Persona (The 'Professional' series) (2 page)

“
Absolutely
Magazine
would like to do an article about you.  Usual type of stuff
for their readers.  They want one of their writers to follow you for a
while.  To get to the
real
Daniel Spittle.”

“Really?” 
Daniels spirits flagged.  He had hoped his agent had something exciting
for him to do. “Why does someone have to trail me?  Surely there is enough
written about me already?  They can just change it all around, put in a
couple of photos and, hey presto!”

“Nope,
sorry.  They were adamant that they wanted a reporter to follow you for a
couple of months actually.  They want to get past the, quote,
drop dead
gorgeous looks and body, womanising ways to get to the real Daniel Spittle that
the public doesn’t get to see,
unquote.”

“But who is
to say that isn’t me?  I am a womaniser, aren’t I?”  A large wicked
grin was splitting Daniel’s face.

“Daniel,
love.  I know what the public know about you, but I also know that most of
it is an act.  You are an intelligent man, perhaps it is time for everyone
to get past your looks and see a different side to you.  How old are you
now?”

“Twenty
eight.”

“Yes, well
one day, you might not be able to rely on that face and body. 

I just think
this is the right time, right opportunity for you to get out to the public that
you are more than the outside package.  I also think that
Absolutely
Magazine
is the right one to do it.  It is ‘middle of the road’ and
reaches the masses.  Now, it is entirely up to you of course, but I advise
you to do it.”

Daniel huffed
and crossed his jean clad legs at the ankles.  “Who is going to be
cramping my style then?”  His look was direct and slightly brooding.

“Let me
look.”  Alice searched thought the stack of papers on her desk.  “A
lady called Ella Hender.”  Alice looked up in time to see the smile
forming on Daniel’s face, his previous annoyance quickly evaporating.

“Young?” he
enquired. 

Alice sat
back in her seat, tapping her finger tips together.  “Now Daniel, try to
be yourself.  Don’t treat her like all those other women.  She is not
a date, she is a professional reporter.  Got that? 

Now off you
go now.   I have another appointment in five minutes.  Lindsey
will send you the information, times, everything that you need.”

Daniel rose
from the chair and picked up his empty coffee cup.   “I won’t do
anything but treat her with the upmost respect!” Daniel laughed.  “How old
is she?  You didn’t tell me,” he asked as he reached out to open the door.

“Go on out
of here!” Alice tried to hide her snigger. “She is about sixty!”

“Ooh, an
older woman, nice!” Daniel ducked as Alice threw a pencil at him.

As he exited
the building, Daniel took in a big lungful of fresh air and spotted Eric
patiently waiting for him in his convertible. 

He started
to stride over.  He could not wait to get home as it had been a long
boring day so far.  Before he made it to the pavement, he was stopped by a
couple of giggling schoolgirls, waiting for his autograph.  Daniel made
sure they got their autographs, and a kiss on their cheeks.  He watched
them giggling and hugging each other as they walked away down the street. 
He had to keep the fans happy!

He slipped
into the car seat.  “Hey Eric, get me home.  I could do with a nice
steak and glass of wine.  Mind you, after today, make that a bottle of
wine!”

“Good job I
went shopping when you were in there with
Mz
Hall,” Eric put emphasis on
the Mz.  “And I got steak!  You can cook it though, you know I
cremate anything I put near heat!”  Eric looked in the car mirrors and
moved the clutch into gear.

“I wouldn’t
let you anywhere near my steak. I don’t like the taste of burnt leather! 
Hey I’m the
star
.  Aren’t you supposed to be useful and cater to my
needs?”  Daniel gave a throaty laugh, they always liked jesting about
their supposed roles.  “What happened to those cooking lessons I arranged
for you?”

“I burnt too
many things!  You are such a good cook.  Besides, you have a cleaner
who always brings us food.  Why do I need to cook?  What did old
battle axe want anyway?”

