Uncovering Kaitlyn (13 page)

“Excited,
are we?”

“I don’t
know when any reporters will turn up.”

“Is that
all?”

“I may have
wanted an excuse to do this.” He leant in and gave me a kiss and then took me
into his kitchen. “You know, I wasn’t kidding when I said about the poison. This
is why I ordered Chinese already.”

On the
breakfast bar, there were several cartoons of Chinese and two plates. He’d lit
a few candles and set out the plates. I had to smile when I noticed that the
candles were brand new.

“I forgot to
mention that there is a condition to a free dinner tonight.”

“Oh yeah, so
what’s that then?”

“No scarf.
You don’t need to hide from me Kaitlyn.”

“What about
Ryan?”

“He’s in New
York for the weekend. Don’t hide Kaitlyn, I meant it when I told you, you are
beautiful.” He reached over and took off the scarf I wore with my fitted black
dress and threw it out into the hallway. “Now eat.”

“So what’s
Ryan doing in New York?” I asked as I scooped some fried rice and chicken chow Mein
onto my plate.

“Every time
he comes over to visit he makes a point of spending a weekend somewhere else. I
pay for him to fly to America and back, so this is he’s own holiday. There’s a
concert he wants to go to, but if I went we’d have to have security and be in
the VIP area or girls would flog us. Fans go mental so easily but its worse
when alcohol is involved.” Jamie looked glum and disappointed.

“This gets
to you, doesn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t
change it, acting is everything to me. Sometimes I wish I could do stuff Ryan
does though. Be normal for a bit.”

“I know how
you feel.”

“Give it a
few more years yet.”

“When I was
at school I was approached by an agent after a concert. I was twelve. My dad
wouldn’t let me sign. He said I needed to live first. The other kids treated me
differently. They wanted to be friends until they found out I wasn’t going to
sign. The teachers were the worst. I had to stop being in school concerts
because they would pin everything on me. They wanted to be able to claim they’d
made me, when I learnt most of my music myself.”

“You were
found when you were twelve?”

“It makes it
sound like I was lost or something. What about you with your acting?”

“I joined
drama clubs at about fourteen. I was in a few plays and Mum told me I should
audition for an agency. She didn’t even know if I was any good or not, she
thought it would help cover some of the costs. I got accepted by the first
agency I auditioned for and got a part as an extra in
casualty
then the
next audition I went to was Rising Christ. The agency only dealt with kids so
they handed me to Graham at a cost. Graham got me boosted from a minor part to
one of the main five, and has been my agent ever since.”

“Was it
weird when people started to notice you?”

“A bit, they
kept telling me for ages that the film would go big, so I was sort of prepared.
Not like you in that café”

We finished
our dinner and went to watch a film in the living room. After about an hour I
stopped pretending to watch the film and kissed Jamie deeply. He pulled off my
dress and ran his thumb over my scarred stomach.

“You’re
absolutely gorgeous, Kaitlyn.”

Jamie woke
me up at midnight and handed me my ringing phone. He mumbled something about
finding clothes and wondered downstairs.

“Hey Jake.”

“It’s midnight
Kaitlyn, where are you?”

“Sorry, I
started walking around for inspiration and I lost track of time.”

“You’ve been
gone for four hours, you never need that long.”

“Stop
panicking Jake, I’m sorry. I’ll be home soon. It’s a new city in a new country,
I think I have a whole song or two now though. At this rate I’ll have
everything for the album before we go home. I’m just calling a cab now.”

“I’d feel
better if I came and picked you up.”

“It’ll be
quicker this way. I’ll text you when I’m nearly at the hotel. Love you”

Jamie came
back in with my clothes and sat down on the bed.

“I called
you a cab. It’ll pick you up a few doors down. My neighbour doesn’t mind you
walking through their garden so you’re less likely to be caught out by any
paps. I’ll see you at the studio on Monday.”

