Take Two (15 page)

I coul
dn’t hold back my laught
er. I
hugged her
.
“I’m very much in love
,
M
om.”

“Just promise me there’s a pre-nup…real marriage
or not.”

“Matt! There you are! Is your mom okay?” Selena pulled me
in
to an isolated corner.

“
Yea
h. She…
” I didn’t want to tell her that my mom
was suspicious
about our arrangement. “She
wanted to
make sure I was still taking
her shopping tomorrow.”

“Aww! Make sure you take
her
to
all the stores
she
’s missed
since she
moved to
Pittsburgh.”

She
lives in
Miami
…

“
What exactly did you want to talk about?
Have you discovered your conscience
yet
?”

“Funny.
My publicist said
that you and I should consider doing a reality show together.”

“Didn’t you tell me last week that only
D-list
celebrities do reality shows?”

“Okay
you caught me,” she shrugged. “
Oprah wants to air our wedding on her network!”

“I’m not lying to
Oprah
, Selena.
I feel
bad enough
lying to my mom.”

“Just think about it okay? It’s Oprah!
It doesn’t get much bigger than that!
”

“
I
thought we agreed that there would
be no actual
wedding
.”

“Please Matt!
I’ve always wanted to get married!”

“To som
eone who can barely stand you?”

“To someone famous.
”

“Where are your parents?”

“
Wh
y?”

“I
was
going to sugg
est they
get you some
therapy
. You’ve got four
weeks
of me left.”

I turned to walk away
but
Selena grabbed my hand.

“Please
,” she begged. “
We can make up somet
hing about the marriage license.
We can say we are having the ceremony first and are filing for the license the next day but never do that.”

“And TMZ won’t show up to double check that story? What about
Us
Weekly
? And five hundred other press people?”

“We c
an figure that out later
. P
lease?
Just one last thing before we let each other go? We both could use it. Your films aren’t due out ‘til October and my second sea
son won’t debut until December.
”

“What would be the point
?
You’re famous enough as is.
I read a story about you filing your nails today. An entire column was dedicated to how you
file your nails
!
”

“Please,” her eyes widened and she
looked like she was about to cry.

For a
second
she looked like the Selena I used to like, the one I almost fell in love with. She kissed me and ran her hand
across my chest
.

“Let me think ab
out it,” I walked over to Joan.

“Are you ready to leave
?”
she made
her
I know what you’re thinking
face.

“Beyond ready.
Can you have the car
here
in fifteen?”

“Of course.”

My mom and I
jetted
to Boston for lunch. I told her everything about Selena and me, admitting that I no lo
nger wanted to be a part of it.

“What do you think I should do?”

“Well, you should never repeat that story to anyone else. It makes you look just as crazy as she is,” she laughed.

“Mom…”

“I’m sorry. Look, I understand why you did what yo
u did.
You’re not really hurting anyone but yourself so you need to figure out how much more you can take. When you figure that out, you need to let her go completely and move on.
Life’s too short to waste
your time on
someone you barely like.
”

“I wish it was that eas
y.
”

“Nothing ever is
,” she sighed. “T
ell me more about what I’ve missed the
se
past two years. Your dad would’ve been so proud of you if he was around.”

I
told her
I hated
how my film career was going
, how I wanted to return to Broadway,
and
how I really was tired of being a c
elebrity. By the time I rehashed
everything, sh
e was fast asleep on the plane.

“Ramon
will
d
rop your mother off at the hotel
and take us
to the rec
ita
l right after,” Joan handed me a
blazer
.
“Your speech is in the right pocket.”

“
Sounds great.
Did
my flowers
ever
get
to Melody Carter?”

“Sh
e’s still on vacation
,” she
fixed my tie.

“In St. Barts?”

She
nodded her head and steppe
d back to admire her handiwork.

It’s been
over
a week
. S
he should be back by now
.
Why am I
keeping track
? What’s wrong with me?

Melody Carter
didn’t
even seem
vaguely
interested in me. But
I wanted—
needed
—to see her again. Even if she blew me off, it
was
wort
h
knowing
if I
stood
a chance.
I
also
needed to get
far
away from Selena
and her antics
for a while.

Am I really considering going to St. Bart’s? What if I run into her… and her boyfriend? She never ment
ioned if she was seeing some
one.

I
f I was going to
go, I
needed to find a way to deal with the paparazzi
—to throw them off completely
.
I would need to fly at night and unfortunately forego security.
And
Joan would have to go
. She could do most of my thinking for me.

“How ma
ny days are we staying there
?” Joan smiled.

“At least three. Do you happen to know anything else about Miss Carter
?
What part of the island she’s staying on?”

“I’ll find out.”

Melody

The glass bottom boat
rocked
back and forth
as
the tour guide shout
ed
directions on
his radio.
I wrapped a blanket around my waist and put on my shades.

“You okay
Jen?” I shook her awake. “We’re about to be back on shore.”

She mumbled
something that sounded like “Yea
h whatever”
and rolled over to face me.
She struggled to keep her
bleach
blond
e
hair
away from her face
in the sudden onslaught of wind.

“I’m tired Mel,” she whined. “
That was a really long tour.
Would you hat
e me if I went back to the room
and napped
for a while? I promise I’ll
hang out with you later.”

“
T
h
at’s
cool. I’ll just
grab a drink and tan.”

“Great.”

When we reached land,
the tour
guide
helped us o
ff the ship and handed us
his business card
.
“Maybe
next time you’ll stay
awake for the whole tour?”

“Probably not,” Jen laughed.

“I enjoyed it,”
I slipped him a fifty. “
T
hank you ver
y much.”

“Later
Mel,” Jen
hugged me and
walked towards the
villa
.

I strolled
alongs
ide the shore and headed for a
bar.
It wa
sn’t even noon
and Jen
was leav
ing me hanging
.

W
e’d
spent the
past week tackling tiring activities
—jet skiing, diving, rock climbing—
and
I
still
couldn’t get a good night’s sleep
, let alone a
nap
. I woke up every few hours thinking about Sean, about my byline, about things I
couldn’t control.

The bartender slid me a
beer before I could sit down.
He
slid two drinks to the patrons on the other end, and walked towards me.

“Beautiful women
always
get their first drink on me,” he said. “W
hat else can I get you
today
?”

I ordered three
martinis, a Cosmopolitan, and
a
Daiquiri.
My goal was to
d
rink
them
all
within five minutes. I wanted
the
alcohol to flow
to my brain
immediately
,
that way I could
finally
nap without thinking about anything.

I
chugged the beer,
downed the Daiquiri
,
and picked up the Cosmo.

“I thought you didn’t drink,” a
familiar
voice startled me from behind.

I turned around and saw a shirtless Matt Sterling. His shades were covering his eyes so I couldn’t read his expression. I was glad I was still wearing mine so he couldn’t see
how hard I was eyeing his abs
.

Oh my
god!

“Do you stalk every critic who gives you a bad review? I happen to know Richard Roeper
will be
in
Venice this week
end
.”

“I’ll
have whatever you make best,” Matt
said to the bartender as he sat next to me. “So you do drink?”

“
Obviously
,” I downed
my Cosmo.

The bartender slid him a frothy orange concoc
tion with floating strawberries
.

“What brings you here
Miss Carter?
Special trip with your boyfriend?”

“I
thought
I was on vacation,” I slid
my
shades on top of my head. “
If you had told me you’d be here the same week, I would’ve rescheduled my trip.
”

Liar!

“
Oh really?
” he took off his shades.

T
ry not to look into his eyes!

“Where’s Selena?”
I changed the subject.

“She’s back in New York.
She doesn’t know I’m here
.”