The Hollywood Effect (18 page)

“Yeah. They are. I got lucky - my last neighbours were a bit on the weird side…” Liam turned and I followed him back inside, secretly admiring his toned and muscled back and shoulders. I shook myself.
Stop it
.
 

I followed Liam over to the kitchen and sat down at the bench. He opened the fridge and look in.
 

“What do you want? Is it too early for beer?” He looked at his watch. “Nah. You want a beer?”
 

I snorted. “Sure. I need one after a shopping trip.”
 

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.” He rolled his eyes and handed me a beer.
 

I shrugged, and tried to open the beer. Not a screw top. I looked around for the bottle opener.
 

“Sorry,” Liam said and took the beer back. He opened it with a faint pop and handed it back. I took a sip. I wasn’t usually a huge beer drinker, but this was quite nice.
 

“There are some really good craft breweries around here these days. We should go to a few when Dan gets here.”
 

“Yeah, it might be a bit wasted just on me. Wait, Americans do good beer? I thought they all drank Budweiser and Miller Lite.”
 

It was Liam’s turn to snort. “Oh how little you know, my friend. Craft beer is huge here.”
 

“If you say so.”
 

“I do say so.”
 

I grinned at him. “Well, this one’s pretty good.”
 

“Actually… that’s an import. That’s from back home.”
 

I looked at the bottle.
Boatrocker.
“Ah. So it is.”
 

“I hope you can manage to stay up later tonight than you managed last night.”
 

“Right. Yep. The party. Got any red bulls hiding away in the fridge?”
 

“Probably.”
 

“Yeah, nah, I’m just kidding. I think I’ll be fine.” I squinted at him. “Unless you Hollywood types don’t start your parties until almost midnight. You might lose me then.”

Liam chuckled. “Nah. Don’t worry. I invited them over for six or seven. We’ll order some pizzas.”
 

“Whose coming again?”

“Just a few friends.”
 

“Okay, cool.” I leaned over the bench and grabbed Liam’s wrist and twisted it so I could read his watch.
 
“Well, I might go and have a nap after I finish this beer, just to be on the safe side. Trying on a bazillion dresses is exhausting.”
 

Liam laughed. “Sure.”
 

Liam started telling me about a new movie role he was thinking about accepting. “It’s still kinda surreal, you know. For ages I was the one chasing the directors and producers, and taking anything I could get my hands on and now they’re the ones chasing me and I can actually pick and choose what I want to do.”
 

“You deserve it,” I said. “You’ve worked hard.” I took another sip of beer and held the bottle up to the light. I was almost finished.
 

Liam shrugged and looked a bit abashed. “No harder than lots of other actors. Mike works damn hard, and so do lots of other people I’ve met over the years. But they’re still chasing auditions and trying to get in with the right people.” He shrugged again. “I just got lucky, I guess.”
 

The beer must have started going to my head, because without really thinking I said, “it doesn’t hurt that you’ve turned into an absolutely drop dead gorgeous man.” I tried not to blush when my brain caught up with my mouth. Liam laughed and shook his head.
 

“I’m not that out of the ordinary. There are loads of decent looking blokes trying to make it here.”
 

I pretended to look at him objectively. “Nah. You’re pretty all right, Burns. Mike’s got nothing on you. Neither does any other male I know.”
 

Liam raised his impeccable eyebrows at me and scoffed.
 

“You, my friend, are completely biased. And possibly drunk.” He leaned over and reached for the bottle in front of me. “How strong is this beer anyway?”

“Oh shut up and just take the compliment. I’m going to go have a nap. Wake me up in an hour or so.”
 

Without waiting for an answer or acknowledgement, I jumped down off the bar stool and walked towards my room. Once I was in the corridor, away from the living area I held my hand up to my face. It was burning.
 

Is it Jen and Liam now? An anonymous source tells us that they are VERY MUCH an item and have been for “quite some time”! Apparently Jen is quitting her teaching job and moving to LA to be closer to her movie star hero. While some have speculated that she doesn’t have the chops to make it in LA, others fear that Liam is selling himself short and can do a LOT BETTER! What do you think dear readers? Is Jen good enough for our Liam?
 

