by Alexis Gold
She stopped short when she stepped into the kitchen. Sitting on a barstool at the kitchen island was the most gorgeous woman she had even seen in person. The woman looked like she had walked right off the pages of a high fashion magazine. She was tall, at least four inches taller than Gracie, and slender. Her perfectly toned and tanned legs and arms were bared in a breezy silk jumper and strappy wedges. She had a long neck, luxurious blonde hair, and the posture of a queen. And she had, in fact, recently walked off of the shoot for a fashion magazine: it was Anicka Andersen, Derrick’s ex-wife.
Anicka sat at the island thumbing through a magazine with a half-eaten grapefruit in a bowl by her elbow. She looked perfectly at home in the kitchen that Gracie had felt (fantasized, more like it) was her own for the past half a month. Glancing up from her magazine with a disapproving frown creasing her brow, Anicka asked, “Who are you?”
Gracie was at a loss for words. She quickly slipped the pregnancy test into her skirt pocket. “I’m Gracie Johnston, I…”
Understanding dawned on Anicka’s face. “Oh, you must be the new maid! I haven’t been her in awhile; Derrick’s been changing up the staff on me. I’m Derrick’s wife, Anicka; but you probably already know that.”
Wife, she said. Not ex-wife. Was the lady delusional? Where had she been for the past two weeks? For the past six months for that matter? Probably off boffing somebody’s pool boy.
Anicka looked her up and down appraisingly. “You don’t exactly dress like a maid.”
Gracie decided to go along with the charade. After all, how was she supposed to explain who she was to the woman Derrick had been married to for over five years? I’m the woman your ex hired to have his baby since you apparently had no interest in doing so. “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect you to be here,” she said lamely.
“Get used to it. I’m going to be staying in Miami for a while. In fact,” she dropped her voice confidentially, “Derrick and I are getting back together. It’s still hush-hush for now, but I’m sure you’d find out eventually if you’ll be staying on here.”
“Oh,” said Gracie, trying not to let the disappointment show on her face. Though disappointment wasn’t even the right word for it. She felt like her heart might be crumbling to pieces in her chest.
“You’ll want to air out the upstairs guest rooms,” Anicka continued, “I’m expecting guests this weekend. Oh, but do try not to wake Derrick. He’s got to be exhausted. I kept him up all night, you know.”
She gave Gracie a conspiratorial wink that Gracie neither understood nor appreciated. What the hell was that supposed to mean? She would never have thought that Derrick would go back to his ex, especially after all the things she had done to him, and especially after how well the two of them had been getting along the past two weeks. But had that all just been in her imagination? Gracie hadn’t questioned it before, but now she wondered. Had she been swept off her feet by a handsome movie star just like any other backwoods nobody would have been?
On the one hand, Derrick needed her in a purely utilitarian way. She was the vehicle that would bear his progeny, and if he was to remain with her until the deal was sealed he might as well get along with her in the meantime. Had he been doing just that? Simply putting up with her to pass the time while in his mind wishing he were anywhere else (perhaps with Anicka)? After all, Gracie really didn’t know him at all; they had only just met. Maybe he was kind to her out of pity; or maybe he was playing some mean-spirited mind game.
But Gracie had always considered herself a good judge of character. Derrick had seemed genuine to her, and the connections they made seemed real. She had believed that he enjoyed making love to her just as much as she did to him.
Just as much as rats in the lab enjoyed copulating: because that’s what animals do.
At once Gracie felt furious, ashamed and heartbroken. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she scolded herself. She should have never filled out that damned application. She should never have believed that one of America’s favorite actors could actually fall for her.
Gracie fought not to let her emotions show. “Yes ma’am, Ms. Andersen, I’ll get right on that.”
As she left the room Gracie could hear Anicka musing to herself as she flipped her magazine back open, “What a strange woman. I don’t know where he finds these people.”
