The room where Dakota was to first film was relatively large. A bed was in the corner, and cameras and lighting surrounded the area.
"Damn it, I don't wanna do this part." Kota mumbled to me, as I looked at the large king sized bed. The room seemed to be styled to portray a hotel room.
"You excited to kiss Sasha?"
He scoffed, "More like dreading it."
"Don't worry, how bad can it--"
"Are we starting soon or what?" Sasha Kane had entered the room. Ash blonde hair, porcelain skin, and a look of disdain, she was the same as the last time I saw her. Dakota let out a swear as she entered the room, and I swear the temperature dropped a couple degrees.
"Dakota! Perfect, you're here!" She began to walk towards us. Dakota immediately let a fake smile overcome his face, and turned towards her.
"Sasha. Long time no see." His voice strained.
She giggled, not noticing the strain. "For sure! I missed having you around!"
"Yeah," He forced a chuckle, turning to me and giving me a pleading look.
"Oh, I didn't know you brought someone with you."
Dakota frantically nodded, throwing his arm around me. "Yeah, this is Blake."
Her eyes widened slightly, "Blake Graham?"
I gave her a small nod, trying to push Kota's arm off of me. "Yeah, nice to see you again Sasha."
She plastered a fake smile on her face, "Yeah! Same! But Dakota, I didn't know you were bringing someone with you."
"Well, I brought Clark to my Calvin Klein shoot."
"So? You're friends with Clark. I've never heard of you two together."
"That's because you live in Los Angeles, while we live in Switzerland currently."
"But why Blake? Not Luca or Nico?"
"Because I wanted to have my girlfriend come with me for this shoot."
I whipped my head in his direction, letting my eyes bulge out. "Girlfriend?"
Sasha had the same reaction, "Girlfriend!"
Dakota shot me another pleading look, his eyes telling me to go along. "Girlfriend. Yeah, the cats outta the bag."
"Dakota, I thought we wouldn't tell anyone right now. It's too early," I went along with his twisted little scheme.
"It's one person, we can trust you. Right Sash?"
Sasha looked between the two of us. She wasn't really hard to trick, and she seemed to believe us. "Yeah for sure! As long as Blake doesn't mind the kissing for the shoot... I really hope you don't get jealous." Her condescending tone was apparent.
I waved her off, letting out an airy laugh. "No, of course not! It's Dakotas job! Besides, it's not like he's into you or anything, it's purely acting!"
"Yeah... Well congrats. You really do seem to have a thing for blondes. Hope you two are happy."
Sasha shot me a grimace, and left to go to her manager. As soon as she was out of earshot, I hit Dakota's arm.
"What the actual fuck were you thinking? Girlfriend?"
"Hey! Stop hitting me, I can't get bruised! And I'm sorry! She's not gonna stop hitting on me! And if I tell her I'm not interested she'll like, strangle me! She scares me!" He tried to defend himself.
"I swear to god Kota! If this gets out I will be the one to strangle you!"
"Okay okay! I promise! Just thank you for cooperating! It'll be practically nonexistent by Monday."
I reluctantly nodded, "It better, or you owe m-"
"Dakota! Ready on set!"
"Yeah!" He called back, then he turned to me. "Yeah, I owe you. Gotcha. Wish me luck." He winked at me, before jogging to the director.
A few minutes passed before the shooting began. Some assistants brought one of those director chairs for me, and I watched them film. Loud music played throughout the room, and the camera was focused on Dakota who had his game face on.
It was a men's cologne commercial, so everything had to appeal to men. So obviously the directors tried to make Kota seem badass. And what makes a straight guy seem even more badass? Having a hot girl.
The director had Dakota and Sasha go around the room in different cuts, having them kiss or walk around the room all suggestively. I thought it was kind of awkward, but everyone around me seemed fine.
After they had finished that scene, they had Sasha leave. After Sasha left the room, Kota let out a loud whoop, which earned him a sharp glare from Sasha's manager.
They got ready for the next scene, so Dakota found his way back to me. As he walked towards me, I noticed something in his hand. "Is that a cigarette?" I wrinkled my nose at him.
He held up the cigarette. "Nah, it's fake. I don't smoke."
"Awesome, I hate smoking." I wrinkled my nose thinking about my dad smoking cigars, and Parker taking a smoke when he was stressed. It was a terrible habit.
"The fake smoke makes me look badass. They wanted to do it for the scene. Besides, I can get so many girls with it."
I scoffed at his douchey sentence. I sometimes forgot how everyone else saw Kota as the douchey one of the group, the playboy. "Wow, you're so charming." I said dryly.
"That's how I get 'em." He winked at me.
Over the course of almost two hours, Dakota traveled around the set. After about thirty minutes, I was pulled away to go to hair and makeup. They wanted to do the trial shots, so I complied. After an hour, I was taken to where the photographer was.
