A Little Less than Famous (31 page)

“McKinley, she’s your grandmother,” Amanda said, her voice dripping with disappointment. “She’s your family. She wants to meet you.”

“I know that,” I said, earnestly. “I just don’t…know what to expect.”

“I understand that. I can understand that,” Amanda admitted. “Does she know your mom came back?”

I took a deep breath before I turned around to face her. I wouldn’t admit it to anyone but I was a little unnerved by my mom’s quick reappearance and disappearance. I wasn’t ready to let someone else connected to her come waltzing in my life if they were just going to waltz right out. “Of course not.”

“She hasn’t heard a thing from your mom, her own daughter since your mom was sixteen years old. I think she deserves to know that she was out here and that you saw her.”

“What the hell am I supposed to tell her, huh, Amanda? That after all this time, her daughter finally came back? That after all this time, she disappeared again? That she couldn’t even stick around long enough to talk to her own daughter? That obviously she doesn’t want to talk to her own mother? She can’t even pick up the phone to say hi, how you are you doing? She can’t even sit through one small lunch and then she could’ve gone and disappeared.” I pursed my lips together, pissed at how much I had just shared. I had made a decision that night not to mention it again. It would go back in that little file in the back of my mind, where all those unpleasant things happened. That’s the place where I stored the day my mom left me, the day that Luke told me he was disappointed in me, and the day that my mom came back and left again.



“Fine, fine,” Amanda said, looking a little nervous at the sudden increase in volume my voice had taken on. She traced the diamond pattern on my comforter absentmindedly before looking back up at me, biting her lip nervously. “McKinley, you’re really not going to do it, are you?”

“Do what?” Jake asked, walking in the room, followed by Mark. When neither of us answered, he asked again. “Do what?”

“Nothing,” I said, firmly, standing up and walking over to greet him. As he wrapped me in his arms, I threw a warning look over at Amanda who grimaced and nodded. “Let’s go, okay?”

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It happened when we were sitting in Jake’s trailer down on the set. They were filming the season finale. My story had been wrapped three weeks ago and therefore, I’d been very graciously kicked out of my closet of a dressing room. I hadn’t spent that much time in there anyway, so I hadn’t even noticed when they took the laminated name plate from the door. We were in sitting the trailer; Jake was reading his lines to himself and I was sprawled on the couch reading a new book that I had convinced myself to buy.

When you took a guest spot on one of the most popular television shows in the world, you tended to get a fairly decent paycheck. This was something that I was trying to get used to and I hadn’t spent much of it yet, besides putting gas in my car and buying a few new books. When I saw how many zeroes had been added to my paycheck (a bonus, Josh said, for playing a ratings boosting character), I had thought it was some kind of joke. Now that I knew it wasn’t, I couldn’t quite bring myself to spend any of it.

Anyway, we were sitting on the couch when Jake’s phone rang, the theme song from
The Big Bang Theory
blasting in the silence of the room. It went silent after a minute and then started up again.

“Are you going to answer that?” I asked, barely looking up from my book.

Jake glanced at it. “It’s Adrienne.”

“Yeah, I would answer that, if I were you.”  I loved Adrienne, especially since she had taken me under her wing as my agent/publicist (though I expected her enthusiasm with that had to do with my sudden popularity and her desire to snatch me up before someone else). She was smart and she knew this business well, even though she was pretty young herself, probably only ten years older than Jake and I. However, she was a little scary and a little demanding, especially with all the name-dropping she did on occasion.

He made a face but pressed the button on his phone to answer the phone call. “Hello?”

He spoke on the phone for a few minutes. I flipped through the book in my lap, paying more attention to his phone conversation than to the plot. It was no good. Jake was sticking to “yes” or “no” or short phrases. I could hear Adrienne’s booming voice easily but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. I was hoping the conversation would end soon because I was dying to know what was going on.

When Jake hung up, he came back over to the couch and sat down. I looked over at him from the corner of eye, wondering if he was going to speak. Instead, he picked up the remote for the TV and switched it on. After flipping through a few channels, he settled on a baseball game. I let the quiet sit for a few minutes before I shut my book and looked at him.

“Okay, spill, what did she say?” I asked.

Jake didn’t answer, just turned up the volume of the television.

I grabbed the remote from his hand and switched off the TV. Jake turned to glare at me. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. What did Corinna say?” I suddenly felt horrified-what if she had called with terrible news? “Jake?”

He stood up, walking toward the fridge. He opened it up, grabbed a soda and slammed it shut. After popping it open, he leaned against the wall, looking forlorn. “I got the part.”

“Jake?”

“I got the part,” he repeated. “I got the part in the Patrick Edwards’ movie.”

I paused for a moment, let
ting that information sink in. W
hen it finally registered in my brain, I leapt up, my book falling to the ground. Before I could even realize what I was doing, I launched myself at him, throwing my arms around his neck. “Jake, that’s amazing,” I squealed. I pulled away and planted a kiss on his mouth.

I backed up, immediately, horrified at my behavior. This was girlfriend behavior, plain and simple. Being happy and excited…and proud of Jake was not normal. I had never felt anything more than general fondness or attraction to a boyfriend before. “Jake, that is seriously amazing,” I said, taking another step back.

