The Hollywood Effect (4 page)

“How’d you get here anyway? You didn’t taxi it all the way from Melbourne did you?”
 

Liam laughed. “No, not even I’m that rich. I got lucky. Uncle Barry was in Melbourne for a conference. He drove me back. That’s how I knew where you were living.”

“Didn’t want to stay with him?” I asked, even though I felt quietly pleased and proud that he’d picked me.
 

“I trust Uncle Barry, but Kasey can’t keep her mouth shut. I learnt that the hard way.” Kasey was Barry’s eldest daughter. She was a year younger than Liam. Her quotes had popped up a few too many times in the tabloids.
 

“Oh, does she still live at home?”
 

“Yep. She dropped out of uni last year and moved back home. She’s been working as Uncle Barry’s receptionist.”
 

“Oh, okay,” I said. “I must have missed her when I went in.”
 

It didn’t take us long to get to the bottle shop. We hovered outside the pool of light.
 

“What do you want?”
 

Liam pulled out his wallet and handed me a hundred dollars. I frowned at it. “How much beer are we drinking tonight?”

“I don’t feel like beer. I want whisky. Good stuff too, not the cheap shit we used to drink.”
 

“Well, your money, your choice,” I said.
 

“I don’t care, Jen. Which ever one has the prettiest label. I know how you like to get the pretty ones.”

“Well, that’s usually wine, not whiskey…” I rolled my eyes and marched into the drive-thru. It felt a bit weird walking into a drive-thru, but it wasn’t the first time.
 

Bert, the old publican, came out off his stool.
 

“A good evening to you, young Jennifer. What can I get you this fine evening?”
 

“Um, what have you got in the whiskey department? Nice whiskey. It’s, um, it’s a present for someone.”

“Nice whiskey, eh? Well how about The Dalmore, it’s a twelve year old? Or a Glenlivet fifteen year - that’s a nice drop.”

“Oh, um… sure, The Dalmore.” It had a pretty stag on the bottle. “Yeah, that looks good.” I really had no idea.
 

Bert scanned the bottle through.
 

“Better get a bottle of ginger ale too, if you’ve got it.”
 

“Certainly do.”
 

I handed the money over. I was glad Liam was paying. I hadn’t had my first pay day yet. We’d be getting a cheap bottle of wine if it was up to me. I got a scarily small amount of change back.
 

“Thanks, Bert.” I nodded goodnight and rejoined the lurking hoodlum. “Here you go,” I handed him the bag with one hand and the change with the other.
 

“I hope I picked a good one. It wasn’t cheap.”
 

Liam just shrugged. “It’s a special occasion… and seriously, after the stuff that gets thrown at you in Hollywood? This is nothing. Stress less, my friend. I’ll buy you some amazing stuff when you come visit me in the States.”
 

I just snorted. “Okay then.”
 

Liam looked in the bag. “What did you get the soft drink for?”

“Mixer?”
 

Liam just sighed at me and shook his head.
 

Soon enough we were back at my place. We’d successfully avoided any attention except from an adorable dog who’d followed us home. I’d had to shut the door in the poor old boy’s face. I didn’t know who he belonged to, but he had a collar and didn’t look like a stray. I hoped he’d find his way home.
 

Liam took a seat at the kitchen table that I’d inherited from Aunty Kerrie while I found some clean glasses for us.
 

“Have you got ice?”
 

“Yeah.” I went over to the freezer and pulled a tray out. I put a couple of cubes in each glass and then placed the glasses in front of him before sitting one the opposite side of the table to him. He carefully poured a more than generous serving into each glass and pushed one over to me. He raised his glass to me, and we clinked.
 

“Cheers,” he said.
 

“Cheers… to what?”
 

He paused and looked into his glass.“To being free. And finding out
before
the wedding.”
 

“I can cheers to that,” I said. We clinked glasses and both took a sip. It burned all the way down. I knew you were meant to enjoy expensive whiskey by itself but…
 

“I’m sorry, but I really need some ginger ale in this!” I blurted out. Liam shook his head in mock disgust. Or maybe it was real disgust. I wasn’t quite sure.
 

