Hollywood Stardust Supporting Roles - Wilson and Giselle (14 page)

“
Custom stir sticks.” The
man thrust the box at him and a clipboard. “Sign here.”

“
I have custom stir
sticks?” Wilson signed the paper, took the box and went inside.
Giselle must have ordered them. Not wanting to do anything with
them that she didn’t want done, he put the box with the other bar
supplies alongside the napkins and returned upstairs, sitting down
on the bed. He supposed the earmark of any good relationship was
when the woman bought things without the guy’s knowledge. The
thought warmed him, but he wished Giselle were there to make a big
stir about the sticks.

He laughed at his own joke, and once more
rushed downstairs, this time colliding into his baby brother in the
kitchen.

“
Whoa!” Logan backed up.
“What has you all fired up?”

“
I’m just waiting for
Giselle.” Wilson ran his hand through his hair. While the day felt
like it were crawling, it was already early evening.

“
Where is she?” Logan
opened the refrigerator.

“
Doing her thinking thing.”
In hopes his brother was here for a snack, he sat down at the
table.

Logan glanced over at him then returned his
attention to the fridge.

“
After the party last
night, things got a little intense between us.” The words left his
mouth, and he strummed his fingers on the stainless steel
surface.

“
Did you get in a fight?”
With a pile of food, Logan emerged from the refrigerator and
plopped it on the table.

“
No, not at all.” To make
sure his brother got the hint, he reached behind him and got two
plates.

“
Then what happened?” Logan
began making one of his creations.

How did one tell another man what went on
last night? “The soft opening was good, don’t you think?” He tried
to snake a pickle out of the jar.

Logan slapped his hand. “Yes, it was
awesome, but that’s not what I asked.”

His brother was always smart and attentive
to details. Wilson shook his head. “You know, we did the ‘I love
you thing, we have a life together thing.’”

Logan took a fork, speared a pickle and
handed it to him as if he were handing a child a lollipop. “Oh,
really? Strange she’s not here to bask in it.”

“
She has her own way of
doing things.” He bit into the pickle letting the sourness take
over his taste buds.

“
You’re telling me.” Logan
finished assembling their sandwiches and handed him one of the
plates.

“
The soft opening went so
well, we are in good shape for the real opening. I need to go make
some plans.” Dish in hand, Wilson stood, grabbed one of the bottles
of water off the table and walked into the front room, sitting down
at their booth. Again, he peeked over at the time. They said they
loved each other. That didn’t seem like that warranted all these
hours away. Maybe a little time to think, but then shouldn’t she be
back here and celebrating?

“
Hey.” Logan came out and
joined him. “Are you sure everything’s all right?”

“
What are you, a woman?” He
bit into the sandwich, but with his mind so cluttered, he couldn’t
tell what he was eating.

“
So, everything is not all
right.” Logan took a swig of his water. “Everything will work
out.”

“
I just have a lot of work
to do. You sound like her.” Again, he opened his laptop.

His brother continued to chomp away. “Any
big plans for the grand opening?”

Wilson polished off his food and clicked on
the folder containing the notes for the event, scanning the list of
documents. Decorations, invitations, inventory, everything was tied
into Giselle, had her touch on it, and he didn’t even know where to
begin. Like earlier, he slammed the laptop shut. “Can we do this
later?”

“
Not a problem, I was just
trying to make conversation.” Logan slapped him on the
back.

A pain in his shoulder made him wince, and
then he ground his teeth together. His brother managed to catch him
right in the same spot where his girlfriend dug her nails into him
from the intensity of her orgasm last night. Was she trying to
torture him now and why?

He stood and looked around. Even after all
the cleaning, there was still an errant streamer in one corner and
a party favor bag on the bar. He walked over to the take-home
present and wondered who forgot to take their prize? “Has the sun
set yet?”

“
I don’t know. Let me go
consult my sundial.” Logan got out of the booth. “What’s going
on?”

Wilson slid his phone out of his pocket,
took note of the time, then did a reality check and glanced out the
window. “If you told Ivy you loved her, and you woke up and she
wasn’t there, what would you do?”

“
I would find out where the
hell she was and demand an explanation.” Logan stood by his
side.

“
I need to check
something.” Heat building up through his body, he went to the front
door and opened it. He didn’t need a sun dial, or a watch or his
phone. All he needed was his own two eyes to tell him everything he
needed to know.

Only an orange glow lit up the sky at sunset
and Giselle was nowhere to be found.

“
Wilson.” Logan came
outside. “What’s wrong?”

Refusing to have this conversation, he
pushed passed his brother and returned inside, going behind the bar
and shaking his head at the gorgeous display of premium brands
Giselle created. He picked up quite an expensive bottle of whiskey
and read the label. Too bad this would be downed in an effort to
forget everything. This was the type of bottle that should be
savored.

“
Wilson?” Logan continued
to follow. “Come on. Tell me.”

“
You want to know?” Fire
taking over him, he spun around and faced his brother. “I spent my
life taking care of everyone, making sure I did things right, and
the second I think I have something, someone, she breaks her
promise and everything else. Just like this!” He took a bottle of
vodka and slammed it to the floor.

The bottle shattered, sending thousands of
little shards of glass everywhere.

“
You clean up the mess for
once! I’m done being the parent. I’m going to let loose!”
Everywhere he looked, Giselle’s presence was there, but she wasn’t,
and she wasn’t coming back. Glass crunching beneath his feet, he
made his way around the bar and headed for the back.

“Good!” Logan called after him

Without a glance back, he got into his car
and started the engine. He leaned his head back on the seat and
turned to what would always be Giselle’s spot. A sick laugh escaped
his throat, the G she created in the window created an outline in
the sunset.

She was everywhere except where she needed
to be.

