Jack rose from his chair. The sun was setting, and it was finally starting to cool off, just a little.

"So, should we set up a schedule?" he asked. "Like the same time every day?"

Kelsey opened her eyes and looked over at him, nodding. "What would be good? I mean, what's reasonable?"

Jack shrugged. "I guess it's up to you, how much you can handle." He stood, hands on hips, waiting expectantly.

Something about his words and his posture, his attitude, irritated Kelsey. What did he mean, how much she could handle?

Kelsey sat up. "Well, my manager cleared my schedule for the summer so I could get this done. I'm not traveling, I have no promos or anything, I think we should do as much as we can. What's your schedule like?"

Jack shrugged again, ratcheting up Kelsey's irritation even more. "I'm on summer schedule right now, so I only have workouts from six to nine. Other than that, I'm wide open."

"In the morning?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Jack nodded, smiling a little. "Swimmers are up early," he replied. "So? What do you want to do? We could meet here every day at eleven? Would that work for you?"

Kelsey considered, and finally nodded. "Sure, eleven. Sounds fine."

"Okay then." Jack turned to go. "See you tomorrow then."

"Wait." Kelsey hesitated. "Do you want to grab some dinner?"

Jack turned back, surprise in his eyes. "You want to go out to eat?" At her nod, he continued. "With me?" he clarified.

Kelsey laughed. "Why not? You do eat, don't you?" She shook her still damp hair back.

"Probably not the kinds of places you go," he replied. "I was just going to grab a burger since I haven't had a chance to shop yet."

"A burger sounds fabulous," Kelsey said. "I told you, I'm starving. I'm going to eat this table in a minute."

"Okay," Jack said, nodding. "How long do you need to get ready?"

Again, Kelsey was annoyed at the implication in his words.

"I'll meet you at your car in half an hour," she replied, narrowing her eyes. "Do you mind driving? Your car is less noticeable than mine."

He shook his head, shaking his curls out of his eyes. "No problem," he said easily. "See you in a bit." And he turned and loped off down the path in the deepening dusk.

Kelsey waited until she was sure he was gone, then she jumped up out of her chair and ran into the house.

Half an hour wasn't nearly enough time, but it would have to do. She jumped in the shower and quickly washed and conditioned her hair, skipping about three steps in between. She kept it up in a towel while she quickly picked out some denim shorts and a blouse. She knew that she could get photographed every time she stepped out of the house, so she was always careful to look right. Dressed up or dressed down, looking like shit was never an option. She picked out accessories and a bag, and quickly towel-dried her hair so she could start on her face.

By ruthlessly putting her hair back up in the detested pony tail Kelsey was able to be out by Jack's car at the appointed time. It was nearly completely dark, a warm, late spring night in Southern California, and Jack signaled his approach with a jingling of keys and the sound of his shoes slapping the walkway.

Jack was wearing board shorts, tennis shoes without socks, and a plain T-shirt. His hair was wet, and he smelled like a combination of shampoo, deodorant, and, even after a shower, Kelsey assumed, chorine.

He gave her a casual, "Hey," and unlocked the door with a chirp of his keychain and got in without waiting for her.

Kelsey stood next to the door for a moment, then opened the door and got in. She silently pulled the seatbelt over and buckled up, then sat and stared straight ahead.

Jack grinned as he started the car, and started driving. The sounds of Steve Perry singing "Wheel In The Sky" filled the car, and Jack adjusted the volume a little, but made no attempt to fill the silence.

Eventually he turned onto Sunset and asked, "Do you care where we go?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, I'll choose, then," he said cheerfully. "Wheel In The Sky" ended, and The Doobie Brothers began singing "China Grove." Jack sang along, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. They cruised down Sunset Boulevard in the sultry evening without speaking, just one person singing to himself, the other sitting in stony silence. The street was a brightly lit carnival of lights and activity, a hive of people on this warm night.

Eventually he pulled into the parking lot of In-N-Out Burger, and killed the engine. He looked over at Kelsey, who had yet to say a word.

"Ready?" he asked.

She finally looked over at him. "You are very rude and uncouth," she declared.

"Rude and uncouth?" he repeated, enunciating clearly.

"Yes, and you only underscore my point when you mock me," she said.

"Look," he said, glancing around the interior of the car briefly before looking back at Kelsey. "We are not on a date. Not that it would matter if we were. Men opening car doors for women comes from a time when there were no automatic door locks, when women would have to stand there and wait for men to unlock their own doors and get in and slide over to unlock the door for them, you know?" He smiled at Kelsey, who was listening, somewhat unwillingly. "Now, though, it's just a click, and both doors are unlocked at the same time, so there's no reason to do it.

"In fact," he continued, running his finger around the steering wheel as he spoke, "if you think about it, it's downright sexist, isn't it? To assume a woman can't open her own car door?" He looked at Kelsey for agreement. "It's a passive aggressive way of making women feel different and weak, don't you think?"

Kelsey stared at him, too astonished to speak. "I've never of heard of anything like that in my life," she finally said. "You're crazy."

Jack shook his head. "I'm right, you know I am." He opened his door, got out, and leaned over so he could look at Kelsey as he talked to her. "And like I said, we're not on a date."

He closed his door with a bang, and Kelsey could see him waiting on the sidewalk in front of the car. She sighed and got out.