“Alice isn’t
a battle axe, Eric.  She is just ultra-organised and just a tad pushy at
times! 
Absolutely Magazine
want to do a write up on me, a
Day
in the Life of Daniel Spittle.”  
He pulled a face.  “They are
sending over a writer tomorrow to follow me around for a couple of
months.  I cannot wait!” he muttered sarcastically. 

He put on
his seatbelt and leaned back to close his eyes.  He did not relish the
thought of someone trailing him.  He liked to leave his persona outside
his house.  When he went home, it was to be the real Daniel Spittle, and
the last thing he really wanted to do was to keep the façade going for twenty
four hours a day.

“At least
they are sending over a woman.  Perhaps I can charm her into bed and then
they will produce a fantastic write up on me!”  He looked sideways at Eric
through one open eye.

“No, don’t
you dare!”  Eric took his hand off the steering wheel and waved it at
Daniel.   “It is more likely that you will get bored after you have slept
with her, she will become bitter, then you will have the worse write up ever!”
 Eric tried to look horrified, while stifling a chuckle.  He knew his
friend was only joking.

Daniel
chortled and then closed his eyes for the rest of the short journey. 

He heard the
indicators of the car, opened his eyes and watched as Eric turned into the
driveway and parked the car.  He turned back around to grab the shopping
Eric had purchased and continued with the previous conversation.  “Alice
said it is a good time for the public to get to see the
real
me.  I
don’t think I really know who the real me is anymore.”

“Give
yourself more credit,” reprimanded Eric. “You are a good, kind, down to earth
type of guy.”

Daniel gave
him a pretend punch with his free hand. “Oh stop, you’ll make me cry!”

“Ha,
ha!  No, what I mean is, that
you
are very different from the
screen
you.
Perhaps it will be a good thing for people to realise your needs are
not so different from theirs.”

“Before I
became famous, I used to look at my parents and think I wanted the same. 
Find a good woman, settle down and have a family.  Now, I don’t know if
that has been buried too deeply somewhere inside. 

I am quite
happy meeting and sleeping with all these different women.  Nobody has
made me think any different in the last ten years, so now I don’t know if I
actually do want the family thing.  Perhaps, the front I have put in all
these years is actually the
real
me?”

“You are
just around the wrong type of people.  Most of the people you know have
relationships to please the media, not themselves.  They are more
interested in their careers than their partners’ happiness.”  Eric briefly
stopped walking to emphasis his point.  “Christ, you have seen it
first-hand.  So many actors and actresses have affairs when they are away
filming.  Flying, here and there over the world, while their partner is
somewhere else. 

Can you
remember what Joan Collins said in that interview with Ruby Wax?  She
asked Joan if she was unfaithful and Joan replied that she was, but only on
location.  Then she said that it did not matter when you were on location
as everyone was having flings, so wasn’t counted as an affair!  It is no
wonder you are confused about what you want if you are around that mentality
all the time.  If you ask me, no wonder most famous peoples’ marriages
fall apart.”

“Oh, what
can a man do?”  He put on a playful voice to lighten the mood, while he
punched in the security numbers to open the external door. 

Daniel
mulled Eric’s words over.  It was true to an extent, a lot of people put
their careers before their partners.  But at the moment, he was no
different.  It was
in with the new, out with the old
whenever he
got restless.  His Dad and Mum were always giving him grief about the
amount of women he seemed to have.  But no one, up to this point, had ever
made him feel any different.  So presently, marriage might not be on his
agenda, but having fun certainly was.

Daniel
nodded to the security guard who was at his usual place, behind the front
desk.  Daniel pulled a face at his friend and pretended to lower his
voice, but he really wanted the security guard to hear him.  “Perhaps I
will let you have my surplus women!  Or, better still, you can vet them
out first.  Find me one that you think will keep me interested for more
than a Nano second!” 

He watched
as the Security guard tried to discreetly turn away, knowing he was still
trying to desperately listen.  They both nodded to the guard again and
made their way, out of ear shot.