Once she was out of sight, Gracie ran for the stairs and up to her room, shutting the door behind her before collapsing against it and bursting into tears. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought again. It had all been a stupid illusion. Derrick was amazing - he was funny and compassionate, and they shared so much in common - but he wasn’t her kind. They were like different species’ of birds. Both avian, sure, but he was a peacock and she was a sparrow. And peacocks paired off with other peacocks like Anicka Andersen, not with little brown songbirds. Gracie had never let her emotions get the better of her before, but this time she had been completely blindsided.
She vowed then and there to never let it happen again. She would carry this child for Derrick, but that would be it. Just like it was supposed to be from the beginning. In nine she would give him the child, he would give her one million dollars, and then he would be out of her life for good.
So why did the future feel so bleak and joyless?
Going to the desk she pulled out a pad of stationary and a pen. Quickly she scrawled a note and left it on the desktop. Then she picked up the telephone and called a taxi to take her to the airport. As she packed her things she tried not to think about Derrick or the baby or how happy she had been only minutes ago. She left the room and hurried quietly out the front door; she didn’t want another confrontation with Anicka and she most certainly didn’t want to be there when Derrick awoke. He might take pity on her and apologize for not divulging his plans with his ex-soon-to-be-current wife. She didn’t want his pity. An ounce of kindness from him would only make it worse.
When Derrick awoke Gracie was long gone. Looking for her, he found her note on the bedroom desk. He stood looking at it in stunned silence for nearly five minutes. It simply read:
Derrick,
Thank you for an enjoyable stay. I am needed back in Carolina. I will be in contact with your lawyers concerning our arrangement. Please do not try to contact me.
Gracie
Chapter Nine
The spacious trailer was more luxurious than it was homey. It hosted all the amenities of a lavish full-sized house - fully equipped kitchen, Jacuzzi tub, big screen TV, stocked bar - and probably was nicer than most people’s houses, but Derrick had lately been longing for his ranch back in Montana. He had been living in the trailer out here in the bush country of Australia for nearly five months. Next summer’s sure-to-be blockbuster starring everyone’s favorite star was about a white man who had been raised by an Aborigine tribe in the outback of Australia. The script was good and the location was breathtaking but a part of Derrick just wanted it to wrap up so he could go home.
When he was working it was one thing: he had always been able to fully immerse himself in a role (that’s how he had gotten so far in life) and totally block out everything that was Derrick Stone. But the problem came when the camera stopped rolling, the cast and crew returned to their respective trailers, and Derrick was left alone with his thoughts. Never before had he felt so antsy and melancholy at the same time. He knew exactly what it was, though he didn’t want to admit it: Gracie.
She had left so abruptly and without any explanation except for that weak note. It wasn’t like her. But then, how did Derrick really know what was like her or not? He barely knew the woman. He had tried to tell himself that over and over again for the past five months. They had spent a wonderful two weeks together, but essentially she was just another woman who was after his money. Right?
When he read the note he had wanted to hop in his car and chase her to the airport. And he almost had, but he’d been ambushed by Anicka in the kitchen. He’d forgotten all about her and their meeting with Gary Carlisle the night before. An
icka had been chosen for the role of the heroine in Derrick’s new movie. (From Derrick’s experience Anicka couldn’t act her way out of a cardboard box, but that just went to show how much his opinion mattered in Hollywood.) Carlisle thought it would be great publicity if the two of them staged a reunion. It would ensure great ratings for the movie if the romantically entangled co-stars were actually involved in real life. Or, re-involved, as it were. They could set it up perfectly, the agent explained; their love rekindled in the romantic Australian outback. Anicka had been one hundred percent in on the scheme, she was just as into appearances as Carlisle. Derrick wasn’t so sure. They spent the greater part of the night discussing it between martinis. Before Derrick knew it, it was three in the morning. He wanted to get Gracie’s opinion on the scheme before making any final decision. She was in bed by the time he got back, so he went to bed himself, graciously allowing Anicka freedom of the guest house.
