Grumpalicious by Mia Faye
Chapter 27
GENEVIEVE
The moment Cayden entered the villa he was his old self again; boisterous, nearly hateful. And as if on cue, the others responded to him with antagonism until Allie came in and was welcoming us with broad gestures and plastic smiles. She actually kissed me on the lips which was weird and then she flirted with Cayden until the cameras cut and we were done for the day. It was only about an hour of drinking cocktails and seeing how crazy expensive and futuristic the villa was and then we broke to go our separate ways. As soon as the cameras were off there was a much more relaxed atmosphere.
While on camera was on the guests, whenever they deemed to talk to me, were obsessed over my song with Taylor Rayne, that was literally all they discussed with me. A few people noted that I was nominated for a Grammy since I wrote and performed the song. They didn’t ask about any of my future works and I didn’t offer information about them because the less I interacted with those vipers the better. I did speak up once without being asked a question and that was to duck out of the party, claiming I needed the ladies room, and I popped my birth control pill, sort of cursing myself for taking it at four o’clock which had locked me into the worst hour almost of the entire day to take the pill.
I figured I’d slowly work with that three-hour ingestion window to taper it down to a time that would be more doable. I decided on the mini pill because I wanted a pill that gave me the lowest dose of hormones as I hated messing with my body’s natural chemistry. Anyway, I was happy when all of the shooting was over, and Cayden and I could retreat to our own bungalow which was nothing short of spectacular. It was situated over the ocean, so we had to walk along a long pathway that crossed a sandbar where the water lapped at the edges of the wooden planks. Out away was the little bungalow. Ours was one of many dotting the ocean in a line just past the beach.
“I can’t believe this place is right on the water. I mean I’ve seen places like this in magazines, but never in person.” I had to geek out because it was truly amazing.
“Apparently, the rooms have glass floors, we’ll see. We’re supposed to be able to look at the wildlife from the comfort of our living room.”
Like the main villa, the bungalows were state-of-the-art, but the floor was made of glass. It took a minute to get my bearings as below me was crystal clear water.
“Wow, how can they do this? Everything is so clean; I can see fish…” I knelt down to look at the amazing sea life below me.
“I guess the floor is glass incorporated with underwater filming technology, that’s why the image is so clear. The producer told me you can see seals, sharks, turtles, and fish. It’s kind of exciting.” Cayden joined me as we stared at the seaweed swaying in the water with little fish darting in and out of the fronds.
“It’s pretty mesmerizing.”
I felt at peace just staring at the seafloor for the first time in a long while. “I’m glad we did this.” I looked at him and smiled.
“You might not be glad after we film tomorrow, but let’s make the best of it while we can. Want to swim before we order food and fuck all night long?”
That was Cayden, always straight to the point.
“Do you mean in the ocean?” The water did look inviting, but a little scary.
“Why not? The water is warm and crystal clear. The sun will set soon.” He took my hand and led me out to the deck that overlooked the ocean with a ladder to the sea.
“Let’s do it.” I was scared and yet, oddly enticed.
We changed into our bathing suits, as going skinny dipping would surely land us on the front page of TMZ. He was right, the water was deliciously warm. In fact, looking at the water while wading in the ocean as the sun set is one of my favorite memories of the trip. I hadn’t realized how much stress I was under until that peaceful water washed over my tightened muscles.
“This feels incredible!” I confessed as we grabbed some inflatable rafts that were attached to our bungalow and each drifted along the calm flat water.
The shoreline was shallow enough to stand in for as far as one could walk, I assumed we were on some kind of sea shelf and it was lovely.
“Ahoy matey,” Cayden yelled out to me. “You’re drifting out to sea.”
He paddled himself over and took my hand and we stayed linked together as we watched the sun dip behind the horizon. As soon as it went down, the whole vibe changed and suddenly the air became freeze-your-ass-off freezing.
“Well, I’m ready to head in,” I said through chattering teeth.
“I think you are. You don’t have my thick skin,” he played using a pirate accent.
“Right, because I’m not a snake.” I teased.
“Oh, I’ll show you a snake. Do you want a snake? You, my dear,” he lifted me off of the raft and walked me up the ladder back to our bungalow, “are going to get a nice big, thick, long, tough-skinned snake.”
And with that, he licked my neck, and I was toast.
He wrapped me in a towel and laid me on the settee in an odd little room made of glass. It was a lot like his rooftop room.
