2 Million Lies

Chapter 2

Cyrah went home from lunch in a daze, hardly able to believe she had just agreed to do that. She hadn't even met the guy she was about to pretend to date yet, and apparently he was all kinds of messed up. She put her bluetooth earpiece in to call Lacy as she drove home, and fill her in on what Cyrah had just agreed to, but remembered after she had already called that she couldn't actually tell Lacy what she had just agreed to do. Damn, she had to keep this secret from her best friend too? That made this situation a lot harder.

God, Lacy was going to go nuts, thinking this was a real relationship. But two million was two million. And how hard would it be to stage a dramatic breakup?

Lacy picked up. "Hey Cyrah. What's up? Need to be saved from your date?"

"Nothing like that. I'm on my way home now." It hurt that she couldn't tell Lacy, get some advice on this mess, but it was what it was.

"How did it go?"

Cyrah hesitated. She couldn't tell Lacy a thing about it, could she? She had to lie. "It was fine, but we won't be meeting up again." Technically a half truth. She felt a little better about it, since it wasn't an outright lie. Technically she wouldn't be meeting up with Matthias again.

"Oh well. Guess you just have to try again."

"I guess." She wasn't going to be, but she couldn't tell Lacy that without getting into things she definitely couldn't tell her. Two million was more than she had ever hoped to get. Hell, the ten thousand dollars he had given her already was more than she had seriously expected to get out of the whole sugar baby thing.

"Anyway, do you want to come over tonight? Brandon is away on a business trip and I could use some company."

Cyrah shook her head, even though Lacy couldn't see her. "I have a gig tonight, sorry."

"Oh really? Is it a good one?"

"Should be a pretty good one, yeah." Lacy would never have any idea how good.

"Good, as much as I love you our apartment doesn't have space for you to move in if you can't pay your rent. Is it something exciting?"

Cyrah laughed. "No worries, I won't be needing to move in with you." That was definitely true, even if she didn't make it six months. "It's pretty boring, nothing exciting."

"That's good. I'll talk to you later? Brandon is calling."

Cyrah nodded. "Yup. Talk to you later." She hung up, and turned on the radio for the rest of the drive to her apartment.

Soon she pulled into the parking lot, and headed up to her apartment. She kicked off her too small shoes at the door, making a mental note to return them to Lacy soon, and headed into the bedroom to change into more normal clothes. She put on a plain black t-shirt and ripped jeans, and headed back into the living room, laptop in hand.

She set her laptop down on the kitchen table, and, remembering that she hadn't watered the plant on the kitchen counter yet, grabbed a glass off the counter and filled it up to water it with. She put the glass in the sink, among the other dirty dishes she had yet to wash, and sat down at one of the mismatched chairs, neither of which matched the table.

She fired up her laptop, and immediately went to Google Shane's name. She decided to start on the Wikipedia page, that seemed like a good place to get an overview. She moved from his Wikipedia page to the band's Wikipedia page, then from there to the Wikipedia page of the band she was going to the album release party for that night. She ought to at least know a little bit about them if she was going to their party.

She hit the back button a few times, and started going through all the articles about Shane, working her way back in reverse chronological order. Rehab, arrested, overdose, nodding out during an interview, track marks spotted. And girls, girls, and more girls. Photographed with a different one every week, it seemed. Great. He was that type. Would she even be able to catch his attention?

Once she had learned everything she could about Shane, she set out to read everything she could about heroin. If she was going to play the girlfriend, she ought to be informed. What a shitshow it would be if he overdosed while they were 'dating'. And, as awful as it sounded even to her own ears, if she kept him clean she'd probably get paid more. Not that she needed more, since she was getting two fucking million when this was all over.

Her phone, which was sitting on the table nearby, started ringing. She glanced over at it. Matthias's assistant. She had better answer it. She picked it up. "Hello?"

"Is this Cyrah Evans?"

"It is."

"I'm Jada, Mr. Anderson's assistant. I'm going to need you to come down to try on your dress for tonight, and pick up a camera."

"I have my own."

"What?"

"I have my own cameras. I'm actually a photographer."

"Oh. Well then. Bring whatever you want with you then, and come to the address I'm sending you now to try on the dress and get your hair done. You need to look your best, after all, since you're not actually going there to take pictures."

"Alright." It was all happening so fast, she hadn't had as much time as she would have liked for research. "I'll be there in about half an hour."

"Excellent." Jada hung up, and Cyrah set her phone down and started hurrying around her apartment, trying to get all the camera things she would need. Of course, according to Jada she didn't actually need them, but she figured it would be best to properly look the part. She had to hurry to arrive at the address Jada had given her in time, but she managed, and was entering the salon at exactly the time she needed to be there.

Jada was there, waiting. She was a tall, intimidating woman, with long blonde hair and long hot pink nails. She barely looked up from her phone when Cyrah came in. "Great. Dress is in the back room, go try it on. I had to guess on your size. Let me know if it isn't correct, there's still time to pick up another one while you're getting your hair done. There are shoes in there, a couple of different sizes, take your pick."

Cyrah made her way into the back room, and took a look at the dress. It was red, with a deeper neckline than she usually wore, with a pattern of tiny cutouts at the waist, and it looked as if the skirt would stop a few inches above her knee. She quickly tried it on. It fit, which was good. She turned her attention to the shoes. There were a few pairs of black heels, identical except for the size, and a few pairs of black flats. Cyrah selected the pair of flats that was in her size, and stepped out of the back room. Jada glanced up from her phone again. "Oh, perfect." She gestured towards a woman to her left. "Avaline will do your hair, go ahead and have a seat."

Cyrah sat down in the chair that was indicated for her to sit in, and tried to hold still as Avaline started in on her hair. While Cyrah got her hair done, Jada chatted on. "You didn't like the heels? I thought the heels were perfect."

Cyrah almost shook her head, then didn't because Avaline's hands were in her hair. "I don't wear heels. I can't manage to walk in them."

Jada hmphed, and continued tapping at her phone screen. "You'll be attending the party with an actual photographer and a journalist. I've been told to tell you that if you manage to take any good photographs they'll be used in the article, with credit to you, and payment."

That was awesome. Cyrah grinned widely. "Perfect." That was a better opportunity than she could have asked for. Now she had two major goals for the night. Get good pictures and meet Shane, somehow catching his attention enough to turn this into a long term thing.

The first thing she knew she could do. The second... Well, that would be a little bit harder.