Limelight (Hollywood Stardust)

by Kim Carmichael

  “We have now.” He swept his lips over hers. “All right?”

  She nodded and held on hoping now meant the future as well.

  HOLLYWOOD STARBURST

  EXT. POCAHONTAS, IL, PHONE BOOTH – DAY.

  ROXY is sitting in a phone booth, her foot up and crying.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  Is your ankle swollen?

  ROXY

  (sniffs)

  Yes and now it’s turning purple.

  CUT TO:

  CHARLES’ bedroom.

  CHARLES is reading a first aid book.

  CHARLES

  The best thing to do is elevate your ankle and put ice on it. You also need to stay off your foot.

  ROXY (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  How can I stay off my foot? I have to get home tonight. I’m almost out of money, I have to try and salvage anything with school, William, Steven, my life! I can’t drive like this.

  CHARLES

  Calm down, Roxy. Why didn’t you call William or Steven?

  CUT TO: ROXY

  ROXY wipes her nose and shrugs.

  ROXY

  They said to call if I needed help, but I can’t call them.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  Why not?

  ROXY shakes her head.

  ROXY

  I didn’t know who to call first.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  Too bad you didn’t figure that out before you arrived home.

  ROXY

  I thought once I saw them I would know.

  Silence takes over the phone.

  ROXY

  Charles?

  CUT TO: CHARLES

  CHARLES is still reading the first aid book.

  CHARLES

  You really shouldn’t put pressure on that ankle.

  ROXY (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  Will you help me?

  CHARLES wipes his hand over his face.

  CHARLES

  I’ll have to get them, both of them. I’m not going to make this decision for you. Is that what you want?

  ROXY (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  I think so.

  CHARLES

  You need to know, Roxy. You can’t keep doing this.

  CUT TO: ROXY

  ROXY leans against the phone booth wall with her eyes closed.

  ROXY

  What would you do?

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  It doesn’t matter what I would do. What matters is you and William and Steven and ending this.

  ROXY mumbles something to herself.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  What did you say?

  ROXY

  There’s already too much pressure, I shouldn’t put any on my foot.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  Tell me exactly where you are and we will get you.

  ROXY

  I’m at the Lost Trail diner in Pocahontas.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  All right. Stay there, see if they’ll give you some ice and let you put your foot up.

  ROXY

  Okay, you’re coming too, right?

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  Someone has to be the brain.

  ROXY

  (Let’s out a little laugh)

  Thank you.

  CHARLES (O.S.)

  (Filtered)

  I have a lot of work to do. Stay put and we’ll be there.

  CLICK OF PHONE HANGING UP.

  ROXY looks at the receiver.

  ROXY

  I said why can’t it be you?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  WORK. FOCUS. CONCENTRATE. Drew stared at his computer screen, but nothing he read sunk in. After a night and morning of making love to Erin, he was toasted, a perfect happy golden brown with just the right amount of melted butter. He would never view his morning erection the same way again, and he better start getting up when Erin did or he would be late to work every day.

  “Drew, I put some butter and jam on your toast.” Picture perfect in his white button down, panties and nothing else, Erin sashayed into the room holding a plate.

  Speaking of buttery toast. His mind cleared as he watched her come over. Only minutes before she’d presented him with a mug of coffee. Apparently, the owner of the bed & breakfast liked sending baskets of food to rooms.

  “Do you mind if I join you?” She eyed the cushion with his pad of paper on the couch next to him.

  “I would love it if you joined me.” In a flash, he swept away the unused office supplies.

  Her smile shone and with her plate in hand, she cuddled up on his side and lifted a triangle of toast to him. “They have blackberry jam, your favorite.”

  He took a bite, the creamy butter, the tangy sweet jam, the bread with a bit of crunch all fed to him by one gorgeous star with bare legs who was to be much more tasty than the delicacy she created.

  “Oh you have a little butter on your lip.” She leaned up on her knees and kissed him.

  The only strength he possessed was enough to let out a moan, but even after making love to her twice this morning, a spark of arousal ran though him with her attention.

  “Is it all right if I watch you work?” She fed him another bite and put her head on his shoulder.

  Yes, work. He was working. The schedule blocked out time for his work. “Sure, I’m just answering some emails.”

  “I checked my email before. Is that all right?” She rubbed her fingers over his jaw.

  “You need to do whatever you need to do.” Before delving into the emails he needed a little fortification and he turned and kissed her. More than a peck, less than something that would wind up with them in the horizontal position.

  “Do you still want to walk around the town today?”

