Grumpalicious by Mia Faye
Chapter 26
CAYDEN
I wasn’t ready to say it right at that moment, but I was falling in love with her too. In the days that followed Genni spent a lot of the time in the studio at my apartment. Her apartment had been finished and she officially moved out of the hotel. She didn’t spend the nights there at my request. In fact, she spent very little time there at all, which made me very happy.
I saw a lot of her, but we both had work to do. She spent much of the time alone in the recording studio and on the phone with her fellow bandmates working over tunes. I figured she might have been lonely and asked if she wanted to work with Jo or other musicians, but she told me she was really happy with the songs she’d recorded with Joe and was going for a different feel for the songs she was working on in my private studio.
“My boys always give me inspiration,” she said offhandedly as she walked into the studio wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top.
She was so fuckable, it was almost all I could think of. We did have a ton of sex, which was definitely a benefit to having her around, and she was getting crazier and more fun every time we made love. But despite being nearly naked all night and morning for days on end, when it was time to start our day, I still craved her. She was my new drug. She was also blowing up everywhere. We chose to sequester because the minute she went out anywhere people noticed us.
She was all over social media as the next big thing. The mystery singer with the voice of an angel. She was being called a cross between Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin with a touch of sweet country soul. Every time she opened her mouth to sing, I just saw a super star. She had earned the right to tell me to fuck off when I wanted her to wear anything fake or look like any of the plastic nobodies that were littering the covers of magazines. She was beautiful and uniquely so. She had earned the right to be entirely herself.
When she wasn’t having sex with me, or writing songs, she had this photo shoot or that interview. She and Taylor were working on another song and she begged that I fly her guys in for a few days so that she could lay down some tracks with them. I couldn’t resist her, so for a week, she belonged to them. I wasn’t really jealous, they were great guys and there was no threat of them stealing her away, but they were her people and whenever they were around I realized I was not necessarily her people...not even a little bit.
Taylor had her benefit concert with Genni, and she sang Angel. Allie’s film crew was there, but luckily for us, Allie was not. This was some B-roll that would be intercut between whatever Allie drama was playing out that week. Since Allie didn’t want to detract from the fundraiser with another Allie-Cash rager, she stayed away. The film crew captured the concert, a confessional with me, some close-ups of Genni being Genni, and the moment we gave a million dollars to Taylor before the ticker clicked over to ten million dollars. Then we called it a wrap.
I had been dreading our trip to Mexico and our last contracted episode of the show. However, the more I thought about taking a break from our hectic lives and enjoying four glorious days the more excited I became. I was going to have Genni all to myself and million-plus viewers. I knew how reality shows went. We’d film our part, but Allie was the star, so Genni and I would get a lot of time to ourselves. Besides, I was a dick, people liked to give me a wide berth.
“Are you sure I don’t need to pack anything? This feels weird.” Genni looked at me confused.
“Well, just what you’ve got, a couple of comfortable outfits, some shoes, and toiletries. Production is going to outfit you with the rest. Sorry, love it’s in the contract. If you had read it, you would know.”
“Ugh,” I loved it when she rolled her eyes. “I still get the right of refusal, correct? I can say no to anything horrid they try to put me in?” I loved her grasping for the control none of us really had.
“You can try. You’ll have a stylist, together you guys can work out a wardrobe plan. I already told them no fake hair, eyelashes, or nails. That earned me a few groans, but it was worth it to be my lady’s knight in shining armor.”
“All so that your lady doesn’t look like a blow-up doll.” She opened her eyes really wide and gaped her mouth like a sex doll with her arms stiffened out in front of her.
“Careful honey, I might just throw you over the couch and make good use of that mouth before our limo gets here.”
“Why a limo?” She broke character and returned to my sweet girl again.
“Because the show starts the minute we walk out that door. We are in love, remember? You are my redeemer, my salvation. A nice girl from Texas who is going to tame the womanizing asshole.”
“Oh great!” She grabbed her small bag just as there was a knock at the door. “Will it help if I confess I’m nervous?”
“You have no need to be nervous, only the whole entire world is watching. Ready, set…”
“No!” she squealed, and I opened the door to a full camera crew.
