Glitter on the Web
Page 33
Christmas dinner I shared with Clem and her Pop Pops. We had tofurkey. I thought back to the year before, when I lived at Ling’s. I had eaten my #2 special with brown rice and vegetable eggroll all by myself, staring at a Hopper print, listening to Gilligan and the Skipper through the walls.
That night when I went home to my new place in WeHo, I found an oldies channel and watched all the Christmas specials. It made me oddly nostalgic. And really lonely. For the first time since I broke away from my family, I felt untethered. Like I didn’t belong anywhere or to anyone.
Normally that was right where I wanted to be. It was comfortable. It was safe. But suddenly I was claustrophobic, like the walls of my tiny safe room were closing in.
I wondered briefly what Eli and his family were doing. I could picture him chasing Gabby and Elizabeth down the mountain as they enjoyed the slopes. I could see them all singing Christmas carols as they sipped hot chocolate around the fire.
Maybe they were at that cabin, and there was a giant pine tree decorated right in front of the massive windows.
It made me think about the barn where Eli and I had first made love. My skin ached for his touch. I had to stop myself from calling him a hundred times, but by the time I went to Frank’s office that following Monday, I was glad I didn’t. I found out that Julie had taken an extended vacation in Denver.
My heart broke all over again as I replayed those holiday scenarios with her inserted right at his side, like I used to be.
New Year’s Eve we spent at the club. Caz was there, as was Camille, who practically glowed like a new woman on his arm. That meant my New Year’s Kisses came from Clem and Antoine, just like the year before. The three Floozy-tiers.
January was all about Eli, but I knew it would be. “Glitter on the Web” had been selling like hotcakes since his performance on NYE in New York. We planned to host the release party on January 12th, so we spent those first ten days in party planning mode. There were glitter cannons installed all over the dance floor, along with about five more disco balls to scatter prisms all over the floor like diamonds. They brought in Laverne, Eli’s beloved piano. Tempestuous dressed everyone for the video they were going to tape that night, one of the bonus tracks on the album, one that Eli insisted they do with no rehearsal.
“I want it to be genuine,” he had told us. “For once,” he had said to me.
Maybe that was why I went downstairs on January 12th, to get a good seat for the concert. We were already packed, standing room only, with a line around the block. We erected a big screen to share with everyone who couldn’t get in, just like we had done before. He started with his classics, getting everyone on their feet. I disappeared to the bar for a drink during “Glitter on the Web,” which still hurt to hear.
Finally Julie took the stage. She had grown a lot in the last few months, but being Eli’s paramour had that sort of effect. “Okay, everyone. We’re almost ready to tape this video. I want everyone to forget the cameras and concentrate on the action on the stage. I’ve had the special privilege of working closely with Eli to finish this song and I can tell you. You’re not going to want to miss a minute of this.”
Despite how my heart was breaking, I found myself swimming through the sea of bodies to get closer to the stage. A lone spotlight fell on Laverne. When Eli emerged from the shadows after his costume change, everyone went bananas. He wore a suit with no tie, and his shirt opened down to the third button. His dirty blonde hair was mussed, as though he had just got out of bed.
He addressed the crowd. “Thanks for coming out everybody. FFF is near and dear to my heart, and I’m so excited to debut this new song here. It was written for someone very special,” he said as he flashed Julie a smile. It was one she returned, so giddy she could practically stand still. It tore at my gut. I knew that look he wore well. It made me wonder just how close Julie and Eli had to get to finish the song. How did she inspire him?
You could have heard a pin drop when he sat at the piano. From the first notes, I knew it was the song he had worked on all year. It was still haunting and beautiful. And now I got to hear what he did with the words.
“She's beautiful
More beautiful than she knows
She's sexy
I stare at her for hours
Wondering how I missed it before
She's fearless
She doesn't take any shit
From me or anybody else
She deserves everything
Everything
Carly.”
It took me a full second to realize that he hadn’t said Julie’s name. He had said my name. Not only had he said my name, but I remembered those exact words. It was what he had said to his mother all those months ago.
What the hell did that mean?
“She haunts my dreams
She pushes me
Inspires me
Enrages me
Carly
Can't live without her now
Can't wait to show her how
I'm a better man
For her loving me
She deserves everything
Carly.”
His eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on me. Tears poured from my face as he continued, with beautiful references to our crazy year together, honoring the time we spent, validating it as real with every word.
“I told a lie
She rewrote it into truth
Kept us from falling over
Each time the road wasn’t smooth
Saved my heart
When it threatened to disappear
I call for her every night
Hoping one night she will hear”
He repeated the chorus again, and then took it into the bridge.
“I gave her a year, she gave me more
Because of her, I know who I’ve been singing for
Come to me, Carly, believe once again in our dream
Give me your heart, I’ll give you everything, everything
Carly…”
His earnest words reminded me what he said about making a promise to his sister all those years ago through his award-winning song. “You put a promise to music and it’s sacred. Unbreakable. Eternal.”
