by Diana Currie
“Yes, I did. But I must admit something to you.”
“What is it?” she asked warily. Nathan sounded so strange that she was worried he might be sick, or worse, hungover.
“I need to confess that I am once again lying on my couch staring at some little white pills. And they look mighty tasty,” Nathan mumbled turning his head to look at the Aleve Stanley left him. It even hurt to turn his head.
“What!” Maddie shouted. She stood up quickly and began pacing the room, wondering who he could have possibly come in contact with that would have given him drugs.
“Yep, I really need them too,” Nathan added with a slight smile on his face. It was all he could manage in his current state. He knew the medicine would make his muscles stop aching but the bottle was just so far away.
“Nathan ThomasFoster, I don’t know where you got those pills but I swear to God if you even think about swallowing them I will kill you.”
“Relax, Angel, it’s not what you think. The pills are just anti-inflammatories.”
Maddie let out a long sigh and collapsed in Joe’s recliner. “Why would you joke about something like that? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Sorry, I really wasn’t. I’m just sleep deprived and I’m experiencing a little Deja vu. Once again, I feel like shit, I’m all alone, and I’m on my couch thinking about you.”
Maddie’s anger softened a little. “Was it really that bad?”
“Yes.”
“Did you miss me?”
“Like crazy. This has been the longest ten days of my life.”
“What happened to getting the wussy treatment?” she wondered.
“Lieutenant Harlow said I did get the wussy treatment! Every muscle aches, I didn’t get much sleep on the bunk, and the food in the mess hall was awful. I had to crawl through mud under barbed wire, climb up walls with thick scratchy ropes, and do more pushups than I’ve ever done in my life. They made me run for miles with the platoon like I was a real recruit.”
“Wasn’t that the point of sending you to a military base? So, you could see what they go through?”
“Well, they sure succeeded! After the first day I knew I was in trouble. No exercise routine I’ve ever done can compare to the army’s routine. The new recruits thought it was fun to watch me fall behind and moan in pain; they even gave me a nickname.”
“What was it?” Maddie asked.
“Chump.”
“Oh, dear. Was there anything good about the experience?”
“Some of the vets I met were amazing. I spent my free time with those guys and most had already been deployed more than once; sometimes three or four times. I only saw the new recruits for meals and sleeping, thank God. Harlow said anything more than that would be a distraction from their training. So, I got to hang around guys who’ve literally been to hell and back. They told me some chilling stories about what it’s like in the Middle East.”
“Physical pain aside, do you feel like you’re better prepared for the role now?”
Nathan reached for the pills and swallowed both at the same time. Sweet relief was coming. “Oh yeah, it was an eye opener in more ways than one,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Some of them haven’t seen their girlfriends or family for months. It made me realize that these six more weeks that you and I are apart pales in comparison to what they go through all the time.”
“It gave you a little perspective, huh?”
“One guy even missed his daughter’s birth while he was in Afghanistan.”
“That really sucks,” Maddie replied.
“Yeah. So, I shouldn’t complain about these six weeks that you and I are apart.”
“Well, Chump, it’s the end of May now so our six weeks is down to just three. That’s something to be happy about.”
Nathan smiled. “Don’t call me, Chump. I like the nickname you gave me.” He listened to Maddie chuckle on the other end of the phone and closed his eyes again. “Tell me what’s been happening while I was gone. How did your finals go?”
“Fairly well. Grades haven’t been posted yet but I think I’m getting three A’s and two B’s.”
“My girlfriend is so smart.”
Maddie smiled to herself. “Yeah, well it would have been four A’s if I’d stayed in town over spring break and done the extra credit research assignment in my biology class.”
“You did plenty of research while you were here…” Nathan replied teasingly.
“I did?”
“Yes. In human anatomy,”
Maddie laughed under her breath. “I really don’t know where I found you. I can just imagine my professor’s reaction to a report like that!”
“I don’t think we researched that topic enough now that I think of it. If I wasn’t in so much pain I’d jump on a plane right now so I could see your face.”
“I’d tell you to do it if you didn’t sound so drowsy and have a movie to start filming tomorrow.”
“I don’t start filming until Friday. Hopefully I won’t still be sore by then. Oh, God, I have to sit through a TV interview with the Tomorrow and Forever cast and crew tomorrow. Shit.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, it’s for… damn I don’t even know who’s interviewing us. I’m surprised Melissa hasn’t called me yet to coach me on interview questions.”
“I should let you get some rest then. It sounds like you have a busy couple of days. Just remember, in three short weeks I’ll be there beside you.”
“I can’t wait,” Nathan sighed.
Maddie felt the same way but was less than excited about spending an extended period of time in Los Angeles. She loved Nathan’s house and the people around him like Lupe and Stanley. She just hoped she could learn to appreciate the rest of the city by the end of summer. Despite her lackluster enthusiasm to return there, she missed her boyfriend and the sacrifice of leaving her home in Texas behind for a few months was worth it to be with him.