“Oi, wake up sleepy head!”
 

I groaned and rolled away from the obnoxious noise.
 

“Jen. Wake up. People are going to be here in half an hour.”
 

“Go away,” I grumbled.

“You leave me no choice.” Before I had a chance to even open my eyes or to wonder what was about to happen, Liam flopped on top of me.
 

“Ugh! Gerroff! Too heavy!” I wheezed. The pressure on my whole body lessened. I opened my eyes warily. Liam was propped up on his elbows, grinning down at me.
 
A mischievous look had taken over his face, and I watched in morbid fascination as a spit bubble formed in his parted lips. I yelped.
 

“Don’t you effing dare spit on me, Liam Burns!”
 

He sucked the spit back in and grinned evilly at me.
 

“That woke you up.”
 

“You’re a dick.” I tried to push him off, even though I was kind of enjoying having him so close to me.
 

Liam just laughed. “Come on, get up. People are gonna be here soon. Can’t have my guest of honour passed out in her bedroom.” He shifted slightly so he wasn’t directly on top of me anymore. I felt slightly more awake, and my heart was beating a bit faster than usual.
 

“Well go away and let me get ready.” I rolled out from under him and straightened my clothes.
 

“Is that what you’re wearing?”

I looked down at myself. “What’s wrong with it?” I demanded. Before he could say anything though, I continued. “Don’t worry. Your kindly neighbours picked out an outfit for me to wear tonight. I won’t embarrass you.”
 

Liam frowned. “I wasn’t thinking you’d embarrass me. Don’t be silly.”
 

“Right. Well, anyway. Go get ready yourself.” I started to push him out of the room. It had been a lot easier to push him around when he’d been smaller than me.
 

“I’m ready,” he said, resisting my push. I looked him up and down. “Why? What’s wrong with how I look?” he demanded.
 

“Oh. Nothing. You look fine.”
 

Liam narrowed his eyes at me.
 

“That t-shirt is kinda ratty,” I said eventually. Liam huffed and stalked out of the room. I laughed to myself. He’d probably spend the next ten minutes trying on all his shirts.
 

I walked slowly over to the corner where Liam had dumped my shopping bags and rummaged through them until I found the outfit Fi and Raquel had said I should wear tonight. I looked at it again. I wasn’t entirely sure, but what the hell.
 

A quick shower later, and I was squeezing myself into the outfit. I could hear Liam rummaging around in his room, muttering to himself. I examined myself critically in the bathroom mirror. I contemplated trying to do something fancy with my make up to match the clothes, but in the end I felt rather out of my depth so I just whacked on my usual eye-liner, mascara, foundation and lip gloss. I’d save the fancy make-up for the professional. I’d probably just make myself look more like a clown than the sophisticated, sexy lady I was going for.
 

“Is this all right?” I looked up as Liam barged back into my room. We both looked each other up and down.
 

“Wow, you look great,” Liam said before I had a chance to open my mouth. I was thankful that I’d just put some foundation on - hopefully it was hiding the colour I could feel my cheeks going.
 

“Thanks,” I mumbled to my feet. I looked up again. “You look not too shabby yourself.”
 

Liam preened for a moment. I rolled my eyes at him.
 

“Do we need to get anything ready?” I asked and pushed passed him to get out into the corridor.
 

“Not really,” he said, following me down to the kitchen. “It’s a nice night, I thought we could sit out on the deck. Can you help me stock up the bar fridge?”
 

I nodded and stood obediently while Liam handed me a
 
a bunch of things out of the fridge. I couldn’t possibly carry them all at once, so I piled up a couple of six packs, three bottles of wine and a few bottles of soft drink on the counter. Plus some cheeses and dips, olives and salami.
 

“Olives? Wow, you’ve really grown up, haven’t you.” I’d been expecting beer and a couple of packets of chips.
 

