The Girl and the Genie (25 page)

“Finally!” he exclaimed. He put two fingers in his mouth, turned, and let out a loud, shrill whistle. “Vincent, bring the paperwork. Anita, Laura, we needed to get her hair done and make up on ten minutes ago. And we need to get her in that dress! Tony, take care of the dog!”

Jerry had his hands on his hips as he stood in front of Emily looking her over, his lips pushed into a doubtful frown. Two women and two men, all close to Emily’s age, came running up the aisle to join them.

“What’s this about?” Emily asked.

“Didn’t Derek tell you?”

“No. He asked me to be here at three. That he had a surprise for me.”

“Well, that’s just great. He was supposed to tell you,” Jerry said, his voice breaking into a whine. He was about to cut loose with some profanity, but swallowed it back. “Derek arranged for you to be in the movie. It’s a small part for both you and your dog, but it will pay a thousand dollars and shouldn’t be more than an hour on the set. Derek promised me you’d do it.”

Emily had a sick feeling in her stomach as she had an idea why Jack didn’t argue with her about her wish.

“What, you don’t want to do it?” Jerry complained.

Emily shook her head. “No, I’d love to do it,” she said, desperately trying to hide her disappointment. “It sounds fun.”

The director’s lip puckered up as he gave Emily a harder look. “Well, you don’t look too excited. But never mind. Sign here.”

He took a thick contract from the young man who must’ve been Vincent, and handed Emily a pen, then pointed out where she was to sign. After that, he pointed out three other places in the contract where her signature was also needed, and once that was done Tony took Winston’s leash, while the two women, Anita and Laura, hurriedly led Emily away to one of the offices. The situation had been such a shock to her, that it wasn’t until she was seated in the office and Anita was working furiously on her hair while Laura applied makeup, that Emily asked where Derek was.

“He’s in wardrobe,” Anita told her as she massaged styling mousse into Emily’s hair. “You’ll see him soon.”

Emily tried to relax. She didn’t want Derek to see her as angry as she felt right then. Of course, it was her own fault. With the way she framed her wish, she gave Jack an opening and he took advantage of it. After all, the words
Do Not Trust Him
were etched plainly into the bottom of the lamp, so this is what she got for letting down her guard and trusting him.

Within fifteen minutes her hair was done and the makeup was on. They were then undressing Emily and fitting her into a Vera Wang wedding dress. It fit nearly perfectly, and Emily wondered about that since no one had measured her. Laura seemed to guess what was on her mind, and told her with a catty smile flashing briefly on her lips that Derek was able to give them her size. At that moment there was both a knock on the door and the sound of nails scratching on it.

“Everyone decent in there?” Derek asked from outside the door. Anita told him it was safe to come in, and Derek opened the door and led Winston into the room. Both of them were dressed in matching tuxedos. Derek flashed her a wicked grin while Winston plopped down on the floor, panting heavily.

“I know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, but I couldn’t resist.”

Derek moved over to Emily and reached down to give her a short but firm kiss on the mouth. “You look so beautiful,” he said. “You just take my breath away.” A glimmer of mischief showed in his eyes. “I bet this was a surprise, huh?”

“To put it lightly.”

Derek’s wicked grin came back. “I had to twist some arms to arrange this, but I thought you’d get a big kick out of it. You’re only going to be on film for seventy-five seconds, but still, it’s not every day you get to be in a major Hollywood movie, right?”

“What do I need to do?”

“Just stand looking stunningly beautiful, and when the director gives the signal just follow my lead as we do the following.”

Derek pulled her from the chair and into his arms, and then passionately kissed her. When he broke away from the kiss, Emily looked flustered, her cheeks flushing to a warm pink.

“This is exactly how you want to look after our kiss,” Derek said.

Laura pushed her way forward. “Thanks a lot, Derek,” she complained. “You just ruined my work.” She had Emily sit down again, and began feverishly working to repair the makeup job that Derek had messed up.

There was a frantic knock on the door and they were informed that Derek and Emily were wanted for filming twenty minutes ago.

