Chapter 1

“No way, not a chance,” Brianna said peering over the plane floor and looking down at the ground a few thousand feet below. I turned to her, sighed, and rolled my eyes.

“It’s not even that high!” I exclaimed pretending it was really no big deal.

Then I turned and insisted my instructor check my harness for about the tenth time in the last few minutes. I may have been a bit of a daredevil, but I was also paranoid. I looked back at my personal assistant, who doubled as a friend, and held my hand out to her. She hesitated, but obviously seeing the look on my face thought better of arguing with me and took my hand.

“If I die I will come back and haunt you for the rest of your life.”

I laughed at her and told our instructors we were ready. A short time and intense adrenaline rush later I looked up at the plane we had just jumped off of. I smiled up at it, proud of myself for jumping. I had a major fear of heights and I constantly tested that fear. It was the only way to get rid of them.

“Amelia, can we please go now? I really have no desire to do that again,” Brianna said coming up behind me.

I had no intention of going back up to repeat what I had done either. We packed up everything and headed back to our cars. I thanked the instructors for bringing us out before we left. We stopped at one of my favorite café’s for some lunch. As I walked into the restaurant I noticed some flashes and inwardly groaned at having my picture taken. It was uncanny how the paparazzi always knew where you were. Brianna and I were seated and ordered salads.

“Darren Emerson is sending a screenplay for his new romantic comedy. He said he’s very interested in having you play the part. You are his first choice if you like the script,” she said to me after we ordered. She had spent the drive listening to messages on her phone and was now reporting them back to me.

“Any word on who else he’s considering?” I asked. She shook her head.

“He didn’t say. He said that Fabian Hodson will be playing the male lead.” I lifted an eyebrow and smiled.

“I wouldn’t complain about having to kiss him,” I joked. Fabian was an extremely attractive man with quite a following of female fans and a to-die-for Italian accent. “Anyway, you know I’m not quite in the position yet to be turning down scripts. I’ve only done two movies. It still feels like a dream that Eccentric was as successful as it was.”

I had moved to LA three years prior to pursue my dream of acting. On just my third reading I’d gotten the lead in a small budget comedy about an eccentric college student who decides to join a sorority to change her image. I jumped at the offer but never imagined that it would turn into what it had. The script was smart and clever and exceeded everyone’s expectations at the box office springing me into the public eye. It had led to another lead in a romantic comedy soon after. That movie, Stay Classy, was going to be out in theatres in just a few weeks and had created a lot of hype. It had also landed me hottie star Jordan Kellar as a boyfriend.

“Cosmo wants to put you on their cover for the December issue!” Brianna exclaimed excitedly listening to her phone again.

“What?!” I yelled in shock.

I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening to me. I was really doing it. As long as Stay Classy did well, that is. I knew that if it was anything like my first movie that I might be able to actually make a great career out of this. We discussed the Cosmo article and cover some more and then she finished telling me about the rest of my messages. So far this had been an unbelievable day and I didn’t think anything could possibly ruin it. I was so wrong.










“Fuck!” Corey screamed out breaking a stick over the boards.

He had a bad practice and he knew it. He left the ice and went back to the locker room where he silently undressed and showered. It was only practice, but he didn’t care. Nothing had been going right for him today and that was always frustrating.

“Hey, Perrs, lunch?” Ryan Getzlaf called over to him as he was getting dressed. He thought for a moment and decided that doing something with Getzy might cheer him up, at least a little.

“Sure, just give me a few,” he replied.

He grabbed his phone and checked his messages. Just one from Ileana, his girlfriend. He hit delete and put his phone away. She’d sounded annoyed in her message just asking him to call her back. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with whatever complaint she had right now.

Ileana was not his type at all. He’d met her out at a club during last season. The fact that they met at a club would normally have caused him to run the other way but he’d decided to change his standards. After his ex had just disappeared from his life three years ago he’d tried, unsuccessfully, to find someone that made him feel the way she did. When the girls that were normally his type just didn’t compare to his ex he decided to change his standards.

While he normally went for dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin he began looking at your typical blonde haired, blue eyed, Barbie doll type. Intelligence had been very important to him, but now he decided that intelligence was overrated. Give him hot and dumb and he was happy. Maybe looking outside the box would find him the girl that was right for him.

Ileana was the exact opposite of his ex and that’s exactly what he needed right now. He’d been with his ex for just over five years when she walked out on him. They’d met when he was in juniors and when he went pro she came with him. Everything seemed to be going great with them. She’d been the only girl he’d ever loved and he knew that he was going to spend the rest of his life with her. Apparently she’d had other ideas.

He was playing in Portland, Maine for the Pirates. They had a five day road trip just after she got into town before she’d even had a chance to meet anyone and they talked every day of it on the phone. He wasn’t prepared for what would happen next. He came home the night after a game tired and ready to curl up with her for the night but when he walked through the door he knew something was wrong. Upon further inspection he discovered that all of her stuff was gone. Every last piece of clothing or decoration had disappeared. When he called her phone he just got her voicemail. Without ever returning his calls she changed her number and he’d never seen or talked to her again. One day she was just gone like she’d never existed. He had been crushed.

He met up with Ryan while he was signing autographs for some of the fans that had been at the practice. He put on a fake smile and pretended like he actually wanted to chat with them. In all honesty he just wasn’t in the mood today. When they were finally done they headed out. All he wanted was a quiet lunch with a good friend to get his mind off of his bad practice. Turns out that the quiet lunch was not to be.










