Fame

by Susan X Meagher

  As soon as they got past the I-235 bypass, fewer people were headed in their direction. Once they were a few miles past the city limit, Haley’s mom could let out a relieved breath and start talking again, her favorite activity.

  “I haven’t had time to give you the fourth degree about this woman you’re seeing,” she said, making Haley laugh. Her mom often got common expressions just a little bit wrong.

  “What would you like to know?”

  “Really?” her mom said, giving her a surprised glance. “I get a free pass?”

  “Sure.” Letting out an evil laugh, she added, “Doesn’t mean I’ll tell you, but you can ask.”

  “Oh, Haley,” she muttered, reaching over to pinch her knee. “You’re just like your father.”

  “You know I think that’s a compliment. So? What’s on your list?”

  “You’ve seen her again, right?”

  “Definitely. Actually, I have some pictures. Her birthday was this past weekend and I made sure to get a couple of good ones just for you.”

  “Let me see!”

  “You’re driving on an interstate highway, Mom. Is that really what you want your obituary to say? She died looking at a phone?”

  “I could pull over…”

  “I promise I won’t delete the pictures in the next hour. We can wait until we get to Grandma’s. She’ll want to see them too.”

  “But I want to see them first.”

  “Fine. Once we’re in town, you can stop. But not before,” she warned, knowing her mother would have no problem with pulling onto the shoulder of a major highway to check out a potential girlfriend.

  “How many times have you seen her?”

  “A lot,” she admitted, “even though we’ve only known each other for three weeks. We’re really clicking.” She’d been debating whether to reveal the Charlie connection, then decided it was silly to hide. “Piper’s kinda fantastic, but there’s one little thing that worries me.”

  “She doesn’t drink too much, does she?”

  “No,” Haley said, wondering why that was a concern. “She’s pretty conservative with her drinking. I had more than she did at her birthday party.”

  “Ooo, she had a party,” she said, clearly elated. “That means she has friends.”

  “She’s not a social leper,” Haley said, laughing. “But she’s choosy about her friends. Mostly because she has a younger sister who’s probably going to be a very big movie star.”

  Even from the side, she could see worry lines form on her mom’s face. “A movie star?”

  “Looks like it, although her dreams will turn to dust if her movie doesn’t make a lot of dough. But since Tim Banks is the director—”

  “Oh, my god! I love him!”

  “Everyone loves Tim Banks, Mom. He’s like a good hunting dog. Strong, independent, reliable.”

  “I’m not so sure about that wife of his, though. I still think she got between him and his first wife and somehow managed to break them up. You know how easy it is to turn a man’s head if you try. They can be so blind.”

  Haley smiled at that. Despite Meredith’s efforts, a lot of women would always suspect she’d used her youth and sex appeal to lure a blameless Tim away from the dutiful wife who’d been with him during the lean times.

  “Could be,” she said. “But who knows what goes on in a marriage.”

  Her mom turned quickly to give her a concerned look. “You swore you’d never get involved with anyone even remotely connected to the movies again. What changed?”

  She shrugged. “Well, you can hardly avoid people who aren’t connected in some way. Even Lolita boasts about having the car wash to the stars.”

  “This isn’t the same, and you know it.”

  “No, it’s not,” she agreed, then cleared her throat. “I know you’ve heard me whine about Alicia a thousand times, but I haven’t ever talked about my role in that mess.”

  “Your role?” A fair eyebrow went up. “What could you have done to make her not be a horrible person?”

  “I let myself be blinded, Mom. I knew in my heart that honesty, loyalty, and stability were the attributes that meant the most to me, but I jumped right in with a flighty, mercurial, daydreamer.”

  “Liar,” her mom said, the one word she’d consistently used for Alicia. “She was a liar.”

  “She was, but she wasn’t,” Haley said, having given the whole situation more thought than she’d ever admit. “I learned that we don’t all assign the same meaning to the same words. When I told Alicia I loved her, I meant I was committed to her and her alone. But when she said the same thing, she meant she loved me like she loved a car. When it was new, and shiny, and captured her attention, she loved it. But when she had the chance to get a more expensive, sexier car…”

  “She was a liar,” her mother insisted, spitting out the word. “When you love someone, you don’t go behind their back to have sex with someone else. That’s not just a definition, Haley. That’s a universal truth.”

  “I don’t think it is,” she said thoughtfully. “Some people have the attention span of a gnat, and Alicia was one of them. If she wasn’t thrilled, she was bored. And you know you can’t be with someone for long and not have the thrilling part fade away.”

  “The thrills only last for a year or two—if you’re lucky.”

  “I know, Mom, but Alicia doesn’t get that. I’d be surprised if she’s not in twenty more relationships before she loses her charm or runs out of better options.” She shivered at the thought. “I can’t even guess what she’ll use to keep herself entertained when that happens.”

  “She’ll get what a self-absorbed liar deserves, Haley.” She said that with such force her sunglasses got cockeyed. Settling them, she said, “How do you know Piper isn’t just as flighty? Does she come from a good family?”

  “Um, no,” Haley had to admit. “Hers is worse than Alicia’s was. But she’s mature, Mom. Their mother died when Piper was just nineteen, and Charlie was only seven. I think that made her grow up early.”

