Author’s note: Hello, @i-choose-liam ! I’m your Choices Secret Santa! While I was lurking researching on your blog about your preferences, I found out that you’re not only a Matt Rodriguez stan, but you also would like to see more stories about him. So here it is. This is my first Red Carpet Diaries fic and first aesthetic. I hope you like them. Thank you @choicesecretsanta for this lovely idea of spreading joy in the fandom during my favorite holiday. Merry Christmas to you all!
Summary: After a long international tour to promote The Last Duchess, Diksha finally comes back home, where her heart is.
Based on the prompt: 2c. “You keep that photo of us in your wallet?” from @choicesprompts
“Ladies and gentlemen, in ten minutes we will land in Los Angeles. It’s 5 AM and the local temperature is 67°F. Please fasten your seatbelts.”
As the pilot begins the landing maneuver, Diksha heaves a sigh. Home at last. The world tour to promote The Last Duchess couldn’t have been more successful, but after three long weeks traveling to eleven different countries, all she wanted was to go home. Much like her, Chris Winters and Thomas Hunt chose to take the same night flight to avoid the press and just get home quietly to rest for a few days. She grabs her luggage and bids farewell to them before meeting Chaz, the only person who knows she was arriving and promptly offered to pick her up at the airport. “Welcome back, Diksha. Good to see you,” he beams hugging her.
“Thanks, Chaz! It’s nice to see you too.” They walked through the parking lot, get in the car and he starts the engine, leaving the LAX towards the streets of the city she knows so well.
“The producers are so happy with the results. You’ve got so many calls from directors, TV networks, clothing and cosmetic brands that will keep you be busy for a whole year.”
“Great,” she smiles softly, but her mind and heart aren’t in it. He talks some more and she nods and makes small remarks, but her thoughts are somewhere else. She looks over her phone to check the hour and smiles. Her wallet is open inside her leather duffle bag, letting her favorite photo of Matt on display.
“Earth to Diksha,” Chaz call her out. “Dare I ask what were you thinking?”
“Oh, you know… I just missed home.”
“Suuuuure…” he grins. “Nothing to do with that hunky Latin guy on your lock screen pic, huh?” She blushes. Normally she would make a joke and brush it off, but since they professed their love to each other, she is on cloud nine. It’s written all over her face. Diksha has all sorts of pictures of Matt and she carries them everywhere as a reminder of how lucky she feels to be his girlfriend. “Okaaay…” Chaz interrupts her thoughts again. “So, your apartment is clean, your fridge is fully stocked, so if you plan on–.”
“Go straight to Matt’s.”
“It’s really early, Diksha. I mean, Matt is probably one of those guys who wake up early to work out and stuff, but–”
“It’s okay. Matt and I exchanged keys and security codes to our homes. I can go there whenever I want,” Diksha declares calmly.
“Oh, so the ‘I love you’ talk was a really big deal,” he grins.
“You bet it was,” she gushed.
“Alright, Matt Rodriguez’s mansion it is.”
As the car arrives at the entrance, Diksha rolls out the window and dials the security code, immediately opening the gate. The car enters the real estate and stops at the main entrance. One of the guards opens the door for her and greets her politely. “Good morning, Miss Martin.”
“You’re using an alias at your boyfriend’s place?” Chaz mutters.
“It was his suggestion. One can never be too careful,” she gives her shoulders.
“Whatever you say, Diksha. I’ll leave your luggage at your apartment. See you later?”
“Thanks, Chaz. See ya,” she gives him a brief hug and gets out of the car, walking inside the quiet mansion, heading upstairs towards Matt’s suit.
Diksha stops a few steps away from his bedroom, takes off her shoes, open the door and tiptoes inside. Under the white duvet on the king size bed, Matt is fast asleep, lying on his side, holding a bunch of pillows and snoring lightly. She goes to his closet and changes from her jeans and white button silk blouse to one of his shirts then makes her way back to the room. Crawling on the bed, she wraps one arm around Matt, resting her face on the crook of his neck. He stretches a little and groans, blinking a few times before turning his head. “Diksha?”
“Hi,” she whispers smiling.
“I didn’t know you were coming today,” he yawns between words.
“Surprise,” she coos then plants a small kiss on his cheek, making him chuckle. They share a sweet kiss and soon both of them fall into slumber.
