Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 328(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 219(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 328(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 219(@300wpm)
Noemi and David exchanged their vows against the gloriously blue sky. The officiant spoke loudly enough to be heard over the gathering and crumbling waves behind them, but Noemi and David’s words came to us in fragments. People leaned forward in their seats to catch as many as they could, but I didn’t. Noemi and David were professional actors. They could have pitched their voices louder. Whatever they were saying–it was intimate. It was theirs. For me, it was enough to be on the outskirts of their glow. In all the years I’d known her, I’d never seen Noemi so happy.
At the thought, I snuck another glance at Garrett. What was it like to see the woman you married saying vows to someone else? Even if you had been divorced five times longer than you were married, surely it was hard. Strange, at least. But if it was, you wouldn’t know it from Garrett. His face and shoulders were completely relaxed. He wasn’t rubbing his thumb against his index finger the way I noticed he did when he was stressed. A smile tugged at the edges of his lips now and then.
When the officiant pronounced that David could now kiss the bride, the guests collectively broke into an unplanned awww. All except Garrett, who glanced over at me out of the corner of his eye, the corners of his mouth curling up again.
I wish I could say I remembered exactly how Noemi looked at the reception. I know she changed into a shorter dress and that she looked beautiful, but the night was largely a blur. Dancing with her brother and laughing, then dancing with Garrett. Neither of us laughing. Both of us irresistibly drawn together but unable to move as close as we wanted.
By the time we got back to LA the next night, it wasn’t a question of whether or not we were together. We just were. We didn’t try to define it, but when we had free time, we were at his bungalow with the heated pool overlooking the canyon. Sometimes we went back to my place, if one of us needed to be closer to the city, but that was harder. Garrett had a gated community, but I had a doorman and neighbors. My apartment was hardly a close knit community–for the most part, we politely pretended as though the other three hundred or so occupants didn’t exist–but still. More people meant more chances to get caught.
Besides, I loved his bungalow. It had been built in the 1930s and it had an old Hollywood charm neither of my homes had. You could imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton making martinis from the bar cart in the living room, drinking them in front of the huge white brick hearth. Marilyn Monroe in a black-and-white checked bikini, floating in the pool, legs crossed at the ankles, cigarette between her fingers.
At least, I could. Garrett shook his head in bemusement. “Enjoy your ghosts. I prefer the view.”
The view wasn’t bad either. Especially on the evenings when we turned on the pool lights and a smoldering blue fog formed over the surface, and we swam naked. Ostensibly for exercise, but it wasn’t the swimming that got our hearts racing.
And every once in a while, we surfaced from the haze of lust and satisfaction to talk about my career.
“You have to be seen with Andrew more,” Garrett said reluctantly. We were sitting on his two-person couch, the fire going in the hearth even though it was still in the sixties going into the second week of December.
Andrew and I had been thinking the same thing. We’d both been so busy with our respective shooting schedules that we hadn’t made much time to be photographed together, but my birthday was coming up. The tabloids were sure to notice if we weren’t seen at least in the same town together. “We’re going to dinner together the night before my birthday. He has the night off from shooting,” I told Garrett
Garrett nodded, his mouth a hard line. He didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much he could say about it. I chewed on the inside of my lower lip and looked away. I knew I could easily smooth away the lines bracketing his mouth by telling him why he never had to think twice about me spending time alone with Andrew, but something always held me back. Even though I knew Garrett would never tell anyone, it still wasn’t my information to share. And sometimes, it was fun to provoke him.
“Andrew’s probably going to take me somewhere really nice.” I slid my fingernail down his arm.
Garrett cut me a look. He knew what I was doing. “Andrew better keep his hands to himself.”
I laughed. “That would kind of defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?” I stood up and slid onto Garrett’s lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and touching my forehead to his. “But I’ll be home by ten.”