I had found my displaced clothes which had been spread out over the hotel room and had a quick shower before I found the note. It was sitting on the white bedside table, its words in an elegant script I would know anywhere.

Dinner tonight, my place. 7pm.

M xx

He was a man of few words, but it was special all the same. In the year we had been together I had only been to his apartment a handful of times. The first time I had stayed there we were almost caught by Aria, so I tried to stay clear of that place as much as I could. His neighbourhood was also crawling with paparazzi, mine was too, but his had an especially denser population.

I was glad I didn’t have to work much, being able to wear my black tight jeans and white t-shirt with a colourful pattern over the front of it, large sunglasses covering my eyes a circle of blue and black threaded beads loosely tied around my ankle, not covered by the jeans. The outfit was one of the few I had actually picked out myself, my stylist telling me that it was too out there for my image. I had laughed at the girl.

Too out there?

I hated my reputation sometimes, I was supposed to be the good boy, the one who loved girls who ran over my heart with a truck or something. I was told to write more love songs, and sappy ones at that. Some of my recent stuff, I didn’t even write myself, I was told that the new lyrics suited my image more compared to the more alternative stuff I was writing. Some magazines made jokes that I was the male version of Taylor Swift, and they weren’t wrong.

The public knew me as the sweet talker, a charming man with a love for singing and pretty girls.

I was supposed to be infatuated with my beautiful current girlfriend, Claudia Grey, causing jealousy to spread like a microscopic virus around America, affecting teenaged girls.

If only they knew the truth.

I was crazy in real life, not like high on cocaine crazy, but like a mixture between a light pot smoker and someone who’s had a few vodkas.

I had learnt to keep the crazy inside, but with Max it seemed to spill out a little bit. I didn’t like the leak in my perfect ship of a personality but he claimed to love it, so I was a little torn.

I made my way to the first stop of the day.

Brunch with Robert.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

I got into my car and drove down LA’s busy streets to the restaurant where I was going to meet my manager/publicist, Robert Fields for lunch.

As I drove down one street I noticed a black van driving behind me and even though I had made four turns it didn’t seem to be veering from its path behind me.

I decided to see whether I was being paranoid or not, so I turned left at the next set of lights and made a big circle back around to where I was before, but nope, the car still followed me.

Oh god. I was seconds away from death.

Was this the end?

What if it’s the Russian mob! What if they have come to drag my sexy ass into their prostitution rings!?

Or it could be the CIA! Ooohh maybe they want me to be an agent! ‘Ryan Connors – Special Agent, Fighting Crime And Looking Good’.

Oh Ryan, get your head together.

This had happened before, and before you ask, it wasn’t the Russians or the CIA. Surprising right?

It was the paparazzi.

I calmed myself and continued on my way.

I pulled up to the restaurant the van pulling up behind me.

The camera flashes blinded me for a second before I turned and walked towards the large double doors of the restaurant. However, I was stopped with a hand to my arm, the hand, I assumed, belonged to whoever had been driving that van.

I spun around and came face-to-face with, you guessed it, Karly Grayson. Her straight brown hair looked the same as when I had seen her on the tv and she was holding a microphone to my face.

‘Ryan Connors, Is there a reason you’re here without your girlfriend?’

Act normal, I told my brain. As crazy as my brain was, I had to keep my actions sane, for my careers sake.

The woman next to me looked like a shark who had just smelt blood, and god was she hungry.

She had her doubts about my relationship with Claudia for a few months, but I never gave her more ammunition to be suspicious.

‘I’m here for a business meeting,’ I told the woman, whose face turned into a scowl.

She turned off the microphone, her photographer standing a few feet away still snapping pictures. I very much wished to flip him the bird and walk off, but I had a reputation, it would be on the front page of the magazines tomorrow. Something I am sure that Robert would have my head over.

The petite woman leant forward, narrowing her eyes and whispering, ‘I will find proof.’

‘Good luck with that,’ I laughed, pulling my glasses off my face and putting them into my shirt pocket before confidently turning and making my way into the restaurant.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

Robert was a fit man of about thirty-five, the amount of money he held made it easy for him to stay young, his dark hair perfectly styled and his stubble made him look ruggedly handsome. His suit looked very expensive and I admired his style.

‘So, you’re saying she’s going to leave me alone?’ I smiled at Robert from across the table at the back of the large Italian restaurant, the prices on the menu in front of me making me want to shutter, but I could afford it.

‘No,’ My smile fell at his words, ‘Ryan, I said that her boss wants her to only report the facts on you, her previous break-up predictions have been a flop so he’s losing trust in her reporting work.’

