Seeing Stars

by Rachel Burns

  I stared her down. “Do you like me?” I demanded to know.

  “What?”

  “I thought my question was quite clear,” I responded very strictly.

  “Everyone likes you. You have perfect manners, you aren’t hard on the eyes either, and you’re a good sport when you lose. What’s not to like?” She was trying to be playful.

  “I need you to search your soul. This isn’t just about if I want you. You have to want me too. That isn’t a given because people know me from my job,” I scolded her sternly. “Do you think that I want to be with someone who doesn’t take the time to decide if I’m the right man for her?”

  She gulped and nodded at me. “I would never do that to you.”

  “So what do you think of a year membership?”

  “I think it would be a good idea. Plus, I’ll keep this a secret as long as you like.”

  I fought not to roll my eyes. “I expect you to tell your family and friends. I’ll be telling mine about you. I told my mother about you. She said she thinks you sound pretty. I’m supposed to send her a picture of you.” I confessed. My mother had been thrilled that I was seeing someone. She wanted me to finally settle down.

  My mother and I were very close. She had supported me when I said that I wanted to be an actor. She was the one who drove me to auditions and waited all day with me.

  My father thought it was nonsense, but my mother insisted that it would be a great way to earn a little money for college. I never went to college. I was famous by that time. I had spent my high school years working, taking lessons in all sorts of things and going to school. My father insisted that I go to regular school whenever possible. He’d been right about that. I needed as normal a life as possible when I wasn’t working. That was what was missing from my life now. That was why I went looking for Sandy.

  “Should I smile? Or did you want to take it later. It’s a little windy. It might be best to get it over with before my hair goes completely wild.” Sandy was nervous about the picture.

  I pulled out my cell and took a few pictures of her. The caddie came over and told us that we weren’t allowed to take pictures here.

  “I only took a picture of my girlfriend. In fact, I was hoping that you could take one of us together for her mom.” I handed him my cell before he could complain. I laid my arm around Sandy and smiled.

  He took our picture, gave me my cell back, and Sandy and I looked at our picture. It turned out perfectly. I was not only going to send it to my mom, I was also going to have a print made and framed for my apartment.

  I sent it to Sandy so she could send it to her mother too. Because we were catching up to the other family on the course and no one was close behind us, I insisted that Sandy send her mom the picture right away. I did the same.

  “I wonder if my mom will recognize you?” Sandy commented with a grin on her face.

  Her cell rang. “Mom, hi.” They talked for a moment, and then Sandy turned red. She looked at me. “Do you have time to come over for lunch tomorrow?” she asked me timidly.

  I held out my hand for the phone. Sandy reluctantly gave me her phone. “Hello, Mrs. Collins. Here’s Keith. Thank you for the invitation. What time should I be there tomorrow?”

  “Hello, Keith. It’s so nice to meet you. Sandy told me you two met over a computer.”

  “Yes, ma’am, we did. Amazing how a computer can match people up. We get along so well that I have to think the computer knew what it was doing,” I told her, trying to charm her.

  “I think it would be best if Dale and I got to know you. Our Sandy is a nice girl. I don’t want her to get hurt, and I don’t know if she can trust her own judgement.”

  “You’re right. She’s a very nice lady. And I’d be thrilled to meet you and Dale. My parents want to meet Sandy too. They’re so excited for us. So I’ll be there when you tell me to be.”

  “We eat lunch at twelve just like everyone else,” she told me.

  “I’m looking forward to it. Feel free to lay out a few albums from when Sandy was a kid.”

  “Mom, no.” Sandy grabbed the phone away from me and begged her mom not to do that. Then Sandy looked at me with murder in her eyes. “She already got them out.”

  “My mom will do the same, baby. Parents like that stuff. We won’t be any different when our kids bring someone home to meet us.”

  “Why on earth would they ever bring someone home to meet us? They’ll want to deny that we even exist.” She was still pouting.

  I glanced over at the other family. Sandy followed my eyes. “What do you think about having kids?” I asked her.

  “I’d like a few,” she answered softly.

  “A few?” I asked with a huge smile on my face. She’d said yes to kids. That was important to me.

  “You’re rich. You can afford them,” she teased me.

  “Very true.” We played on, and Sandy almost played a perfect game. I was nowhere close to perfect.

  We went to the bar and had our burgers. I liked that Sandy ate. I told her that I liked that. I wasn’t used to it. In my line of work, most women saw food as the enemy.

  “Yes, but I would fit into your world better if I lost a little weight,” she responded, looking disappointed with herself.

  I gave her a confused look. “You look amazing. Like a real woman should look. I have to confess that I liked everything about your questionnaire except your weight. I thought you were a little too thin. I like a woman whose shaped like a woman.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Most men do. I’m sure, they do.”

  Sandy glanced around at the other women. Then she leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear. “If that’s true, then why do all these women here have husbands?”

  “Maybe because I’m wrong about the other men, but I do know what I like. You’re perfect the way you are. I wouldn’t change a thing,” I told her honestly. I knew that I had the best-looking girl in the entire place.

