I swallowed. The things she’d said flickered in the back of my mind, suddenly making sense.
My sisters will never believe I danced with Tommy Prince.
I’m really quite boring. More ordinary than you could ever imagine. Almost a shut-in.
If I had to hazard a guess, and again, I’m a good guesser, Cindy finally got fed up. That’s why the dry cleaners had been in such a state of profound disarray this morning. She was probably the one who made it work. In her absence, they were struggling.
Quincy sighed. “We came here so my sister and I could pursue acting, but Cindy’s just been holding the whole family back. Maybe it’s better she’s gone. At least she introduced us, right?” she reached for my hand across the table and I recoiled.
“I need to go.”
It all made sense now. I’d told Cindy that my dad wanted me to marry a socialite. So, she’d let me believe that’s what she was. But when things got a bit too real, she’d gotten scared. She’d bolted. And now, most likely, she was on her way to Altoona, Wisconsin unless I could find her first.
“Excuse me, Mr. Prince,” a random woman said, coming up to our table. “I’m Meg Butler from Access Exclusive. I got a tip that you were here with your new girlfriend, Quincy Brown. Can I get a picture of the two of you together for our evening blog post?”
I stared over at Quincy, shocked and appalled. She smirked back at me.
20
Cindy
I cut the dress apart and put it back together in record time. By the forty-five-minute mark, I was adding a decorative hem. Lena didn’t come back for an hour and a half, so I had more than enough time to make the best damn size twelve dress you’ve ever seen made from a hideous blue and yellow polyester blend with a repeating daisy print. It even looked pretty good on Lena.
“Okay, you’re hired,” she said, looking at herself in the mirror. “I’m really feeling the bell sleeves. It’s got a great sixties vibe.”
The dress had originally been a size sixteen and floor length. I’d shortened it and used the extra fabric to create the sleeves. It did have kind of a mod, mini-dress thing going on now. And it suited Lena’s eccentric look well. She turned this way and that in the dress, examining it from every angle. She looked pleased. I stood next to her, scared that she would find something to criticize.
“Nice work,” she said eventually. “You know your stuff.”
Marigold never gave me compliments on my work. It felt weird to even receive one. I shifted awkwardly back and forth. I resisted the urge to jump for joy.
“I’m glad you like it,” I managed to make myself say.
She bobbed her head up and down approvingly. “Okay, Cindy, I can pay you eighteen dollars an hour, but I’m only going to need you for the next three weeks. We pay cash only, under the table. No payroll taxes, but also no rent verification. You good with that?”
“That’s fine. Preferable actually.”
I didn’t know anything about taxes. For the moment, cash seemed like it would be simpler. I would eventually need something longer term, but I’d had a hunch that this would be a way to find work fast, and it had paid off. I took the first clean breath I’d had all day. I would be able to feed myself.
“Do you live in that van parked at the curb?” Lena asked.
I froze. I guess it was a gigantic blue van (we’d been too poor for a custom paint job).
“Yeah. For now.”
She nodded. “I figured. Okay. Just park it around back please. You can use the showers in the dressing rooms.”
My mouth fell open and I closed it with a conscious effort. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” she told me. “It’s going to be a lot of work for the next couple of weeks. I have high expectations, as you’ve seen. But if you do well here, the next production won’t be hard to get hired onto. Then the next. This is how everybody starts in Hollywood, but in a while, if you do well, you might end up working on movies.” She took in my shocked expression. “Well, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To be the next Edith Head?”
I swallowed. Maybe. I didn’t really know. I nodded shyly anyway.
“Don’t hide it then,” Lena told me. “Be honest about your ambition. If you don’t take yourself seriously, no one else ever will. Trust me, it took me a long time to figure out.”
“I—thank you,” I stuttered. It was good advice. I should learn to take it.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t thank me. I just made you create a dress for me for free. That’s my other piece of advice, Cindy. Don’t ever work for free again. Now,” she said turning to the pile of garments waiting for alterations, “let’s talk about all the work I’m going to pay you for.”
By the time our ten-minute conversation was over, I felt like a new woman. I had a job, a purpose, and a shit ton of work to do.
But even as I dug into the work, my mind kept circling back to Tommy. Had he ever called me like he said that he would? I doubted it. He probably had another date tonight. He probably had dates every night of the week. I’m sure I was just another eager face to him. Another silly girl who let him kiss her. I’d have let him do more than that too. I would have been happy to.
Men only want one thing from girls like you, Cindy.
Marigold’s words echoed in my head. She was probably right, of course. But it didn’t feel good to think that I was disposable to Tommy. He’d seemed, I don’t know, better than that. He’d seemed decent. But even if he hadn’t been… Even if he had just wanted sex, I would have happily given it to him. Because he was the only man that I’d ever met that I wanted in that way. Now, who knew if I’d ever stop being a virgin? I’d probably die one.
I shook my head, digging out a pair of trousers from the pile that needed to be shortened three inches. He was much better off without me. I wasn’t the kind of girl his family wanted for him. I was probably about as far from being a good match for him as was physically possible for two members of the same species.
