Shot Through the Heart

by Matt Cain

  Thankfully he was a good actor and knew just how to hide his emotions. After all, he told himself, this was his job: acting. And playing himself was arguably his greatest achievement. Good old Billy, happy-go-lucky and always fun to have around; he played the role so well that everyone loved him. But as he stood gazing out at the party now, he couldn’t help wondering if the people here would love him quite as much if he came out of the closet and his career took a nosedive. Oh it was all such superficial bullshit.

  He wouldn’t let anyone else know how he was feeling and told himself that he’d be perfectly polite and civil to Leo. He took a deep breath and psyched himself up as if he was preparing for a scene.

  As he walked towards them he heard a voice in his head saying just one word: ‘Action!’

  *

  Mia couldn’t believe how well things had turned out. It really had been the most perfect night. Until half an hour ago the only thing she’d been worried about had been Billy but he’d just had a drink with the group, entertaining them all with stories of his hopeless attempts to learn how to sword fight for his first ever film, a remake of some old swashbuckler for which he’d actually had to wear a codpiece. As usual, he had everyone in hysterical laughter. Sure, he hadn’t particularly hit it off with Leo and she’d sensed more than a prickle of hostility emanating towards Billy from Leo’s direction but it was a big improvement on their introduction earlier that evening. They’d obviously both decided to call some kind of truce and Mia, for one, was massively relieved.

  As Cooper took to the stage to begin the speeches, Leo suggested the two of them sneak off to be on their own. She agreed and they made their excuses to Serena and Mitchell, quietly slipping away before anyone noticed.

  ‘Follow me,’ whispered Mia, ‘I know just where to go.’

  She led him through the house, out of the back doors and down some stone steps into the garden. Coming up towards them in the opposite direction, Leo spotted Dominique, the make-up artist from War of Words. She was hanging off the arm of Cooper’s youngest son Hunter, an infamous waster who’d had a promising start as an actor in a string of gross-out comedies before messing it all up with a serious drug addiction and a stretch in jail for driving under the influence. His behaviour had been so erratic that no studio in town would touch him, however famous his dad was. But the rumour was that he’d finally got his act together and was about to make a big comeback. Leo thought it was a real shame that somewhere along the way he’d evidently fallen under the spell of the double-crossing Dominique. As they passed each other on the stone steps, Leo ducked his head slightly so she wouldn’t recognize him.

  For the first time in his life, he felt slightly ashamed of his career. How could he be proud of himself for colluding with the likes of Dominique to make a living by tricking people and exploiting them for his own personal gain? He told himself that now wasn’t the time to think about this, although he knew that if things worked out with Mia, he’d have to revisit the thought soon enough.

  Mia led him over to a bench at the edge of the garden, overlooking the moonlit ocean. It was a beautiful spot and impossible not to get carried away by the romantic setting. The only sounds were the low hum of laughter, the chinking of glasses coming from the distant ballroom and the lapping of the waves beneath them.

  ‘So,’ Leo smiled cheekily, ‘did I pass the test or what?’

  Mia did her best to look confused. ‘What test?’

  ‘Oh come on, Mia, you’re not telling me I wasn’t being put through some kind of test tonight?’

  ‘Well . . . I suppose . . . Well yeah, maybe . . . I just wanted to see whether you could fit into my world, that’s all.’

  ‘And what do you think? Did I pass or fail?’

  ‘You passed. With distinction.’

  ‘Good to hear it. So what’s my prize?’

  She made a big show of thinking it over. ‘Erm, how about my phone number? Will that do?’

  ‘OK, I’ll settle for that. But you’re not having mine yet.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘Well, that wouldn’t be fair, would it? I mean, I might have passed your test but I haven’t worked out whether you can fit into my world yet. I might just have to set you a test of my own.’

  ‘But I’ve already been out with you!’

  ‘Yeah but you haven’t met any of my friends. And I’ve just had yours giving me the once-over all night.’

  Mia looked out at the ocean and pretended to sulk. ‘Well you don’t scare me, Leo Henderson. You come up with a test and just watch me pass it.’

  ‘OK then, I will. But in the meantime, there’s just one problem.’

