Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
J ared woke up, and for a blessed few minutes he was able to deceive himself into thinking that everything that had happened the night before was just some weird dream. After all, it just seemed too far-fetched that he would have not only managed to meet Charlie Garrett but also had a surprisingly nice time with him in the rose garden, before everything had turned to absolute shit due to the presence of a virulent homophobe and Charlie’s unexpectedly violent temper.
Then it slowly dawned on him that all of that had definitely not been a dream and that, in turn, made him realize that he was going to have to deal with all of this now that it was morning of the next day.
Sure enough, as soon as he looked at his phone he saw that every major outlet and minor gossip rag was running a story about how Charlie Garrett, who was trying to make the switch into bigger and better and more prestigious productions, had punched someone in a bar in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia. The snide tone in many of them was impossible to miss.
How could I have fucked this up so badly? He kept asking himself.
He guess he shouldn’t have been that surprised. Somehow that seemed to be the story of his life. No matter how hard he tried to do the right thing, no matter how close he seemed to get to feeling some sense of happiness and accomplishment, he ended up sabotaging it anyway.
Makes me think I should just give up.
That wasn’t an option, of course, and so a short time later he got dressed and made his way to the office.
He was painfully aware of many of the angry looks he was getting as he walked through the halls, but he was particularly dreading seeing Rebecca. Indeed, she was in an even worse mood than she’d been in the day before.
“It’s about time you showed up,” she snapped as he stepped into the main office, and he bit his tongue to keep from telling her that he was actually earlier than normal.
“I, uh, I’m sorry about what happened last night,” he said, the words clearly inadequate.
“In my office,” she said curtly.
He followed her inside.
As soon as the door was shut Rebecca looked much less angry. In fact, she looked more tired than anything as she plopped herself into her desk chair and leaned her head back to look up at the ceiling. Jared took a seat across from her, not yet sure how this whole thing was going to play out. Was she going to reprimand him? Yell at him so that the rest of the office would see that she was doing something proactive? Might she even suspend him or, heaven forbid, fire him?
Not that he would have minded getting fired from this deadend job. Not really, anyway. It’s not like he was ever doing much that he enjoyed, with the exception of the Film Festival.
“I hope you know that I’m not really as mad at you as I made it look out there,” she said, not taking her eyes off the ceiling. “But one has to put on a certain appearance for prying eyes, y’know? I don’t want it getting back to City Council that I’m not being proactive when one of my subordinates messes up.”
Rebecca finally turned her attention from whatever she’d been staring at on the ceiling and fixed him in her gaze. Somehow that was even worse than if she’d actually started yelling at him.
“As we talked about last night, this is definitely a very, very bad thing, and we’re going to be very, very busy making sure that we get a handle on this.” She brandished her phone. “As I’m sure you’re abundantly aware, this is all over the news, and it’s already threatening to derail all of the hard work we’ve done for the festival.”
“Go on,” he said, dreading what was coming next.
“So, after consulting with Sheri, we’ve decided that Charlie is going to go with you to your parents’ house this weekend.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Jared had expected many things to come out of this conversation, but he definitely hadn’t had “take Charlie to his parents” on his Rebecca’s-going-to-punish-Jared Bingo card.
“I’m not, actually,” she said, giving him a stern look over the rim of her glasses. “I gave you one thing to do–keep Charlie Garrett out of trouble–and you went and did the exact opposite. Now you’re going to have to fix it. And don’t even think about yelling at me,” Rebecca said, reading his mind in the way that only she could do. “And you might be fooling some people, but you’re not fooling me. I can already see that you’re getting feelings for Charlie. So maybe this’ll give you a chance to work through your complicated feelings about him.”
Now that was something he wasn’t going to let pass.
“I am not,” he said flatly. “I don’t know why you would say such a thing.”
She didn’t need to know that he was quickly–too quickly–starting to find his assumptions about who Charlie really was challenged by the truth he was seeing in front of him. He knew that Rebecca loved him, but he also knew that she could be a bit judgy when it came to his romantic escapades.
