2 Chapter TWO

L I A M

"I don't know why I did it, Cher. Please, don't leave me! I-I need you."

"Why do you even need me? You obviously don't give a damn, you were happy enough without me. Why would you want me to stay, huh?" She was sobbing now, chucking clothes into the brown leather bag as I tried to get her to stop and actually look at me.

I grabbed her wrists, struggling to get her to calm down. "I'm not letting go of you. You can't leave like this!" I stared right in her eyes before pulling her closer to me. "Not again."

"And cut!"

A loud buzzer goes off and the studio lights flicker on. Cara wiped away her fake tears, giving me a smile. "It took them almost an hour for the make-up and only one take for it all to be ruined," She said. I laughed, helping her clean up a bit of the mascara that smudged and dried around her eyes.

"Okay everyone," Our director, Ben, called out as he stood from his chair. "That's our last scene for today. Thank you guys, y'all did great!" There was a round of applause.

"I'll see you soon, Cara!" I waved goodbye, going in for a hug which she returned enthusiastically. We parted ways, heading to our own dressing rooms. I didn't forget to thank the staff as I went, shaking their hands as well.

Courtney appeared beside me all of a sudden. "Liam! Nice work, as usual. I know this is sudden, but Dave wants you in his office. He says it's urgent." The petite girl explained. I slowed down my pace so that she wouldn't have to hurry just to keep up with my, as Courtney says, ridiculously long legs.

"Why does he want to meet with me?" I asked. Courtney shrugged. "I don't know. He didn't tell me anything."

My brows furrowed. "Well, that's odd."

I got into my dressing room as Courtney opted to wait outside. I changed out of the outfit given by the stylist: denim pants and a plain white button-down. I slipped on my own clothes, which were black skinny jeans and a loose-fitting turtleneck sweater. I ran a hand through my hair, making sure I looked presentable before heading out to say goodbye to all my co-stars on set and Ben.

Courtney and I exited the building which I've been coming to for the past few weeks for the shooting. We got inside a black van, and I greeted our driver and listened as Courtney explained. "Since we don't know how long your meeting will take, I think we should reschedule your editorial shoot. It'll be better if we're sure that you can be there on time tomorrow." Courtney pulled out her phone and began typing, contacting the director of the shoot most likely.

"Thanks, Courtney. Where would I be without you?" I grinned teasingly. Courtney rolled her eyes, not even bothering to look up.

She didn't speak until she was finished typing. "Oh! I have some news. Someone contacted me, I don't know how they even got my number. Basically, they asked if you were willing to do a nude photoshoot. It would be their concept for the next issue of their magazine. I thought it was a prank call, but I did some research. Turns out the guy and his company is legit."

I blinked. "You declined, right?"

"They were persistent. I was being nice, telling them I'd bring it up with you while also reminding them that you have an agent who handles these kinds of deals. The guy said he needed me to get you to call them back since that's all I'm good for, apparently." Courtney used finger-quotes.

"What?" It shocked me how some people could be so rude, and the fact that they think they could say that to Courtney. "What'd you tell him?"

"I told him to shove his offer up his ass."

#

We got to ShowBiz Management HQ, which was a white building with a modern structure and too many floors. Once we arrived at the twentieth floor where Dave's office was, the hallways were quiet. Which wasn't unusual since nobody really came up here except for those who worked directly with Dave.

I knocked on the door that led to his office, waiting for a moment until I turned the knob. Dave was talking to his secretary, a paper in hand.

"Hey, Dave." I greeted him.

"Good morning, Liam. Just the man I wanted to see." Dave gave me a grin before looking towards the girl standing, waiting at his side. "Thank you, Vivian, that'll be all." Vivian nodded, collecting the piece of paper in Dave's hand along with a stack of envelopes before exiting his office.

"Thanks, Courtney, for bringing him here." Dave smiled at my assistant, organizing some files on his desk. "No problem, sir. I'll be waiting in the lobby." Courtney said from where she was stood by the door frame. She closed the door behind her.

"Take a seat, Liam." Dave gestured. I did so, sitting on one of the black sofa chairs in front of his desk. "What did you want to talk about?" I questioned.

"We'll get to that. First, how was the shoot today? Courtney informed me that you were on set only for a couple of hours."

"It's going great. We were just reshooting this one scene, which is why I didn't have to stay there for too long."

"Good, good." And then we took a couple of minutes to catch up. I asked Dave about his wife and kids, he asked me about my family, and we talked about some of my future projects. It was going well, I almost forgot that he had something urgent to say.

"Alright," Dave huffed out once we got all of that out of the way. "The main reason why I called you down here was because someone reached out to me just a while ago. She proposed an arrangement of sorts, and it involves you."

