Captive Films: Season One (2 page)

In the eleven years since then, Keatyn’s become one of today’s hottest actresses and together we’ve built Captive Films into what it is now. A multi-billion dollar company.

Keatyn is sitting in front of me with Aiden. Her head is on his shoulder and, knowing her, she’s crying as she relives their love story.
 

Little does she know, he’s going to ask her to marry him tonight.

Movie Premiere - Paris

KEATYN

Aiden puts his hand on my knee and whispers to me as
The End
rolls across the movie screen in front of us. “It’s really hard to believe we’ve been together for over ten years.”

I give him a kiss thinking how crazy it is that a silly wish I made on the moon led me to the love of my life. It’s even crazier to think we just watched the story of that love on the big screen with other people portraying us.
 

The audience is clapping and cheering for their favorite characters as the credits scroll across the screen.

I think the audience feels the same way we do.
 

We can’t believe it’s over.
 

It feels like an era has ended. Three movies in three and half years.
 

All produced by Riley and me.
 

And all based on my life.

The biggest cheers, though, are saved for the actors who played Keatyn and Aiden.
 

I clap loudly and whistle, thrilled at how much everyone loves them together. In the first movie, most viewers were torn between all the cute boys. It’s kind of funny to me that most moviegoers didn’t realize it was based on a real life couple. They’ve been heating up social media sites and online forums claiming that if Keatyn didn’t choose Aiden they would all die. Millions wore four-leaf clover T-shirts and tweeted #ifly. It’s hard to believe his simple sweet gestures of giving me a four-leaf clover for luck before my dance team tryouts and texting me ifly—which stands for
I fucking love you
—have affected so many people.

Next on the screen is a musical montage of our real life together. Although I wasn’t sure about including shots of us, Riley offered me two options. He was either going to make up a happily ever after for the movie, or I was going to show that the real Keatyn and Aiden got one of their own. He said people would love the movie’s ending, where I took Aiden to see the land I bought him when I thought I wouldn’t survive my showdown with the stalker. The deed was supposed to go to him along with a note that told him how I felt—after I died. He had told me about his dream to own a vineyard that would produce a wine dedicated to raising money for worthy charities. I wanted him to live out that dream, with or without me. But I survived. And I took him up on the hill overlooking the ocean on one side and the rows of grapes on the other and gave it to him myself. We were both crying when he said that we were going to build o
ur mansion of love in this very spot.
I laughed and told him that was good, because I brought the dirt. You’d have to see the movie to understand, but—long story, short—the dirt symbolized building a strong foundation for our relationship. That was the last scene in the movie, and it really was the perfect happy ending.
 

But Riley felt that the audience would want more. They’d want to know if our love, that seemed so strong at eighteen, survived. He threatened to add a scene where a college-aged Aiden asks Keatyn to marry him.
 

Aiden put his foot down, since we aren’t engaged in real life.
 

We’ve been together since the dirt scene.

There is no relationship status.
 

We just are.

And we’re happy.

And that’s all that matters.

At least, it did.

Until this morning.
 

When a little pink line appeared on a stick.
 

One little pink line that's going to change both our lives.
 

Suddenly, I want what we keep saying we’re too busy for. The fairytale wedding. The ribbons blowing in the trees. Twinkle lights to dance under.

We settled, instead, on a photo montage of our real life together. Showing that we are still together. Still living our happily ever after.

Photos of us flash by on the screen.

Being crowned Homecoming King and Queen.

Aiden being silly and carrying me over the threshold of our senior prom.

Aiden scooping me up into his arms and twirling me around on our high school graduation day.
 

Us with the cast and crew who worked on
A Day at the Lake 2
.
 

Aiden escorting me to the Academy Awards.

The two of us dancing cheek-to-cheek at the lavish rock star wedding of Damian, and Aiden’s sister, Peyton.

Then there are numerous travel photos of us. We started a trend with the hashtag #SunsetSelfies and are working toward watching a million sunsets together.
 

“What’d ya think?” Riley asks as I stand up.

I turn around and hug him, ignoring the blonde attached to his side.

“I know I fought you on adding the parts from your and Aiden’s point of view. But, you were right. The car chase scene where you and Aiden crashed into the stalker’s van after he kidnapped me and Dallas was amazing.” I hug him again as my eyes tear up. “I’ll never be able to repay either of you for rescuing us.”

“Baby, I need to pee,” the blonde says, at a totally inappropriate time.
 

“So, go,” Riley says, shrugging her off. “It should have been amazing. We used a lot of my actual footage from that day—digitally enhanced, of course.”

“And, more importantly,” Aiden adds, teasingly, “I didn’t have to sacrifice another Maserati. So, Boots, I hate to break up the trip down memory lane, but we need to head out.”

I swoon when he calls me Boots. It’s what he called me before he knew my name.

I glance at his watch. “We have plenty of time before the fashion show. Speaking of memory lane,” I say to Riley. “I was surprised to see you added a photo with Ariela in it. Maybe you should call her sometime. See how she’s doing. It’d be nice to see you with the same girl more than once. I swear you must have a stable of blondes hidden behind your penthouse.”

“No fucking way,” he replies. “I’m perfectly happy with Shelly.”

I bite my lip, holding back a smile.
 

“What?” he asks.
 

“Her name is
Shelby
.”

He rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Close enough.”

