Chapter 5 - Her Smile?

Max’s POV

‘Good Job today,’ Aria commented as we got into her car. I had invited her to come over and hang out tonight, since I wasn’t able to spend the night with Ryan.

‘Thanks, you did pretty well yourself, I think that poor wardrobe guy was scared shitless when you told him my shirt was wrong.’

She laughed, flipping her dark curls as she did. ‘Yeah that was pretty funny.’

‘It was also pretty mean,’ I told her as we pulled out of the parking lot.

‘Eh, he’ll get over it, anyway, your place or mine?’

‘Mine, I’ve got popcorn,’ I told her, flaunting her love of popcorn. She had a nice house, but mine was closer to Ryan’s if he ended up being able to meet up later in the night.

‘Definitely yours then.’

‘I can’t believe that photo-shoot, it went for hours and then that ‘lunch’ meeting, what was with that, it went for like four hours,’ I complained to my best friend.

‘Don’t be silly, it was only like three.’

At least I could go home and relax with Aria now.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

We went to my apartment, pulling up at the large white building, where I owned the penthouse. The floor plan was pretty simple, each room being quite large and modern, the colour scheme simple with mostly white and bold colours. As usual Aria went straight to my kitchen, in search of food and alcohol probably.

‘Uh Max, you’ve got more than popcorn in here,’ she commented, standing at my fridge. Oh, yeah, I had all the food I was going to have with Ryan tonight in there. I was going to offer it to her but her she shut the fridge door and walked towards the bench.

‘Oohh, fancy wine,’ she noticed the bottle of wine sitting on the bench and poured herself a glass, offering me one, but I just shook my head.

‘Come sit,’ she motioned for me to sit at my own table and I complied following the girl, her heels making noises against the floors as she walked.

‘What’s up Ari?’

‘Ari?’ she gave me an amused expression.

‘Nickname?’

‘No,’ she said strongly.

‘No?’

‘No.’

I laughed at the girl, ‘Fine Ria then.’

‘Ria? No way.’

‘You’re no fun,’ I teased.

‘Shut up Max, business time,’ she patted her golden watch, apparently there was a time on it called ‘business time'.'

‘Feisty today,’ I winked, ‘I like it.’

‘Yeah no, this,’ she waved her hand between us, ‘is a friend only thing.’

‘You break my heart,’ I clutched at my chest and she slapped my arm.

‘Business talk please.’

‘Fine, fine, what’s up Ria?’

She hated nicknames and I loved to use that to tease her about it. The brunette sent me a mock angry look before she continued to speak.

‘The premiere at the end of the week, I want you to bring Alisa Zalesskii,’ she said seriously and I thought back.

‘Alisa? The model girl?’ I vaguely recognised the name, the image that came to my head was her face on the front of a gossip magazine, the Russian national’s long blonde hair and pale skin airbrushed to perfection.

‘Yes, she is beautiful and famous, plus she is the perfect asset to your bad boy reputation.’

‘Do I have a choice?’

She gave me a sly smile, ‘Well, I maybe already told her manager you would do it.’

‘Oh.’

‘Don’t be mad Max, I mean, come on, it’s not like I am asking you to go with a monster, she’s a beautiful young woman, just your type,’ I held in a laugh at that.

I put my acting skills to good use, ‘No, that sounds great, I’m looking forward to it.’

‘Thank-you Max,’ she smiled at me, ‘You’ll have a great time. I’m going to go set up a movie or something, I’ll meet you in the screening room.’

I watched her leave and I pulled out my phone, hoping to find a message from Ryan but I had no new messages. I knew that Ryan didn’t love Claudia, hell, they only kissed in front of cameras, but for some reason it seems like he wants to stay with her. When we were on the phone and I asked him about coming out, he made some excuse and told me he would call me. That was hours ago and the call hadn’t come yet.

Why didn’t he want to do it?

I didn’t want to at first because of my reputation and I wanted to make sure that if I told the world about someone that it would have to be a relationship I knew would last. Did he not think our relationship was important enough? Did he think that we weren’t going to last?

