Make Believe Read online

  First Published 2013 by

  Genevieve Smith Publications

  © Copyright Genevieve Smith

  First Published July 2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by means without prior written permission from the author.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the authors prior written consent by any means, in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead is coincidental.

  Cover photo used by kind permission of Mark Wragg and P Catalin.

  Designed By K Turgel.

  © Copyright Genevieve Smith

  First Published 5/7/2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by means without prior written permission of Genevieve Smith.

  Make Believe

  Genevieve Smith

  Bournemouth

  Dorset

  England

  MAKE BELIEVE

  G. S. SMITH

  For Matt, Oliver and Evie,

  You are my world.

  xxxxxxx

  Chapter 1

  The tears won’t stop streaming down my face - I stand up; gather my things together, push my glass of wine out of the way, and follow Henry, the man who’s just broken my heart, towards the door.

  I stand outside Solo’s bar waiting for my cab to turn up, London looks so miserable and grey on this Friday afternoon. I watch the rain as it reflects against the car headlights. Why does it always rain when you have to go somewhere? How could he do this to me? This was my time to shine. I have always supported him, no matter what. For god’s sake, it will only be for three months at the most. If he loved me the way he said he did, then he could wait that long surely?

  When the taxi decided to eventually pull up, I climbed in. “Heathrow airport, terminal 3, please.”

  He smiles noticing my resentment to talk. I take the call sheet from out my bag and unfold it. My flight’s at 4pm. I start to count the hours, I should arrive in LA at about 4am their time. That will give me a couple of hours to get some sleep before I have to be on set at 9. God I’m still so nervous, this will be my first time in Hollywood working on a film production, how lucky am I having Elliott Tate’s agent ask for me personally.

  My phone starts vibrating and playing, “We are young” in my bag.

  “Hello, yes, Claire I’m on my way now. I know, Mia’s meeting me at the airport, she has the tickets. I had some stuff to take care of first.” I roll my eyes.

  “Aha, it’s all sorted now. No I won’t let anything get in the way Claire, you know that. I realize you’re just watching my back. That’s why you’re the best agent around. Yes, I’ll call you when we arrive. Take care.”

  As the cab pulls into terminal three, I spy Mia waiting at the entrance for me.

  I drag my two large cases out the boot of the car towards her, she smiles, I drop them to the floor and throw my arms around her neck.

  “How did it go?” She smiles.

  “Terribly, he left without even saying goodbye. That’s it we’re over. Two years of my life wasted on him. It pains me to think what I’ve given up for him. The bastard! He couldn’t even bring himself to support me when I needed him to the most. For god’s sake, it will only be for three months. He’s so controlling, because it’s not on his terms and he doesn’t agree. That’s it. When I think about how I’ve supported him, I moved to bloody London, left my family and friends and for what, so he can kick me to the curb when it suited him.”

  She smiles pulling back.

  “Yes you did Jess. And you’ve made the right decision, and don’t ever doubt that. Look how your career has taken off, we are on our way to Hollywood to work with one of the biggest mega stars of our time, and my god we are so lucky. But more importantly than that, if you hadn’t moved here you would never have met me. Imagine how boring your life would be then!” She teases.

  I smile trying to hide my true feelings. Henry was a selfish arse. But he was my first love, the boy I lost my virginity too, my first proper relationship. Without him in my life, I didn’t know what I was going to do.

  “Hey chick, don’t give him a second thought. We have much bigger things to play with now. Who needs a doctor when you can have Hollywood’s biggest heartthrob? Do you realize Jess how god-damn attractive Elliott Tate is? He’s 28years old, 6ft 3, olive skin and a body to die for, I tell you girl if you’re not playing for him I certainly will.” She sighs.

  “I’ll have you know, I am the most professional make-up artist around. Unlike someone else I know.” I giggle.

  “Hush, you. It was just that one time; he was too much of a good offer to turn down. I mean, he was in a band.” She says imitating a teenage girl.

  “Enough, we will miss our flights if we’re not careful, can you imagine that conversation with Claire!” We laugh.

  I hate to fly, it’s my biggest fear. I sit staring out the window as the Virgin plane starts taxing the runway.

  I feel myself clutching the armrest of my seat - grasping away at it as if my life depends on it.

  “Jess, it’s going to be fine, hey look who’s on the front cover of the magazine.” She points trying to distract me from the ordeal in front of me. I feel the plane rear up into the sky going full throttle higher and higher. I close my eyes, feeling my head fall back, I whisper to myself. “It’s ok, its ok, its ok, its ok, people do this every day.” I try to block out the sounds from the engines as they appear to be getting louder. I rummage around in my jeans pocket searching for my iPod, anything to take my mind of it, damn where did I put it? I hate these seat belts, they restrict you so much my body feels tense and it’s uncomfortable to sit back.

