Loved In Pieces (31 page)

He probably worried tha
t this was far better than prom.
I
was
used to the scene. I d
id
like the people
, but I couldn’t
compare it to the prom or to being with him. This
wa
s different, but not better.

I explained,
“Rule #1: the people in this business are in this business because they want,
seek, and
must have attention. Psych studies have shown that
50-6
0% of Americans see themselves as introverts
, not
extroverts. You have an entire room full of extroverts here, with the exception of us
, who are energized from the crowd.  You and I are drained from it
. Rule #2: the extroverts here
will not notice
if we leave
my
party. Rule #3: Hollywood parties are excessive and indulgent. That does not mean they are
better
than other types of gatherings with friends.”

Manuel was still not convinced. “What about Franz?”

“Mom i
s dropping him off on her way back to the airport.”

Manuel finally smiled. “Ok
ay
, let’s go,” he said confidently.

As we walked out the front door, camera lights
flashed
in such a burst that Manuel stood motionless with his eyes blinded. Photographers
yelled
at him, ask
ed
me questions, demand
ed
to know
who he was. I
was confused because I was sure
my publicist
would have given them facts about who
m
I was dating. Nevertheless, I
spoke
immediately
to help poor Manuel.

“Hey, one at a time. I’m happy to answer questions about my boyfriend,” I commanded.

I stood patiently, holding Manuel’s hand and smiled until the photographers became civilized. I looked at Manuel. He
stared
at me. I let go of his hand and put my arm around him. He still stared at me.

I did not raise my voice and continued to smile. “This is my boyfriend, Manuel. We’ve been best friends since preschool and grew up together in Santa Monica. We attended our high school senior prom and started dating.”

Again, I
smiled
as I finished the sentence, looking pretty
,
blink
ing
quickly so the photo wouldn’t
show my
pain.

A photographer I knew asked politely, “Marie, good for you. It’s nice to see you happy. How long have you been dating?”

“We’ve been dating since March. Prom was the weekend after the
Constantine’s Muse
wrap party.”

Uh,
o
h. I said something they didn’t expect. Photographers were nudging us and shouting out questions, questions about
Byron
and about Manuel. I looked to Manuel and he looked absolutely pissed. I did not want him to hit a
nybody. He’d get sued.

I grabbed his hand and took off towards the limo. I ran in the darn stil
ettos, pulling Manuel with me.
I opened the limo door and rushed inside. Manuel followed me and slammed the door closed.

It was the wrong limo. Manuel and I both looked over to a man and a woman having sex, mostly clothed. The man slid off the woman to the side and the woman covered herself. I recognized both of them immediately. The man was
Byron
. The woman was the lighting specialist.

Stunned
by the absolute ridiculousness
—
the improbability
—
that this was happening
, I laughed
.
It was the same
response
I had when the guys lost to me in strip poker
or
when I felt uncomfortable
at an inappropriate comedy show.

“
Happy birthday
, Marie,”
Byron
smiled, not at all embarrassed. “So
you’re
still with
Manny
?”

“Yep
.
Hi, Claire
,
this is Manuel, my boyfriend.
I’m sorry
to barge in.” I chuckled again,
“I thought this was my limo.”

Manuel
frowned
. I kissed him. He was tense.

“This
is
your limo. I was borrowing it. I j
ust got here. Claire and I
saw each other in the parking lot. I saw your driver smoking outside and had Claire give him $100 to be back in fifteen minutes. He let us sneak in
.
I thought this would be a comfy place to shack.”

“
You
know
he’s a prick, right?” I said to Claire. The three of us
chuckled
. She did know and didn’t care.

Byron
defended himself, “It figures you would leave your own party. You always leave early. Sorry, though.”

“So just now,” I
asked
, “what the hell was going on with the photographers? They didn’t
know who Manuel was and my publicist should have clued them in. They went crazy when I told them we started dating at our senior prom.”

“Shit, Marie.”
Byron
said, “Now you’re the one with your
fucking
foot in your mouth.”

“What?
I’m…”

“Richard wants us to be a couple for the
premiere
,”
Byron
explained.

“Oh. We
ll he should have asked me, so I could say
,
“N
o way.
”
Thanks for the heads up,
late
.”

I smiled at Manuel and squeezed his hand. He was as stiff as a statue. But I still felt the hilarity of the moment and shook my head laughing.

“So this is just too much. I’m stuck
here
with my boyfriend, with you guys
half-
naked, and a gaggle of photographers who saw us get into this limo. The driver is out counting his money. I’ve already messed up the
premiere
’s spin, and I want to go home and have a nice quiet night with Manuel. Any suggestions on how we
’
re all gonna get out of here?”

They
laughed. Not Manuel
, p
oor guy. I tried to snuggle into the statue.

