It's Like Rain (Orlando Bloom/OC)

Chapter 9: Realizations, Incidents and Decisions, part 2

Orlando's POV

11:11 am I sit in a small bistro called the Pavilion that Lij, Viggo and Dominic picked up. To think of it, it doesn't differ from any of the cafés and bistros or restaurants in this town. One after another are pretty much alike. The only place I actually like is the Katsu-Ya. Need to bring Cookie there when I get her here.

What is it with LA and her that don't mix?

She's like oil and water when it comes to LA. But I know she's not all that hard-boiled egg she sometimes appears to be. She would have never apologized like she did few days back, if she was a hard-boiled egg. She would have just kept her head no matter what.

Maybe, if I'd book us a room or a bungalow at the Marmont, maybe she'd like to at least to visit?

Anyways, the boys are already in town and since Dominic missed the London get-together he almost demanded us to meet while I visit LA.

The house was great, more so. Need to call Fiona or Aleen and tell her the happy news that their "brightest star" will be moving into the Tinsel Town. Brightest star, my ass.

I groan, and pick up the menu and sink myself to read the damned thing.

The menu has taken all my attention when Lij and Dom arrive.

"Hey, Elf," Lij says, startling me up at first.

"Hey, guys," I say and glance up them. Will they ever get over that nickname, I wonder?

"Viggo's running late. The meeting with his new movie's crew took longer than he expected," Lij says as the first thing, when he sits down.

He's like a locomotive, Viggo, never stopping. He just a week ago finished his last movie, but already he's planning on his next film. I'm already having second thoughts of accepting The Red Circle as my next project, and I haven't even finished up Sirocco. The pick-ups are going to be bitch, because they'll overlap with The Red Circle. And that is just a best-case scenario.

What ever Viggo is popping makes him speed up. I should ask what they are – like he'd ever touch anything more than some plain old aspirin. The whole town is full enough of coke-heads.

Suddenly Dominic's lecherous grin catches my eye. That has been his basic expression over the past years when ever there is something screwy going on about any of the Rings casts' lives, and instantly I groan inwardly.

Uh-oh, what now?

"I heard of your newest conquest," he grins, smacking his hand on my back.

"Oof," I groan, "And I guess Vig and Lij went a bit overboard with her description?" granting a displeased look at Lij.

"Actually they praised her a lot. But now that you say it like that, what's wrong with her?" Dominic continues to pressure the subject.

"Absolutely nothing," I reply.

"Right-o, m'boy," he says, then pulls something from under his arm, a tabloid paper, rolled into a tube, and throws it on the table.

"Oh, dear," Dominic exclaims softly next to Lij, "You made it to the tabloids again," snickering as I yank the paper from the table and rustle it open to see what it says. It can never be good when Dominic's in a good mood - - OH SHIT!

I nearly choke when I see the picture of Cookie and me, snogging away in the airplane. Fuck! I didn't realize how bad it would look like in the papers, or from this angle. It's not the first page, though, thank God. That's reserved for bigger dipshits, but the fourth page is bad enough. An article, accompanying photos and two of them shows me and Cookie clearly, even though her face is half covered by mine. The headline was, just as she had suspected, juicy, and I groan inwardly yet again.