It was a relatively small room, where a white backdrop stood with lighting and a large camera. The photographer was a small woman who seemed ecstatic to see me.
"Blake Graham! Oh I know this will be perfect! I know for sure you will do great, and I'll be able to say I was the first photographer for you!" Her excited voice rang around the room.
"Oh, thanks," I let out a nervous chuckle.
"You're welcome! I'm Gianna. How about we start, yes?"
I nodded, going in front of the camera. It was a bit intimidating, standing in front of the bright lighting and camera.
"Just act natural, talk to me! And when you're comfortable we can work with poses! Will music help? I'll turn on some music!"
As the thirty minutes went by, I got more comfortable. As conceited as it sounded, I thought it went well. I was able to nail some of the poses, and courtesy of Gianna's excited cheering, I gained more confidence.
She turned off the music, and led me to the computer screen. "You did amazing! I think you will blow up! Imagine, Blake Graham the next big thing!" She gave me jazz hands.
I laughed, looking at the pictures she took.
"I doubt it, but thanks. These are awesome," I grinned at Gianna.
"Thank you! I'll send these to Danielle. In no time you will get a contract!"
Bidding her another thanks, I left to find Dakota. With the help of an assistant, I found him in a tiled room with a pool. The location was basically an old one story hotel, and the pool was still intact. It gave a more vintage tone to the whole commercial, while still being elegant.
"How were the trial pictures? You joining the dark side anytime soon?"
I gave him a shrug. "Maybe..." I said vaguely.
"We can be the next power couple that's not a couple," He winked suggestively at me.
"You wish."
"For sure." He laughed. "Oh! We're filming the last scene! We can leave right after this. You'll see how my suits gonna get ruined."
"Okay...." I eyed him curiously.
The filming once again began, and the music began to blare again. Sasha was wearing an evening gown, and Kota was still in his suit. The director began to yell over the music, "Ready on three?"
Dakota and Sasha began to walk towards each other. "Two!" Sasha put her hands on Dakota's shoulders, in what seemed like an embrace. "One!"
Dakota was pushed into the pool.
After Kota had dried off, and checked in with the directors, we headed out. Apparently, the dinner was cancelled, so we had the night to explore.
Our first stop was a marketplace which had higher end Italian goods. Putting the two impulsive buyers together alone in Italy wasn't the greatest of ideas, because as soon as we entered we went crazy.
"Hey, this is cool isn't it?" Kota held up a leather satchel. I frowned at him.
"A satchel?"
"I mean, it could be useful..." He trailed off.
"I guess, but don't you have a backpack?"
"Yeah, but it's not genuine leather."
"Yours is Gucci." I pointed out, recalling his black schoolbag with the iconic green and red stripes.
"That is true. But what if I need a satchel?"
"It's unnecessary buying." I tried to rationalize. Figures, have the heiress try and prevent someone from buying useless items.
"I have the money." He shot back.
"Do you have the space?"
"Fine." He ceased his argument, pouting.
"Quit sulking. Hey, there's a jewelry booth! Why don't we look there?" I dragged him away from the leather goods, towards the stand.
I shot the older lady a small smile, greeting her in Italian. Dakota immediately gravitated towards the watches, while I went through the rings. I found my ring size, and went through the various types. They ranged from silver, to gold, to platinum, to rose gold. Some were simple bands, or twisty spirals, or studded with a tiny gem, or topped with a large stone. I looked down to my own hands, which were spotted with quite a few rings.
On my right hand I had two rings on my middle and ring fingers, one on my pinky, and one on my pointer finger, while my left hand had two on my pointer and one on my ring finger. Most of them weren't connected to a person and were just for fashion purposes, but two of them I could never get rid of.
On my left ring finger was my mothers promise ring that she had left for me. It was a rose gold ring studded with tiny diamonds, and a larger floating diamond on top. She said that my father had given it to her the year they met, and she had always said she didn't care that he had presented it so early in the relationship. She always would say it was because they were in love, and it was true. On tabloids, articles, and from my mothers words itself, they had a whirlwind romance that within two years had resulted in marriage.
The second ring I had was on my right index finger, which was a simple delicate Tiffany ring with a small amethyst sitting in the center. I received it for my sixteenth birthday from Parker a few months before everything went to shit. After the breakup, I hid all of the jewelry and gifts he gave me, but I couldn't bring myself to take off the ring. It was too sentimental, like it was glued to my finger and heart. But back to the ring shopping.
I was rifling through the various types of rings when I saw one that interested me. It was made of silver and was in the shape of a crown. Snickering slightly, I took a picture of it and sent it to the group chat of the girls and I.
Almost immediately I got texts back from Sarah and MJ. MJ was back at calling me her highness, while Sarah simply texted 'BUY IT!!!!'
