A-List Kiss: A Laugh-Out-Loud Romantic Comedy

by Brenda Lowder

  “Really?” Corey stared at her.

  She shrugged. “Almost.”

  “Your car is a piece of crap.” He nodded as if the decision was made. “She can’t not get it. It’s the perfect dress. And it’s not like we came to Rodeo thinking we’d get something for ninety-nine dollars.”

  Sophie shook her head. “It’s too much.”

  “But what if this dress is her golden ticket? What if this dress is her entrez-vous into all things Hollywood and Gavin Braddock? $4,000 would be a bargain. With a great ROI. Look at her! She looks like a thirties film star in this dress. I would do her in this dress. And you know you couldn’t pay me to do her under normal circumstances. No offense, Eden.”

  “None taken, Corey.” I watched my reflection as I twirled.

  “Or it could end up being just a very expensive reminder of the biggest letdown of her life.” Sophie’s forehead wrinkled. “Sorry, Eed. Just being realistic.”

  “I know. It’s okay—continue.” I was interested to see who’d win the argument. And their reasoning was persuasive. If they came up with compelling reasons either way, it would save me some internal debate and help me mount a legal defense when my dad saw how much my mother’s blind faith in me was going to cost him.

  “It’s ten percent of what Eden makes in a year!” Sophie argued. So sad and, unfortunately, so true.

  “And when she’s the hot young thing who dated Gavin Braddock, she’ll never make such little money again!” Corey shot back.

  “Sold!” I was completely won over by the “hot, young thing” comment. If this dress made me Gavin Braddock’s newest hot, young thing, then it was worth my weight in gold. Not its weight, because the dress was actually very light, but I’m not, so that would totally be a lot of gold.

  I grinned at myself in the mirror. “I’m getting the dress!”

  Corey squealed and clapped his hands. Sophie looked defeated for a millisecond, then she smiled. “Can I touch it?”

  I nodded, and Sophie oohed and aahed over the silky fabric.

  “We’re not done!” Corey broke in.

  “Uh-oh,” I said.

  “What?” Sophie’s gaze snapped to mine.

  “You still need shoes and earrings,” Corey said. “Your dad will have to come out of retirement to pay for all of this.”

  “You guys, no. I can wear the diamond earrings my parents gave me for college graduation,” I said as Sophie helped me unzip the back.

  “Yes!” Sophie chimed in. “They’d look great with your new necklace—understated, so the necklace will really pop.”

  I liked her considerate way of saying that the earrings were a lot lower wattage than the necklace Gavin gave me.

  “And you’ve got the shoes,” Corey said. “Those silver Jimmy Choo strappy sandals you got on sale at Nieman’s would be perfect.”

  I nodded. “Guess I’m ready for my date with Gavin Braddock.” I was going to close my eyes and jump off the high dive.

  I really hoped there’d be water in the pool.

  Chapter Eight

  At home I did full makeup with primer, bronzer, brow pencil, and all the steps I usually skipped, and hair—swept to the side in soft waves with some wispy tendrils framing my face and grazing my neck—before downing a shot of vodka to steady my shaking hands. I was putting on my dress when there was a knock on my bedroom door.

  Sophie poked her head around. “Can I come in?”

  “Sure, you’re just in time.”

  I presented my back and she helped me zip up. “You look incredibly beautiful.”

  “Really?” It was the best I’d ever looked, but Gavin had his pick of practically anybody.

  “Yes! And I’m not just saying that because I’m your best friend. If I saw you on TV like this, I’d hate you.” Sophie hated beautiful models and actresses on the principle that they represented an unrealistic image for real women to try to live up to. That she was lumping me in with them brought tears to my eyes.

  “Thanks, Soph. You’re the best.”

  “You know what the saying is, ‘Learn to hate the best in others so you may find it in yourself.’”

  I studied her face, gauging her seriousness. She returned my look, unblinking.

  “I don’t think they say that.”

  “It’s something like that.” She waved her hand in the air and nodded at my bare neck. “Don’t forget your necklace.”

  I draped the bling around my throat, and Sophie fastened the clasp.

  “Just perfect!” She grinned. “Here, let’s show Corey the finished product.”

