A second chance

The following day, Hans was still disappointed, and he couldn't find any motivation to do anything productive during daytime. It wasn't until the early evening hours, when Will called him over to talk about an eventual movie project that he was able to get himself going. This time, they met at Will's house, since his wife and kids were spending some time in Europe. Hans actually loved working with Will. He was extremely talented, professional and, which was very important, they could tell each other openly what they were thinking about the project or script, without having to worry it would affect their friendship. But this time, there wasn't any risk at all anyway, since both of them were amazed by the story of the movie, and so it only took about half an hour before they agreed on Will playing the main character, as long as Hans company would take care of the finances and production part.

"Ok, now we got this over with, I'm gonna get us the good whiskey, pour us a glas, and then you gonna tell me what's wrong with you" Will said in an unexpectedly serious tone.

"Why, what should be wrong?" Hans answered frustrated.

"Come on. No smile, no stupid jokes, no good mood, that's so not you, something has to be up. Like I said, you got about two minutes to run or you chose option B and tell me everything" After these words, Will got up from his chair and went inside to get the Whiskey.

Shortly after, he came back with an 85 year old bottle, filled two glasses and said:

"Since you didn't run and you're still here…tell me"

"It's really that obvious?"

"It is"

"Actually, it's all your fault" Hans told him with a cheeky grin.

"Ok, wow, now I'm really curious"

„You remember last Tuesday? When will you finally start a serious relationship, just wait till the right one crosses your path, bla bla bla…"

"Jesus, this can't end well…" Will replied smiling.

"True. The day after, I was having this PETA-shooting, together with Miley Cyrus. And, don't dare to start laughing now, but yes, only one day after your little speech, I really thought I might have met that person. Beautiful, lovely, smart, same interests…everything seemed to be perfect, to the point that we agreed on meeting on a party yesterday evening. And there, everything that could go wrong went wrong. In short words, she transformed exactly into that person you always hear about in the media. Drunk, stoned, arrogant and stupid. Let's say, the evening ended with me giving her a lecture about life and just left her there."

„See, I don't really know Miley, she's not my generation anymore. But what I can guess from press articles and so on is, that she's an incredibly talented young woman, who's about the crash her life full speed into a concrete wall. She seems to be in a similar phase than I was after the Fresh Prince came to an end. Enjoy your life, be cool, create a new image about yourself and, very important,

gather the wrong people around you. What saved me back in the time and let me get back on my feet was meeting Jada. So, if you really want my advice, you have 2 options now. If you're not sure that she's the one for you, stay away from her as far as possible, otherwise she can drag you into the abyss. But if you're convinced that she's something special, don't give up on her. I know you gonna deny it again, but you're one of the strongest persons I have ever met. You don't let anyone taking advantage of you, and you have no problems banning people from your life you know are bad or have a bad influence on you, which means you might be the only person in her surroundings that can pull her out of her misery. Trust me, I can tell from my own experience, despite being a superstar, being rich and having millions of people that admire her and envy her richness and stardom, she might be the loneliest girl in Hollywood, if not in the entire US. The most important is tough, don't play with her. If you're just looking to have some fun, look for someone else, cause that might destroy her completely."

Later at home, he couldn't get this conversation out of his head. Again and again, he was asking himself the next day if this little girl really could mean so much to him, that he was ready to put all his efforts into dragging her out of this swamp of parties, alcohol, drugs and false friends, without any guarantee that he would succeed. But the more he thought about it, the more obvious it became that he wouldn't be able to forget about Miley. And Will was right, if he wouldn't try at least, he would ask himself for the rest of his life…what if? And he never was a big fan of that.

The only question left was, how to start? He would need a good reason to get in contact with Miley again, and ideally, arrange a meeting, only the two of them, no friends and no distractions. And just as if it was meant to be, just like last time when he didn't know how to text Miley, he got a message from her, and this time a pretty long one, with a, admittedly, surprising content:

"Hey, I just wanted to check if you're doing well? I don't really know how to begin because I'm really not good at apologizing to other people, but I wanted to try at least. I'm really sorry about how things turned out last weekend, especially my behavior towards you. You know, I really had to think a lot about everything you had to tell me, and I'm afraid that you were right with pretty much everything, especially when it comes to surrounding myself with the wrong people. Strangely, your accusations are pretty similar to those my father made, only that I blocked him off completely.