My family were the bluest of blue collar. No one that I knew of in my family had ever gone to college. Maybe a far-flung cousin or two. Besides, my immediate family weren’t just poor; they were evil and manipulative people too. That’s by far the worst kind.
Tommy was definitely better off never knowing my family. I could only imagine what they would do if they knew he’d met me. They’d milk that relationship, small as it was, for whatever they could get out of it. They’d never let up.
I shivered. Better that he never see them. Even if it meant he wouldn’t see me either.
The day passed in a dizzy, crazy rush. I worked my fingers to the bone, which was nothing new, but with a renewed sense of purpose. And there was no cleaning! For once, I didn’t have to scrape or soak a single thing. It was like a miracle.
By the time the clock said it was five p.m., I’d made a sizable dent in the giant pile of alterations. It felt satisfying to see the progress, even though I was exhausted. I tidied the area a bit, put everything in neat piles for tomorrow, and headed out of the theater. I needed to move the van around to the back of the theater and take a shower. Then it was Cheerios for dinner and bed.
I walked out of the theater’s front entrance and straight into Derek Prince.
21
Tommy
“I don’t know, man,” Derek told me. “Maybe you should just move on.”
I held the phone away from my face and frowned at it. I knew Derek couldn’t see it, but it felt better to frown at an actual object.
“Why would you say that?” I asked him. “I’m going to find her.”
“But should you?” he asked. “I mean, it sounds like her family is legit kind of nuts. Or she is. One of them is, anyway.”
I’d just given him the entire lowdown on the interaction I’d had with Quincy and Marigold today. He’d asked about a billion questions. Now he was sounding like I was the one that was crazy.
“Our family is kind of nuts,” I reminded him. “Plus, they aren’t rea
lly her family. They’re just her stepfamily. It seems like there’s no love lost between them.”
“You must really like this girl. You’ve only met her twice?” Derek sounded very skeptical. “She must really be something.”
I blinked. “She is.”
He sighed. “Okay. I’ll help you. What do you want me to do again?”
“You know a private investigator, right?”
“Um, yeah. But LA is full of them. You don’t need me to find one.”
“But you know one that you trust,” I told him. “I need to try and find Cindy’s van. It’s a big blue van.”
I’d overheard enough of the conversation between Quincy and the police to know that there was a police report filed for the van. The private investigator could probably go find that report, which would have the registration and plate number, and go find the van. It would probably be expensive, and there were a lot of blue vans in LA, but I could afford it. If I could find the van, maybe I could find Cindy. Hopefully she hadn’t left LA yet. At minimum, a journey back to Wisconsin from LA by car would require a day or two of planning… right?
Derek sounded horrified on the phone. “You want to track your missing date’s van? Dude. You can’t do that.”
I frowned at the phone again. “Why not?”
“Um, it’s creepy as hell? What the fuck, Tommy? Normal people don’t hire private investigators to find the girls that didn’t answer their calls after a date. That’s ridiculous and you know it.”
“But I’m worried her family—”
“No. No way. I’m not helping or encouraging this. Not at all. This girl probably doesn’t want to see you again, man. She’s leaving town right after having met you? Have you considered that she might, like, hate you? Or have reasons of her own for wanting to leave?”
I took a deep breath. “You think so?”
“I don’t know,” Derek told me. “I have no idea. The point is, you don’t get to chase her around like she’s a fugitive. I do know that it’s incredibly creepy to try and track her vehicle under any circumstances. If you were in your right mind, you’d know that. Figure out some other way to find her, but I am definitely not helping with the van stalking.”
“Well, I do know that she likes to hang out at this one karaoke bar,” I said dejectedly. I thought the private investigator thing was an okay idea. It was creepy? I didn’t want to be creepy.
“Great, try that,” Derek said. “But seriously, this has to be your last attempt. If she doesn’t answer your calls, then it probably means she doesn’t want to talk to you. The last thing you need during Oscar season is to end up on some tabloid for stalking a girl. That won’t play well.”
I bit back a scathing reply. I hated to admit it, but he was right. He was one hundred percent right. As much as I wanted to find Cindy, there was the distinct possibility that while her family was probably crazy, Cindy simply didn’t want to see me again. She could have told me the truth about who she was from the beginning, but she’d kept things to herself for personal reasons. I had to accept the reality that one of those reasons might have been that she just wasn’t all that into me.
When I’d kissed her, everything had been so clear. I’d known for sure that she wanted me. I’d known for sure that I wanted her. I wanted that clarity back, but the world doesn’t always give you what you want. If Cindy didn’t want to be found, I had to respect that.
“I’m going to try the karaoke bar,” I told Derek. My voice sounded defeated. “If I don’t find her, you’re right, I’ll let it go. It just sucks.”
Derek’s reply took longer than expected.
“Derek?” I asked. “You there?”
“Sorry!” he said. “Sorry. I was on my way out of the theater and bumped into someone.”
