Role of a Lifetime

by Wilhelm, Amanda

  "It's okay," Kelly said, "I understand."

  "You do?"

  "Yes, I didn't know why you left. I kind of thought maybe cause you didn't want to go surfing or something. I mean I just didn't get it. I wish you had called me."

  He didn't say that it had been an amazing night and he had been wishing she would stay in California longer. Really wishing.

  "Oh, I was an idiot and I packed the cord in my luggage and checked it, I couldn't charge the phone on the plane."

  "So you did want to go surfing?"

  "Ummm."

  "I'm joking, you don't have to if you don't want to, okay, I won't make you." She didn't say anything, and Kelly rushed to fill the silence, "How's Lia doing now?"

  "Well, you know, she's eighteen, Dylan was her world, I think this is good, really good actually, I brought her home last night but she'll go back to school tonight or tomorrow morning. Once she gets back in the swing of things I'm hoping it won't seem so bad. We're going to see a movie later, take her mind off things for a bit hopefully."

  "What are you going to see?"

  "She picked something, I don't even remember what it was."

  "What? This is the big opening weekend for "Son of Cronos"."

  "Yeah, but, I just saw that."

  "Oh my god, really? I get a percentage of the box office, you know."

  "I thought you had enough money."

  "I do," Kelly said, and just like that it was okay again.

  Well it was, except he missed her. Really missed her. And he wasn't sure he was going to be able to fly east while he were filming "Mistakes". He knew Holly well enough to know she was going to want to stick around home until she was sure Lia was okay. So he'd have to wait. They'd figure it out. They talked until Holly said she had to go to get dressed take Lia to the movie. He almost asked her what she was wearing but then figured it was pointless to try to get her worked up over the phone while Lia was right there.

  "Okay then bye, and Holly?"

  "What?"

  "Nothing, just, I miss you that's all. It was great having you out here."

  In more ways than one he thought and shifted in his chair trying to get comfortable. God the next six to eight weeks were going to be tough, now that he knew exactly what he was missing. Hopefully six weeks and not eight.

  "I miss you too Kelly."

  "Bye."

  "Bye."

  Kelly hung up and spent a minute remembering their night together but when he realized all he was doing was frustrating himself more, he stopped and got up. He dialed Mabel's number and told himself to focus on the read through tomorrow. He asked Mabel if she was available to rehearse with him later, after he got back from the gym. He didn't have to go over the top with the acting for the very first read through but the more familiar he was with the script the better.

  "Sure, you want to do it here?" she asked him.

  "No, at my house," Kelly said, "I have the camera here."

  It was true, but really it was what Kelly didn't have at his house, namely the boxes of wine.

  Chapter 28

  "How 'bout some veggies?" Holly asked.

  They were at the supermarket. They had seen the movie, Holly watching Lia as much as the movie and relieved to see her smiling and laughing. There would be more tears over the next month, Holly was sure of that, but Holly hoped Lia would remember that it was possible to laugh, and even be happy, post Dylan.

  "Veggies?" Lia replied with a slight shriek to her voice that would have been appropriate if Holly had been offering her cyanide.

  "Oh, I'm getting them," Holly said, "I'll munch on them on the ride home after I drop you off."

  She talked Lia into getting some fruit and Lia talked Holly into buying her an enormous tray of cookies.

  "That's a lot of cookies," Holly said as they headed out of the bakery section, which was adjacent to the produce for who knows what reason.

  "I'll share them," Lia said.

  They made their way up and down the aisles of the supermarket, then headed back out to the car. Lia had decided before the movie to go back to school Sunday night rather than wait until Monday morning. Holly had been pleased that Lia was feeling so much better but then Lia had added, "Cause I don't want to get up at, like, 6AM on Monday". They had gone out for dinner after the movie. After that Lia had asked if it would be okay to stop at the market on the way back to her dorm. Holly was more than happy to stop and delay leaving Lia at the dorm for as long as possible.