I put on my
dress and went into the bathroom to check my scarf. Jamie gave me a peck on the
cheek as he walked me out the back. He was acting strange. I heard him myself
when he said he didn’t do girlfriends but I didn’t expect him to be so cruel
after we did it. He didn’t even say good-bye.

Jamie

If every
date was like the one I had with Kaitlyn, I’d have two or three a day. When
Jake called her I felt my heart drop. I got that they were close but there was
clearly more that Kaitlyn wasn’t sharing. A normal friend or brother wouldn’t
seem that panicked over his sister or friend being out at midnight. She’d been
mugged before but I’d seen in her bag that she carried spray and an alarm. She
also had Jake, Aaron and her dad on speed dial and she was hardly the type to
walk into danger.

It
physically hurt when she said that she loved him. I knew I didn’t have the
right to stake a claim on her but when she told another man that she loved him
while naked in my bed, I wanted to hunt the bastard down. Ryan would be able to
sort this out and give me some idea where I stood, nevertheless I promised
Kaitlyn I wouldn’t tell and I didn’t want to break that promise. I’d never had
a proper serious girlfriend so I didn’t have a clue about how to go about
asking her where we stood and what was truthfully going on with Jake. This was
going to be a hellish weekend while I worked it out.

I had to be
up at five for a location shot in the city. It would be a long day and I’d be
busy with fans whenever I wasn’t working so I had no time to call Kaitlyn and I
wasn’t going to talk to her over text. I was moody all day and snapped at
Graham several times. I annoyed some of my co-stars when I couldn’t do the
scene in elven takes but when I was rewarded with a slap to the face I tried to
forget about Kaitlyn and finally managed to do the scene.

I made it
back to my place at midnight and I fell into bed. The sheets still smelt like
Kaitlyn and I didn’t bother changing them. I slept for a couple of hours then
at four I decided to text Kaitlyn.

Me-
Morning, I’m guessing you’re up. Meet me for breakfast?

Foxy
Jones- Meet you at the beach.

I found
threw on some jeans and a T-shirt and ran downstairs to find my car keys. As I
was about to run out the door, I grabbed some towels and a spare hoodie. The
drive was the longest ten minutes of my life and I decided against parking in
the secure car park twenty minutes away and pulled into a space a road away
from the beach. I grabbed two coffees from a Starbucks while I waited for
Kaitlyn to show.

She was
already waiting on the sand when I reached the beach. I handed her a coffee and
sat down.

“You realise
it’s not even five in the morning?”

“When was
the last time you didn’t spend the night writing music? You haven’t slept all
night since I’ve known you.”

“I sleep for
ever when I’m at home. Jake keeps buying me ridiculous alarm clocks to wake me
up on time. I drowned one or two in the bath” She smiled at the memory.

“Who is Jake
to you Kaitlyn?”

“That’s what
this is about? Jake?”

“You sat in
my bed telling him you love him. So who is he?”

“I told you
he’s like a brother to me.”

“What’s his
problem though? Why can’t you be without him for more than a couple of hours?
Would it kill you? You are your own person Kaitlyn act like it!” I shouted.

“He was
supposed to be there, okay? He was supposed to walk me home, and I got mugged
because he didn’t. He found me down an alley bleeding to death, so yes I would
be dead without him” Kaitlyn yelled back at me tears streaking down her face.

I put my arm
around her and kissed her forehead. “I don’t want to be without you Kaitlyn. I
want to give us a proper try. You need to explain this stuff to me.”

“I know.
This is new to me too. I’ve only ever trusted Dad, Jake and Aaron before.”

We sat on
the beach until seven o’clock, just talking and enjoying each other’s company.
We watched the sunrise and I brought us a bagel for breakfast on our way back.

“Want to
make breakfast our new tradition? I can tell Dad and Aaron I’m going running in
the morning, as long as I don’t get fat, they won’t question on it.”

