Fame ***

Three busy days passed before I got a text from Niall. I knew he was probably trying to keep from seeming like he was desperate, but it was fucking annoying. I hated when guys tried to follow those ancient rules of dealing with girls, and it did nothing but prolong the process of getting my tabloid story.

Hey Lilah. And that was all it said. No initiating conversation or anything. It was almost like he wanted me to fangirl over the fact that he’d actually sent me a text in the first place.

I started to wonder whether he was as innocent as he made himself seem in the media. I knew firsthand that it was easy to manipulate the tabloids and make it seem like you were a person you weren’t, and maybe Niall was just as savvy as I was in that respect. Hi, Niall. How are you?

He didn’t respond right away, and I knew that it was going to be painful texting him. I hated when people were so consumed by their own lives that they didn’t pay attention to when their phones went off. It was just irritating.

About ten minutes later, I finally got a response. I’m fine thanks. Just in the studio and trying to write some songs with the lads. You?

Cool! :) And I’m about to go to a lunch meeting with the director of the new movie I signed on to do.

There was another long lapse of time before I got his reply. Awesome. We’ll have to go out to dinner and you can tell me all about it. ;)

Just give me a time and place and I’ll be there.

I expected him to respond right away with the information I desired, but he didn’t. In fact, he stopped texting me completely. Part of me got angry, whether he was busy or not, because I was making a breakthrough. But I didn’t want to text him again, since that would look desperate and could potentially scare him away.

Normally, boys were not that complicated. I just told them what they wanted to hear, made sexy little smiles and wore clothes that showed off my body, and they fell under my spell. With Niall, though, I had to be more careful. Every move had to be planned and executed perfectly to make sure that the mission didn’t get destroyed.

Just as I was about to leave for my meeting, my phone buzzed again. How’s tonight at eight thirty? You can come to my hotel room, and we’ll get takeaway.

I presumed “takeaway” was takeout, and agreed quickly, telling him to let me know which hotel room was his, and then headed out to my meeting.



As the taxi neared Niall’s hotel, I wrung my hands together with anxiety. I had realized that I didn’t know much about him, so I had no idea how far he’d expect things to go that night. Would he want to go all the way, right from the get-go? I was sure that if he did, he would expect that I’d oblige, considering the whole world thought that I had sex with Harry when we’d known each other for less than an hour.

The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that he’d want to have sex with me. Why else would he want to hang out in his hotel room and get food delivered there? Normal first dates involved going out to restaurants or a movie, which I would have preferred, since we could have gotten photographed that way. But I just had to hope that paparazzi had parked up around the building to take pictures of me when I arrived and left.

The taxi pulled to a stop against the curb outside the hotel, and I threw some money at the guy without thanking him. The second my heels hit the sidewalk, my foot feeling the little pieces of gravel that littered the cement, I could hear the familiar, almost-inaudible sound of clicking in the distance.

Trying to look bashful, I kept my head facing the ground and pushed my sunglasses further up my nose, pretending that I was attempting to hide from them. Playing up for the camera was so natural at that point that it was basically instinctual.

Once inside, I took off my sunglasses and propped them on top of my head, heading straight for the elevators. My face was recognizable, of course, so no one stopped me and asked what my business was. There were plenty of perks to being famous, and that was definitely one of them.

I hit the button to the sixth floor and stood back to wait as it ascended. Butterflies were fluttering in my stomach, reinforcing how nervous I was about the encounter that was about to occur. This was so much more high-stakes than the stunt I pulled with Harry, since it was going to last months, and I had to be perfect.

Soon, I was at Niall’s door, and I knocked a couple of times before stepping back to give him room. When he answered, his face immediately blossomed into a heartbreakingly beautiful smile. “Hi, Lilah,” he said in the Irish brogue I nearly forgotten he had. “Come on in.”

Cartons of what looked like Chinese takeout were lined up on the table that came with the room, and Niall flushed. “I know I got a lot of food, but I wasn’t sure what you wanted, and I didn’t want to text you in case you were busy.”

So that explained why it had taken him so long to text me in the first place. “I’m really not busy all that often,” I lied with a small smile. “And I’d never mind hearing from you. But I’m sure this will be great.”

He grinned gratefully before taking some of the cartons and bringing them into the living room. I quickly did the same, gathering as many paper containers in my arms as possible and moving them to the coffee table.

“I figured we could watch a movie while we ate, if that’s okay,” he replied. “Normally, I’d want to take you out, but I’m just so afraid that fans and the paparazzi would ruin everything. It’s not because I don’t want to be seen with you.”

“I completely understand,” I laughed. So everything I’d surmised about him had been wrong. He really was sweet and naïve and kind and so completely innocent. “This will be perfect.”

He looked pleased with himself as he picked up one of the remotes and started flipping through the options for pay per view. “Do you have any preference?”

“Not really,” I mumbled. “Just not any of my movies. I hate watching myself on screen.” I almost gasped as soon as the words came out of my mouth. It was true, but to everyone around me, I always pretended that I loved it. I wasn’t exactly one of those actresses who picked myself apart, criticizing every word that came out of my mouth and every move I made, but it was just kind of…awkward. Plus, with all the makeup they put on me, I really didn’t look too much like myself.

“I understand,” Niall assured me, not noticing how uncomfortable I had become after the truth slipped through my lips like that. “How about Silver Linings Playbook? Harry said the movie was really good, and I wanted to give it a try.”

“That sounds good to me,” I agreed, even though I’d seen the movie when it premiered.

As the movie played, Niall and I ate mostly in silence, commenting on the movie here and there. It was strange, how relaxed I felt around him, and I reminded myself more times than I could count that I was just using him for publicity. My feelings could not get involved.

Soon enough, my imagination stopped running wild, and I was back to business. Toward the end of the movie, I could feel my eyelids start to grow heavy, and Niall noticed.

Cautiously and very gently, he wrapped his arm around me, pulling my head in toward his shoulder. I allowed myself to lean into him, resting my forehead in the crook of his neck, hearing the soft, rhythmic beating of his heart as I felt myself start to lose consciousness.

I was aware that I was wearing a dress that would probably ride up as I slept without a blanket to cover myself and that we hadn’t even kissed to seal the realness of relationship, but it didn’t seem to matter.

And just before I was completely gone, I heard Niall shut off the movie and felt him slip out from underneath me, laying me down on the soft leather couch. I thought he was going to leave me like that, but soon, he came back and rested a blanket over me, tucking a pillow under my head. I immediately recognized the comforter as the one that would have been on his bed and felt a strange panging inside of me when I realized that he wouldn’t have a real blanket to sleep with.

But I just pulled the comforter closer to my chin and settled further into the couch, allowing myself to fall asleep without another thought.