‘That’s bad?’ I asked confused.

‘No, it just means that she’s going to work harder to find proof that you and Claudia are not really together,’ He explained to me and I felt like going back outside and punching that annoying woman in the face and calling it a day.

But I have an image to uphold here.

‘Oh,’ I sighed, taking a sip of coke.

‘So, have you considered making your relationship real?’ he asked and I choked on my coke.

‘W-What?’

‘With Claudia,’ he stated matter-of-factly and I gawked at him.

I looked around, making sure there were no listening ears before speaking my next words.

‘As much as I like Claudia, I would never date her! And you know I am dating someone else.’

‘Oh yes, the mystery woman,’ he replied, reading his menu.

‘Yeah.’

‘You can’t marry your mistress Ryan,’ he laughed at me and I wanted to slap him, or at least fire him for calling Max my mistress, but he did his job well, so that would only end badly for me.

‘That’s not what I’m saying. I’m not going to actually date Claudia.’

‘Ryan, listen to reason here-’

‘No.’

‘Ryan, she is the reason that your songs are at the top, this would only further your career.’

‘I said no,’ my tone must have conveyed how serious I was being, as he didn’t speak about the topic again that day.

I was willing to stay with her for my career, to make sure that I could keep singing, doing what I loved, but I wasn’t willing to cheat on Max. No way.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

As I left the restaurant I was faced with a couple of cameras, bright flashes coming at me, and I smiled and waved, walking past them.

I made my way back to my car, but I sensed someone behind me.

‘Going to follow me all day Miss Grayson?’

‘If I have too,’ she replied and I didn’t need to turn around to know that she was following me.

As I got into my car a realisation dawned on me.If she was following me now, that means that I couldn’t go to Max’s apartment tonight.

I pulled out my phone as I got into the car keeping my voice low as I left a message on his phone, knowing he would be working. I needed to make sure that he would call me before doing anything, just in case he was planning on surprising me or something before tonight. I did not need anything more to raise Karly’s suspicions.

I waved to the nosy reporter as I drove away, her black van following me as I went.

I was going to have to call the police if this kept happening, there’s no way I could live my life with this crazy woman following me all the time.

I was used to it, but it had never been as bad as with this reporter. There was no way I was going to let her win, so I knew exactly where to go next.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

‘Mr Connors! It’s good to see you!’ Claudia’s housekeeper greeted me at the entrance to the mansion which Claudia called home, and I did too a few times a week.

‘Miss Grey is in her room,’ The old woman smiled at me and I made my way through the lavish halls of her home to the large room on the third floor.

I knocked on the door, ‘Who’s there?’ came from within and I yelled out that it was Ryan.

‘Oh Ryan honey, come in,’ came the high voice of Claudia, by the slight slur in her words I assumed that she would be either drunk or nursing a hangover when I saw her.

I opened the door and walked into the room and the first thing I noticed was the smell of pot in the air, then the smoke which seemed to cloud my lungs as I coughed my way through the room to open one of the windows which faced the back of the property, where reporters were less likely to be lurking.

‘Killing ourselves I see?’ I commented, walking over to where Claudia and Zach were lounging on her enormous bed, pot on the bedside table and empty liquor bottles covering every once empty surface.

Claudia looked like a completely different person than the one I attended the premiere with last night, her bleached hair looked dull and messy and she was wearing a black lacy bra with black shorts.

She looked so different to the woman who I had met only year ago. I was just starting out as a singer and Robert had organised with Claudia, the then brunette twenty-two year old to be my stage girlfriend. She was a famous actress, whose popularity would raise my fame, and I was a year younger than her, the sweet boy with good morals who would be able to diminish the rumours of her being hooked on drugs and alcohol and give her reputation a much needed boost. I felt sorry for the girl, her parents both in show business, pressured from childhood to be famous. It had taken its toll on her.

I was only supposed to be for a few weeks, but the public loved us so much that our managers insisted we continue.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Zach extended his arm, offering me some weed.

‘Yeah, no thanks buddy,’ I took the pot from him and placed it back on the table.

Zach was spread out opposite her, his blonde curls a mess and his eyes the same bloodshot as the woman next to him.

‘So Honey, how was your night with mystery woman?’ Claudia asked, lifting her bloodshot eyes to meet mine for a moment.

‘Good, how was your night with your not-so-mystery man?’ I asked, motioning towards the boy next to her, but the woman only shrugged.

‘One day people are going to see that boy leave here and our secret will be out.’

‘And what’s so wrong with that?’

A lot. A lot is wrong with that.