  “Oh, how awful,” she said, looking truly pained.

  “Yeah. She doesn’t talk about it much, and she’s never complained about the hardships, even though I know times were really tough, at least at first.”

  “You say she’s a hairdresser?”

  “Uh-huh. She’s close to her sister, but she’s not one of those people who’s overly impressed by fame and fortune. If she wanted to, she could wiggle her way into a more glamorous job, but she seems very happy cutting hair in the Valley.”

  “And you think you can take her at her word?”

  “You know what?” She nodded, confident in her beliefs. “I don’t listen to words as much as I used to. Now I pay attention to actions. Piper has a modest house that she didn’t pay a lot for, she drives a well-worn SUV, and when she says she’ll do something, she does it. She hasn’t shown the slightest sign of being a flake.” She almost added the part about Piper being so adorably nervous about going to Tim Banks’s house, but thought she’d better not. Average women didn’t wind up on his deck, watching the sunset.

  “How about this sister of hers?”

  Jolted back to the conversation, Haley said, “She’s as pretty as a picture, and really sweet. But she’s definitely into the fame and fortune parts of Hollywood.” She let out a soft sigh. “I just hope she doesn’t have her dreams shattered like so many young women who’ve gone before her.”

  “That’s not the worst that could happen to the girl,” her mom said, with an ominous tone to her voice. “Having her dreams realized can be worse.” Her eyes narrowed until they looked like beads of dark brown glass. “Or maybe having your dreams come true just ruins other peoples’ lives.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  DELTA AND CHARLIE WERE ELATED to see Piper when they all met in the kitchen on Thursday morning.

  Charlie gave her a kiss on the cheek, then slid her arms around Piper’s waist and held on for a hug. “I saw your light on last ni
ght,” she said quietly, “but I didn’t bug you. I thought you might need to be alone.”

  “I didn’t need to be,” Piper said, “but I had a bunch of phone calls to make. It took forever to tell all of my friends I was taking off for Hawaii, then to have to listen to them harass me about being so lucky.”

  “Even though you don’t want to go,” Charlie said, pulling away.

  “Oh, I don’t have anything against going to Hawaii. I’ve always wanted to go there on vacation. I just didn’t envision doing it this way.” She walked over to pour a cup of coffee, one culinary skill that Charlie was very good at. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

  “Dunno. How should we do this?”

  “Well, I assume I’ll do all of the stuff I normally do when you’re on location; answer your email, sort through the invitations you’ve gotten, answer your phone, do a quick read-through of any scripts that come in… You’ll keep paying your own bills, right?”

  She shrugged. “I guess I can.”

  “You should. That’s the best way to see in black and white how much it costs to live.”

  “Okay,” she said, clearly not happy about the task. She picked up her phone and handed it over. “You might not like this, but I think we should switch phones. I’ve been getting a lot of calls ever since I made the mistake of using mine to call Lamar.”

  “Really?” Piper asked, frowning. “That’ll be a huge pain.”

  “Come on, Pip,” she urged, poking her with the device. “Just send a group text to everyone in your contacts list, telling them your new number.”

  It clearly wasn’t her first instinct, but this time Piper stood her ground. “I really don’t want to do that. Just let Lamar’s calls go to voicemail.”

  Charlie’s eyes narrowed as she thought. “Then I’ll get a new phone. You can keep yours and go through mine when you have a chance. I think Lamar posted my number on Twitter or something. It’s been ringing off the hook.” She turned to leave, then stopped and handed Piper a slip of paper with a phone number on it. “Will you make a special call for me? As my manager?”

  “My first assignment,” Piper said, smirking.

  “Well, no, your first task, or tasks are right here.” Charlie gave her an enigmatic smile and slid her laptop over to Piper. “I put every request I’ve gotten into that folder,” she said, pointing with a recently manicured pink nail. “Interviews, fashion shoots, podcasts, invitations to boys’ proms. Everything.”

  “And you want me to—”

  “Handle them,” Charlie said, slapping her on the back.

  “Like we’ve been doing, right?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head soberly. “I don’t want you to make suggestions, Pip. I want you to make decisions. You might want to talk to the PR people at the studio before you refuse anything huge, but I trust you.” She picked Delta up and started for the stairs.

  “What about this phone number?”

  Charlie stopped, her expression hard to read. She certainly didn’t look embarrassed, but there was something there that gave Piper pause.

  “I’m not sure how you should sell it, but I’d like you to call Parker and…” She made her hand into a fist, then let all of her fingers fly. “Make him disappear.”

  Piper nearly fell from the stool. “You want me to break up with a guy for you?”

  “Of course not,” Charlie said, a scowl flitting across her placid features. “You don’t have to break up with someone you’re not in a relationship with. I don’t want to see him anymore, but it’s not a break-up.”

  “And why aren’t you telling him that?”