  Then I saw a family. The man was an actor who was much more famous than I was. He was sitting at a table inside the restaurant. It must be his wife’s birthday because there were gifts on the table. He was looking at her as if she was the best thing on this planet. She was much bigger than Sandy, but they had a couple of kids. Sandy might get bigger after a couple of kids too, but who cared as long as she was healthy.

  I tilted my head in their direction to get Sandy to look at them. “I bet he agrees with me.”

  “Oh my gosh, is that who I think it is?”

  I nodded at her. “But look at his wife. He looks pretty happy with her.” At the moment, he was hanging a necklace around her neck. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips.

  “That is so beautiful,” Sandy sighed.

  “I’ll get you a necklace for your birthday too. You just have to tell me when it is.”

  “I don’t mean the necklace. I meant the moment. It was beautiful. You don’t need to buy me anything. You’ve already been so generous.”

  “I like doing it. Besides, it’s a tradition. Men bring women flowers.” I shrugged my shoulders. It felt right to bring her flowers. She needed to have something at her place to remind her of me when I wasn’t there.

  She had an uncomfortable look on her face. “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

  “It’s just that you’re so rich, and I’m not. People will talk about us. They’ll call me a gold digger. When we talked on the computer, I assumed that you didn’t have a girlfriend because you had a beer belly, and greasy hair, and maybe a drooling problem that you couldn’t get under control.”

  I had to laugh. “Sorry I disappointed you.”

  “It was just that I told myself that I would accept you no matter what you looked like. I wasn’t assuming that you were a hunk. Then you were at my door, and I didn’t expect you. I still have to wrap my mind around everything. It’s a lot to process. I thought I was going to be the pretty one,” she confessed.

  “You are,” I insisted. “When the door opened and I finally saw you, I
wanted to hoot out with joy. My eyes were all over you, taking in the sight of you. I think you’re hot. I’m looking forward to taking things to the next level with you. I’ll confess that I think about that a lot. Almost constantly,” I corrected myself. “But you’re important. We’ll take everything as slowly as you want. But I need you to know that I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “How can you be so certain?” she asked me.

  “Because I’m a guy. I don’t have a thousand and one things going through my mind. We talked, and I liked what you said. We met, and I liked what I saw. The more I get to know you, the more I like you. The only thing that I would like to change is your lack of self-esteem. In fact, I have to ask myself how I got so lucky that no one else has snatched you up.”

  “Exactly, there has to be a reason for it. There has to be something wrong with me.”

  “No, there isn’t. The reason is destiny. I believe in it now that I’ve met you.”

  She frowned and sighed. She didn’t believe in it yet. But I’d show her. I wanted her. That meant that I had to work for her.

  I knew that she was worth it.

  Chapter 19 ~ Sandy

  I was sitting in Keith’s car again. We were on the way to my parents’ farm. I wondered what Keith would think of them.

  We were by no means rich. In fact, the last few years had been especially hard on my parents. I knew that they were trying to sell the farm. They had already sold most of the livestock.

  They wanted to keep the house. My dad was saying that they were going to retire soon and just keep what they needed to survive. He just needed to work for three more years to get his retirement check. A lot could happen in three years. I figured that they were losing money. It broke my heart that things were so tough for them.

  Perhaps that was why they wanted me to move in so badly. They could use my paycheck. Why had I never thought about it that way?

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Keith commented.

  “Turn right onto the dirt road.” I pointed ahead of us.

  He nodded and turned. “You know my grandparents had a farm. It was my favorite place to be when I was a kid. They weren’t rich. My family has never been rich. I’m the first to have a comfortable living. You don’t have to be embarrassed. I figure, with this economy, that things are tight for them. I don’t expect them to have a butler.”

  “Do you have one?” I asked him.

  “No, but I do have a maid. She does the cleaning and laundry,” he confessed.

  “Where do you live? In a house or in an apartment?” I asked.

  “In an apartment in Hollywood hills. I have an apartment that overlooks the valley. It has a great view, but we’d need to find something else when we get married and start having kids. Under no circumstance do I want our kids growing up to be snobs. I was thinking a ranch would be nice. We could build your parents a house on the property so they could live with us, but still have the feeling that they’re on their own. It will be nice for the kids to have them close by. In fact, I’d like it if my parents were there too in their own house when they’re ready for it. I’d like to keep the people I love close to me.”

  My jaw dropped. We hadn’t known each other, face-to-face, for even a week, and he already wanted my parents to move in with us. I knew that he wasn’t joking. He meant what he said, and he didn’t say anything without thinking about it first.

  But I feared that he was lonely in his famous world. So lonely that he went looking for anyone. Had he made a pact with himself like I had? To be my boyfriend no matter what I was like or what I looked like?

  I had continued to work out. In fact, I’d gone home last night and done a two-hour workout. This morning I had done a few things too. I was finally losing weight. I just had to keep it up, but he’d been so adamant that he liked me the way I was. I caught him looking at my ass often. My breasts caught his eyes too.

  His body language told me that he liked me.

  I was starting to believe him, but I knew that I wouldn’t fit in with his friends the way I looked now. They’d talk behind his back, saying that I wasn’t up to snuff. I didn’t want him to get hurt.