I was suddenly moving and I didn’t know why. The crowd around me was in tears as well, and was propelling me towards the stage like a tidal wave. He stood and walked to the edge to pull me up, to sing the chorus to me directly.
“She haunts my dreams
She pushes me
Inspires me
Enrages me
Carly
Can't live without her now
Can't wait to show her how
I'm a better man
For her loving me
She deserves everything
Carly.”
He pulled me close and kissed me soft. “Neither wanted to be the first to say it. Neither of us wanted to be that vulnerable. But that’s what love does. It makes you brave enough to be vulnerable. To go for broke. To risk it all. To take that first step into thin air, even if you plummet to the ground.” I could barely breathe as I listened. Those beautiful blue eyes misted, like April rain. “Nothing I could ever risk would hurt as much as losing you. My life is empty without you in it. I love you, Carly. I want to start over. Today. This day. Please say yes.”
I could say nothing, so he bent for another kiss. When he pulled away, I had to ask. “So this is real?”
He cupped my face. “You’re the only thing in my life that ever was.”
My brain scrambled. “The whole thing, with the club, with the money… that was all a ruse?”
He shrugged. “I needed some time to finish the song. I finally finished it over Christmas. Gabby helped,” he added with a smile. “But I couldn’t stay away. God, how could I stay away?” he asked as he held me tight. “It’s like finding a hundred dollar bill. You want to keep it in your pocket before anyone sees it and tries to steal it.”
He had done all that because he was jealo
us of Caz? “You acted like an asshole.”
“You were expecting an asshole,” he pointed out. “If I told you then I loved you, you would have never believed it.”
I gaped at him, speechless. I spotted my Fellow Floozies on the sidelines, crying, clapping and nodding at me. “Wait. Did Clem and Antoine know?”
He nodded. “I wasn’t under a NDA,” he added with a smile. “I had to get you back, Carly. I knew I was hopelessly in love with you the minute I tried to kiss Julie and couldn’t get you out of my head.”
I had to laugh. “That’s what happened when I tried to kiss Caz.”
He chuckled. “So we broke up over nothing.”
I nodded. “A little bit. Yeah.”
He held me tight. “Well, I’m glad we got that out of our system, because we’re never doing that again. I never want to look up and see you in another man’s arms again” He motioned to the window to my office above. Suddenly it all made sense. He really had thought I had turned to Caz. After everything, he was as afraid to be left as I was. So he pulled the trigger first, to make me tell him the truth. When I didn’t, he lied too.
“Eli,” I said as I caressed his face. “You never shared me. And you never will.”
“Good,” he said. “Unless it’s family. Or friends. Or maybe… our own kids.”
My stomach dropped. “I thought you didn’t do forever.”
“I just needed a forever kind of girl.” He paused and said, “And I think I just wrote my next single.”
I laughed and hugged him. “I missed you, you big dumb jerk.”
He cupped my face again. “And I love you, Carly Reynolds. For real. For always.”
It was everything I wanted. My fairy tale was coming true on the day I had expected to lose it all. He had done that for me. He had done that on purpose. “I love you, Eli,” I said through my tears. “You bastard.”
He laughed and spun me around. There was thunderous applause as everyone cheered, and all of the glitter cannons exploded in unison, but I had forgotten all the cameras and the crowds. Nothing mattered beyond this man in my arms, my new family; my new life.
He pulled away with that infamous smirk. “By the way, Julie says you owe her $40.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Shut up and kiss me.”
And he did…
And he did…
And he did.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ginger Voight is a screenwriter and bestselling author with more than twenty published titles in fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction works cover everything from travel to politics, while her works of fiction range from romance to the paranormal, as well as dark “ripped-from-the-headlines” topics, such as those featured in her book Dirty Little Secrets.
Ginger discovered her love for writing in the sixth grade, courtesy of a Halloween assignment. From then on, writing became a thing of solace, reflection, and security. When she found herself homeless in L.A. at the age of nineteen, she wrote her first novel in longhand on notebook paper while living out of her car.
In 1995, after she lost her nine-day-old son, she worked through her grief by writing the story that would eventually become The Fullerton Family Saga. In 2011, she embarked on a new journey: to publish romance novels starring heroines who look like the average American woman. These “Rubenesque romances” have developed a following thanks to her bestselling Groupie series. Other titles, such as the highly-rated Fierce series, tap into the American preoccupation with reality TV, giving her contemporary stories a current, pop-culture edge.
Ginger isn’t afraid to push the envelope with characters who are perfectly imperfect. Rich or poor, sweet or selfish, gay or straight, plus-size or svelte, her characters are beautifully flawed and three-dimensional. They populate her lavish fictional landscapes and teach us more about the real world in which we live, through their interactions with each other, and often through gut-wrenching angst. Ginger’s goal with every book is to give her readers a little bit more than they were expecting, with stories they’ll never forget.
For more, please visit gingervoight.com. Follow Ginger on Twitter (twitter.com/gingervoight) and “like” her author page on Facebook (facebook.com/gingervoight) for all the latest news on her public appearances and new releases.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX