The Hollywood Effect (19 page)

I didn’t have to wait too long. Liam came back out, followed by a familiar looking young man and woman. I frowned, trying to place where I knew them from. The guy was tall, but not quite as tall as Liam, with sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. The woman was curvy in all the right places, with red hair so bright I couldn’t tell whether it was natural or out of a bottle. Liam led them over to where I was, and beamed at us all.
 

“Jen, this is Pete and Abigail. Pete, Abigail, this is my very good friend, Jen.”
 

Duh
. I mentally shook myself.
Peter Cornish
and
Abigail Wilson.
Movie stars, that’s why they looked familiar. They’d been in one of Liam’s films.
 

“Call me Abby, please. It’s lovely to meet you.”
 

I smiled faintly, and took her outstretched hand, feeling slightly overwhelmed. For some reason I hadn’t put two and two together. When Liam talked about
friends
over here, of course they’d be other actors. I don’t know why I hadn’t expected it. He didn’t exactly name drop much. Although he had talked about his mate Pete a few times. I just didn’t realise Pete the guy who liked karaoke was Peter Cornish, internationally renowned character actor.
 

I shook Abby’s hand and then turned to Pete, but he surprised me and gave me a casual hug and a kiss on the cheek. No big deal. Just Pete Cornish kissing me on the cheek.
 

“Great to finally meet you, Jen. Old Burns here has told me all about you,” Pete said, surprising me by speaking with a British accent. I’d always assumed he was American; he always spoke with an American accent in the movies I’d seen him in. But then again, Liam often did as well, and he was about as Aussie as you could get.
 

“Good things, I hope!” I eventually managed to blurt out. Pete laughed charmingly.
 

“Of course.” He smiled dazzlingly down at me and then winked at Liam.
 

Liam’s phone buzzed again. “Excuse me,” he said and headed back inside, leaving me standing slightly starstruck with the two actors.
 

Abby turned her sparkling green eyes to me. Surely they were contacts? Could eyes really be that intense?!

“You’re visiting?”
 

I nodded, mouth annoyingly dry and took a gulp of wine. “Yes. For the premiere.”
 

“Lovely! How long are you staying for? Liam didn’t say.” Abby smiled warmly at me, waiting for my response.
 

“Just a week and a half. It’s school holidays back home, so I’ll need to be back when classes start again.”
 

“That’s right! You’re a teacher, aren’t you?” Pete exclaimed, slightly too excited.
 

I nodded again. “Yep. I’m a teacher. Not nearly as glamorous as you two,” I said and then wondered how weird that sounded.
 

“Rubbish,” Pete said. “Teaching is a noble career, isn’t it Abby?”
 

Abby smiled kindly. “It is. I always thought about being a teacher, if the whole acting career didn’t work out. I think it’s a very important job. But difficult and under appreciated. My mother is a teacher. What do you teach? Elementary or high school?”
 

“Oh, really? I teach high school. English and history.”
 

“Wow, that’s so cool,” Abby gushed. I was taken aback for a moment. I’d never thought of my profession as ‘cool’, and coming from a successful actress… I was starting to suspect she was taking the piss.
 

“No, I mean it,” Abby said quickly. I wondered what my face was doing. “Don’t I, Pete?”
 

Pete nodded.
 

We were saved by Liam coming back out to the deck, followed by two pretty good looking young men. I didn’t recognise these ones, at least I didn’t think so. They looked vaguely familiar in the way that a lot of pretty people do, but I didn’t think I’d actually seen them in anything. Liam led them over to where Pete, Abby and I were still standing by the bar.
 

Liam introduced the two young men, who it turned out were brothers. They were musicians, playing in a band I’d never heard of.
 

“You should get a photo,” Liam said to me. “Your students will be impressed.”
 

“What?” I looked between Liam and the two brothers (Billy and Scott) and back again.
 

“It’s true,” Scott (or was it Billy?) said, somewhat self-depreciatively. “We’re quite popular in the 12-15 set.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. Thankfully they didn’t seem to take themselves too seriously and laughed as well.
 

