Limelight (Hollywood Stardust)

by Kim Carmichael

  Once more he found himself holding her as they both came down. Exhaustion claiming him at last, he kissed her as he moved to her side and kept her in his arms.

  She nuzzled up to him. After a few minutes of silence, she finally spoke. “Was it good?”

  While he didn’t want to admit it, he wouldn’t lie to her or himself. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

  “I’m still throbbing from how hard I came.” She tilted her head back. “I want us to always have this passion. We waited so long for each other we deserve it.”

  He glanced down at her. What did she mean always? When he found her at the anniversary gala part of him never expected them to get to the point where they would sleep together. He knew he wanted her, but didn’t know what to do if he had her. Could he let go of the past and try to trust her?

  “Drew?” She brushed her fingers over his lips. “Don’t you think we deserve it?”

  Maybe he showed her what she was missing, but now he didn’t know what he had gotten himself into. “Yeah, we do.” He held her a little tighter wondering what would have happened if they got together two decades ago.

  HOLLYWOOD STARBURST

  FADE IN:

  INT. STEVEN’S GRANDPARENT’S HOME – GUEST BEDROOM – DAY.

  ROXY sits at the edge of the bed and stares at the phone. She takes a deep breath and finally lifts the receiver, and dials.

  CUT TO: INT. INDIANAPOLIS – ROXY’S PARENTS’ KITCHEN – DAY.

  Everything is cluttered, two children are running around. There is a bubbling pot on the stove.

  ROXY’S MOTHER - WOMAN IN EARLY FORTIES, DISHELVELED, HAIR MESSY, SMUDGE OF DIRT ON HER FACE ANSWERS THE PHONE.

  ROXY’S MOTHER

  (breathless)

  Hello?

  A child screams in the background

  CUT TO:

  ROXY winces as the screech echoes through the phone.

  ROXY

  Mom?

  CUT TO:

  ROXY’S MOTHER

  MOTHER

  (Yells)

  Quiet!

  MOTHER puts phone between her shoulder and cheek and waves the children pulling at her away.

  ROXY’S MOTHER

  Roxy.

  (voice lowers)

  How are you?

  CUT TO:

  ROXY

  ROXY

  I’m okay. The last time I called you told me not to call again until I was on my way home.

  CUT TO:

  MOTHER, One of the children tugs at her, and she lifts up a little girl. The girl starts pulling her hair.

  MOTHER

  (huffs)

  Are you on your way home? We need you here. The twins have been impossible, I can’t do anything, go anywhere. You have commitments here.

  CUT TO:

  ROXY looks down at her lap.

  ROXY

  If I come home can we figure out a way to afford college?

  CUT TO: MOTHER

  MOTHER

  We’ve been over this, your father and I can barely make ends meet now. We’ll do our best, but trust me, college isn’t everything, I went to college and all I do now is play maid. Funny, when I started my degree I just didn’t want to end up pregnant with a bunch of kids running around. No one told me it would happen later, and I’d be stuck when I’m supposed to be putting my eldest through college. You need to get back here.

  Another child runs through the background.

  CUT TO:

  ROXY puts her hand over her eyes.

  ROXY

  I’m out of money.

  CUT TO:

  MOTHER

  MOTHER

  Well, I’m not rolling in it or I would have some real help. You need to figure out how to get back. Your father said it would prove you can complete something. Plus, you’re eighteen, you’re an adult.

  CUT TO:

  ROXY

  ROXY

  Remember when you told me I would always be your baby and you would always take care of me?

  CUT TO:

  MOTHER

  MOTHER Shakes her head.

  ROXY’S MOTHER

  Yeah, I think my mother said that before she ran off with that rodeo guy.

  (lets out snide laugh)

  Memories will kill you. Move on and take care of yourself and your responsibilities.

  CUT TO:

  ROXY

  ROXY

  I have to go.

  ROXY hangs up phone and lies down on the bed.

  ROXY

  I have to take care of myself.

  Chapter Eleven

  IN HER UNPREDICTABILITY, Erin was nothing, if not predictable. One thing Drew could rely on no matter what was that his unexpected bedmate woke up at 5:00 AM no matter when she went to sleep or if she were sick or well. Yes, she might go back to sleep, but at 5:00 AM she opened her eyes. A useful fact he learned on set with Hollywood Stardust, and something he took advantage of to never be late. The woman was better than any alarm clock.

  After making love to her once or twice, depending on how one counted, he longed to fall into a post-coital sound sleep, but instead he laid awake watching the clock and counting down the hours until five o’clock. Once the time hit, she would wake up and he would want to make love to her again. Even now he fought the urge to wake her.

  In that stolen time while their bodies merged, the real Erin made an appearance, the woman he fell in love with too many years ago. No roles, no acting, no pretenses, just Erin, the person who could take anyone down one moment and then burst into tears if someone hurt her feelings. The world knew Erin Holland, the actress. Only a select few knew Erin Hollendanger, a beautiful woman who simply wanted someone to want her.

