Page 22 of Never Date a Celebrity

But yesterday with Imogen, it had felt easy. Natural. Okay, so it didn’t hurt that Imogen had no idea who Amelia was. Of course that was a plus. Because how could Imogen possibly have ulterior motives when she didn’t even know that Amelia was famous? She couldn’t. So, unlike her usual interactions, Amelia had been able to relax and let her guard down. It had been invigorating to get the chance to be herself without the hindrance of fame weighing her down. In the end, Imogen hadn’t agreed to go out with Amelia Whitlock, the movie star. She had agreed to go out with Amy, the girl from the bar. And that felt amazing.

Except, Amelia had also messed up. Because she was famous. And she’d had two perfect openings to tell Imogen the truth about it, and she had squandered them both. It was wrong of her, and she knew it. Growing up, her mom had very firmly instilled in her that it was never okay to tell lies. And Amelia didn’t. Normally.

The guilt had kept her up for most of the night. Amelia had tried to justify it to herself that it was more of an omission of truth than an outright fabrication. At one point, Amelia had even tried to convince herself that it was for safety reasons. But all of that was a load of crap, and she knew it. She could come up with a hundred excuses, but none would be good enough.

The reality was that Amelia had lied to buy herself some time with Imogen. And then she kept up with the lie to buy herself some more time. There was no way that Imogen would have agreed to go out with Amelia if she’d known who she was. Not after her prickly reaction about celebrities. And even if Imogen would have somehow agreed, despite knowing the truth, then Amelia would have the same old problem that she always had. She’d wonder what Imogen was doing with her and constantly question her motives. Because usually, that’s what Amelia had to do. And usually, she ended up bitterly disappointed with what she discovered.

Therefore, during her hours of missed sleep, Amelia decided that she was going to give herself this one date. She wouldn’t lie or evade the truth. If Imogen asked her something that would somehow give her away, then Amelia would answer honestly and accept that her time was up. And if Amelia did somehow manage to get to the end of their date without that happening, then she would come clean with Imogen about everything anyway. Amelia hoped that when she explained the reasons why she had kept her identity a secret, that Imogen would be open enough to understand. Amelia didn’t know her that well, but she seemed like a compassionate person. Call it intuition.

Or maybe the date would be a complete disaster anyway and it wouldn’t be an issue. But Amelia doubted it. There was something there between Imogen and her. A spark. Amelia couldn’t remember the last time she had met a woman and felt such an instant connection. Maybe never. And perhaps it was wishful thinking, but she had a feeling that Imogen had felt it too.

The whole encounter had left Amelia wondering if wishes from wells really did come true. When she had thrown her pound in and wished that she’d find the woman she truly belonged with, only to meet Imogen a couple of minutes later—it was coincidental to say the least.

Bridget cleared her throat and Amelia snapped back to the present. What had Bridget been saying? “Tedious. Right. I’m sure.”

Bridget narrowed her eyes. “You’re acting strange today.”

“Am not.” Was she?

“Whatever. I don’t care. I just wanted to ensure that you aren’t going to mess up any of my scenes with this whole slacker persona you’ve decided to take on.”

“Nope. My slacking will have no impact on your scenes at all, rest assured.”

“Hmm. Well, I hope you’ve got your head in the game for next week. A lot of our big scenes together are coming up.” Bridget shot her a grin that was all too smug. “Though you probably knew that already. Most actors look forward to kissing me.”

Amelia looked forward to shooting their kissing scenes about as much as she looked forward to getting her period. She was sure that a lot of actors did look forward to kissing Bridget. Objectively speaking, she was a very attractive woman. Too bad Amelia valued kindness and personality rather than just looks. Therefore, kissing Bridget wasn’t particularly high up on her wish list. But Amelia could pretend for the movie. That was the job after all. And Amelia was good at her job. “I can’t say that I ever look forward to filming any kissing scenes, but I’m sure that you and I will be able to do it justice. That’s why they picked us, for our excellent acting ability.”

Maybe Amelia could write a handbook on how to handle Bridget Clemonte, because for once she didn’t seem to have any sort of comeback.

Then, in excellent timing, Amelia’s phone started to vibrate in her hand. She held it up. “I better take this. Nice chat as always, Bridget.” She turned and rushed off in the direction of her trailer. Hopefully, Bridget had said all that she wanted to say and wouldn’t make an appearance there too.

Once she was safely out of earshot, Amelia glanced down at her vibrating phone. It was a FaceTime conference call with both Veronica, her agent, and Helen, her publicist. One that she had not been expecting which meant they wanted something. Amelia swiped the screen as she walked, and their two faces appeared separately, each of them in their respective offices. “Hey, guys.”

“Hi there, favourite client. How’s it going over there in rainy Ireland?” Helen asked cheerily.

“Now, Helen. I know that you call all of your clients your favourite.”

She tutted. “Yes, but you’re an actress, and you’re supposed to be a talented one, so you could at least play along.”

Amelia laughed. “Fine. Consider me flattered. As for rainy Ireland, I love it. The rain can be charming. There’s so much more to life than just blue skies and sunshine, you know. There are actual seasons to enjoy. I’m currently in autumnal bliss.”

Helen screwed up her face in disgust. “I’ll take your word for it.” Knowing Helen, she probably tried to sue Mother Nature anytime it rained in LA.

“As lovely as it is to hear from you both, was the weather the only reason for your call?” Amelia asked, knowing full well that it wasn’t. Especially not since both of them were there.

“Of course not.” Veronica replied this time. “I jumped on because I emailed you over a couple of scripts and I wanted to know if you’ve looked at them yet?”

“Not yet. I haven’t checked my email today.”

Amelia could see Veronica typing away on her laptop, probably working on something completely different for another client at the same time as their conversation. Veronica was well known as a master of multitasking. It was impressive how many balls she juggled. “Well, get checking and get reading. This weekend if you can.”

Amelia felt herself deflate. “This weekend?”

“Yes. One of the scripts is very time sensitive. Filming is due to start the week after you finish up with Always the Bridesmaid.”

“The week after—”

Veronica cut her off. “I know you said that you wanted a break this time, but this is huge, trust me. Netflix is going in big on this movie. It’s an action flick, which is something you said you always wanted to try. I’m making your dreams come true here.”