The Brand

by M. N Providence

Samantha shook her head. ‘No. I was already pregnant when I got here, I just didn’t know. I’ve been to a doctor and he confirmed that I’m in my third month.’

  A woman with a quick mind, Joelyn did the math in her head. ‘That means you conceived around April, right?’

  Samantha nodded silently, a troubled expression on her face.

  ‘Which eliminates your ex-boyfriend from the equation…or not…’ She frowned quizzically at Samantha, suddenly aware that there were things that best friends kept from each other. ‘Sam, I’m confused. Have you been with somebody after your ex and forgot to tell me, or did you get on the rebound with your ex and not tell me? Girl, I’m dying with curiosity.’

  Samantha could not bring herself to look at her friend. She looked down and stuttered. ‘It’s co…I’m sorry, Joe…um…it’s…it’s complicated!’

  Suddenly she burst into tears and wept uncontrollably.

  Sympathetically, Joelyn hugged and comforted her. ‘It’s okay, honey…It’s okay.’

  Samantha, unable to reveal the truth about her pregnancy, was searching for a way to escape when suddenly divine intervention saved her from a lot of embarrassment. Joelyn’s phone burst into song and she picked it up. She answered it, listened for a few seconds and said to Samantha, ‘I have to take this, it’s Jansen.’

  She paced about the room as she held her phone conversation. Jansen profusely apologized for her treatment of Joelyn when the later had come to ask for forgiveness. The apology was accepted unconditionally by Joelyn. Jansen, in a show of maturity, suggested that the two of them should get together and “have a dinner or something”. Joelyn warmed up to the idea, and said she would visit Jansen in New York, but that brilliant idea was quickly quashed by Jansen, who preferred coming over to Los Angeles. ‘…I love LA, but I never get time to visit.’

  Thus, it was settled between the two ladies that the younger millionairess would visit the elder one at her Malibu home sometime in the very near future. Her phone conversation over, Joelyn returned to take her place next to her friend.

  Samantha was no longer in tears, but she had an apprehensive face when Joelyn stared at her. Again, she sighed heavily. ‘Joelyn, I pray and hope that you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me for what I’m about to tell you…There’s no other way for me to say it, so…’ Her voice trailed off as her eyes welled up again. ‘I had a fling with Hudson!’ she blurted out and broke down in a flood of tears.

  To say Joelyn was stunned qualifies as an understatement because in reality she was attacked by afflictions of such intensely evil magnitude she did not know how to react. It was like being hit by a fast-moving train – twice. Suddenly breathing with difficulty, she rose to her feet and walked to the glass sliding door. She pushed it open and a wave of fresh sea breeze rushed into the room. Joelyn walked outside onto the terrace and went to stand before the stainless-steel railing. She gazed at the beautiful scenery before her eyes…the beach…the ocean…the landscape of mansions…She searched deep inside her soul and sought solace from the evil turmoil of emotions afflicting her.

  A fiery flood of anger was threatening to engulf her whole being, but she fought down the evil demon and forced it back to where it had come from. She closed her eyes and felt her entire body tremble. She controlled her breathing until she felt the sudden rush of blood flow back to normal. She stood there on the terrace for a long while until her madness was over. Then with steely determination Joelyn walked back into the room to face Samantha with a calm expression.

  She sat down next to her best friend and looked compassionately at her. ‘I am sorry, Sam, I didn’t get you properly. Did you say that Hudson got you pregnant?’

  Distraught, and looking like she had walked through a blizzard of severe magnitude, Samantha nodded without giving a verbal response.

  ‘Does he know?’ Curious how calm she sounded, when inside she was still reeling from the shock.

  ‘No…not yet…I-I-I haven’t decided…’ Samantha choked on her words.

  ‘Have you decided what you’ll do with…?’ There was no need to complete the question.

  ‘I want to keep it,’ said Samantha with a tearful face. ‘I’m almost thirty, Joe…I may never have another child.’

  Joelyn nodded and looked down. The pain churned in her heart. Betrayal. Lies. Secrets. And more lies.