  The way she gazed up at him made him forget his name, an easy task since he answered to two now. “I thought before we get on the road we could walk around the antique mall down the street.” They probably needed to do something other than make love and work. Well, they needed to do something other than work. Truth be told, he wasn’t working, he was staring at a screen until he had the chance to stare at her. “In fact, why don’t we get going?” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than his phone rang.

  Erin swooped over scooped up his phone and handed it to him. “I’ll go finish getting ready sir, and you take your phone call.”

  “All right.” He hit the button on his phone and watched her leave. As she sauntered back into the bedroom, she slipped his shirt off leaving her completely nude. “This is Drew.”

  “Cool, but can I have your other personality and speak to Isaac?” His production manager, James, laughed into the phone.

  “Yes, as soon as I switch brains.” Somehow he had to get his act together. He forced himself up and rifled through his briefcase until he found his supplements. With all his activity he had to be depleted. “What’s going on?”

  “We went backorder on five different SKU’s and we are getting phone calls from retailers wanting to carry Hollywood Glow.”

  “How is any of that possible?” Before he left, he checked the stock levels personally and Hollywood Glow didn’t exist yet. He piled up the capsules in his hand. Maybe double wasn’t good enough.

  “Our marketing department posted a picture of you and her on her social media. The photo went viral. It has been the top story on chargge.com for a day and a half. Where have you been?”

  Drew shoved the capsules in his mouth and backed up, peeking in the bedroom to spy Erin getting ready. He supposed telling James that he was sleeping with the marketing department would not be an appropriate response. “Well, now we know social media works. Send me an email with what we’re out of and get it into production, and let’s start a waiting list for Hollywood Glow.”

 
“How are the formulations going? Every day we don't have something on stability testing is another day we don't have a product to sell for the line.”

  Drew wondered if maybe he needed to get James a black cloak and a sickle. Stability testing would take three months, and that was after they had a product they wanted to produce. At best these projects took six months to a year. "Get me the emails and let’s try to stay in stock on what we have on our shelves. Call me if there are any more issues."

  "Aye, Aye." James hung up.

  Drew's mind spun as he considered what happened. Though selling well and fast was incredible, amazing, backorders could ultimately hurt business, not to mention people wanting a product that wouldn't be available for quite some time. His chest tightened. What if they couldn't fill the demand? What if his current accounts became angry? What about their production schedule?

  The damage had already been done, so now he needed help and without a thought he ran into the bedroom. "Erin!"

  "Drew!" Now in a form fitting pink sheath dress, Erin ran out from the bathroom. "Are you all right?"

  He stopped and took her in. Every time she entered a room, the world changed.

  "Oh, my God." She pressed her hand to chest. "Is this outfit all right? Did you want to choose something?"

  "You're gorgeous. The dress is gorgeous." He held his arms out.

  Without any hesitation, she went to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "What's going on in that brilliant mind of yours? Is work all right?"

  "The lab is busy. We have some items that went on back order and nearing backorder and we didn't plan for it." The simple act of telling her only amped up the ulcer that wanted to start. What if he made a mistake and couldn't provide for her?

  "Well, isn't that wonderful." She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him two kisses on his lips.

  "You think it's wonderful?" Though he stared into her eyes, he allowed his hand to travel down her waist to the delicious swell of her backside.

  "Yes, as wonderful as the way you're copping a feel." In what had become her signature move, she brushed the back of her hand against his cheek. "As wonderful as the fact that we're finally here with each other."

  Her words tempered the anxiety a small amount. Needing time to clear his mind and to be with Erin, he didn’t want to change their plans. "Let's go walk over to that antique mall."

  "I'm ready." She donned a large pair of sunglasses.

  Following her lead, he also put on some sunglasses, grabbed her hand, and for the first time they went out in public truly together.

  The crisp, sunny day welcomed them. Grand Junction was a nice little ski town. He guided them up the street to the antique mall and opened the door for her. “We also have people calling for Hollywood Glow.”

  “Now that is fantastic news.” She kept hold of him as they made their way inside.

  “We don’t have a product line yet.” Maybe he needed to remind her.

  “Which direction should we take?” She took her sunglasses off then reached up and removed his, putting both pairs in her purse.

  “I like your idea of having a system of products and having the film theme throughout, but we aren’t even in development yet.” Once more, he felt panic coming on, and he swallowed. “It takes months to make a product and then stability testing. You haven’t even picked containers yet.” He broke out into a sweat. “We’re selling to empty shelves. We don’t have product.”