What I'm actually trying to say is, I also really enjoyed our shooting and the time we spent together afterwards, but I can absolutely understand if you're just fed up with me and don't want to see me anymore. All I want you to know is that I'm truly sorry, and in the end, you were right with everything you said. Somewhere along the way, I've lost myself, and I have no idea how to get back on my feet"

Hans expected a lot of things to happen, but definitely not getting that kind of text from Miley. Especially that last sentence contained such an amount of desperation and sadness, that he felt the urge to drive to her home and put his arms around her. But well, he didn't even know where she lived. But his mind was slowly starting to build up a plan that might help him get her life back on track, maybe even a little more than that. So he didn't hesitate for long and texted her back:

"You know how they say. Insight is the first step to improvement . But seriously, I really appreciate your apology, that takes a lot of courage, and to be honest, I didn't really expect this. And even though that evening didn't go as planned, at least for me, if it made you question some of your choices, it wasn't completely in vain. And, about being fed up with you…let's say, it seems like I haven't learned my lesson yet. If you're free tonight, I would love to get another chance to see you. Under the condition that I can do the planning".

"Really? That's a surprise, but I would be really happy if you gave me a second chance. Even if it's just to show you I'm not always the person I was last Saturday. But you might have to tell me where we go. So I can think about my outfit, which depends on the club we gonna go to".

"Haha, don't worry about that. I'd say, shorts, t-shirt, maybe a sweater for later. The place I plan to take you is as different from a night club as it could be. What time would be fine for you? I could pick you up earliest at 6pm".

„Sounds perfect, I don't have any appointments today or tomorrow. So 6pm. And thank you for giving me this second chance".

„No problem. I'll see you later"

This turn of events was a bit unexpected, to say the least, but Hans couldn't deny the fact that he was happy about it. He was just curious if this change of attitude would last or if it was just a short flash in the pan. Since Will was going through a similar phase like Miley, Hans contacted his friend, just to make sure the plan he had in mind was the right one, or if it might end up in a dead end. It only took a few minutes to get a response:

"Don't worry, that might be the best thing you can set up. I would definitely keep her as far away from parties and people like Paris Hilton as possible. And you're sure that you really want to give this a try? Because, if you raise her hopes only to disappear after that, she's gonna be completely devastated".

"That's definitely not my plan. I don't know, I can't really explain it, but like I told you yesterday, I just can't get this girl out of my head"

"That's nice to hear. Haha, it feels so satisfying to be rigt, again. Sorry, had to get that one out. But if it really works out, don't forget to come over for dinner. You know how long Jada is trying now to hook you up, she would never forgive you if you finally have a girlfriend and wouldn't introduce them to each other"

"Yeah yeah, what would I do without my date doctor? Maybe I'll need your services again one day, so stay tuned"

"Dude, you know, I'm taking my roles very serious. Haha, anyway, good luck, and no matter how it turns out, keep me updated"

"I sure will, thanks Mr Smith"

"Nice one…"

After Hans was reassured that he was doing the right thing, he started to plan the rest of the day. He had another 4 hours left before he was supposed to pick up Miley. So he took his car and went to his favorite food market to buy some ingredients for tonight. He also had to pick up Daisy, who was something like his adopted dog. Since he was traveling and/or out of the country most of the time, he never wanted to have his own dog, since he couldn't bear to leave him alone that often. So he decided to support an organization called Hope for Paws, which tried to save as many stray dogs from the streets in and around Los Angeles as possible. Daisy was a 6 year old Collie who had a really tough life till she got rescued. Mistreated by her owner, left in the streets, having to survive on her own. When the organization got aware of her, she had to lead this cruel life for about 2 years, and she was in a very bad shape. Since Hans had a lot of free time, and was himself in a bit of a depressed

state as he was trying to recover from the surgery of his career ending knee injury, he decided to take her in as a foster dog. It turned out that each of them was exactly what the other one needed, and they gave support, hope and love to one another. She stayed with Hans for about 5 months, before he found a friend of his who was looking for a new dog to take in. And even if Daisy was living the best life possible now, she never forget the first human who ever showed her what it meant to be a dog, and what it meant to be loved as a dog and what kind of life these amazing animals deserved. And so Hans never stopped to pick her up regularly and spoil her for a day.

And just like always, even after he was in Europe for almost 6 month, the dog seemed to know exactly when he would show up, and so she was waiting at the door, excited to see her old friend again. Hans got a very enthusiastic welcome, including many face licks, and it took him about 5 minutes before he managed to get Daisy in the car.