Liam laughed a little self consciously and shrugged.
 

“What can I say? I’ve been partially tamed over the years.” Right. Holly.
 

I smiled weakly. “Well, it’s an improvement, I’ve got to admit. Remember your first house warming party?”
 

Liam chuckled and opened one of the cupboards and started pulling out bags of chips and crackers, as well as a fancy looking baguette in a paper bag. He must have gone shopping while I’d been out with Raquel and Fi.
 

“Yeah. We didn’t exactly plan that very well.” They’d invited a stack of people over around dinner time, and all they’d had was a single packet of Doritos. And a lot of beer. We’d all been milling around getting progressively drunker and hungrier until someone had the bright idea of pooling our megre money and ordering some take-away. Thank goodness for pizza delivery drivers.
 

Once Liam seemed satisfied that he’d freed everything he wanted from their captivity in the cupboards, we loaded ourselves up and I followed him out to the deck. We set up and Liam proudly showed me his fairy lights. I made an effort not to laugh as he said, “I put them up myself!”
 

“Looks great,” I managed when I was sure I wasn’t going to burst out laughing. The deck did look nice. Very nice.
 

“What would you like do drink, Madame?” Liam positioned himself behind the bar and posed.
 

“Madame?” I mock frowned. “I’m pretty sure I’m still a Mademoiselle, thank you very much, Sir! And I’ll have a glass of that Nelson Bay Sauvignon Blanc, thank you kind sir.”
 

Liam laughed. “Right you are, Mademoiselle.”
 

“I should make my kids call me that. I’m sick of getting called ‘Miss’ all the time. I swear some of them don’t even know my actual name. I’m just Miss to them.”
 

“What, really? I don’t remember ever calling any of our teachers Miss.” He handed me a glass of wine. I took a sip and then sighed to myself. It was delicious. I was going to have to upgrade from my usual $10 bottles after this trip. My taste-buds were being spoiled.
 

“I know, right? It was always their actual name; Mrs Mac, Mr Jones. But yeah. Nearly every school I’ve been at, they call you Miss or Sir. Sometimes both.”
 

Liam spluttered. “You’ve been called Sir?”
 

I laughed at the memories. “Yeah, a few times. It’s pretty funny. The kids are always mortified when they do it. The best was being called Mum though. You shoulda seen the look on his face. My brattiest year 9 boy, and he goes ‘But Muumum!”
 

Liam laughed.
 

“I did get called Sir at the the airport last year. I didn’t realise he was even talking to me at first. The parking guy kept saying ‘Sir, you need to move your car. Sir? Sir, I need you to move your car.’ I gave him a pretty good stink-eye when I realised he was talking to me. Do I look like a bloke to you?”
 

“Oh, I dunno. Some days you look pretty rough,” Liam said in a dead pan voice. I scowled at him. He grinned at me. “Of course not. Although I think Grant always thought you were just a very small bloke with weird lumps on your chest.”
 

I smiled.
 

“Dunno about that. Remember Sarah’s 18
th
? At the restaurant in Warrnambool?” Liam shook his head.
 
“I borrowed one of Steph’s tops and it was a bit more revealing than the good old rugby jumpers we wore at school. All three of you kept staring at my boobs and then one of you had the bright idea of having a competition to see who could throw the most stuff down my cleavage!”
 

Liam laughed. “Oh, yeah. I remember that now. Good times,” he said.
 

“Good times? I had a pea in my cleavage! It smushed up when I tried to get it out!”
 

Liam just laughed harder. “Remind me to remind Dan about that when he gets here.”
 

I just rolled my eyes and said, “Sure thing.”
 

“You hungry?” While we’d been talking, he had been busy putting a couple of platters together. House-trained indeed. I grabbed an olive and popped it in my mouth.
 

Liam’s phone buzzed. He grabbed it and smiled slightly.
 

“First lot are here. Wait here, I’ll go and let them in.”
 

I stood awkwardly, waiting for them to come back. I put my drink down on the bench and then picked it up again when I realised I was swinging my arms.