I flicked my eyes from the glossy centerfold page of the magazine I was holding and up to the face of the man standing half-naked inside the living room of my friend's condominium with only a white towel wrapped around his waist, his bare chest totally exposed for my very eyes to gawk at. I was just halfway through the entry hall when I immediately caught sight of the unanticipated guest and I could not even stop a hitch of my breath from escaping my lips. Trickles of water glided down his fair skin as if he just came out of the shower and the glory image turned out to be almost the same one from the glossy magazine I was just reading in my hands right now.
Was I dreaming, perhaps?
I could hear nothing at all—could not even move my body. I just consciously turned my eyes down to the page I was looking at just a few moments ago. Then I darted my eyes up to the guy in front of me. Same eyes, same chiseled face, same built. Same hard-toned abs. No shit, sherlock. It was him. Definitely him. I looked down at the magazine again, gulping audibly, and looked at the guy in front of me. Looked at the picture again... and again and again until I was very sure that both the picture and the guy inside the room with me had only the same face.
Mr. Kieran Locke.
That is his name and there was no way I would have never recognized him, even without the centerfold page of the most recently released magazine I just bought on my way here this morning. No one will not possibly know who he is if you have been living long enough in the city. He is one of Hollywood's hottest actors. The man who is always being followed by the media wherever he goes. This was all too surreal.
But not that I was complaining about it. I certainly appreciate my fair share of view of his appetizing torso. And for a brief few moments, I really did not know what to do or what to say out of courtesy. We just stood there gaping at each other, a mere six-meter distance between us, letting the heavy silence hover in the air. I was completely shell-shocked.
I doubted this reality for a few seconds because I did not know if I was purely imagining him or not, until my friend, Penelope walked out from a hallway behind him and stopped short when she saw both me and Kieran Locke engaged in a staring contest.
"Hi... Georgie," I heard her say in a small voice as she tried to sound a little too enthusiastic, but quickly failed when she sensed the tense atmosphere. It was obviously very awkward, and I was having a lot of wild thoughts running inside my head while I kept my mouth shut.
I was not very sure of how to react, so I tried to shift my weight to my other foot and cleared my throat. I saw the slight squinting of Kieran's eyes as he kept his gaze on me, but he looked too calm and unfazed. He did not even mind his state of underdress. One look and I immediately concluded what this was all about. He and Penelope, huh?
"Georgie?"
Penelope's worried voice pulled me out of my trance and I eventually realized that I had been ogling Kieran for far too long... Damn, that was very distracting too, to be honest. So I changed my stance and forced myself to look away, shifting my gaze to my dear friend who was still standing in a corner with her emerald green eyes stretched so wide, like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Hey, Pen. Good morning," I said back, finally finding my voice and immediately twisting the magazine in my hands tightly as I rolled the pages in my palm before hiding it behind my back.
It was pretty obvious to the naked eye to guess what was happening here and what this insanely gorgeous man was doing inside my friend's apartment at eight o'clock in the morning with nothing else covering him but that simple cotton clothing that left little to nothing for the imagination of the observer
which was me, apparently
. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, realizing how dried my mouth had become.
After all, I had been trying to appreciate the very look of the same man just minutes ago before I had walked into the place and found the same thing, in real life-size, with little warning beforehand. That really caught me off guard, and I was not sure if I was being successful at masking my ogling eyes or my state of astonishment. But I knew he still caught me in the first few seconds when he saw me a while ago.
"Did I come at the wrong time?" I blankly asked, raising a brow, unable to withhold my curiosity. Upon the raise of my question, a soft chuckle sprang out of Kieran's mouth as he regarded me for a while, wearing an amused expression. He crossed his arms across his chest, his biceps bulging and making me queasy as I try not to glance his way, but it was difficult not to see that from my peripheral vision. It was doing something weird inside my body, and I knew I should not be thinking any kind of malicious thought about him in my mind, given that this situation was certainly screaming "SEX" between him and my dear friend.
Are they dating for real now?
I have been friends with Penelope for so long and I knew she was not one to go into a secretive relationship. She was always the type who recklessly flaunts whoever she was seeing at the moment and would never even bat an eye at the media and critics who would, later on, speak ill of her flamboyant string of lovers and controversial personal life. But this felt different. Somehow, something here was not fitting the situation. But one thing's for sure, they had sex, but that did not mean it was going to be more intimate than that. I've been so exposed to the world of celebrities and fame that I already know how this all works.
But, for some reason, I don't really feel comfortable seeing this kind of an intimate side in her life. I wanted to leave the place at that very instant, but my feet could not move from where they were both glued on the spot and I just got stuck there, doe-eyed, still trying to compose myself.
