ACT LIKE YOU LOVE ME

Chapter 2 - Times of Trouble

"Real friendship is shown

In times of trouble;

Prosperity is full of friends"

(Euripides)

Camila slumped back in the bed. She had woken up to Shawn's note but she had no recollection of coming up to his room or how she had ended up in his bed. She did know that they hadn't....well she was pretty sure she'd know if she'd done that, and she was still wearing her underwear. She had remembered yesterday he had told her what show it was, and she turned the radio on to listen. She could hear him getting angrier and angrier as the guy tried to catch him in a lie but it had still been a shock when he had told the guy they were "more than friends". They had a lot to talk about. She quickly showered in his bathroom, then found a spare toothbrush in his guest bathroom and she always carried a hairbrush and moisturiser. She made his bed and had the coffee machine on when he walked in the door. She went out to meet him, wiping her hands on the teatowel she had thrown over her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," he said, throwing his keys on the hall table. "I don't know what came over me, I was thinking of you staying the night, and waking up to you in my bed this morning, and it didn't feel like lying, I was just talking about a different night."

She shivered at his words. "Waking up to you in my bed this morning". It sounded a lot different than how it was.

"We didn't....I'm pretty sure we didn't...." she stammered.

"I'm pretty sure too." She sighed with relief.

"Well, what are we going to do now?"

As if on cue, her phone started ringing. "It's Roger," she said.

"I've already had Andrew screaming at me."

She grimaced. "I don't know what to tell him!  I woke up and decided to listen to the show, I heard it all, and I felt like you needed some support, and I don't know, I just did it."

"Well, maybe this is the answer. I've said it now, we could just pretend to be dating for a little while then 'break up' and go back to normal."

She bit her lip, and her phone rang out and a few minutes later started again.

"Who would know? Our teams?"

"We could just keep it between ourselves? Andrew and Roger might suspect, but we could let them think it was real?"

"Are you sure, Shawn? I mean, this is not your problem, I didn't expect you to go to these lengths to bail me out."

"We spend some time together, we walk a few red carpets, it's not too different to what we already do, there will just be some hand holding and stuff, it'll be fine."

She bit her lip, she hated taking advantage of him, he was kind and cared about her and she knew he would put himself before her every time, but this was a simple answer to her problem.  She tried not to think about what would happen when it ended, how their friendship would then be perceived.  Would people judge them, blame one or the other, realise it had been a fake to take the heat off her?  She shied away from the questions and made a gut decision.

"OK, lets do it. I guess I should break it to Roger. He won't believe me for a moment, but he'll go with it, he'll be happy I think."

They both spoke to their managers and as expected, they were both sceptical to the point of total disbelief but they went along with it because it suited them at the moment, Roger especially.

"Did they give you anything to eat at the radio station?"

"No, I was running late and then I came straight back. But I'm not so hungry I'd let you cook. Let's just have cereal and toast."