An update? Thanks for all the reviews!
Chapter 4
"Cody, you look dead," Daley said.
"Point out the obvious, will you?" Cody replied.
"I'll make sure the makeup artist puts an extra layer on today," Daley said, almost choking on her toast. "Why are you so exhausted? It's ten in the morning. That's plenty of time to sleep."
"Well, let's see if you can do the math," Jackson said, as he dropped down into his chair and the cook placed a cup of orange juice in front of him. "Three cups of coffee at nine o' clock at night."
"Jeez. Why were you drinking coffee so late?"
Cody was staring into his coffee and reminiscing about the night before: the music store, the coffee, and Melissa. When he thought about her, he instantly flashed a grin. He was thinking about her all night. He didn't want to lead a double life and lie to her. But if she found out who he really was, would she have been the same person whom he met yesterday? The idea of this subject wiped the grin off Cody's face. He just wanted to "go with the flow" and see where their relationship ended. He broke the trance of the coffee and saw Daley staring at him.
"What?" he said innocently, not noticing that he had been staring at his coffee for a couple of minutes.
"Are you sure you're all right? I could cancel the date if you're not feeling well."
"No. I'm fine," Cody said, while Daley gave a concerned look. "Trust me. I'm all right."
"Okay, if you say so. You're in charge of yourself."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough of the speech. Let's just get this date over with."
000
"Here. Merry Christmas," the nurse said in a dull tone.
"Awww... you're so considerate, Beth," Melissa responded in an equally dull tone with a hint of sarcasm.
Melissa was bored to death. Literally. Her internship wasn't as glamorous as she thought it would be. All she did throughout the day was clean instruments in a secluded room. She had no contact with the outside world, except when a nurse came in and handed her a tray of dirty instruments.
I hate this with a passion,Melissa thought to herself as she dropped the instruments into the sterilizer.
The only thing that motivated her to get through the day was the date with Jackson.
000
"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Cody," he said, as he stood up from his seat to greet his date and held out his hand.
"Hi! It's so great to see you too! I'm Taylor!" she said with such excitement.
She didn't shake his hand, but, instead, gave him a hug. Cody felt a bit awkward with her gesture since it was so unexpected. The photographers on the other side of the café window took multiple shots of them so he returned the hug.
When they finally broke apart, he said, "Shall we eat?"
"Definitely," Taylor said with a huge smile as Jackson helped her into her seat. "Thank you."
"No problem. It's so weird being on a blind date set up by our agents. You'd think by now they could find dates for themselves."
After he said that, Taylor burst out laughing very loudly. Jackson didn't know how to react. He didn't see what was so funny. Taylor was hitting the table and almost looked like she was crying from the laughter. She obviously thought something was very hilarious.
When Taylor finally calmed down, she said, "You're really funny. You know that?"
"Was it what I said?"
"Yeah. You might think I'm strange right now, but I'm usually not this psycho. It's just that I'm so nervous about meeting you. I admire you so much. Plus, the reporters outside watching our date don't help either."
"Don't be nervous," Cody said, as he held her hand. "Just be yourself and I'll be myself."
He gave her a warm and reassuring smile. A smile saying that everything was okay without him actually speaking the words. Taylor returned the smile and they looked into each other's eyes while holding hands. She didn't notice that the photographers were taking pictures of them. She just looked into Cody's eyes and saw a genuine soul.
000
"Thanks for lunch," Taylor said at the end of their "date."
"Don't thank me. Thank my agent. She pretty much set this all up," Cody said with a smile as he helped her out of her seat. "But I do admit that you're pretty cool. You're different than the other models I've been with."
"Different, huh? In a good or bad way," Taylor said in a teasing tone.
He just shrugged and said, "Well, we'll have to see, won't we?"
They hugged for their good-byes until they heard a photographer yell: "HEY! HOW 'BOUT A KISS?"
Loud enough so the photographer could hear, Cody just simply said, "NOT ON A FIRST DATE."
000
"So how was your date?" Nathan asked curiously.
"It was so... awesome," Taylor replied, as she plopped onto her bed like a teenage girl.
"The best part was when he said I was cool."
"Glad to hear. Listen, I don't want you to get too attached. This is just for publicity. We don't know if he'll end up liking you or not, okay? I don't want you getting hurt through this process."
"Thanks, Nathan. I know what you mean, but I can't help it. I think I might have fallen head over heels for him."
"After one date?"
"Don't underestimate the power of love…. Hey, don't laugh at me!"
