Love in the Spotlight

Chapter Fifteen - Last night you were in my room

Something hit his face.
"Wake up, Midland!" Jon heard Alice's angry voice and remembered where he was. He opened his eyes. "Why did you let me sleep here? I was supposed to go home last evening!"
"Good morning, Alice," he answered, still a bit sleepy. She did not greet him, instead was walking quickly around the room looking for her clothes. "They are in the bathroom," Jon said in a friendly tone, but actually was trying very hard not to laugh.
Alice rushed to the bathroom. Jon looked at his watch. It was only 6 o'clock. He slowly followed Alice to the bathroom and watched her dress. He guessed there will be no morning sex.
"Don't give me that concerned look, Midland." Alice said angrily, putting on her blouse. "You knew very well that you should have woken me up. You let me sleep, didn't you?"
"Alice, come on! You were so tired . . ."
"Bullshit!" She continued putting on her clothes not looking at him.
"Why are you so pissed, Alice?" This started to be a bit disappointing to Jon. He knew she would not be happy, but did not expect such an outburst.
"People saw me walk into your suite last night, Jon. They will see me leave it only in the morning. No one is that stupid not to connect the dots."
"First of all, Alice, I pay them for not connecting the dots." He walked over to her. "Second of all, is it really so bad if someone would connect the dots?"
Alice calmed down a bit and took a deep breath. She considered for a moment how to say what she wanted to say without hurting him.
"Jon . . . I . . . I like this." And she pointed to him and herself. "But this is just sex. I don't want people at the studio to think I'm the next Cindy or worse . . ."
"Since when do you care what the movie industry folks think? I thought you despised them!" Jon was trying to sound calm, although he did not like how the morning had turned out.
". . . or worse; the press will get to know about this. Jon, I can't let that happen." Alice started to sound desperate. "Not now . . . I'm not ready . . . I need to clean up my own mess before I'm involved in a new one . . ."  When she spoke those words, she realized what a mistake this all had been. How could she have slept with Jon Midland? What if she did land in the spotlight, what if someone found out that Stone was her maiden name, that she had been Alice Johnston before and that she had been stabbed and . . .
Jon noticed that Alice's thoughts are raging through her head and that she was starting to look very much panicked. What she said was hurtful, but he put that aside for now.
"Alice . . ." He gently grabbed her shoulders. "No one will know. We will just say that you came here very early this morning as I needed you."
Alice did not seem convinced.
"Please, let's have breakfast and then I will take you home." He took her hand and gently pulled her in the direction of the bedroom. She followed still deep in thought. "We are shooting only in the afternoon, right?"
"Right . . ."
"OK, so I will order breakfast for us."
He left Alice in the bedroom. She now seemed calm or at least calmer than a few moments ago. When Jon came back Alice was fully dressed with new makeup on. She looked spotless. As if she would indeed just show up here.
"Breakfast will be here in thirty minutes."
"Great." Alice smiled. She seemed as if she made some decision; Jon was not sure what that decision might be and that worried him a bit.
"I'm sorry, Alice . . ."
"Forget it." She did not want to talk about it again. "I'm here so let's discuss the plan for the day."
"OK, let me just put something on." Jon tried hiding his disappointment as they were back to the game of 'nothing happened'. He put on jeans and a t-shirt.
By the time breakfast was brought up, they went through the whole plan for the day. Alice also remembered that Ella asked her yesterday to mention something to Jon about the situation with William Bennet. This had totally slipped her mind . . . Seems Ella hadn't mentioned anything to him either, as Jon would have definitely commented on it by now. Breakfast seemed a good time to mention the topic.
"I forgot to tell you . . ." she started innocently. "I heard a gossip yesterday when making your coffee . . ."
"I guess this is why you took so long," Jon said as if he would be stating the obvious. Alice ignored that remark.
"Do you want to hear it or not?"
"Depends . . ." He kept on teasing her. "Is it good material for the Celebrity Update?"
"You are the expert." Alice was losing patience. "If you let me tell you what it's about, then you will be able to decide how to categorize that."
"OK, so what's the gossip?"
"The assistants mentioned that Jess and Will Bennet are fighting about something . . . real bad and . . ."
"This is not a good candidate for the Celebrity Update," Jon interrupted her. "Everyone knows they don't like each other . . ."
". . .this time apparently lawyers got involved," Alice added. "This does not sound like a small misunderstanding to me."
She could see Jon started to weigh this up. He stood up and walked to the window. She got the effect she intended, or rather Ella intended. For a moment she felt bad as this was a bit of a manipulation, but then she remembered why she was here. Jon deserved some manipulation for not waking her up last evening.
"OK, enough of the gossip." She tried drawing his attention. "We do not have much time before the interview."
This worked. Jon looked at her as if remembering something.
"Ah, right! This is why I wanted you here so early in the morning," he said with a wink. "You need to help me make an important decision . . ." Alice did not seem much concerned, so he just continued. "For the interview; a suit or jeans? That is the question!" Jon exclaimed in a theatrical tone.
"Indeed a difficult one, Midland," Alice spoke in her usual pissed tone. "I must admit, you keep the bar very low for your assistants. If this was my full time job, I swear my level of intelligence would drop significantly."
"I see that you are now fully awake and back to your charming self." He stood up and went to the bedroom expecting her to follow.
Alice just gave him a fake smile which he did not even see.

When the clothing decision was taken after long deliberation, Alice called Joseph and asked him to be ready. She was not sure how to explain her presence at the hotel at this hour, but luckily Joseph asked about it openly when seeing her.
"And you are already here that early, ma'am?"
"What can I do, Joseph, he needed me . . . or rather he thought he needed me," Alice explained, getting in the car.
"Of course I needed you. You helped me with a very difficult decision." Jon commented as he got in the car. "Good morning, Joseph."
"Good morning, sir. Where to?" the driver responded, laughing. He found the two and the way they interacted very funny.
"I'm going back home," Alice did not let Jon speak, "and Mr. Midland is going to Good morning London for an interview. So I would appreciate if you could drop me on the way."
"Of course, Miss Stone."
"I have a meeting at London Publishing in two hours." She turned to Jon as they started moving. "What time do you want me on the set?"
"What time can you be there?" Jon did not want to push her anymore.
"After twelve?"
"That's enough. I will be there earlier as I want to talk to Ella."
Jon did not say what he wanted to talk to Ella about, but Alice guessed it's about William Bennet. She considered for a moment whether to warn Ella about that, but then she decided not to. This would be like going behind his back and she did not want to do that. He did piss her off this morning more than once, but she did not want to go that path of dishonesty or half-truths. This was the reason she had left the movie industry in the first place. What she'd told him about Jess and Bennet in the morning wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either. She promised herself never to do that again, not even for Ella.
Joseph pulled over by her house.
"I'll see you later, boys." She glanced at Jon as she got out of the car. He seemed to be anticipating something, trying to read her, but unsure of what to expect, he just waved.
Alice was also not sure what he could expect from her. This morning when she had been dressing up in his bathroom, she had made a decision to end whatever was between them, as this would sooner or later, and she assumed that it would be sooner, bring her pain and distress resulting from Jon's popularity. On the other side, she felt she could not trust herself or rather her own body which craved for his closeness.