“Or perhaps
you should change the type you go out with?  They are all gorgeous and
famous.  None of them lead completely normal lives.  It is obvious
that they have to spend their time worrying about their hair, figures and
nails.  It is their job after all.” Eric continued in his previous theme.

Daniel put
the key into the front door and pushed it open. “Yes, I know.  But
unfortunately, I don’t seem to meet ordinary women.  I don’t have time to
meet many of them in my business.”

Eric sighed,
they were going around in circles.  “Talking about beauties, aren’t you
going out with Cassandra tonight?  The sexy blonde with the big…”

“Yes,
enough!” laughed Daniel, playfully pushing Eric through the door.

“Eyes, I was
going to say!”  Eric threw his remark over his shoulder, while heading for
the kitchen.  “Do you want this steak then, if you are going out for the
evening?”

“Too right,
I need to eat before I go out with Cassandra.  She only orders a salad for
her meal and she ends up giving me daggers if I order anything more calorific
than fish!  So it is easier to fill up before, then there are no scenes at
the restaurant.”

“Christ, why
on earth do you put up with that?  You don’t normally do things that you
don’t want to.”

“Because the
sex is amazing!”

Eric
huffed.  “Oh alright, I see your point!  Oh well, the false façade of
the actors’ life.  That reporter is going to have a ball!”

“Come on,
time to relax.  I’ll cook the steaks, you get drinks.  I need this
red meat, before I have to use my energy controlling Cassandra.”

Ella placed
her knife and fork on her plate.  Since when did having an evening meal
become so quiet?  She looked across the table at Jeff, hoping, just hoping
he would strike up a conversation, any conversation.

She had
spent the majority of the meal chattering about her next assignment following
the actor Daniel Spittle.  She was hoping that Jeff would show any
interest in her work.  For goodness sake, Daniel Spittle was one of the
hottest stars around at the moment.  But her live-in-lover showed as much
interest in her spending a couple of months with him, as he would if she asked
him to take the rubbish out! 

She had
decided, after she had rattled on, that she would be quiet for a while, just to
see if he would talk to her. No!  It was now killing her not to carry on
talking to fill, what she thought, was an uncomfortable silence. 

She looked
over at Jeff again.  He was finishing off his Thai curry she had
prepared.  There was a time that he always told her how wonderful her
cooking was.  Hell, there was a time when things burned on the stove
because making love seemed more important!  Now, they seemed to eat in
silence and she never received any comment about the food she cooked for him.

The silence
gave her time to think about her upcoming assignment.  She hadn’t wanted
to do it at first as it meant periods away from home, but her Editor told her
it would be good for her career.  She sighed.  Perhaps it might do
their relationship some good to be apart for a while.  He might miss her,
or at least start to appreciate what she did for him. 

Oh, why
hadn’t he shown any emotion when she told him about her next job?  Was it
a good thing when a lover didn’t become jealous when you were going to be
spending time with another male?  Did it mean that he trusted you
completely?  Or did it mean that he couldn’t care less? 

She looked
down at the comfy pyjamas she had put on when she returned from work. 
Okay, so perhaps he didn’t need to be jealous after all.  She wasn’t
really what you would call model material.  Daniel Spittle’s usual arm
candy was beautiful; he wouldn’t look at her once, let alone twice.
  Jeff had no need to be concerned at all.

Ella sighed
and picked up the plates ready to stack into the dishwasher.  But wouldn’t
it be nice for him to show a slight ripple of jealousy or any emotion come to
that?   

Having
already explained to Jeff that she didn’t know where she would be for the next
couple of months, she wanted to try to spend some time with him.  Her boss
had told her in no uncertain terms that she was to be wherever she needed to
be.  If Daniel Spittle needed her there, she was to be there.  If he
wanted her to go away, she was to give him space and then return.  Actors
were notorious for having fickle personalities and she was told to bend and
accommodate to get the best story possible.