The actors who played Keatyn and Aiden join us. We all congratulate them on another success, and I give them huge hugs.

I watch Riley pat Aiden on the back and say something discreetly to him.

“All right,” Aiden says to me, “we have to get going.”

I take his hand. “You and Riley looked sneaky. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he says, dragging me toward the exit.

“I heard him say something about luck.”

“Oh, he just said with any luck, he’d
accidentally
lose Shelby somewhere between the premiere and the party so he could hang with all the models.”

“Are there any models left that he hasn’t already dated? Or any aspiring actresses? I wish he’d aim a little higher, age-wise. Maybe find someone who’s already successful. Maybe I should set him up with—”

“Riley doesn’t want strings. Ariela broke his heart when she wouldn’t come to California with him after graduation.”

“Did you talk to him about it? I was shocked he added that photo of the cast party. They looked so in love.”
 

“I tried to talk to him, but he just turned it around and gave me shit.”

“About what?”

“Us. He said I couldn’t give relationship advice until I’d put a ring on it.”

“You did put a ring on it,” I say, holding out the vintage diamond and emerald four-leaf clover ring he gave me years ago. “That’s all we’ve ever needed.”
 

I realize I’ve been silly. We don’t need a piece of paper to tell us we’re in love. We can have a baby and not be married. Our love is all that matters. It’s all that’s ever mattered.

The corners of Aiden’s beautiful mouth turn down for a second. I’m about to ask him why, but am interrupted by him telling my bodyguard that we’re going straight to the car and not stopping for autographs.

Which is weird, because he’s always so supportive.
 

As he drags me toward the car, I’m trying to at least wave to all the fans yelling my name.
 

“Stop rushing me, Aiden. You’re starting to piss me off.”

When the limo door shuts behind us, he gives me a hard kiss, which manages to both cool down my temper and heat up my insides at the same time. He still gets me as worked up as he did the day I met him. It was my first day at boarding school, when I decided to stop scripting out my life and do something crazy. I ran down a hill wearing a dress and cowboy boots, interrupting a shirts vs skins boys’ soccer game, stole the ball, dribbled it down the field, and kicked it past the goalie’s head. A goalie so beautiful I immediately nicknamed him the God of All Hotties.
 

And have been in love with him ever since.
 

He looks so handsome tonight. His dark blonde hair, those gorgeous green eyes, the sexy freckle on his cheek, a dark suit perfectly tailored to highlight his tall, lean body.
 

I move my hands to the front of his pants, forgetting I’m mad and thinking about the hotness behind his zipper, when his phone rings.
 

He checks the display and hands it to me. “It’s Dallas. I’m sure he wants to talk to you.”

“Hey, Dallas,” I say.

“Riley’s predicting box office success.”

“He always does.”

“What do you think?”

“I think I agree with him. Releasing the full three-movie version was brilliant.”

“Wait. Did I hear that right? Is this history in the making? Did you just admit to being wrong?”
 

“Yes, I said it. You’ll be busy adding up the money. How's RiAnne feeling? Baby five cooperating?”
 

“I can't tell you how many times this week she's said she needs this baby out of her. She’s pouting because we couldn't come to Paris with y’all, and now she’s craving macaroons.”
 

“Are you getting her some?”

“Of course.”

“You're a good man.”

“Always have been.”
 

“Damn straight. Tell her we’ll celebrate with dinner at the beach when we get back.”

“Sounds good. Tell Aiden good luck tonight.”

“Okay,” I say. “Bye.”

As soon as I hang up, I turn to Aiden. “Wait. Why did Dallas just tell me to wish you luck?”

He gives me a smirk. “Probably thinks I’m going to need it. You know, holding off all the models that will be hitting on me after the fashion show.”

I kiss him. “You’re bad.”

“So what was your favorite part of the movie?”

“Oh, gosh, I have so many. But probably when I first told you I love you.”

 
The limo stops at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
 

“What are we doing here?”
 

“Thought we’d take in the view. It’s a gorgeous evening,” he says.

He ushers me out of the car, and we meet a concierge who takes us to the top.
 

We lean against the railing and take in the view of Paris.

“You can see our apartment from here,” he says, pointing in its direction.

“The view is the reason we bought it, remember? It had great bones but was such a mess.”

“It’s beautiful now, which makes it worth it.”

“We’ve done a lot over the years,” I say. Watching the movie of our love has left me feeling very nostalgic.
 

“You’re right,” Aiden says, and starts naming off our accomplishments. “Two college degrees. Twelve movies. Thousands of sunsets in twenty-six countries. We built our mansion of love overlooking the vineyard and managed to survive the renovations of our Paris apartment and our Malibu beach house.”

“Thank goodness we didn’t have to do anything to the loft in New York. It’s always been perfect.”

He smiles at me and touches my face. “Your loft has that one important piece of decor we’ve added to every one of our homes.”

“And what is that?”
 

“Don’t be naughty.” He gives me a little smack on the butt. “You know it’s the glow-in-the-dark moon on the ceiling of our bedrooms.”
 

“I’m just teasing you,” I say. “And don’t forget the millions of dollars your winery has donated to worthy causes. Its Moon Wish label has done very well.” Moons are kinda our thing. Although it totally sounds like something that could only happen in a movie, Aiden and I wished on the moon at virtually the same time, a country apart, before we ever met, for our perfect match. And, somehow, we found each other.