Page 21 of Never Date a Celebrity

Imogen leaned into her and put her head on her shoulder. “I know you do.”

“You know I don’t miss out on hug-fests.” Niamh squeezed in on the other side of Imogen.

“I’m not cancelling,” Imogen said after a few beats. “I said I should cancel. But it also just so happens that I don’t want to.”

“You’re excited about her.” Niamh stated it like a fact.

“I really am, you know. So, I’ll go on the not a date-date and see what happens. What have I got to lose?”

“Nothing,” Niamh said.

“And never us,” Piper said sweetly.

Imogen smiled and squeezed them both tighter. “Thank God for that.” Having her two best friends by her side made everything feel that little bit easier. Like the worst could happen and she would still be okay because they would make sure of it. They held each other together through the hard times. But they also revelled in each other’s wins too. And who knew? Maybe this would be one of those good things. “Well then. It looks like I need Saturday off.”

Chapter Four

“I need Saturday off,” Amelia said pleadingly to Gina, the producer who handled the schedules. “Please? I know it’s short notice, but I’m only down to shoot a few close-ups, which could be done after I finish my scenes on Friday. Problem solved with zero disruptions.”

“No.” Gina didn’t even look up. Instead, she continued walking while focusing even harder on her clipboard.

Amelia followed her with determination. “It’s really important.” No response, so she tried to reason again. “At least let me shoot them first thing on Saturday morning. I just need to be away by ten. Please, Gina.”

Amelia didn’t usually ask for favours. She knew how important it was to stick to the schedule. Time was money after all. Which was why she had come up with two perfectly viable solutions that wouldn’t cause any inconvenience to anyone else but her. The crew would be there anyway, she had checked. And if they went with either of her two suggestions then they would subsequently be ahead of schedule. A win for all.

Still, Amelia understood that most producers hated any unexpected changes to the schedule. It was written all over Gina’s face when she stopped and impatiently sighed at her. “What’s your current call time?”

“Twelve.” Which Amelia hadn’t realised when she’d planned her day with Imogen. In fact, Amelia had been almost sure that she had no shoots at all on Saturday, but maybe it had been slotted in. That happened sometimes too, because on the flip side, schedule changes were perfectly acceptable whenever they were made on the producer’s terms.

Gina eyed her for several excruciating, intimidating seconds. “I’ll change it to nine this one time, but you aren’t leaving until we get every shot we need. I don’t care if it’s midnight, you’re staying until we’re done. Got it?”

Amelia knew to keep her mouth shut when she was ahead. She would personally make sure the shots were finished in time. “Got it.” Gina had already begun to walk away when Amelia shouted after her, “Thank you!”

“Look at you asking for special treatment,” a familiar voice purred from behind her. Of course Bridget had overheard. She didn’t miss a single move Amelia made.

Amelia refused to cower as she turned around to face her. “Oh, hey, Bridget,” she said, forcing plenty of cheer into her tone.

“Amelia,” Bridget replied evenly, eyeing her with interest. “What has you messing up everyone’s weekend?”

She wasn’t messing up anyone’s weekend, but Amelia wasn’t about to explain herself to Bridget. That would only play into her manipulative hands. She also wasn’t going to divulge a thing about her personal life. “Just trying to arrange some time off for myself. That’s all.”

“Another day off? After you already missed that horrible open day yesterday?”

“Horrible?” Amelia said. “I heard it was a blast.”

Bridget gave a dramatic roll of her eyes. “If you call plastering on a smile all day while listening to the same gushes and compliments a hundred times over a blast, then, yeah. It was awesome.”

“Oh, come on,” Amelia said. “Who doesn’t love hearing lovely things about themselves? Plus, Gabe said that the crowd was really friendly.”

Bridget waved a hand like that didn’t matter a damn. “I suppose some were fine. For about two minutes. It quickly got tedious.”

Amelia’s mind absently wandered to what Imogen’s friends might have thought about Bridget, if they had met her, which in turn led her to think some more about Imogen. Imogen, who hadn’t been far from Amelia’s thoughts ever since the day before.

Amelia went on dates. She’d had a handful of semi-serious but short-lived relationships over the years. She’d had many a crush too. But none of it ever felt easy. Too often, the women she was interested in or dated were more interested in going out with a movie star than they were in going out with Amelia, the person.

If she dated someone who worked in the same business as her, there were always issues. Time restraints. Competitiveness. Women trying to further their own careers through Amelia. And likewise, even if they weren’t in the business, there were still issues. Women tended to get with Amelia to see what they could gain out of the relationship. Status. Attention. VIP treatment. Money. Amelia had lost count of how many times she’d opened herself up to someone only to end up being used in some way or another.

So, yeah, Amelia found her love life a pretty difficult thing to navigate because who could she really trust? It was exhausting being on high alert all the time.