  Buzz, buzz, buzz. I glance up, and above us the seat belt signs have gone off. Thank god. I can get up and move around. Hopefully this will fill the void of my fear. I walk to the toilet and notice that there is a commotion up ahead in first class. I can’t help but notice the air stewardesses are fussing about, preening themselves, looking in the mirrors, doing their makeup, brushing their hair. What’s up with them? A woman tries to walk past one of the stewardess who is stood guarding first class, she tells her to go back to her seat immediately. God, they must have someone really famous on board to be so on touchy.

  Normally in club class you can get away with going into 1 class but not this time. As I clamber over Mia into my seat, I realize what she meant about ‘look who’s on the front cover’, he really does seem to appear everywhere: Elliott Tate gracing the front cover of Vogue magazine.

  I snatch it up to have a better look. I suppose I should start researching my new subject. I look deeper into the photo of him. I can appreciate what everybody is talking about. He really is very good looking, but not in your usual American boy next door way. His eyes glisten when you look into them. Their colour is so unusual - grey/blue - and they are big. They are feathered by these amazing dark eyelashes, which any woman would pay good money for. His hair is dark but with sun kissed ends; the messy style he wears frames his face perfectly, his skin is flawless and his mouth is amazing it’s the perfect shape with fuck me lips and whiter than white teeth - he really is faultless, unbelievably so. Maybe he’s been photo shopped? That would make sense. Most people have, who grace
d the glossies.

  What I really love most about my job is you get to see them for real, with all their flaws, they may have bad skin or bags under their eyes, or the odd spot, it makes them human. Not that it stops them from being prima donna’s half the time; they are so up their own arses with their yes people surrounding them. They’re not use to being contradicted, they don’t like it if you to have too much to say about their look. It’s just do your job and do it fast. But maybe this time it will be different, now that I had been promoted to senior artist on set - I’d get to call the shots – decide the look, and who works on who. It will be my responsibility if it all goes wrong, I’ll have to work 24/7 making sure it all runs smoothly. Jeez that in itself is quite a pressure. Maybe I’ve been too hasty rushing to accept this job. Perhaps I should have given it more thought and the consequences it’s brought with it.

  I banish these negative thoughts from my mind as quickly as they arrived. There’s not a lot I can do about it at 36,000 feet anyway.

  “Jessica, it’s time to wake up. We’ve landed.” I felt Mia gently tapping me.

  “Huh, already? I feel disorientated, it’s like I’ve only been asleep five minutes.”

  The air stewardesses are panicking again, I guess they are trying to get their mysterious guest off with as little disruption as possible. The senior flight attendant walks over to Mia and me.

  “Excuses me ladies, is it possible that we can get you to stay seated just for five more minutes? We need to exit the first class passengers through this exit door here.” She points to the door in front of us. She smiles but her meaning is obvious: this is what’s going to happen whether we like it or not.

  With that she leaves and returns with two other blonde attendants, who open the door and stand on either side to shield the view. I notice a tall blonde-headed guy walking along towards us. He’s casually dressed, wearing a denim jacket, a black t-shirt and black jeans, he’s fairly good looking, tall and skinny. He’s distracted whilst he’s talking to the other guy behind him. The second man appears, looking more distinctive, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, blue jeans and a blue checked shirt. You can’t help but notice he’s very good looking even though he’s trying to hide behind his disguise. The closer he gets the more the stewardesses start to smile and pout. God, it’s such a sad sight watching women fall over themselves for a man. Finally when he reaches the doorway, he stops and takes a quick glance at us, he then half smiles, as if we are in on his joke. He leans forward and whispers something into the taller stewardess’s ear, and in return she giggles as if she’s been told the funniest joke. He then smirks again and whispers something to the other air stewardess who blushes instantly. He then leans in again and kisses them both on the cheek; he’s so sleazy.

  “Come on Elliott, leave these bitches to get on with their job!” he booms and laughs.

  The other man pulls his cap down even further and heads off the plane.

  I feel my mouth fall open; God knows how those poor women must have felt.

  “What an absolute bastard,” I remark to Mia.

  She just smiles.

  “What’s that smirk for?” I tease. “Well?” I insist.

  “Do you really not know? That’s your new client.” she smiles.

  “What, which one? Not the asshole? Mind you they both looked like assholes!”

  “The guy with the baseball cap. I would recognize that mouth anywhere.” Her cheeks flush red.

  “Oh God! I knew this whole thing seemed too good to be true.”

  “Only three months, Jess, that’s all,” she teases.

  Chapter 2

  “Oh my God, is that the time?” I bellow down to Mia.

  “Yep it’s 7:30a.m.”

  Shit, I’m late. God, why didn’t my alarm go off? Or maybe it did but the jetlag had crept in and I didn’t hear it.

  I throw on a pair of cargo pants, a white vest and a necklace. I brush my strawberry blonde hair up into a high bun on my head and slathered foundation on my face, then a bit of mascara on my very green eyes hoping to cover the evidence of no sleep, and I’m ready. Not a great look for my first day on set. You would think that a makeup artist would insist on looking perfect on her first day, but oh no, not me.

  I am never very providential. It was just typical that on my first day I would be late. Sensibly, I had prepared my kits beforehand, by now I was well aware of how unfortunate I could be, so to combat this I tried being prepared for every eventuality.

