Laying Low in Hollywood (15 page)

   “If it makes you feel any better, I checked, I wasn’t followed,” he told me, flashing me a sly smile.

   I rolled my eyes miserably.  “How would you know?”

   “I think I would know.  Besides, I made three different trips around the neighborhood, then I ditched my car down the street.  No one will ever suspect a thing,” he told me, flashing me a sly smile.

   “Are you crazy?  This is Hollywood.  The reporters here are more covert than the CIA, in fact, I think that might be a prerequisite to get into the CIA, experience being a reporter in Hollywood,” I told him rolling my eyes.  I was joking with him, trying to blame my apprehension on the media, but it was my own fragile heart that I couldn’t trust.  Subconsciously, I wanted Ron to make the moves on me.  Subconsciously, I knew if he made the moves on me I probably wouldn’t stop him, I really just wanted someone to find me desirable!

   Ron shook his head and pushed past me into the condo.  I sighed in resignation and closed the door behind us.  He walked straight into the living room and flopped down on the couch.

   “Would you like something to drink?” I asked.

   “You got anything hard?” he asked.  He was slumped on my couch defeatedly.  He looked like a man who had a lot more on his mind then just a really bad hangover.

   “The way you look right now, you don’t need anything hard,” I told him, shaking my head miserably.

   “Yeah, I guess I had a rough night last night.  I just wanted to apologize to you.  I realize how hard you are working on this project and I appreciate everything you do.  It was unprofessional of me to get totally shit faced last night and miss our practice this morning,” he said, looking at me earnestly.

   “Well, sometimes the people we love, drive us to do crazy things,” I told him with a shrug.

                 “You saw the news then?” he asked, eyeing me warily.

   “I saw the clip this morning, after I called everyone I could think of who might know what had happened to you,” I said.

  “I’m sorry Lane.  Like I said, it was stupid and unprofessional, it will never happen again,” he said, standing up and approaching me till he was standing right in front of me.  His face was pained, and he looked completely lost.

   “I understand...” I was holding my breath anxiously.  I wanted to take an uncomfortable step backwards. I felt like he was standing much too close to me, but he was feeling bad enough about everything, I stood my ground.

   “No you don’t!  I was stupid, everyone tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen.  I was too proud to see she was using me.  I should have known this would happen, things have been going sour for a while.  I feel like a complete moron, I should have seen it coming,” he said, shaking his head miserably.

   “I was blind sided too.  It’s like getting hit by a punch out of nowhere, you never see it coming, but it hurts so bad!”

   He nodded his head and gave me a wry smile.  “How did you do it?  I mean, how did you handle the anger?  I gave Jenae the best years of my life, I just...”

   “I know...” I still couldn’t look at him.  I didn’t want to feel his pain, when my own pain was still so fresh.  I didn’t want to cry in front of him.  I didn’t want to cry over Greg ever again.

   “You are so strong, you handled everything with such grace.  You’re such a class act.  If I’d been in your position, I’d want to rip the guy’s nuts off!” said Ron.

   “I did want to rip his nuts off, but what would that accomplish?  I’d end up on the news and everyone would talk about that crazy bitch that ripped her husband’s nuts off and I wouldn’t get to be here, doing a stupid reality TV show with you,” I told him with a smile.

   “There’s that smile again...you know it’s making me crazy,” he said, his voice had suddenly changed.  It had gone from sad and serious, to silky and sensuous.

   “What’s making you crazy?” I asked, I was suddenly panicking.  I should have never let him come in.  The velvety caress of his voice was hypnotizing me, I could feel my resolve slipping away.  I tried to steel myself against his charms, Jorge would totally freak out if he knew that the two of us were together...alone.

   “Every time you smile, I want to kiss you,” he said, taking a cautious step toward me.

   “Ron, please, you’re upset right now...”

   “I wanted to kiss you long before I was upset,” he said, reaching out and laying his hand on my cheek.  I was completely mesmerized by his eyes, I wanted to stop him, but I couldn’t, the very touch of his fingers was electrifying.

   “Ron please, I know Jorge will fire me,” I pleaded, I could already feel his arm around my waist as he drew me toward him.

   “Jorge will never know,” he whispered, as his lips gently began to caress mine. 

   I was mindlessly surrendering to the gentle kiss, which was growing more and more passionate with every moment.  The voice of reason in my head had already been extinguished by the fire that was now racing through my veins.  At some point I had wrapped my arms around his neck.  In moments, we had fallen to the couch, he was on top of me, on the couch, pressing his body against mine seductively.  I had completely succumbed to the passion, I hadn’t felt excitement like that in years. 

   It was only then, that the guilt began to wash over me and I finally regained my senses and pushed him away.  My entire body was suddenly protesting, and I was panting and fighting to catch my breath.  My entire body had been reawakened with sensations I hadn’t felt in years.  I didn’t want it to end, but deep in my heart I knew this was wrong.