Two weeks later, Maddie was on campus with Holly so she could drop the summer course she’d signed up for months earlier. In less than a week she was heading back to Los Angeles to spend the summer with Nathan. The girls finished at the registrar’s office and decided to hang out in the student center for a little while. Holly had a million questions about Nathan and his new movie so they got coffee from the cafeteria and found a couple couches to sit on while they talked. The friends wouldn’t see one another again until the end of August.
“Is there a love scene in this movie?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know, I haven’t asked him about stuff like that.”
“You haven’t asked him if he’s going to be naked with Jennifer Lawrence in this movie? Why not? If I were dating Nathan, that would be my first question!”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “You’re not dating him and it was still your first question.”
“Yes, because it’s important. My best friend is dating Nathan Foster; I expect all kinds of insider information!”
“Shhh, keep your voice down,” Maddie admonished her. Few students were walking around campus in the summertime but still she wanted to be cautious.
“Fine, fine. Sorry. So, next time you speak to… him… find out if there’s any sex scenes. You better watch out for that Jennifer Lawrence. I’ve heard she’s a wild one.”
“I don’t want to think about him shooting those kinds of scenes. I hope they’re all done before I get out to L.A. I can’t imagine standing at his front door to kiss him goodbye and telling him to have a good day at work if I know he’s going to be spending it naked with a beautiful actress.”
Holly giggled. “Why oh why didn’t I become an actress?”
“Because you’re not eccentric enough,” Maddie teased sarcastically.
“Excuse me? You’re Madeline Sherratt, aren’t you?” a blonde woman in a red skirt and creme blouse asked.
“Um, yeah,” Maddie replied. “Do I know you?”
The blonde
didn’t respond to her question and briskly paced over to where the girls were sitting. She motioned for someone to follow her and Maddie saw that it was a man wearing jeans and a grey t-shirt with the Amarillo College logo on the front. She noticed the man was holding a sophisticated camera.
“What’s going on?” Maddie demanded, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.
Holly leaned close to her and whispered, “I think they’re Radio/TV/Film majors.”
“You think?” Maddie hissed under her breath.
“I’m Charlotte Ramone and was hoping beyond hope that you might answer a few questions for me,” the woman pleaded with a big smile.
Maddie shook her head. “No interviews. Sorry.”
She didn’t want her face on camera, even if it was for the dinky little school television network.
“It’s summer time,” Holly commented. “Who’s watching the college’s TV channel in June?”
“Nathan said not to talk to anyone,” she refuted.
Charlotte’s eyes lit up hearing his name. “So, it’s true then? You are the mystery woman dating Nathan Foster?”
For a few moments Maddie debated what to do. She could make a run for it, but Holly’s car was out in the main parking lot. She didn’t know if these people would follow her, possibly film her fleeing as the blonde called out for her to come back. No, she didn’t want to run. Clumsy as she was, Maddie feared falling flat on her face on videotape.
“Two minutes. And then my friend and I need to leave,” Maddie said.
“Thank you! We’ll make it quick,” Charlotte beamed.
Holly smiled and quickly reached over to tug the hair tie out of Maddie’s hair. She fluffed it out a little until the long brunette strands fell all around her shoulders. Maddie hadn’t even considered how she looked but it was too late to do anything about her casual appearance and lack of makeup.
Charlotte pushed a microphone into her face and said, “Were you the woman photographed outside the Chateau Marmont with Nathan Foster in April?”
Maddie froze. No warm up questions? No segue at all into the Nathan topic? She stared at Charlotte with wide eyes as the cameraman loomed over her shoulder. Of course they wanted to talk about Nathan, why else would anyone want to know about her?
“Yes, that was me. There was a group of us out that night,” she answered trying to sound passive.
“Were you his date that evening?”
Maddie blushed. “Yes.”
“Are you currently in a relationship with him?”
“Yes.”
Nathan had said he wanted to go public, but she doubted this was how he wanted to handle it. Maddie couldn’t help her honesty. With the bright camera light shining on her and the intense stares of these two people she felt paralyzed. There wasn’t time to come up with vague, halfway truthful responses to Charlotte’s very direct questions.
“What are you doing here at Amarillo College then?” Charlotte asked.
“Um, I ah, go to school here,” Maddie stuttered.
“So, you live here? And you’re in a long-distance relationship with a Hollywood movie star?”
“That’s right.” Maddie smiled as naturally as she could manage but inside was thinking about how Nathan was going to react. Was he going to be mad at her?
“How did you meet?”
“Um, it’s a long story, but we were friends first. We started to get to know each other through phone calls.”
“Phone calls?” Charlotte chuckled. “There are a lot of ladies out there who would love to know how you got a hold of Nathan Foster’s phone number.”
“He called me,” Maddie said. She knew better than to mention her letters or her previous mega-fan status.
“Aren’t you worried about an outgoing party boy like Nathan Foster being left alone in L.A.?”
Maddie resisted rolling her eyes. This bimbo didn’t know anything about who Nathan really was. “He’s not the person the media makes him out to be. I trust Nathan completely.”
“What about Katie Owens? Aren’t you worried about his friendship with her? He was just photographed with her outside an upscale restaurant, you know.”
