Playing at Forever

by Michelle Brewer

  It was the price tags that held her up the most. Finally, Diego had to put his foot down. “Sweetheart, you are new in town. You’re going to see and be seen by some of the most famous people in the world. Your boyfriend is treating you to a shopping spree. Take advantage. This opportunity may not present itself again.”

  Penny had comforted herself with the thought that, whatever she didn’t wear, she was going to return. Just so Tommy could get his money back.

  She hadn’t realized just how much Diego had bought for her until she was settled back into the car, bags surrounding her. She had no idea what she’d even acquired.

  When the car stopped in front of a very swank looking salon, Penny suddenly grew very nervous. Graham had mentioned the spa and the shopping, but he had said nothing about a salon. She almost contemplated not going inside, but after a few deep breaths, she had convinced herself to go through with it. If she could spend the afternoon shopping on Rodeo Drive, she could handle a salon.

  “Um, hi,” she spoke as she approached the counter. “I should have an appointment?”

  “Your name?”

  “Penelope Lang.” The girl checked her list on the computer screen before smiling brightly at Penny.

  “Well, you’re in for a treat. We’ve been ordered to give you the full treatment.”

  “What, exactly, is that?”

  “Hair, nails, makeup. You name it, you’re getting it done.” Penny’s smile faltered for a moment. What was she getting herself into? “Follow me. I’ll take you back to Jane.”

  Penny followed the girl, trying not to notice the faces of the people she passed by. She was certain at least a few of them were on her wall back home.

  “Well, hello!” She was young—at least a few years younger than Penny. “I’m Jane.” She seemed friendly enough, Penny thought. “You must be Penelope.”

  “Penny is fine.”

  “Well, Penny, what did you have in mind?”

  “Um, well…” Penny sighed, holding her hands up in the air. “I’ll be honest. I’m really not very good at any of this stuff. I didn’t even make this appointment. My…” She paused, almost calling him her friend. “My boyfriend’s manager made this appointment for me. Apparently, he thinks I need to be more L.A.”

  “And where are you from originally?”

  “North Carolina.” Jane laughed, nodding her head.

  “Definitely not L.A.” The girl studied Penny for a few minutes. “How do you feel about maintenance?”

  “The lower the better.”

  “My kind of girl,” Jane grinned. “Well, I’m thinking maybe take a little bit of the length off, bring in a little bang, and add in a few natural-looking highlights. If you feel like glamming it up a bit, I can show you a few techniques—but otherwise, it’ll be exactly what you have right now. Sound like a plan?”

  Everything the girl said sounded oddly foreign to her, but Penny nodded, agreeing anyway. It was about experience, right? She was going to take advantage of every opportunity she came across.

  “If it makes any difference, we’re eating at The Ivy tonight.”

  “The Ivy?” Penny nodded. “Sweetie, that makes a whole world of difference.” Jane smiled happily. “Do you know what you’re going to wear?”

  “I haven’t the slightest clue.”

  “Oh, sweetie, we’re going to have so much fun together.”

  Penny was suddenly very worried.

  It wasn’t until she found herself standing in the master bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror, that she discovered she had nothing at all to worry about.

  She wore a pink dress—more form fitting than her last had been, and much shorter, with a pair of darker pink high heels. The girls at the salon had been very helpful when it came to putting her together—they handled everything, giving Penny pointers for future reference. Her hair had been tied up in some fancy up-do that she could never recreate, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

  She was ready for her L.A. debut, as the girls had called it.

  “Hey Pen?” Tommy called.

  “Up here,” she replied, looking at her reflection once more.

  “Sorry I’m late. You wouldn’t believe how bad traffic was. I’d forgotten after being in Ravenside for—” He came to a stop as he entered the bathroom, both his mouth and his body.

  “Darn right you’re late,” she told him, using her most haughty voice possible.

  “Well, don’t you look like the perfect little L.A. socialite.” She frowned, looking over her reflection once more.

