Persona (The 'Professional' series) (3 page)

“So, what
would you like to do this evening?”  Ella was secretly holding her breath,
hoping that Jeff would suggest something romantic, perhaps a film while
snuggling up in bed?

His voice
interrupted her day dream. “Well, the match is on at 8 o’clock and then I have
some paperwork to do.  The firm has just got a big account and I need to
look over the papers.”

A small
squeak came out of her mouth.   “Oh couldn’t you do that the next
couple of nights as I might not be here?”

“Nah, better
to start when it is fresh in my mind.  Are you alright to sort out the
dishwasher?  The match is about to start.”  Ella watched as he was
already fiddling with the remote control.

“Yes,
fine.  Think I will do the dishwasher, then go to bed and read.  You
can join me if you want?”

Jeff,
already lost in the football commentary, mumbled a non-committal
alright.

For goodness
sake, what was happening?  They had only lived together for three
years.  Surely the passion should still be there?   Were their
sexual appetites so different?  Sometimes, after being rebuffed by Jeff
yet again, Ella started to think she had a problem.  Perhaps she was a sex
addict?  No, that was ridiculous!  Once a week would be nice even,
surely that wasn’t too much to ask for?  The only thing Ella did know that
if they hadn’t made love in a while, she felt quite distant from him, which is
what she was feeling right now.  It was really not something she wanted to
be feeling when meeting an absolute specimen of a man tomorrow. 

Perhaps she
needed to put on that sexy negligee and hope to distract Jeff from the football
enough?  Perhaps she would wait for half time!

Ella took a
deep breath and smoothed down her grey pencil skirt. 

She had dressed
conservatory this morning, in what she called her interview suit.  She
wanted to feel some confidence when initially meeting Mr Spittle and the suit
was like a security blanket for her, professional Miss Hender.  

She was
surprisingly shy for the job that she choose to pursue, but she found it easy
to put on a mask for work.  She took another breath, hid the jitters and
knocked the door.

A blond man
answered the door with a huge megawatt smile. “Welcome, you must be Miss
Hender, from
Absolutely Magazine
?  Please come in, Daniel is just
having a shower, he will be with us in a little while.”  Eric gallantly
moved aside to let Ella in through the door. 

Ella scanned
the room.  Just as she thought, a star’s lounge - big ‘top of the range’
television, comfort in abundance, and the room looked like the interior
decorator just left.  Yes, what she expected, nothing unusual.

Perhaps this
was going to be an easy assignment then?  Just a quick write up on the
‘usual’ actor type, gosh, sometimes stereotypes made life a little
easier.  She relaxed a little and sat in the large comfortable leather
seat that Eric had pointed to.

“Coffee?”
 Eric asked when he headed to the kitchen. “I’ve just made a fresh pot.”

“Yes
please.  White with no sugar, thank you.”

Ella turned
on the smooth leather seat when she heard a man’s voice from behind her.

“Just the
same as me, make that two Eric.” 

Her breath
got stuck in her throat.  
Breathe, don’t make a fool out of
yourself! 

Walking out
of, what she assumed was a bathroom, was an amazing specimen of a man.  He
had a towel wrapped around his waist and was drying his jet black hair with
another. That left his bronzed, slightly wet chest staring back at her. 
She swallowed the lump in her throat.  Wow, he was even better in the
flesh than on all those photos and films she had checked out in preparation for
this assignment.  Thank goodness Jeff had shown her some attention last
night otherwise she would be dribbling!

She rose
carefully from the chair and stretched out her hand. “Sorry, I’m a little
early.  I’m Ella Hender from
Absolutely Magazine
.”  A heat
shot up her arm when he shook it, she hoped he did not notice the shock ripple
across her face.

“Coffee’s
up!”  hollered Eric, balancing all three on a tray.

“Darling, what
about me?” a faraway voice all but purred.

