Page 27 of Becoming Cinderella

“Let’s hope so. Do you want to try the dance here?” He pulls me in and I lose focus as I look in his eyes. I could really get lost in them if I allowed myself. “Ready?” He asks, snapping me to attention. Good thing too, or else I will be the one stepping on his toes. I give him a nod, afraid my voice will betray me right now. Come on Carter, pull it together!

We run through the first half of the dance. Liam’s face is turned into a look of concentration as he seems solely focused on not stepping on my toes.

“Hey,” I let go of his hand and smooth my finger over where his brows are furrowed. “Relax. Trust me, you’re making progress.”

He shakes his head at me, not accepting the compliment. “You don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

“The pressure that comes with this job.” He runs a hand through his hair, looking out towards the tree’s. “Everyone expects you to act a certain way. How to dress, eat, what to say, and even who to date. I’m constantly under a microscope, being scrutinized by the public. If I mess up this film, a bad review will follow me for the rest of my life. Or, someone on set can leak to the press that I’m struggling with it and it will never die. Not only that, but I don’t want to let my fans down. I can’t let them down.” He looks at the floor, kicking his right foot back and forth for a moment before glancing up at me, flashing a smile. The wall around his insecurities back up.

Dang, he is a good actor.

“Anyway, I really appreciate your help. And you know, not running to the press with this story.”

The thought of selling a story about Liam never even crossed my mind. Before I can say anything to his confessional a woman with a headset walks onto the set.

“Liam, there you are. Trevor needs you on set.” She doesn’t pay me any attention.

Liam turns to me apologetically. I don’t know who Trevor is but he seems important. Maybe he’s the director?

“That’s okay, I should be going anyway.”

“I’ll walk you to your car,” he says to me before turning to the woman. “Tell Trevor I’ll be there in ten.”

We head back towards the trailers where my car is parked.

“Thanks for coming,” he says as I pull out my keys from my bag.

He makes it seem like I wouldn’t have given anything to see a movie set in person. Especially his movie set.

“I’m sorry our little dance class back there was cut short.”

“That’s okay, we’ve got lessons almost every other day coming up. You’re going to be a professional ballroom dancer in no time.”

He leans in and places a kiss on my cheek and my heart forgets its job to beat for a couple seconds.

“I’ll make sure to include you in my Oscar acceptance speech.” He takes a couple steps back as I open my car door, still trying to recover. “Drive home safely.”

It had been a completely platonic, typical European kiss. Yet apparently based on the electricity coursing through my veins right now my body hasn’t quite gotten that memo. I turn up my music as I slowly drive back down to the main road.

This is fine. Everything is fine. He’s just a friend.

Chapter Eight

I wake up the next morning with a pillow thrown in my face. I let out a whoosh of air as I sit up, startled by the unexpected wakeup call. Penn thrusts her phone into my face without a word.

“Good morning to you too. How did you even get in here?” I grumble as I blink a few more times to bring everything into focus. On the screen is a semi-grainy picture of Liam leaning in to kiss someone. Suddenly I’m wide awake as I yank the phone from Penn when I realize that someone is me. Someone had snapped a picture of Liam kissing me on the cheek, except based on the angle of the photo it doesn’t look like a peck on the cheek.

“You kissed Liam Taylor and didn’t tell me?” She jumps on the bed next to me. “How could you not have told me?”

I continue to stare at the screen in shock. Not only does the angle of the photo make it look like Liam and I are about to kiss, but my face is on full display. There’s even a picture of him getting in my car down at the security gate.

“Hello!” Penn shakes my arm. “Why did I find out my best friend kissed not only the most gorgeous, but also the biggest star in Hollywood, through People Magazine?”

“We didn’t kiss.” I finally say, even though I feel like I’m having an out of body experience. Is everyone going to see this photo? Like Jared? Jared will see this photo and think I’m dating Liam. That would be bad.

Okay, that’s an understatement. It would be complete earth shattering. Life as I know it would never be same. We’d be over before we even got to truly begin!

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