to get anything out of me.
Once he’s calmed himself down, and my laughter subsides, he leans forward slightly with his elbows on the table. I can’t take my eyes off him as he smiles at me.
“As soon as all the fame hit, I found myself stabbed in the back by a lot of really close friends who I'd spent my entire life around. It made it hard to get close to new people. I’ve spent a lot of time with people who don’t mean much, or around people who my agent thinks I need to be seen with for whatever reason. I just….it’s been a long time since I wanted to be with someone. Most of those dates, were more like appointments. They are platonic and set up by agents who want me to be seen with someone, or someone wants to be seen with me.”
He takes another deep breath and leans back, his voice lower and huskier. “I know I've said this before, but it was cool as shit when you had no idea who I was the other night. I got to just be me – even after Mia ratted me out. It's not often, if at all, really, over the last few years I've felt like that with any one, except for maybe my band."
He makes me sound like a buddy and I’m not sure why that disappoints me.
"They seem like really great guys," I reply in between bites of my delicious pad thai lunch while I think about what he just said. I can't think of anything else to say with all he disclosed to me, but I’m glad that my earlier impression of him was correct and that he isn't the guy Mia reads about it. Listening to him talk, and hearing the sincerity in his voice, makes me totally believe him. I glance at him occasionally, but mostly keep my head down and finish my food.
“Where are you from?” I ask eventually, mostly to break the silence. He chuckles and I’m pretty sure he’s laughing at me again.
“What?”
“I forget you don’t know anything about me. I’m not often asked that, but since you did, I’ve lived my entire life in Los Angeles.” He gently runs a hand through his light brown hair and smiles at me. His eyes are sparkling, and I almost cringe at knowing he’s bemused with my social inadequacies.
I’m guessing anything people want to know about him can be found on Google. I bet he has dozens of fan pages set up all over the internet world with all of his most personal information.
Eventually, we finish our meal in more comfortable silence peppered with questions about his family and mine, although I try to steer him away from asking questions about my family and listen to him mostly talk about his.
“Tell me more about your sister."
Zack snorts a little bit thinking about her, but his eyes instantly light up. "Sammy's twenty-two and an accountant at a firm in Palm Beach, she just graduated from UCLA this past Spring. She's also my biggest fan and my biggest annoyance. But she doesn’t treat me different and still gives me crap just like always, telling me when my songs suck, or when I’ve gotten caught making an ass out of myself." As he tells me more about his family, I learn that Zack's dad left when he was ten years old and he’s had no contact with him since. The more I listen, the more I like him. Others may see Zack and see a rock star. I simply see a laid-back, kind and incredibly attractive man. And I feel….safe with him.
I clear the plates from the table when we’re done eating. "Would you like some coffee?"
"Yeah, let me help me."
"No, that's okay. It'll just take me a minute, go have a seat in the living room and make yourself comfortable. I'll be right there." I start a pot of coffee and load up the lunch dishes. When the coffee finishes brewing, I take two cups to the living room. I smile to myself when I see Zack looking at a stack of photographs from my most recent photo shoot. The little girl is five years old and one of the most precious little children I’ve photographed. She has this long blond hair full of bouncing curls and the widest blue eyes I have ever seen. She’s surely going to be beautiful when she grows up. Besides her physical beauty, the entire family was