Reality And Romance

*****

Andrew Thompson enjoyed being a celebrity. The expensive clothes, the good food, the money – good God did he love the money.

What he didn’t love was the press. And they were fu*king everywhere.

He had been trying to escape them for the better part of an hour, ducking and diving in and out of shops and cafés to escape the rain.

He knew it was part of the job description, but holy hell were they a pain. Andrew didn’t even want to be a reality TV star, what he wanted to do was design clothes. Currently he was negotiating a deal with the directors of London fashion week so that they would use some of his designs. This wouldn’t have been possible without the show, and for that he was prepared to suck it up and get on with it. He didn’t love the press, but if you want to cross a bridge you got to pay a toll. This television show was his entry toll.

Besides, the press was practically docile towards him compared to the way they hounded his brothers. He wasn’t shy by nature, but what he was good at was keeping his mouth shut. Good at being just interesting enough for the producers not to complain, but boring enough that he was usually out of the limelight, so far as that was possible.

This attitude had kept him out of trouble, but it had come with its own hardships. He hadn’t had a girlfriend of any description in five years. Although looking at his brothers, he decided maybe that was best. His eldest brother Johnny, was tall and muscular with tan skin and blonde hair, he had appeared in a few soaps, and celebrity chat shows. He reveled in the limelight and had a new women on his arm every other week. Usually small town models who needed a publicity boost, they were shallow relationships that made for good television and helped prop up the nation’s image of him as a ladies man. Johnny seemed to be having fun for the most part, but he knew that his brother found it difficult at times. As pretty as these women were, both parties knew that the relationship was such in name only, it was a business agreement and that could get lonely. On the other side of the spectrum was Aaron, his youngest brother. A model himself, he loved attention and had attracted legions of fans, both male and female alike. Aaron was bi-sexual and the most conveniently attractive of the three brothers. His smooth skin covered a body that was slender yet muscular and his hair was a strange shade of black that looked almost purple in a certain light. This, matched with his striking violet eyes made him eye-catching indeed. The only thing that belied his true nature was his irritatingly smug, sh*t eating grin.

Andrew frowned, Aaron had had even more difficulties than Johnny. He had recently started dating a man named McKenzie DeLaney. McKenzie was a popular columnist for Smash Magazine that specialized in alternative fashion and music. They had first met when he had given Aaron a bad review in one his articles. He had slated his brother, stating that the pretty faced Aaron couldn’t pull off the punky clothes that had been given to him to model for the cover of one of SMASH’s most recent issues. Andrew loved his brother, but he was a vain son-of-a-bi*ch and had run straight to the man’s door demanding an apology. Andrew wasn’t sure what exactly had happened in that place, but a week later the family was told (off camera) that they had started dating. McKenzie liked to appear put upon by Aaron, who was talkative and always just a little over enthusiastic, but was simultaneously and begrudgingly amused and endeared by him. In turn, Aaron was utterly enamored by the strange and solitary McKenzie, and found him fascinating.

But it wasn’t a tidy romance. There was no sweeping off the feet, desperate declarations of love or even massive arguments. Instead, what existed between them was a constant tension that crackled and burned every time they laid eyes on one another. Anyone in the same room as them would be able to feel it, although the viewers at home wouldn’t be able to see it.

This had turned out to be a massive problem.

Deep understated relationships didn’t make good television and the producer had instead opted to cover up the romance, selling it to the public as an unlikely business partnership. Aaron had been furious, but McKenzie seemed pleased, he disliked the lime light, even in regards to his own work “I’m a voice, not a picture,” he had told Andrew.

Andrew had disliked the producer’s callous attitude towards his brother’s romantic life, but had come to decide that perhaps it was for the best. He had recently dropped some of his designs over at McKenzie’s apartment for a critical appraisal and had learned some things about his brother that he could have gone his entire life without knowing. The first was that Aaron was a screamer and the second was that he had no regard for the proper hygiene practices of the kitchen counter.

“Sh*t.” Andrew was snapped out of his thoughts by a flash of light. The paparazzi had found him again. With no time to waste Andrew skidded across the next corner looking for somewhere to hide. Andrew breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed the public library. He liked to read, not that you would know it from watching the show. Fantasy, mystery, romance, so long as it was a good story he would devour it, and it had always annoyed him a little bit that the show tried so hard not to film him with a book in his hand. The only exception was romance novels, and even that was always followed by a nudge into the Hot Tub of Truth so he could talk about his lonely and longing soul.

Once he was safely within the confines of the library walls he spotted a small cupboard and decided to take refuge in there for a few minutes before he perused the books. Just to be safe.

“Hee-ya!”

“Ouch,” Andrew called out as he felt something smack against his arm. Briefly he wondered if he was about to be kidnapped, then reluctantly, he lifted his head up to look at his attacker.

She was really quite pretty.

His assailant was a young black women who looked to be in her mid-twenties. Her eyes were a light brown, but they weren’t soft, instead they had a reddish hue and a slight slant that gave her a decidedly wolfish appearance. Her hair was thick and dark, and although it was wet from the rain, tight curls cascaded wildly down her face.

“Sorry I, uh didn’t mean to attack you. I was-” The women looked awkwardly at the light saber in her hand, “Playing.”

Realizing he was in no real danger, Andrew grinned. Having caught his breath, he was now able to survey the scene completely and was amused at what he found. Not only was she wielding a light saber, but she was also wearing a Star Wars T-shirt, and from the looks of it nothing else. Andrew would have liked to have said that at this point he turned his gaze away or at the very least maintained eye contact, but he couldn’t help it when his eyes traveled downwards and couldn’t quite hide his delight at viewing a pair of long dark legs.

His common sense told him to run and find somewhere else to hide. This women was quite clearly crazy. She was wearing a Star Wars top and having a light saber fight with herself. But something else made him take a step forward. The part of Andrew that lived for noise and joy and a touch of mad brilliance, the part he usually carefully controlled to maintain appearances to the press. The part that he squashed deep inside of him, a feral beast that he chained for the sake of his family’s reputation.

That part of him tore apart his common sense, and shut the door behind him.

The women in front of him looked startled, nearly dropping the light saber, before clenching her teeth and raising it as she moved forward in an offensive stance.

“Are you going to hit me again? That’s not very chivalrous. I thought you were supposed to be a Jedi?” He hoped the joke would make her relax a little. Introductions would have been more usual he supposed, but then this wasn’t a very usual situation and he didn’t want to spoil the first taste of fun he had had in months.