We spent new years with Nina and some of her close friends in the city this year. A week after we moved into an apartment in San Francisco. Mathew got his car he wanted as well. Nina had the premier of the limited series she did so I helped with dressing her. I went to her first one with her in La.

This was the first time I had ever done this and it was very hectic. Had someone telling us to go different places and it was crowded. Nina and I held hands to not lose each other while I held the tail of her dress. I stood with her PR person while she took pictures and did interviews.

“How are you feeling? This is your first stop on the premier tour?” The reporter asked.

“Yes, we have two more here in the states and then the world tour.”

“How is it this time around compared to when you did the short film? By the way, congratulations on being a nominee.” The reporter asked her. Nina had a deep v cut silk dress. With a small coat on. It’s not as cold here in January but still, you can feel the breeze later in the day.

“Thank you, it’s been great so far. It's such a rush I can’t even focus.”

“A little birdy told me you are also going to be in the new upcoming film. Have you started filming yet?” Nina got casted in a drama film while filming the limited series.

“Yes, we started in December and took a break. We should start again in a few weeks.”

“Well you sure will be busy then. Haha” they have people on the side telling them to rap it up. “Well I hope to see your success in the future.”

“Thank you. It was nice meeting you.”

They moved her down the line to another reporter.

“Hello you look amazing!”

“Thank you. You do too.”

“How was your new year?”

“It was great, thank you. I spent it with friends.”

The interviewer was from more entertainment media companies than film.

“I saw that Mathew Conners was there.” She said in a flirty way. The pictures posted from the party boosted the dating rumors.

“Yeah he’s a close friend.”

“Just a friend? You two would look like a cute couple.”

“No, just friends. I’ve known him from when we were younger.”

“I had heard you guys went to the same high school together. I saw a few pictures of the two of you.” Ironically one of the pictures is a group photo of the four of us and one is of them alone together and vice versa.

“Yeah him and my best friend Alexis, who dressed me,” she motioned at her dress. “We all went to the same high school.”

“Speaking of which you know a lot of people don’t you? Troy the Quarterback on the umm what team is it?.”

“Yeah him as well.”

“What is this high school? Is it to make people successful in sports and arts?"

Nina giggled, "no, just a regular school. I guess we just got lucky.”

After they moved her along again. “You did great.” Her PR person told her. “If you don’t want to answer anything just look over at me and we can end it.”

“So,” they took a pause. “People have been linking you to a certain basketball player.” Nina just smiled at him. “But I did my research and saw that you went to prom with the new rookie qb Troy.”

“Yes we went to prom.” She kept it short. I knew she was getting annoyed but she was hiding it well.

“So let us know, come on. Is this old news now with the new guy in the picture.”

“There is no one in the picture.”

“I’m not going to get anything out of you am I?” He tried to laugh off the tension.

“Troy is a friend of mine just how Mathew is.” Nina knew what he was trying to imply.

Because she’s such a new actress the ones that want to talk to her the most are the quick no depth media companies. After that one the interviews were more serious.

I ended up doing more events with her helping her get dressed and telling the makeup and hair people how to coordinate with her dresses. Troy had gotten offered to be on the cover and a spread in a sports magazine. He told me to join him. He did it as pay back to everyone who was saying things for the past three months. The cover was of him doing a push up with me sitting on his back. The camera was angled up from the front to have him in the middle of the shot. We did a couple more together with him doing a bench press and pull ups. Some of him alone. Some people got upset again but it spread like they hoped it would. The conspiracy theorists had speculated that I had moved out because we had broken up. This gave them more fuel to make up more ideas. Because Mathew is on the road most of the time we just hire$ movers to move everything into the place. I just took what was at Troy’s. Mathew came to the New York premiere to support her before we left for the others.

After a month finishing the tour for the show Nina and Mathew were both invited to go to an award show. Both Mathew and her were offered to get interviewed while getting ready. Mathew didn’t want to but his team told him too. But back deals happened so that Mathew got his custom suit for the show. It’s kinda like you get a free suit if we got extra promo with the before interview. His team dressed him this time because it was last minute. Everything is for advertising. I told Nina now the partnerships were going to start coming her way that the series is doing well. If she wanted to go the route of working with luxury brands we could. She decided to stick to the new designers I was finding her.

