that Joe and I are two consenting adults who are obviously attracted to each other, what do I have to lose?

          I try to ignore the pang in my heart telling me I'm already very lost to this man.

          It's fine, I tell myself. Everything's fine.

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Author's Note

Hi readers! Sorry this chapter took so long to post. What I want to know is, what would you do if you were Livi? Would you try to pursue a dedicated relationship with Joe, or would you try to have fun while you could?

More coming soon! :) Xx