Fame

by Susan X Meagher

  The homes, mostly bungalows, had been built in the 20s, and had been inhabited largely by carnival workers. That had changed dramatically, as most things in Los Angeles did on a regular basis. Artistic types had bought up the old bungalows and built to the lot lines, claiming to crave the privacy and unique character of the neighborhood, while trying to jam huge, modern houses onto the parcels.

  Some residents had held onto the original homes, keeping them exactly as they’d been when built, but the majority had been mansionized. That created a typical LA mashup, where tough young guys walked weaponized dogs down the alleys, rubbing elbows with pampered celebrities, their designer pooches, and their Priuses.

  Now, even though she’d only spent one night at the new place, Charlie was leaving town, heading to Louisiana for a couple of weeks to do some second unit work for her next film. It was an action movie with an underlying romance, this time starring Aaron Evert, a much bigger, significantly older, star.

  As a feminist, it irked Piper that her twenty-three-year-old sister had been paired romantically with a nearly fifty-year-old man. But men Charlie’s age were cast exclusively in superhero movies and bromances, and being in another one of those right now wouldn’t give her career a boost.

  While being in an Aaron Evert movie would give her more notoriety and would have more adults see her on screen, Charlie wasn’t the female lead. That plum role went to thirty-five-year-old Courtney Bing, letting the producers feel proud of themselves for allowing such an ancient crone to lure Aaron away from Charlie’s young, hot, dull-witted character.

  Yuck!

  Piper cruised down the alleyway, keeping her eye on a guy who was changing the oil in his car. He lay under the vehicle with his legs sticking into the narrow roadway, obviously assuming everyone would see him and go around.

  After passing, she was able to focus, scanning the garages to be able to pick out… Damn it! A limo was idling in front of Charlie’s garage, blocking entry. That was annoying enough, but worse was Charlie’s penchant for running off before she gave Piper her full attention. Why bother having her come all the way over here if she was leaving?

  After convincing the driver to move up, Piper pulled into the space Charlie had promised to leave open, seeing that her sister’s tiny hybrid vehicle was neatly covered by a dull green fabric car cover. One thing you had to say for her—she treated her things with care.

  The gate next to the garage had a security lock on it and Piper keyed in Charlie’s birthday, a detail she’d have to get her to change. Every creep on the internet knew her birthday, and using it as a code just highlighted how little thought her sometime naïve sister gave to her own security.

  Jogging past the square pool to the door, she knocked impatiently, jerking in surprise when a sharp bark hit her ears. The door opened, and Charlie stood there, her face hidden behind a fluffy, white puppy, pink tongue sticking out as the dog wiggled in her hands. “Say hello to Delta,” Charlie said, pushing the puppy into Piper’s face. “I’m getting a new dog every time I have a big hit.”

  Piper grasped the squirming thing and let it lick her face. “How are you going to travel with two dozen dogs?” she asked, playing along.

  Charlie grasped her by the shoulders and placed kisses on both of her cheeks. “Perfect reply. Just perfect.” She turned and headed for the mostly empty living room, where she grabbed the handles of two large suitcases. “Gotta run, Pip. You don’t mind watching Delta for a little bit, do you?”

  “What?” Piper tucked the dog under her arm, freeing her dominant hand in case she got the opportunity to give her sister a hearty punch to the face. “Are you shitting me?”

  “Of course not.” She pulled her suitcases close, then bent over and kissed the dog’s fluffy, white head, then let him rub his tiny black nose against her own. “I can’t have him on set, and I didn’t have time to make arrangements.”

  “Then why’d you buy him now?”

  She stood up and looked at Piper, clearly puzzled. “You love dogs. You’ve always wanted one.”

  “I like giraffes too, but I wouldn’t own one. I’m aware of my limitations and my situation,” she said, poking her sister in the chest. “My giraffe wouldn’t be happy in my yard, so I wouldn’t think of buying one. Same for this little thing. He will not dig your being gone all of the time. So give me the name of the breeder where you got him, and I’ll take him back for you.”