After he arrived back home, he still had about 2 hours to kill, so he decided to gather a couple more information about Miley. What he was able to find this time made him understand to a certain extent why she crashed her life like she did. On-off relationship with Liam Hemsworth, seemingly they were on the point of getting engaged when it turned out that he cheated on her, just on her birthday, with 2 strippers in Las Vegas. After that she broke down during a live show, taken under the wing of Paris Hilton, one scandal after the other, attacked by every reporter in Hollywood, and left in the rain by every famous person that once claimed to be her friend. The names showing up here were especially Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber or Katy Perry. Hans could slowly put together an image of the whole situation, and he felt really bad for Miley. Sure, a lot of her problems were her own doing, but she was still a young girl that got abandoned by a lot of people she put her trust in.

"Who knows", he was thinking to himself, "maybe today will also be for Miley the first step of her new life".

He didn't know why, but contrary to their first date (if you can even call it a date), Hans had a very good feeling and he was convinced that tonight would turn out differently. By now, he was sure that he was ready to do everything what was needed to help Miley back on her feet, and show her he would be there for her and that she could rely on him. If she should decide to let him become a part of her life of course.

Before taking a shower, he texted Miley:

"Hey, I completely forgot that I invited Daisy already today, I hope you don't mind if she's joining us?"

As he had finished his shower, he already got a somewhat offended reply:

"What do you mean? I thought it would be just the two of us? Look, if you're just looking for payback or you don't really want to see me, then we better just cancel the whole thing".

It looked like Hans didn't really think this true and immediately felt guilty. So he quickly took a selfie with Daisy and sent it with the following text to the young singer:

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know I wasn't allowed to bring my little girl. But if you prefer, I will leave her at home. All alone, in this huge house, no friends, nothing to do…"

„Very funny, you're such a jerk. Don't you dare to leave her at home. God, she's so sweet. And now I'm even more curious about what we gonna do"

"I thought so. I just have to get dressed and I'm on my way. If you could just send me your address. You gonna figure out the rest later"

After everything was set up, Hans got dressed and he chose a casual style with shorts and t-shirt. He packed everything they needed, including Daisy, into his car and left. Since he took Daisy with him and he didn't really want to stand out from the people driving regular cars, he used his Hyundai Santa Fe. He owned this car mainly because of his parents, who used it every time they visited him. They somehow couldn't get used to his (a bit) fancier cars.

The Cyrus family lived about 15 minutes away from his place. This was one of the advantages of living in the Hollywood Hills, everything was pretty close together and everyone who lived here was either famous or extremely rich…a lot of times both, so that this whole district was under permanent surveillance, which meant no paparazzi and no stalkers. The people that lived here had to invest a certain amount into a private security firm, but it allowed them a maximum of privacy.

A little bit later, he drove through the gate, up to the Cyrus mansion. Hans estimated its value a bit lower than the one of his home, probably somewhere in the range of 8 to 10 million US dollar. According to Google, Miley's net worth was around 130 million, her father, as a former country music star had another 20-30 million. But it was pretty obvious who was the biggest star in the family by now.

Miley was waiting at the entrance door, it seemed like she was the only one home, or at least nobody was curious enough to come and take a look at Hans. In his eyes, the young pop star looked simply gorgeous. To his surprise, she kept to his advice and was wearing jeans shorts, a white t-shirt and she even had a sweater with her. Hans was asking himself a bit amused how long this obedience would last.

He got out of the car and gave Miley a hug, which made him realize that she smelled very good again, like a mix of a rather sweet perfume and freshly washed hair.

"Hey, I'm glad you could make it tonight. How are you?"

"Well, after someone told me a few unattractive things about myself…better. But come on now, let the doggy out"

With a big grin, Hans opened the door and let Daisy get out, who stormed over to Miley to get a good sniff of her, and then laid down on her back, ready to receive some belly rubs.

"Now that's surprising…usually she's very cautious when it comes to strangers"

"Really? Doesn't look like it though."

"Trust me. It took me about 5 days before she trusted me enough to not hide in a corner as soon as we were in the same room. But get in the car, I'll tell you her story along the way"

So they took off, and like he promised, Hans was telling Miley the story why and how he came to fostering Daisy. Of course this sad story resulted in a lot of petting and sweet talks for the dog, and Hans thought amusingly:" Well, looks like the dog might enjoy tonight even more than I do"

Since the traffic in LA was pretty low for once, they only needed about 30 minutes to reach their destination, Hans beach house in Malibu. He bought it about 18 months ago, because he always was

dreaming about owning his own house at the beach, and over time, it became some kind of a routine to come down here and spend 1 or 2 nights in this house, listen to the sound of the waves and just clear his mind. It was a perfect place to relax, and he hoped that this environment would have the effect on Miley.

"Here we are" he said as he parked the car in front of the garage.

