My Life With The Movie Star

DEDICATION

I want to thank my wonderful husband Bret for all his love and support for My Life With The Movie Star.  I also want to thank my Dad for pushing me to complete this book.  Thanks Dad I could not have done this without you!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank all the wonderful places in Port Washington WI that I have enjoyed visiting on a regular basis.  Using real locations made my book so much more fun to write.

Preface

I swallowed hard while staring straight ahead into the TV camera len
s
. I watched as people scurried around me, making sure the set was perfect. Dave was in front of me doing a microphone check. He gave me a brief smile and wink to let me know everything would be
okay
.

This would be one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but if it brought Grayson Edwards back into my life, I would gladly do it. I heard the director say we had two minutes before the show starts.

I looked over at Dave. I was ready to go on live TV, to clear my name and hopefully, if everything went well, to get the love of my life back. Here, goes nothing, I thought to myself as Dave welcomed the audience to the show.

C
hapter 1

Port Washington, Wisconsin a simple Midwest town. A town where you see kids riding their bikes and parents walking them to school. Years ago, the city was a thriving fishing community; business
es
flourished with all the activities that centered on the lake. Now the city was just another suburban community for Milwaukee.  In this perfectly normal suburb, you would never imagine that any kind of story would take place. I, of all people, never thought that this quiet town would one day be the center of a Hollywood scandal or that I, perfectly average Abby Smith, would be thrust into the middle of it.

As I said, my life was normal, just like every other twenty-something single girl in the Midwest. My day started off with waking up, getting ready for work, and taking my dog, Thor, out for a walk before I make my commute to my desk job in Milwaukee. I worked in a high-rise building on the twelfth floor for System Plus Software.  System Plus is an industry leader in Point Of Sale Technology.  Many companies across the country use our product to ring sales for their stores. The building where I worked was the tallest building in Milwaukee.  I had to park my car a few blocks away in a parking garage, but I always enjoyed my walk from my car to the office.  One really unique feature of Milwaukee is
that it has
connect
ing
sky walks. Even in the dead of winter you don’t have to be outside that long.  The one I use crosses the Milwaukee River, so I liked to stop and watch the boats pass below me.

When I was first interviewed for the job at System Plus Software, I discovered the city of Port Washington. I knew that I needed to find a place to live and wanted to be as close to Lake Michigan as possible.  Milwaukee was a bit out of my
price range, but Port Washington 30 miles north was much more affordable.  I had just moved from Atlanta,
Georgia which was completely landlocked, Port was so different from Atlanta. I i
nstantly fell in love with the lake and decided this is where I would settle down.  Luckily I had a great real estate agent who helped me find an affordable fixer- upper on the north side of town.  I d
on’t
have a view of Lake Michigan, but I was a short
two
block walk from it.  I had been saving money all through high school and college for a down payment on a home.  All my hard work and sacrifice had paid off when I closed on it
in
the previous year.  My house was a ranch that needed quite a bit of updating. I had spent many weekends taking down wallpaper, painting, and general renovations.  This helped to fill my nights and weekend when I first moved north.  Finally, after a year, I was able to enjoy
some
time in my house without a ton of upgrading.

I enjoyed my job at System Plus, where I
am
a tech-support agent. Tech support really means you are on the phone with customers
eight
hours a day trying to explain how to use the program.  After work, I would drive back to my house once again let out my dog, warm up my diet microwave dinner and settle into watching TV for the night. I know my life sounds simple and boring, but I was proud of my job and the life I had built miles away from my family.

On the weekends, I hung out with my best girl
friend Lisa. It used to be myself, Lisa and Rachel. We used to be a trio of girls going out, talking about guys and work. But over the past year Rachel started hanging out with us less and less. She met a guy who lived on the west side of Milwaukee and spends most of her free time with him.

Lisa was my one non-work friend. She was tall and slender and paid attention to the outside world. She had long blond hair that was always perfectly curled or styled. Guys always hit on Lisa, and I was often treated as second best. Not that, I was bad looking; I just always considered myself horribly average. I was average height at 5’5, average weight, and I had shoulder-length brown hair that I could never do much with, I didn’t have the sense of style that Lisa or Rachel ha
ve
.

Lisa and Rachel were old high-school friends. I had met them at one of the local bars when I first moved to Port. Lisa and I became inseparable, which always made Rachel slightly jealous of our friendship. It didn’t really surprise me when she started hanging out with a different group of friends. I think she always felt that I had taken her best friend away from her.

June 10th started off as a bit of an above-average day. I had been chosen by my company System Plus, to be one of two representatives at the Tech Con convention. Melanie was the other employee chosen. She was technically my boss, but she worked in a different office, so although I talked to her every day I rarely got to see her. I would enjoy spending this three-day convention with her. She had been with System Plus for over ten years, and I considered her both a mentor and a friend. We had a great working relationship, and going to Dallas with her would be a fun. Besides, I desperately needed a break from my life in Port.

