My Life With The Movie Star (2 page)

I didn’t mean to listen in on his conversation, but he seemed to need to change hotel rooms. The hotel manager was trying to smooth out the situation, whatever it was. He gave the tall guy a new set of keys and told him there would not be any more disturbances.

“Thank you,” said the guy politely. “I’m sure this was a one-time problem.” He turned around and saw me put the cookie in my mouth. He shot me a quick smile.

“Oh, yes sir,” said the hotel manager.

I
wonder what the problem is
, I thought to myself. Before the guy walked off, he stared directly at me and gave me another brief smile. I’m sure he thought I was horribly rude listen
ing
in on his conversation. I shrugged my shoulders and walked to the convention center to find Melanie.

“Oh my!” I exclaimed when I reached the mess that was our booth. Melanie had taken it upon herself to open all the boxes. There were pieces of wall
s
in various sizes as well as rods and connectors. Melanie sat in the middle of the mess with instructions that were written in Chinese. She looked frazzled. I quickly handed her the chocolate chip cookie.

“I know,” sighed Melanie, taking the cookie and breaking a piece off. “I wish they made these things easier to put together.”

I looked around and quickly found the English instructions.

“Maybe this will make it easier to put tog
ether,
” I suggested. We got to work, quickly assembling the three sides of our booth. System Plus had a massive three-sided display that we plugged our laptops into make an interactive sales experience. This had to be ready by 4 p.m., so we could get ready for the cocktail social that began at 6 p.m.  

Tech Con was a convention for small retailers looking
at
new technology for their stores. Our new product, Mercury, was an integrated system that rolled all the functions of accounting and sales into one program. Not the most glamorous job, but I loved it. I enjoyed working one-on-one with our customers and helping them set up their systems. I guess you could say I
was a computer geek – well, an application geek; my knowledge of working on the computer was not as strong as my ability to use them.

“Well, that should do it,” Melanie said.

We admired our finished product. Not too shoddy, I thought to myself.

“OK, great. I’m off to go change,” I said, looking at my watch. It was just a little after four; I was hoping to take a
brief nap before the cocktail hour
.

“Alright, see you back in two hours,” said Melanie.

Melanie walked off to go check into her room, and I started on the long walk back to mine. I didn’t want to walk all the way through the hotel solarium again. So I took a detour outside.  It was a lovely afternoon to get some fresh air.

The air was hot and humid, something I was no longer accustomed to. On the way, back to my room, I started to plan out what I was going to wear that night: a black pencil skirt that made me look thin, a crisp white blouse and a red belt that Lisa insisted would go with the outfit. I started to think about why I let her help me shop. I’m not accustomed to bright colors, but now I had a red belt and shoes to match!

Once I was back in my room, I hit the shower and then started to get ready. Soon I was in my new outfit, but I still had to figure out what to do with my hair. I straightened it out and put it up into a neat pony tail – one of the three ways I could do my hair. One look in the mirror, and even I
had to
admit I did look fabulous. I grabbed my laptop bag and headed down to the convention center.  Halfway there I checked my watch. It was only a quarter to
five
.  The cocktail hour didn’t even start until
six
.

“Early again,” I muttered to myself as headed through the hotel lobby.  That was my hidden talent. I was always painfully
early to everything. I guess I must have been late a lot in a past life and had the need to make up for it now. The outside of the convention center was quiet. There were several tables, and chairs set up.  I walk
ed
over to a table
to
adjust the contents in my laptop case.

Just then I saw the cute guy from the front desk, over in
the
corner of the room. He does have brown eyes, I thought to myself. He was dressed unusually nice, wearing tight jean and a white button down top with a black blazer. He didn't seem to notice me at first. His cell phone had all of his attention, (lucky cell phone)
.
He suddenly looked up, our eyes met. I felt him gaze at me.  He gave me a quick smile. I’m sure my face turned bright red. I looked away and started to try and organize my laptop bag again. I could tell that he had started to walk over to me. He must be attending the conference, I thought to myself, but he seemed younger than most of our normal clients.  Possibly Mid-twenties? I was not sure, but I had to think about what I was going to say to him fast, because he was quickly drawing near.

“Are you attending Tech Con
Convention
?” I asked in the most pulled-together voice I could find.

“No,” he said. “I’m here on other business.”

“Oh, I see. Well, this is the convention center for Tech Con. Maybe your conference is in another section of the hotel?”  My guess was that he didn’t want to stop by the front desk and ask for directions.

“No, not a conference. I’m here to meet up with some co-workers and take some clients out for dinner to discuss marketing and sales in the area.”

“Sounds like you will have a better time in Dallas than I will. I’ll be at this conference for the next three days,” I said. “I never really get to see the cities that I’m visiting. It must be
nice to get out of the hotel.” I could hear my voice just babbling on. This guy must thing I’m crazy.

“I guess,” he said not particularly enthused. “What is Tech Con?”

I started to explain, but I still could not get what this guy wanted. He seemed polite. I reasoned that he just was lonely and wanted someone to talk to.

“Sounds like an
okay
conference,” he said. “Are you working tonight?”

