A persistent drumming noise pierced through her ears, breaking the vision that had her grinning from ear to ear. Slowly, the haze faded, clearing her mind and rousing her back to consciousness.
Her eyes instantly opened. The first thing she did was to pat the pillow next to her. But her hands came up empty, feeling the cold linen on her fingertips.
"Hmm!" She muttered disappointingly, realizing that the man she was making out with was nothing but an illusion. In reality, she was alone, just like she had been for the last three days since she broke up with her cheating boyfriend.
Although she had only been with two men, it felt like her heart had been broken into pieces more times than she could count. But if she was being honest, the first still brought more pain than her last.
Her year-long relationship with Adrian Richards had been full of ups and downs, as expected in a young, showbiz couple. Sometimes, she even doubted whether they even loved each other at all. Maybe at first, things seemed to work out between them, but later on, she noticed how he had changed. Rumors of his cheating spread until she finally caught him with her own eyes.
On the other hand, it had been three years since Nolan Maxwell broke her heart. She had loved him from the moment she first laid eyes on him. Call it love at first sight. From the way she felt about Adrian, Nolan might as well be her first and only love.
"What a joke!" Emily found her choice of men laughable. Although Adrian had been sweet and romantic, he was a liar and a cheat. Meanwhile, Nolan always had this commanding authority, confidence, and charm that could easily beguile anyone, but he was also a notorious playboy who cared only about himself.
Adrian thought she was just another pushover actress that he could use to further his career. In the meantime, to Nolan, she was just another notch on his bedpost, another woman he easily discarded after he had his fun.
Last night marked the day she had lost her virginity to him. Of course, she was talking about Nolan. Who else? He was her first.
It was probably the reason she had been drinking way beyond her alcoholic limit last night. She was still mourning her first love, even though she would never admit it out loud. She had been telling herself that she had moved on and forgotten about him. Clearly, she was just fooling herself.
"What are you doing?" She chastised herself for putting herself in this unending toxic cycle. "I must have gone crazy. Nolan's no different from Adrian. In fact, he was much worse." Remembering that she should not be thinking about that asshole, let alone fantasizing about kissing him.
She should not be dreaming of the man who left her heart torn into a million pieces. Instead, she should be exorcising him out of her life, like a ghost that had no more room in her world. Nolan was already dead. At least in her heart, she had already buried him six feet under the ground.
"Emily Davis..." Again, that same loud voice echoed around her. "Aren't you going to open this fucking door?" Finally, she recognized her friend, who was currently shouting and banging outside her room, snapping her brain awake.
Reluctantly, she slid out of bed and lazily walked to the door. "I'm coming." She grumpily grumbled. "Ruth, stop shouting..." Yanking the door open.
"You'd better have a good explanation for ruining a perfect dream..." Emily's brows knitted together while her fists rested on both sides of her waist, showing her friend her displeasure.
"As a matter of fact, I do, Ms. Emily Davis." Ruth confidently answered as she made her way into the room. She stopped by the bed and started waving her phone. "Or should I say, Mrs. Emily Maxwell?" This time, her friend sounded satirical.
Wait! What?
Her jaw dropped, and her eyes almost popped out of their sockets when her friend addressed her with a different name. Worst, Ruth called her by her ex's surname.
"Do you have a death wish?" Emily threatened her friend as she slammed her door and walked back into her room. "You don't joke around with that kind of shit." Not finding her friend's morning prank funny.
Ruth had been her friend since they were children. Both of them came from a small town where five-story buildings were already considered skyscrapers. But unlike her friend, Emily came from a dysfunctional family, where the only way to escape her bleak future was to run away.
Still, finding success was never without challenges. Emily had to go through the eye of the needle before she got her first break in the entertainment industry. With her friend by her side, supporting her through all the hardship, she had survived.
Ruth basically knew every detail of her life and all her secrets. Now, her friend was also working for her as her personal assistant.
She slumped back into the bed and held her head in her hands, resting her forehead on her palms. It did not help that she had a hangover. But the mere mention of her ex's name only intensified the throbbing in her head.
"I wish..." Ruth said, shoving the screen of her phone in front of her face. "You tell me if this is true or not." Her friend dared her to look at the headline on the latest trending news.
Emily blinked a few times to clear her blurry vision before focusing on the image plastered on the small glass screen. She blinked again, wondering if she was just seeing things. Unfortunately, the image and the large caption did not change.
GUESS WHO GOT HITCHED LAST NIGHT?
The tagline was really catchy, but that was not the point.
"Whoa! Where did that come from?" Shocked, surprised, outraged, and confused were just a few things to describe how she felt. Although the viral news did not name the subjects, the picture clearly depicted the identities of the two people who were locked in a tight embrace, kissing passionately in front of the cameras.
It was her, Emily Davis. In her arms, the man she wished to never see ever again, Nolan Maxwell. The headline and photo implied that they had gotten married last night.
"Well... Is it true or not?" Ruth repeated her question, looking more and more anxious, and seemingly impatiently waiting for an answer.
"Of course not." Emily denied its authenticity. "There was no way this could have happened." She pointed at the phone. "This is impossible... outrageous... no... I would never do this." She vehemently refused to believe the story, having no recollection of that incident.
Once again, she stared and studied every detail of the picture, determining whether it was a deep-fake created by the paparazzi to make a story. It would not be the first time the press had concocted and fabricated news about her to make big bucks.
"Aha! Look!" Emily blurted in excitement as she discovered an anomaly in her photo. "This..." She enhanced her picture. "You see... this is fake." She concluded. "I don't own a white dress like this." She clarified when her friend looked clueless. "It's not me."
Suddenly, relief washed over her, feeling like a large boulder was lifted off her shoulder. Although she had loved the guy, she still hated him for treating her like trash. She preferred not to have anything to do with him.
"For a moment there..." Emily shook her head, but her words died on her lips as something glittering caught her eye.
"I almost believe it." Ruth finished her sentence, mildly laughing at the hilarious situation. "Imagine you and Nolan, married. That's insane." Her friend kept talking, oblivious to her sudden silence. "You would probably be strangling each other's throats before you could even say I do."
Ruth began throttling her neck, laughing hilariously, probably imagining what she and Nolan would look like in front of the altar. "Now, that would be newsworthy."
"Ruth, shut up!" Emily tried to silence her friend as she processed her shocking discovery. "I think I made a fucking mistake." Emily found her voice as she wiggled her fingers in front of her friend, showing off the huge princess-cut pink diamond on her ring finger that she had failed to notice before.
As if lightning struck her, Emily rushed to the bathroom as memories of last night's events flashed before her eyes. "Damn it." On the floor, the white dress sprawled haphazardly by the shower.
"Oh my God! Did you actually marry Nolan? Your fucking Ex, the leading bachelor, the hottest Hollywood star today, and the most notorious Playboy on the planet?" Ruth asked the question running through her head.
"I'm not sure," Emily answered, utterly confused. Her memories were still a bit foggy, probably from the alcohol. "Did I?"
Although she remembered going out that night and drinking at the bar downstairs with her director and some of the crew of her latest movie, she still could not remember standing in front of an altar and saying "I do."
"If I did get married, where is my marriage certificate?" Emily looked around her hotel room, wondering if she had dropped it somewhere. "Why can't I remember anything?" She asked as she searched frantically for that piece of paper.
"Wait, Emily. I think you're forgetting something," Ruth said, making her stop acting like a crazy person and forcing her to look at her friend. "Where is your husband?"
"Damn! I don't know." Emily had no clue about the whereabouts of her missing husband. She didn't even see a trace of his presence in her room. "Maybe this was just one big misunderstanding."