But then Gracie hadn’t been there in the morning. He had wanted to find some way to contact her for weeks. But something had made him stop. Maybe she truly didn’t want to have anything more to do with him. He hadn’t heard anything from her or from the lawyers. And then he had left for Australia the next week and everything with the movie had been moving so quickly that he’d barely had time to think about it.
Back in the trailer Derrick was ready to turn in for the night when his iPhone began to ring. The caller ID read: Montana. It was someone from the ranch. Happy to hear a familiar voice, Derrick answered the phone.
“Mr. Derrick,” came a child’s breathless voice from the other end, “it’s me, Benny. I need to ask you a question.”
“Hi, Benny, I’m glad to hear from you! Is something wrong?”
Derrick heard squabbling in the background, as if two boys were fighting over the phone. “Stop Alex!” he heard Benny shout. Alex was Benny’s older brother by two years.
Then Benny came back on the line. “When the baby comes can we get a pony? Alex says that he can learn to ride on Calypso like we did, but daddy says riding’s in our blood. And so I told Alex that your baby doesn’t have riding in his blood so he’ll need to learn on a pony like city kids do. Right, Mr. Derrick?”
“Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute,” Derrick said. He had no idea what the kid was talking about. “What do you mean when the baby comes?”
“You’ll bring the baby when you come here to stay, won’t you?” There was more scuffling. Then, “Alex says that the baby won’t be able to ride until he grows up but if we get a pony now I could train it myself. Couldn’t I, Mr. Derrick? I promise I’d do a good job.”
Before Derrick could try to coax an explanation out of the boy, he heard Lex’s voice in the background. He said something stern to the boys, and there was a rustling as the phone changed hands. “Hello?”
“Lex?”
“Derrick? I’m so sorry, I told them not to bother you. They’re just excited. I didn’t expect Benny would try to call you.”
“It’s okay,” said Derrick impatiently. “Now what’s all this about a baby?”
“Oh boy,” said Lex. He took a deep breath. “Let me explain…”
They had a break in filming for the week and Derrick had chartered a private plane back to Los Angeles. He was on a mission. He stormed into Al Maxwell’s 16th Street office, bypassing the speechless secretary in the front lobby and the equally startled personal assistant in Maxwell’s antechamber. He was surprised to find his agent, Gary Carlisle sitting there. How fitting: a couple of snakes in a den.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was pregnant?” he demanded.
Maxwell stood up from behind his massive walnut desk. “Now Derrick…”
“Don’t I have a right to know?”
“Given the circumstances…” Carlisle began.
“What circumstances?”
Al Maxwell, a commanding figure at six foot five even though he was nearing seventy, held up a hand for silence. “Derrick, please sit down and let’s talk about this.”
“What is he doing here?” Derrick asked, indicating his agent.
“We were discussing you, actually,” said Carlisle. He pushed an open gossip rag in front of Derrick. The spread featured three photos of Derrick and Gracie at the sidewalk café they had visited for dinner that first day in Miami. One of the pictures showed Derrick leaning in to kiss her. The headline read:
IF DERRICK AND ANICKA’S RELATIONSHIP IS ON THE MEND…
THEN WHO IS THIS MYSTERY WOMAN?
“Who took these?” Derrick said, stunned.
“Does it matter?” said Carlisle irritably. “I thought you had agreed to this reunion idea. Something like this can completely ruin the whole thing. It ruins our credibility. You can’t be seen running around with someone like this woman.”
“This woman,” said Derrick, “is carrying my child. A little fact that I had to find out by chance from my foreman’s eight-year-old son. Whatever happened to full disclosure, Al? Wasn’t I supposed to be informed?”
“Given the circumstances…” Maxwell began again.
“I want to see her,” Derrick said firmly.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea…”
“I’ve held up my end of the contract, I haven’t tried to make contact until now. You haven’t held up your end, Al. I should have been told.”
“We felt you were getting too close to the woman,” Maxwell continued. “That wasn’t the objective of this endeavor.”