I filled up my glass with ginger ale and took another sip. It was still very strong, but at least it didn’t make me wince anymore. Much.
 

“So do your parents even know you’re here?” I asked.
 

“Yeah. I’ll go and see them tomorrow. Maybe. Or maybe they could come here? I really can’t be bothered with all that other bullshit right now.”
 

“Yeah, sure, whatever suits. Frank and Linda haven’t seen the new pad yet. I’d been meaning to invite them over. Get them to bring Dad.”
 

“How’s your Dad?”

I shrugged. “Okay. Not okay. I don’t know. Some days are better than others. It’s a bit hard to get him out of the house.”

 
“Yeah. It’s gotta be tough…”
 

“I know. But, sometimes…”

Sometimes I wanted to be the kid. I’d lost my mother. I wanted to huddle in a ball, crying my eyes out for days on end at the unfairness of it all. I wanted my dad to be my parent and tell me it was going to be okay, that we’d get there. That not every day would be this hard. Be there for me, not the other way round. I realised I’d been staring into space for a bit too long and Liam was looking at me strangely.
 

“Sorry,” I shook myself. “I just… it’s hard. This is probably going to make me sound like a selfish bitch, but I lost my mum too. I know he lost his wife, and they were so madly in love still, but… she was my mum, you know? Sometimes it feels like he forgets that we’re grieving too.”
 

“You don’t sound like a bitch, Jen.”
 

I let out a deep breath and rubbed my face.
 

“I think this year’s been even harder on him than last year. He was meant to retire at the start of the year and they were going to go on their epic round the world trip. They’d been planning it for years…” I trailed off.
 

Liam made a sympathetic sound and reached over to squeeze me on the shoulder. I shrugged him off.
 

“Anyway, what are you going to do now?” I asked, in a voice that sounded falsely bright to my ears.
 

Liam grimaced. “I don’t know. I have to go back next week. We’re starting shooting on a new movie. It’s on location in Texas though, so I can avoid her for a while longer.” He half-laughed to himself.
 

“Uh, is avoiding her really the best option?” I asked tentatively.
 

“Probably not, but I can’t face her right now, Jen. I just... ugh.” I watched helplessly as he dropped his head into his hands. “Why’d I have to go and fall in love with a fucking movie star. I should have picked someone normal. Normal people don’t go off having affairs with their directors or co-stars.”
 

“Well, no, but they do have affairs with their secretaries and bosses and co-workers... wait, director? I thought it was with Jack Lemon.”

Liam sighed. “This isn’t the first time. I’m so stupid.” He shook his head in disgust. I just waited silently. “She had a fling with one of her directors a couple of years ago. We were still pretty new. They managed to keep that one out of the press somehow. She confessed it to me and apologised and promised it would never ever ever happen again.” I winced as Liam slammed his fist on the table.
 

“I’m sorry, mate.” It felt inadequate, and I wanted to take it back.
 

“What are you sorry for? It’s not your fault.” He took a swig of the whiskey. “I’m the dumbass who believed her.”
 

“I guess I’m just sorry you’re going through this,” I said. It hadn’t really hit me at first, Liam was pretty good at putting on false cheer - he was an actor after all - but I could see how much he was hurting, and a growing anger was building up inside me. How dare anyone hurt my Liam. Was she crazy? I felt like calling her and giving her a piece of my mind. Probably a good thing that I didn’t have her number.
 

“Me too…” Liam said.
 

“Millions of girls would do anything to be in her place, and she fucks it up. What a complete idiot,” I said. It was true. I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any lack of willing consoling arms for him to fall into as soon as he stepped off the plane back in America. Or here in this house… no. Not the time, I told myself with a quick shake.
 

“Yeah but most of those girls… no I’ll go out on a limb and say all of those girls don’t actually want to be with me for
me.
They want to be with someone famous. That’s it. I’m kinda sick of it. Anyway,” he paused and poured us both another drink. “How the teaching gig going?”
 