"Believe it or not, but I have never been down here at the beach"

"Are you serious? You live in LA all these years, and you've never been at the famous Malibu beach?"

"Malibu, Venice, Santa Monica…none of them. I can't really walk around freely in LA, that's why I try to avoid being in public places as much as possible. And what place is more public than a public beach?"

"Yeah, you've got a point. But come in, we're not going to the beach right away"

Hans led Miley into his beach house. Having 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, it was considerably smaller than his mansion in the Hollywood Hills, but because of the exclusive location, it was worth about 7 million dollars.

"So, what did you plan? You still haven't told me what you're up to"

"You gonna find out very soon. Can you take care of Daisy for a couple of minutes, I just have to get a few things from the car"

When he came back in, he was loaded with 3 bags full of fresh ingredients.

"Hey, what's all this stuff?"

"Well, everything we need for cooking of course" Hans was grinning.

"Cooking? Are you serious? We gonna cook for ourselves?"

"Haha, of course. Why? Are you afraid I'm a better cook than you?"

"To be honest, I'm an awful cook…I actually never cook for myself…", It seemed like Miley was a little bit embarrassed.

"You're joking, right? You never cook for yourself?"

"Not really, no. When I started with Hannah Montana, I was still very young, and after that, we always had someone looking after us or at home we had a housekeeper. I mean, I know how to put a deep frozen pizza into the microwave, but that's about it".

"Very well…come over here, this is gonna be interesting…"

And indeed, the whole cooking process turned out to be quite fun, partly due to Miley's complete inability of cooking, but also because, just like during the PETA shooting, the two of them had a perfect chemistry and got along just perfect.

Hans himself wasn't a true master chef himself, put at least he knew the basics, which was hard to avoid if you're living by yourself half of your life. Contrary to a lot of other Nba stars, he has never been a fan of hiring privat employees, cooks, PA's or social media advisors. What's more, he had an

Italian aunt who, in his eyes, cooked the best pasta in the world, and more importantly, had taught him how to prepare a real Italian pasta sauce. Which was more or less the only dish he really mastered. Kind of…

Miley seemed to be surprisingly motivated, cutting vegetables, made fresh pasta, spicing everything and of course, at one point started pouring some flour over Hans. It took them about 40 minutes to prepare everything, and the result looked definitely eatable.

They sat down at the table, of course Daisy had her very own bowl of spaghetti, and they enjoyed their meal. And due to the fact that Americans always claimed to be experts when it comes to Italian food, but in reality had no clue, Miley was just overwhelmed from this old family recipe.

„If I had known that cooking could be so much fun, I would have done it already a long time ago" she smiled after finishing her plate.

"To be honest, I have never done it like this before. But I would say, I clean the dishes, and afterwards, since you've never been here before, we gonna take a little walk along the beach. Daisy seems to be a bit restless already"

"I can help you with the dishes"

"No need to, you're my guest. So just sit down with Daisy for another 5 minutes, and we'll be good to go"

Approximately 10 minutes later, they left the house through the backdoor and went down to the sea. They lingered over the beach and talked just about anything that came to their minds, while Daisy was running around like crazy and playing catch with the waves. On the way back to the house, Hans suddenly said:

"Come, I wanna show you a special place before we go back in"

"Now you make me curious"

He took her to a small hidden path which lead away from the house to a little hill, covered in grass and flowers. The path ended at an old looking bench which offered an amazing view over the beach and the sea and was the perfect place to observe the sunset.

"God, this is wonderful. And somehow perfectly timed", Miley said and looked at Hans with smiling eyes.

"What a lucky coincidence" Hans replied. „But seriously, I love this place. I come here regularly, to clear my head, think about life and especially if there's an important decision I have to make. Somehow, this place calms me down and helps me find myself again"

"And how many girls did you show this place already?" Miley asked mockingly.

"You want to know the truth? You're the first person ever that I bring to this place. It's somehow like my own private escape, and I don't think that anybody besides me has been here for the past 25 years"

"You're really serious about this, right? But why did you bring me here?" the singer asked emotionally.

"I have no idea. Maybe I think that a place like this is exactly what you need right now. Maybe, because last Wednesday, you completely turned my life upside down. Maybe you're the first person ever where I know that you understand what this place means to me. Maybe a bit of everything I just said…"

They sat down on the bench, Daisy next to them in the grass, and for the first time, Miley put her head against Hans shoulder and took his hand.