They went in, and Jack could immediately tell that everyone was looking at them, or looking at the young woman he was with, rather. Kelsey was obviously not noticing that the entire place was staring at her as she perused the menu above the counter, but Jack could tell. He could also feel everyone looking at him, too, as people tried to figure out who he was; he was with her, after all; he must be someone, too, right?

It felt weird.

When it was their turn, Jack stepped up to the counter and ordered his usual, which was two burgers, two fries, and a vanilla shake. He paid and stepped aside so Kelsey could order, and wondered if she was going to flip her shit because he didn't offer to pay.

It wasn't a date. And again, even if it were, it was the new millennium, people paid for their own shit, right? Besides, the girl was a bazillionaire, while he, Jack, was a starving student, who in fact worked for her.

Kelsey ordered a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake, paid, and they stepped aside to wait for their food.

That was when Jack noticed a man outside holding an enormous camera. He was taking their picture. At least, he was taking Kelsey's picture, and Jack was in the photograph because he was standing with her.

Kelsey had seen him and had turned to face Jack so the man could only photograph her back.

"Fuck," she said under her breath.

"Who is that dude?" Jack asked curiously.

"He's a photographer for a gossip blog," she said softly.

"Oh." Jack looked again at the man, who'd lit a cigarette. "Is that a problem? I mean, it kind of goes with the territory, doesn't it?" Surely someone as famous as Kelsey Carlisle was used to getting her picture taken?

Kelsey shrugged, looking around. "It doesn't matter so much if regular people take my picture, I guess. I mean, everything ends up online eventually, you know?" She flicked her gray eyes to Jack. "But if paparazzi take my picture, someone like that guy? It gets out a lot faster, and can go international, viral--"

"And that's bad because--" Jack left the sentence open ended.

Kelsey rolled her eyes and gave a little shrug. "I just broke up with someone. I mean, I broke up with him, but I'm not a hundred percent sure he got the message. He's in Italy now, and if sees pictures of me out with another guy, he might get mad, and it could cause a lot of trouble."

"But you're not with another guy," Jack pointed out. "You're just out getting a burger--"

Oh. He, Jack, was the other guy.

Their numbers were called and they collected their trays and found a table. Jack noticed that quite a few people were holding their phones up in their direction, and he wondered if they were being recorded, or photographed.

Kelsey kept her head down as she sat, and sat facing away from the room.

"Would it be better if we just left?" Jack asked, concerned.

"I don't think so," Kelsey replied. She leaned back a little so she could look out the window. "There are two more photographers out there. Fuck." She leaned back to the table and took a bite of her burger.

She noticed that Jack hadn't touched his food. "Eat, please," she said, motioning toward his tray. "There's nothing to be gained by wasting food," she added. "And I want to see if you can really eat all that," she said with a smile.

Jack nodded and began eating. "This is nothing," he said. "When I'm really training hard, I can eat twice this much."

Kelsey nodded. "I remember seeing something with Michael Phelps when I was watching the Olympics, and the amount of food he put away was amazing."

"Do you ever get used to this?" Jack asked. He waved around the restaurant. "People watching you eat and taking your picture and stuff?"

Kelsey shrugged and wiped her mouth. "I guess. Some days it's not so bad. Even tonight, if those stupid paps hadn't shown up, probably the people in here wouldn't be like this, you know? I mean, they would've noticed me, but they'd be over it by now. Having those vultures show up outside has just made things escalate."

Jack stood to throw away his trash and leave his tray. Sure enough, there was now a group of photographers standing outside the doors. They were all talking to each other, relaxed, but they had their cameras and phones in their hands so they'd be ready.

"Why don't they come in?" Jack asked when he returned to the table. "It's a public place, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but if someone got hurt or if something went wrong, they'd be liable if it were in here," Kelsey said. "Out there it's anyone's ballgame.

"Speaking of which, you ready to go?" She looked soberly at Jack. "I'm really sorry to put you through this on your first day of work, I really am."

Jack shook his head. "It's not your fault. I picked this place, anyway, not you. We could've driven through someplace, or ordered take out." He nudged her shoulder with his own as they rose. "Besides, I don't care who you are, everyone has the right to clog their arteries at In-N-Out whenever they want." He grinned at her, and Kelsey smiled back gratefully.

"Thanks," she said.

He just nudged her shoulder again, blinking at her.

"The best thing to do is just look down, go straight to the car, don't stop, and don't say anything, okay?" she advised. He nodded, and they pushed open the doors.

Immediately the air was filled with the voices of at least five different people, all shouting questions.

"Kelsey, who's the guy?"

"Who's the new man?"

"What did you eat, Kels?"

Really? Did someone just ask that? Jack shook his head as he pushed through the people to get to his car. He clicked the alarm, they got in, and drove away as fast as he could manage without running over anyone.

"Well, there goes your privacy," Kelsey said regretfully.

"What do you mean? I didn't tell anyone my name," Jack responded. "Do you think they're going to go through the trash to find my receipt or something?"

"I wouldn't put it past them," Kelsey said, rolling her eyes.

Jack turned to look at her as he turned off of Sunset and they began climbing into the hills.

"But no, they'll just search your license number through the DMV," she told him. "They'll figure out you're staying at my guest house, and it will be all over social media in a couple days. I'm sorry," she said again, sighing.

"Again, not your fault," he responded. "Please stop apologizing, okay?"

And he pondered the life this poor girl must have to live as he drove up into the Hollywood Hills, toward the place he would call home for the next four months.