  “You don’t like it?”

  “I didn’t say that,”

  “You called me a socialite.” He stepped forward, holding her arms with his hands. “You think I look silly.”

  “I didn’t say that either.” Tommy touched his forehead to hers. “I think you look very pretty, and I think you’ll fit right in at The Ivy. That’s all.”

  “Well, that’s good, isn’t it? I mean, according to the girls at the salon, I’m debuting.”

  “They weren’t wrong.” Penny couldn’t understand why he wasn’t as excited about this as she was. Shouldn’t he want her to fit in with his crowd?

  “Do you want me to change? Take my hair down?” Penny reached up to the mess on top of her head and Tommy laughed, shaking his head.

  “No, Penny, you look great.” He reached up to take her hands. “Really, you do. Don’t do a single thing.”

  “But you’re clearly not happy with—”

  “It’s just that—” Tommy sighed, shaking his head. “It’s just me, Penny. Really.”

  “Well then you’d better explain, because I’m not going out like this if you don’t like it.” She placed her hands on her hips, suddenly feeling very self conscious. Tommy groaned, turning his back and crossing the large bathroom.

  “I don’t like the thought of exposing you to these people. If they see you, with that amazing combination of cute and sexy, they’ll eat you alive.”

  “Wait, are you trying to tell me that I look too good?” Tommy laughed, finding her eyes for a moment before finally nodding his head.

  “You know, that about sums it up.” Penny laughed then too, running across the room and taking Tommy’s face in her hands so that she could kiss him on the cheek. “If you’d like, you can run along downstairs and show Graham what a monster he’s created. I just need to jump in the shower—it won’t take me very long to get ready.”

  “I’ll see you downstairs then!” Her excitement had returned full force as she nearly danced down the stairs.

  “My oh my, don’t you look like a shiny new Penny,” Graham grinned, sitting at the island in the center of the kitchen. An open beer sat in front of him. “You’re going to make quite the splash, I can see it already.”

  “What else is on my agenda?” She actually was curious, but she only asked to turn the attention away from herself.

  “Well, tomorrow evening you two will be dining out once more. That’s really about all that I’ve got lined up for you this trip.”

  “This trip?”

  “Well, you’ll be back, obviously. Tom’s going to be having a premiere within the next month or so. I’m going to make sure you two get in to a Lakers game next visit. I can just see you two all cuddled up, floor seats…”

  “You’ve got it all planned out, don’t you?” Penny sat down on one of the stools across from Graham. “Do you even have our breakup planned already?”

  “It’s my job, Penelope.” Penny nodded her head, deciding once and for all she didn’t like Graham all that much. “You signed on for this. Remember that. You were the one who came to us.”

  “I went to Tommy. You just happened to be there.” Penny told the man.

  “You do know that this is just temporary, don’t you? You’re the flavor of the month right now, but he’ll move on. He always does.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good thing all of this is just for show, isn’t it?” She really, really didn’t like him. Who wa
s he to say anything about their relationship? He knew nothing about them.

  “Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” Tommy announced, bouncing down the stairs airily. He wore a pair of dark jeans with a gray dress shirt and black sweater vest—the picture of perfection. Penny was, once again, taken aback by how handsome he could look without any amount of effort at all.

  “You kids have a good night.” Graham called as Penny hopped off her stool and hurried to catch up with Tommy. She didn’t even bother looking behind her to acknowledge the other man.

  “You two looked pretty serious back there.”

  “Oh, it was just business,” she told him. Wasn’t it always? “You’re driving?” She questioned as the garage door began to open.

  “Is that okay?”

  “Of course,” Penny told him. Inside the garage were two very fast looking cars, one some classic convertible, the other much more modern. “Your choice.”

  “Let’s go with the one that’s least likely to make a mess of my hair,” she told him, approaching the newer car.

  “The Porsche it is.” Penny hopped into the passenger seat, starting to feel slightly nervous.