  They got the groceries loaded up and Holly headed towards the highway, Lia punching the buttons on the car radio and not finding anything to her liking.

  "Can I just play something on my phone?" she asked just as Holly's phone chimed with a text. "Oh, I'll get it," Lia said, pawing through Holly's purse, "Oooh, guess who it is?"

  "Lia," Holly said with her warning voice.

  "Yup, Kelly Rockport, can I read it?"

  "No," Holly said, but she wanted to know what it said, just as much as Lia, more probably.

  "You have a boyfriend huh, Mom," Lia said, "Wow, my mom has a boyfriend and I don't. Great."

  "Okay, you've not had a boyfriend for what, forty-eight hours now? Let's not get all dramatic about it, okay. Besides," Holly paused, sure of what she wanted to say but unsure of how to say it, "Having a boyfriend shouldn't be the be all and end all of your existence. If it's right, it's nice, it's a good thing. But if it's not, not right that is, being alone is better, I think."

  "Yeah," Lia said, "It's only been two days. You haven't had a boyfriend in what?" Lia paused, doing the math, which Holly knew automatically, without having to think about it. Holly didn't say anything. "Mom?"

  "What?"

  "Was it because of Dad? That you never dated I mean. I mean you NEVER dated."

  Holly gripped the wheel tightly but it didn't help.

  "Yes," she said simply.

  There was no other answer. Besides it was true. Just not for the reason Lia was assuming.

  "Well, I think he'd want you to be happy," Lia said and the quivering inside Holly rose up a notch. "Besides, if you had to wait this long to meet Kelly Rockport, I mean it's worth it, right? I mean he's rich and so hot."

  "Oh god Lia, don't talk like that," Holly said.

  "Well he is Mom, I mean, everybody says so, they run that "Son of Cronos" commercial all the time and we all pause it and yell for everyone to come down and we frame by frame it till we get to that part where he's like almost naked in the bed on top of that mountain."

  "Lia!"

  It was too much, Lia and her college friends lusting after the guy, no, man, forty something year old man, that Holly was sleeping with, er, had slept with. Sleeping with. Was she going to sleep with him again? Oh hell.

  "What?" Lia asked, "Mom, what?"

  "So, what classes do you have on Monday?"

  "Umm, why?"

  "Why? This education is costing me a fortune that's why."

  "But I sent you my schedule," Lia said and Holly looked away from the road for a second to glare at her a little, "Okay fine, Intro to Economics, which is so freaking boring by the way."

  They killed a good half hour with Holly asking Lia about her classes and Lia complaining about them.

  "So when are you going to see Kelly again Mom?"

  "What?"

  "Kelly, when are you going to see him again?"

  "I don't know," Holly said. She didn't and she didn't want to think about it. She wanted to see him again. Very much. To avoid thinking about how it was not going to work out, which it wasn't, she just told Lia, "He's starting on a new movie tomorrow, they have the first run through."

  "What's that?"

  The rest of the trip they spent talking about the little that Holly had learned about the movie business. There was no spots near Lia's dorm and Holly ended up pulling up to the door and parking next to the hydrant.

  "I can't leave it here," she said as they pulled Lia's overnight bag and the groceries out of the back.


  "It's fine Mom, I got it."

  Lia had her bag and purse over her shoulder and a bag of groceries in one arm. Holly hugged her and gave her the second grocery bag.

  "You sure you're okay?" Holly said.

  "I'm fine Mom, you worry too much, see you, bye."

  Holly walked her to the door, Lia managed to align her purse with the security scanner and the door clicked open. Holly opened the door for her.

  "Okay Mom, you better go, if security sees you next to the hydrant..."

  Lia turned and walked away. Holly reluctantly went back to the car. She got the container with the cut up carrots and peppers out of the back and set them on the seat next to her. She checked the text from Kelly, it said he was doing a read through with his neighbor and would call her when they were done, unless it was too late on the East coast. She set her phone in the cup holder where she could see it, and turn it on speaker, if he called while she was driving home.