  ‘Oh yeah, and what’s that?’

  ‘Well you might be giving me your phone number, but surely I’ve earned a kiss too?’

  Mia turned back to face him and couldn’t resist smiling.

  He gently touched her chin and leaned in towards her.

  Under the shimmering light of the moon they melted into the kind of movie star kiss Mia was used to faking in her films.

  Only this time she really meant it.

  8

  Rosie took one look at Ronnie and rolled her eyes. ‘Honey, do you seriously want to go out dressed like that?’

  ‘Sure I do, babe. What’s the problem?’

  She looked him up and down disapprovingly. He was wearing what he’d been wearing all day – chinos, a polo shirt and loafers without socks, the unofficial uniform of the LA paparazzi.

  ‘Aren’t you at least going to change your shirt?’

  ‘But we’re only going to the Ranch House. I go in my work clothes all the time.’

  ‘Yeah but you don’t usually go with a movie star. And I’m not saying we should dress up smart or anything but can’t you make just a little effort?’

  He huffed and puffed then began riffling through the wardrobe for a clean shirt.

  With Ronnie taken care of, Rosie got back to concentrating on what she was going to wear. She was seriously nervous about meeting Mia and desperate to talk through her outfit with her girlfriends but she’d been strictly banned from discussing the event with anyone, even her sister. Worse than that, she couldn’t even have a drink to loosen up; she and Ronnie were trying for a baby and, after six months of nothing happening, she’d decided to stay off the booze to see if it made a difference. She’d offered to drive tonight so that she wouldn’t be tempted and Ronnie had taken her up on the offer like a shot. Part of her wished she hadn’t opened her big mouth.

  She slipped into her new dress, a casual number she’d bought that afternoon which she hoped would show off her curves without making her look fat. She’d tried it on in the shop and had been so pleased with the result that she’d left thinking it would completely change her life. For some reason, now that she was wearing it at home she felt decidedly underwhelmed.

  ‘Honey,’ she simpered, ‘does this dress make my ass look big?’

  ‘Rosie, why do you always ask me that? That dress is exactly the same as every other one you wear – it makes your ass look just as big as it really is.’

  She slammed the wardrobe door shut. ‘And what exactly did I do to deserve a smart-ass sonofabitch like you for a husband?’

  ‘Oh give me a break, Rosie. You asked me a straight question so I gave you a straight answer.’

  ‘And didn’t it occur to you that I might not have wanted a straight answer? Hmpf! I should have known better than to ask an asshole like you in the first place.’

  ‘Oh cut it out, babe. You look just fine, I always tell you that.’

  ‘Fine? Fine? Is that the best you can do?’

  ‘OK then, you look real nice. How’s that?’

  ‘Nice. Nice!’ She let out a deep sigh. ‘Do you think Mia Sinclair ever settles for “nice”?’

  ‘Man, I give up.’ He finished buttoning up his shirt and stomped out of the room.

  Staring at Rosie from the bedside table was a glossy magazine with a picture of Mia on the front. �
��The 50 Most Beautiful Women in Hollywood’ ran the headline. Mia Sinclair was number one.

  Rosie took another look at herself in the mirror and her heart sank.

  *

  Rosie? Is that her name? Or is it Rosa? Or even Rose?

  Mia was in such a flap that she couldn’t even think straight. Whatever Ronnie’s wife was called, Mia knew that she’d have to tread carefully if the two of them were going to get on. The last thing she wanted was for her to think that she was some stuck-up movie star with a superiority complex. And there was no getting away from the fact that when she’d met Ronnie the other week, Mia hadn’t been particularly friendly. He’d probably told his wife all about it and she was expecting to meet a total bitch. How on earth was Mia going to convince her otherwise?

  She’d decided that the best course of action would be to dress down. First of all she tried on plain jeans with a strappy top but looked in the mirror and worried that it showed too much flesh. Ronnie’s wife would have no idea of the effort it took her to keep trim and she didn’t want to come across as one of those smug, skinny women who were always showing off their effortlessly toned arms. She slipped on a shirt and left it open.