Liam busied himself getting everyone a drink and directing them to his antipasto platters. They didn’t bat an eye at Liam Burns having antipasto platters, so I assumed he did it somewhat frequently these days. I was pretty sure Liam didn’t even know what antipasto meant when we’d been at school. How things change.
 

“The party can start! I’m here!” We all turned towards the door, where Mike was standing dramatically.
 

“Oh, phew.” Liam laughed. Mike strutted over to us and nodded to everyone.
 

“How’d the audition go, then?” Liam asked, handing Mike a beer.
 

Mike took a swig and then looked around the circle. “Good, really good I think. I got a call-back on the way home. Going in again tomorrow.” He looked very pleased with himself. Liam clapped him on the shoulder.

“That’s great. Maybe you can start paying rent once you get the job!”
 

Mike laughed and shook his head. “You’re so funny, Burns.”
 

Liam rolled his eyes at me. I smiled back.
 

A few more people trickled in over the next hour. Not all of Liam’s friends were famous actors or musicians it seemed - Liam introduced me to a short guy with crazy ginger hair named Bob, who he met in a park and hit it off with. Bob was a programmer, who happened to like guitars nearly as much as Liam did. I zoned out as they started raving about some new guitar. Or an old one. I wasn’t paying enough attention to be entirely sure.
 

Bob confessed to me later in the night that he didn’t watch many movies and didn’t have a clue who Liam was when he met him. I could see why Liam liked him.
 

“So, are you having a good time?” Liam asked me. We were standing by the bar, and he was pouring me another drink. I picked out a chip and popped it in my mouth with a crunch.
 

“Yeah. Your friends are nice. Although, seriously, you could have mentioned that your friend Pete was actually Peter Cornish.” He handed me my refilled wine glass and grabbed another beer for himself.
 

“Oh, didn’t I? I thought you knew…”
 

I shook my head. “For some reason I always pictured him as a short tubby guy with dark hair whenever you talked about him.”
 

Liam snorted.

“Yeah, I know. Pretty much the opposite of what he actually looks like,” I said.
 

“You look really nice, did I tell you that?” Liam looked down at me, with an odd look on his face. I opened my mouth to retort that obviously his beer goggles were in effect, but stopped, the words dying in my throat.
 
A slim young woman, with long dark brown hair had just arrived. It couldn’t be. Liam leaned over and gently pushed my open mouth shut.
 

“Is that… is that Lily Bristowe?” I whispered urgently to Liam, turning my back on my idol. He glanced over my shoulder and smiled, looking pleased.
 

“Yeah. Come on,” he gripped my elbow. “I’ll introduce you.”
 

“What? No! No, way.”
 

Liam frowned down at me with a bemused look. “And why not? She’s lovely. You’ll like her.”
 

“Like her?” I whispered frantically, digging my heels in and turning my back on my idol. “Like her? I love her! I think she’s awesome and I have the biggest girly crush, you couldn’t even imagine, I couldn’t possibly talk to her. Nope. No way.”
 

Liam’s gave me a warning look.
 

“What? She is awesome.”

“Who’s awesome?” I froze as an all too familiar, slightly husky voice spoke right behind me.
 

“Me of course,” Liam said after a moment where I struggled to breath.
 

“I didn’t know you were a woman, Liam.” That low laugh. Was this really happening? I surreptitiously pinched my arm. It hurt. Be cool, I told myself. Be cool.
 

Liam swooped down on her and gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek. She smiled brightly up and him and then turned to me expectantly.
 

“Lily, this is my friend Jen. She’s visiting from Australia. Jen, Lily.”

Lily smiled warmly at me. “Great to meet you.” She looked behind her with a slight frown. “I seem to have lost my friend. Anyway, if you see a giant dork with purple glasses, it’s my friend George. He’s visiting the big smoke from back home. North Dakota,” she added for my benefit. I didn’t want to let on that I already knew she was from North Dakota so I just nodded.
 

