Hollywood Stardust Supporting Roles - Wilson and Giselle (10 page)

The waiter turned to her. 

She needed to let their poor employee off
the hook, and she rushed over.  “You did great, you weren’t
going to let him in.”

“
You told me not to let
anyone in without the password and the key.”  The man smiled
at her.

“
But since it’s Wilson, we
can let him in.  Now go practice your tray skills.”  She
pointed in the direction the waiter needed to take, hooked her arm
in Wilson’s and brought him inside.

“
May I ask what you are
doing?”  He guided them to their booth.

“
We are a speakeasy, so I
thought for the soft opening that we could require people know a
password and have a key.”  She nodded.  “The key could be
the invitation.”

“
For the soft
opening?”  He sat at the booth and unloaded the bag. 
Light bulbs, batteries, some nuts and bolts and hooks for picture
frames. 

“
Yes, and I thought we
could hire a guy to look like he’s from the 1920s mob to help
people.  We also need some photographers.  I also thought
we should order a cake.”  She crawled into the booth beside
him, but kept her focus on what he pulled out of the bag. 
This morning when they woke up she’d rattled off a list at him. How
did he remember everything? Fine, they woke up together.  In
fact, they had every night since they decided they were in a
relationship.

No matter how many times she tried to deny
it, the fact was, she enjoyed waking up with him right there. 
Dare she say she loved it?  There was comfort to going to
sleep with a warm and hot man holding her.  Plus, the mornings
were stellar.  They woke up, had a little AM delight to
supercharge their day and then they got to work. 

“
Cake?”  Once more, he
reached in the bag, this time revealing the kind of toilet paper
she preferred, and mentioned to him the other night.

“
Yes, it has a fountain. I
thought we could make a big batch of the G-spot and have it flowing
under the cake.” As she gathered her pile of papers and squinted in
the dim space, she tried to find the flyer for the pastry she
wanted.

He opened the package of light bulbs and put
one in the little lamp they bought for the center of what they now
dubbed their table.

The whole space illuminated.

“
You’re magic.”  She
scooted closer to him.

“
How do you
figure?”   He found the remote control for the music
system, put in the batteries, and pressed a button.  Some
light jazz music filled the club.

“
Look at all you can
do.  You screwed in a light bulb, inserted batteries and made
music.”  She tilted her head.  “Sort of like last night
without the light bulb and the batteries.”   Truth be
told, she didn’t need any batteries with Wilson around.  He
was economical as well.

“
How will I ever outdo
myself?”  He leaned in and kissed her.

She handed him the documentation on the cake
and put a few more flyers in front of him.  “I ordered the
napkins with your initial on it, and after everyone is here and we
cut the cake, I thought we could send our guests off with little
favors of nuts in little miniature martini glasses.” 

He glanced at all of the papers.  “When
is the official ceremony?”

“
I wasn’t really planning
on an official ceremony.”  She bit her bottom lip. 
“Why?”

“
Because you haven’t
planned a casual soft opening for thirty of our closest friends,
you planned a wedding.” He chuckled.

At the mention of the W word, she froze as
if a bucket of ice were thrown on top of her head.  “Wedding?
Are you asking me to marry you?”  Her voice shook.

“
Well, I did get you
something else at the store that wasn’t on your list.”  With
only what she would call a gleam in his eye, he put his hand in the
bag once again.

Oh, God.  The man was going to pull a
ring out of the bag from the store. Her heart seized.  What
would she say?  Did she want to marry him?  She never
pictured herself the marrying type, but they were together and not
doing a bad job.  But marriage changed people and the fun
would go along with the ring.  On the other hand, she had
thought that about being in a relationship.

“
Giselle Abromowitz, will
you share your fruity nut bar with me?”  He pulled out her
favorite candy bar and held it in his palm.

She inhaled, but still felt like she
couldn’t take a breath.  Before she did the girl thing she
hated and said something about weddings or marriages, she bowed her
head and put her hand over the candy bar.  “Wilson Alexander,
I don’t take my fruity nut bars lightly, but I feel I can share
this delectable treat with you.” 

“
Excellent.”  He
unwrapped the confection and broke it perfectly in half.  “In
exchange for this, I promise to always get everything on the
list.”

“
Well, since you are vowing
to live in greatness, I must do the same and tell you I will tone
down the soft opening from a gala of wedding proportions to merely
something of grand soft opening proportions.”  She tapped her
part of the candy bar against his and took a bite.

“
Save your ideas for the
grand opening, and maybe save the cake for something else.” 
He dug into the treat as well and put his arm around her. 
“Since we’ve been working so hard, how about tonight I take you out
for a real date?”

She nodded and put her head on his shoulder.
In truth, Wilson was incredible, amazing, spectacular even. 
Any girl would be lucky to marry him.  Of course, any girl
would be lucky to get a real date. “All right.”  She wondered
what all this entailed.

“
Excellent.”  He
polished off his fruity nut bar, kissed her and stood.  “Then
I shall go finish what was on my list so we can take the night
off.”

She watched him go.  Any other girl
would be crying after he didn’t pull a ring out of the bag from the
convenience store.  A twinge of anxiety went though her, still
she took the flyer from the cake and tucked it in her purse. 
They had to have cake at their party after all.

* * * *

“
RAIN? SERIOUSLY?” Wilson
turned on the windshield wipers and shook his head. He had
everything planned down to the minute, and the rain had the traffic
on Wilshire Boulevard down to a crawl. “We live in California, it’s
supposed to rain on command, not on our date.”

“
The state needs the water
and rain is sexy.” Giselle leaned over and put her hand on his
shoulder. “It makes everything wet.”

Her mentioning wet did make him less upset
about the drips down his nice clean car. “I planned an
evening.”