  The only problem now was that she still had to do her hair and make-up in case she got papped. Leo had promised her that he’d taken care of that but she knew from previous experience that she couldn’t take any chances. There were so many things to think about: looking good for Leo, not looking too good for Ronnie’s wife, and looking just good enough in case the paps caught her. She gazed at herself in the mirror and had no idea whether she’d got it just right or horribly wrong. Oh well, it’ll have to do.

  It had been a long time since Mia had stepped out of the world of the celebrity and back into the world of the civilian. Although it had been her own world for more than two decades, a lot had changed since then. And one thing celebrities always said when they were together was that once you were famous there was no going back. She wasn’t sure whether or not that was true but Mia felt uneasy about the prospect of being recognized or hassled tonight. She decided to put on a baseball cap just in case. It wasn’t her usual style but she told herself that she could never be too careful.

  Now if only she could remember Ronnie’s wife’s name.

  *

  Leo rang the buzzer outside Mia’s front gates.

  ‘Leo!’ screeched a slightly crazed voice through the intercom. ‘What’s Ronnie’s wife called?’

  ‘Erm, Rosie – her name’s Rosie. And hello to you too, Mia.’

  ‘Yeah, hi, sorry. Erm, wait right there – I’ll be down in a minute.’

  Hmm, he thought, she sounds a little tense.

  He scanned to his left and right and was relieved to see that there were no paps around. Of course he knew all their hiding places so it didn’t take him long to quickly check them all. It looked like his plan had worked. A few hours ago he’d called every picture agency in town and given them an anonymous tip-off that Shereen Spicer and Buck Andrews were having a top-secret affair and meeting in Venice Beach that very evening to have matching tattoos of each other’s names. Part of him felt guilty for being disloyal to his work colleagues but the truth was that only one of them was a real friend, and that was Ronnie. All the other paps in town were fiercely competitive and although they often chatted to each other on jobs, they’d been known to pull far worse tricks than this simply to put their rivals off the trail of a good picture.

  And more than anything else, he didn’t want the paps to get in the way of whatever was developing between him and Mia. He’d called her on the phone a few times since the party and they’d had some really nice chats; he could tell she was a lot more relaxed with him now. Of course, just to wind her up he always kept his own phone number hidden and joked that she hadn’t earned the right to be given it yet. Until she passed tonight’s test, that was.

  Just then the gates swung open and out stepped Mia. He leaned over to open the door.

  ‘Hey Leo,’ she smiled, a look of abject terror on her face. She sat in the seat next to him and they gave each other a quick kiss.

  ‘So,’ he grinned. ‘Are you ready to step onto my side of the velvet rope?’

  ‘Sure I am,’ she almost shrieked. ‘You’re forgetting that it was my side too until not so long ago.’

  He couldn’t help chuckling to himself. ‘Hmm, so you’re not too nervous then?’

  ‘Honestly, Leo, it’ll be a piece of cake. Me, you, Ronnie and Rosa – just four regular guys on a regular night out.’

  ‘Erm, actually Mia, her name’s not Rosa, it’s Rosie.’

  She threw her hands up in the air.

  A piece of cake? She might be kidding herself but she didn’t fool Leo.

  *

  Ronnie was sitting with Rosie at the bar of the Beaver Creek Ranch House. The venue was dotted with hay bales and cow hides, had wood-panelled walls decorated with ‘Wanted’ posters, lassos and horse shoes, and was run by a team of staff who were dressed as cowboys and cowgirls. As it was just around the corner from the Shooting Stars offices, Ronnie often came here with Leo to unwind with a beer at the end of a long day. It was quite definitely a male domain and he wasn’t sure what Mia would make of it. She’d seemed a bit stuck-up the last time he’d met her.

  He and Rosie were sitting in silence and she was still clearly in a sulk with him, tutting, sighing loudly and banging down her glass every time she took a drink. He’d obviously put his foot in it earlier and knew that he’d be getting it in the neck for the rest of the evening. He was only thankful that she wasn’t drinking because then she’d give him even more of a hard time. Oh if only he could be more like Leo; he never seemed to have this kind of problem with women.