   “What?” he cried, looking at me as if I were crazy.

   “Ron, I can’t.  I know you are upset about Jenae, and maybe your relationship is over, but not officially,” I told him, still struggling to catch my breath.

   Ron was struggling to breathe as well.  “I’m not upset over Jenae, like I said, I already knew it was over.  It’s you that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.  I’ve wanted to kiss you, almost from the first moment I met you.”

   “You are too emotional to make that decision right now.  If Jorge were to find out that we were together, he would fire me, he’s already eluded to that,” I managed to whisper.

   “I’m not emotional over Jenae, I just finally feel free to go after what I want.  I want you,” said Ron, whispering seductively in my ear.

   I jumped up from the couch and gave him a very serious look.  I needed the space between us.  I needed to end this now, or I would never be able to stop.

   “If you want me, you’ll have to wait.  I promised Jorge.   If you and I hook up, it’s going to be nothing but trouble.  Bad publicity for the show, bad publicity for you.  Think about it Ron, what if someone saw something...” I breathed, my heart was still pounding, I still felt weak.  My head was having a hard time convincing my body that this should not happen.

   “Nobody’s watching...come on.  We both need this,” said Ron, holding his hand out to me, his eyes were pleading.

   “Somebody’s always watching!  I hate to always sound paranoid, but do you not realize where we are?  We are in Hollywood, and you are the great Ron Brannon, we’ve already been linked once...” my eyes were flashing, I was completely panicked.  If Ron didn’t back off, I didn’t know how I was going to say no to what my body seemed to think it needed so badly.

   “You’re afraid...because I’m black,” said Ron, looking at me earnestly.

   “Ron, you know that’s not true.  I’m worried about you, and what Jenae might do to you if she found out about us,” I cried.

   “What could she possibly do?  She’s already completely destroyed me,” he told me with a sigh.

   “Believe me, she hasn’t even begun to destroy you yet.  My guess is, if she could prove you were having an affair, she would keep your girls from you.  She would make sure you never saw them again,” I snapped.

   “Jenae would never do that!” he cried.

   “Sure, and she would never cheat on you either...would she?” I seethed.  I was being callous, but he needed a wake up call.  She was evil.

   Ron slumped back down on the couch defeatedly.  I sat down next to him, feeling bad that I had hurt him, but he needed this reality check. 

   “Ron, I’m sorry...we just need to be realistic,” I said taking his hand.

   He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it tenderly. “I love you Lane.  I fell in love with you the first time I saw you.  I just couldn’t act on my feelings at the time.   I didn’t want to hurt my wife, I didn’t realize she was already out looking.  I guess I should have probably realized it would be someone like Roman, someone with a multi million dollar contract,” said Ron, his voice broke with emotion.

   “Ron, you have to go,” I said, gesturing toward the door.

   “You want me to wait?  Is that what you want?”  Ron was inching closer to me, he was so close now, I feared he could hear my heart pounding anxiously in my chest.  He looked deeply into my eyes and laid his hand on my cheek once again.

   I looked up into his eyes, our bodies were nearly touching and I could feel the heat radiating from his body.  “We have to wait, at least till the show is over, I mean otherwise...”

   I was struggling to breathe, I reached up and gently removed his hand from my cheek, then I held his hand tightly in mine.  I was almost trembling, my body wanted him to stay, of course, the reasonable voice in my head was telling me to get him out of the condo, before I did something I would regret!

   “It’s not what I want...it’s how it has to be.  Jorge is worried about negative publicity for the show.  If you and I...”

   “Yeah, yeah...I know,” said Ron, he turned slowly and headed for the door.

   “I’m sorry Ron.  I feel the same way about you,” I whispered, as he opened the door.

    “When is your divorce going to be final?” he asked.

    “It was final today...I got the papers today,” I told him.  I still couldn’t say the words without them sticking in my throat a little bit.  It was still painful.

    “I’m sorry...I guess I’m not the only one who’s hurting.  I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow, taping day,” he said, giving me a shy smile.

   “Yeah, taping day,” I said, as I closed the door behind him.

                          
CHAPTER 15

   When I arrived at the rink the next morning, Ron and Elena were already out on the ice working on their program, I was delighted that they had the initiative to go out there and start working without me.

   “Hey guys!” I called, as I skated out to them.  They were both bursting with excitement.

   “Watch this,” said Ron, waving to the sound man to start their music.

   The music started and I was amazed to watch Elena and Ron get through their entire routine with barely a glitch. Their complex step sequence that I had choreographed for them was nearly perfect and the only element that seemed to require any work was that darn pairs spin.  I was smiling broadly as they ended, even though I was sure that they had been practicing without me, which I had forbidden!