  “Jess, the car’s here. Hurry and I’ll grab you a cereal bar and coffee!” Mia shouts.

  Mia and I have been friends for years. We had enrolled on the same makeup course at university. I didn’t want to live with Henry straight away and ended up moving into student digs with Mia. We hit it off from the word go as we both had the same warped sense of humor. Neither of us was like your typical students. I had been really lucky with one of my first jobs; it was in television, for a dance show. I needed an assistant and Mia was my ideal candidate and has been ever since. But her talents weren’t just worked related, she was the best flat-mate you could wish for. She was always organizing me, even though I was twenty-three!

  I smiled at the car driver as he opened the door for me.

  “Right, Mia, here’s the list of all the actors. We are in the trailers out the back of the set. It has been duly asked that Elliott only be attended by the senior makeup artist. They say that I’m allowed to be assisted but only if Elliott agrees!” I wink at her.

  “Oh my God, what a pretentious idiot. Only if he agrees! Well, I might not want to assist such an asshole anyway!” she giggles.

  “I thought I would share that useful information with you so you can blow off steam before we attend to him,” I laugh.

  “God, when did you find that out?”

  “I spoke to Claire yesterday. Elliott’s agent, Hudson Creech, had phoned her telling her their requests! She said to try and stay on the right side of Hudson as he is a good guy but has a bad reputation for being a ruthless bastard in business. Elliott’s just one of his many protégés.”

  “Sounds like a nice guy!” Mia teases.

  I roll my eyes at her “Yes, just the type you want to be stuck with for three months of your life.”

  “Well it’s too late now, we’re here.”

  I gather my things together and clutch my case; the amount of makeup you can manage to squeeze into a medium size case is amazing. We head towards security where there is a man standing at the front gate. He strides towards us with a clipboard under his arm.

  “Name and the purpose of your visit please ma’am?”

  “Jessica Ing and Mia Ambrose. Senior makeup artists from Avalon.”

  “Thank you. Please go straight to reception, which is along this driveway, and then right. There, you will be issued with your security passes. You need to keep them on you at all times. You’re working on a closed set, security is paramount. Which one of you is Jessica Ing?”

  “That would be me,” I reply waving my hand.

  “You have been granted an all access pass, which means you can go anywhere in the studio grounds, including Mr. Tate’s trailer.” I look at Mia and raise my eyebrow. “Mr. Creech has also requested that you go straight to Mr. Tate’s trailer as soon as you have received your pass.” He smiles, rolling his eyes.

  “Thank you,” I reply.

  Once I have my pass in my hand I head down towards the trailers. God, I wish I was going with Mia to meet the rest of the production team. I hate first meetings, especially when it involves such a controlling asshole.

  As I head towards them I instantly realize which one is his. It’s the biggest of course and has a security guard standing directly outside. I feel my hands becoming clammy. God, I hate it when my nerves kick in.

  “Hi, I’m here to see Mr. Tate and Mr. Creech,” I say in my sweetest voice.

  He takes my pass and looks at it for several minutes, and then points at the door. How rude, not even an acknowledgemen
t. God, I feel so out of place here that my nerves are getting the better of me. With my heart in my hand I knock on the door.

  It opens, and I immediately recognize the two men from the plane.

  “Hi,” I manage just a whisper.

  “Sorry, you are?” The blonde man snaps.

  I grab my self-confidence from somewhere near my feet and pull it upwards. Jessica, you are a strong professional woman. They have asked for you! Act like one.

  “I’m Jessica Ing, senior makeup artist, and you’ve asked to see me immediately,” I smile.

  “Yes, do come in. You’re later than we expected.”

  “I’m sorry about that; the security thing took longer.” I smile.

  “Well now that you’re here, this is Elliott Tate, and I’m his agent, Hudson Creech. We would like to discuss our expectations with you.” He turns and sits down without offering me a chair. I look towards Elliott for some form of reassurance but he doesn’t even look at me! But one thing instantly hits me, he hasn’t been photo-shopped. He really is that striking. I can’t take my eyes away from him. He looks up and catches my stare. I look away immediately like an embarrassed child caught doing something wrong. But not before I notice a slight smile appear at the corner of his mouth.

  I’m just standing there, feeling really awkward. No one is saying anything. I tug on my diamond pendant necklace which I got for my Twenty first, It’s a nervous thing I do. Sod this, I need to take the lead.

  “So you want to discuss ‘expectations’?” I quote.

  Hudson turns towards me and nods, and then Elliott actually turns himself to look at me.

  “And they are…..?” I’m on fire now.

  Hudson stands up and hands me a file.

  “Everything Mr. Tate needs is in here. This is for your eyes only. Do not leave it lying around. Only the heads of each department receive these. They are all individual, specific to what he expects from each person working on him. I’m not sure, Miss Ing, if you are really aware of whom you’re working on and the potential he can bring to your career. I suggest you study this and conform to it. Hopefully that will keep us all happy.” He smirks and turns his back on me and goes and sits down.