  Well, he wanted her. As he said to her earlier, he always wanted her and now it looked like he could have her, or as she would say, she was his to lose.

  Some said history repeated itself, and he wondered exactly how close to the original event the proverbial rewind would get. There was another time he lay in almost this exact position and thought he had her, only to be proven completely wrong.

  The movie had been due to wrap the next day, they had one last location shoot in Phoenix and he had waited in the hotel room for his bedmate. Terrified to sleep alone, she had taken to sneaking in with him early in the filming. Though they tried to get adjoining rooms, sometimes it wasn’t possible, so it figured on the one night that mattered he had to wait for her to sneak down the hall.

  Once more he’d checked his room, their room. Everything was planned to a tee. From the bottle of champagne he managed to get, though he was still underage, to the diamond pendant he made sure to purchase at one of the designer stores the other stars got their jewelry from. For a moment, he considered buying a ring, but it would cause undo publicity with the release of the movie. They would have to wait until all the craziness died down. The only thing that saved him while purchasing the pendant was that with some of the weight he lost and taking off all the crap they glued to his face, no one recognized him.

  Just in case, he also purchased some condoms, but hell, they hadn’t even kissed yet and the last thing he needed was to thrust his inexperienced body onto the woman he loved. Still, one never knew what could transpire. According to Ryder, Erin was an excellent teacher.

  He swallowed the bile in the back of his throat at the thought of her and Ryder. Even worse was the image of her and Logan. Though his best friend never confirmed or denied any such encounter to his face, he knew the truth. However, he and Erin weren’t together then, and he had no right to be upset.

  Since she deemed them a couple two weeks before, she had calmed down and been happier. Though she came to his bed nearly every night, slept cuddled up to him and gave him little pecks on the cheek, she told him time and again they needed to wait and couldn’t do anything to jeopardize the movie.

  Then she promised they would make their coming out announcement after the wrap. Because she would have to fly home to see her mothe
r, she let him know tonight would be special and allowed him to make plans for their future.

  Though she normally had her timing down to the second, she was now a few minutes late and he paced the length of the room, wondering what could be keeping her, especially after he reminded her three times about tonight. Every time he mentioned it, she brushed him away, but he knew she had to keep up appearances. Thankfully, there would only be one more day spent in hiding.

  At last, the long awaited light tapping on his door rang through the room.

  His chest tightened and his throat constricted, but he managed to make it across the room and open the door.

  “Let me in before anyone sees.” Like a disheveled cyclone, she entered the room.

  While he’d changed into street clothes after their day ended, apparently she decided to go a different route and rushed inside in her faded blue terry cloth robe with a bleach stain. She said it made her look like everyone else, but he just thought she liked it and didn’t want to admit it.

  “Are you all right?” He closed the door

  She scurried through the room, pressing her hands to her cheeks and glancing in the mirror. Finally, she turned to him. “Yeah, I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking.”

  In a vain attempt to get rid of the knot in his stomach, he reminded himself to act like a man, a man worthy of Erin Holland. He joined her and pulled her in for a hug. “Tell me what you were thinking about.”

  For a moment she didn’t move, in fact he thought she stiffened at his touch, but they had shared countless hugs together. He had to be reading into things. “Erin?”

  Finally, she put her arms around him and patted his back. “Oh, Drew, why does everything have to be so hard?”

  With her snuggled up to him most nights, he’d asked himself the same question. He kept hold of her and brought her to the bed.

  As they always did, they lay down and he got the opportunity to look into her face. She seemed paler than usual.

  He brushed her hair away from her face. “Tell me what’s difficult, and I’ll make it better.”

  “You’re incredible.” She pressed her palm to his cheek. “How did I get so lucky?”

  “I was just asking myself the same question.” At her words, his lungs inflated. He hooked his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up to his. “Why don’t we make this night as special as we talked about?”

  Though kissing wasn’t his forte, he supposed he would figure it out and he closed his eyes and leaned in. “I do love you, Erin.”

  Before their lips connected, she put her fingertips to his mouth. “Drew.” Her voice cracked.

  She never echoed his words and he opened his eyes. “Tonight is our night,” he said.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  Every girl everywhere spoke about those six words and how they hated them. By the way he froze, yet broke out into a sweat he understood the dread. “What is it?”

  “What do you see happening between us?” She didn’t look him in the eye, instead focused beyond him as if she wanted to run for the exit.

  “We’ve talked about this. You’re going to act, I’m going to go to college, and we’ll be together.” He sat up.

  “Do you want me or just the thought of me?” Her voice sounded far away and dare he say rehearsed.

  “Erin.” He got up off the bed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I know the real you, not the one you play for the cameras. If neither of us ever took another role, it would be fine with me.”

  She shook her head and put her hand to her chest. “I have to act.”

  “That’s fine, so what’s the problem?”

