Chapter 44

We just arrived at the venue for the press conference and as usual, Elizabeth instructed Jake to be with me while she works which is fine really. Jake's really a good company and we get along great so that's cool he's better rather than staying with Marla. Elizabeth's been talking to her and Tiziana for quite some time now because we're the first one to arrive here and all while I kept taking pictures of everything I see, mostly her. She's just that gorgeous.

"This is great just like Comic Con boss" I froze upon hearing that. Comic Con, here we go again.What the fuck happened in Comic Con? I'm tired of this really. I'm going to have to tell him about it. The truth. Well, he's our security and Elizabeth seems to fully trust her and he's a great friend really. I know Elizabeth might be worried about this or mad about it but this is driving me insane. I can't always pretend I know something that I've completely don't have any clue on. It hurts my fucking brain. So I pulled him to the side away from the others and to a much more secluded area.

"Shan-"

"Shh, I need to tell you something, but you have to promise me you'll keep this as a secret okay. Its very important." His brows furrow, but I must've had a serious face on for him to nod his head in agreement. "I'm being serious okay, and don't freak out." He nods again leaning closer this time.

"I have amnesia." I whispered as quietly as I can that only him could hear it. I held my breath as he stared at me with an empty face and it took a while before I could even get a reaction from him and its the one I'm actually expecting. He started to chuckle softly maybe trying to see if I'm fooling around but I kept a straight face.

"Boss I don't-"

"I'm being serious Jake. I had an accident two years ago. Where did you think I got this from?" I say pointing on the deep scar on my shoulder and on my head. His eyes widens and I think he's starting to realize it. " I also have one on my leg."

"What the fuck? Is that why you're looking so surprised when I gave you a hug the first time we saw each other after two years?"

"Yea, I don't know who you were. Elizabeth said we were close but I don't have any memory of it. I thought you were Elizabeth's boyfriend for god's sake." I watch as he takes it all in and it was taking a while so I wait. When he is not responding I touched his arm making his head snap towards me.

"I know its a lot to take in but I'm just tired of coping with everyone and pretending that I know shit of what they're talking about like what you said, Comic Con. I don't know what the fuck happened in that event."

"Hey boss, I believe you. Its just, well you're the same Shannon I used to know. Maybe that's why I haven't figured it out earlier. But I can't deny you're acting weird sometimes." I sighed at the sad and shocked look on his face. Its really is something that will show as a  ridiculous truth to others but its the truth and I can't change that. "I'm really sorry boss. That must've been terrible."

"Hey, I had a second chance and I'm still here. Even though I never imagined in my second life that I will have Elizabeth as my girlfriend. That's just mind blowing." I say giving him a small nudge on the arm lightening the situation a bit. He smiles sadly so I nudged him again and say. "Dude stop it, I'm okay and in a better place right now so its cool, I just wanted to tell you that. I just need to tell someone."

"What do you mean?" I sighed and looked at my camera my mind contemplating on how should I answer that question. Well I guess the truth?

"Elizabeth knows, Scarlett and Kathryn, my family and her family and there's you and Joan. You're the only ones that know the truth. Elizabeth doesn't like talking about it or letting the public know. I don't know why and I keep trying to understand it but sometimes, its just hard to pretend really. I suck at lying to people."

"Yes you do. There's no doubt in that." He nod his head in total agreement which made me smile. He really knows me that well.

"Anyway, I'm going to have to tell Elizabeth I've told you. But can we keep this as a secret. Please" He smiles and nods his head giving me a small salute before saying.

"Roger that boss" I let out a chuckle and give him a fist bump just to close that fucking deal of ours. We walked back to the event and secure a spot where I can easily take pictures of my beautiful girlfriend who is still talking to Tiziana and Marla while Vanessa Hudgens is being photographed. I took some shots, a few, as I wait for my lady's turn.

The yelling of the other photographers are ringing in my ears again that my head is starting to hurt. I couldn't figure out what they were saying maybe because most of them are speaking Italian and some of them are just calling the attention of Vanessa. I shake my head in attempt to fade out the ringing and focus on my girl who is ready to take her turn. It helps but it's still there.

