Loving Him
CHAPTER 2
“God Damn it!” cursed Hayden silently as he reached across and shut off his alarm clock. He looked at his watch and grimaced. It was already 7.00 p.m.! He was so late! He had to be at the photo shoot at eight in the evening and he had fifteen minutes to get ready and finally get there.
Picking up his phone, he checked it for any unread messages. There was one and while he walked to the cupboard to pick out a shirt to wear.
“Hayden,
Nat here. Shoot tomorrow has been cancelled. Want you to meet a friend of mine. Pick me up at seven thirty.”
He sighed and got down to typing back a reply at the same time as trying to reach for a shirt and pulling it on to his muscular body. God, he had worked forever on his abs. It was times like these that he hated fame and sometimes when Nat got up to business like this, he felt like throwing something at her.
All the people she took him to meet were always such arrogant bastards and bitches. Well, if Nat said so…he’ll indulge her one last time.
Pulling on his favorite T-shirt that said “Bad Attitude.” And a pair of navy blue loose fitting jeans he walked out the door at exactly 7:15. He ran his hands through his hair one more time to make sure it was set straight. His hair was a dark brownish blonde naturally and he intended to keep it that way.
He had last dyed it for ‘Life as a House’ and he knew it looked good in black but he was all for naturals really. He loved natural colors and they loved him.
He got into his brand new black corvette and drove to Natalie’s house. She was ready and she jumped in with him giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
“Thanks Hayden! You are the best!”
She grinned at him and he gave her a quick smile before getting down to driving again. About a gazillion thoughts ran through his head as he tried to get by the LA traffic. His lines, his god awful driving and his horrible quietness, that sometimes cost him friends. But it was Natalie’s sentence that got him thinking about how imperfect he was and how horribly he had handled the last major event of his life. Natalie was saying something but his mind was elsewhere thinking about the drugs…
The smoking…
The drinking…
And…the first guy he killed…
“Hey, Jeff!” Jeff looked up to see Hayden standing in the doorway, he gestured him in and Tom locked the door behind him, he was already pulling out the packet from behind his bed.
He was seventeen again. And Jeff and Tom had the drugs in their hands again.
Hayden took a good look at it before pulling out a joint and the fun had started. He had been so high that night that he didn’t notice Tom pick up that gun. He didn’t hear Jeff’s scream. He didn’t hear Tom load the gun once again until he heard the sirens and looked at the dead body on the floor in absolute horror.
He fell to the floor looking at Jeff’s lifeless body, and cursing himself for not being to help him…and then there was a sharp pain in his side and it all went black…
He never did find out why Tom had shot them. But he blamed himself for Jeff’s death.
If he had not been so high…
If he had found out what Tom was trying to do…
If he had only he had heard Jeff’s yell…
His mind still played a torturous game of ‘if’ every now and then.
Heh, if. A two letter futility.
“Hayden! Good Morning! Hello!”
He heard Natalie’s voice come to him from a distance. He shook himself to the present and saw that he was parked in front of a beautiful villa with a pretty lawn that was full of young flowers…
In fact the whole house suggested youth.
Hayden finally got his head out of the guilty daydream he was having and focused his green eyes on the house’s front door.
Natalie was already out of the car trying to physically drag him to the beautiful oak door. Great! Time to meet some hoity toity snoot face bitch.
Natalie looked at him in disdain as she rang the bell.
“No need to look so enthused Hayden. No need at all!”
He groaned as she continued to victimize him until the door swung open.
“You never listen to me these days! What is the matter with you? I wish you’d stop day dreaming every so often, and by the way be nice to her okay? She’s a pretty cool person. I’m sure you’ll like her.”
When the butler took Natalie’s coat she finally managed to urge Hayden inside.
“God, I’m coming already!”
They walked into a huge drawing room that was tastefully decorated in pastel autumn shades of cream, light orange, tinge of yellow and pale red. He sat down on a small red sofa, settling his long frame down.
“Hey Nat, is that you?” He heard a clear, yet accented husky voice call.
Nice voice. He thought grudgingly despite himself.
“Yeah it’s me Nikita! Come down!”
“Yeah, I’m just putting Shiva back to bed. Oh forget it…I’m bringing him down!”
Natalie grinned. Whoever this Shiva was must be good company, thought Hayden, still gloomy about being dragged out of his sleep for this.
Natalie suddenly squealed scaring the life out of Hayden. “Hayden! Come here!”
He got up, put on a fake smile and faced whoever Natalie was introducing him to. And was instantly blown away by what he saw.
She was a vision in white.
A low cut, full sleeved top tied above the midriff, with an emphasis on her tiny waist and ample bust and a pair of plain white jeans.
Her face, god, her face was beautiful. Her skin was the color of a perpetual tan, her eyes were a beautiful light brown and her mouth looked like it held a career in kissing…
It had an almost sexual tendency in its form.
Her long auburn hair flew down to mid back and her heart shaped face glowed.
But what really melted him was the baby she carried in her arms with the mop of black hair on his head. The baby’s light brown eyes twinkled a similar shade to the girl holding him.
Nothing melted him more than a woman with a baby.
“Hayden Christensen?! Nat, I’m going to kill you! You brought Hayden Christensen to my house as a surprise visit when I’m hardly dressed as anything even slightly acceptable!?”
Natalie took the baby from her arms and grinned sheepishly “Um…surprise?”
She rolled her eyes and gave her friend a hug.
“Nat…aren’t you going to introduce us?” asked Hayden finally finding his voice and looking at the girl in front of him with intensity in his eyes.
Natalie looked at him in surprise. “Yeah of course…Nikita Gill, meet -”
“Hayden Christensen. Who doesn’t know you? And if this doesn’t sound too corny…may I have your autograph please?”
She bent down and picked up a pen and some paper from a table near her phone. Hayden smiled genuinely now, as he signed the autograph and handed it to her.
“Thanks…” she said smiling gently at him “You’ve been my childhood crush since ‘Higher Ground’”
“Now THAT means something coming from a fellow actress.” He said this with emphasis on actress. He had seen her on screen before as ‘Qerunisa’ a Mormon mughal princess kidnapped by pirates as a child and becomes a pirate herself.
She had made a big splash on screen, the movie was supposed to be one of the biggest hits made by the industry and it was said that her acting was phenomenal. But he had under estimated the complete impact of the meeting and her powerful presence until now.
Add to that she was really down to earth…it was hard to find that these days.
“And who is this?” asked Hayden with a gentle smile stroking the baby’s hair. Natalie answered whilst handing the baby over to Nikita.
“This is Shiva. Nikita’s nephew. He stays with her.”
The baby cooed and laughed and Hayden saw Nikita glance at his autograph and then saw her blush deepen. The baby patted her face and continued to giggle. She looked up at his face coyly and said “I bet you say that to every girl you meet.”
Natalie looked at the two of them grinning like fools at each other and sighed exasperatedly at Hayden, before snatching the autograph from her hands. Her eyes widened as she saw what he had written. He had never made it so obvious he liked someone before!
“No.” she said slowly. “Trust me, he doesn’t.”
“To the prettiest vision I have ever met. Here’s hoping you’re real!
Love,
Hayden Christensen.”
To be continued….
»
Chapter 3