“What is this place?” I asked, wondering what the odd little room might be for.
“This is a warming and cooling room. In the summer it’s air-conditioned and you can hang out and watch the ocean, in the winter and during storms or after nighttime swims, it’s a warming room with the same benefit of watching the sea. I love this room, it’s the fucking sexiest place I’ve ever stayed.”
I could easily see his erection through his wet bathing trunks. “Ah, there’s that snake you were talking about.”
“The snake is just waiting for you to eat dinner before he devours you. So, what sounds good? They have tacos, though I’ll be having my fill of taco soon.”
“Really, Cayden? Yuck.”
“I’m just sayin.’ They have all kinds of amazing Mexican food. Fajitas sound good to me. They have sirloin fajitas in a roasted red pepper confit with ghost pepper dust. Sounds spicy!” He snapped his fingers on the word spicy. “Or maybe this yellowfin tuna caught from just under our house.” He flashed me an evil grin.
“Do they have a salad?” I didn’t think I could handle much more.
“Oh no, you can’t be here where they have the freshest and best Mexican food and have a salad. How about a Chili Relleno? Or perhaps just a vegetable fajita without the whisper of ghost pepper?”
“That actually sounds nice.”
“Okay, and a pitcher of Margaritas?” he said using a bad Mexican accent.
“Sure,” I laughed. “Don’t let the locals hear you talking like that, Senor, it’s rude and disrespectful.”
His face fell playfully. “Right, I remember now, I brought YOU on vacation.” He pretended to mope. “No more culturally inappropriate jokes. I have to tip well and be nice to people...ugh, you’re so high maintenance.”
“And I’m dating a troll.” I took his hand and kissed it.
“A troll with a big fat snake...that is going to…” Just at that moment, there was a knock at the door and without Cayden going to answer it, Allie barged in.
“Oh, your place is nicer than mine. Bitches. I told production that I wanted the biggest room,” she pouted.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Cayden immediately started in on her.
“What? Three’s a crowd?” I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.
“We have to be seen kissing. The producer says,” She took off her beach cover-up and threw it on the couch.
Her bikini wasn’t really much more than crisscrossed fabric just barely thicker than strings. Her nipples were jutting forward, and her pussy must have been shaved bald because the tiny swath of cloth covering it, covered pretty much nothing.
“Fuck no, I’m not kissing you. We aren’t playing it like this. Genni’s a keeper. We’re getting married, so no. Your little publicity stunts aren’t welcome here.”
“Married? Please. No offense, Genevieve dear, you are a fabulous singer and sweet as Georgia rain, but you are no match for me and Cash is going to eat you alive after the first year. He’ll feed your young to his crocodiles or worse, he’ll just pretend you don’t have any.”
“Ah, I see your claws are out tonight. So, what is this all about? Production knows we’re here to stir the pot and finish my contract. I thought you brought a Marvel comic book hero with you. What happened to him?”
“He’s a day player. He can only do certain things at certain times or we’ll have to pay him more.”
“Surely he can kiss you and you can afford to pay him.”
“At a million dollars an episode, I’m paying you.” She slunk over to him and entered our little warming room, and I suddenly had the instinct to bolt out of the room.
She then grabbed his cock. “Were you just about to fuck her?”
I could see she squeezed him hard because he winced.
“That was the plan,” he gritted out.
“Well, fine. I won’t fuck you, but you’ll kiss me. Let’s just take a walk on the beach and get it over with. My company is paying you...so pucker up, bitch.”
I simultaneously loved and hated her.
“Fine,” he said, and my heart fell to my toes. “Genni, I’ll only be a minute. Here, I’ll order our food.”
“Okay,” I barely said. At that point I felt so low and humiliated, I just wanted to disappear.
“We’ll be back soon, dear and then you can have him all to yourself.” Allie looked at me like a black widow biting her prey.
I couldn’t believe that Cayden followed her, I thought he was bigger than that.
“I just ordered the food, and this won’t take long,” Cayden said looking at me with this horrid confidence.
I thought I was getting in, you know, seeing the better side of him, the one I knew was there. But with him leaving to go and create some fake scandal that would ultimately jeopardize not only us but specifically me and my budding music career, I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. How could he do such a thing? Why couldn’t he have just said no? Now my integrity was going to be called into question as he kissed his ex-girlfriend on national television. I tried not to be angry knowing none of it was real, but I couldn’t help being hurt.