  “Don’t worry, Pen. It’s just business as usual. Just smile a lot. Laugh here and there. These people are no different from you.”

  “That’s what you say,” Penny shook her head, knowing better. Just because Tommy thought the world of her didn’t mean everyone else would.

  “It’s what I know.” She sighed as he backed out of the garage and hit a button, allowing the gate to open. Within moments, they were flying through the crowd of photographers, taking off down the street.

  It took much less time to get somewhere in L.A. with Tommy behind the wheel, Penny mused as they pulled up to a very busy looking restaurant. A patio encased by a short, white picket fence buzzed with faces she recognized. “All right, Pen. Here we go—no turning back now.” Tommy squeezed her hand as the valet approached, opening her door for her.

  As she stepped out, several cameras began flashing and Penny turned to look for Tommy—feeling his hand in hers before she could see him. He smiled at her as they walked toward the entrance. “Good evening Mr. Davis,” the pretty girl welcomed him. “We have a table waiting for you on the terrace.”

  “Thank you, Miley.” Tommy nodded, following the woman who approached them. Penny clung to his hand, looking straight ahead so as not to stumble if she saw someone too famous.

  “Graham must’ve called in some favors for this one,” Tommy muttered as they were seated at a table very near the fence. “To get this table on such short notice? Unheard of.”

  “Well, that Graham is certainly something, isn’t he?” She had to remind herself to keep smiling. “Tommy, isn’t that Ryan Wilson behind you?” Ryan Wilson had been the villain in one of Tommy’s more recent movies. Tommy turned around to look.

  “So it is.” As if on cue, the other actor turned around to greet Tommy. “Ryan, this is my girlfriend Penny.”

  “Finally settling down, are we?” Ryan gave Tommy a pat on the back. “About time, man.” He turned his attention to Penny. “You’ve got yourself a good guy here—especially if you can get him to put down some roots.”

  “Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Penny smiled. “Let’s just see if he can make it through dinner first.” Ryan laughed, nodding his head.

  “You’d be a fool to mess this one up, man,”

  “You know, I’m starting to think you might be right.” Tommy told the man, grinning happily as Penny tried to hide her enthusiasm.

  By the end of the night, one thing was clear: Penny was a hit.

  Tommy took an extra long shower the next morning, trying very hard to let the hot water relax his tense muscles. He knew it was useless, though.

  Being around her this much was…killing him. Literally.

  He sighed, tossing his towel aside as he left the bathroom.

  Penny was upstairs, presumably still sleeping after their late night. She’d had a ball, joking around with Ryan and his date. It had been everything Graham had hoped it would be and more.

  The two of them had been quite the pair.

  It wasn’t that Tommy was unhappy with the results. No, it was quite the opposite. He was elated everything had gone so well, especially for Penny.

  But it meant that her integration into his life was almost complete. Soon enough, he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without being reminded of her in one way or another. And for a relationship that began with a predetermined expiration date…well, that didn’t bode well for him.

  He’d had a hard enough time locking her away into the back of his mind last time. He could only imagine how much more difficult it would be now.

  For a few moments, Tommy allowed himself to contemplate the possibility of keeping her in his life.

  But then he changed his mind as he imagined her laughing with Ryan last night, only this time she was laughing at him with a different look in her eye. No, Tommy couldn’t take that.

  He couldn’t even stand the thought of another guy looking at her. How would he do if he had to watch someone else put their hands on her?

  Out of the question.

  She would move on, eventually. A girl like Penny was meant to have a family—he could tell how much she wanted one just with the way she handled Amy’s girls.

  Someday, she was going to make an excellent mother.

  Unlike Tommy, who only seemed to destroy any life he touched.

  He shut the refrigerator door and decided he would go upstairs to check on Penny before he had to leave for yet another day of contract negotiations and interviews. Damage control, as Graham called it.

  As he opened the bedroom door, though, he realized that Penny wasn’t sleeping—from the sounds of it, she was taking a shower.