It was a bright, sunny day in Milwaukee. I arrived at the airport early, as normal, and made my way to my gate. I fidgeted with my carry-on until I heard my boarding zone called. As I boarded my plane, I looked down at my phone to see that I had a missed call from Lisa. I guess I had forgotten to tell her that I would be out of town this weekend. Tech Con
convention
ran Friday night through Sunday. My guess was that she would do something with Rachel instead.

“Hey, Lisa! I’m boarding my plane to Dallas at the moment,” I said, trying to fit my carry-on into the very small overhead compartment.

“Oh, you’re gone all weekend?” Lisa asked. I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

“
I’m afraid so. I’m working
at
the Tech Con convention,” I replied as I tried to get comfortable in the airplane seat.

“Drat,” Lisa said. “I really wanted to go to the midnight showing of
Texas High
.”

“Isn’t that a Tween movie?” I asked sarcastically. I wondered why Lisa was calling me about seeing this movie. She knew I would not be interested in a drama about high-school kids in Texas.

“B
ut it has Grayson Edwards and Patrick Evans
are
in it,” she chirped excitedly. “They are so hot!”

“I have never heard either one of them,” I replied, not sounding very enthused. “Can’t you go see it with Rachel? “

“If she’s around” Lisa said sarcastically.

I also tried to get together with Rachel the previous week and had left her voice, and text messages, but had
not
heard back.  “Oh Lisa, I have to let you go; the plane is about to take off.”

“OK,” she replied. “Have a nice trip. Enjoy Dallas!”

“I will. Enjoy your movie,” I said as I felt the plane start to back up. I knew that I needed to shut off my cell or the flight attendant might yell at me.

As the plane took off, I thought about my memories with Lisa and Rachel. Rachel was also a knock-out. She was tall and thin with stylish red hair that was always layered the right way. She loved skirts and cute girly outfits. I couldn’t even bear the idea of wearing a dress when it was only twenty degrees outside in the winter, but Rachel would wear skirts and heels in the dead
of winter and never complain about the cold. I always wondered how she did it.

The plane landed in Dallas. Once off the plane I found myself in a strange airport. Which way to bagged claim?  The Dallas airport has several outside trains I carefully picked the one that would take me to baggage claim terminals.  After thirty minutes of making my way through the airport, I was finally able to gather my things and make my way out of the bustling airport.  I struggled to make my way to the taxi stand having a laptop case, purse, and suitcase.  I needed to take a cab to the Dallas Intercontinental Hotel and Convention Center, where I would meet up with Melanie and start the long process of setting up our booth.  I was pleased that the line was short, and I quickly settled into
the
cab and fight the Dallas traffic.  Once at the hotel, I checked into my room and made a quick call to my boss.

“Hey Melanie, its Abby,” I said. I swung my suit case onto the bed and started to hang up the things that would get wrinkled.

“Oh, hi Abby! Did you have a nice flight?”

I could hear Melanie dropping what sounded like large metal rods. I knew she would be at the expo center already, trying to set up our booth on her own.

“I
t was smooth sailings. How about yours?”

“Oh, I guess it was fine. You know I’m not big on flying. Are you all checked in?”

“Yup, are you at the expo center?” I asked, knowing that she would have been there since she landed, probably forgoing the checking-in part.

“I sure am,” said Melanie. I heard another crash and knew that I needed to get down to the expo center fast to help her before she hurt herself.

“OK, I’ll be right down to give you a hand.”

“OK,” said Melanie in a much happier tone. “I will see you soon.”

I finished unpacking my things, and picked up my phone to see if I had missed any important phone calls or emails. Once I had everything in order I was ready to go tackle this booth construction and start the Tech Con
Convention
.

Chapter 2

As
I started down to the convention center
I
stopped to admire the hotel’s lobby. It was bright and cheerful. The marble floor glistened in the late afternoon Texas sun. This was one of the fanciest hotels I had ever stayed at.  In the center, of the hotel was an enormous solarium with tropical plants, walking paths, waterfalls, restaurants and bars. The convention center was clear past the solarium.  First
,
I needed to stop by the front desk.  I had noticed there were complimentary cookies when I checked in, so I stopped to grab a couple for myself and Melanie. I know we would need some sugar to help us assemble our booth.

Just then I noticed a tall, slender guy at the front desk. I thought it was odd that he was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses inside. Even without seeing his eyes, I could tell, he was cute. He had perfect brown hair peeking out around the rim of his cap. Cute, I muttered to myself. Too cute for me. He would have been the type of guy that Lisa or Rachel would have tried to meet. They would have been perfectly comfortable going up to him, batting their eyelashes and flirting. I wished I could be more like them, but I was shy and kept to myself. Maybe too shy; this was probably why I was still single. I was too much of chicken to ask anyone out, or even go start a conversation with an attractive guy.