“
Rain doesn’t wash away
time, plus isn’t the point of a date to make sure you’re going to
have sex later on?” She brushed his hair off his forehead. “Well,
you know you are getting some, so don’t worry about that.
Everything is going to work out. You need to let loose, and I will
too.”

“
I am a lucky man.” With
his energy directed elsewhere, he tried to calm down until he
caught a glance at the time and noticed there would be no way they
would make their reservations.

“
One who is getting lucky
that’s for sure.” She put her palm over the time in the dash.
“Restaurants understand weather, and they won’t give our
reservation away.”

Not wanting to ruin her time or start a
lecture on how hard it was to get reservations at a five star
restaurant in this city, he took her hand and tried not to think
about the moments passing by and all the people clamoring with
100-dollar bills to get his table by the window. He simply wanted
to give her the night they deserved. Since they got together, they
hadn’t done any of the traditional couple things, and tonight must
be perfect.

They trudged through Los Angeles and at long
last made their way into the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills. The
streets here were dotted with the most influential brands and
eating establishments in the country. He breathed a sigh of relief
at finally getting to the valet in front of their restaurant. The
crowd gathered around the notable eatery was sure to give him
indigestion.

“
Oh la la. Raymond’s of
Beverly Hills?” Giselle bounced in her seat. “I’m
starving.”

One thing he adored about her was her
willingness to eat in front of him. “I want you to order whatever
you want. This is our special night.” Two valets came to their car
and opened the doors. Giselle grabbed her bag and waited for him to
come around the car. He took her hand and with his chest puffed up
a bit at the gorgeous woman by his side, he entered the
restaurant.

More like he tried to enter the restaurant.
Really, he tried to push his way into the restaurant. The crowd in
the front made it impossible to get in without forcing his way
through.

“
Follow me.” Giselle
tightened her grip on his hand and basically dove into the people,
bobbing and weaving through her path until they somehow emerged in
front of the maître d’, or the female version of the maître d’ in a
short skirt and tight white top. “See? Right in front of the people
in charge.”

“
Alexander, party of two.”
He wrapped his arm around Giselle’s waist.

The woman nodded and ran her finger over the
reservation book. She did it twice more before she shook her head.
“I don’t have anything under that name.”

“
Our reservations were for
seven.” He leaned over the podium and scanned the book, reading
upside down and backward then pointed at his name crossed out with
a green sad face near it. “There we are.”

“
Oh, you were late and
didn’t show. We had no choice but to give your table away.” The
woman shrugged.

“
We’re only twenty minutes
late, and I’m sure you see the rain, it backed everything up.”
Though he attempted to keep his voice even, he didn’t do that great
of a job. What kind of loser couldn’t keep their reservation on a
date? Maybe he should have called ahead? No doubt his brother would
be at the best table, late or not.

“
Yeah, the weather has made
everything crazy, but we are booked solid. I’m sorry about your
table, I can put you on the walk-in list.” She lifted her
pen.

He glanced over at Giselle. In her cheery
demeanor, she nodded her agreement. “How long is the wait?” he
asked.

The woman glanced around the restaurant and
down at the book. “No more than an hour and a half.”

“
Over an hour?” He tensed
and raised his voice.

Giselle squeezed his hand. “That’s only
sixty minutes or more.”

Only moments before she told him she was
starving. “Are you sure you can’t do any better?” He reached into
his pocket, found some bills and attempted to slip them to the
woman.

The woman plucked the money out of his hand
and wrinkled her nose. “How about I get you seated in the bar? We
offer our full menu there.”

“
I own a bar. If I wanted
to eat at a bar, I would have stayed there.” He balled his hand in
a fist.

“
That’s fine. We would love
to sit at your bar and uncover any trade secrets.” Giselle snapped
the bills out of the woman’s claw. “We only give tips when you
actually get a real table, not the table reserved for your mess
up.”

With narrowed eyes, the woman snatched up a
couple of menus and took them to the bar, seating them in the back
by a wall in the dark, and not the kind of dark with ambiance, just
the kind of dark that told him this was a forgotten corner of the
restaurant.

They sat, and with Giselle not complaining,
he tried to relax. If they had a flashlight, they may be able to
read what was actually printed on the piece of paper. He went to
whip out his phone when a shard of light cut through his eyes.

Right as he managed to blink away the
glowing stripe in his field of vision, the odor of floral urinal
cake and bathroom wafted around him. He didn’t need clear vision to
note they were seated by the restrooms, but worse yet, was Giselle
winced. In her land, whatever land that might be, it was as good as
a complaint, and she should.

“
We’re out of here.” His
woman would not be treated with bathroom smells and chairs in the
darkness. He shot out of his seat and grabbed her hand. Not
bothering with any of her niceties to get through the crowd, he
shoved his way outside, went over to the valet station, and thrust
the ticket to the first man in a red coat. “We’ll go somewhere
else.” The words came out of his mouth, though on a Friday night he
didn’t know where in the hell they could go that wasn’t a carbon
copy of this place.

“
Wilson.” Giselle stood in
front of him and pressed her palm to his cheek.

Yet another huge crowd of people hovered
around the valet station and Wilson watched the valet go from
looking for his keys to helping the people. “Excuse me.” He
approached the man.

“
I’m a bit busy here, sir.”
The man brushed him off and tended to the crowd. Among them was
someone he vaguely recognized from television.

Before he had a chance to start yelling,
Giselle grabbed him and pulled him back. “Wilson, come here.”

“
Giselle, I’m just trying
to get the car, and we’ll get out of here and get something better,
all right?” He snapped.

“
They’ll bring the car
around and it’ll be waiting for us. Right now I’m starving, and I
see the place I would love to have dinner.” Once more, she yanked
on him.