  He knew he should turn around and go—but for whatever reason, Tommy was set on making things even harder for himself. He peeked around the corner to find that, yes, Penny was definitely taking a shower. He saw nothing more than her shadow through the obscured glass—but it was more than he needed to see.

  He immediately turned and left the room, heading for the closest bathroom.

  This time, he was going to take the coldest shower his body could withstand.

  “Hey Tommy, do you mind if I use your computer for a few things?”

  “Hm?” He looked up at her, looking very distracted. “Oh, my computer? Sure, go right ahead. I’ll be gone most of the day again. Feel free to make yourself at home.”

  “We’re having dinner again tonight, aren’t we?”

  “Yep—reservations are at eight.”

  “Things went well last night, didn’t they?” Penny sat down on one of the stools and plucked a few grapes from the bowl in front of her. “I never would have thought that Ryan Wilson was such a nice guy. He always plays such a jerk.”

  “Well, they call it acting for a reason,” she frowned, looking down at the table.

  “I guess you’ll be off soon, then, won’t you?” Penny tried once more, but still, he wouldn’t even look at her.

  “Probably should get going, yeah.” He rose to his feet and finally looked at her, but only for a moment. “I’ll see you tonight then.”

  “See you tonight.”

  The tension in the air was so thick, she could almost taste it. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it in the slightest.

  With a heavy sigh, Penny headed back upstairs, over to Tommy’s office. She only wanted to check her email, really. Her parents often sent her all sorts of things—from legitimate letters to jokes they passed on. Even if she didn’t reply to all of them, she at least liked to acknowledge that she received them.

  She sat down at the desk and moved the mouse around, pleased to find the computer was on. But as she went to open the browser, a different window popped open. Penny stared at it for a moment.

  It was clearly a document of some kind. From the looks of it, it appeared to be a script. A wave of excitemen
t jumped through her—maybe this was the script for a movie Tommy was thinking about doing.

  A dilemma of ethic arose as she tried to decide whether to go through with reading it or not. On the one hand, it was obviously property that did not belong to her. On the other, though, it might be something that could possibly damage Tommy’s career.

  This was how Penny justified scrolling to the top of the document and beginning to read.

  She had no idea how much time had passed—in fact, she had been so caught up in the script she was reading that she hadn’t even heard the door open. “Pen?”

  “Oh my god, you startled me,” Penny jumped, her hand covering her heart. “Wait, aren’t you home early?”

  “Meetings didn’t take as long I thought they would. Thought I’d come home early and see how you were doing.”

  “Oh, I’m—I’ve just been…reading.” She could hear the guilt in her own voice.

  “Reading what…?” And the near-anger in his.

  “I wasn’t snooping, Tommy—I swear I wasn’t. I just wanted to check my email and then this document just…popped up.”

  “It just popped up.” It was not a question, but instead a statement of disbelief. “How much, exactly, have you read?”

  Oh, this was bad. Penny bit her lip. “Um, well…all of it.” She paused. “Some parts twice.”

  “Oh, come on, Penny—that was my business. You don’t see me digging through your personal files—”

  “Wait, you wrote that?”

  “No, I wasted my time on it.” Tommy walked over to the computer and, without even asking Penny to let him in, he took the mouse from her and closed the file.

  “Have you shown that to anybody else?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He was already hurrying down the stairs, trying to escape her. But it was too bad for Tommy that Penny was not the type to just let things so.

  Especially when she thought they were worth fighting for.

  “Tommy,” He made a beeline for the terrace and Penny followed after. “Tommy.”

  “What?”

  “Would you just sit still for five seconds? Please.” Finally he turned around, his arms crossed over his chest like a sullen child. “First of all, that story—that script—whatever you want to call it—that was not a waste of time. I sat there thinking I was reading something you were going to be starring in and I was prepared to tell you that, if you didn’t do that movie, I would no longer consider you a friend.”