  “I want to be the woman you deserve, but I don’t think I can be.” A tear pooled in the corner of her eye.

  “What does that mean?” Needing some support, he backed up and sat down in a chair across from the bed.

  “I’m never going to be the woman you truly want. I tried for the last two weeks and it was all an act.” Nothing but her mouth moved.

  The last two weeks were the best of his life. “What do you mean you tried?”

  “It would be so easy to be with you.”

  “What does that mean?” Now it was his turn to blur his vision and stare at the ugly peach wallpaper in the room.

  “You would give me everything, and I would only hurt you in the end.” At last, she moved and sat at the edge of the bed.

  “You’re hurting me now.” He heard his voice, but didn’t even realize he spoke.

  “Drew, did you really think that tomorrow we were going to show up on set and be in love?”

  He focused on her. Her skin remained pale, but the slight narrowing of her eyes told him she was annoyed. Did she want him to make this part easy for her too? “Actually, I did.” Once more, he stood.

  “When people are on set, it’s like a wonderland, an island where no one can get in. Next week we are going to be back to our normal lives. We won’t work there.” She got up and went to him, standing just out of his reach.

  “After spending every night with me, after confiding in me, after making plans with me and telling me you wanted to be with me, you’re telling me it was nothing but some movie-making spell and poof tomorrow we’ll be cured?”

  She closed the distance between them. “You’ve changed so much these last few months.”

  “Obviously not enough.” He practically growled the words.

  “Drew, I do love you in my own way, but no one will ever believe the two of us could be together. In the real world we don’t fit.” Her tone turned maternal as if she were trying to console him.

  As if she kicked him right in the balls, he backed up. He wasn’t good enough, wasn’t her type. He wasn’t Logan with the bad boy swagger or Ryder whose smile made girls faint. He was only Andrew Fulton, the overweight, clumsy fool who’d been forced into the business by his parents when all he wanted was to study the stars rather than see them.

  No, she knew Erin Holland could be the woman he wanted, what she didn’t say was he could never be the guy she wanted.

  Gathering any pride he had left, he went to the door and opened it. He would never beg for her again. Never. “Go.”

  “We have tonight.” She ran to him and put her hands on his shoulders.

  “You took tonight away. You took it all.” He shook her off and jerked his head, telling her to get out.

  Without another word, she scurried out of the room.

  He slammed the door and vowed never to beg for her again.

  After the movie wrapped, he almost broke his own vow. They didn’t see each other for several months, but as the release of the film came closer, he knew he would at least have to be in the same room with her.

  He got his contract for the sequel and before signing it, he discovered that not only were Erin, Logan and Ryder playing out their own bizarre love triangle in front of the camera and behind it, but she added their agent into the mix.

  If this was what Hollywood had to offer, he didn’t need to play any more roles. He wanted to disappear and start over, and though she was the one begging to talk to him, he vanished. A year later, right before he left, she had seen him at Brian’s office, but he had taken the coward’s way out and though she ran after him, he had driven away.

  Erin let out a little coo and moved closer to him.

  Jolted back to the present, he opened his eyes to find her still in his bed.

  Twenty years later he knew she begged him. Of course, he also knew her career was in trouble. Hell, it didn’t take a Ph.D. to figure that one out, or to deduce she had nowhere else to go. On top of that, he also knew now that sex wasn’t the big deal it was back then.

  At what point would she look at him with her big doe eyes and tell him that she really didn’t expect them to be together?

  He glanced at the clock. Within the hour she would wake up.

  Refusing to beg her and resisting the need to make love to her, he snuck out of bed.

  * * * *

&nb
sp; ERIN CINCHED THE SASH around her short, black, trench style coat, glanced at her reflection in the window to make sure her hair remained perfectly slicked back and licked her lips before throwing open the door to the lab’s main entrance.

  Without looking directly at Jennifer, the fan girl at the front desk, Erin held her head up and took strong, powerful strides toward Mr. Abram’s office.

  Her entrance produced the desired effect, by the time she reached her goal, a ton of his little worker bees gathered around his hive. She would show them all who was queen. Without knocking, she entered his office, slamming the door behind her.

  Instantly, her mission hit a snag at the sight of him and his little protégée huddled together at his desk studying that damn computer monitor.

  “Erin.” Drew sat straight up.

  Bambi only stared at her.

  “I need to talk to you.” She put her bag down on the chair by his desk.

  “I need to finish up a few things.” When he spoke, his mouth barely moved, as if he didn’t want Bimbo to know they could engage in conversation.

  “That’s all right, I don’t mind waiting.” She motioned forward, telling them to continue.

  As the two mumbled about that blasted road trip and the FDA and some new regulation, she untied her sash and let the coat fall open, revealing a quite lovely little red dress, and by little she meant short and low cut. When she sat and crossed her legs, the dress rode up a bit, and she leaned back to count the tiles in the ceiling. By her experience, she shouldn’t get to ten.