The hotel was full of different types of talent on all ends. We got lucky and got the same floor as Nina being crossed from us. Mathew left a key for me for his room. We got there before he did so we went to our rooms. We all arrived the day of the event. The teams would start getting here anytime. While Nina’s team was getting her ready for the crew to arrive I got her dress out and went to Mathew and my room.  I heard the door open and Mathew came in. He had his bag over his shoulder and was holding his other hand behind his back.

I walked over to him to give him a kiss. He set his bag down and leaned down to kiss me. “Happy anniversary.” He gave me another peck and moved his hand to the front revealing a bouquet of flowers wrapped in pink foil. They were red roses and he also had a big red gummy bear. Our anniversary is on February 14 so it’s also valentine related stuff. I took them and gave him another kiss. He held me up, giving me pecks.

“I’m sorry they don’t look that great. I didn’t think to order them from a company here and it was too late by the time I tried.” He slowly released me down.

“They look nice. I got you something too.” I took an assortment of chocolates out of my bag. We laid on the bed together talking before Mathew got a call that the team was here with the production team.

I grabbed my back pack and my presents. “I wanna show Nina the flowers.” I told him as I got ready to leave. “I’ll see you later.”

He stood up from the bed. Gave me another kiss. We heard a knock at the door. Mathew went to open it and it was his manager's assistant. He let her in. “Hi Rosey.” I told her.

“Hi! Are you leaving?”

“Yeah he’s going to Nina’s room.” Mathew nodded across the hall. He stood at the door.

“Yeah I’ll see you guys later.”

“Okay they are on their way up so…” she told us. Giving us a little warning.

I walked to the door and Mathew held it open. “Oh my suit! It's on the bed.” I almost forgot to carry all the stuff.

“I’ll grab it.” Rosey told me.

“Remember to smile when you're walking okay.” I told him.

“I smile.” Mathew grinned.

“Yeah but when you're walking sometimes you look intimidating.”

“I tried telling him.” Rosey told me as she handed me the suit. “He’s too handsome to look so serious.”

“Alright alright” Mathew laughed. “Love you, I'll see you later.” He kissed me again.

I opened Nina’s door with one of her keys. “Hey.” They already started on her makeup and hair. I set down the stuff and went over to her.

“Awe did he give you that?” She asked and her team turned to see. They all know we’re dating. A lot of people in my field know that I’m close or acquainted with them for years. I know Mathew’s team has tried to keep it a secret. With the push of the league.

“Yeah.” I set the flowers on the bed stand. “Want some?” I motioned at the gummy bear.

“You guys make me want a boyfriend, he's so cute. Did he like the chocolates?” They went back to doing her makeup and hair. Nina had a fling with someone in college but hasn’t dated anyone since high school.

“Yeah, he probably didn’t start eating them right away because he wanted to keep kissing me. The media people were coming up so I came over.”

“Yeah they're coming up now too.” Nina’s manager said.

“Do you think it’ll be different crews?” I asked.

“I would think so.”

I started steaming her dress while they came in. She did the whole thing letting them in and talking to entertain them. We ate the gummy bear to the point it was just the legs and the bottom. Nina was going to wear a dark green, straight down, long dress. It had a corset-like appearance with no sleeves. She had straightened hair all pushed back.

This was way worse than the premiere we did. More people, more cameras. I don’t know how you would wear a longer dress. Thankfully hers ended at the bottom with no tail or I would carry it the whole night. I watched on the side as she took her pictures. I took one with her that she made me do. In mainstream media I am not known. So I try to stay to the side.

 I watched as Mathew dawned the red carpet. He took my advice and was smiling left and right. His hair was slicked up to the side a bit. It was longer now. He had a stubble beard and flashed his beautiful smile everywhere. He met up with us as we waited in line to be seated. I kept staring at how handsome he looked.

