Need to Know (SODA #1)

CHAPTER ONE

NATE

“Goddamn it Erik! I’m just about to start the interview; you know this is a bad time for me!

” I whispered roughly into my phone. I was surrounded by strangers: studio staff, a legal team, my agent, and her assistants.

I didn’t want any of them to know my personal business, but before I could say another word my husband hung up on me.

I was aghast. What the fuck? Erik knew I was working and I didn’t need his drama.

In the eleven years we’d been married I’d never once called to berate him during one of his high-powered meetings, or his lost weeks with his creepy billionaire buddy Oliver Roux.

But something was going on with my husband that I didn’t understand it.

Now wasn’t the time to deal with it either.

I needed to step into my actor persona, put on my Hollywood smile, and focus on this interview.

I turned my phone off and handed it to the intern, Anja, and then I sat mulling over Erik’s unreasonable demands while absently twisting the bright platinum wedding band on my finger.

I was at the Beverly Wiltshire hotel in Los Angeles for a two-day press junket promoting my new movie.

Each outlet got just five minutes of precious interview time, and so, my co-star and I were faced with a conveyor belt of entertainment reporters asking us the same inane questions ad-nauseam.

The next interview was with a podcaster.

She completed her speedy set up and began the interview.

“Hey there Cine-Geeks, Becca Adler here keeping you up-to-date with all the movie-town gossip and the hottest new releases. Today I’m talking to the literally swoon-worthy Nate Linden and Jack Boyd, stars of the new romantic thriller ‘Need to Know’,” the podcaster said in a preppy Californian accent.

She was a buxom twenty-something woman with caramel skin, rectangular purple framed glasses, and mermaid hair, the strands a mixture of blue, green, and purple.

The soda-pop, gushing delivery was so saccharine it made my teeth ache, but I held in a cringe and schooled my features awaiting the first question.

Our movie, ‘Need to Know’ was to be released for the summer season.

My co-star, British actor Jack Boyd, had flown in from London yesterday and was straight into the junket madness.

With a day of back-to-back interviews already done, Jack and I hadn’t even found a moment to catch up properly.

But Jack was a pro; he’d turned on the sparkle, smiled disarmingly, and conversed with each interviewer as if they were long-time friends.

Maritime Studios publicist Avery Grant had arranged six interviews per hour from eleven a.m. to one p.m., a break for lunch and then a final two hours in the afternoon.

It had now gotten to the point where I’d dissociated.

It felt like I was watching the proceedings from behind glass, and Becca’s voice was just a ‘wah, wah, wah, wah’ sound, like the inarticulate teacher from the Peanuts cartoon.

I continued fiddling absently with my wedding band.

It had become so loose that I was able to turn it around and around on my finger.

I wasn’t sure if I’d lost weight or if the band had widened over the ten years I’d worn it.

I inhaled and the personal perfume of my co-star hit me like a drug.

His scent was bay leaf, nutmeg with hints of allspice.

This, mixed with his male musk was sensual alchemy, and my mouth watered.

Why did he always smell so lickably good?

Jack Boyd was a man on the cusp of mega-stardom, whereas I’d been A-list for several years.

He lived in London and my primary residence was in New York.

Before the movie promotions began, I hadn’t seen Jack since we wrapped.

We’d messaged one another on the regular, sharing goofy memes and puppy videos.

Occasionally, we chatted on the phone when there was time in our busy schedules, but experiencing Jack in the flesh again was…

invigorating…like standing beside a live wire.

I wanted to reach out and touch but I knew that if I did, it would end me.

I’d been in the entertainment business for nearly sixteen years.

My first role, or should I say my butt’s first role was in a jeans commercial at eighteen.

From my early days in the business, of desperately wanting to be liked and to be famous, I’d learned a swift lesson or two.

For instance, everyone has an agenda, so I’ve got to be selective about those I let into my life.

I’ve got a small circle of trusted friends most of whom aren’t in showbiz.

They keep me grounded. Whenever a movie wraps I leave before the wrap party because…

I’m a coward and I hate goodbyes. I’d never said goodbye to Jack Boyd because he is, most definitely, a keeper.

Our friendship was a rare bright jewel in a business where everyone’s out for themselves.

Jack was a few years younger, but he had an old soul.

He understood and respected the need for boundaries.

We had a reliable, platonic friendship. And so, the intense feelings I was experiencing from being in Jack’s presence again surprised me.

Jack Boyd was intoxicating in a way I’d forgotten…

or maybe repressed. With a boyish smile and a twinkle of his brown eyes he radiated kindness, sensuality, and charm.

He was sunshine in human form. Strange, unexpected, tummy twisting feelings had crept up on me over the past day.

I found them a little overwhelming, not that I’d admit to feeling a deep attraction to him, or do anything about it!

But, I wondered why I’d forgotten how powerfully magnetic Jack’s personality was?

Maybe I’d lied to myself during the shoot; maybe I’d channelled my attraction to him through my character, Gabriel Baker.

Because, here and now, I was hyperaware of every part of his being, the warmth in his huge espresso coffee eyes, the graceful physicality of him, the smell of him.

Jack Boyd is a traditionally handsome man with chiselled symmetric features that seemed impossibly…

scientifically perfect. Well-groomed stubble lined his angular jaw.

But it was his huge dark doe eyes that, once met, could not be ignored.

His eyes were soulful, dark pools of chocolate and coffee that pulled me in like an addict.

Floppy chestnut bangs gave Jack an almost boyish innocence, and the infectious bright smile that went with his excitable Labrador pup nature made him a hugely appealing package, perfect for the big screen.

Add a delectable British accent, and a hot as sin body into the mix, and Jack Boyd was actor gold.

These traits were exactly why he was known for playing princes, lords, and fantasy heroes—and why he had an army of thirsty fans to rival my own! Together we were unstoppable.

The suite at the Beverly Wiltshire was set up with advertising standee’s featuring the movie poster.

We were sitting close, but not so close that I should have felt warmth roll off of Jack’s skin, or that I could hear him breathing softly or licking his lips.

I was so in-tune, so aware of my co-star, of every unconscious gesture, like how he would reach out and squeeze my hand during interviews as a way of reassuring me.

I didn’t mind his touches at all; in fact, secretly I craved them.

I’m demisexual and this blooming attraction was so unexpected.

It did not happen to me. I’d taken a while to fall romantically in love with my husband.

I’d believed that we get one shot at love and Erik was it for me.

But now, I wasn’t so sure, and it unsettled my equilibrium.

Becca’s muted ‘wah, wah, wah, wah’ suddenly became audible words again and pulled me from my thoughts.

I looked up from twisting my wedding band and focused on the question being asked.

Becca had arrived with two assistants; and each had an iPhone on a tripod.

One was positioned to get both Jack and me in the frame; a second was recording the audio to be edited for the interview episode.

Becca also had a phone on a tripod in front of her that she addressed as if she was talking directly to her viewers.

An entourage of onlookers stood out of shot at the back of the large suite.

They consisted of my agent Rosamund Appelbaum, the Maritime Studio publicist, Avery Grant and Jack’s press agent, Benji Moss.

The studio’s lawyer Mason De Luca looked up from his phone and finally took notice as Becca ate into her five minutes with us.

“Nate, Jack, it’s so great to meet you. Thanks for taking the time to speak to Cine-Geeks today.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Becca, love the hair,” Jack charmed. The young woman squirmed in her seat.

“Yeah, you win the award for the most colourful interviewer we’ve seen today,” I grinned. Becca’s eyes blew wide in a worshipful stare of adoration, one I’d seen a lot in my time as an actor.