  Charlie grabbed the puppy, cradling it protectively. “Are you crazy? You don’t return dogs because they take a little of your time.” Delta started to paw at the silver necklace that dangled right before his avid gaze. “Besides,” she admitted, her voice dropping to such a faint volume Piper had to lean in to hear, “I got him at the mall. No refunds.”

  “The mall! Oh, for Christ’s sake, you bought him from a puppy mill!”

  “No, I didn’t. He’s from a breeder in Missouri. They had a sign on his cage. It’s all on the up and up.”

  Piper slapped herself in the head. “Just because they tell you where the damned puppy mill is doesn’t mean it’s not a puppy mill!”

  Holding the puppy up to her face and speaking right into his adorable mug, Charlie soothed, “I don’t care if you came from a factory in China. You’re my guy, and I’m keeping you.”

  “Be my guest.” Piper dashed to the door and held it open. “I’m sure the crew will be happy to dog-sit for you.”

  Charlie’s lower lip stuck out in a pout—her go-to expression for guilt-tripping her older sister. “Come on, Pip. How hard could it be to watch him?” She grasped Piper by the sleeve and tugged her over to the back wall of the house, made up of three garage-style doors, panels of clear glass revealing the yard, which was nearly filled by the pool. She pressed a button and they all rose, letting Piper take a better look at the tranquil water, noting the dark and light blue tile bottom that made the pool shimmer.

  Charlie pointed at a detail Piper hadn’t noticed, living space above the garage. “While I’m gone,” she said, with her voice dropping into its seductive range, “You and my designer are going to make some decisions on how to set up your apartment.”

  “I have a house. In Woodland Hills. Ten minutes from the shop, which is exactly where I want it.”

  “Come on,” Charlie urged, standing closer and speaking into Piper’s ear like a hypnotist. “You know you’d like a sweet little apartment on the Westside, done up exactly how you’d like it.”

  “I don’t need it,” Piper insisted. “Fix that space up any way you want. It’d be a great space for yoga.”

  “Nope.” She put her arm around Piper’s shoulders. “I want you to stay over all the time. The apartment’s yours. I don’t care what you do with it, just make it your own.” Piper started to speak, but Charlie put a finger to her lips. “No arguments. I allocated $100,000 in the budget. I want everything top of the line for you, Pip. You’ve got five hundred square feet to work with.” She nuzzled the puppy into Piper’s face. “You and Delta will have fun.”

  Piper grasped the dog and put him on the floor, unable to maintain her glower when he scampered across the tile, his tiny feet sliding around like he was on ice. “Is your bedroom furnished?”

  “Sparsely, but I’ve got a bed. The bathroom’s all done, though.”

  She knew she was rolling down the Charlie hill, unable to stop, but this time, despite her protests, she honestly didn’t mind. The kid had wanted a dog since she was a year old. Holding out this long showed a certain maturity, even if she hadn’t handled the purchase well. “Fine. I’ll stay until Tuesday morning, and I’ll meet with your decorator. But I’m going to have to put Delta somewhere when I’m at work.”

  Charlie pulled her close and kissed her cheeks again. “You rock.”

  “I’m dumb as a rock, and that’s not the same thing.”

  ***

  That afternoon, Piper sat in the shade of the house, trying to decide what the tough ground cover that gave off a pleasant, herbal scent was. She’d
been running her fingers through it for the past hour, and now thought it might be thyme. Whatever it was, it would need very little maintenance.

  The pool, while small, was tranquilizing, its iridescent blue water rippling with the breeze. LA real estate had been a crazy game since the 1920s, and it had only gotten crazier in the last few years. When you could sell a house plunked down on a one-eighth acre lot for $3.5 million, it was time to admit sanity had nothing to do with it.

  The house on the left side had also been super-sized, presenting a white stucco fortress-like wall. But the place on the right was original, taking up a small amount of land, the rest of the lot jammed with every kind of plant imaginable. A brand new fence stood between that lot and Charlie’s, obviously added by Charlie’s builder, but the trees and shrubs towered above it, looming over the property like verdant vultures.