Claire moved away from
Byron
, which exposed him, and he casually pulled up his pants
, wrapped his condom in a tissue, and threw it in the trash can in the limo’s bar
.
He
poured
drinks.
Manuel looked shocked.

“Don’t worry about it,
l
ove.” I said to Manuel out
loud. “He’s a dick. Everyone has seen it.” The three of us laughed again. We were having fun now.

“Easy solution to being stuck in this limo together,”
Byron
said. “We’ll take you home.”
He handed everyone a drink.

Manuel grumbled
to
Byron
,
“You’re a
n
asshole
.”

Just then, the driver got in. “Time
’
s up,” he announced.

I answered back. “
Byron
told me your arrangement. Now take us home immediately.
Byron
will be paying you for the car tonight.” I looked at
Byron
. He shrugged a ‘sure.’

“Wait,” Claire interrupted. “I’m going to
Marie’s
party.  Baby, call me anytime, and we’ll finish what we started.” Claire crawled onto Byron and kissed him
passionately
. She
put his hand in her crotch. “It’
ll be waiting for you.” She licked his lip and then left the limo. Photographers shouted at her over the percussion of camera clicking.
Then we left.

Byron
finished Claire’s drink and
got into the bar
again
. He gave Manuel another drink and lit a
cigarette
. He asked, “So you two are lovers? How long have you been dating?”

I knew what he was exposing. I answered as confidently as possible, “Since our disaster night together, Byron, of course.”

“Not prom?”
He grinned at me and looked at Manuel. “You’re a lucky guy. She rejected me, as you know. But honestly, I don’t know if I could have your patience. She’s worth it, of course, but I’d get frustrated.”

Manuel glared at him, “Shut up. She’s mine.”

“I know. But she’s wounded. Has you
r
love been enough
for her
?”

Manuel fumed, “I’
m warning you that I’
ll kick your ass.”

“Of course you will
. B
ut you’ll always wonder what I do to make her tremble.”

I yelled, “
S
hut up!”

“Marie, we both love you. We could work together, give you pleasure you’ve never known
. I just participated for the first time about a week ago, made my friend’s wife have the best orgasm of her life, made her so happy. It was a win for everyone.”

I shook my head, “There’s no possibility, Bryon. Gross!”

“I could be like a director, coach him, tell him how I melt you.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Manuel bellowed. Hostile energy erupted from him.

Byron stopped talking and looked at his iPhone. Manuel did the same. I considered the possibility of having both of them at the same time. Tingles ran through my body. I blushed. Manuel looked at me and studied my face. Then I noticed Byron’s eyes on me, too.

Manuel
asked
, “You’d want to try?”

“No,” I said definitively but my cheeks became hot, flooded with blood.

Byron suggested, “Marie, you reaching climax is going to take a ton of time. Really, we both love you. You’d feel great.”

“No! I belong to Manuel, only.
What turns me on is the thought of making love. What’s gross is you guys sharing me.
Got it?!”

“Good,” Manuel agreed, “because I can’t share you.”

I looked at Byron coldly,
“And a little lesson
, Byron
. You were played. Here’s the situation you found yourself in, and please correct me if I’m wrong because I’ve seen it
a dozen times
: you’re at a party, drunk and smoking pot. A babe is all over you. You show interest. She leads you down the hall to a room. You go in to see a guy in bed with his
almost naked
“baby” or
“wife,” whatever turns you on
. They offer you ecstacy
usually
, not coke, meth or heroin because there’s too much ritual
and mess
with those drugs. No, they want an easy sell
and repeat customer
. You take the pill and get the pleasure. Then
the next morning
you
wake up naked next to strangers and
worry about who you screwed
and who screwed you
.”

Bryon wrinkled his forehead and looked at me with pain in his eyes.
Manuel’s shoulders slouched.

I continued, “You’ve been partying for a year now. You’ll continue to have your fun and be played for another year. You’ll have so many drugs in you that you won’t be able to get it up
so you’ll find yourself at orgies and porn parties. Then you’ll find yourself sued, broke and all alone.”

I shook my head at the absurdity of the conversation and looked around the limo.
I pushed out every memory of what I had witnessed or experienced while in a limo.
I hated limos.

The driver dropped us off.
Manuel and I
held hands while I punched in the code at the front door.

“Thanks for enduring that, Manuel. You do know how much I appreciate you, don’t you?”

He smiled. He hadn’t said much the whole night.
T
he GQ outfit altered him. But this life
wa
s a lot to take in all in one night.
During my
international
party days, I had seen much worse than what we had just
seen
. Given that it was probably the first time he was blinded by photographers yelling at him and
the
first time he walked in on someone
who
propose
d
sharing his girlfriend
, h
e did a great job.