  To women, there is nothing as unforgivable as the crime of a best friend who keeps secrets from the other best friend. But that sin pales in comparison to the best friend who sleeps with the other best friend’s ex-lover. And gets pregnant by him…Indeed, it is a very strong woman who can forgive all those things for the sake of keeping the friendship.

  Joelyn took her best friend’s hands in hers and squeezed them gently in a gesture of camaraderie. ‘Sam, I may throw tantrums and do this or that, but it won’t solve anything. I do feel betrayed and I am angry with you, but that’s just a natural reaction to hearing stuff like this…it will pass. When it’s over we’ll still be together. You got your life to live, and I’m not going to stand here and judge you for the choices you’ve made. You can decide to tell Hudson or not about this baby you’re carrying…it’s up to you.’ She gave a smile of encouragement to her distraught friend. ‘What I ask is that I be made god-mother of my BFF’s baby.’

  Samantha threw herself up against her friend and sobbed uncontrollably.

  Chapter 8

  America

  At the end of July, Jansen Vermuelen found some time off her busy schedule and flew to Los Angeles to meet the only other woman to have once shared the Vermuelen family name besides her own mother and herself. Without entourages and bodyguards, the Hollywood star and the tennis star hit the town and attracted public attention wherever they went. They invaded the high-fashion stores and lavished themselves with expensive items of clothing and jewelry. Photographers discreetly snapped photos of the two beautiful women together. They went for coffee and snacks at a popular celebrity restaurant and tipped the waiters there handsomely, even posing for photos with the star-struck staff.

  On Jansen’s last night in Los Angeles, she and Joelyn went to a movie premiere Joelyn had been invited to. They arrived in a stretch limousine and smiled beautifully at the cameras. They were both dressed in breathtakingly gorgeous outfits, created for each by their respective favorite designers. Each wore millions’ worth of jewelry on their person, lent to them by jewelers for marketing purposes. Both Jansen and Joelyn wore brands that people of all ages, especially young people with disposable income, identified with and related to. They were walking, talking, breathing businesses. And they were both young and extremely beautiful.

  A beautiful woman in a gorgeous designer dress is dazzling on the red carpet of a movie premiere. Put her together with another similarly dangerously beautiful woman and it’s quite a breathtaking spectacle. The TV cameras zoomed in on them and microphones were thrust at their faces. Joelyn, unable to contain herself, gushed, ‘Everybody knows I’m single right now, and Jansen is single too, so we decided to partner each other to the premiere…I’m very excited to be hanging out with Jan…She’s my newest BFF, and I just love everything about her…’

  Jansen was too shy to speak to the cameras, but her eyes held only affection for Joelyn.

  Chapter 9

  AMERICA

  God answered Joelyn’s prayers by making the path of her destiny cross with that of James R. Rimbaugh.

  Rimbaugh was 37-years-old and he looked the part. He had a leathery, haggard face that would’ve made a name for itself in Western movies were they still in fashion. His eyes were hollow but sharp. His nose was a little crooked; neither ugly nor pretty. He had a wide mouth with thin lips. The lines on his forehead and around his eyes hinted at the rigors of life he had been through.

  James was a former child star who had been a household name in America in the 1980s. From the age of ten, he had carved a name for himself in Hollywood with his exceptional acting abilities. As is usual with precocious talents w
ho mature before their time, coupled with an abundance of money and very little experience in the ways of the world, he had become enmeshed in the wrong things and a slave of bad habits. James had lost his virginity at the age of eleven to a much older girl. By age fifteen, with several acclaimed movies under his belt, James had picked up a drug habit, to which he would become chained to the extent that it interfered with his whole life and work, until nobody in Hollywood wanted to be associated with him or his name.

