Starstruck In Seattle (3 page)

“What were you wondering?” Anna asked Charlie.

“Oh nothing, I was going to ask about, um. . .your plans for when the show ends, but we can talk another time. You're obviously on your way out.”

“Right, yeah, let's catch up sometime this week then.”

Charlie nodded and pushed open the dressing room door. “Have a good night.” He smiled briefly, but his eyes rolled downwards. Maybe he had news or something and wanted to discuss it? Oh well, she'd ask him about it another time. Right now, it was time to get to know the one and only ‘K'.

Lulu was onto her third soda at Pepper's Bar while Anna and Karl were still getting through their first daiquiris. Words flowed in between sips, their conversation enriched with smiles and suggestive body language.

Oh, wing rot!
Anna was supposed to be here with
Charlie.
If only he'd got to Anna before Karl did, Lulu wouldn't have needed to be here tonight.

Seated at a corner table close enough to Karl and Anna at the bar, Lulu could hear most of their conversation, though she'd had to invoke her heightened hearing ability with a rub of her earlobe once a rowdy crowd of twenty-somethings arrived.

“So,” Karl said. “Has your sister been sharing her acting secrets with you? If it wasn't for the show being in its final season, I'm sure they'd be promoting you to lead in no time.”

Anna's cheeks became pink and she rested her elbow on the bar, the heel of her hand underneath her chin. “Aw, thanks. It's a shame the show's coming to an end. And no, my sister hasn't been sharing
any
secrets with me,” she replied.

“No insider Hollywood gossip?”

Anna shook her head, sipped her mango daiquiri through a straw. “Rachel and I hardly speak. She has her life and I have mine.”

“Really? My brother and I speak every day, though we share a place together so we sorta have to.” Karl sipped his drink too, and for a moment Lulu could see why Anna was so entranced by him. He really was beautiful, and so nice. But she wasn't here to drool – she was here to do her job.

“I couldn't live with my sister,” Anna said. “We'd be at each other's throats within minutes! Personality clash, plus. . .”

“Plus what?”

Anna flicked her hand. “Oh, nothing really.” She took another slurp of the fruity liquid while Karl leaned forward, curiosity in his eyes. “It's just, she's never really forgiven me for something.”

Karl leaned closer. “You've got me intrigued, Miss Anna Hilford. What did you do?”

“It's more what someone else did. And I didn't stop it,” she said.

“And?” he urged.

“Well, Rachel had brought a guy friend home from college to hang out at our parents' place while they were away. I was only sixteen at the time. Problem was, he took a liking to me.”

“I don't see how that's a problem, and it's certainly understandable.” Karl smiled.

Anna appeared to hitch her handbag strap higher on her shoulder, only the bag was on the bar.

“I didn't realize at the time how much Rachel had fallen for this guy, but he showed more interest in me. I ignored him at first, didn't want to upset Rachel. But he was persistent, and I felt the same about him. Eventually we started dating. Lasted three years in fact,” Anna explained.

“Wow, that's a
long
time. Why did you break up?”

“He wanted to travel, I wanted to act. I was no match for the exotic destinations he planned to visit.”

“You weren't tempted to go with him?”

“Of course, but I hate flying. I'll do it once or twice a year at most, but only if I have to. So while he caught the travel bug, I caught the acting bug,” Anna said.

“It's addictive, isn't it?” Karl's eyes lit up. “When you get a scene just right, it's such a rush! I couldn't do anything else.” He smiled and entwined his fingers with hers on top of her thigh. “Besides, it allows me to meet stunning, talented actresses like you.”

This date is going far too well.

Lulu tried tempting Karl with a couple of beautiful women, but his focus remained on Anna. She tried distracting him with an avalanche of phone calls, but he turned his phone off. Sometimes doing destiny's work was a pain in the wings. Not that she had any, well, not while on Earth, but if she'd been able to bring them she was sure they'd be throbbing by now. It was time for Plan B, and Anna wouldn't like it one bit.