With a small laugh, I texted them back. I reassured Sarah that I would appease her and buy it, and sent MJ a simple middle finger emoji.
I looked around the area, to see Dakota trying on a watch. I called the lady over, and paid for my ring. After receiving a velvet box and paper bag, I walked my way towards Kota.
"What do you think about this watch?" He held up his wrist.
I narrowed my eyes at the watch. "It's nice, I guess. Why? Do you want a watch?"
He shrugged. "I dunno, this one's pretty nice. And also since someone-" He shot me a look, "Didn't let me get my genuine leather satchel, I wanted to get a genuine leather watch."
I snorted at his reasoning. "You're an idiot. But fine, go get the watch."
"I will." He said haughtily, going to the cashier. As I waited for him, I went back to the ring section. What caught my eye once again was a set of matching rings. With a small smirk, I called over to Dakota. "Hey Kota? What ring size are you?"
"I can't believe we got matching rings." Dakota scoffed, twisting his own arrow ring around his middle finger. Like me, he had a few rings decorating his fingers. After thinking about it, Clark wore a couple of rings also, while Nico always had a watch on him, and Luca always wore a cross necklace.
"It's fucking adorable." I shoved him slightly as we ambled through the relatively empty and dark sidewalks of Venice. Earlier I had posted a selfie of us two holding our hands up showing off our matching rings. Dakota posted a similar one, but he was flipping the camera off to show his ring, while I had held up my pinky. And unlike me who captioned our adorable picture 'Soul Sisters' he captioned his as 'When in Rome'
"I'm still waiting for Luca to see my post." He grumbled, checking his notifications.
"When he gets here tomorrow he will beat your ass." I rolled my eyes at him, while he just laughed loudly.
"I love his Italian-ness."
"That's not a word." I scoffed, looking down at my phone where I was getting directions. We were walking towards the bakery I was talking about earlier on the plane. Earlier we had gotten authentic Italian pizza, and we were now strolling through the cobblestone streets looking for my bakery.
"It could be." Dakota shot back.
"Right turn here. And maybe it could be."
"Maybe. Oh, wait it says there's a gelato place near the bakery!" He pointed at the map on my phone.
"Yeah, we can get gelato. Wait aren't you lactose intolerant?" I eyed him suspiciously.
He waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, but fuck that."
"Great thinking. I'm glad we don't share a bathroom."
"Hey! For your infor-"
"There it is!" I interrupted his potential speech and pointed at the neon sign that read 'Dolce Vita'.
We entered the shop, a blast of warm, vanilla scented air, hitting us in the face. White marble adorned the floors and a large glass display case covering half of the room, filled with various baked goods. It looked as fancy as it was because Dolce Vita was a high end bakery, the high part being it was relatively expensive.
"Wait a minute. Fifteen Euros? What the fuck!" He whisper shouted at me, pointing at the slices of cake.
"Calm down Kota, I'm paying."
"I still feel bad. It's expensive."
"You're wearing Balenciagas!" I pointed to his feet, which were adorned in the bulky white sneakers.
"But they're shoes!"
"It's fine! Besides, I'll use my dads card. And if you feel bad about using his money, losing a hundred dollars won't affect him. I read somewhere that he makes like ten thousand per minute."
"Holy shit." His eyes widened, looking like he didn't believe me.
"Yeah, a lot of people go to hospitals nowadays." I stated sarcastically, "And also we have at least one hospital in each state, a few in Mexico and Canada. A handful in the U.K and maybe twenty in mainland Europe." I recalled my fathers boasting at his latest charity banquet. I mean, even though my dad had become a terrible father since my mother died, it didn't mean he was all bad. I had to give the asshole credit, he hosted yearly banquets to donate money towards medical aid and relief to third world countries.
"Yeah, I was born in one of your families hospitals." He observed the display case of cookies.
I widened my eyes at his revelation, "Seriously? No way!"
He chuckled, looking back to me. "Yes way, the one in Seal Beach."
"That's fucking crazy!"
"Yeah, so thanks to your dad I exist."
"One thing in life he's done right." I muttered. "Anyways, what do you want? I think I'm gonna get one of each of the biscotti."
"Jesus. I'll just get a slice of tiramisu. I'm saving my appetite for the gelato."
"Smart," I grinned at him before ordering. We soon got our desserts, and made our way outside. They had cute little black chairs and tables overlooking the water, so we sat there. Dakota was stuffing his face with the tiramisu, not stopping to breathe. As he polished off his slice, he looked up and grinned at me.
"I am so fucking glad I asked you to come with me."
I laughed loudly at his statement, shooting him a similar grin. "Anything for you, soul sister."
Linked above is the inspiration for Dakota's commercial. Also right below this are Blake's rings.
The promise ring is a little too big, but it fit the description. Comments and votes are appreciated💙