  “Drew.” She stood in front of him.

  He stared down at her, but all he saw was his failure. Along the way he got caught up in Hollywood, fame and his business complications. Now he would pay. Every rule he put in place he threw to the wayside to get his second chance.

  “Do you give me permission to offer a suggestion?” Her big gorgeous blue eyes widened.

  “It’s our line.” The voice coming out of his mouth didn’t even sound like him. Not wanting to appear as a lunatic, he led her over to one of the booths with antique appliances.

  “Do you have some products that haven’t been released, but are ready now and not spoken for? Then we can come out with some big hero products when Hollywood Starburst releases.” The simple question left her mouth while she studied a vintage toaster. “Look Drew, this is like the toaster on that commercial for bagels. It would look perfect on the counter.”

  Everything around him blurred as a solution focused. “Erin.”

  “Oh, no!" She spun toward him. "Am I not supposed to put things on the counter?"

  "What?" Where did her panic come from? He quickly texted James and Bambi for the information he needed. "Do you understand what you've done?"

  "Did I break the rules? I thought it would be romantic to have something we bought together in the house, your house." She pressed her lips together and her eyes glossed over.

  "No." He cupped her glorious face in his hands. "I think you saved my business."

  She furrowed her brow. "I did?"

  "I have some formulations and you can choose what you like. At least it will give us something to launch with." He kissed her. "Together, you and I can work on the star products just like you said."

  "So you're not mad about the toaster?"

  "Mad?" Unsure where she got that idea, but wanting to prove he was anything but mad, he grabbed the toaster. "Erin, you and I need to have this toaster. It’ll be our toaster for our toast."

  Her patented smile lit up her face. "I hope I can make toast as good as the lady at the bed and breakfast."

  "I have no doubt." With a new conviction and new ideas running through him, he put his arm around her waist and continued their trek through the mall. "I'll call the lab and have James send a list of what we have and we can start choosing products. Hopefully, when we visit the farm in New Mexico we'll find something there too."

  "This is so exciting. I can hardly wait." She pointed across the way. "Drew, may we look over there?"

  “If that’s what you’d like.” Still giddy and with his thoughts wandering in a million different directions, he simply motioned forward.

  “What would you like?” She brought him over to a rack of different bandanas and gazed up at him.

  In an effort to keep the sexy going, he raised his eyebrows.

  The smile never left her face and she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I’m sure we’ll have time before we have to get back on the road.” She put her fingertip to his lips. “If that is indeed what you want?”

  “You never have to worry about me wanting that." While Erin shopped, he took his opportunity to finally glance around the large antique mall with the little booths set up for each individual vendor. He also noticed that even though the place was pretty barren for the late morning on a workday, a few of the people milling about glanced over at them, pointing and whispering.

  He supposed between his choice in women and the choice to reveal his identity, he needed to get used to it. Still, he pulled Erin closer in an attempt to shield her. They should be allowed to buy a toaster and some doodads without an audience.

  "Do you think we should get one that says Colorado on it, so he has a souvenir?" Erin chose a bandana with pictures of mountains and the name of the state.

  "Souvenir?" He glanced at the bandana but continued to watch the people watching them. More seemed to congregate.

  "Then again, blue is his color. Maybe we should get them both? I think he’d like that." She chose a second strip of fabric. "Is that all right?"

  "Who are we buying what for?" Along the way they became a we. With all those eyes on them, he stopped from bending down and kissing her, choosing instead to reposition them once more. The way the two of them were huddled together there was no doubt they were together.

  "Beaker." She held each of her selections up to him.

  No matter which direction he looked, it seemed as if there were strangers staring at them. More like gawking. In fact, a woman even pointed at them.

  "I called the dog hotel and they let me talk t
o him. I hope you don't mind, but I asked them to make sure that he got an extra cookie cause I wanted one to be from me. The people there are very nice and told me they would play some of my movies for him so he hears my voice."

  "Get whatever you want, Erin. Maybe we should go." No matter where he looked there seemed to be strangers staring at them.

  "Drew. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call the dog hotel without your permission. I've been doing it every day to check on him. I'm sorry."

  One of the onlookers lifted their phone, the typical stance for someone taking a picture.

  "Stop!" On automatic, he pushed Erin aside and rushed across the space to the woman and held up his hand.

  "Drew!" Erin ran after him.

  The woman gasped and put her hand down. "I'm sorry."

  He opened his mouth, but Erin collided with him, wrangled his arm once more and faced the lady. "Did you want a picture?"