“But how shall you ever know me if you do not let me give you wine?” he protested.
“I don’t know,” she said with a cheerful shrug. “Maybe I’ll see you doing the light thing when production starts,” she said, drawing an invisible light thing in the sky before picking up her gun. “I’d love to stay and chat, but this uniform is really hot, and I’ve got shoes to buy.”
“Hasta luego, Leah. I shall whisper your name to the stars,” he said, gesturing poetically to the clear blue sky. And he smiled so warmly that she actually felt her skin tingle a bit. She waved at him, and slinging her fake gun over her shoulder, she walked on, laughing skyward when she heard him begin to sing her name to the stars.
Subject: My First Movie Premiere
From: Leah Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>
To: Lucy Frederick <[email protected]>
Time: 7:15 pm
So guess where I’m going. Okay, okay, you can tell from the heading. Can you believe it? It’s the premiere of The Hero, and you will not believe the dress I am wearing. It’s turquoise blue, and I found these really fabulous CFM shoes (you will NOT believe where) that are almost the exact same shade. Isn’t that cool?
Subject: Re: My First Movie Premiere
From: Lucy Frederick <[email protected]>
To: Leah Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>
Time: 10:20 pm
Okay, start with where you got the shoes, then at least tell me how you are managing an actual movie premiere (and isn’t Ewan McGregor in that movie? I LOVE LOVE LOVE him!). And when you get through telling me all that, then maybe you can explain why you can suddenly decide on a color for your stupid movie premiere dress, but you can’t seem to help ME settle on a color for the bridesmaids’ dresses! Speaking of bridesmaids, when I take into account my cousins, and my friends from Holyoke, and a couple of women I work with, who I cannot leave out, that gives me 10 bridesmaids, including you. What do you think? Is that enough?
Oh yeah, BTW, just in case you think I’m an idiot, I am not. I know that because you are skirting around the central question of HOW you are going to the premiere, it can only mean one thing: Michael. Leah, have you lost your mind? How can you not see that you are setting yourself up for a huge fall?
Subject: Re: Re: My First Movie Premiere
From: Leah Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>
To: Lucy Frederick <[email protected]>
Time: 8:21 pm
Thanks for understanding. Did I tell you he says he loves me? Don’t bother writing back to tell me how crazy I am because I already know it. Anyway, I have to go. I told Brad I’d go with him for pizza to celebrate his getting a commercial today. It’s regional, but it will definitely pay his share of the rent, and frankly, I was beginning to sweat that. Check you later, L.
P.S. I was just kidding about the turquoise. I am fine with whatever color you choose.
Chapter Sixteen
MICHAEL was growing increasingly exasperated. Budget woes and problems with the location where they would be shooting, and even bigger woes getting visas for the Italians to do some extreme hiking in the Peruvian Andes, were keeping him from boot camp and Leah.
He and the rest of the guys worked late into Wednesday night, so he never saw her around camp that day. But he called her on his way home.
She picked up on the third ring, and her sleep-heavy voice said, “Hello?”
“Leah,” he said, sighing into the phone. “Did I wake you?”
“No. Maybe a little,” she admitted groggily. “What are you doing?”
“I just finished up with the Peru thing,” he said. “I’m sorry I missed you today.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” she said through a yawn. “I was pretty busy learning how to avoid getting hit by paint. And might I add, that paint hurts.”
He smiled into the phone. “I know. Go back to sleep, baby. I just wanted to say hi. Are you ready for the premiere Friday?”
“Are you kidding?”
“I’ll pick you up around six.”
“Okay. Bye, Michael,” she said sleepily, and hung up.
He clicked off the phone, tossed it into the passenger seat, and drove up Santa Monica Boulevard, remembering one night in New York when he’d come home late from work to find her snoozing away on his couch. She had let herself in, obviously intending to surprise him by donning some of the sexiest lingerie he had ever seen. But she had fallen asleep waiting for him, and by the time he came home, she was laying half on and half off the couch. One foot was missing a stiletto, and the gauzy little teddy had twisted around her body, leaving several delicious parts of her uncovered.
Personally, he’d never seen a sexier woman in his life.