  She was about to put the car in drive when it happened. Someone started banging on the driver's window.

  "What?" she said, startled.

  "Open the window," the guy yelled at her.

  "I,"

  "Open the window."

  There was enough light to see the guy's uniform. Campus security. Holly rolled down the window and he shined a flashlight in her face.

  "What are you doing? You can't park here, there's a hydrant."

  "I'm not,"

  "You cannot park here."

  "I know I was just,"

  "There's a hydrant."

  It was useless. On some level Holly knew the guard was over-reacting, to put it mildly. But it didn't matter. Her reaction was out of her control. She couldn't say anything. Frustrated at her silence, the guy leaned in even closer.

  "Hey! Are you stupid or something?"

  She burst into tears, "I'm sorry, I'm leaving, okay, I'm leaving," she blubbered out.

  "Hey," he said, but she didn't hear the rest of what he said when she pulled away from him.

  The highway was twenty minutes away but it felt like longer. She probably missed every light. She started munching on the cut up vegetables on the way home. She ate mechanically, not tasting anything, vaguely noting that it was probably good that she hadn't given Lia the produce and kept the cookie box by mistake.

  A couple of times she looked down at her phone, wishing Kelly would call. Then she would think about how impossible it would be to have a relationship with him anyway. Then she would think about Lia and her relationship and what if the next guy was actually worse than Dylan.

  She made good time on the highway but it was still almost eleven when she got home. She double checked that the rabbits had food and water when she got into the house, then she changed and went out to the barn. It was well after daybreak when she went back to the house and checked her phone. There was one text from Kelly saying he was sorry he hadn't called but it had gotten late and he didn't want to risk waking her up. He needn't of worried. She hadn't slept at all.

  Chapter 29

  "Ow!"

  "What?" Kelly asked, concerned.

  "Oh shit, ow!" Zoe said, sitting up on the couch and flapping her hand around.

  "What?" Kelly asked again.

  "Oh god, I'm an idiot, I bent my pinkie back, yow!"

  Instantly there were five people standing around them, asking what happened and offering help. Zoe kept insisting she was fine and Kelly found himself pushed to the edge of the group. He knew it wasn't his fault. They had spent days practicing with the stunt coordinator. And on this take he had barely touched her, as they had finally moved on to shooting the close ups on their faces.

  Another staff member pushed past Kelly with a bag of ice. He heard Zoe say something about how she didn't need ice and they could continue but the mob didn't move away. Kelly sighed and stepped further back. He would be happy when the movie was done and they were almost done. He was sick of playing the role, even though the director and producers kept telling him he was doing a brilliant job.

  "Alright, let's go, you okay Zoe?" the director asked.

  "Yes," she said.

  Everyone cleared out of the scene and Zoe and Kelly got back into position. Kelly waited for the signal to start but it didn't come.

  "I guess we're taking another break," Zoe said motioning behind Kelly.

  He turned and saw the director writing something on a digital clipboard.

  "Yep, your hand okay?" Kelly asked her.

  "Fine, it was dumb, all those times you shoved me and I managed to hurt myself just falling over. Maybe you should just shove me again. What?"

  "What what?" Kelly said.

  "You made a face."

  "I did?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, I'm just," Kelly paused, thinking about how he felt about it, "sick of my character, I guess. Really sick of him."

  "Well, he is pretty loathsome."

  Kelly didn't say anything. Loathsome didn't cut it. He couldn't imagine shoving or hitting Zoe for real. Jesus, she probably weighed close to a hundred pounds less than him. It would be like hitting a child. Hitting a child as hard as you could. It was disgusting.

  Kelly couldn't even count the number of people he had "killed" on screen, but somehow it just wasn't the same. Maybe it was the material. There was glory in taking out the bad guys, even brutally.

  "Kelly?"

  "What?"

  "You okay?"