“You don’t want to hear about that,” I said, shaking my head. How mundane my life was compared to his.
 

“No, I do. Seriously. What’s it like being back in good old Tarang?”
 

I shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s just temporary. The contract’s just for this year. Maternity leave position. Lesson planning is a bitch. But it sure beats the hell out of CRT work.”

“What’s CRT work?”
 

“Casual Relief Teaching. I was doing that last year while I finished off my Masters. It sucks. Well, it’s okay when you have a good day with well-behaved classes and the teacher actually left work for them to do… but all too often the students are horrid, the teacher didn’t leave enough, or sometimes any work, and you spend the whole day trying to manage behaviour and no actual teaching or learning gets done. Plus most of the time you’ve got no idea if you’re gonna get work until that morning… the pay was all right though. I only had to work 4 days a month to make the same as I got on Centrelink, and I usually got way more than that, so that was nice - actually having some disposable income again!”

“What are the Centrelink rates these days?” Liam asked.
 

“I was getting about a thousand a month the first year of the Masters,” I said.
 

Liam whistled. “Not much! I know people who go through that in a day.”
 

“Yeah, I bet you do,” I laughed.
 

“How’d you get by? I could have helped out, you know.”
 

“No, it was fine. I wouldn’t take your money, Burnsy. I got by. Just gotta be frugal. I have to say though, it’s sure hella nice knowing how much I’ll be making each week!” I said. It was true. Last year was fine, financially, but I never knew exactly how much I’d be making each month which made planning a bit difficult.
 

“You never told me properly what happened with Evan,” Liam said. I blinked, then shrugged.
 

“It didn’t work out. We realised we want totally different things in life. He’s a selfish, materialistic arse, and well… I’m not. And he didn’t like fish & chips. Or camping. Or anything I liked, really.”

“Yeah, I was wondering what the hell you were doing with him for so long.”

“The sex was good,” I said. Liam choked on the sip of whiskey he’d just taken.
 

“Didn’t need to know that,” he spluttered. I just laughed. “You’re better off without him. Did I ever tell you he tried to talk me into investing with him?”

I raised an eyebrow. “No, he didn’t.” If we weren’t already broken up, I’d be having serious words with him.
 

“Yeah. Some scheme to go into natural disaster struck areas and buy up land on the cheap…”

“Sounds ethical!”

“Yeah, not really the image I want to cultivate…”

“That guy… I swear all that motivates him is money. And who can do what for him. You know, you’re probably the only reason he stayed with me so long.”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Connections to the rich and famous.” I shook my head in disgust. I’d never been gladder to be dumped. In hindsight. At the time I’d been rather upset. It hadn’t lasted long. Amazing what stories your friends will tell you
after
a relationship is over.
 

We spent the rest of the night talking away and catching up. We hadn’t had a good long chat like this for about eight months, since the last time he’d come home without Holly. It just wasn’t the same via email or text, and we weren’t very good at catching each other on the phone with the time differences. I’d missed him. Yeah, I had a massive crush on him that I’d been trying to smother for years, but I also missed the friendship, just hanging out like we used to do.
 

Liam ended up staying the night. I tucked one of my spare blankets around him as he snored softly on the couch, and padded to my room. I lay awake for a little while, half drifting into a fantasy about Liam declaring that he’d been in love with me all along, and wondering if anything would change, now that he and Holly had broken up. Probably not. He’d just move on to some new actress or singer. Or maybe a singer who wanted to be an actress. Or vice-versa. It was too soon to be thinking about Liam in a romantic way. He was heartbroken over Holly. And seriously, it would never work for us. Even if he was interested. Which he wasn’t. Besides, long distance was horrid. I’d tried it for a couple of months with my ex-boyfriend Steve and swore never to do it again. And anyway, his life was over there now, in Los Angeles, in Hollywood. It was a different world, one that, to be honest, I didn’t want any part of. I repeated that to myself until I fell asleep.