“Does that
mean we’ll have to do some form of exercise each morning?” I winked at her.

“Yeah, I’m a
fan of football.” She teased.

“Soccer or
football?”

“Definitely
football, I’m a hands on kind of girl.”

“So I’ll see
you tomorrow Foxy?”

“Mr Smith, I
think you just might.”

Chapter Eight

Kaitlyn

It had been a week since I’d met Jamie on the beach. We were
going strong and getting to know each other well. So far we’d had breakfast
every day, lunch a few times and dinner once. We’d also managed to fit in a few
private exercise sessions, but that was all for work purposes, of course. Jake
had an idea that I was possibly seeing someone and he teased me relentlessly.
He had seen TJ Smith on my phone but had no idea that it was actually Jamie
Stark. I had a contact on my phone for Jamie’s agent so if anyone asked me
about Jamie I gave them details for his agent. Nobody questioned that because
it was common practice at the studio for people to give out details for their
‘people’ instead of private numbers. Jake was happy enough as long as he didn’t
have a face to match the name. Jake pictured me marrying a sensible office boy,
who would support me and keep me safe in an ordinary plain life. Jamie was the
opposite of that. He was a bad boy and dangerous. He lived the fast life and
dated whoever he pleased. There was nothing ordinary about him and he was bound
to hurt me, but right now, in the moment I didn’t care. Jamie Stark made me
feel free and it was liberating.

“Morning Katie”

“What time is it?” I asked Jake as he knocked me out of my
daydream.

“Ten. I thought I’d let you lay in since it’s your day off.
Ryan called me. He’s having a BBQ at Jamie’s later and wondered if we wanted to
come.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“Summer I think. Jamie’s got a hectic schedule after this
week and we’re going home on Wednesday. I think he’s either glad we’re leaving
or having a good-bye party for us Brits. He says they’ll only be a handful of
people there. Dad and Aaron have already left to go sightseeing for the day.”

“Let me just get showered and dressed, and I need to Skype
Wayne before we leave as well. I want to update him on the album but I don’t
trust email.”

I got dressed and covered myself up before I spoke to Wayne.
I now had a total of eight songs for my album and I was halfway through my
ninth. I told him how far I’d gotten and he listed everything I’d need in order
to record when I got back. He told me of at least five interviews I’d need to
do and I promised to go over them with Aaron before we flew home. He reminded
me that I’d also need to promote the movie as well as do fan based events as
well. I thanked him and promised to meet him on Friday.

I was nervous on the way to Jamie’s. We hadn’t spent much
time other than on set hanging out on a friend only basis and I was worried
that we’d slip up and everyone else would find out. Also I had never met any of
Jamie’s friends before, with the exception of Ryan who Jake had spoken to more
than me, since I was usually busy when he was on set. The cab dropped us off
outside Jamie’s and a handful of paparazzi greeted us. We waved and said hello
to them as we walked to the front door. I was almost used to the strange
questions that they asked and just smiled as an answer to them.

“Afternoon. Come on in, everyone’s in the garden but help
yourself to a drink as you go through the kitchen.” Ryan greeted.

We didn’t speak until much until he’d closed the door. Jake
grabbed a beer from an ice bucket in the kitchen and I took my time pouring
myself a coke and some ice to go with it.

“So Jake reckons you have yourself a boyfriend.”

“Jake needs to mind his own business.” I laughed at Ryan’s
attempt at subtlety.

“So you wouldn’t go out with me then?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not interested in dating at the moment.” I
smiled awkwardly.

“Is that because you have a boyfriend?”

I laughed and went to join everyone outside. Jamie called me
over and went over everyone’s names. I recognised a few faces and I could see
the shock on Jake’s face as he chatted to a well-known actor. I mingled for a
bit but as soon as people were being thrown or ‘encouraged’ to swim I shot Jake
a look and went inside on the pretence of more ice for my drink. I was blocked
next to the fridge by Ryan when I turned to leave.