Page 16 of The Singapore Stunt

“Our world is not for the faint of heart.” He repeats a mantra we’ve shared dozens of times. It’s the reason he left the profession. When he fell in love with Jill Hanover, the screenwriter and author of the Forever movies, our fake romance became exposed. A very public scandal that nearly destroyed all our careers. The public didn’t take too kindly to being deceived.

“How are you and Jill doing?”

His billionaire smile makes an appearance, his concern for me disappearing at the mention of the love of his life. “Living our best lives. She’s on a book tour in Seattle, and I’m here at our lake house. Mia and Aaron are swinging by later.”

I feel the smile growing on my face. We shot on location for both Forever films at the beautiful Lake Hope in Indiana. Our set was like family, and I made a bunch of lifelong friendships. “Please tell them I send my love.”

“You? Talking about love? Is this Mattias’ doing too?” Trace kids me. He knows me better than any other person in my life. We were never physically intimate during our fake relationship, but we’ve each shared every secret and fear we’ve ever held. It is the most intimate relationship I’ve ever had. And he knows Hollywood. And our shared history. All of this makes him the only person who fully understands what is going through my mind.

“I’m scared, Trace.” There are no walls between Trace and me. I can admit my every insecurity without repercussion or judgment. “I understand I’m in a position of privilege. I’ve been given a second chance by the fans. Somehow, they’ve allowed me to come back from our deception. My Q numbers have been climbing for a year, social media engagement approaching what they were during our first movie.” The public may appear fickle from the outside, holding up one celebrity and tearing down the next for reasons not understood. We found out, however, that they will forgive if you are authentic. “If I start a relationship, the public is going to pick it apart every which way to Sunday. Outside of you, there isn’t another man on this planet who can live up to that level of scrutiny. Especially at the start of a relationship with someone who already has a well-documented history of not being truthful.”

“You are right to be scared.” Trace gives it to me straight. It’s exactly what I need. “From where I sit, there are four options.”

I adjust the angle of the laptop, ready to take notes.

“Option one: avoid any relationships. That was my motivation for creating our fake relationship. I didn’t want to subject someone to my upside-down world. Being alone in Hollywood creates so many damn whispers I thought the fake relationship would give everyone what they wanted. And it worked brilliantly until it didn’t.” He scoffs at the naivete we both possessed in thinking we could manipulate the hearts and minds of millions of people.

I wipe a large X in the air in front of the Zoom camera. “Next.”

“Option two: keep it in the dark.” He says words I considered. During our fake romance, I had physical needs and urges, like every woman. Trace and I weren’t intimate, and neither of us had any desire to add that level of complications to our arrangement. I took care of my needs behind closed doors with discreet men who understood.

I state the obvious. “I don’t have the world’s biggest star around to absorb all the attention this time.” I place another large X in the air.

Trace nods. “Good. Because that one only has a short shelf life. And you deserve so much more. And you might as well keep that X in the air for the next one too.” I raise my index finger, already expecting it. “Live your life like a nun. You once told me relationships aren’t for you. All you need is your career. I know you too well to know that’s not how you still feel. Am I right?”

I let my finger provide the answer. “This life is incredible, Trace.”

“I know.” His gaze leaps through my screen five thousand miles to reach me. “And you want to share it with someone?” Like I said, he knows me.

I nod.

“And that’s your option four. Your only option. Your answer.”

I knew the right answer before I sent the urgent text to Trace and had him hop on a last-second call. It’s an answer I didn’t want to face. Try to figure out a new relationship in the eyes of an unforgiving public.

“Kimber?” I hear the warning in his whisper. “You are incredible and deserve all the happiness in the world.”

I mouth thanks, knowing there’s more to come.

“Two last things. Make sure you are ready. You’ve been through this drill before. It’s a lot. The paparazzi, the rumors, the tabloids. They’ll come at you from every angle.”

I laugh at the memory. I was so foolish and careless when I was in the fake relationship. “Yeah. I thought it was fun at the time because it was a game. We weren’t real.” The humor falls from my voice. We didn’t just toy with the public. We crossed lines most people would never consider. We even inched up to our self-imposed lines, threatening our relationship and each other’s hearts. “This time, it will be for real.”

“It’s one of the hardest things we do in our profession. Try to defend the people we care about while knowing we’ll never, ever be able to completely protect them.” Trace speaks from a place of experience. The struggle he went through when the media attacked his girlfriend, Jill, sent him into a dark spiral I had never witnessed before.

He goes silent, and I know he’s thinking back to that dark moment. I send him a rescue balloon, a kind gesture he’s done for me a thousand times. “You mentioned the last two things. What’s the other?”

The corners of his eyes crinkle with a thanks for the rescue look. “Very few people understand what I did at the end. Giving up a Hollywood career people dream about all their lives. But I did it for love, and I’ve never had a second of regret.”

After our fake relationship blew up, Trace and I went through a whirlwind that tested our friendship in ways unimagined. We argued and had tough conversations about every decision we had ever made. From it all, we came out on the other side stronger. I challenged him a dozen times about every one of his decisions, and he did the same for me. I know why he did what he did. “You did it for love. For Jill.”

“For Jill,” he whispers. “If you’re ready to go public with a relationship, you have the pick of over half the population on this planet. I read the social media posts after Jill and I went public. I stopped counting at three thousand the number of wedding proposals tossed at you.” He gives me a half smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Those days are tough for all of us. “Whoever you choose…” The seriousness returns to his voice, and I prepare myself. “Make sure they understand what they are signing up for. Make sure they understand the prize in front of them. And most of all, make sure they are worth it.”

Chapter Twelve

Mattias

I flip Kimberly to the mat, her sweaty arms sliding through my hand. She smacks the mat like I’ve shown. It’s a trick Xavier picked up from training professional wrestlers. The extra-loud smack makes it appear the landing is much harder than it is.

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