  “Ooh!” Corey gasped when he saw me. “Gorgeous! You look good enough to turn Chris Hemsworth straight!”

  “Chris Hemsworth is straight.”

  “See?” Corey winked. “It’s working already!”

  “What time is Gavin sending the car?” Sophie asked.

  “He said it should be here at six thirty.”

  Sophie looked at the clock. “We only have ten minutes!”

  The doorbell rang. My heart jumped into my throat. Was the car early? Eeeek! I saw my own excitement and disbelief mirrored in the looks Sophie and Corey were giving me. If this was a dream, we were sharing it.

  Corey strode to the door and opened it. I nearly screamed.

  Gavin himself was standing on my front step. He was gorgeous. Perfection. He was dressed in what must have been a designer tuxedo which was perfectly fitted to his tall, lean-but-still-muscular frame. His left hand was tucked casually into his pant pocket, and his trademark sun-kissed blond hair was slicked back. The waning light of day painted the sky in orange hues behind him. He looked like the poster of him I’d had on my wall when I was twelve. I stood stock-still. Sophie started a number of sentences, none of which were composed of actual words.

  “Huh? Whu? Hy-a?” Sophie babbled. I nudged her in the side with my elbow. Corey was still clinging to the doorknob—equally spellbound and rooted in place.

  “May I come in?” Gavin raised his eyebrows at Corey.

  “Of course!” I was quickest to recover. I’d had more practice being in Gavin’s presence. He stepped through the doorway and revealed a bouquet of red roses he’d been holding behind his back.

  “For you.” He presented me with the scarlet blooms.

  I buried my nose in the bouquet, inhaling the sweet scent. I’d read that florists spray roses with rose scent to make them more fragrant than they actually are. I didn’t care if that was true. I was equally happy with the reality or the fantasy. “Thank you! I didn’t know there were any more flowers left in the city after that bunch you sent me yesterday.”

  The color rose in Gavin’s cheeks, and he tilted his head. “Were they too much?”

  “They were perfect.” I beamed. Everything he did was perfect.

  “Please come in.” I stepped to the side and waved him farther into the living room. “I’ll put these in some water.”

  “You are absolutely gorgeous.” He took my hand and bent to kiss it. I felt the blood rush to my face. I gazed down at the hand his lips had touched and murmured my thanks. Gavin released my hand and looked around. I was glad I hadn’t decorated the living room with the Gavin movie posters he’d have seen in my college dorm room or my bedroom growing up. Instead my living room was devoted to the large, flat-screen TV. Which also featured his face.

  Corey finally closed the door and relinquished his death grip on the knob. He had yet to speak a word.

  “Gavin, this is my friend Corey.” I gestured to my ogling friend. “And my roommate Sophie.” I turned to indicate Sophie, but she hurried forward and shook Gavin’s hand with both of her own, as if he were visiting royalty. I swear she attempted a curtsey. Then she pulled out her phone, stuck her face next to Gavin’s, and took a selfie. I was impressed that Gavin had time to smile for it.

  “I’m her friend, too,” Sophie said. “Best friends, in fact! Not just roommates.” Sophie was babbling again.

  “I’ll be right back.” I gla
nced at Sophie and Gavin, decided he’d survive for a couple of minutes, and went to the kitchen to put the flowers in water. I grabbed my Michael Kors clutch bag from my bedroom, took one last look in the mirror, and headed back into the living room where Corey and Sophie had seated Gavin in the middle of the couch with them hanging on him from either side.

  “So when you jumped out of the helicopter in Elements Broken, was that really you?” Corey had recovered the use of his voice and was geeking out on Gavin, but Gavin’s engaged expression said he didn’t seem to mind. “I read you did all your own stunts because you wanted it to look as real as possible.” Corey ran his hand through his hair and then tossed his head back in an affected gesture.

  Gavin clasped his hands together and looked as eager to answer Corey’s questions as Corey was to ask them. How did Gavin do that? How was he just “on” all the time?