…
Diksha wakes up, rubbing her hands on her eyes then realize she’s alone in bed. “Good morning, girlfriend,“ Matt says softly, his husky voice emphasizing the last word. He walks into the room and sits on the bed next to the end table, where a large tray filled with french toast, pancakes, orange juice, coffee, a bowl of fruits and Benedict eggs with bacon is placed.
“Good morning, boyfriend,” she sits up and reaches for his hand. He leans in and they kiss slowly. He pulls away, his handsome features growing a bit more serious. “Is everything okay?”
“No.”
“Oh… Okay, what’s going on?”
“Your phone buzzed a few times and when I picked up to answer, I saw something,” he produces her wallet from his pants pocket and opens it, showing the picture she has inside. “You keep that photo of us in your wallet?” he shows a selfie of them with a charcoal clay mask on their faces and her hair was pulled into a messy bun.
“Isn’t it a cute picture?”
“No, it’s not. You look cute. I have a black facial mask on my face, my hair is a mess and you go and get that selfie printed and put it in your wallet,” he scolds.
“Hey! It was our first sleepover. We were taking care of our skin together while we binge watched Tidelands and fell asleep before we could find out who happened to Cal.”
“Not true. Our first was in Russia, remember?”
“But that was before we made it official. I wanted a nice memory of us. No glamorous outfits, professional photographers, without Photoshop retouches or good lightning. Just you and me having a low key night together.”
He suddenly understands the meaning of the picture for her and smiles. “You know what? Let’s do it again. But instead of just one night, we’ll spend 24 hours together or until we get sick of each other and we’ll take as many pictures as you want, then we choose the one that will go into our wallets, okay?”
“Bold of you to assume I would ever get sick of you,” she smirks.
“Good. Because I’m not planning on letting you leave me again anytime soon,” he grins, cupping one of her cheeks and kisses her. “But let’s have breakfast first.”
“Yay,” she squeals making him laugh as he grabs the tray placing it on the bed and they begin to eat.
…
“I like this one,” Matt touches her phone screen to open the picture as they lay on the bed looking at the two hundred pictures they took that day.
“It’s really romantic, but I don’t want to see just our silhouettes in my wallet. I’d rather use it as a lock screen or wallpaper.”
“Put it on your wallpaper. This is our lock screen,” he sends her a picture of them walking on the street holding hands and shows his phone to her. “Now you just have to make it your lock screen too.”
She does as instructed and holds her phone next to his. “Aww… I love it. But we still have to pick one for my wallet.”
“How about this one?”
“My hair is all over the place.”
“I think you look stunning, but okay. This one.”
“No… I can barely see you. I prefer this.”
“There’s only me in this picture, Diksha.”
“Exactly,” she beams.
“No, no, no, no. We agreed on a selfie and a selfie it will be.” They look through their phones discussing the pictures for about an hour but haven’t found a single photograph they both agree.
“You know what? Get up,” she commands standing up, pulls him by the hand and they head towards the closet, stopping in front of the mirror. She jumps on him and wraps her legs around his waist startling him. He laughs infectiously as she snaps a picture. They take a few more pictures and go back to bed.
“This one.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s spontaneous, funny and will remind you of this amazing day we had.”
She studies the picture for a moment and smiles. “You’re right, it’s perfect.”
“Great, let’s send it to the printer,” he pairs his phone Bluetooth and sends to his office printer. “Now we can take that picture off your wallet.”
“We can leave both pictures here.”
“Diksha,” he chides.
“Pleaaaaseeee,” she pouts.
“I’m not falling for these puppy eyes and cute pouting face, give me the picture.”
“No,” she gets out of the bed grinning. “You’ll have to catch me first.”
“With pleasure,” he gets out of and starts to chase her as they run around the room laughing until he tackles her and they fall back on the bed. “Now that belongs to me,” he says taking the picture off the wallet and places inside the top drawer of his nightstand.
“If you wanted a copy, you could have just said so.”
“And miss the fun of chasing you? No, I like it that way,” he winks and she giggles. “I want a memory of that date too. I want to have all kinds of memories of us I can get.”
“Me too,” she smiles and shifts to the side to gaze at his brown eyes. He pulls her close and they share a loving kiss and snuggle on the bed before drifting off to sleep.
