“If the lady wants to talk to me, she can,” he postured.
Halle stood and touched my arm. I allowed her to walk in front of me.
“Sir, are you some kind of pedophile?” she asked, loud enough that several guests gasped. He looked around and saw he’d made an ass out of himself. “I didn’t ask for your unwanted advances. I’m here with my date. Please allow us to enjoy our meal without you trying to embarrass us.”
The guy glared at her. Halle grabbed my hand and led me out of the restaurant.
“Don’t we have to pay?” I asked.
“Not when they do something like that,” she told me.
I guess she was right because no one tried to stop us. I think some of it had to do with the swarm of paparazzi that waited for us as we walked out. While the doorman found us a cab, we chatted with Hollywood Central. Let me rephrase that: Halle chatted with Hollywood Central. She announced to the world I was her new boyfriend. I wondered what Peggy would say about that when I got home. The sad part was I knew she’d be fine with it.
WHEN WE GOT BACK TO the hotel, Halle invited me up to her room. I needed to get ready for tomorrow, so we called it an early night. We were getting to know each other, and the more I knew, the more I liked. I started to like the idea of being Halle’s boyfriend.
Friday January 23
MY PHONE HAD BLOWN up yesterday because the Hollywood Central footage had aired. I got messages, emails, and phone calls from everyone from Adrienne, who wanted to know if this meant we were over, to Tami, who sought details on my new girlfriend. Mom and Uncle John even called to give me a hard time. Uncle John was a little jealous because Halle was so hot, but Mom took the cake when she wanted to know when the wedding was.
I was in the makeup chair when Halle found me.
“There’s my boyfriend,” she announced as she jumped onto my lap and gave me a big kiss.
The makeup guy gave us a few minutes.
“So, why are you so happy?” I asked.
“Mom called this morning and they’re playing us up big in LA. The movie’s getting a lot of buzz, and with the Hollywood Central interview, my agent also called. There’ve been some inquiries about a few acting gigs.”
“That’s great news.”
“I think I have even better news. One of the production assistants overheard Jessup. He’s ahead of schedule, so he’s letting us off early today and we get tomorrow off. I think this calls for a party,” she said.
“Man, I could really use a break. I have two weeks of homework and reading to do,” I complained.
She wiggled her butt in my lap and rubbed her glorious breasts into my chest.
“I was thinking I need to show my boyfriend some appreciation. Maybe I could convince him to come out and play with me tonight.”
Did I mention I was horny?
“If we must,” I pouted.
“Cheer up. I’ll help you with your homework tomorrow,” she assured me.
Why did this not sound like a good idea?
HALLE’S RUMOR TURNED out to be true. We were ahead of schedule, and Jessup gave us Saturday off. Our producer, Janice Utley, had flown back to LA to give the studio an update. They were happy with the dailies and felt the film was on track and on budget. At four o’clock we were set free.
Kendal stopped me when I got back to the hotel.
“I talked to your mom,” she started the conversation. “You need to call her.”
That was never something I wanted to hear. It sounded like Kendal had tattled on me.
“Why do I need to talk to Mom?”
“She’s concerned you’re not keeping up with your schoolwork. She said the deal was you wouldn’t let it slide. I’ve gone through your class assignments and reading, and they really didn’t go too hard on you,” Kendal shared.
We spent the next thirty minutes reviewing what I had on my plate. She’d planned out what I needed to do to catch up. The unfortunate outcome was I would be required to spend most of tomorrow working on it. Kendal said I could go out tonight and have some fun. Kent had called her and told her the plans. They arranged for everyone to go to a dance club to blow off some steam. Kendal had met a guy who worked on the movie, so she had a date.
Kent told her she had to help me pick out clothes for tonight. I guess jeans, a t-shirt and a letterman’s jacket wouldn’t cut it. Their publicists had already put out the word as to where we were all going tonight. Kendal hired a car for Halle and me. Kent had told her we needed to be seen together, not as part of the group. I started to think Kent had helped Kendal quite a bit with how to handle things. If Tom’s firm ever opened an LA office, they could do worse than to hire Kent to run it.
HALLE MET ME IN THE lobby of the hotel. She sported a dress that showed a lot of leg and cleavage. I was all smiles when she saw me. Halle had mischief in her eyes as she approached.
“Are you ready to take me out, Handsome?”
“We may need security, with you dressed like this.”
“I take it you like it?”
“You would be correct in your assumption. You make that dress look fabulous. Of course, you could be wearing a paper sack and make it look good.”
Her eyes lit up as she pulled me down to kiss her. I had instructed Kendal to have security for us tonight. I didn’t want a repeat of the last time we went out. Not that I wasn’t confident I could protect her, I just didn’t want to get arrested in the middle of shooting a movie.
I was surprised, though, when Chuck was our security. He looked like he was in the Secret Service, with his dark suit and sunglasses. I ruined his persona when I ran up and hugged him.
“Halle, this is Chuck. He’ll be keeping the perverts away from us tonight,” I said as an introduction.
It was lucky for Chuck that he had on sunglasses or his eyes might have fallen out. After he saw Halle’s dress, I could tell he thought he might need backup.
“It’s nice to meet you, Chuck.”
“Ma’am.”
He hadn’t ever sounded this formal when he worked with me before, even when we were around Adrienne. Halle had obviously worked with security before. When we were in route to the restaurant, she detailed our plans for tonight and any potential trouble spots we might encounter. I made it clear Halle was his main focus tonight. I could tell Kendal had told him something different, but he wouldn’t argue with me in front of her. We told him about the problem we’d had when we went to dinner last time.
When we got to the restaurant, there were several paparazzi. Halle was on her game and was a little temptress for the photographers. I was the lucky recipient of the looks she gave out. Everything had gone well until Halle suddenly froze. Chuck could tell something was wrong and he rushed up. Halle leaned over to him and whispered something in his ear. I followed his gaze and saw the guy from the restaurant on Wednesday.
Halle didn’t miss a beat as she smiled and played up to the cameras. She then led me into the restaurant.
“Can you believe the guy is stalking us?” she asked.
I didn’t think it was us. I was pretty sure it was her.
“Don’t worry, Chuck will take care of it,” I assured her.
We walked into the lobby of a hotel. I gave Halle a curious look. She just pulled me to the elevators. Was I getting lucky before dinner? No such luck. We entered the elevator and found it was a nonstop that would take us to the top floor. I stepped out to see the skyline of Vancouver. She’d picked an upscale revolving restaurant. The windows must have been twenty feet high and made for a spectacular view from the forty-second floor.
Halle looked at me and must have seen the wonder in my eyes. She gave my hand a squeeze to remind me I was with her.
“This is perfect,” I told her.
It was, too. The sun was just setting, and it turned the sky orange and reflected off the windows of the high-rises. If I hadn’t been with Halle, I would have just stared out the window all night. Everything really was perfect. I got to try a new dish called cioppino. It was a fish stew made with tiger prawns, mussels, clams, salmon, sablefish, and scallops in a tomato-white wine-fennel broth.