  “I did it myself, but remember, it was just a stunt. I jumped out of the helicopter, yes, but I also had lead wires attached around my waist.” Gavin mimed invisible wires at his firm mid-section. “And a crash pad to fall onto. And I was jumping out the door of a helicopter that was sitting on a soundstage, not actually flying. I did fly in it later, but I didn’t jump out of it then.” Sophie and Corey both stared with open mouths, lapping up every word.

  “Cool,” Corey said.

  “Very cool,” Sophie said.

  “I hate to interrupt.” I was ecstatic to interrupt. “But should we get going?”

  Gavin got up and looped his arm around my waist, steering me toward the door, and then stopped. “Do you want to take a sweater?” he asked. “It gets so cool in the evenings.”

  “I’ll get one.” I really wished that I’d thought to buy a thousand-dollar sweater to match my dress—not really, but something equal in elegance to my gorgeous gown. I grabbed my inelegant cable-knit cardigan out of the hall closet and draped it over my arm. I’d only use it if temperatures dropped sub-arctic. There was no way I was covering up my best assets and the most sophisticated dress I’d ever owned.

  Corey pulled his phone from his pocket. “Can I take a picture?”

  I stood next to Gavin and smiled.

  Corey cleared his throat and stood there with his phone in his hand. My smile was slipping. What was taking so long?

  Corey coughed. “Um, Eden, if you could just move over for a minute?”

  I took a couple of steps. Corey leaped to Gavin’s side, pushing me out of frame. He snapped five selfies of the two of them before I could blink.

  “Me too!” Sophie got out her phone again and plastered herself to Gavin’s other side.

  “Okay, you two. Gavin and I have to go!”

  Sophie tucked her phone away and faced Gavin. “It was so nice to meet you!” She swayed toward him. I stepped between them. Just in case.

  “It really, really was.” Corey seized Gavin’s hand and held on.

  “It was great meeting both of you.” Gavin turned his full attention on them with focused intensity. After a moment, he politely extricated his hand from Corey’s grip and took my arm again. He held the door open for me with his other hand, and I stepped into our future together.

  “Stay out all night!” Corey called after us, inching into the doorway.

  “Don’t come home early!” Sophie yelled, sticking her head out the door, then drawing back and giggling.

  Wow, they were embarrassing. I waved them off, smiling so hard it hurt.

  A shiny, black stretch limo idled at the curb in front of my building, elevating my less-than-elegant corner of Pasadena. Gavin guided me to the curb with a hand on my lower back, warming me through my entire body. He opened the car door, and I glanced back at my apartment. Sophie’s and Corey’s beaming faces stared out at us from the well-lit front window. They caught me looking and ducked out of sight. Gavin chuckled and held my hand as I stepped into the limo. He waited until I was safely settled inside before closing the door. Gavin got into the car on the other side, and I suddenly wished the back seat weren’t quite so roomy—he seemed too far away. He gave instructions to the driver and the limo took off.

  “You picked me up. I thought you were just going to send a car.” If I’d known, I’d definitely have cleaned my apartment more. Or at all.

  “I couldn’t wait to see you.”

  I examined his face for any sign of sarcasm. I didn’t see any. Really? He couldn’t wait to see me? If this was a dream, I hoped to never wake up. I smiled.

  “I’m very flattered. I have to ask, though...” I shouldn’t be asking. I shouldn’t question it. If I do, it will all disappear in a puff of smoke like a magician’s assistant. But even so, I couldn’t keep myself from saying the words. “Why me? You could have any woman in the world.” I looked at my hands, nervously twisting around my clutch bag.

  There was a gleam in Gavin’s eyes and his smile was soft and sweet. “That’s why.”

  I glanced around to see if I’d missed some visual cue he was indicating, but he was just looking at me.

  He continued. “Because you’d ask that question. Because for some insane reason, you have no idea how beautiful you are. There’s nothing more attractive to me than a beautiful woman who doesn’t know it. All your beauty and grace are unconscious, natural. You don’t think about it.” He picked up a tendril of my hair, smoothing it between his fingers, then let it go to run a finger down my cheek. A trail of fire followed his touch over my skin.

