Chapter 3: The Famous Receptionist
I look to see what the commotion is and cannot believe my eyes. I see Dillon standing on the desk getting into a shouting match with a posh looking woman. She's holding a rolled-up magazine in her hand while glaring at him.
"Dillon Baldwin, get down here right this instant!"
"No! You're just going to hit me," he whines as if he were a child.
"Dillon, you have been famous since you were teenager. You cannot just go trapezing wherever you want, doing whatever you want. And you especially cannot pretend to be the receptionist!"
"I'm not pretending I'm simply filling in for her."
"And why exactly is it you who is filling in for her?" she asks in an exasperated tone.
"Because she needed to …"
"Because she needed to what, Dillon?"
"Because she needed to walk her turtle!" he says after thinking for a moment.
Proud of himself for coming up with such a brilliant excuse, he looks down with a smile on his face to see a scowl on hers.
"I am going to give you three seconds to get down here and stop this nonsense".
"Or what? You're going to whack me with that magazine again? I'm going to get hit either way. I am not going down without a fight!"
"One".
"This is tyranny, you cannot do this!"
"Two".
"Equal means equal!"
"Three".
"Eeeeekkkkk!" he screeches as she starts hitting him with the magazine.
He tries to make a getaway by jumping off the desk, but before he can run, she catches him by his jacket. As she continues to whack him with the magazine, she yells at him.
"You're 28 years old, why can't you just grow up already?"
"Why would I do that? If I grow up who's going to bring fun into your life?" he asks the woman with a boyish smile.
"You brat you're going to be the death of me," she shrieks as she starts hitting him again.
As I watch the two run around the lobby, I chuckle to myself. He reminds me of who I used to be. Suddenly his head snaps, and he looks at me. Uh oh! I don't like the look I see on his face. He's up to something. Suddenly, he shirks out of his jacket to escape her grasp and comes running towards me. Before I can take a step, he pulls me in front of him using me as a human shield.
"Save me!" he screams
"No way. I am in no way a part of this, nor do I want to be."
"Please?" he howls.
"Dillon, let go of the girl."
"If you're that scared of her why don't you just hide?" I ask out of curiosity.
"You're absolutely right," he says as if he was about to go to a battle.
With a determined look on his face, he turns to me and says,
"Do you trust me?"
"Nope. Definitely not. You're a complete stranger. While you're at it quit using me as a shield."
"Ok cool. On the count of three we're gonna make a break for it. One".
"I don't think you understand what nope means. Lets try this again. No".
"Two".
"Listen I'm wearing heels. I can run in these, but I really shouldn't."
"Three," he says as he takes off running.
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" I scream as we take off running.
I want to stop but have no choice but to follow since he won't let go of my hand.
"Don't think that cause you're running away that I'm going to let this go Dillon!" I hear the posh woman's voice project across the building as we're running.
After running for a while, my heel catches on a crack in the sidewalk and snaps. I feel myself falling. All the sudden, I feel a muscular arm reach out and catch me.
"Sorry about that," he says with a crooked grin.
He's so adorable. I can't help but not be amused by it.
"It's fine. I'm not having the best day anyways," I say with a laugh.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Why not."
"Great! I know of a good coffee shop we could go to."
"Is it the one across the street from the agency?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"Lucky guess," I say cringing just thinking about this morning.
As we walk into the shop, one of the barista's recognizes me.
"Welcome back. What can I get started for you today?" she says with a big grin on her face.
Nervously laughing, I ordered a vanilla latte. This time, I let Dillon pick up the coffees as we grab a table. Don't want a repeat incident of what happened this morning.
"So, tell me about this day of yours."
"Where should I begin?" I wonder out loud to myself.
"The beginning's always a good place to start."
"Well, know who the interview was for today?"
"Of course."
"Well, I signed the non-disclosure agreement so I can't tell you what happened during the interview, but I can tell you what happened before."
"Whatever it is I'm sure it can't be that bad," Will says before taking a sip of his coffee.
"I stripped William Wang half naked in this coffee shop in front of everyone."
Barely missing me, Dillon sprayed his coffee.
"What?" he chokes out.
"Yep. In this very coffee shop I took off the clothes of the man I just finished an interview with."
"Tell me everything," he says while snickering.
I regale what happened minus the interview, of course, not leaving out a detail.
"Woah. I didn't realize you were that kind of girl. Is my chastity in danger being around you?"
"Ha-ha, very funny," I say with a deadpan expression.
"You have to admit it's kind of funny."
"It would be if I wasn't so desperately in need of a job."
"Why do you need a job so bad?"
"I had some really bad stuff happen to me while I was still living in Texas. Things I had to run away from. It took some time to heal and it was great for my mental health. As for my employability on the other hand, it's not looking so good. I'm just trying to take a good step forward with my life and take some of my power back."
"I see," he says with a pensive look on his face.
I can tell what I said is kind of a buzz kill and quickly change the subject.
"Enough about me! Tell me more about yourself Mr. Receptionist."
"You're not gonna let that one go are you?" he says with a shy smile.
"Never."
"What do you want to know?"
"Tell me about yourself."
"Well I'm 6'2", brown hair, piercing blue eyes, boyish good looks of course," he says with a grin.
We both laugh as I tell him.
"I meant who you are, not what you look like."
"In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not actually a receptionist. I'm an actor."
Pretending to be shocked, I gasp.
"No!"
"I know it's impossible to believe but it's really true."
"How long have you been acting?"
"I acted for most of my teenage years but didn't break out until I was 17."
"Do you enjoy the fame?"
"The fame's great! I love all my fans, but sometimes I just want to be treated like a normal person."
"Which is why you pretend to be a receptionist?"
"Hey! I pretend to be more than a receptionist. I'll have you know, I have fully passed myself off as a paparazzi before. And not just any paparazzi, one's looking for me," he says with pride.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Woah. I think you just earned my respect as an actor."
We talk as if we were best friends that had known each other for years, not strangers who had just met a few hours ago. While talking about an embarrassing incident that happened his first time on set, I got a call. I ask Will to wait for a second while I take the call.
"Hello?"
"Hi! This is Keller Ellis from Callista Talent Agency, may I speak to Astra Briana Cyrene please?"
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