Someone Else's Fairytale (9 page)

“I think I'm going to get a cosmo.” She held out her hand for money from me and disappeared back into the crowd.

I didn't time how long it took for Jason to walk the red carpet, but once he and Heather made it into the lobby, it didn't end. The ticket-holders wanted his autograph and a chance to say hello too. He and Heather quickly worked the room, an army of attendants hovering behind them. I saw Dave, Jason's assistant, but he didn't see me. He probably wouldn't have recognized me anyhow.

My feet were starting to hurt in my heels. I shifted my weight as the rest of the cast made their way into the lobby, along with some guys in suits whom I took to be the producers and director and suchlike.

“Hey,” said a voice behind me.

I turned to see Steve and his wife coming in through the doors. He was in a suit, she was in a long cotton dress. I waved back at them.

“Crazy, isn't it?” said his wife. “What level ticket did you get?” She peered at my hand. “Oh, yeah, same as ours.”

“Means we don't get reserved seats,” said Steve. “But it's all good.”

Lori emerged
 
then, with a cocktail in one hand and a bucket of popcorn in the other. The whole flow of the crowd shifted as the stars were ushered into the theater and people began to line up.

“We're going to get food,” said Steve. “See you guys.”

I waved at them and followed Lori. We let ourselves get swept along into the theater and just took the first seats that looked good. They were towards the back, and the theater didn't have stadium seating, but we still managed a decent view.

Once we were settled, Lori clamped down on my arm. “So cool!” she whispered.

As the movie began, I was able to relax. This was what I'd driven out to LA for. This was fun. The movie was good, the action was exciting, the love story was touching. Lori turned to look at me during the kissing scene. Jason in his combat fatigues swept Heather Reynolds, in her suspiciously clean nurse's uniform, into his arms.

I turned to look back at my housemate. “What?”

She raised her eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes and resumed watching the movie.

When the film was over and the lights went up, everyone gave it a standing ovation and several guys in tuxes filed to the front of the theater, where someone had set up a mic. “Thank you, thanks everyone,” the first one said. He introduced himself as one of the producers and the others as other producers and the director. They each took a turn to thank everyone for coming and the cast for doing such a great job.

I glanced at Lori. I wondered how long this would go on.

Not long, fortunately. They all said their little soundbyte, then they had the cast all get up and come to the front to take a bow, and we all stood up to applaud them again, and then it was over. People started filing out of their seats. All in all, a great evening.

“After part-ay,” said Lori. “Sure you don't want to come?”

“Yep. But I'll take you. You okay alone?”

“Heck yeah. You don't want to part-ay, you can just miss out.”

Hours later I was in my pajamas, watching CNN. My hair was up in a towel, my face was clean and my toes were happy not to be smushed in those heels anymore. I wasn't really paying attention to CNN, but I found the calm, newscaster voices soothing.

There came the sound of the keycard slipping into the lock, then the metallic clunk of the latch. Lori waltzed in, a paper bag from Jack-in-the-Box in one hand.

“Hey,” I said. “I thought you were going to call me?”

She flopped down on her bed and opened the bag, an amused smile on her lips. “Got a ride with Jason.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I think he wanted to come see you. Buuut, he didn't know we were staying here.” She laughed. “No interior hallways, and we were pretty sure there were some photographers on our tail. He didn't want pictures of him escorting me into a cheap hotel room to get posted on the internet.”

I had to laugh too. That was pretty funny.

“So he dropped me off at Jack-in-the-Box and told me to ask you to call him if you were still up. Which you are. So call him.”

“What, now?”
 

“Or in the next little while. I don't know how long it'll take him to get home. You want a fry?”

“No. How was the party?”

“Awe-some. You missed out, except it totally wasn't your kind of thing. Talked to Donovan some more and met Rick Lucero.”

“Don still a jerk?”

Lori threw a fry at me. “I had fun, okay? Call Jason.”

I got out my phone.

“Hello?” he answered on the first ring.

“Hey, thanks for bringing Lori back.” I dodged another fry. “I think. Stop throwing stuff at me!”

“No problem,” said Jason. “She said you wanted to get going early tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I want to try to beat the heat. Like that's possible.”

“I hear that. Good luck crossing the Mojave.”

“Thanks.”

“Sooo, yeah, I guess I'll see you next time I'm in
Albuquerque
.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks again for the tickets."

"I'm glad they didn't go to waste."

"Well, I'm about to turn in. Good night.”

“Night.”

I hung up. To Lori's inquisitive look I said, “Pretty sure he's just being friendly.”

When we pulled into our driveway the following day, Matthew was sitting on our front stoop. My spirits lifted at once.

“Hey!” I called out to Matthew as I got out of the car. He looked good. His hair was shorter, and his cheeks were sunburned. Dappled shade from the cottonwood
 
in the neighbor's front yard shielded him and the front of our house from the intense sun.

He got to his feet and smiled.

“When did you get in?” I asked him.

“Ah, just a little while ago. Where you been?” His eyebrows shot up when Lori hauled her duffel bag out of the trunk.

“We saw
Danger Fields
. It's good, but probably not your thing.”

“And it's not out yet. Not until next week,” said Lori. “We saw the premiere!”

“Oh.” Matthew looked even more confused now.

I got my suitcase and went over to him. “I need to go for a run. You want to go for a run?”

“Sure.”

“Meet you in an hour?”

There was a big, open sports field on campus, right along Central, where Matthew and I jogged. We did our laps, then walked to cool down. By then the sun was sinking low and the air was cooling off.

“So, yeah, I went to LA for a couple of days,” I said. “Saw a movie premiere, that was fun.”

“Why'd you go to LA?”

“Just for a vacation. You were right. I work too much.”

“So you bought tickets to a premiere?”

“No, I got the tickets from Jason Vanderholt. He had some extras.”

“You called-”

“He called. I've never contacted him. He was just being friendly, is all. Really.”

“He's been calling you?”

We were both sweaty, but Matthew's sweat had a nice, clean scent to it. I hoped I didn't reek too bad. “He called once. And Lori's already given me a hard time about all this, so please don't you start.”

“Well, did you see him in LA?”

“We kind of had dinner at his house, with a bunch of other people and... It was one of the most random things that has ever happened to me.”

He lifted one eyebrow and looked at me. “Every girl's dream, right?”

“Not mine, and no, nothing 'dreamy' happened. I met his brother and his wife and kids. They seem nice.”

Matthew only stared.

“Please don't give me a hard time about this. Lori was telling me I should flirt with him, and... no way. I'm not interested.”

That earned me a half smile. “This would happen to you.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Of all the people for Vanderholt to go after.”

“He hasn't gone after me.”

“You hope he hasn't. I get it, I do.” He put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

I put my hand over his and squeezed back.

That seemed to settle things for Matthew. He left his hand on my shoulder as we walked back to my place.