“Because I know you better than you know yourself,” she said at once. “And I can always tell when you’re falling for a guy, particularly when it’s one that you know you should be staying a mile away from. I don’t think you need me to tell you all of the reasons that getting together with Charlie Garrett would be a monumentally bad thing, but in case you do, here’s the big one: he’s a star, and he’s going to go back to LA when this is all over, and he’s going to break your heart when he does so.”
“You think I don’t already know that?” he said, trying to stay calm. “You think that hasn’t already gone through my head a thousand times?” He immediately realized what he’d said and tried to backtrack it. “I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have feelings for Charlie Garrett.”
He was well aware of how weak that sounded, and he was rewarded with one of Rebecca’s trademark knowing smirks. Jared hated those, usually because they were the preface to her telling him why she was right about something and he was wrong.
“Mhm,” she said.
“And so what if I have a crush on him ?” he asked. “It’s not like there’s going to be anything that’s going to come out of it. Like you said, he lives in LA, I live in West Virginia, and I’m still right about what I said, you know. He does seem to have forgotten the rest of us living back here.” He shook his head, though he wasn’t sure whether he was trying to convince Rebecca or himself. “Nope. It’s not going to happen.”
“Do you mean that you’re not going to get with him or that you’re not going to take him away for a few days?”
“Both.”
“Well, if you don’t, then the festival is almost certainly going to get canceled, and you’re going to have that on your conscience. Is that really what you want?”
Jared really hated it when Rebecca tried to blackmail him, and he hated it even more when it was effective. He knew how important this festival was to her. Hell, he knew how important it was to him, too. They’d worked on it for months, and if spending the rest of the weekend with Charlie was the cost of getting it to work, then wasn’t it worth it?
Besides, there were other good reasons to want to spend the weekend with Charlie. Perhaps he could dig a little deeper, find a little bit more about him and the past that he seemed determined to keep hidden…
“Fine, fine, fine,” he said, finally giving in. “You probably knew from the beginning that I was going to give in, didn’t you?”
She smirked again. “I generally get my own way in the end.” She clapped her hands once. “I’m sure that your parents are going to love having Charlie Garrett in their living room. Isn’t your mom a big fan of his?”
Jared sighed. “Yes, unfortunately.”
“Don’t be like that. You’re a fan too, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
Now that he really had to think about it, Jared realized that Rebecca and Sheri had decided on this literally without any input from him at all. Or from his parents, for that matter.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “What makes you think that my parents are going to be okay with this? And why their house of all places? And for that matter, what makes you think that I’ll be okay with just thrusting a very famous stranger on them? What happens if a bunch of reporters find out where we are and show up? My mom’s going to be upset enough that I’m dropping someone off on her without giving her a chance to clean up. She’s going to have a cow when she finds out who it is.”
There. That should put Rebecca in her place.
It didn’t.
“How you wrangle your parents is entirely up to you,” she said. “If I know them, they’re never going to turn away a guest, and they’re going to be happy to see you, in any case. As to why your parents’ house…well, that was kind of my idea. It just sort of occurred to me, so I ran with it. It’s the one place where no one will think to look, since no one knows who you are. They’re also far enough away that Charlie should be safe there for a few days–we both know that they’re not exactly in the middle of a bustling metropolis, and you’ve complained enough about how hard it is to get cell service there.” She shrugged. “It just seemed like the perfect place, Sheri agreed, and here we are.
“And as for the news hounds, you just leave that to Sheri and me. We’ll take care of shielding the two of you. You just make sure that you keep Charlie out of any further trouble. I don’t want to hear about any confrontations on TikTok or Twitter, and I most certainly don’t want to hear about him getting into any further fistfights. Do I make myself clear?”
Jared nodded his head, because basically that was the only thing he could do.
“How soon do we leave?”
“Right now,” she said.