I tried not to dwell on unproven theories, as I grabbed some popcorn and joined Aria in the screening room, a large room which I had put a projector screen and large couches to watch movies on. She was watching some music video show when I walked in and I saw her lounging on one of the couches.

She lifted her head when I came in and sat up, patting the seat next to her.

I sat down and grabbed the remote, ready to put something on when the song changed and Ryan’s sweet voice came from the speakers, making my head instantly go to the screen.

‘Don’t change it!’ Aria screamed, pulling the remote from my grasp, and I let her. She turned up the volume and I smiled at the screen.

My gorgeous man was on the screen, he was wearing one of those outfits he hated so much, looking more like an adorable teenaged heartthrob than the man he was. He was singing to the camera, the picture changing frequently to his ‘memories’ of a girl he loved, them meeting at school, the poor girl in thick glasses dropping her books and him helping her until their eyes met and they smiled at each other, them in a park on a date, them kissing under fireworks. It was a stereotypical teen romance, even though the boy singing had been out of high school for many years.

I recognised the lyrics instantly, it was his first number one song, called ‘Her smile’. It had been playing on the radio for months, and was still loved by all teenaged girls, and Aria. The adult sitting next to me was singing along with the words and swaying to the slow beat.

At that time he was still singing some more alternative songs, but this one hit had risen him to the top, and similar songs were what appeared to keep him there.

I wondered whether he had wrote those lyrics for Claudia? Did he love her?

Was it her smile that he loved so much? Was it her that he was thinking of as he wrote those lyrics?

The words were filled with sweetness and love, and he sang it like he meant it, but what exactly did that mean?

The song finished and I snatched the remote back, changing it to the movie channel.

‘Why the sad face?’ Aria asked me and I quickly masked my worry with a neutral expression.

‘What? I’m fine.’

‘Ok,’ she said, but she still looked a bit worried, so I threw some popcorn at her, and she retaliated throwing one at me, but I caught it in my mouth, giving her a smug grin.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

‘You going to get that?’ Aria paused the movie and turned to me.

‘What?’

‘Your phone.’

‘Oh,’ I could hear it now, I must have left it at the table, the incessant noise attempting to alert me to a phone call.

‘I’ll be back, you can keep watching,’ I told her, leaving the room.

I found my phone on the table and quickly answered it.

‘Hello.

‘Max?’ Ryan’s voice came from the other end of the call.

‘Ryan?’

‘Yes it is in fact your amazingly sexy boyfriend, I’m here, I just want to make sure you’re alone.’

‘Where?’ I asked, confused.

‘Your apartment, dummy.’

‘Oh’ He was here? What? ‘What happened with the reporters?’

‘They stopped following me a few hours ago, thank-god,’ his relieved voice told me.

‘That’s good,’ I was glad they were leaving him alone, I didn’t need reporters catching us.

‘So can I come up?’ He asked hopefully and I panicked.

‘No!’

‘No?’

‘Aria’s here,’ I said quickly, I couldn’t let him come up if she would see him. That would cause her to ask way too many questions.

‘Could you get rid of her? I need to talk to you’ he said, and I felt fear pool in my stomach as I thought about his words. Was he going to break up with me? For Claudia? He did spend a lot of time with her. Maybe they have gotten closer? The thought made me sick.

Wait, he wants me to get rid of Aria? How?

‘How?’ I asked him. I had invited her over, how do I just get her to leave?

‘I don’t know, you’re the actor, think of something believable and act it out?’

‘You have too much confidence in my acting skills, she will see through me.’

‘Make it Oscar worthy then handsome.’

I laughed, ‘Ok, come up once you see her leave.’

‘Will do.’

He hung up and I quickly thought of something to tell Aria.

But in the back of my mind I was just panicking. Why would he come here and not just call like he said he was? Was he going to leave me for Claudia or something?

The thought made me feel like someone was ripping my heart out.