"No matter what the reason is…this place is just beautiful"

"And in all honesty now Miley, how are you? I have to admit that I did some researching, and the last years don't seem to have been easy for you"

"Researching? Sounds interesting…" said Miley with a grin, but suddenly switched to a very serious tone:

"Are you aware that you're the first person to ask me this question in a very long time? And the answer is, I don't know. All I know is that I'm not doing good, and that for several years now, I'm constantly feeling miserable. I really meant what I texted you this morning. Since I'm trying to get rid of my Hannah Montana image I'm doing things, saying things in which I don't recognize myself. Everybody's trying to tell me what to do, but nobody is ready to really help me. This one sentence you threw at me, that I completely lost myself, made me think a lot about the past. It made me realize a lot of things, and most of them are pretty ugly. I think I have to make a lot of changes in my life, and a big part of these changes have to be my so-called friends"

„Well, if you need any help with that, you know where you can find me" Hans winked at her.

"Why are you so nice to me? I really did my best to push you away from me"

"I don't know. Probably mainly because of the photo shoot. I never met someone before that impressed me that much in such a short amount of time. And like I said, I couldn't get you out of my head, and I have to admit that after last Saturday, I was a bit desperate. And still I wasn't able to believe that this girl I met a few days earlier wouldn't exist. Haha, I even asked the date doctor for advice"

"The date doctor? I thought something like that only exists in movies?"

"Well, yes…I was actually hinting at the movie. I was asking for advice from the main actor"

"Wait a second. You talked to Will Smith about me? Will Smith? Oh my God, I don't believe this…Will Smith…" That somehow seemed to shock her.

„He's my neighbor and my best friend in the US, who else should I talk to about something like that? But let's shut up for a few minutes and just enjoy the sunset"

So for the next minutes, they were sitting on the bench and watched, Miley cuddled to Hans, the sun sinking down in the ocean. After that they went back to the house and installed themselves comfortably on the big terrace, Miley with a glass of red wine, Hans with some Whiskey, and they just kept talking:

"So, any idea yet how you gonna get back on your feet?"

"Honestly, no. It surely won't be easy, but if I keep my actual lifestyle up, I'm afraid that I'm gonna end up like Amandy Bynes or Lindsay Lohan. And that scares the shit out of me"

"Hm…but you know the difference between them and you? They didn't have me" said Hans with a smile in his face.

Thankful, and suspiciously watery eyes, Miley shortly looked at him, just to turn her face away and look down to the ocean. This was such a beautiful and peaceful place to be, and so they just enjoyed the view and the company for another hour and talked a lot. It was around midnight when Hans suddenly said:

"I think it's about time I drive you home…you look like you're about to fall asleep any second"

„Haha, my old father will be very surprised to see me coming home that early" Miley said. "But you're right, I'm really exhausted."

"Alright then. We'll drop off Daisy, and after that it's your turn"

"Good to know…I'm coming right after the dog"

"Or maybe I just want to enjoy your company a little longer" Hans laughed.

After they dropped off Daisy at her owner, they drove back to Miley's place. Hans walked Miley to the door where he tried to collect all his courage and looked her into the eyes:

"Look Miley, before I go now, I really enjoyed tonight with you. And I really appreciate you opened up and were so honest with me. I really meant every word I've said, you can count on me and I will support you as much as I can. I mean, only if you're willing to let me be a part of your life".

"Only if I want? This was the best night out I had since I can remember, I didn't feel like this in years. I can't explain why, but in your company, I feel safe and comfortable, and most importantly, I don't feel the urge to pretend anything, I can just be myself. I have no idea why you even care about me, but I would be extremely happy if you were a big part of my life"

„Big part hu? Guess I'm just gonna risk it now…"

"Risk it? Risk what?" Miley asked surprised.

She didn't have to wait long for an answer, as Hans already leaned in to her and cautiously kissed her. Miley recovered pretty fast from her first surprise and returned the kiss. And this time was completely different than the drunken, smelly kiss from the nightclub. Hans felt like he was struck from lightning, he got dizzy and his legs started to shake. The kiss lasted for about 5 seconds, after which Hans muttered:

"Oh boy…that was…unbelievable"

"Hey, are you ok?" Miley asked worried.

"Haha, actually, even fantastic" he smiled back at her.

"So, what does this mean? Like, what's gonna happen now? Do you want to see me again? I really hope so…God, I suddenly feel like a shy teenager again"

"A shy teenager? You? Don't let your manager hear that" Hans teased her. "But seriously, let's start this slowly without any pressure and we'll see what will happen. But I definitely want to see you again. And Daisy wouldn't mind that too I suppose. If it's fine with you, I'll text you tomorrow?"

"Promise?"

"Malibu promise" said Hans while he kissed her again softly and made his way home, with a big stupid grin in his face.