  His twenties were spent in and out of drug rehabilitation programmes, and in and out of police stations for petty larceny. At 25, James Rimbaugh was declared bankrupt, and was said to be as broke as a Presbyterian Church mouse. He was famously known to have squandered his fortune on pornstars, luxury cars, expensive hotel suites, Las Vegas casinos and luxury yachts, where he would throw wild parties and perform sexual orgies with beautiful women of shady characters, during which expensive champagne would flow endlessly like the Nile. Perversely, it fascinated the world more than anything that James Rimbaugh had taken so long to get broke.

  At 27, James met a working woman who actually believed his story that the world was out to get him. He never married her, but they lived together and produced two children, both girls. After five years together, during which James made absolutely no financial contribution to the relationship, and during which at the age of 31 James made a funny joke of himself by trying to be elected as the governor of California (unsuccessfully), the unmarried couple separated, and his partner left him with both children, aged four and two respectively.

  Forced into single parenthood, and determined not to let Child Services confiscate his children, James got his act together and seriously looked around town for an acting job. For two years nothing came, but he was getting small parts in TV series to sustain his livelihood and that of his children. During this time, James became overly dependent on anti-depressants to the point of addiction. He was saved from full addiction by being offered the lead role in a pilot action/drama TV series that was originally planned to air for one season but proved so popular with audiences across America it was given a budget by network executives for a second season. The show transformed James R. Rimbaugh from child star to modern TV star, but he was still widely known everywhere as the guy who had battled drug addiction to become the highly-paid Hollywood TV star…

  He put his children in bed in the big room they shared and read them a bedtime story. When they fell asleep he switched off the light in their room and went to the shower. These days, James Rimbaugh was a different man; free from drugs of any sort, but with a responsibility to bring up his children in an appropriate manner. He was so dedicated to his children’s welfare he practically lived his life according to their needs. He shot his scenes for the TV show while they were at school, picked them each up from school and went with them home to make food for them and play with them. Whenever his schedule was tight, or when unanticipated situations arose, he would leave the children under the care of a babysitter, but called every hour to talk to the girls…

  He opened the shower and small streaks of water hit his body forcefully, refreshingly. Prurient thoughts flooded his mind, and he knew that it was because it had been a long time since he had been with a woman. He was badly in need of sexual release, but being a single father to two small girls was a full-time occupation that left him with scarcely enough time to associate with the opposite sex. The problem was further compounded by the simple fact that Mr. Rimbaugh was intent on making a good impression on his children. Owing to his current cult status as a successful TV star, he honestly could have had any woman he wanted, but the need to bring up his daughters with good moral values excluded the possibility of serial promiscuity.

  In today’s world, finding a woman one could maintain a healthy and long relationship with was a notoriously difficult affair. Thus, James R. Rimbaugh, TV star and New York citizen, dedicated his life to his career and the gentle upbringing of his children, and denied himself sexual gratification. However, when he met Joelyn Smith his heart bowed down in submission to a princess.

  Chapter 10

  AMERICA

  Joelyn Smith went to New York with her entourage for the particular purpose of shooting a music video for a popular song contained in her latest album. She stayed at her house in Long Island, recently furbished by a talented interior decorator who had his own TV show. Joelyn was seen at various places in New York, and intensely obsessed over by the media, especially because she was almost always in the company of Jansen, another of the Big Apple’s current biggest attractions.

  The two of them worked over two days and two nights in the production of Jo S’s music video, which also featured appearances by Jansen in the storyline of the song. Joelyn’s brief stay in New York City culminated in an hour-long TV interview on a talk-show carried by a network based in the Big Apple. It turned out that the network had cut her interview with the talk-show’s host to 30 minutes. The remaining 30 minutes were allocated to an interview with current hot TV star James R. Rimbaugh, who was presently busy shooting scenes for his action/drama series’ 3rd season.

  James met the impressively beautiful Joelyn Smith at NBC studios and could not resist the temptation to ask her out on a date. Joelyn, in an infectiously good mood, was aware that recently she had had no social life besides interaction with people regarding her various businesses, so she allowed herself some relaxation time and agreed on a date with James R. Rimbaugh, but told him that it would have to be on that night because on the next day she would depart for Los Angeles, to begin shooting a new movie she was contracted to star in.