Lulu eyed the half-full glasses (she was an optimist) in front of the couple, and focused her energy on them. Anna picked up her glass but it slipped and toppled over, orange-colored liquid spilling onto the crotch of Karl's dark jeans.

“Oh God, I'm so sorry,” Anna said. “Here, let me get a napkin.” She reached over the bar but knocked over Karl's drink too, adding to the spreading deluge on his expensive clothing.

“Ah crap, looks like this'll need more than just a napkin.” Karl dabbed at his shirt and pants.

“Geez, sorry Karl. It just slipped.”

“It was an accident, don't worry,” he replied, turning his wrist to check his watch. “I have to get going anyway.”

Anna's shoulders slumped slightly and Lulu could sense heat emanating from her cheeks. Poor girl. Lulu hated to embarrass her, but the kinks in destiny's path needed to be ironed out. Instead of Karl running his hands through Anna's hair tonight and kissing her like on set, he'd be running his clothes through the wash.

“Sorry to cut the night short with my attack of the klutzies.” Anna smiled awkwardly.

“No problem, I had to get going about now. My brother's cooking dinner and wants me to meet his new girlfriend,” Karl said.

Lulu raised her hands in the air and let them fall to a slap on her thighs.
He would have left early anyway. Looks like I overdid things.

If her dog, Spark was here she was sure he'd look up at her with those big round eyes and shake his head. Striking a balance between angelic intervention and nature's course could be a challenge. Too little and she'd risk not succeeding in her mission, too much and she'd create more kinks in destiny's path. And the worst possibility – exposing her abilities and having everything revert to the beginning where she'd have to start her mission all over again. Anyway, a spilled drink would hardly disrupt the universal flow and at least Karl was leaving. With any luck the daiquiri deluge had spoiled the moment between him and Anna and things would go back to the way they were before. Lulu swirled the remaining liquid around the tiny ice cubes in the bottom of her glass as she waited for Karl to leave.

“Hey.” Karl smiled. “Would you like to have dinner with me on Friday night? There's this hip new Thai place opening at Wallingford. You do like Thai food, don't you?”

Anna would've been happy eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches off the pavement if it meant being with Karl.

“Sure, I love Thai.” Anna beamed. “And I promise to leave the klutz at home this time.” She grinned, and Karl chuckled.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said.

A plan. It was time for Lulu to make a new one of those.

Friday couldn't come fast enough for Anna, and now it was here. In five hours Karl would pick her up from her apartment.

“Nervous about something?” Charlie asked, watching Anna prod and push chunks of chicken curry around her plate as they sat among portable chairs and tables on set.

“Nervous? Why do you ask?”

“Whenever you're nervous you either don't eat or you fiddle with the shoulder strap on your bag.” Charlie smiled. “So, what's up?”

He knew her too well. They'd worked together before
New Lives
and one of her favorite memories was their time together in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Just like then, the past six months on set had resulted in barely a day going by without speaking to each other.

Anna placed her fork down. “I'm going on a date with Karl tonight.” She still couldn't believe her luck. Only a week since her plea for help on Lulu's website and things looked promising.

Charlie raised his eyebrows. “Ah. . .so that's what's got those butterflies flapping furiously inside?”

Anna instinctively touched her belly. “A little, I guess.” She smiled feebly. “Okay, a lot.”

Charlie put down his cutlery and placed his chocolate-colored hand over her lily-white one. “Believe me, you have
nothing
to be nervous about.”

“Thanks, I don't know why I get so nervous. I'm an actress for crying out loud! You'd think I'd have learned to master my nerves by now.”

“Acting is one thing, Anna, but real life is a whole different ball game. I don't get nervous when I act – there's a script. I know exactly what I'm supposed to do and what's going to happen next. In real life. . .not so much.” He shrugged.

“True. If only there was a director to guide us through the relationship scene, huh?” Anna, her appetite resurfacing, popped a chunk of chicken into her mouth.

“As long as the director wasn't. . .” Charlie glanced around surreptitiously, “. . .as
demanding
as Jake.”

