Follow Me Back (complete first draft of the published book)

Chapter 15: Exposed (Part 1)

Chapter 15: Exposed

"OK, thanks everyone. Take ten."

Eric gingerly disentangled his limbs from the pair of red-headed identical twins playing his love interests in this latest music video.

Music video, he thought with a wry smile. What a joke. They should dispense with the pretense and call it what it was: soft-core porn. Ever since the Billboard charts started counting Youtube views in their ranking system, the music video business had turned into footrace to see who could expose the most flesh without getting banned by the FCC. All of a sudden, you had Britney breaking out the whips and chains . . . Miley swinging around like a naked, one-woman demolition crew . . . and don't forget Nicki, with her groundbreaking exploration of butts and bananas and spurting whipped cream.

The whole business left a nasty taste in Eric's mouth. It all seemed so unnecessary. Not that it was anything new really - record labels pimping out their stars. Sex and music had gone hand in hand for decades, ever since Elvis Presley first gyrated his hips on the Ed Sullivan show.

It was just so overt now. Didn't the fans ever get tired of it? Didn't all that nudity start to run together after a while?

Eric slipped a robe around his shoulders and ran a towel across his face to rub away the lipstick stains. Make-up would have to touch him up before the next scene, but they could wait. Right now, he had more pressing matters to attend. He'd passed the last several hours shooting the threesome scene with his lovely co-stars, and he'd spent the entire time with his mind on someone else.

Had she seen it? Had she responded?

Eric hadn't had a chance to check twitter since he tweeted earlier, asking his fans for selfies. Now, he eagerly pulled out his phone to check the replies.

The response was overwhelming, of course. His notifications overflowed with pictures of girls in their bedrooms, making faces at their phones. Kissy faces. Duck faces. More kissy faces. . . .You'd think one of them would try giving him the finger or something, just to stand out from the crowd. But no. Just kissy faces by the thousands, each one interchangeable with the last. He scrolled downward past all of them, scanning with his eyes for the username that he was seeking.

Where was it? Hadn't she sent one?

He didn't have time to wade through all the noise. With a grunt of exasperation, he quickly tapped her name into the search bar to pull up her profile.

Ah, there it was at the top of her recent tweets. She'd sent it two hours ago. Eric couldn't prevent the wide smile of anticipation that curved his lips as he read her reply:

Tessa H (@TessaHeartsEric)

@EricThorn Here's a kiss from someone cute. Have a great day!

pic.twitter.com/aiG9hbc3lx

He tapped the link to open up the picture, and he couldn't help but laugh at what he saw. "What the hell is this?"

She must have taken it in her bedroom. She'd arrayed a mountain of Eric Thorn fan paraphanelia next to the foot of her bed: posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs, CD cases. . . . The only sign of her own presence in the photo were her feet, decked out in a pair of fuzzy pink bunny slippers. She had one bunny positioned next to the poster, kissing his image on the cheek.

Eric shook his head as he looked at it. So frustrating! He couldn't see anything. Hell, he couldn't even tell how big her feet were from that!

Still, he couldn't erase the grin he had plastered on his face. "Here's a kiss from someone cute." She was awfully cute, wasn't she? Even if he couldn't see what she looked like, at least she made him smile.