  They had dinner at the restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel, where James was staying for purposes of recording the interview for the talk-show. Joelyn found James to be funny, honest, self-mocking and with attractive intelligence. Where she had expected arrogance she found modesty, and where she had expected pomposity she found exceptional selflessness. She took a liking to him and her heart was not prepared to back down on that decision.

  The time went by unnoticed. The conversation slowly turned to personal matters.

  ‘…I have two daughters, aged nine and seven,’ James was saying. ‘I’m crazy about them, but their mother doesn’t want them. My entire life revolves around them…’

  Joelyn found herself at a loss for words because she had no such possessions close to her heart, except material wealth. Cleverly, she produced an answer. ‘I will soon be a god-mother. I’m crazy about this kid, even though I don’t know if it’s a he or a she.’

  James erupted in laughter. They were having a good time, and barely recognized the hours pass by. They both had soft beverages for drinks, owing to their respective pasts.

  James explained his side of the story. ‘I think I’ve made my contribution to sustaining a whole generation of liquor makers. I’ve passed the throne to somebody else. A man can only drink so much.’

  His self-mockery had Joelyn in stitches.

  He went on. ‘I really lead a very sedate lifestyle. Being older – and probably having kids and caring about them – helps a lot. I’m more mature and in control of my life. I grew up too fast, had all the nice cars and the beautiful girls. Then I lost it all and I was nothing. God gave me a chance to try again, and I realize why I’m here for my kids, so no more Mr. Bad Guy, James. Be on the straight and narrow for the sake of the children. And, really, I’m happy with the life I’m living.’

  Captivated, Joelyn poured her heart out to him. ‘I guess being out of the eye of the storm also helps, doesn’t it? Sometimes this life – being in the spotlight – gets too much and you wanna be swallowed up in your own world. People make so many demands and expectations upon us that we lose sight of what’s really important.’

  ‘That’s true,’ agreed James. ‘I grew up in LA, and my whole life was oiled by the Hollywood machine. When I got clean I made an effort to distance myself from that culture. If you don’t want to be sucked up in the madness of it all, you have to have a job
there but live elsewhere quiet and far-removed from the celebrity scene. I was lucky because the Lord answered my prayers and gave me this job in New York. I live with the kids in a quiet neighborhood, and they don’t even know that their dad is a “TV star”.’

  ‘I recently bought a place in Long Island. You should see it; it’s a beautiful home. I’m slowly trying to remove myself from the Hollywood scene and move over here but—.’

  ‘Listen to your heart,’ James advised. ‘Do what you want, and take things one at a time. And everything will work out fine.’

  Joelyn gave him a beautiful smile. ‘I haven’t had such an entertaining conversation in a long time.’

  James stared at her blue eyes. They held each other’s gaze for a long moment, and their bodies had a silent private conversation.

  He smiled at her. ‘You’re very beautiful.’

  She blushed. ‘Thank you.’

  Joelyn had not blushed to anyone or because of anything in ages. It surprised her that James had the power to make her do so. It did not, however, surprise her that he needed no supernatural powers to persuade her to go upstairs to his hotel room and spend the night with him. When they made love, he entered inside her and trembled with excitement. He kissed her passionately and squeezed her breasts hard as he exploded in an uncontrollable rupture of orgasm.

  ‘Sorry,’ he panted, out of breath. ‘It’s been a long whole since—.’

  She covered his mouth with her lips and kissed him. She danced her hips and swallowed him inside her body. They danced and danced like flamingos until they collapsed in exhaustion on the bed, sated and both amazed at the power of their lovemaking. In the morning, after making passionate love once more, they were both sad to be heading separate ways; Joelyn to Long Island to prepare for her trip back to Los Angeles, and James to Greenwich to check on his children, who had spent the night with a babysitter. Theirs was a connection of the hearts so extraordinary they felt like they had always known each other. Joelyn actually felt like she was leaving a part of hers behind when her chartered Gulfstream G650 took to the skies and left New York.