Hollywood Heartthrob (15 page)

“Actors, huh?”

“Yeah, actors.”

Amy knew that Jenny would be desperate for all the juicy details and she didn’t like holding out on her friend, she just didn’t yet have the strength to discuss it all openly. The wounds from Josh’s betrayal still felt open and raw and being back at school was only opening them up further.

“Don’t let the students give you a hard time about it,” Jenny advised. “Just be firm with them.”

“It’s easier said than done though.”

“Just be tough. Imagine it’s Josh sitting there looking up at you. Would you go easy on him?”

“No,” Amy laughed. “I’d be extra tough!”

“Well, there you go then.”

The two women reached Amy’s classroom and it was time to part ways. Normally when Amy arrived at her class barely any students were there, but today everyone was already in their seats. Not because they were eager to learn but because they were eager to probe their teacher for gossip.

“Just be strong,” Jenny said warmly. “And remember to imagine it’s Josh Roberts up there looking up at you.”

“Will do,” Amy smiled, thinking to herself that the last thing she needed to do was pretend Josh was around.

She took a deep breath before entering her classroom.

****

As she walked in, all the excited chatter amongst friends and peers suddenly ceased, making the vast room eerily silent.

Trying to gather up all her confidence Amy strode bravely to her desk and began to take out her notes and text books for the upcoming lesson.

“How are you doing Miss P?” Emily Smith asked kindly from her usual front row seat.

Amy turned to address her student and smiled.

“I’m good. Thank you, Emily. Did you have a nice break?”

“Yeah, it was good, thanks,” Emily replied politely.

All of the students scrutinized Amy’s every move as she prepared for her lesson as though hoping she would somehow give them some signal about what happened between her and Josh through her body language.

“Okay, so if everyone can open their text books to page 219,” she instructed, her voice loud and clear.

Most students began to open their book to the relevant page but from the back of the room Donna Clark piped up-

“Does this mean that we aren’t going to discuss Josh Roberts?”

A few students giggled at the boldness of her question.

“And why would we do that?” Amy asked, folding her arms across her chest angrily.

“Because you’ve been dating him!” Donna laughed.

“This is English Literature,” Amy answered, her tone hostile. “We are not here to discuss who I am or am not dating. We would not sit here and discuss your dating history, Miss Clark, but then my lesson only lasts one hour so we would not have the time.”

The class laughed at this and Donna Clark went bright red, lowering herself in her seat in embarrassment.

“We are here to learn, nothing else,” Amy told her class, pacing around before them as she spoke.

“The only man I am willing to talk about today is Heathcliff, because he is the central character in our current text. Did everyone finish the book over the holidays?”

Some students nodded and some remained motionless implying that they’d failed to complete their assignment of completing
Wuthering Heights.

“I think we should talk some more about Josh Roberts!” a male voice cried out from the back of the room.

“Excuse me?” Amy turned and looked up towards them, feeling outraged. She tried to discern the speaker from the collection of guys wearing caps and hooded tops at the back of the classroom.

“I think I’ve made myself perfectly clear!” Amy told them all defiantly. “And you know about the college dress code, caps off!”

All of the guys along the back row dutifully removed their caps and matted down their ruffled hair. All except one.

“You, at the back, cap off or leave the classroom!” Amy ordered, pointing at the guy still wearing his hat, signalling him out.

“But I want to talk more about Josh Roberts,” he declared and Amy almost bubbled over on fury.

The guy stood up and began to walk down the rows of desks, towards Amy.

“I want to talk about what an idiot he is, and how he managed to screw up the best thing that has ever happened to him.”

As the guy neared Amy he removed his cap and all the students gasped in shock and began to talk excitedly amongst themselves.

“It’s Josh Roberts!” girls giggled, hastily getting their cell phones out to take a picture of the Hollywood celebrity amongst them.

“He’s really here!”

“Oh my God, oh my God, take a picture!”

Amy stood staring in shock as Josh approached her. He looked amazingly handsome even dressed casually in jeans and a hooded top emblazoned with the college’s logo, fitting in with the other students around him.

“What are you doing here?” Amy whispered as he came and stood in front of her.

“You wouldn’t take my calls,” Josh explained simply.

“For good reason!” Amy hissed, blushing profusely and hating the fact that she was making a scene in her own classroom when all she had wanted to do was delve straight into a hassle-free lesson.

“Just hear me out,” Josh pleaded.

“Hear him out!” someone heckled from the back of the room.