"You know him. And don't worry, we are just about done," Penelope smiled briefly, quickly composing herself as she answered back. She crossed the small distance between her and Kieran and pat him on the shoulder with a smirk while I let out the breath I was holding in for quite some time, trying to read the body language. "He's one of my friends."
Friends?
I almost wanted to laugh at that. But what just came out of my mouth was an awkward cough as I averted my eyes back to Kieran and smiled sheepishly at him, "Hi."
He smiled back, but compared to how I must have looked, his smile was more relaxed and calmer. Then, reaching his hand out as if to do a proper handshake, he said, "Nice to meet you. You must be... Georgina, right?"
How cool that he even knew my name? I snorted back and could no longer resist a chortle as I approached him, taking a few steps forward and gripping his hand firmly for a shake. I did not want to think much about the way his warm long fingers had grazed over mine for a few seconds longer than I had expected and I just tried to distract myself as I shot my friend a sidelong glance and stepped back again. I kept a pretentious grin on my face and took a deep breath, because I needed one as well.
"You two... must have been busy," I said vaguely, trying not to sound too inquisitive and bluntly nosey. And I took another step back, as if preparing myself to leave the premises. I felt like I had walked into a situation that I should have never seen, but now I can't undo it. "I think I should leave."
"No," Kieran was the one who spoke this time, and the sound of his husky, deep voice startled me. I looked at him unwillingly and resisted swaying. How the hell can he make me feel this way? This was inappropriate. Not really a proper reaction.
But I could not find my voice to reply. So I stood awkwardly and gripped the magazine tighter in my fist behind my back.
"I was about to leave already, so don't worry," Kieran added after a moment, glancing at Penelope as he turned around and started heading toward Penelope's bedroom. "I just need to put on some clothes, then I will leave in a few minutes. So stay, Georgina."
As he did what he promised, I watched his back disappear into a hall on the side of the room and let out a soft sigh out of my consciousness. And when I came to my senses, I caught my friend giving me this mischievous grin from where she stood just a few meters away, probably just after witnessing the stupid drooling look on my face.
"You've got to tell me what that was," I eagerly demanded, whispering harshly as I leaned forward and widened my eyes at her. Penelope giggled and shot a glance over her shoulder first as if to check if he would hear us then when she turned her eyes back to me again, she was grinning so wide, her cheeks looked like they would even hurt.
"Of course, you'd insist," she told me with a roll of her eyes.
"You better give me the 411!"
Upon the rise of my excitement, Penelope quickly deflated and stepped back with a slight shake of her head.
"Oh no..." she said in a small voice with a tense frown on her face, "I can't do that, Georgie."
"What? Oh, c'mon," I quickly complained, knowing what that meant when she said that. I did not need any specific clarification from her to guess what those eyes wanted to say to me. "You don't want this to be out in the papers? You will be doing me a big favor here, Pen."
"I really can't," she said with a helpless grimace, almost looking regretful and sad for a second before she shook her head and tried to explain, "It was only a one-time thing. We agreed. And I had to keep my word."
"Keep your word?"
"No kiss and tell, Georgie. No lousy media exposure," Penelope pressed on, then pauses. "But..."
My ears perked up as I watched her intently after that word came out of her lips. And as if letting me on a very tiny juicy detail, Penelope moved closer and held up a hand to cover the side of her lips as she whispered to me, "I can let you on to a little secret though."
"Secret?" My lips echoed back, and I beamed at her words, holding my breath as I waited.
"Married," Penelope giddily confessed as she pulled my arm close to her and breathed against my ear, "Kieran Locke is already married."
"What?!" I was too stunned that I could not even control my own emotions.
"SSSH!" Penelope quickly hushed me as she pulled me to the corner further from the bedroom hall and lowered her voice. "You better not spill this carelessly, okay? I don't care if you want to write about this, but that's the only thing I could tell you. Only a few in the business knew that and somehow, the media has not figured that out. But you didn't hear that from me, Georgie. I can only say this much."
I did not say a word back. I was too shocked. I caught myself staring into space after hearing that one secret. It was one thing that my friend had agreed on a one-time affair with someone so famous and extremely controversial, but it was another that she would even know that kind of thing about him. And that... certainly made the wheels in my head turning around at full speed ahead.
It turned out, I was not only going to get something more than just juicy petty gossip. Because it seemed to be that there was another thing that would certainly sell more than just a monthly raise on my quota. If I get the full scoop of this one secret marriage of the ever-sought-after Kieran Locke, then I would totally become richer than I would ever want to be. All I just have to do was to follow the chase.
And the chase was now focused on the man with those dazzling eyes and irresistible body. The man who will lead me to bigger money. My gorgeous pot of gold.