Both
Daniel’s and Ella’s heads swung towards the bedroom door.  Of course, he
would have someone who sounded like honey in his bedroom.  She looked back
towards Daniel, who had turned a friendly smile on, but he was watching her
with slightly narrowed eyes.  Ella was somewhat unsettled to find herself
a little bit uncomfortable, but being a professional, she hid it well.

“I’ll bring
one into you now, sugar.  Just you lie there.  You know you used all
your energy last night!”  He gave Ella a wink before turning back into the
bedroom with a coffee.

Ella turned
quickly so he did not see her blush, she
was
uncomfortable now.

Eric
discreetly shook his head, what was that about?  Daniel wasn’t usually so
obvious about is personal life.  He didn’t usually bring any women back
home either.  Perhaps he was hamming up his playboy image for the
reporter?  Oh well, these couple of months were going to be fun!

~~~~

Boy, Daniel
was pleased to have finally got rid of Cassandra.   The night was
good as usual, but she took ages to get rid of this morning – coffee, shower,
make up, the list went on.  She had even tried to get him back into bed,
usually he would have obliged, but he had a reported in the next room and
Cassandra could make enough noise to wake the dead! 

Although
Daniel had to briefly think twice, he had actually enjoyed shocking that
reporter this morning!  She looked so poised sitting on his chair in her
silver grey suit and cool white blouse.  He had enjoyed the little
o
her mouth had made when he had referred to all the energy he and Cassandra had
used. 

Perhaps this
was going to be fun after all.  He was going to enjoy ruffling some of
those cool feathers.  

Ella was
beginning to think she would never get started on the initial interview. 
She had her notebook on her lap and had already started to make some comments
on it while Eric had kindly taken away the coffee cups.  She looked at her
notes: 

Daniel Spittle:  actor/model 

Initial impression: 

Good looking – yes

Confident – yes

Arrogant – perhaps

Playboy – yes

Other observations – late for
appointment!

She sighed
and inwardly laughed.  This wasn’t really what her assignment would be
about.  These were just quick notes of initial thoughts, not the detailed
notes she would have to make.  Stereotypes would be touched on, but never
used as reality, unless of course, they did apply to Daniel.

She fidgeted
in her seat, starting to feel prickly and slightly irritated.  She looked
at her watch, he was already over an hour late, even though he was just in the
adjacent room, doing goodness knows what to whoever was in there.  She
went red again at the thought. 

Ella tapped
her pencil against the notebook.  This assignment
should
be quite
easy, if it ever got started.  The only bump could be her.  She felt
that she was pretty good at concealing her emotions when working, apart from
blushing occasionally.  But she had a feeling it was going to be
challenging keeping her cool around Daniel, as his outward appearance and
flirty behaviour,  was something that would affect most women with a
beating pulse.    

She leaned
back in the chair, carefully hiding her notes.  She didn’t need Daniel to
see her initial observations about him.  To be truthful, she hadn’t even
wanted to do this ‘follow and write up’.  Ella had pleaded with her Editor
to let her write up on the actress who had been hounded by the media for
years.  It was rumoured that she had pushed her rich husband off his horse
to get his money.  Of course, nothing had ever been proved.  She had
gone on to marry another four rich husbands.  It would have been great to
be able to dig up some dirt, gauge her reaction to some well thought out
questions. 

But no, her
editor had lumbered her with sex-on-legs instead!  Ella bet her Editor was
having a laugh right now.  He knew her personally, and was well aware that
her outer appearance on jobs was professional, aloof almost.  But he was
also aware how flustered and shy she really became in certain circumstances.

She heard a
noise, that she assumed was the bedroom door, and turned towards to it.
 At last, a pure beauty of perfume and silk left Daniel’s bedroom.
  She gave Ella a knowing smile and then made her way towards the
exit.  She didn’t leave immediately though.  No, Daniel and the
‘goddess’ nearly devoured each other with a kiss in the doorway! 

Ella