“I guess I’d better get going then,” he said, getting to his feet.
“You know, you don’t have to look like you’re going to your own execution,” Rebecca said. “You never know. This might be good for you. You’re always saying you need an adventure. And besides,” and here her eyes twinkled mischievously, “maybe you’ll find out what it’s like to sleep with a celebrity. Or at least get some over the pants action.”
“You are the absolute worst, do you know that?”
“You just say that because you know that I’m right.”
He made a rude noise as he headed to the door.
“Oh, and Jared?”
He turned to look back at her.
“Would you do me a favor and be sure to look like I’ve just spent the last fifteen minutes tearing you a new one? I want everyone in the office to think that I’m actually doing my job rather than taking it easy on you.”
He frowned at her but still nodded his head.
“Yeah, for sure, I guess that’s the least I can do.”
“You’re damn right it is,” she said, and then he was back out in the main office.
There was no mistaking the smug look on his office-mates’ faces.
This is going to be a very long weekend, he thought.
And so it was that Jared found himself, again, parked outside of Charlie Garrett’s hotel. This time, though, they’d agreed that he would come out the service entrance, so as to avoid the even larger crowd that was clustered around the front.
Charlie looked a little tired and harried, and Jared even felt a little twinge of pity for him. For the first time, he really thought about what it would be like to be a star, someone whose every slip-up was covered by the news. Even though Charlie wasn’t exactly an A-lister–not yet, anyway–he was still someone with his own devoted fans who expected certain things from him. It must be a lot to deal with for a kid from the middle-of-nowhere, West Virginia.
Careful, Jared, or you’re going to end up going soft, he reminded himself.
It was getting harder and harder to hold onto his resentment, particularly when Charlie flashed him that winning smile and got into the truck, throwing a duffle back into the backseat.
“That’s all you’re bringing with you?” Jared asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Sure,” Charlie said nonchalantly. “We’re just going away for a weekend, right? It’s not like I have to have a whole wardrobe.”
“I just thought someone like you wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without a whole bunch of suitcases.”
“I mean, isn’t the whole point of this exercise for me to go off-radar for a while? I don’t think that lugging a whole bunch of suitcases behind me is the best way to accomplish that, do you?”
Jared had to admit that he had a point and, for the umpteenth time in twenty four hours, he had to adjust his ideas of what and who Charlie Garrett was. And, while he would never quite admit it to himself, he was a little resentful of Charlie that he wasn’t acting like he was supposed to.
“I guess…I guess we should get going. There’s no time like the present and all that.”
What the hell is wrong with me? He thought. Why did I just say that?
“No offense,” Charlie said, “but do you know that sometimes you sound just like an old lady?”
Jared laughed despite himself. “You’re not the first person to tell me that. I’ll try to sound more like a geriatric millennial from now on.”
Charlie shook his head. “Don’t change on my account. I actually think it’s cute.”
Jared had nothing to really say to that, and so they started off on this unlikely road trip.
For a while they just drove in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, though; it was more like a natural lull in the conversation. Each of them had a lot going on, and they didn’t feel the need to interrupt one another’s thoughts with idle chatter. Without really thinking about it, Jared reached out and turned on the radio.
At once, the plaintive sound of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” came out of the speakers, and Jared felt himself getting a little swoony. Nothing got him square in his feelings like listening to Pasty sing about heartbreak and longing.
To his surprise, Charlie started singing along in a rather lovely, soft baritone.
“ You like Patsy Cline?” he asked.
Charlie gave him one of those looks that was already becoming very familiar, the type of look that said: “you’ve got to stop making assumptions about me and the things I like.”
Jared shrugged. “Sorry. I just didn’t think that you know, you’d like Patsy Cline. It’s not like she’s the kind of gay icon that everyone loves nowadays. Don’t get me wrong. I’m always ready to belt out some tunes with Gaga, Cher, Madonna, and Reba, but for some reason Patsy gets me in a way that no one else does.”
