Page 32 of Hollywood Crush

I knew there was no point pressing Llywelyn for information. He had always been the strong and silent type, and he only ever spoke when he needed to. The very fact he’d said so much in the last ten minutes meant he really believed what he was saying.

“They’re stopping the charade now anyway,” I said. “Daniel wants it just to be us for the weeks he has left here.”

“And after that?” Llyw asked. I shrugged, not wanting to put my hopes out in the open even to my best friend. He knew not to push the point. “Let’s check this out,” he said. He crouched and shuffled into the dark and dusty corner of the attic where the stopcock was located and turned it. The pipes rattled but stayed put without any leak.

“Thanks, mate. Send me an invoice for the work as soon as you can and I’ll pay?”

“No worr-” Llywelyn started, then stopped himself. “Yes, I will.”

I knew his partner had been getting him to know his worth, to stop accepting backhand fivers for the work he did. It was great to see my best friend reach his full worth.

As we descended from the dark and musty attic into the bright and airy corridor I took a long look at Llywelyn. I knew that had James not come along, we might have ended up together at some point. He was my solid and dependable best friend, and the sexual experiences we’d had hadn’t been terrible.

But we wouldn’t have made each other better. James had pushed Llywelyn into making more of himself, making more money, taking courses to qualify in trades. Daniel had made me feel like I could make something of my food, to make myself better.

“What are you thinking?” Llywelyn asked.

“Just that we’d have made terrible partners to one another,” I half-joked.

“Damn right. I just can’t believe we’re both going forSaes,” he said with a smile.

“It’s not their fault they’re English,” I said. “You’ve forcibly turned James into a Welshman.”

“Duolingo has dragged him into the language kicking and screaming. Are you done at work for the day?”

“Until all of them are back from filming,” I said. I could relax with a book now or even use Daniel’sbath. I was sure he wouldn’t mind…

“Why don’t you go and watch? It would be nice for him to see you there.”

I hesitated for a second. “Yeah, I think I will…”

“I’ll give you a lift.”

I found Mam and let her know what I’d be doing, and to her credit she didn’t purse her lips or shake her head. Llywelyn was waiting outside so I hopped into his van and we headed down the hill towards the beach.

The paparazzi were in full crazy mode on the beach wall when I jumped out of the van and gave Llywelyn a wave goodbye. I tried to elbow my way past one, but he just grunted and shoved me back. I had to walk all the way to the other end of the beach wall just to see what was going on.

And what was going on turned my stomach. I could see Daniel in the distance, at the far end of the beach.

Rather than telling Patrick that he wanted to end the charade, he was laying lazily in the redhead’s lap. Rather than move away, he seemed perfectly content to let Patrick stroke his head. It wasn’t for a scene, that I knew - cameras on the beach had been stood down and it was just the two of them. They were peacocking for the paparazzi in a way that Daniel had assured me he wanted to move away from.

Fuck this,I thought. It wasn’t just Daniel who could act. I could act alright, act completely fine.When he came back to the hotel that evening it would be to a hotel owner who’d never had more than a passing word about the weather with him. I could smile, and serve, and give the best customer service this side of the Severn Bridge. But he was mistaken if he thought for a second that he could act in a way completely opposite to what we’d agreed. I needed some sense of control in this relationship, short and fleeting as it might be. And the man I was starting to fall for — who was I kidding, had completely fallen for — was in the arms of another, peacocking for a quick paparazzi shot and a chance to sell some more stuff on Instagram. I couldn’t do it any more.

I elbowed my way past the paparazzi and started the long trek up the hill. By the time I got to the top I was sweating and exhausted. It was only quarter of an hour later as I watered the vegetables growing in my happy place did I hear the sirens. And realised something had gone terribly wrong.

Chapter Eleven

Daniel

Filming wasnotgoing well. It was drizzling lightly, which had put paid to a certain director’s idea to shoot all the stunt work in big, sweeping vistas. A fog was creeping in over the sea despite the summer heat and risking visibility on production. A local had also refused to move their boat from the beach so set dressing had to be hastily arranged, restricting the possible camera angles even more. I could see Roland screaming at some poor secretary on the other side of the beach as another held an umbrella over him.

Stacey was attending to mine and Patrick’s make up. She and her team had one of the hardest jobs of the shoot today as the stunt work required meant she had to replicate my look identically with that of my double.

We were in the midst of filming the last episode, and there were small explosive charges under the sand as my character’s cliffside prison was to be destroyed, freeing him and bringing a satisfying conclusion to the series. We still had studio workto do in Cardiff on various episodes, but it was minimal as there had been such an emphasis on location shoots throughout the miniseries.

“There we go, looking lovely,” said Sandra. She had added a pretty nasty scar to Patrick’s cheek, the same as she had applied to his double earlier on in the day. It was hard for me to learn my lines with the cosmetic contacts in, but I had perched my glasses on the end of my nose to get a better view.

Where we stood in the tent we were visible to paparazzi to some extent. I guessed it was deliberate on Patrick’s part when he took a step closer in and put one hand on the small of my back. I heard cameras click.

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