attempted to look away and swivelled slightly in the chair, but was drawn to
the
goodbye
scene.  She tried to be discrete, looking from under
her eyelashes, but the kiss was so passionate, she was sure her eyes were wide
and her mouth open in shock! 

Oh, for
goodness sake, why hadn’t she turned around to give the lovebirds some
privacy?  As Daniel finished the kiss, he had looked straight at her, winked
and gave a huge smile!  How embarrassing to get caught watching
them.  She knew she had gone red, so she lowered her chin a few degrees
away from his smirk.   Ella had felt totally embarrassed, ridiculous
even.  And how arrogant of him to wink at her! 

Daniel
closed the door behind Cassandra, silently laughing to himself.  Oh, the
look on the reporters face!  He knew she had been watching, so he put on a
big show for her.  Let her write about that!  But when he made it
known he had seen her watching; she had become embarrassed and blushed –
sweet!  Perhaps she wasn’t one of those hard-nosed journalists after all.

Daniel put
on one of his best smiles as he took the leather chair opposite her.  He
wanted to be opposite her, so he could observe her during the chat. 
 “So sorry, about being late I mean.  It was all Cassandra. 
She’s a little insecure at times. I have to make sure she knows how much she
means to me.  Not too much of a hardship though, I must admit!  So,
shall we begin with this interview?”

Ella took a
breath to steady herself.  Crumbs, those butterflies in her stomach felt
as though they were having a party.  She pushed the feeling aside and dug
for her professional mask.  She looked directly at his striking blue eyes
and nearly faltered.

“So, Mr
Spittle.  Is Cassandra a regular or one of the many?”  A slight
hesitation followed her question.  She cringed inside, but hid it. 

Daniel’s
piercing gaze slid quickly over her face. He held her look.

Ella was
sure she saw a flicker of, was it anger, race over his eyes?  It was
replaced quickly by the crinkling of the skin around his eyes, he smiled at
her.

“Well, Miss
Hender, you jump straight in don’t you?”  He leaned back in the chair,
crossed one jean clad leg over the other and smiled slowly at her.  Being
a good actor, he didn’t let it show, but she had shocked him slightly by her
first ‘jugular’ question. 

Perhaps she
was another journalist who made presumptions about actors and actresses? 
 But he was usually a good judge of character.  Perhaps she was
trying to hide her nerves?  “Let’s just say you will be able to make your
own mind up about my love life by the end of the two months.  It would not
be too gentlemanly to go talking about my lover…or lovers, would it now?”
  

Daniel
pulled on his shirt cuffs, pretending to be slightly annoyed.  He intended
to play the magazine at its own game, give them what they wanted, arrogant,
handsome, playboy actor.  He didn’t want anyone really to know the real
him, apart from his family and his friend, Eric.   That was why he
insisted that Cassandra came home with him last night.  He usually made
sure they stayed as hers, basically, so he could leave when he wanted to, which
she never minded.   However, he had wanted the reporter to see him
with her.  It helped as an actor to look as though everyone wanted to be
with you. 

He looked
straight at Ella, who was now, looking straight at him calmly, but her eyes
gave away her inner struggle.  Daniel wondered whether Ella knew how much
her grey eyes mirrored her emotions.  

Strangely,
it really bothered him that Miss Ella Hender would think he treated woman like
‘objects’.  He didn’t, anyone he had dated, he had the upmost respect for
and treated them accordingly.   Christ, even though he had plenty of
opportunity to
love them and leave them
, he had never technically had a
one night stand.  He
always
made sure he saw the lady a couple of
times after. 

The playboy
aspect was a façade he let the media see.  Hell, he got photographed with women
even if he was only chatting to them, but it never did his reputation any
harm. 

Daniel
twisted slightly in the chair, this train of thought was slightly
unsettling.  He had learned over the years, mainly due to failed
auditions, not to worry what people thought of you.  There would always be
someone trying to put you down, so he stopped worrying.   But he
realised that he did feel unease, about how Ella thought of him.