"An arrangement?"

"Yes. Patricia Wilkins from Unleash Records called me not that long ago. She said that she had an issue with one of her signed artists." Dave tried to explain, but I was just getting more confused.

"Okay, but what does that have to do with me?" I didn't mention how there's a certain person at Unleash Records I am familiar with, since I knew he had nothing to do with this.

"Ms. Wilkins briefed me about the situation. What she needs is for her artist to be in a pretend relationship with you."

What.

I opened my mouth, trying to form a sentence. No words were coming out. A few seconds of stunned silence passed by.

"Um. I just have one question."

"Go ahead, Liam."

"Are you bullshitting me!?"

Dave shook his head. "You'd think so, but no. The only reason I'm agreeing to this is because I believe this wi-"

Someone knocked, causing both Dave and I to avert our attention towards the door. Vivian swung open the door. "Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Zellner. Your guests are here now."

"Ah, perfect timing. Please, send them in." Vivian nodded, leaving to fetch these mystery people.

"Guests?" I raised an eyebrow at Dave who was now typing away on his desk computer.

"You'll see." Was all he offered. Just as I was about to tell Dave how much I hated not knowing things, footsteps sounded from outside the door.

The first person to enter was a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties. She had reddish hair in a tight bun and was wearing a pencil skirt with a matching blazer.

Once I got a good view of the man behind who I assumed was Patricia Wilkins, my stomach dropped and a cold chill erupted all over my body.

His gaze immediately landed on me, and my face was no doubt showing shock. I turned towards my manager and glared, trying not to lose my composure. It truly took effort on my part. "Dave, what the hell is he doing here?"

"Nice to see you too, Liam." Caleb's face looked indifferent, as if he expected to see me, which he probably did.

"Hello, Mr. Zellner. It's so nice of you to agree to meet with me." The lady who came in with Caleb greeted Dave, shaking his hand.

"No problem at all, Ms. Wilkins." Dave responded.

"Please, call me Patricia. This is Caleb Novak," Caleb shook hands with Dave, managing to smile politely and then sitting down on the other sofa, inches away from me.

It dawned on me what was happening.

"No. Dave, you can not be serious." I begged.

"I'm sorry for bothering you with this, Mr. Walker. Caleb is in a sort of sticky situation with a certain tweet and now he needs to pretend to be with you in order to get the bad rep to stop." Patricia explained, her voice calm and her features soft. It almost made me want to hate her less.

Almost.

"I'm sorry, but why does it have to be me?" I asked, averting my attention to Dave. "And why are you even agreeing to this?!"

Patricia was the one who replied, "The main reason we asked for you is because of your status. You, being a world-known actor and model, makes this plan seem a bit more real. If Caleb here just started dating an ordinary man, lots of people will assume we hired him and think the relationship is fake."

"Why is Dave agreeing to this?" I asked once more and this time, thankfully, Dave spoke up.

"Caleb's band, 3 New Efforts, has recently been getting a lot more popular. If you started dating him, it'll cause a storm in the media! People will go crazy over this, you'll gain more publicity which is great for both of you."

"Plus, it'll put the whole tweet issue aside." Patricia added.

"Don't I have a say in this?" I asked in disbelief, but Dave gave me a look. "Liam, I know you two aren't on the best terms, but think about it. Both of you will benefit incredibly from this. We're not asking you to fall in love with each other, we're asking you to pretend. Act!"

I pointed a finger towards Caleb, not bothering to look at him. "But why would people believe he's suddenly dating a man?!"

"Because of the tweet." Patricia interjected. "We'll tell the media that the reason he tweeted that was to hint everyone about your new relationship."

Dave stood then, eyes shifting from me to Caleb then back to me. "Liam, you know I'd never force you into something that could damage your career. I know you'll be able to pull this off," He turned to Patricia. "Patricia, if you don't mind, I would like to speak to you for a moment." Both managers left the office, leaving Caleb and I alone.

"This is a horrible, messed up idea." I huffed, neither of us looking at each other.

"It's not like I agreed to it." Caleb mumbled, gritting his teeth.

"This is your fault," I turned my head, facing his profile. "What possessed you to even do something as stupid as tweet that?"

"I don't think you noticed, but it'll be easier for you since you already came out as gay years ago, you won't be bombarded with questions." Caleb spat out, facing me as well. I ignored the way my chest clenched in favor of trying to stop myself from bashing my head against a wall.

"Why did your manager even choose me? There are tons of other celebrities."

"I don't know, maybe it's her way of punishing me for putting the band through this mess."

"I didn't realize punishing you had to involve me."

This plan will not work. It will never work. Nothing's happened yet and I already wanted the ground to swallow me whole.