“Action,” the director called, and I locked my arms around Genni, smiled like I was the Marshall of a small-town parade, and whisked her past them.
She trotted to keep up which was just what I wanted her to do so that she had to put her other hand on her head to keep her big broad sun hat from flying off, the effect being an effortless opportunity to shield her face from the cameras. While we knew we were going to be on camera a lot, I also understood Genni wasn’t quite ready for that much scrutiny. I had kept her out of the public eye as much as I was able, and I was just about to push her into the lion’s den. I figured a nice long plane ride would be the best way to help her get prepared.
As soon as we were in the limo, I peeked my head out and yelled, “Viva Mexico!” like a complete idiot. It was perfect.
“Is it going to be like this the whole time?” She groaned.
“When we’re on camera, yes. But remember, we’re going to a private villa. This is just B reel that will be used in the opening montage to get the audience pumped. Most of it will end up on the cutting room floor, trust me. So,” I pulled out our itinerary, “here’s what we will be doing. I will say this is the last of the reality show filming we are contracted to do. We have one teensy little follow-up episode, but it’s like one scene and a confessional on my end. They may follow us to the Grammys, but they can’t get in our way. That’s you and Taylor’s night and Taylor’s people would grind them into paste if they got their cameras too close. We’re good. We only have to get through this trip.”
“Sure. Are we going to have to run obstacle courses and eat bugs or get voted out of Mexico?” She was making a joke, but I could tell by the pained look on her face, she sort of meant it.
“Kind of, but no. So, they have us scheduled for a big fancy dinner on the beach after we land. But that’s actually the day after we land. I demanded that we have our own private bungalow and a day to rest before we did the arrival shot all bright-eyed and happy. The villa has a private airport, and the house has been donated by Hill McGowan, a famous architect who is about to open a hotel nearby in the same style as the villa. He’s getting a lot of free advertising as the restaurant we’re eating at is in his hotel. Anyway, we need to be all swoony for his interesting architecture, and trust me, knowing Allie, the place will be over the top. After dinner I will have a confessional, probably talking about how awkward the trip might be, but you’re not going to be involved in that. The next day we are going whale watching and snorkeling. You can stay on the boat or jump in the water, that’s going to be your choice. We are also going to have a picnic on a beach with a “castaway theme.” I'm sure that’s going to have some survivor-esque moments, but no eating bugs. I hope. My guess is Allie will do something to ramp up the drama or will get hurt or something. It’s her show, so the focus will be on her. We’ll have a traditional dinner prepared by locals and we’ll be helping a nearby village the next day build some houses. On the final day, we are staying at the villa by the pool and playing games, both with mind and body. It literally says that.” Luckily that got me a laugh. “It should be simultaneously awful and awesome. But at least we’ll be braving it together.”
“And this is the last episode for us.” Her smirk said the rest.
“Mostly, yes.”
We got off the plane, Genni smiled and was radiant and when we entered the villa, there was no acting needed. The place was incredible. My personal taste skewed towards restorations and historic buildings, but the villa on the cliffs overlooking the Sea of Cortez was as modern and as state of the art as one could get. It was an entirely smart house, so when we entered a little panel on the wall located everyone in the house on tiny screens. We learned the wall panel could be programmed to do many things, but for the sake of filming, certain areas were designated as camera locations so footage could be shot simultaneously.
There were no window furnishings as the windows darkened with the setting sun, the temperature was digitally programmed to always be a cool 70 degrees and all one had to do was say their name and what they wanted, and it would appear. Now the house didn’t make food, but an intercom would alert the staff to the needs of the guests. Since I was ready for a drink, I tested the system.
“Cash, scotch on the rocks.” I then looked to Genni and asked her. “What do you want?”
“A glass of wine would be nice, Sauvignon Blanc if they have it.” She smiled and seemed to be enjoying herself.
“Genni, Sauvignon Blanc, the best you have.” From there we moved to the living room where some of the other guests were seated already drinking.
There were models, actors and actresses, a few prominent people in fashion and business, and Allie’s best friend who didn’t hesitate to give me a very grand and overdone stink-eye. Ah, I was back in the thick of it again.