Endeavor? Maxwell spoke about it in such a businesslike fashion, like any other negotiation or contract signing. Looking back, the whole idea seemed crazy to Derrick. It was so much more complicated than it had seemed on paper. He had wanted a child, but ended up finding so much more.
“Derrick, babe, she’s just a nobody, it’s not good for publicity. It doesn’t sell,” said Carlisle in a soothing voice. “You get your little half-black baby. You raise him, or her, on your own and look like a hero for the papers.”
“That’s not why I’m doing this Gary,” Derrick said with barely controlled rage. This wasn’t some publicity scheme he had cooked up to save face in the wake of his divorce. And he most certainly hadn’t chosen Gracie because he thought at a mixed-race baby would make a good photo on the cover of In Touch.
“Okay, okay,” said Carlisle, as if trying to placate a whiny child. “I’m just saying, you need to look at the big picture. You have to think about your career. You just met this woman, what? Not even eight months ago? She’s in it for the money, and you’re in it for the kid. It was never meant to be anything more, and it’s never going to be. You can’t tell me you’re already looking for ex-wife number two, are you?”
“He may be a slime ball,” said Al, giving Carlisle a scathing look, “but he has a point. How well do you really know this woman?” Before Derrick could reply he raised a hand, “I know, I know. I’ve seen her history and she seems like a perfectly decent woman, but she’s not like you Derrick. She hasn’t lived the same kind of life. We just don’t want to see you ending up in another messy divorce.”
“I didn’t say I was going to marry her,” Derrick said through clenched teeth, “I just said that I want to see her. I want to make sure everything is going okay with the baby.” Why was he trying to appease them? They may control his image and his money, but it was his life dammit. He had gotten where he was on his own, based on his own merits. Didn’t he at least have the right to choose what women he saw? He realized with horror what a contrived joke his whole life had been. Gracie may have been the first real person he’d ever met.
“We’ve been monitoring Ms. Johnston’s progress,” said Maxwell. “Everything is going fine. I assure you she and the baby are getting the best medical care available. There is absolutely no reason for you to try to contact her. It would only make matters worse.”
“She needs to know that I care,” Derrick saw the troubled look his lawyer and agent exchanged and quickly added, “about the baby.”
“I’m sorry, De
rrick,” said Maxwell firmly, “I know I can’t stop you from doing what you want. You hired me for legal counsel so here it is: if you attempt to contact Ms. Johnston it could render your official agreement null and void. You have both signed very clear contracts, which state that neither you nor Ms. Johnston will attempt to contact one another after conception, aside from your retrieval of the child upon delivery. If you attempt to contact Ms. Johnston for any reason, and she takes exception to your visit she can legally file to have the contract annulled. That means that she still receives fifty percent of her fee and, more importantly, she does not have to surrender the child. I’m confident that over time we could win custody, but it wouldn’t be a pretty fight.”
“And it would just about kill your reputation,” added Carlisle.
“Gracie would never do that,” Derrick said. But it didn’t come out sounding as confident as he hoped. Could they be right? He didn’t give a damn about the money, but if there was a possibility he could lose his rights to the child…did he really want to risk it? He didn’t think Gracie could possibly be that vindictive. And he was almost certain she missed him as much as he did her. But…
“Like I said,” Maxwell continued, “I can’t control what you do or don’t do. But I advise you against doing anything rash. And I will not disclose any information as to her whereabouts.”
That was fine with Derrick. Gracie had told him enough about her hometown that a quick Internet search could find her easily. If he decided to go to her.
Derrick’s decision was made for him by the ringing of his cell phone. He saw that it was the film’s director, Russell Gates, back in Australia. This was serious.
“Excuse me,” Derrick said to the two men, “I have to take this. Hello?”
“Derrick? Russ. I know I gave you the weekend, but we need you back here ASAP. Anicka’s walked off the set and nobody can find her. We may have to reshoot the whole thing.”