I looked at his lips and eyes back and forth. The same way he did. “I want to kiss you so bad.” Mathew gritted his teeth.

“We can’t, not here.” I pause, “unless…” It will happen eventually. We are carefree in our hometown and when we go out for groceries sometimes but not in public events.

“No you’re right.” He rubbed the back of my head gently and sensually. Down to my neck.

“You’ll mess up my hair.” I moved my head away playfully.

Nina turned around and fixed it for me. “Did you eat all the chocolates?” She asked him.

“Here,” Mathew held out his hand. “I knew I would want one.”

Her face lit up and she took it. The flash of the cameras were starting to hurt my eyes. We were seated at the same table but Nina’s plus one(me)was moved. The table was already full with only two spots but it was Mathew’s seat next to her. I was moved behind their table. Nina tried explaining to them that I wasn’t just part of her team but her plus one.

“Alexis, just take my seat and I’ll sit at this table.” Mathew pointed to the other table that was also full. He pulled out the chair for me.

“It’s just that it messes with the camera arrangement if we move people around this late.” The staff explained.

“It’s fine.” I sat down and they followed. Mathew pulled out her chair and they sat down.

During the show they panned to them a few times. Mathew would look back from time to time. After the award show we went back to the hotel. Mathew threw me on the bed and crawled on top of me kissing me. “You’ll ruin the suit.” I said.

“It’s fine, I'll pay for it.” He went back to kissing me as he pressed up on my body.

I kissed him a bit more before I pulled back. “Wait,” I kissed him, “I don’t want Nina to go alone to the after party.” He sat up.

“Okay.” He cleaned his saliva from his lips. I grabbed our phones from the bed. Mathew had his lock screen of us sitting on the ledge of a deck together looking at a lake. Mine was of me sitting on his abs while he laid down in bed a picture of him smiling.

We spent the next two days here. Nina left to continue filming her movie. We watched the videos they did of them together. He wasn’t shy like I thought he would be. He was his charismatic self. He’s not a shy guy at all but he tends to be on the serious side at these types of things. He made jokes when he opened the door in a white tank top and shorts. I messed with him asking him why he changed. He came there wearing jeans and a hoodie.

“I wanted to be more comfortable.” He smiled at me.

“You were trying to thrist trap.” I told him and he burst out laughing.

I threw a pillow at him and he caught it. He rolled over towards me and I pushed him away playfully. In the video Mathew shared the chocolates with the crew and they basically finished them. After every clip you saw less and less. Sometimes I forget how flirty and charming he is. Watching it in the video brought back lots of memories. He’s always playful and lovey dovey with me. I guess I take it for granted.

In the comments you could see people pointing out the chocolates here and the flowers in Nina’s video. They compared everything and talked about the award show too.

Later Nina would find out that the media company behind the limited series had set up Mathew and Nina being across from each other, them being seated together at the table and a lot of the push to make them look like a couple. They were right, it brought them a lot of media attention and the show was a success. Views that wouldn’t have paid attention to the show otherwise did. It still didn’t devalue the performance she did. That’s why it was so great. I’m sure the league also jumped on the bandwagon.

A underwear commercial Mathew did came out and it blew up. The commercial was your typical underwear commercial. They showered him waking up in bed, walking about the house, drinking by the pool and coming out of the pool. The pictures also were very suggestive and sexual. Because Mathew doesn’t really post on social media other than his team does. There isn’t any shirtless pictures of him to thirst after. The fan service or edits people had were all from the games in the uniform, sometimes him in public and now red carpet. It exploded, before they talked about his face and arms but now that they had seen him in his underwear. His audience base grew so fast. His platforms gained a lot of attention and the company. They wanted to make him an ambassador longer then the contract originally had stated. They company was only about two years old and never seen this type of traction. He wasn’t really interested but his team was trying to get them to double the amount they were paying. Seeing a lot of people want your boyfriend at this level was something I’ve never seen before. I would if I was them he looked really good. Especially coming out of the pool. I can’t say I too didn’t rewatch the ad a few times and watch videos of it. Mathew joked he would recreate it for me.