  Rolling her eyes, Charlie moaned dramatically, “He’s so hard to get through to. I’ve turned down the last five things he’s invited me to do, but he’s not picking up on the message. Having my manager call to tell him I’m leaving town to shoot a movie will do the trick. He’s thick, but even he’ll understand that.” She jogged up to her bedroom, with Piper able to watch her feet disappear through the open staircase. It was tempting to run over, grab an ankle, pull her to a stop and force her to clean up her own mess. But a manager who wasn’t also her sister would make calls like this without blinking. This was going to be tons of fun.

  ***

  Charlie got home from her hot yoga class around dinner time, flushed, overheated and somehow prettier than usual. She stood by the pool and whipped off every stitch of her clothing, then grasped her shins to do a cannonball, popping up a few seconds later with a serene smile on her face. Delta ran to her and started to lick the water droplets off her face while she giggled and let him go to town.

  “Have you been texting kisses to Haley all day?” she asked, an impish smile on her face.

  “No kisses.” She thought about that for a moment, then amended, “Well, just one. She’s with her mom and grandmother, so she hasn’t had a lot of time for goofing around.”

  It was hot out, and the sun was beating down on her, so Piper sat on the edge of the pool and dangled her legs in the cool water. “I’ve got to call her, but I’m dreading it.”

  “Dreading it? Why?”

  She waited to answer until she had Charlie’s full attention. “She’s just what I’ve been looking for. Every one of my ‘must-haves’ is there in the flesh.”

  “That’s stupendous! So what’s the problem?”

  “She’s not going to like the fact that I’ve agreed to manage you. She wants a really quiet life, and I told her I did too.”

  “You do,” Charlie said, shielding her eyes from the sun as she gazed up at Piper.

  “I know I do. But she’s worried your fame will change me—or something.”

  Charlie cocked her head. “It will,” she said, very matter-of-fact. “It’s hard to be connected to a famous person. Everybody wants something from you, but you don’t have much to give them—except access.”

  “What?” She scrambled to her feet and stared down at her sister. “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing bad. Come back here and sit down. You’re upsetting my dog.”

  Delta was yapping like he was trying to scare away a really huge monster. Piper sat back down and pulled him over, usually able to calm him in seconds when she held him tightly against her hip.

  Charlie put her wet hands on Piper’s thighs and said, “Aaron and I talked a lot in New Orleans. He’s so famous it’s sick,” she added. “He told me about going to Rwanda for some charity and people out in the countryside knew him. They didn’t have electricity, and were hundreds of miles from a movie theater, but they all knew him.”

  “That’s him…and will one day be you, but that doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

  “Yes, it does, Pip. That’s part of the reason I want you to take the job. You’re going to be hounded if you keep cutting hair. So, you might as well be with people in the biz. They’ll leave you alone.”

  Piper’s mouth dropped open, where it stayed until Charlie reached up and closed it. “Aaron really pushed me to convince you to be my manager.” She let out a devilish laugh. “But he said I should only give you 5 percent. He thinks managers are huge wastes of time.”

  Piper stared at her. “But he still advised you to hire me.”

  “Uh-huh. He thinks it’s super important to be surrounded by people I can trust.” She let her gaze travel to Delta, then she began to play with him, tickling around his mouth to make him snap his sharp little teeth at her. “He also thinks it’s important to share some of my money with my family. He says that since family members have the hardest job of all they should get a little something for putting up with it.”

  “So, this is a handout? I’m perfectly capable—”

  “It’s not a handout. I need a manager, Pip. I need someone who will stand up for me.” She stopped teasing Delta to look into Piper’s eyes soberly. “I need you.”

  Piper let out a sigh. “I don’t know why Aaron says it’s so hard to be related to a celebrity. Everyone I know is a little jealous of you, but that�
�s no big deal.”

  “Maybe not now, when it’s rare for people to recognize me when I’m not dressed up. But that’s going to change, Pip. It’s going to change right now, and you’re going to be sucked in—one way or the other. You might as well jump in and make some money.”

  “But that’s not what I want, Charlie. It’s not. Once this movie’s over, I’m out.” She locked her gaze onto her sister’s. “In a few months, you’ll have a better idea of what you need in a manager, and so will I. Together, we’ll find you someone great. But that someone is not going to be me.”

  “I think you’ll like it…”

  “I won’t. I’m taking a vacation from my normal life to do this. And vacations have a clear end date. Mine is when your movie wraps.”

  Charlie nodded slowly. “I hear you. So, let’s do this up big.” Her eyes started to dance with possibility. “We’ll make this into a great vacation, with someone else picking up the tab. You’ll make good money, work fewer hours, and get a great tan.”

  “But no kisses,” she said, sighing. “I’m going to miss the hell out of Haley.”

  Charlie grasped a squirming Delta and held him up to Piper’s face. His little tongue automatically emerged to begin licking away, making Piper giggle. “So not what I was going for,” she said, laughing despite herself.

  ***

  Charlie’s diet allowed for four ounces of fish for dinner, and as many green, red, or orange vegetables as she wanted. All had to be prepared without oil or butter or sauce, of course, making them even less appealing to Piper’s vegetable-averse palate. But Piper cooked for both of them, tossing some frozen tater tots into the oven for herself, while Charlie asked questions about all of the projects that were in her “possible” folder. After they’d eaten, Piper reluctantly went to her apartment, with her little shadow begging to tag along.