"Shan, you alright?" I hear Jake says and I just nod peeking through the viewfinder of my camera as Elizabeth takes her turn for pictures. Focus Shannon, you can't let them get into your head again. I snap photos of my lady and she spots me immediately looking just into my lenses even though she's wearing sunglasses.

A smile grew on my face as she works it. She really is stunning and my lenses definitely agrees with me and she doesn't even have to try. I continue to snap at her every angle and she smiles looking at me and I feel my heart stop, the yelling fades, everything fades. God, I feel euphoric, that simple smile of hers got me feeling so ecstatic and that amazes me. This woman got me so hooked up.

I watch as she giggles walking away and still I am snapping photos of her. I just stopped when Vanessa blocked my view talking to her and that bummed me out a little.

"Shannon!" I hear someone call me making me turn my head and saw Heather waving at me before taking her turn for the pictures. Jake nudges me and say.

"She knows you?" He asks and I subconsciously gave Heather a nod and a smile.

"Uh yea, we met earlier unexpectedly, at the elevator." I say and take some shots of her, a few ones as well and then it was time for some group pictures so I did that as well. After that it was time to go inside of the venue for the press conference. Elizabeth walked with the rest of them while Jake and I follow closely behind.

The press conference continues with the press asking random questions about the film festival and all that. I took some stolen shots of my lady since my attention was just on her and she kept glancing at me and smiling so I kept teasing her about it. I might get in trouble later for that though. I'm distracting her way too much.

When the press conference was done, Elizabeth got caught up talking to Tiziana so Jake and I wait in the corner out of respect and gave their space to talk and while we wait, I scan through my camera for my shots earlier looking at them one by one.

"Jake?" I spoke up suddenly remembering she has a photo call after this and she needs to get ready for that one too.

"Yea?"

"What time is it?"

"Almost noon. Why?" She still has three hours to prepare and I guess that's enough for her to get ready. Well, her team is absolutely hands on to her and that is a relief and they are the best even though they have the ability to overwhelm me sometimes.

"She has a photo call at three and she has to get ready for tha—"

"Hey, Shannon?" I look up from my camera and saw Heather again. Wow, I'm really catching her attention today, what's with that?

"Oh hey Ms. Graha- I mean Heather." I smiled hoping its convincing in some way. I just had my body on program when meeting celebrities but this is different. I only did meet her earlier, no first encounter before that so this is new.

"Hey, I didn't know you were a part of this. I was surprised to see you outside earlier."

"Well yea, kind of, I mean. I'm not actually really a part of it. I'm just here for—"

"Shan!"I hear Elizabeth calls at the same time Jake nudges me a little bit making our head turn to the side to see my lady with Tiziana and Vanessa Hudgens walking towards us, a smile playing on her lips as her eyes landed on Heather too. Okay, I feel a little awkwardness in the air and I don't even know why.

"Oh hi Heather, I see you two met again." Elizabeth giggles as she goes to my side. I looked at Elizabeth my heart racing in my chest as I glanced at Heather who seems to be surprised and confused at the same time.

"And who is charming face here?" Vanessa says raising her brows looking at me. Jake nudges me again slightly, I don't know maybe to tease me about something or just try to annoy me, so I nudged him back before glaring at him and he just sniggered teasing. Yup I'm right, he's annoying me alright.

"Oh right, Shan. This is Tiziana and Vanessa and Heather, you two met a while ago and everyone this is Shannon Beveridge my—"

"Wait, wait- How did you know we've met this morning?" Heather asks brows furrowed as she looks at Elizabeth then to me then back to her and I stood here,  rooted to my spot, getting hell sweaty with all of this and couldn't get a single fucking word out of me.

"Oh she told me, right?" Elizabeth looks at me for confirmation and I cleared my throat just to test if I still have my voice working just fine.

"Yea, I might've mentioned it to her."

"So you're with her team?" Vanessa asks and I say,

"Uh kind of, she's my girlfriend actually." I say and Elizabeth smiles at me, the sweetest smile I've ever seen. God I can totally melt right now. "I'm just here for her basically."

