To See You (7 page)
Once again, I found myself snuggled up in bed with Lucy on my lap, the heat from her fan the only thing warming my legs.
It had been a week since I’d fired Maggie, but I had my daily e-mail from her begging for her position back. There was an e-mail from one of our junior writers with a fairly interesting pitch on juicing and dating, and how the two mix or don’t. And one more message, which no longer filtered into my spam folder.
FROM: [email protected]
Hi, Charli –
Thanks for getting back to me. Sorry it took me so long to reply, but we went into the last week of production on
Seven Sins of Serial Dating
, and I barely came up for air. It’s a pretty decent movie for a chick flick and all that fun stuff.
There’s no way to say this without it being weird, so I’m just going to ask.
I was wondering if you wanted to go to the premiere? It may be presumptuous to ask, but I could leave some tickets for you. You may even think I’m nuts for asking.
Seriously, it’s funny, all good laughs, and I thought it would be great for you to get away to see it.
Let me know.
No obligation.
—Lay
What the hell was that? Come to the premiere? Did he mean with him? By myself?
And what was with the “Lay?”
Two Weeks Later
“G
o to Drybar, get your hair done, and make sure you throw a pair of clean panties in your purse,” Janie said over the phone.
“I’m not going to sleep with him. I don’t even know if I’ll see him or talk to him. Plus—”
“I didn’t mean him. Who knows who you’ll meet at this thing, Char? O.M.G.” She spelled out the letters . . . for real. “You may see Ryan Reynolds. Make sure your bra and panties match.”
I rolled my eyes and shifted my feet, avoiding a ticklish spot.
“You pick color yet?” the nail tech asked, interrupting my conversation.
“J—what should I wear? The red dress by Chanel or the black Givenchy? I think the black is safe.”
“The red, definitely.”
“Hold on,” I said into the phone and directed my next words to the nail tech sitting at my feet. “Let’s just do a French on my toes.”
“Don’t do a French,” Janie yelled in my ear. “It looks like fingers on your feet. And you don’t want that if you end up in bed with some guy.”
“Janie, may I remind you I’m going for work? If Sherri hadn’t come down with the stomach flu, I wouldn’t be going at all.”
“Not true. Your pen pal invited you.”
I’d made the mistake of coming clean to Janie at brunch on Sunday after spinning . . . I must have been dehydrated or something. I told her all about my plane ride home, about Layton, and about how we occasionally corresponded over e-mail.
Our virtual chats had only become a regular thing over the last two weeks when he started working on a new project. He began sending me little clips and jokes under the guise of wanting to make me laugh after hurting my feelings. I had declined his offer to attend the premiere, saying deadlines were keeping me grounded in New York, but then Sherri got sick.
An interoffice plea for one of us to drop everything and fly to Los Angeles to cover the premiere made its way through the office, and in a weak moment, I’d agreed to go. Of course, my boss let me raid the fashion closet, including allowing me to keep the Blahniks I picked out, and off I went to California.
“Hello? Are you there, Char?”
“Yeah, I got distracted with the colors. I wasn’t going to go when
Layton
invited me.”
“You’re there now, so time to party, babe. I want to hear every detail, and don’t do the French—”
“Okay, okay.”
“And don’t forget the underwear in your purse.”
“Good-bye, Janie.”
Once I ended the call, I told the nail tech, “You know what? Let’s go with that dark gray shimmery color,” and leaned back into the vibrating chair.
I spent ten minutes trying to clear my head to no avail when my phone pinged with an e-mail alert. Unable to ignore the ding, I pressed the mail icon and wished I hadn’t.
The first message glaring at me was from my mom, and I silently wished it had gone to spam.
Of course, she still had an AOL account. Who the heck still used America Online? My mom. Her e-mail address was ancient, a relic from her groupie days. She had no reason to part with it since she didn’t really use it much. Except to bug me. I tended not to argue with her on these matters, but I was starting to think it was time we had a conversation.
I had always felt some strange sense of guilt when it came to my mom. First, she’d given up her groupie lifestyle to be with my dad. I didn’t quite get her earlier choices because they seemed so opposed to how she tried to be now, but she was my mom and had sacrificed a big chunk of who she was for the privilege.