The next hour and fifteen minutes was mostly a blur for Emily. They positioned her and Derek in front of the altar with Winston panting happily as he stood next to Derek. With each take the actor playing the priest would pronounce them husband and wife, then Derek would take Emily into his arms and give her a long, passionate kiss. Emily recognized the actor from other movies but couldn’t place his name. She was also sure she recognized some of the actors and actresses playing wedding guests, although most of them were probably extras.

Even though she felt very self-conscious being kissed like that in front of all the other actors and film crew, the kiss would still leave her weak in her knees and her skin along her cheeks burning hot. The first take seemed to go well with the director’s attitude toward Emily softening dramatically and him remarking to her that the camera loved her, but he wanted to change the lighting so they had to do another one. After that there were problems with either Winston plopping down on the floor at the wrong time, or wandering off, or the angle not being precisely what the director wanted, or him not being completely satisfied with some other detail. And after each take, Laura had to fix the smudges in Emily’s makeup. By the time they had done eight takes, Emily was convinced that Derek had worked things out with the director to do a bunch of extra takes, especially given this grin she’d catch from him and how much he seemed to be enjoying the situation. The eleventh take satisfied the director enough to call it a wrap even though Winston ended up barking and jumping on Emily while she was engaged in her kiss with Derek.

“You were great,” Derek said to Emily as they walked away from the altar to one of the offices in back of the church. Derek’s left arm was wrapped around Emily’s shoulder. One of the crew members had taken Winston to get him out of his dog tuxedo. “A real pro. Seriously, you were a natural up there.”

“It wasn’t that hard. I just had to stand there and be kissed. You arranged with Jerry to do all those extra takes, didn’t you?”

A sly smile twisted the corners of Derek’s lips. “Guilty,” he admitted. “Jerry’s probably going to use the first take. I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d have some fun.”

“I don’t mind at all. It was exciting. Nerve-wracking, maybe a little embarrassing, but exciting. I still don’t understand that scene. If this is a romantic comedy, how come I show up for seventy-five seconds as your bride?”

“It’s more of a bittersweet romantic comedy,” Derek said, rolling his eyes over the movie’s plot. “Throughout the film I’m chasing after the wrong girl for all the wrong reasons, and then at the very end I learn some valuable lessons and a montage is played that includes me being married to a sweet, beautiful young girl, all with a sappy voice over. What can I say? It pays the bills.”

They reached the office where Emily was going to change out of the wedding dress. Derek told her that their shooting schedule had them out until around 9 o’clock, but he’d pick her up at her apartment afterward.

“And don’t worry,” he said. “Once again I’ll be protecting your virtue. As much as I’d like to I won’t be looking to turn this into our wedding night, even with how you’re dressed right now.”

He took her into his arms and gave her a more passionate and longer kiss than any during the filming. With Emily’s eyelids half closed, she said in a throaty whisper that maybe her virtue should go unguarded that night.

“Uh uh. As I said before, you’re worth waiting for.”

He gave her one more kiss, and then left her to change back into her clothes.

##

Emily collected Winston, who was now out of his tuxedo, and one of the film crew escorted her out of the church. As soon as the door opened and they stepped outside, Emily was assaulted by dozens of camera light bulbs flashing at her. She’d been in too much of a daze when she first came to the church to pay much attention to the crowd of paparazzi that was gathered in front taking her picture. Now, though, as she stumbled down the steps half-blinded, she realized that her photo was going to be on websites and in gossip magazines, and that she was in effect, being outed as the mystery girl with the English Bulldog that Derek had earlier run off with. She felt funny inside realizing that. She was going to have to call her mom and give her a warning about it. Other than that, she was too busy at that moment to think about the ramifications of those photos as one of the film crew members helped squeeze her through the crowd and into a waiting town car that was to take her home.

Chapter 26

Emily scrubbed off her makeup, took a shower, and forced herself to sit and leisurely drink a glass of wine before summoning Jack. She did this because she wanted to make sure that she had her emotions fully in check before seeing him again. When Jack appeared amidst his usual burst of blue smoke, Emily smiled good-naturedly as if nothing was wrong. She wished him a pleasant evening. The genie returned the same cheerful smile.