Maddiedid know this, and Holly had showed her the pictures. They were taken after the cast and crew interviews Nathan had to suffer through the day after he returned from boot camp. She knew he was still so physically sore that day he couldn’t have cheated on her if he’d wanted. Maddie might have been backed into a corner with this interview but she wasn’t dumb enough to take Charlotte’s bait.
“Nathan was with the entire cast of their movie at that restaurant.”
Undeterred, Charlotte pressed on, “That’s unconfirmed, but regardless he looked very chummy with her. It doesn’t give you any cause for concern?”
“They’ve been friends for a long time. I’ve met Katie; she’s very down to Earth.”
“And beautiful,” Charlotte added. “So, tell me, Madeline. What does a plain, ordinary girl like you have to offer a movie star as gorgeous as Nathan Foster?”
Holly gasped and shot Charlotte a dirty look. Maddie could feel her face turning red but this time it wasn’t embarrassment that filled her with color. It was rage. “Nathan’s heart is far more beautiful than his face and he knows that I’m not interested in him for his fame or money. I’m not fake, egotistical, or shallow like so many people in Los Angeles. It’s those qualities that attracts him to me.”
“But physical attraction is important too. If not Katie Owens, then there are so many other beautiful actresses out there. Do you honestly think a shy country girl can keep him happy?”
Maddie squared her shoulders and replied, “Well, Ms. Ramone, all I can tell you is that Nathan has not once complained about my appearance, my personality, or anything else about me from the color of my hair down to my cooking ability. And speaking of abilities, he’s never complained in the bedroom either.”
“Oh, snap!” Holly shrieked as she leaned into the cameraman’s shot. She wrapped her arm around Maddie’s shoulder and smiled triumphantly at Charlotte. “My best friend!” she added grinning.
“This interview is over now,” Maddie said. She shook Holly’s arm off and held her hand out in front of her face to block the camera lens.
Charlotte smirked and signaled for the camera man to turn off his equipment. “Thank you for the enlightening information, Madeline. My boss is going to love this.”
Maddie frowned. “Boss? The college actually pays you to harass your fellow students?”
Charlotte laughed out loud and then replied, “I never said I was from the campus TV station. I don’t even go to this school.”
“Then where are you from?”
“KFDA Channel 10 News,” she answered simply.
Maddie’s look of surprise was all over her face. The cameraman wearing the Amarillo College t-shirt had the decency to look remorseful as he shrugged at her and turned to follow Charlotte.
“Thanks again, Sugar,” Charlotte called out over her shoulder and she walked away.
Maddie sat in silence as she watched the pair walk out of the student center towards the visitor parking lot.
“Well… fuck!” Holly exclaimed after they were gone.
The next few days were particularly stressful for Maddie. She left the television in her living room on Channel 10 day and night wondering when her face was going to show up on the screen. She’d made the decision not to tell Nathan about the interview hoping that it might never air, or even if it did, maybe it wouldn’t go any further than the local news. She crossed her fingers and hoped to catch a break.
Maddie should have known better than that. After five agonizing days the story about her premiered on Amarillo’s nightly news. Charlotte Ramone had turned her interview into a whole story about Nathan’s new movie and how the Hollywood heart throb had taken a liking to a simple girl from America’s Heartland. She cringed watching the segment as her answers to the questions were edited and spliced into footage of Nathan sta
nding with Katie Owens on the red carpet at the Love Spelled Backwards premiere. Channel 10’s story gave the impression Nathan was every bit the wild party boy Charlotte Ramone had thought he was, and the clip of Maddie denying it impliedNathan was taking advantage of her naivete. The story was intentionally trying to make the claim that Nathan was keeping company with both Maddie and Katie. The glaringly obvious contrast in their physical attributes were not lost on her as she watched the embellished story unfold.
When it was all over Maddie felt the tears run down her cheeks. She finally understood why Nathan got coached by his agent before every television interview. She hadn’t said anything that was untrue or that embarrassed Nathan in any way, but still she felt like she had made a huge mistake. She spoke to a reporter after Nathan asked her not to and she did sort of admit to having slept with him. The story Charlotte Ramone told went far beyond the line of questioning she subjected Maddie to at the school and it was twisted into some sordid love triangle. She wanted to crawl into an armadillo den and hide forever.
It took no time at all for the local story to hit the Internet. Maddie cursed the World Wide Web as she scanned some of the fan chatter. Holly reported that all the EVOL fangirls had found the clips of the segment online and were reposting it and talking about her. She spared herself from reading the comments knowing they would only upset her to see what the women were writing. Holly told her it was a wise decision.
Maddie knew that Nathan was on set that day as it was the end of his first week of filming Shock and Awe but she wanted to tell him about the interview before he heard about it from someone else. She had just four more days to wait until being reunited with him; if he was going to yell at her she preferred it be over the phone. Maddie grabbed her phone thinking if she called now she’d probably get his voicemail. It was cowardly of her to want to give the bad news to his voicemail instead of him but she was nervous enough to do it.
Unexpectedly, the phone began ringing in her hand and it made her jump in surprise. The number was not familiar but since only Nathan and her parents knew about the new phone she figured it was Nathan calling. She only hoped he hadn’t already heard about her interview.