I could not believe how unbelievably good looking he was. He did not belong at my conference. I was used to much older customers with beer guts. “We have a cocktail reception tonight,” I replied. “So technically I’m on the clock.” Just as, that came out of my mouth, I felt myself blush. He wasn’t asking you out, stupid, I thought to myself. I desperately needed to end this conversation on a more professional note. “My name is Abby,” I said as I handed him my card. “If you ever need an integrated sales system, give me a call.”

“O
kay
, Abby, thanks.” He smiled a sweet, crooked smile. “My name is Gray. I have to apologize as I’m fresh out of business cards, but if I’m ever looking
into a
computer system, I will be sure to give you a call.”

I watched him walk off and wondered how I had been able to hold a conversation with him for that long. He was way out of my league, but I had felt a connection. Just then I felt a hand on my arm and noticed that Melanie had joined me. She had put on a black sheath dress with a suit-coat over it.

“Wow, who was the hottie?”

“His name was Gray. I think he felt bad that I was down here by myself and decided to come over and talk to me. I can’t believe I gave him my card; he must think I’m silly.” I could
feel my cheeks turning bright red. I was never this upfront with guys who I found attractive.

“You gave him your card? That’s very good for you – getting outside your comfort zone.”

Melanie had been bugging me for a while to get back into the dating world. Part of me thought Melanie only wanted me to date so that she could re-live her twenties vicariously through me. She had been married for over twenty years and had three kids.

“He was cute!” I chirped.

“Let’s go,” Melanie said. “We have a big night ahead of us.”

We walked in Tech Con
Convention
just as other vendors started to show up. Soon the convention center was busy with business people making small talk and drinking the complementary two drinks we received for the convention.

All night long, I kept thinking about Gray. I kept peeking up to see if he might  stop by again to say hello. I was a bit disappointed when the evening came to an end, and Melanie was bugging me to
go out to
dinner with her. Oh well, I thought to myself, I still have a few more days. Maybe he will show up again.

Melanie was optimistic at dinner. “Didn’t you say he had to take clients out?” she pointed out. We had found a greasy-spoon diner just down the road from the hotel. I was starving by that point, so anything sounded
okay
to me. I ordered a cheeseburger and Melanie had a chicken-salad sandwich.

“Yes,” I said, “
B
ut I was still hoping he might come by when he was done.”

“Well, you don’t know what time that is,” Melanie stated.

“Your right.  He did say he was in sales so maybe he will pass along my card to one of his customers.”

“Or maybe he will call or email you.” “Abby you need to be more positive.  You are a beautiful girl with a great career and head on your shoulders.  He would be stupid not to call you.”

“Thanks Mel.  I guess I have been down on myself. I just haven’t had a date since John.”

“Well, I think that’s more because you weren’t ready to date anyone yet.  Now time has passed you’re ready for a new romance in your life.  Why not Gray?” Melanie asked.  Melanie and I finished up dinner passing on dessert and quickly made our way back to the rental car.

The drive back was more congested than on the way to the restaurant.  We both noticed a ton of commotion around the movie theater down the road from the hotel.

“Gosh, what’s opening tonight?” Melanie asked.

All we could see in the parking lot was tons of teenage girls, all screaming and holding up signs. There was plenty of security around the place too, as well as news cameras. Whatever was going on was an enormous event. Then I remembered my conversation with Lisa. “Oh, it’s that horrible
Texas High
School movie,” I said. I laughed quietly to myself, imagining Lisa and Rachel at a movie theater in Milwaukee. I wondered how many girls had turned up there. They would have been the old maids in this crowd.

It was quite late when
we
made it back to
the hotel
, and I had an unusually early day the next morning. We had to be at the convention center at 7 a.m., yuck! That meant I had to be up at 6 a.m. I’m not much of a morning person and value my sleep, but that night I could
not
get my brain to shut up; all I
did
was lie in bed and think about Gray. It had been a while since I had something of a crush on a guy. It felt nice to have someone to think about. Maybe I would have sweet dreams about him. Either way, I knew the alarm would go off much too early.

Chapter 3

The alarm went off with a loud unfamiliar beep promptly at 5:50am. I could have slept an extra 10 minutes, but this was my first convention with my boss and I wanted to get down to the convention floor promptly.  I struggled out from under the covers and remembered where I was. I then noticed that my little Thor was not curled up next to my legs. I always felt guilty when I went on a business trip and had to board Thor. Hopefully he would forgive me when I picked him up with a brand new bone.

I quickly got myself showered, and found my next outfit. I threw on some black slacks and a purple button-up shirt. Again, I struggled with my hair. In the end, I decided just to straighten and let it hit my shoulders.
I was in desperate need of coffee, so I quickly made my way down to the hotel coffee shop. In the queue, I was fumbling with my things again, and barely noticed the guy in front me until he turned around.

“Hello again, Abby,
” Gray said in a smooth, calm voice.

I could hardly believe that he had remembered my name! I fumbled with my purse as I tried to say something back. “Hi, good morning,” I said, tryin
g to balance my laptop case, and
purse to get out my money. I was doing an exceptionally poor job with the balancing act.
Gray gave a quick chuckle and reached into his pocket.

“Let me get that,” he said quickly and paid for my coffee. “You seem to have your hands full.”

He looked much more casual today in jeans and a
polo shirt.
There was something about the way he smiled. I could imagine that he was the center of attention in his office. He was so
polite and charming; he must have every woman eating out of the palm of his hand. I’m also sure that he had no idea how charming he truly was.