SPRAWLED ON HER BACK in her mother’s
permanent suite at the Zen At Last Ranch, Giselle was quite certain
she would never find Zen again. In fact, the thought of Zen was so
far away that she could travel to another planet and still not find
the inner peace her mother searched for her entire life.

“
Giselle, I insist you stop
this crying this instant. You can’t come here and mess up the flow
of everything. This is a place of tranquility and fun.” In what was
no doubt an extremely expensive designer robe, her mother
stood.

Giselle looked up backward at the woman. She
looked like an upside down bizarre butterfly. “I tried to make it
fun and it ended up not being so much fun. My heart hurts.” She was
sure the poor organ would break soon.

“
You have been lying on the
floor for hours and then nearly had a nervous breakdown when I
asked if you wanted some mixed nuts.” Her mother came and stood
over her. “Now, I insist you get up and stop the crying. Later, you
can come with me to our 3:00 a.m. hot tub and hot tamale Zen hour.
We don’t use tamales though, they’re fattening.”

Three in the morning? Had she really been
rolling around on the floor with nothing to show for it for all
these hours? Right now she should be in bed with Wilson. They
should have made love then be exhausted.

“
I told you to keep things
light and look what happened.” Her mother kneeled down.

“
Something always happens.”
Giselle stared up at the wood beam ceiling, breathing in the scent
of fresh lavender and listening to trickle of the waterfall in the
background. No matter how much fun they imparted into things,
something always happened.

“
Well, what’s going to
happen now is that we’re going to get an emergency technician here
to get your eyes de-puffed and get you back in shape.” Her mother
went to the phone.

“
They have people here to
give treatments in the middle of the night?” Giselle shook her
head.

“
Service here is 24/7.
Isn’t that fun?” Her mother turned her back and made the
arrangements for some treatment Giselle had never heard of
before.

“
Not as fun as what I
should be doing.” She shook her head. Her mother was right, she was
going to end up exactly like her.

Her mother hung up the phone. “All right,
daughter of mine. I have someone on their way here ASAP and I am
going to go meet some friends for some pre-tamale fun. Your crying
and complaining is starting to cause me wrinkles.” The woman bent
down and patted her head. “I’ll be back.”

Giselle barely waved as her mother flitted
out the door. She supposed if the woman couldn’t have inner peace
she could have ageless skin. Hell, she lived at a spa.

Waiting for whatever was next, she returned
to her rolling around on the floor gig, though in truth that was
getting really old, really fast, and it was playing havoc on her
back.

The knock on the door indicated her mother’s
newest quest had arrived.

At the second knock, Giselle crawled over to
the door and used all her strength to pull herself up to her knees
and turn the handle. A person in sea foam green scrubs and a white
coat greeted her.

“
I am here for your
relaxation treatment.”

Normally, at the odd male voice with an
accent she couldn’t place would have her acting the chatterbox,
asking where the guy was from and maybe even trying to learn his
different inflections. Instead, she glanced over at the red-haired,
mustached man with a sigh.

“
It looks like you could
use a treatment.” He motioned to the padded massage table set up in
the room. “Please lie down.”

She managed to get up on her feet and
trudged over to the table, facing down into the darkness, the abyss
like her life. The only good thing was she would get this part over
with now and maybe one day have a life without Wilson, without
anyone. While he set up for whatever he was going to do to her, to
quote unquote make her feel better, she didn’t move. The same
numbness that traveled with her when she escaped this morning from
her warm bed in Wilson’s arms seemed to amplify.

“
Turn over please.” The
man’s voice came out a little gruff, unusual for someone at the
spa.

Not in the mood for this, but not wanting to
fight with her mother, she flopped over and let her arms fall off
the side of the table. Before she even had a chance to see what was
going to happen with her the man shoved two ice-cold cucumber
slices on her eyes.

She groaned.

“
Is there something the
matter?” No sooner had the man asked the question than some gooey
stuff fell on her face.

Did he mean aside from the way the crud
dripped off the side of her face? “Do you ever wonder if you’re the
stupidest or the smartest person on the planet?”

The man used a brush to lap up the stuff and
proceeded to paint her face. However, his technique reminded her
more of painting a wall than treating a face.

“
Every person wonders
that.” He answered in a low voice.

The heartache that throbbed around her since
she left Wilson turned into a sharp pain cutting through her at
remembering how Wilson painted the wall after that whole graffiti
nightmare. Even dealing with her meltdown, Logan, and the
destruction of his building, the man stayed calm and cool.

Yet another tear snuck out of her eye,
tickling its way under the stupid cucumber slice, and she
squirmed.

“
I don’t think that’s your
problem.” He used the brush to wipe away the tear.

“
No, everyone thinks I’m
stupid, but him.” Another tear fell.

Another dollop of something cold and slimy
fell on her face. “Ah, now we get to the real issue. So, he treated
you bad, yes?”

“
No!” Her outburst jostled
the table. “Nothing like that.”

He gently pushed her back down on the table.
“All right.”

“
You don’t understand.” She
sighed. “Last night he told me he loved me.”

The man made a noise acknowledging she spoke
and also rolling out the welcome mat to continue.

“
So, last night he said he
loved me, and it was the most amazing experience. I mean, to know
someone loves you and cares for you enough to actually utter the
words, it’s like a true melding of spirits, especially if you love
them too.” Again, her eyes heated.

“
Well, do you?” The man
went back to his painting ritual and slathered on another product,
this one smelled like fresh vanilla frosting.

Frosting. She couldn’t even go there and
chose to continue. “Yes, I love him and look, I’m sitting here in
tears, sick to my stomach. This is what happens. It’s all happy and
fun and sex and orgasms and I love yous and then the next day it’s
divorces or deaths or fights and stomach aches.” She shook her
head. “I don’t want to get hurt or even have hurt potential.”