“Thank you, Miss Mignon,” he said as he snuck a wink at Winston, who was lying by Emily’s feet but still wagging his tail. “And I hope you’ve had a rewarding day.”

Emily bit her tongue to keep from saying what she wanted to say. “Oh, I have,” she said as she managed to keep her tone cool and even. “Very eventful, actually. I got married today.”

“Did you now?” Jack said, arching an eyebrow while he kept his innocent act going. “In that case, I believe congratulations are in order.”

“Thank you. Of course, it wasn’t a real wedding since it was done as part of a movie. Very surprising how it worked out, especially since I thought I could trust you.”

The look of innocence faded from the genie’s face as his expression grew more somber. “You can, Miss Mignon,” he said.

“Really? Because to me it looked like you did a good job of faking me out until now. You actually had me convinced that I could trust you and be able to make a wish without you maliciously distorting it.”

“There was nothing malicious about what I did,” Jack insisted. “I had only your best interests at heart.”

“That is hard to believe given how you distorted my wish. You knew what I meant to wish for was an actual wedding, not a staged one done for a film.”

Jack sighed heavily. “Miss Mignon, I was not exaggerating when I told you months ago that wishing for love ends disastrously. The other day you seemed too headstrong to be talked out of your wish, so I did what I could to protect you. But what was the harm? With what I did you now have the experience of being in a movie, which is something you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren about someday. All in all, I think I handled your wish in the best possible way that I could for you.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed as she met the genie’s gaze. “I wasn’t wishing for love,” she said.

“No?”

“No. I was wishing for a wedding. I know how Derek and I feel about each other.”

“Hmm.” Jack began to turn from her so he could search for a book to read, but Emily stopped him.

“I still have three wishes left,” Emily said, her voice holding an icy edge to it, “and I’m using one of my remaining wishes for the same thing I wished for yesterday. Except this time I want it to be a legal wedding, one that is recognizable by the state of New York. Like before I want this wedding to take place within a week, and you are not to do anything to sabotage the wedding or our marriage.”

The genie’s expression turned grim as he met Emily’s stare. “I must ask you to reconsider. You’ve been on one date with this person. You couldn’t possibly know how the two of you feel about each other.”

Jack’s condescending attitude infuriated Emily even more. Whatever chance the genie might’ve had to talk her out of her wish was now gone.

“I’ve been with Derek enough to know that we’re meant for each other.”

“Let’s say that is true, then why not let a marriage happen naturally? Why use one of your wishes for this?”

“I believe I made my wish. Are you going to grant it or not?”

“”Miss Mignon, I implore you to reconsider. At least give it a month to think about. What would be the harm in that?”

“Will you or will you not grant my wish?”

Jack grimaced as if he had a bad toothache. “If you insist,” he said. “You now have two remaining wishes. Anything else I can do for you?”

“No. And I’d like to be alone now.”

The genie showed a helpless, deflated look. He nodded, and then disappeared within a burst of smoke. As soon as he was gone, Emily hugged herself tightly, shaking the same as if she’d been dipped in ice water. Her wish the other day was made impetuously. She knew that. But she couldn’t back down, not with the way Jack had tricked her. She also couldn’t put the wish on hold for a month as Jack suggested. She knew if she did that she’d lose her nerve. Now that she was given more time to think about it, the idea of her wish was scary as hell, but it was also exciting. And as she told herself, it was time to be bold for once in her life. She and Derek got along so well, and she was so attracted to him, and she knew he wanted her also.

After a few minutes Emily was able to stop trembling, and she then started working on the report that she owed Mr. Pish. She only had two and a half hours to write it before she needed to get ready for her date with Derek.

##

Derek came to her door at nine o’clock as promised, looking rugged and dashing and outright gorgeous in his bomber jacket, jeans and cowboy boots. He wanted to take Emily to one of the trendiest new restaurants in Manhattan, a place notorious for requiring at least six months for a reservation and was a magnet for the beautiful and wealthy crowd. She instead asked that they stay in and order pizza. “I can’t eat rich like that two nights in a row,” she said. “And it would be nice if we just hung out and listened to music and talked. And this pizza place in the neighborhood is really good, and they deliver.”