The rest of the night passed in a bit of a blur. I kept pinching myself. Yep, that really was Lily Bristowe sitting at the table across from me, even laughing at some of my lamer jokes. I glanced between Liam and Lily. They looked cute together but I couldn’t even detect a hint of flirting. Just playful banter. Kind of like me and Liam, I thought with a sigh.
 

“I’ll see you at the premiere!” Lily Bristowe said with a wave as she was leaving. I hadn’t even realised she was in Liam’s latest film. I should probably have at least watched the trailer for the film I was going to the premiere for. I felt like a bad friend to Liam, and as if I couldn’t even proclaim myself to be a Lily Bristowe fan. In my defence though, she seemed to be in every second film these days. I’d lost track.
 

Raquel came over early in the next afternoon and helped me to get ready like she’d promised to do. It was weird having someone else do my make-up. It felt very odd to just sit there passively while someone else fussed around my face. Raquel kept me from getting bored by keeping up a running commentary on what it was like growing up gay in a small Southern town. Despite being on different continents, small towns seemed fairly similar all over the world. She wouldn’t let me look in the mirror until she’d finished.
 

“Wow, you’re amazing,” I breathed when she finally let me catch a glimpse of myself. Raquel leaned back, looking pleased with herself.
 

“No, sweetheart, you’re amazing. I was just working with what you’ve already got.”
 

I turned my head back and forth, glimpsing myself from different angles. Was that really me? I barely recognised myself.

Raquel watched me stare at myself with a knowing grin. “You look wonderful,” she said. “Now, lets get you into that gorgeous dress.”
 

I was thankful that she was there because I wouldn’t have been able to figure out the damn dress without her. I missed my simple, easy to put on, trusty red and blue dress. Not for too long though.
 

“Wait,” Raquel said, again not letting me look in the mirror. She strode over to the door and pulled it open. “Liam!” she called out. He must have been lurking nearby, because he came in almost straight away.
 

“What is it?” Liam sounded worried.
 

“Come on out, honey.”
 

I stepped around the corner and into the room properly. Liam looked somewhat like I imagined I looked the night before when I’d first seen Lily Bristowe. I let out a laugh.
 

“Close your mouth, your brains will all leak out.”

He blinked and shook his head.
 

“So, what do you think?” Raquel prompted.
 

“You look bloody brilliant, Jen.”
 

Liam’s eyes locked onto mine. I blushed. “Aww, shucks.” I managed to get out after a moment. I looked him up and down. “You scrub up all right yourself.” He was wearing a well fitted grey suit. He shrugged self-depreciatingly.
 

“Bit hard to go wrong with a suit,” he said. “You ladies get to have the real fun with the dresses.”
 

“I’m sure no one would mind if you wore a dress as well.” I grinned at him, almost forgetting Raquel was in the room with us. We couldn’t seem to keep our eyes off each other. He was just not used to seeing me all dressed up, I reasoned and told myself not to read anything into it.
 

Raquel cleared her throat. “What time is your ride getting here?”

Liam glanced down at his watch.
 

“We’ve still got about an hour. Do you both want a drink - Raquel, I think you’ve more than earned one.”
 

Right. She’d turned plain old frumpy me into someone who could possibly fit in. Maybe. If I didn’t open my mouth too often.
 

I barely noticed as Raquel nodded and said something to Liam, and they left the room. I stood there looking at myself in the mirror. I didn’t think my students would recognise me. I barely recognised myself. Thanks to Raquel’s wizardry with a make-up brush, I wouldn’t even look twice if I saw this person in the Best and Worst Dressed section of a magazine. I wasn’t sure which category this strange in the mirror would fall into. Half the time I liked the ‘Worst’ dresses and thought the ‘Best’ dresses were horrible. Obviously I was not an expert and didn’t have any taste.
 

“Are you coming?” Liam was back, head poking around the door. “You really do look great,” he said again with a slightly mischievous grin.

I smiled wanly. “Thanks.”
 

“What’s the matter?” he asked, concern suddenly etched on his beautiful face.
 

I shook my head. “Nothing. Seriously. I just…” I trailed off, not even sure what was wrong.