  "Yeah, I just," he didn't want to talk about it, not with Zoe. He had considered talking about it with Holly but she kept saying she didn't want to know anything about the movie so she could really enjoy it when she saw it for the first time. Besides, it was stupid, it was just a part in a movie.

  He decided to change the subject, "I think, aside from your finger that is, it's going really well."

  "Yes, I think so too, but you're changing the subject."

  "Yeah."

  "Look, my acting coach tells me to use everything, so if you're uncomfortable with your character, use it. Think about how lousy he must feel, but he can't accept it so he externalizes and takes it out on the world in general. Oh and me in particular," Zoe finished with a smile and Kelly realized she was right.

  "Thanks, now if we could just get back to," Kelly didn't finish as he saw that the director had now called in several other people to confer with.

  Zoe followed his gaze and laughed.

  "Are you going to go to Aspen?" she asked him.

  One of the producers was planning on hosting a long weekend at his house in Aspen, once the production was over.

  "I don't know, probably not," Kelly said.

  "Oh you should go, the house is amazing, it's like ten thousand square feet, plus all the guest cottages, you have to see it to believe it. Do you ski?"

  "Yes I do, but I kind of like surfing better."

  That was true but the real reason Kelly wasn't planning on the ski weekend was he wanted to go back to New Hampshire to see Holly again as soon as he could. They spoke and/or Skyped every day but he hadn't asked her to come back out to California. Most days he was on the set for ten to fourteen hours. They had to do some scenes on location so that took him out of town, sometimes filming started at 4PM or later, if that was when they could use the venue. Three weekends had been devoted to filming at a school since that was the only time they could get permission to use it.

  "Well you should think about it, it would be fun," Zoe looked over at the director and sighed. "Oh, they'll kill me if I get something to eat won't they."

  "I don't know," Kelly said, "You have that horrible pinky injury. Need nutrition to heal." Zoe laughed and he added, "Maybe if we just head to the lunch table they will see us and call us back."

  It worked. They got back to work and the rest of the day was very productive. On the way out that night Kelly bumped into Stuart, the producer who owned the, apparently impressive, homestead in Aspen.

  "You going to come to Colorado when we're done Kelly?" Stuart asked. "They go
t another two feet of snow today, boy this is killing me to be stuck here right now, I haven't skied yet this year."

  "Umm, you think it's okay if I bring someone?" Kelly asked.

  "Oh sure, the more the merrier, I'll put you down for one of the guest cottages," Stuart said, "How'd it go today?"

  "Good, I think," Kelly said.

  "Well I got to go watch the dailies now, I guess you'll find out tomorrow. But we're really happy Kelly, with you and Zoe both," Stuart said and headed off down the hall.

  "Thanks," Kelly called after him.

  He checked his phone on the way out to his car. Too late to call Holly now, but they could Skype in the morning. Hopefully she liked skiing better than surfing. He could live with that.

  Chapter 30

  "Good morning."

  "Hi," Holly said, smiling at the screen. Kelly looked like he had just rolled out of bed, which he probably had.

  That made her think about the last time they had been in bed together and she felt herself blushing. She looked down at her video feed in the corner of her laptop screen, but wasn't sure if she could tell. On screen Kelly yawned and she smiled. She wanted to curl up next to him, in bed or out, and feel him wrap his arms around her.

  "Sorry," he said, when he finished yawning yet again. She watched him take a big gulp from his coffee mug, "Listen, I have to talk to you about something, well I have an offer actually."

  She was used to this. Kelly was working long hours on the movie and he rarely called her from the set. He said it was a little different from the action stuff he usually did because it was so character driven. More time actually acting and less time waiting around for the shots to be set up. So when they talked sometimes he had to get right to the point and then leave. She missed their long conversations though, but she supposed once he was done things could go back to normal. Well, normal for them anyway.

  "Okay," she said.

  "Stuart, he's one of the producers, he invited everyone to come out to his place in Aspen for a long weekend and I wanted you to come meet me out there."

  "What?"

  "It's a huge house and there are guest cottages too, apparently. Do you ski?"