"I knew it." Heather says eventually a smirk on her face. "I knew you're name was familiar." I sigh in relief at that. She giggles and winks at me getting along. Elizabeth giggles as well, touching my arm.

"Oh wow" Vanessa gasps as Tiziana grins, God this woman is tall, much taller than I am. "Well, I didn't really expect this but its really nice to meet you." She says as I shook hands with her and Tiziana.

"What happened to your arm?" Tiziana says in her Italian accent pointing to the scar on my arm and as soon as she said that, I felt Elizabeth's eyes piercing through my skin, so as fast as my mind can calculate a fucking excuse, I say.

"I'm a klutz when I was a child so I fell off a tree and scratched it." I say with a nervous laugh trying to sound very convincing and Jake nudges me again and I cursed at him under my breath not to be so obvious about it or I'll be fucking toast later on. They joined in smiling and I saw Elizabeth's shoulders relaxed so maybe that saved me from trouble again. They actually believed that made up shit, God I hate this. Its not a very good feeling to fucking lie to their faces.

"Oh right, so I think lunch is ready. We better go ahead." Elizabeth links her arm with mine as we walked out of the room having to let out a breath of relief after that. Ugh my head is starting to kill me again and I can feel it already. I just hope this won't get any worse until the day ends——————I'm all dressed up for the ceremony for tonight. Her team decided to get us ready in two separate rooms. I'm in their room while Elizabeth is getting ready in our room. I didn't have an idea that they had an outfit for me to wear because the look that I was going for tonight is a simple white shirt and some dress pants and some Oxfords that Elizabeth shoved to me earlier. Well, her team dressed me up in a crepe beige halter top with a cream dress pants and a blazer with a lighter shade of beige almost like a darker cream and the brown Oxford shoes with some accessories to go with it. Emma came in earlier too to do my hair which is currently in a clean ponytail and my face smothered with some light make up.

"Uh guys, is this a bit too much? I'm just going to take pictures of Elizabeth. I'm not really going with her on the red carpet." One of her team, I believe her name is Jane, shushes me as she fixes my blazer on. 

"Well you still need to be dressed for the event and still, you're going to be there." She says and I sigh realizing that she really has a point. I know I'm still going to be there, I just don't see the point in dressing up this good if I'm going for something that would somehow make me invisible from them. "You're looking good eh"

"Am I?" I asked a small smile playing on my lips. Well, I just have to deal with this, I guess. She nods and turns me around to face the full body mirror behind me and damn, I really do look presentable. I wonder what Elizabeth is wearing, but even if she wears a potato sack she still looks good in it what more if she wears decent clothes more like formal clothes.

"Emma did a great job on your make up. It really complements the whole look. Light make up really suits you." Talking about make up and fashion makes me think of the twins because in a span of a few days, I've grown closer to them and I really feel comfortable around them. Maybe because we already have a close relationship before the shit show happened.

"Thanks Jane, way to hype me up." I chuckled and she joins in giving my arm a squeeze. Suddenly a knock on the door catches our attention and Dianne went to get it. Maybe that's Jake, I asked him to get my camera bag from our room because I needed to change the film of it.

"Shan, Jake's here." Right, that's what I thought. Jake appears behind Dianne in a suit too and he looks so much like a gentleman. Its perfect and it made a smile form on my lips mirroring his.

"Damn woman." He says making me roll my eyes and walk towards him. He handed me my camera bag before giving him a fist bump thanking him.

"So have you seen her?" I whispered. Getting my camera bag from our room is actually just a reason for him to sneak in and take a peak of what my girlfriend looks like but the face he's giving me is saying it all.

"They wouldn't let me in boss, they made me wait outside." He sighs. "Maybe she's still not ready."

"Well, they better finish her up because the red carpet starts in half an hour and I'm dying to see her." I whined as I sat down on the couch ready to change the film of my camera while Jane and the rest of the team packs up. Its a good thing the camera shop I bought these films is still open on the last minute before the trip and films were on stock, that was a total relief for me to be honest.

By the time I was done and my camera is all set for my girlfriend. Jane says that Elizabeth is ready and is now waiting for me in our room. My heart starts beating fast upon hearing that and suddenly I felt nervous. I don't know why but its not really a bad feeling, its quite strange in a good way.