Anna nodded. “Definitely. I'd prefer someone gentle, like. . .a guardian angel or something.” She smiled as she chewed another piece of chicken, wishing Lulu was here to somehow make things run smoothly like a finished scene on the show.

“If you find one, let me know.” Charlie scraped the remaining sauce onto his chicken and slid it into his mouth.

“Will do,” she replied, glancing at his empty plate. “You know, I've never seen you leave
any
food remnants on your plate – ever.”

Charlie placed his knife and fork together in the middle of the plate. “Can't waste good food. We're pretty lucky to get fed on the job.”

“You're right. Gee, I'll miss this.” Anna glanced around the set that had become a second home to her, to the people that had become like family – well, Jake was more like the strict father or irritating brother – but family nonetheless. The curly-haired woman smiled from the coffee stand. “I'm not sure what I'm going to do when the show's over. Do you?”

Charlie straightened and cleared his throat. “Actually, I'm glad you brought that up. I've decided to move to L.A.”

Anna's eyes bulged. “Really?” The calmness she'd always felt around Charlie quivered. He had family in Seattle and she just assumed he'd stick around. “Do you have a job lined up?”

“Sort of; I'm going to help my cousin at his diner while I look for acting work. Time for a change of scenery, I think.” Charlie pressed his plump lips together and nodded.

Anna looked into the dark puppy-dog eyes of her best friend and sighed. “I'll miss you, Charlie.”

“I'll miss you too.” He smiled and nodded, an expression of resignation washing over his face. “But life moves on. We'll all be leading
New Lives
soon, I guess.”

Anna smiled at the pun. “Come here.” She skidded her chair closer to his and wrapped her arms around him. She let his warmth soothe her sadness about the show ending, let his supportive frame steady her nerves about Karl and the uncertain direction of her future career.

Something inside didn't want her to pull away from him, but when she did, they smiled at each other and took their plates to the clean-up cart. Charlie headed toward the bathrooms and Anna glanced around the set again. This time her eyes locked with Karl's. He winked, and those beautiful lips she'd had the pleasure of kissing during their scene mouthed, “See you tonight.” Anna hoped she'd have the same pleasure tonight. For real this time.

Later that night, Anna's gaze caught on Karl's again as he pulled up alongside her apartment block and turned off the engine.

The date had gone extremely well, and Karl had boldly recommended they share a plate of the chef's signature spicy oysters (not that she needed an aphrodisiac around him). But as she knew, the real test was always the ‘dropping home' part of the date – the clincher that determined what the other person felt and where they wanted the relationship to go. If he left the engine running, he wanted a simple ‘drop off and see you later' to end the evening, but the engine's growl abated as soon as Karl had stopped the car. This could only mean one thing.

Anna swallowed a lump of anticipation. “Do you want to come inside?”

The most unnecessary question of the century
.

“Love to.” Karl eyed the thick drizzle outside. “Wait there, I'll come around with the umbrella.”

He dashed around to her side of the car and they huddled together under the umbrella until they entered the building. She welcomed Karl inside her apartment and closed the door behind them.

“Can I get you something? Coffee? Wine?” Anna asked with eyebrows raised.

Karl shook his head and slipped his arms around her waist. “How about this instead?” He leaned his head down toward hers and took her lips in his, softer than the first time on set, and slower. Oh man! It was really happening.
The
Karl Drake was ravishing her, and not a camera crew in sight. This beat shopping, chocolate, and a foot massage all rolled into one!

Anna softened into his embrace and with his mouth still on hers he began stepping backwards down the hallway, blindly moving together as one body. Anna automatically moved a little to the side so as to miss the hall table, but Karl moved too quickly and their bodies bumped against each other as the table collided with them.

Smash!

The sharp sound of shattering glass abruptly broke their kiss.

“Oh man, sorry, Anna.” Karl eyed the scattered shards littering the floor.

Anna flicked a hand toward him. “It was only a ten dollar vase from Target, no biggie.”

Crap. Right when everything was going perfectly.