  Sitting next to them at the bar was a plain-looking girl wearing a T-shirt saying, ‘How many frogs do I have to kiss till I find my prince?’ Ronnie felt a pang of empathy towards her; before meeting Rosie, he’d had to get used to being the less good-looking friend always in Leo’s shadow, perennially single while Leo seemed to be constantly fending off potential girlfriends. As he thought back to his years as a bachelor, Ronnie felt sorry for the girl and wanted to tell her that wherever her prince was waiting, it wasn’t in here. But he knew that if he tried to be sensitive it would all come out wrong and he’d only end up offending her. So he took a sip of his beer and kept quiet.

  Just then Leo and Mia walked in and Ronnie and Rosie stood up to greet them. First of all, Ronnie said hello to Mia and she leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek.

  ‘Nice to see you again,’ she said. ‘And I’m sorry I had such bad attitude the last time we met – I was totally out of line.’

  ‘Oh don’t worry about it,’ he mouthed, instantly entranced. This broad’s a class act, he thought.

  Next, Ronnie shook Leo’s hand as Mia and Rosie came face to face. ‘You look amazing!’ they both screeched at once. There was an embarrassed silence before the two of them burst out laughing.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ managed Mia, ‘I’ve just been really nervous about meeting you.’

  ‘You? Nervous about meeting me?’

  ‘Yeah. Is that such a surprise? And you do look amazing by the way – I wasn’t just saying that.’

  ‘Gee, thanks Mia. According to Ronnie this dress makes my ass look big.’

  ‘Rosie, I did not say that!’

  ‘You did too!’

  He took a step back before things blew up into a full-blown argument. That wouldn’t be good right at the start of the evening. He caught a glimpse of the single girl sitting at the bar and suddenly realized how lucky he was to have Rosie – even if she did give him a hard time.

  ‘Rosie, I’m sorry about what I said earlier,’ he said, ‘and I honestly think you look really beautiful.’

  In an instant she softened, her face visibly draining of hostility. She smiled sweetly at him and held out her hand.

  ‘Come on, honey,’ she cooed, ‘let’s all go and sit down.’

  *


  By the time they were sitting at the table, Mia’s nerves had deserted her and she’d almost forgotten that she was a star. No one had batted an eyelid at her presence or even looked in her direction. She didn’t know whether to be overjoyed or a little disappointed.

  Now that she was getting to know them, she genuinely liked Ronnie and Rosie. They’d kicked off the conversation by having a laugh about Ronnie’s attempt at drag a few weeks ago and the efforts Rosie had gone to in order to make him look anything like a woman. Then she and Rosie had branched off to compare stories about a Hungarian beautician nicknamed Dora the Decimator, who was notorious throughout LA as the best but most brutal waxer in town. When their conversation drifted onto beauty treatments in general it was blatantly obvious that the boys had zoned out.

  ‘Right,’ said Ronnie, slapping his palms on the table, ‘what are we going to eat?’

  As Leo perused the menu, Mia couldn’t resist peeping down the top of his open-necked shirt and gazing longingly at the subtle ridge between his chest muscles. It was sexy as hell but cuddly and snuggly too. She told herself not to stare.

  After taking Leo to Cooper’s party last week she now felt completely relaxed in his presence, especially as nothing he’d heard at the party had wound up in the tabloids since. She’d obviously been right in deciding that she could trust him and was actually starting to feel bad for having doubted him in the first place.

  Ronnie beckoned over a waitress dressed as a cowgirl, who stood at the end of the table smiling down at them for their order. Mia had been worrying all day about what kind of food they’d serve in a venue called the Beaver Creek Ranch House. What if all they had to choose from was fatty junk and she ended up having a full-on binge? What if everyone else stuffed their faces and she couldn’t resist the temptation? By the time she opened the menu she was in a blind panic and really starting to burn up.

  As she tried to concentrate on the meal options staring back at her, Mia could feel the anxiety sweeping over her and hoped that she wasn’t flushing bright red. She began to feel overwhelmed by a temptation to order a blow-out meal but the sensation was overshadowed by a terror that everyone else at the table was watching her to see what she’d order. Pictures of greasy burgers dripping with cheese exploded in her face like camera flashes and she began struggling to stop herself from hyperventilating.