We weren’t supposed to get everything our moms did, which was fine because I truly didn’t. Believe me, understanding her wasn’t easy. I was the resident nerd, the smart girl who was pushed ahead because my teachers couldn’t teach me alongside the
regular
kids my age.
Sighing, I clicked on the message to see what she had to say.
FROM: [email protected]
Charli, darling, I understand you’re in California. I called your office and learned you’re not there. Obviously, I wish you would’ve told me. I’m not going to call you because of the time change, and because you might be working. We all know you’re set on being some major career woman, and don’t you forget it either!
I loved your dad, and you’re just like him. He’d be so proud, which is why I hope you meet up with Garrett in NYC. He would have liked that too. Dad, I mean.
Please don’t be rude.
Love you,
Mom
P.S. Call me!!
I’d call her later. Much later. Like when I got back to New York and was too swamped to meet Garrett. I dashed off a quick e-mail in response, saying I loved her back and yes, my job was extremely important to me.
Is it?
Then I scrolled down through the rest of my e-mails.
Work, big sale at Bloomies, schedule change at the spin studio, and . . .
FROM: [email protected]
Hey, Charli! Hope you made it to LA safely. I assume you’re taking a car to the premiere. I’ll be there by five, so I should be there when you get there. I need to sit somewhere near the front for the presentation, but if you save me a seat, I’ll move back with you for the movie?
Only if you want. I know you’re working.
Oh, check this out. Look at these bloopers from taping today. Check out the actor who gets seriously messed up.
—Lay
Inserted at the bottom of the message was a video where the guy who plays a superhero gets jacked up trying to run down a set of stairs, clipping his shoulder on the wall and tumbling the rest of the way down.
He laughed like a hyena, though, so I guessed he didn’t mind or get hurt.
I was laughing and smiling too until I realized everyone in the spa was staring at me. Embarrassed, I sobered quickly and shoved my phone back in my purse, and pretended to be fascinated with the color of my toes.
“T
hanks, Tony,” I called out to my tailor.
“No problem, Layton. Knock ’em dead tonight. Especially this young lady,” he said, clucking his tongue.
I felt a blush creep up my cheeks like a college girl in love and immediately thought about worms and dirt. When my skin cooled, I turned around.
“Nah, she’s just a friend, but it’ll be nice to see her.” I didn’t voice out loud my next thought.
It’s been an ongoing fantasy
.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Tony shooed me out with his hand into the bright California sunlight.
I shoved my Aviators on my face and headed toward my car. I needed a shower and to ditch the track pants for my tux. I hadn’t worn my penguin suit since the last awards show I attended, and it had desperately needed a little adjustment here and there, if you know what I mean.
Earlier in the week, I’d braved the smirky salespeople and ran into Neiman Marcus to buy a new pair of loafers for this occasion and a crisp white shirt. I was skipping all the other accessories; they just seemed to accentuate my shape—or lack thereof.
Once I got in my car, I cranked the AC and checked my phone. I’d sent Charli my phone number earlier in the week, but hardly expected her to use it.
She’s not here for you. She’s coming for work. It’s a coincidence.
I couldn’t help but whip off a quick e-mail. Corresponding with her had become my favorite pastime, an addiction I wasn’t willing to admit to having. I knew exactly what I wanted to send her—I’d been sending her funny outtakes all week from filming. She always wrote back the funniest comments like, “Even I could do that stunt without getting injured.” Our banter had turned into my favorite part of the day, and some days, I imagined it was hers too.
After I hurt her feelings on the plane, it became a bit of a compulsion to try to make her smile. Flowers were one thing . . . now I was going to see her face-to-face.
I didn’t expect much. Certainly nothing like my fantasies.
Maybe she was a personality girl?
I had that in spades.
Or she loved the strong, gentlemanly type?
I worked that too.
Whatever she wants, I’ll be
, I chanted to myself as I stepped into the shower.
After scrubbing myself clean, I made sure to take care of things down below. No one liked an early blower.
Shut up, Layton. Nothing like that is going to happen tonight
.
Well, I was ready in case we did get beyond talking this evening.
Although it didn’t matter. The promise of an evening with Charli was enough to satisfy a guy like me.