  The meeting with the designer had been fun—no sense in lying about that. She’d poke her own eye out before spending $100,000 of her sister’s money on an apartment she didn’t need, but she allowed herself to be talked into throwing $30,000 at it, just to keep it at the same level of quality as the rest of the house, which made some degree of sense. But she’d drawn a line in the sand over the $20,000 bed. She didn’t care that it was made of all natural materials and featured plenty of horsehair. Horsehair? That was supposed to be a good thing?

  Once she and the decorator had finished arguing, she’d chosen a big sectional, a sleek recliner that didn’t look like one, and a bed without a single hair from any horse. She’d dropped out then and allowed the decorator to choose linens for the bed and bath and utensils for the tiny kitchen. Given that she rarely used her oven at home, the cooktop, microwave, and refrigerator that the tiny space could handle would suit her just fine. If she ever needed an oven, she could borrow one of the three her sister’s caterer wasn’t using.

  Delta walked over after getting up from his spot in the sun. He couldn’t jump all the way onto her sensually curved wicker chaise, so she picked him up and let him get comfortable on her lap. He was honestly adorable, and didn’t yet show any clear signs of psychosis. But he needed to be parked somewhere on Tuesday, and that somewhere wasn’t her home. She had carpeting, and puppy pee didn’t mix well with polyester.

  ***

  On Monday afternoon, after diligent research, Piper loaded Delta into the stupidly expensive carrier Charlie had bought for him and drove over to Frisky’s Den, the best reviewed day care/boarding place on the Westside.

  There were two spots dedicated to the shop in the strip-mall lot, emblazoned with FRISKY’S DEN PICK-UP/DROP-OFF ONLY across their parking blocks. Piper smirked, wondering how often that rule was violated. Probably twenty times an hour.

  By the time she’d parked and had gone around to the rear passenger seat to fetch Delta, he was frantically whining. He really hated being alone. She’d given in to his fears, even letting him accompany her to the bathroom, but he was going to have to learn a little self-sufficiency.

  Entering the big, noisy space, she gave it the smell test. Nothing but dog and some kind of cleaning product. That was good. A place that smelled of pee was a place that didn’t have a separate place for the dogs to go, or where the staff didn’t walk them often enough—at least that’s what someone on a review site said.

  A big, unstructured space to the left of the front door held about twenty dogs, ranging from very big to very small. A waist high wall separated the dogs from the hallway, and a Great Dane loped over to put his huge paws on top of it, his head now even with Piper’s. “Hi there,” she said, stepping back. He cocked his head, then dropped to all four feet, obviously not fascinated by her or her tiny pup.

  She moved down the hallway, finding a counter staffed by a round-faced, heavily tattooed young woman, with hair all of the colors of the rainbow. What little skin was left unadorned was a pasty white, making her look like she hailed from a sunless twilight world. It always puzzled Piper why so many people in LA were so remarkably pale. She understood the threat of skin cancer, of course, but come on! They lived in one of the sunniest places in the country. Wouldn’t they get a little color just walking to their cars?

  “Hi,” she said, when the woman got up from a desk and walked over. “I wanted to talk to someone about boarding my puppy for a while.”

  “You can talk to me,” she said, revealing a heavy metal ball in her tongue that clicked against her bottom teeth when she spoke. She extended a hand, also tattooed, with her nails each a different color, all sparkly. “I’m Pearl.”

  “Piper,” she said, shaking her hand.

  “Who’ve you got in there?” Pearl asked, pointing at the carry case.

  “This is Delta.” He’d been whining like he was being strangled, and she unzipped the side and let him jump out to stand on the counter.

  “Oh, he’s a cutie. Maltese?”

  “Um…” Piper stood there for a second, thinking. “I’m not sure. He’s my sister’s dog. She just got him a couple of days ago.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I was just curious.” She held her hand out and Delta ran to it, sniffing it enthusiastically. Pearl ran a finger across his head, then he shook and trotted away, inspecting the few things scattered across the counter. “Toy breeds are usually hard to housebreak,” Pearl said, watching Delta carefully. “Does your sister know that?”