As I was chewing a bite of my salad I heard Brianna’s fork drop onto her plate. I looked up at her and was about to make fun of her clumsiness when I saw her eyes wide staring somewhere behind me. I turned to look but didn’t see anything or anyone out of the ordinary. When I looked back at her she still hadn’t moved a muscle.

“Bri, are you okay?” She didn’t respond. “Are you breathing?” She reached across the table and grabbed my wrist causing me to drop my fork.

“Do you have any idea who is sitting over there?” she asked me. Once again I glanced over my shoulder and looked in the direction she was staring. I still didn’t see anyone that would catch my attention.

“No, I have no idea who is sitting over there,” I responded confused. Her mouth was hanging open and it took her a minute to respond.

“It’s Ryan Getzlaf!” she gushed. For the third time I looked behind me hoping that the name would help me figure out who we were looking at but I had no luck.

“Okay, you’ve got me. Who’s Ryan Getzlaf?” I asked. She gave me a look like I was the biggest idiot in the world.

“He’s my favorite Anaheim Duck,” she said, like I should have known.

I knew Brianna was a huge hockey fan and she loved the Anaheim Ducks but I didn’t follow the sport, at least not for a few years now, and wouldn’t have known Ryan Getzlaf from Joe the Janitor.

“I have to meet him. Come with me?”

“Why do I have to go with you?”

“I’m nervous. I could use the moral support,” she explained.

“Bri, you’re a beautiful girl, I’m sure he’d be thrilled to have you go over and talk to him. He may even ask you to sit down with him,” I teased.

“Amelia, come on. Just please, please, please come over with me,” she begged. I groaned and reluctantly agreed. We walked over and I listened to Brianna introduce herself.

“Excuse me, I’m so sorry to interrupt you at lunch, but I am a huge fan,” I heard her say.

I stood in the background and let her talk. I watched him check her out like he was deciding whether or not to give her the time of day. I assumed he liked what he saw when he smiled and told her it wasn’t a problem. She introduced me but I let her do all the talking as he autographed her shirt for her. I turned to look around the restaurant to see what was going on, feeling just a little awkward.

“Sorry about that. I just had to get that phone call out of the way,” I heard someone say approaching the table.

I turned to look at who had just spoken because the voice sounded so familiar. When I turned I couldn’t believe my eyes at who was standing there. My breath caught in my throat and I felt physically ill when we locked eyes.

“Corey?” I managed to choke out.

He didn’t say anything but continued to stare at me. I hadn’t seen Corey since I’d left him two years ago. We’d met in London, Ontario where I’d grown up and he was playing junior hockey. Four years later I moved with him to Maine as he began his pro hockey career. I’d had dreams of acting and couldn’t do it in Maine. I’d felt like Corey wasn’t supportive of my dreams but expected me to be supportive of his and I couldn’t do it anymore. While he was on a long road trip I packed up my stuff and left him. It was wrong and immature to change my phone number and not tell him why I was leaving but I’d loved him and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go through with it if we stayed in contact.

“You two know each other?” Ryan asked obviously surprised.

“Yeah, we’ve met before,” Corey replied bitterly. He looked away and sat down. I didn’t even know what to say.

“Would you two like to sit and have lunch with us?” Ryan asked. Corey gave him a look that shot daggers and I started to decline but Brianna cut in.

“That would be great! Thank you so much for inviting us,” she accepted. Backed into a corner I sat down at the table with the three of them.

“So, how did you two meet?” Ryan asked trying to figure it out. He had known who I was from my first movie and was clearly surprised that his teammate knew me and hadn’t mentioned it.

“Well, we, uh-“

“Funny story, actually,” Corey cut in. I sucked in a breath worried about what he was going to say. It had been three years, but he was obviously not over what had happened. “She dated a friend of mine a few years ago and pretty cruelly ripped his heart out.”

Anger rose up in me at his comment. Both Ryan and Brianna looked over at me in shock while Corey stared at me, daring me to call him a liar. I didn’t even know how to respond. Instead I held my tongue and chose not to say anything in response. I didn’t want to come off as a bitch.

“Wow, how long ago was that?” Brianna asked.

“I don’t know, was it seven years ago or so that you started leading him on?” he asked never wavering in his glare at me.

“I didn’t lead anyone on. He just wasn’t right for me,” I said tightly.

“So I see that you’ve been in movies recently. You always did want to be the center of attention. Oh, sorry, I meant be famous,” Corey chirped. I forced a smile and a laugh.

“Yes, I have, but I doubt you’ll be watching the new one coming out. You’d have to have good taste to want to see it,” I retorted. I could see Brianna and Ryan looking uncomfortably back and forth between us wondering what was going on.

“You’re right. I obviously have terrible taste,” he said pointedly. I clenched my jaw and took a deep breath before responding.

“Speaking of taste, are you bitter much?” I asked.

“Whoa, okay, am I missing something here?” Ryan asked cutting in. Instead of continuing the fight I chose to bow out.

“No, nothing important. I’m sorry, but I’m not really hungry. I have a lot of things I need to get done so I’m going to excuse myself. Brianna, give me a call later and we’ll figure out what to do about everything we discussed earlier. It was really nice meeting you, Ryan.” I got up and left the restaurant. As I walked outside I felt a hand grab onto my arm.

“Are you going to tell me what the fuck happened three years ago?” Corey asked me as I spun around.

“It was three years ago, Cor. Get over it.” I pulled my arm out of his grasp and walked to my car. I got in and drove away leaving Corey standing on the curb staring after me.