Page 2 of Her Perfect Gift

“But I don’t want to be type cast.” I shake my head hard, absolutely determined to stick to my guns. I know what I’m doing here. “I’m already there, but I don’t want to make it worse. This in my next move.”

“You know, most actors stick to what they know,” Sierra continues, just as determined as me. “They find a place where they fit in the shark’s mouth and remain there, so they don’t get chewed up and spat out.”

I chuckle once more. “I know that’s your opinion, Sierra, but I also think that you know you weren’t going to get a typical Hollywood guy when you agreed to work for me. So, this is what you need to help me with.”

She snorts out a strange sound, half amusement, half irritation, but I know that Sierra doesn’t mind. I have helped to catapult her career in the exact same way that she has mine. We have been there for one another, which now means that we need to stick together during this transition where everything will change. I hope.

“Okay, so I will turn everyone down, even though they are offering you a fortune, and I will continue looking for something that suits your new, very vague, needs. Moving on, I wanted to talk to you about Christmas.”

“I have done all my Christmas light turn ons, I have filled all my festive obligations…”

“I’m not saying this is an obligation, but an opportunity. You know that telethon on Christmas Day? The one where funds are raised for charity and celebrities become household names?”

“I know the one.” I sit up straighter in my seat. “I already told you that I can’t do anything at Christmas this year. I’m going back home for the holidays to see my family and friends…”

“But you never do that,” Sierra complains. “You have talked about it a few times, but never done it…”

“I know,” I can’t help but agree with her. It’s all that I can do. “But six years is too long for me to miss the holidays. I want to go back, to see everyone, to attend the Christmas carnival…”

; A smile creeps up on my lips. The Christmas carnival was always a staple part of my existence when I was younger, something that I never thought I would miss. But, as soon as I started my life in LA, I didn’t even think twice about it. I have been so caught up in the bubble of fame here, that the last six years had just flown by. Ever since my twenty eighth birthday, my frame of mind has been different, I’ve become more reflective. I want to go back to my roots, to remember who I was before all of this. I feel like I have gone away so far from who I used to be that I need a moment to reflect on the life I had before. Just a minute, that’s all, then I will be back.

“Why do you have to go?” Sierra purses out her lips. “Can’t it wait until next year? Because this is a great opportunity and I wouldn’t want you to miss out when you can visit home at any time.”

“I can’t though, can I?” I remind her. “There is always something in the pipeline. Right now, I have an opening in my schedule and I just want to get back to my old life for a moment.”

Sierra leans back in her chair and stares at me inquisitively for a minute before she speaks out. “There isn’t anything going on here, is there? Anything that I should know about? , Because you know how much I hate being surprised. I don’t think that I need to remind you of the whole Infinity scandal, do I?”

Oh God, no! That is the one story that I tried to handle alone to stop it from getting out in the world which is why I didn’t tell Sierra. She wasn’t my first kiss and tell girl, but she was the first online influencer who made her way into the world by being naked most of the time, or pretty much naked, and I knew that it was going to be a scandal. I did what I could to stop her story from being pointed, I even paid her a fortune, but it made no difference. It got out there anyway, and nearly blew Sierra’s mind. Because of my involvement she couldn’t even run her usual public relations tactics to calm the story down, so safe to say, she was mad. Maybe she still is, since she keeps bringing it up even three and a half years later as a moral lesson.

I think she also wanted it to be a catalyst for me to stop with the one-night stands and short flings as well, but that didn’t exactly work out. The thing is I am a man with needs who hasn’t found anyone to captivate me for long enough for it to turn into any kind of proper relationship. That isn’t exactly my fault.

“There isn’t anything going on,” I reassure her. “I just want a break, that’s all. A time out.”

“You’re not going to run away for good, are you? Because I don’t want that. If I’m going to work out some jobs for you that are out of your usual mode, which isn’t going to be the easiest job, I want to know that you will be back in LA as soon as the new year is in.”

“I will be back.” I smile widely at her. “I promise you. I wouldn’t have worked as hard as I have over the last six years, to run away. This is just a little bit of space, that’s all.”

Sierra still looks suspicious, which I can’t blame her for, since this is a little out of character for me, but she eventually nods and understands. Not that she really has much choice. She might manage me, but I’m the one in control. When I’m not attached to a contract, I’m the one who has power over my destiny, and I am absolutely determined to make it home this time around. I have too many people that I want to see.

“I will be in touch,” Sierra warns me as I leave her office. “So, you will have to keep me updated.”

“Honestly, Sierra, I’m not going to get myself in any trouble here. I’m just going home for a while…”

“Seth, you can always find a way to get yourself in to trouble. Just please… if you can, avoid it.”

I hug her before I say goodbye and I leave her office to head out for my first real break in a very long time. There are a lot of people who I’m excited to see when I go back home, particularly my father, but there is also one person who I’m more nervous than excited to see. But after six years, surely it will be okay?

Darcy McNeill, what am I going to get when I see you? A slap, a hug, nothing at all?

It was this time of year when I last saw her. And when I first saw her. It was in December when I was fifteen years old, and her family moved in the house next to ours. I remember seeing this young teenage girl with wavy dark hair and a bright smile, who I knew was going to change my life… and that she did. We became absolute best friends until… well, until I started to see her in a different light. I don’t exactly know when that happened, but it did. It became a crush that I just kinda felt like would turn in to a relationship once we were old enough. And six years ago, when we kissed at the Christmas carnival, I really did think that we were finally on the right path.

But then I got the call. The call that changed my life forever. The call from Hollywood that I had a role in my first movie. Back then, I was the best friend in a high school thriller that pretty much turned in to an action movie by the end of it, which catapulted me on the path to my career. In all of that, I guess I forgot about Darcy McNeill and the future that we could have had. Or more… I didn’t think that our lives could mesh anymore. I didn’t think that she would want the same things as me, and LA wouldn’t suit her.

Why didn’t I give us a chance? There is a reason why I haven’t had a proper relationship before, and that’s because of her. If don’t make me feel like she has, then they don’t get a chance. And no one captivates me like she does.

God, it’s going to be wild seeing her again. Anything could happen. Maybe Sierra is right, perhaps I do risk trouble here.