  “She doesn’t know much,” Piper admitted. “He was an impulse buy.”

  The woman’s eyebrows rose. “She didn’t get him from a pet shop, did she?”

  Delta was nosing around the woman’s shirt, probably sniffing all of the dogs who’d come in that day. “Worse. She got him at the mall.”

  Pearl let out a long, aggrieved sigh. Probably thinking of all of the “problem” dogs they were asked to fix. “A lot of breeders who sell to stores let the puppies eat, sleep and pee in the same whelping box.” Tickling under Delta’s chin, she asked, “Do you know when and where to go, buddy?”

  “I took him outside every waking hour since I’ve been with him, not giving him a chance to have an accident.”

  “Mmm…” She looked at Piper, a slight frown making her brows move closer together. “That’s not the best way…”

  Nodding, Piper said, “I’m gonna be honest. I don’t know a thing about dogs. My sister doesn’t know a thing about dogs. This guy’s going to be treated like a little prince, but he’s not going to have any consistency, and he’s going to have to travel a lot. Different people will be watching him all the time.” She looked down at Delta, merrily nosing along the counter again, happy as a clam. “I have very little control over his future, but when he’s with me I’m going to try to give him some structure.”

  “Got it,” the woman said. “At least you have realistic expectations. How long would you like us to care for him?”

  “I’m not sure. Do you have like a weekly rate? Monthly?”

  “You need to leave him here that long?” She blinked slowly. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea for a puppy this young. I bet he’s only about sixteen weeks old.”

  A woman exited a nearby office and walked over to the counter. No tattoos on this one, and she looked like she’d been outside for a minute or two, bearing not the slightest resemblance to a vampire. She leaned over and let the puppy sniff her, allowing Piper to take a closer look as well. Five foot seven or eight, fit, with a blonde undercut combed forward, giving her a current, casual look. Great cut, Piper thought, wondering what you’d have to pay for such an expert precision cut on the Westside. The doggie day care business must be good. The woman looked up, meeting Piper’s gaze. Warm brown eyes. Ahhh. She’d always been a sucker for blondes with brown eyes, and this woman was a natural, given her fair eyebrows.

  “Hi,” the woman said, extending her hand for a shake. “Haley Dillon. And this is?”

  “Delta,” Piper said. “My sister’s new puppy. She’s traveling on business, and won’t be home for a few weeks.” She made a face, knowing she was a long way from bein
g a good dog owner. “I agreed to watch him, but my job’s in the Valley. Would it be wrong to just leave him here?”

  Haley stroked Delta’s soft head, giving him a thorough going over. Her eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s a long time, especially for a puppy.” She met Piper’s gaze. “You can’t leave him for day care only, huh?”

  She thought of her schedule, trying to figure something out. “I work and live in Woodland Hills, but if I stayed at my sister’s I guess I could…” She blew out a breath, frustrated by the logistics.

  “When do you get off work?”

  “It varies. Tomorrow I don’t start ‘til eleven, but I’ll be swamped until eight. The thought of driving back over here to sleep isn’t very appealing.”

  “Are you around today? All day?”

  “I can be. Why?”

  “I thought we could let him mingle with the big guys and see how he likes it. If he doesn’t….” She raised an eyebrow, the implication clear.

  “Right. If he doesn’t, I’m really screwed.”

  “Do you have his vaccination records? Or the name of his vet?”

  Nodding, Piper pulled out her phone and recited the vet’s name and number.

  Haley wrote it down, then headed back toward her office, speaking as she went. “I’ll call and make sure the vet thinks he’s old enough to board. You never know. Delta might love being around other dogs for an extended period. If so, we can figure something out.”

  Relief flooded through Piper, releasing the tension that had been brewing all day. “I can see why you got the best reviews. Everyone says you guys really care about the dogs.”

  “We do,” Haley said, stopping to turn and smile.

  Damn! Her whole face lit up when she did that. She was way cute when she was being serious, but a total knockout when she showed those pearly whites.