If Charlie thought it was weird that Jared was talking about a country music singer that had been dead for several decades in the present tense, he gave no sign of it. In fact, his eyes were dancing with a bit of excitement of his own.
Jared felt something constrict in his chest. It was so rare to find someone his own age that shared his love of Patsy Cline, and that it was Charlie Garrett who was expressing so much interest was…well, it was something. He just didn’t know quite what yet. His eyes kept wandering over to where Charlie sat, tracing the way that the sun caught his blonde hair and made it glow, at the way that his jaw was so finely-chiseled that it looked like it could cut glass.
He got so caught up in looking at him while also trying to stay focused on the road that he almost missed what Charlie said next.
“In fact, I’ve been known to do a deep dive into Cline’s discography now and again. I mean sure, everyone knows her signature songs, the ones that come up right away when you search for her on Spotify, and there are quite a few heartbreak songs that she sings, but for my money the best thing she ever did was the song ‘Faded Love.’ There’s just something about that song…it reaches right inside you and tries to pluck your heart out through your chest. I don’t think it’s possible to listen to that song and not burst into tears.”
“Get out of here,” Jared said, unable to contain his excitement. “I’ve always thought the same thing, but whenever I ask other people what their favorite Patsy song is, they inevitably say it’s ‘Crazy’ or ‘I Fall to Pieces.’ They’re definitely sleeping on ‘Faded Love,’ and they absolutely don’t know what they’re missing.”
He might have been imagining it, but Jared could swear that he felt a tiny little crackle in the air around them, as if something fundamental had changed in their dynamic. They each shared a small little smile.
“I have a feeling I’m going to say this a lot this weekend, but you are definitely not the person that I was expecting when Rebecca told me that we were going to be having Charlie Garrett come to our film festival. To be honest it’s kind of rude of you not to be what I expected.”
This elicited another laugh. Jared wasn’t used to having people actually find his sense of humor amusing.
Perhaps this weekend isn’t going to be so bad after all.
Then he decided to just give in and start singing along to Cline. Something about her vocals made him forget how nervous and reluctant he usually was to sing in front of anyone, let alone someone he hardly knew.
“You have a really nice voice, you know,” Charlie said. “There’s a purity to it. Have you ever trained professionally?”
Jared scoffed. “No, I don’t think I’m quite that good.”
“But how will you ever know until you try?”
“Don’t you ever get tired of being the perfect man?” He hadn’t meant the words to come out quite that sharply, but there was something just a bit annoying about the fact that Charlie always seemed to know the perfect thing to say. Why couldn’t he just be a human being?
“I didn’t think that being a kind and supportive person was a character flaw.”
Jared rolled his eyes. “Forget I said anything.”
“I get the feeling that you say that a lot.”
This whole conversation was slipping out of his control again, and Jared reprimanded himself for not being able to just sit and have a pleasant chat without somehow managing to alienate someone.
Strangely enough, however, it was Charlie who came to the rescue.
“Um…so, we’re going to your parents’ place, yeah? What’s it like? And, uh, where do they live?”
Jared laughed at how little they’d actually talked about this weekend before setting out on this journey.
Thanks Rebecca. Thanks Sheri, he thought wryly.
“They live up in the northern panhandle in a little house in the country.” Aware that Charlie was looking at him with more than a little incredulity, he shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t look at me. Rebecca and Sheri cooked this up together, not me. Rebecca said that they’d take care of making sure no one bothered us.”
Charlie snorted. “I think you’re all underestimating just how difficult it can be to go off the grid.”
“We’re not all just ignorant rubes you know,” Jared snapped.
Charlie sighed. “Jared, you do know that you don’t have to take everything I say as a personal attack against you or a veiled criticism of West Virginia in general, right?”
That one hit a little too close to home. Charlie was right; he was probably being a bit too sensitive.
“You’re right. I guess if we’re going to spend the next couple of days together we’re going to have to learn to get along.”