   “Wow, that was awesome!” I cried, as they both bowed and hammed up their ending.

   “Our speen ees steel skanky,” said Elena.

   “It’s shaky,” I told her with a little smile.  “We’ll save the skanky for burlesque night...if there is one,”

  Ron was just smiling and shaking his head in amusement.  I turned to him.

   “You, Mr. Brannon.  Have you been practicing without me?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest and peering at him very seriously.

    All traces of amusement left his face and he gave me a worried look.

   “We wanted to surprise you, you know, get the step sequence down,” he said, nervously.

   “How are your feet?” I asked. I didn’t want to be mad at him, they’d done such a great job, but Ron was so driven, he was prone to overdo himself.  I didn’t want him to mess up his feet so badly he wouldn’t be able to compete.

   “My feet are fine, the blisters I had, are almost all gone.  Elena and I have been working both on and off the ice,” he said, giving me a little shrug.

   “I just worry about you Ron, sometimes, you don’t know when to quit,” I told him, a small smile was sneaking to my lips.  I couldn’t stay mad at him.

   “I’ve heard that was one of my better qualities,” he said, flashing me a seductive smile.

   “It is a very admirable quality, for the most part, but if you mess up your feet so badly that we cannot get skates on them, your entire team will be out of the competition.  You understand that, right?”  We were a team, I needed him to understand that.  He couldn’t singlehandedly win this competition, and neither could I.

   “I understand, I will not jeopardize the competition by overdoing it.  I just want to be the best.  I want to win,” said Ron.

   “Okay, we’re all on the same page then.  Last week you guys were fabulous, I don’t want to loose that momentum.  When I first took on this project, I didn’t think there was any way we would even make it through the first elimination.  You guys have made so much progress, I can actually see us making it to the finals, possibly even winning,” I told them with a smile.

   Elena and Ron were both smiling broadly and nodding at me.   “If it weren’t for the pairs spin I’d say we were ready right now, but the spin could use some work.”

   We worked hard at practice and I felt like we were ready for the taping of the show tonight.  As we skated off the ice, I looked up to see Jorge standing there at the gate.  I almost rolled my eyes, he gave me a little wave as I approached him.

   “I love the program darling, it’s so damn cute!” he cried, hugging me as I stepped off the ice.  I half heartedly returned his hug.  Ron’s eyes were narrowed and he was staring Jorge down like a jealous lover, I turned and gave him a bug eyed glare.  Ron gave Jorge an arrogant nod of his head, then he snapped his skate guards on and headed toward the changing room.

   “How is everything going?” asked Jorge.

  “Fine,” I told him, dismissively.  I was worried, something was up.  Why else would Jorge just randomly show up at our practice?  He was a busy man, he didn’t have time to hang around the rink.

  “The program looks fine, how are things with Brannon?” asked Jorge, eyeing me haughtily.

   My heart was surging with guilt, surely he couldn’t know about my tiny indiscretion yesterday.  Could he? 

   “I had to reprimand him today, he and Elena have been practicing without me.  I’m afraid he’ll overdo himself and not be able to skate at all,” I said, tracing my finger over a patch of chipped paint on the gate.  I couldn’t look Jorge in the eye, I felt incredibly guilty.

  “Have the two of you discussed his wife’s indiscretions?” asked Jorge.

    “I wouldn’t say we discussed it, of course he told me, he apologized for missing practice,” I told him, staring him down indignantly.

   “I was just worried, that’s all.  Now he’s been wronged, you have also been wronged.  Misery loves company, I just thought that he might use that as an excuse to have you hop into bed with him,” said Jorge.  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

   “He’s perfectly gorgeous, why would I even need an excuse to hop into bed with him?” I asked, nonchalantly.  I looked over at Jorge, who was standing there staring at me with his mouth gaping open, he was completely speechless.

   “I’m kidding Jorge, I was messing with you,” I told him with a giggle.

   “God, sometimes you can be such a heartless bitch, you scared the hell out of me,” he told me, indignantly.

  “Sorry,” I told him with a wry smile, even though personally, I thought he deserved it.

   That night my team was scheduled to be the second to the last performance of the evening.  Seeing all the other teams in their poodle skirts and letter sweaters made me all that much happier that I hadn’t chosen a sock hop song.  The other performances all looked blandly similar.  I thought our quirky, yet sophisticated program would stand out from all the others. 

   As we sat there in the cast seats and watched all the other teams performing, I was happy to realize that my team was not the only one struggling with the pairs spin, besides that, several of the other teams could barely get by with their lifts and the footwork.

   Finally, Ron and Elena skated out to the center of the ice.  The lights dimmed and the spotlights shined on them.

  “Ladies and Gentleman, skating to the song That’s Amore’ Elena Denkova and Ron Brannon, choreography by Lane Jensen.