  He pulled up to the house and warned me to stay sitting. “There is no way that I’m going to make a bad impression on your parents,” he mumbled.

  He opened the door for me just as my mom came out on the porch. “I’m so glad you two could make it. I made Sandy’s favorite. I hope you like roast.”

  “I love it. It smells great, Mrs. Collins.” He took the flowers he’d had me holding on the way here. This time my mom got some. “These are for you. I know you had a lot of work cooking for us today. These are to show our appreciation.” I loved how he talked for both of us.

  “You are a fine-looking man. Do I know you from somewhere?” my mother asked him after she thanked him for the flowers and told him that he shouldn’t have. She was a little star-struck. That fit, I thought to myself.

  “I’m an actor, ma’am.” That was all he said and nothing more.

  My mom continued to stare at him. “You’re that Keith Davenport from the movies,” she stated. Then she looked at me.

  “Yes, Mom. This is the man the computer matched me up with.” I was grinning like a fool because I thought this was hilarious.

  My mom wanted to say something, probably a billion things, but nothing came out for a long time. “A computer?”

  “That’s right, ma’am. I filled in that I wanted the prettiest and sweetest woman, and they matched me up with Sandy.”

  She turned to me. “What did you write? That you wanted the sexiest man alive?” my mom asked me, giving me a scolding.

  “Basically, yes,” I teased her. “That’s how it works nowadays.”

  “Oh, knock it off. Come in and help me. Dale will be right in. He wanted to check on something or the other.”

  We went in, and I showed Keith the house, including my bedroom. My mom called up that I better leave the door open. We both laughed at that.

  When we came down, my mom told him that she’d laid the albums he wanted to look at out on the coffee table.

  Keith was about to sit down and look through them when my dad came in. They said hello to each other, and my father apologized because he needed us to wait with the food for a while because the fence was down by the cows.

  “You need a hand with that?” Keith asked him. “I practically grew up on my grandparents’ farm.”

  “Can you drive a tractor?” my dad asked him.

  “It’s been awhile, but I can.”

  My dad looked thrilled. He caught my eye and gave me a look of approval before they left.

  “That old fool didn’t even recognize him. He hasn’t got a clue that a real Hollywood star is helping him out.” My mom stated laughing. “Now tell me everything.”

  “I was more shocked than you were when I saw him, standing at my door. I made a fool of myself, but you know we’d been talking on the computer for weeks and then also on the phone. We had already gotten to know each other. He tells me constantly that he thinks he hit the jackpot with me. He likes me the way I am.” I motioned to my body.

  “Lots of men like their women to have something to grab on to. That’s normal. You have a glow about you. You’re in love.”

  “Am I? What if I’m just star-struck?”

  “That’s a nice man. I think you both hit the jackpot.”

  I was moved to tears. I grabbed a tissue and dabbed my eyes. “Keith wants us to get married and buy a ranch and have a ton of kids. He wants you and Daddy to have a house on our land. He wants his parents to have a house there too. He has it all planned out.”

  “Is it going too fast for you?” My mother laid her arm around my shoulders.

  I nodded at her. “I know that he’s the type a man a woman should snatch up if she has the chance, but I get the feeling that he’s lonely. I fear that he would have taken whoever the computer set him up with.”

  “I doubt that. Men do take a good look at th
e woman they want to marry. The difference is that they come to a conclusion faster than we do. It was the same way with your father and I. I knew him from school, but I had never talked to him. He was three whole grades ahead of me. But then there was a dance. He asked me to dance, and then we danced all night. To him, that meant that I was his girl. He asked me when he could see me again. Within three months, we were planning the wedding. He was the driving force. I would have liked to take more time, but he didn’t want to waste any time.”

  “Was it because of sex?” I asked in a whisper.

  “Mostly,” my mother admitted with a grin on her face. “But I never regretted it.”

  I nodded along with her. “I still haven’t, you know. I’ve been waiting with sex,” I confessed.

  She looked surprised. “Does he know?”

  “I told him before we met. He said that makes me a real lady, and that he’ll treat me like one.”

  “I like him. You did real well for yourself.” She gave me a tight hug.

  “I think so too.”

  Chapter 20 ~ Sandy

  Things went well when Keith met my parents, and even better when I met his. They were so excited to meet me. His mom welcomed me with open arms, and his dad warned him about the responsibilities of being a husband, telling him he had to take care of me. Keith swore that he would take care of me. They treated me like a beloved daughter.

  Now that we had been together for a few weeks, he was taking me to his apartment. I hadn’t seen it yet. We were going to order a pizza and watch a movie.

  People back home were talking about me and Keith. Mostly whispering behind my back. News had slowly spread that we had gone out together. My mom was confronted at church, and she confirmed that I was seeing him. People asked me what was going on, and I remained vague.

  One of my friends at work asked me if I was lying to get attention. I told her no, and if she wanted to see him for herself, she could include me the next time they did something as couples.

  That had offended her, so it was a wait and see thing. I warned Keith that someone was bound to leak this to the press soon. He didn’t seem to mind. I told no one that we met over a computer dating site.