  “Your beauty isn’t a commodity you trade on like the actresses and models I know. And you’re funny. And smart. And I Googled you, and you haven’t murdered anyone that Google knows about.” He raised his eyebrows like he wasn’t sure whether to take Google’s word for it. Then he flashed a huge smile that heated me from the inside out. He took my hands in both of his. “You’re a beautiful woman I’d like to get to know better.”

  I stared down at my hands, smooth and small in his larger ones. This was my dream, and I was going to live it. I did one of my sure-fire tricks that had a hundred percent success rate on getting a guy to kiss me when I wanted him to. I gazed up into Gavin’s eyes and pulled his hands toward me. Just as they should, his head and body followed, and he leaned down and kissed me.

  At the moment his lips met mine, my heart thudded hard, my blood blasted through my veins, and my brain seemed to leave my body and hover somewhere in the air above us, watching. This was the cinematic moment I’d waited for my whole life. Every surface of my body, every molecule, every atom leaned toward him, drinking him in. His lips were soft as they brushed mine, searching at first, and then with more pressure. I wound my arms around his neck, and he pulled me closer, the silkiness of my dress sliding against the more solid fabric of his shirt and tuxedo jacket. His tongue teased my lips apart and slid into my mouth, stroking languorously. I pushed my hand into his hair and combed my fingers through it where it brushed past his collar. The soft strands slipped between my fingers, and I reveled in this tiny moment of intimacy.

  Gavin tightened his hold on me and leaned back, pulling me on top of him. A horizontal make-out session? No complaint here. Who cared if my new dress got wrinkled? Gavin was the goal and the dress had gotten me on top of him, so it was doing a stellar job as far as I was concerned.

  “Sir, we’re here,” the driver announced.

  I sprang back and smoothed my hair and dress into place. I hoped. Gavin adjusted his hair in a mirror he pulled from a side compartment, then leaned closer to it, a slight scowl of irritation crossing his features. “Lipstick smears,” he mumbled and wiped his face until it was once again picture-perfect. He handed the mirror over to me and I fixed my makeup, reapplying my lipstick over Gavin-kissed lips.

  When I’d finished, he turned to me, all trace of annoyance gone and only eye-sparkling appreciation lighting his gaze. He held out his hand. It suddenly felt like the prom date I never had. The limo, my drop-dead gorgeous dress, the jittery feeling in my stomach. The only thing out of place was the fact that my date was the biggest act
ion star in the world instead of an insecure high school boy looking for action.

  “Shall we?” He smiled.

  I put my hand into his and followed him out of the limo. Oh, we shall.

  Chapter Nine

  We stepped into the blinding flashes of hundreds of cameras. The Pasadena Civic Center was alight with the glow of ornate lampposts framing its façade. Palm trees taller than the highest point of the roof flanked both sides of the Italian Renaissance-style building. The setting sun streaked the sky orange and red. My heart drummed a manic beat. I couldn’t believe I was here.

  I’d passed the building many times but had never been inside. Traffic had been crazy the day the People’s Choice Awards were held here. It had taken an extra hour to get home. I’d watched the awards on TV that night, thinking about how close I’d been to the event geographically, but how far I was from really being there.

  But here I was now, at an actual red-carpet Hollywood event, getting to be part of it, instead of driving by and watching it at home on TV.

  Gavin put his arm around me and led me onto the red carpet. I took a few steps, enjoying its plush luxury—literal and implied—under my feet. People on both sides of the velvet ropes pressed forward, angling for the least obstructed views. They yelled questions to Gavin, competing to be heard over the clamor. He paused and gave appropriate answers. It was mesmerizing. Being at the center of the flashing lights, I couldn’t focus on anything for long. Standing next to Gavin, I was surprised that I could even hold myself still without falling, swooning, or jumping around.

  I tuned in to the conversations around me. Gavin was answering questions about when his next film was slated to begin production. He replied with typical Gavin charm and wit to every question he fielded. He was asked about his charity event for the evening. He was asked about the lovely lady on his arm…Wait. What?

  The kaleidoscope of color and light around me suddenly shifted into focus as I realized I was part of this circus and as observable as anyone else. Until that moment, I’d felt like a viewer at home. A fully-immersed-in-the-experience viewer, but invisible nonetheless. Apparently, I wasn’t.