Jake had a huge grin on his face now. “I know. I got the part.”

“Oscar nomination, here you come,” I laughed.

“Hey now,” he said, “don’t jinx me. What’s that saying? Don’t count your chickens before they hatch? I just only got the part.”

“I know! And it’s awesome!” I studied him for a moment and saw that, despite his smile, there was a sliver of doubt behind those blue eyes. “Jake, this
is
awesome, I promise. You’re going to rock it.”

“Yeah,” Jake said, firmly, that look still very prevalent in his eyes.

“Jake, look at me,” I said, just as firmly. He looked over at me and I felt that sudden urge to reassure him. “You’re going to do great. I promise. They wouldn’t have chosen you if they didn’t think you could do it.”

Jake seemed to brighten a little bit at my words. “So they didn’t choose me for my dashing good looks or my abs?”

I rolled my eyes, relieved to have my cocky Jake back. “No, Jake, that is not why.” I walked over to him, and pulled his shirt up, running my hand along his stomach. “Although, I do have to admit, your abs are very very impressive.” I whistled low. “Have you been working out more? My god…”

Now it was Jake’s turn to roll his eyes. “Oh shut up.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him, before planting his lips right on mine. I responded in kind, sending us both crashing into the wall. We both laughed before diving back into each other, my fingers pressing hard into his shoulders, his hands in my hair.

“I’m really really glad you got the part,” I said, in between kisses, my hands fumbling at the hem of his shirt.

“I said, shut up,” he said, but I could feel his smile against my mouth. He pressed his palms into my lower back and pulled me closer. We were fumbling at each other’s clothes when someone came bursting in. We pulled apart, both of us looking a little sheepish.

“Hey, now, don’t stop on my account,” came the amused voice. We both looked up at Cam, who was smiling.

“Cam,” Jake said, running his hand through his ruffled hair. “I just heard about the Patrick Edwards’ part. I got it.”

Cam’s face lit up and I was struck again at his good looks. I felt like it had been weeks since I had been around average looking people. This world was getting to my head. There were just too many pretty people walking around all the time. “Jake, that’s fantastic. This project has major Oscar potential written all over it.”

“God, not you too,” Jake groaned.

Cam looked over at me, his eyebrow raised. I stopped tugging at my shirt, feeling a little embarrassed. “You too?”

“Yeah, me too,” I admitted.

“All right, all right,” Jake said, throwing his hands in the air. “Can we just be happy for me without mention the ‘O’ word?”

“Hey, I’m very happy for you, kid,” Cam said, patting Jake on the back very much like a father would. “This really could be the start of something awesome for you.” Cam looked over at me, where I was slowly trying to back away. “I’m sure your girl over there is pretty happy for you too.”

I smiled, trying to ignore the knowing look on Cam’s face or how incredibly uncomfortable I suddenly felt. “Of course, I’m happy for him.”

There was only about a month until Valentine’s Day and I needed to get out of this fast. The control that I usually showed in all relationships had basically never existed in this one and I had to start now before I started completely losing my grasp on Jake. I really hated to admit that I was already losing it.

The first thing that was concerning was the amount of time that was being invested in this boy. I spent every available moment with Jake. If I wasn’t at work, school, with Amanda or sleeping (and even then), I was usually was with Jake. This was bad. The whole point was to give a little, making them want more. Up until the very end, you played hard to get. I was giving in to it all, the dates, the spending the nights, the hanging out on set for hours at a time.

Then there was the whole girlfriend behavior. I was
not
girlfriend material. For one thing, there weren’t many guys that I had allowed to actually call me their girlfriend and I could count them all on one hand. The fact was, I was letting people call me Jake’s girlfriend. I could feebly offer up that I myself had not admitted to it but I hadn’t denied it to anyone who said it. I was helping Jake with his lines, helping him chose his next role, celebrating when he got said role. He even had me going to award shows with him. I mean, at least I hadn’t met his parents yet. I shuddered at the thought…especially since he has hinted at it for weeks.

Lastly, there was Mr. Jake Kennedy himself. Despite my exhausting efforts to keep him at a distance, I was failing miserably. It seemed the harder I tried, the more Jake fell for it. The guy was obviously smitten and sometimes I could just see the depth of something that scared the shit out of me in his eyes. Even worse, I didn’t have the same apathy towards Jake that I did towards most boys. I wasn’t in love with Jake, despite Amanda’s insistence, but I didn’t dislike him either. I liked him a lot and I was having a great time dating him. I had discovered a world that I loved and I’d discovered something that I was actually good at. Sometimes I wondered if I hadn’t ended things yet was because I was having such a good time. Jake Kennedy was the exact opposite from Gabriel. He had brought excitement to my life where there had been none before.

I was in serious trouble and I needed to stop things before they got out of hand.

The girlfriend behavior continued, despite my efforts to stop it. It was a few days later and we were on set. My job was done, over, had been for weeks. Charlotte’s story had been a success so far, spawning a Charlotte vs. Maggie phenomenon in pop culture world that was blowing my mind and was helping the ratings to skyrocket. Now, Jake and Andrea were filming the season finale, and a scene where Mikey and Maggie get back together after all the Charlotte drama and it was going to be a very steamy reunion.