“Yeah! Hear him out!” others joined in and Amy sighed, accepting that her lesson would never be able to resume unless she listened to what Josh had to say.

“I know I’ve been an idiot,” he began.

“A huge idiot,” Amy interrupted.

“Okay, a huge idiot,” Josh smiled and Amy felt herself melt a little at the sight of his grin and hated herself for doing so.

“But I simply cannot exist without you.”

Amy thought her heart might stop beating as she stood listening to him.

“You and me, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever known. Amy Prince I love you, I love you more than anything. I should have told you sooner. I should have shouted it from the rooftops but I’ve never been in love before, I didn’t know what to do.”

Amy fought the urge to just fall into his arms. The image of him kissing Caroline still burned bright in her mind and she refused to let his declarations of love erase all the pain that she felt over that.

“I know that my coming here and saying I love you won’t be enough,” Josh said, suddenly seeming extremely nervous, his confident smile and demeanour faltering.

“See, I know you, I know how stubborn you are.”

“Just forgive him” a student cried out but Amy ignored them, focusing all her attention on Josh. She couldn’t understand why he suddenly looked so uneasy.

“You make me so nervous,” he admitted, sounding jittery. “I never know what you are thinking, or how you are going to react to things.”

“Josh, just calm down” Amy said softly.

“I know that coming here and apologizing isn’t enough. I need to show you, to prove to you, just how much I love you and how much you mean to me.”

Amy wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Aside from saying that he loved her, what did Josh plan on doing? Was she going to be told to look outside, and in the clouds would the words Josh Loves Amy appear?

Suddenly, Josh got down on one knee in front of her and Amy’s heart began to race wildly in her chest. Surely this wasn’t happening? This was the sort of thing that happened to princesses in fairy tales, not college teachers.

All the students also fell silent, sucking in their breath in excited anticipation.

“Amy Prince, I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I walked into you out on the parking lot. You are the most beautiful, accomplished woman I’ve ever known and I need to know if you’d make me the happiest man in the world,” Josh delved into the pocket of his hooded top and produced a small Tiffany box which he then popped open to reveal a stunning white gold, Princess cut diamond engagement ring.

“And do me the honor of agreeing to marry me and be my wife?” he concluded, glancing up at Amy over the box with nervous, anxious eyes.

“Oh my God,” Amy whispered, unable to take in the magnitude of what he was asking. It felt as though the whole world had stopped, waiting on her answer.

Amy suddenly saw her whole romantic life flash before her eyes, and in that moment she knew that Josh was the man for her. She knew that she too had loved him since their first fateful encounter.

“Of course I’ll be your wife! Yes! Yes!” she blurted out in delight and Josh rose up off his knee and they embraced as behind them the students broke out in thunderous applause.

“I love you,” Josh whispered in her ear as he held her tight, not wanting to let her go.

“I love you too,” Amy whispered back, tears of joy pricking at her eyes.

****

The on-looking students were quick to tweet the happy news and soon the whole world knew about the engagement of Josh Roberts and Amy Prince.

That night, as weary working women read their newspapers over their evening coffee they would read the story about Hollywood heartthrob Josh Roberts and college teacher Amy Prince and it would instil hope in them that sometimes, fairy tales really do happen to normal people. It happened to Amy Prince, what’s to say it couldn’t happen to them too?

Josh looked first at the tape and then at his agent.

“So there is it, the identity of the guy who assaulted you,” his agent said, his tone apologetic.

“I’m sorry it took us so long to uncover their identity,” the uniformed officer also in the room quickly added. “These things, they can take time and the college only recently contacted us about the footage on this tape. Apparently they don’t review security footage on a regular basis. Especially since no police report was ever filed. But it’s all there, the whole attack.”

“And Amy knows the guy?” Josh’s agent’s tone was questioning.

“Her ex.” Josh answered abruptly.

“So will you be pressing charges?” the officer queried.

Josh took a moment to think. He thought of his wounds, how brutal the beating had been. Then he had remembered how Amy had come to his rescue and how that one incident had ultimately bonded them together.

“I don’t think so,” Josh shook his head.

“What, seriously?” His agent sounded appalled. “This guy jumps you, unprovoked, and beats the living crap out of you?”

“Yeah but I kind of pity the guy. He’s got nothing, and me, I’ve got Amy, which means I have everything. Him losing her is punishment enough.”

“You’re a lot nicer than they make you out in the papers,” the officer noted.

“Yeah, I get told that a lot lately,” Josh smiled.

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