My brother was working on a production of As You Like It. Shakespeare again. The man couldn’t ever get enough Shakespeare. He’d always been so dramatic. “Oh. I thought you were going to tell me I was crazy,” I told him, thinking that bizarre behavior was usually his thing.
“Well, you probably are but go ahead,” my brother told me. “Go look for Cindy Brown at the karaoke bar and see how that turns out. But if you don’t find her after that, it’s because she doesn’t want you.”
22
Cindy
“Oh! Sorry,” I exclaimed. I ran straight into Derek Prince, bounced off him, and fell on the ground. I fell squarely on my butt.
Ow.
Ow and wow.
From my position on the pavement, I stared up at my second movie star of the week.
I was really on a roll. What are the chances of running into not one but two A-list stars in one week? How about if they’re also twins? My stars must have seriously aligned this week. Whether it was good or bad luck was still an open question, but damn, the stars were doing some shit in my life. Either that or everybody runs into movie stars all the time in LA and I’d been such a shut-in that I failed to notice for an entire year.
“It was my fault,” Derek said apologetically, offering me a hand up. He was holding his phone in his other hand. “Sorry about that.”
He was polite, just like his brother.
Derek looked a lot like Tommy too, they were twins after all, although not identical. Derek was maybe a smidgen shorter. His hair was lighter, and his eyes were darker. But he was also very handsome, and very famous.
Derek had pursued a different, more theatrical career path. He starred in as many Broadway shows as he did major motion pictures. He could sing, he could dance, and he could act. He wasn’t quite as handsome as his brother, at least in my opinion, but he was certainly very talented. I was suitably starstruck at running into him.
I hadn’t hit my head. At least, I didn’t think I had. But there was a possibility that I’d just lost my mind. Because this all felt far too unbelievable to be true.
I accepted the offered hand of assistance, getting lifted up easily back to my feet. I found my balance with effort. Stunned, I moved away from him as he was clearly on the phone. I was almost back at my van six or so feet away when I heard him finishing up his conversation. Although I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, I couldn’t help but hear him talking.
“Sorry!” he said. “Sorry. I was on my way out of the theater and bumped into someone.”
The other person said something I couldn’t hear. Derek laughed at whatever it was.
“Well, you probably are but go ahead,” Derek said, turned away from me so his voice was muffled. “Go look for Cindy Brown at the karaoke bar and see how that turns out. But if you don’t find her after that, it’s because she doesn’t want you.”
What?
What did he just say?
Was Derek talking to Tommy? About me?
I froze. My body refused to respond to commands. I was unable to run away. Unable to move. Unable to do anything but gape like a crazy person.
Derek hung up the phone and started back towards the theater. Then he turned and stared back at me, as if realizing something. I took a half step back.
We looked at one another wordlessly. He looked at the van behind me. Then at me. Then back at the van. With effort, I managed to take another step back, which in hindsight probably made me look guilty.
My blood pressure leapt. My heart was in my throat. Did Tommy care about me? I was more than just a fling? And then… doubt.
Uh-oh. Derek was going to tell on me.
Should I run? Was there time? Would it be extra weird if I ran? I felt glued to the spot.
Indecision and confusion made time tick by at a snail’s pace. One second. Two. We stared.
“Cindy Brown?” he asked hesitantly. “Are you… Tommy’s friend?” His eyes narrowed on my face.
Shit.
I shook my head no.
Derek Prince looked confused. He stared back at the van again. “How many cute girls in their early twenties drive huge, ugly blue vans,” he muttered to himself. He refocused on me. “Come on. You are Cindy, aren’t you?”
I swallowed and nodded. I was a shit liar. Always had been. Always would be. It just wasn’t in my nature.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I said as he continued to stare at me. “I’m Cindy.”
His face broke into a smile, and suddenly, he looked a lot more like his brother.
“I found you!” he exclaimed. His expression was victorious. “Ha! Man, Tommy is never going to believe this. I should be a private investigator.”
23
Tommy
Cindy looked at me from the window of her van like she was considering not opening the door. Her hazel eyes were wide behind the tinted glass. It was sunset in LA and the fading light caught her blonde hair and turned it burnished gold. I still couldn’t quite believe how we’d ended up here. Derek had literally run into her. In a city this size, the chances were infinitesimally low.
I waited patiently in the parking lot behind the theater. Finally, she relented.
“I found you,” I said when she cracked open the big, sliding door.
“You found me,” she agreed. “Congratulations. Now what?”
I climbed inside her van with her. It had been a long time since I’d been in a proper industrial van. It was… kind of gross. It was all hard surfaces and smelled like cleaning chemicals. This was no place for Cindy to live.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I kind of didn’t think I’d really find you.”
“I’m surprised you went looking,” she told me. “I’m really surprised you found my family and didn’t immediately give up.”
I shook my head at her. This was so surreal. I’d been ready to head over to the karaoke bar, Sebastian’s, and then give up. Derek had rightfully impressed on me the absurd creepiness of tracking Cindy to the ends of the earth, and I’d come to my senses. Then, literally in that moment, he found her. It had to be fate. Not that I knew anything about fate. I had no idea what I was doing.
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