   As the music started, things were looking good.  The choreography was well suited to the music and Ron and Elena had to play out a couple that was falling in love.  I smiled as I watched them performing, they had really gotten into the music.  I was so proud of them, they were performing as if they had been doing this their entire lives, they had almost convinced me that they were lovers, even though I knew that the two of them barely tolerated each other.

   The cartwheel lift was a bit shaky, but good.  The crowd oohed and aahed, when Elena did her spin sequence.

   They had one step sequence under their belt, all they had to do was nail the pairs spin and the last step sequence that led into their finale, and they had it!

   I held my breath as they went into the pairs spin, on the second rotation, the toe pick of Ron’s skate nicked Elena’s blade, making a loud metallic squeak.  It shouldn’t have been enough to ruin the spin, but Elena was jumpy, she was so scared that Ron was going to fall on her and crush her, she stumbled out of the spin early.

   This was more than enough to throw both her and Ron off.  As result, Ron ended up starting his footwork on the wrong foot, so they ended up being out of synch for the rest of the dance.  I sighed in disappointment.  I didn’t think they had been bad  enough to be eliminated, but I was quite certain, we would not be the top team tonight.

   Ron and Elena skated back to me dejectedly, I hugged them both, then we sat in the “kiss and cry” area to wait for the judges to comment on our performance and then reveal our scores.

   The judges comments were mostly positive.  It was hard for them to pick apart our pairs spin, since no other team had mastered it either.  Hal Luther smiled and claimed to be “totally in love” with the entire program, he thought that Ron and Elena were both still a bit stiff, he urged them to loosen up a bit.

   Finally, our scores were held up, eight, eight and eight.  Not too bad, but not what I had anticipated for the night.  The last team skated, then all the teams were brought to the ice for the announcement of the elimination. 

   I was finally able to breathe, when they announced that it was team Maricelle that would be going home tonight.  We had ended up third in the standings, behind team Muramsatsu and team Evans. 

   I was happy enough, we were still near the top of the pack.  I was almost glad we hadn’t taken first place, if we took the top spot every time, we would have nothing to work toward and of course, every other team would be out to get us!

   As the show ended later that evening, everyone was congregating there beside the ice.  Everyone was coming over and telling me how well my team had done, including Emi Muramsatsu.  When the crowd began dying down, I wasn’t surprised to see that Ron had found his way to my side.

  “You want to stop by my place for a drink?” he whispered into my ear.

   “Is Elena coming?” I asked, turning around and giving him a sly smile.

   “Hell no, that bitch hates me,” said Ron, giving me a look.

   “You know I can’t,” I told him.  He was rolling his eyes disgustedly, I turned and saw that Jorge was pushing his way determinedly through the crowd toward me.  I sighed miserably.

   “Lane darling, splendid job tonight,” he said hugging me, then kissing me on the cheek.  “A fine effort tonight Mr. Brannon, with a little work, you might actually end up in the finals.”  Jorge held out his hand and Ron shook it hesitantly.

   “Thank you,” said Ron, his face was expressionless.  I was almost holding my breath as the two men stared each other down for a moment or two.

   “Sweetheart, the crowd is finally dying down, are you ready to go home?” asked Jorge, staring at me expectantly.

   “Yes dear,” I told him obediently.  I gave Ron a haughty nod, then I let Jorge pull me away. 

    Jorge had taken me by the hand and was pulling me through the crowd in the lobby.  He was almost giddy with excitement as he waved and blew kisses to the remaining people he knew that were still hanging around.  Then he hauled me unceremoniously out the front entrance, he dragged me out to his limo, like a child who had misbehaved in the grocery store.

   “Get in!” he demanded curtly.  I looked up at him in shock as I slid into the limo, as I’d been commanded to do. 

   “Why are you being such an ass?” I cried, as Jorge slid into the seat next to me.

   “If I was not such an ass I would have never got this far in life.  I already told you, I am simply protecting my show.  I saw you with Brannon,” he told me, staring me down determinedly.

   “I wasn’t going to go with him,” I told him, indignantly.

  “Good for you.  I was not going to give you the opportunity.  You are coming home with me.  I have decided I cannot have you hanging out at the condo anymore.  Whatever will we do if he shows up there?”

   “Jorge, don’t be ridiculous...”

   “Lane please, I know that he was there last night, and I also know that the two of you shared a very passionate kiss.  At this point, I think I may be lucky that’s all the two of you did,” snapped Jorge, staring me down arrogantly.

   “You were spying on me!” I cried indignantly.  As stunned as I was, I was almost wondering why I hadn’t anticipated this.

   “I didn’t instigate the spying, but I did get the full scoop, and video, of course.  In Hollywood you have to be careful, you never know who’s watching.  It cost me a pretty penny to keep that video out of the wrong hands.  Do you not understand the consequences of your actions?” snapped Jorge, angrily.