"Thank you for doing this." I say to the team as I hang my camera bag on my shoulder. They gave me a smile before a series of affirmation was shown. I waved at them before exiting their room Jake following behind making our way to the elevator to go up one floor.

"You okay Shan?" I hear Jake asks. I looked at him and nod giving him a tap on the shoulder. I'm not sure if I'm really okay though but I'm really excited to see her.

"Just nervous, I guess." He chuckles shaking his head and that makes me so intrigued.

"What?"

"You're still the same Shan, most of it I guess but surely on how you treat Lizzie, or how you are when you're with her. I still see the head over heels Shannon when it comes to her. Its like you never left to be honest. Maybe that's why I haven't figure it out, you know."

"Really?" He hums in response at the same time the elevator door opens. So before I could say anything else we walked out of the elevator and start to head to our room. "What does it feel like? If you don't mind me asking. All of this, when you found out about it?"

I shrugged at that at the same time letting the gears work in my head. I don't know how to answer that really. I knew I had walked in to the industry on my earlier days, that days I remember at least back when I was with Cari but this didn't fucking crossed my mind not once.

"Like someone punched me in the gut and slap my face with reality. I know I had a growing career but a well known celebrity as a girlfriend and directing a fucking show is not what I'm expecting that I would be missing out on and now its like I'm back at square one. Its great really, I'm reliving my life back in 2019 but I can't just ignore the truth of my accident and to be honest, I'm really having a hard time with that right now."

"Does Lizzie know?" I sigh as we stopped in front of our hotel room.

"No and just please don't bring it up or anything. Its not the right time. I'll talk to her when I got the chance. I'm still good so its okay. Just not now." I looked up to him with hopeful eyes hoping he gets the message. He smiles and nods before knocking on the door for me.

"My lips are sealed." I let out a chuckle and nudged him playfully before the door opens revealing Marla. Without any emotions on her face, she looks at me from head to toe and eventually says,

"You look decent." and I swear I saw the slightest curve on her lips and that's a surprise. I thought this woman doesn't have a heart for me. When I didn't respond, still shock on what just happened, she opens up the door widely letting us in.

"Uh, thanks Marla." I awkwardly greeted before stepping into the room. I hear her laugh and a smile automatically appeared on my lips as it dances to my ears and as we go further into the room, there, I see her. I stopped in my tracks taking it all in. She looks heavenly stunning and for a moment I thought I died and went to heaven seeing an angel in front of me. Everything  fades around us, a strange feeling rising up inside of me all of a sudden

Green eyes getting closer.Dark to golden locks tumbling softly against the pale blush colored fabric and its sparkling gold details that glimmer as the sunlight hits them. Rose stained lips complimenting those pearly whites.Her skin glows like how the moonlight shines in the dark skies. She stands out from everyone.

"Shannon!" I snapped out of the trance that I'm in feeling a slight tapping on my cheek. She giggles and everyone does it to giving each other high fives and I felt my face heats up at the realization of what just happened. How long was I out?

"Aww, Well nice job guys. It totally worked." She giggles biting her lower lip in the process, her hand still resting at the side of my face and whispers in the sweetest tone "Hi honey"

I struggle to find the right words as I open my mouth but these words came out instead. "Am I asleep? if this is a dream. I don't want to wake up." Her smile grew and I was stuck still staring at her eyes. "You're so damn stunning my love."

Her eyes sparkles, green meadows bright and green.

"That is so romantic." I hear someone say snapping me out again. Damn, I'm zoning out quite a lot. Wait,did I say that out loud?

"What?" I mutter.

"Oh God, Shan snap out of it." Jake laughs giving me a slight tap on the back. I let out a nervous laugh touching the back of my neck with the possibility of an embarrassment of staring way too much at my beautiful girlfriend. She's too unreal to be mine to be honest. A hand on my cheek made me turn and in a span of a second her lips were on mine giving me a soft and gentle kiss and when she pulls away she stares into my eyes and whispers the sweetest

I love you honey.

And that's all that I need.