Alter Ego: His Sultry Lover

Chapter 2: Under The Stars

“Kitty, he’s on!”

Katherine wiped her body with the towel. It was her friend, Lily, shrieking from the living room, calling on her like her life depended on it. She glanced at the clock and hurriedly left her work to plop down on the couch and leaned forward eagerly. Lily was curled up on the couch, her teddy bear cuddled in her arms.

“Advertisement break,” Lily muttered, turning to her for a fraction of a second. She was in her favorite set of bunny pyjamas, ready to scream at the television. Katherine tried to look a little less bothered than she actually was. It felt like an eternity before the shampoo commercial ended.

“Our first guest tonight is a ridiculously talented man known for his daredevil stunts in Lost City. He’s here to promote his new romantic comedy, Under the Stars. Ladies and Gentlemen, Cage Cavanaugh!” The crowd in the television erupted into applause. The two girls sitting in front of the television hollered and clapped at the same time as if being present at the location.

Cavanaugh entered in a grey custom suit, his signature blonde hair untamed. He looked devastatingly handsome—like a man who could ruin countries with his radiant beauty. His freshly tousled hair looked like he had run his hand through it a million times, or someone else had done it for him. It wasn’t impossible, he was the King of Action movies of their generation.

The side of his lips curled up into a confident smile, almost a half smirk that raised goosebumps on one’s skin and made them want to be the mother of his babies.

Katherine found herself clutching her hand close to her heart as it beat loudly against her chest. She couldn’t contain the adoration she felt for the man simply by taking a glance at him. It wasn’t possible to just look at the man, he was too beautiful. You would be mesmerized and left staring.

“Hold me,” Lily squealed from beside her, in the same state of mind as her. She had just been shocked into silence, her words were not enough to express what she felt. Katherine reached over to grab onto her friend’s hand. She went back to concentrating on the beautiful piece of art in front of her, gushing inside.

He was a twenty-six year old who had been the lead in several action movies and had performed in several indie films because he enjoyed a challenging role. There had been talks of Oscar nominations in the industry, too. Under the Stars was his first romantic comedy. Cage Cavanaugh didn’t want to be pegged as someone who only did serious films and action flicks. He wanted to be an all-rounder who could handle any role he was given.

Everyone was excited to see this god as a lover, hoping he would fulfil all their wishes and finally give us a piece of him that he had hidden from the world.

“In this movie, you play the role of a deeply scarred businessman, Harry Grey, who must overcome his demons, right?”

“Yes, even though the genre is shown as romantic comedy, the premise of the film has the male lead being a cold CEO who has shunned the world. Harry has walls around him and hates women who try to come close. The female lead, Rain Smith, is the perfect new assistant that he never asked for. She makes life so easy for him that he quickly falls in love with her. Their story is about overcoming their demons in a light-hearted and comic manner.”

There had been rumors surrounding the script and how the lead actors had fallen in love with each other on set, only to have the actress cheat on him. It was a huge scandal, pictures of Keira Higgins with a famous director were leaked to the media by paparazzi and Cage had made no comment on it.

Katherine had been conflicted that someone as godly as Cage Cavanaugh to date a mere mortal, but soon she came to realize (and it took her a lot of time) that she only wanted him to do well in life and be happy. She blessed the rumored couple and continued fangirling over the man.

News of their breakup came out weeks after the shooting of the movie was over. The couple, who supposedly lived together broke up over the cheating issue. For the life of her, Katherine couldn’t understand how one could cheat on a man like Cage Cavanaugh and that too with a bald man in his late fifties.

“And Keira Higgins plays Rain Smith?” the MCs suggestive tone left little to imagination. He was clearly curious about what had happened and how Cage had taken it.

“Is he crazy?” Lily screamed, lurching away from Katherine, enraged that the MC could ask questions about such a touchy topic.

They saw Cage leaning towards the table and grabbing his designated glass of water. That little action showed how uncomfortable he was with the situation and how hard he was trying to suppress his emotions in front of so many people. Katherine could see that he was somewhat angry, she had been looking solely at him throughout the entire interview. Previous experience told her exactly what he would be thinking about.

He was considering how to approach the inquiry.

“She is a brilliant actress and made the complex character look so easy to understand. She did a good job in the movie.”

“Have the two of you contacted each other since the release of the movie?” Cage smiled and didn’t answer. It was clear that they had no communication and he didn’t need to be the one who said it out loud. His fans were furious. They littered the online sites with hate to the MC. He had crossed a line.