“I think it's worth pointing out that that’s what I’ve been trying to do since you picked me up at the airport yesterday.”
“Okay fine, you have a point. Again,” he said grudgingly. “I’m sorry for being an asshole.”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes, you absolutely have. I honestly don’t know why, though. We never really got back onto the subject of why you’re so dead set against liking me.”
Was this really a conversation that Jared wanted to have right now, when they still had a couple of hours left to get to his parents’ place? The last thing he wanted was to have some long, drawn-out argument that ultimately ended up nowhere or made them so pissed at each other they didn’t have anything else to say. Then again, if they were going to make this whole arrangement work, then they were going to have to establish some sort of peace.
“I guess I do owe you something of an explanation. You did punch a homophobe for my benefit, after all, and while everyone else seems to think that was some sort of horrible sin, I think it was probably better than he deserved.”
“You really do have some rough edges, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. It comes from being raised in a state like this one and choosing to stay here rather than running off.”
He snuck a look at Charlie to see what expression was on his face, and he wasn’t surprised to see a look like a lightbulb had gone off in the actor’s head. He decided to just keep going. They hadn’t gotten quite this far during their earlier discussion the day before, and he was going to get to the bottom of why Charlie left if it was the last thing he did.
“I know that you’re very big on making a big deal about the fact that you’re from West Virginia, but I don’t see you really acknowledging anything real. You seem to just trot it out like it’s a nice little garnish, something to make you interesting so people will take you seriously. And, it’s more than that. You abandoned your home state, Charlie, and you never really looked back.”
Charlie looked like he had several things that he wanted to say, but what he finally said was:
“Was it really such a bad thing for me to want to make a better life for myself and, later, my mom? You know what it’s like here. And I really do respect your decision to stay and try to make it better for everyone else. That wasn’t the path that I chose, though, and while there are days where I kind of wish I’d stayed, the truth is that I think I made the right decision for me, and I don’t have to apologize for that, not to you or to anyone.”
Jared was actually impressed with Charlie’s willingness to stand up for himself, particularly since he hadn’t the first time he’d brought this up. However, he also felt that there was something, or some things , that Charlie wasn’t telling him.
“You know what? That’s fair. You shouldn’t have to apologize for your life choices, particularly to someone you don’t really know and won’t see after this weekend.”
That reminder of the essentially ephemeral nature of their encounter cast a pall over their conversation, and they rode in silence for a while.
By this point, they’d managed to talk so much that the trip was almost over, and as they got closer to Jared’s parents’ house, it occurred to him that he was going to have to prepare Charlie for what he was about to encounter.
“Listen. There are a few things about my parents that you should know.”
“Oh Lord, here it comes. You’re going to tell that they’re secretly the heads of some secretive and deranged cult, aren’t you?”
“Much as my life might have been a bit more interesting growing up if they were and even though this is West Virginia, my parents aren’t cult members,” Jared said. In fact they’re just boring old country Methodists, like almost everyone else around here. When you think of simple country folk, you’re probably picturing people like my parents. Picture your average pair of Baby Boomers, and that’s them.”
“They sound absolutely enchanting.”
The strange thing was…Charlie didn’t sound sarcastic.
“Are you serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I mean, they’re my parents, and they’re not really very sophisticated.” He coughed and cleared his throat, not really sure how to explain what he was talking about. “I guess, well, a lot of my other boyfriends have tended to look down on them when they’ve visited. It’s nothing that they said explicitly, of course, but they had a way of making it clear they thought they were better than my mom and dad.”
It took him a second to realize what he’d said.
“Not that I’m saying bringing you home is like bringing back a boyfriend or anything like that, it’s just that…,” his voice trailed off.
“Jared, calm down. I know you didn’t mean anything like that. And I don’t know what kinds of guys you’ve been bringing back to meet your folks, but where I come from you always act polite and interested in whatever your potential in-laws have to say. It’s the one way that you can show your significant other that you really care about them and the people who helped them to become the way that they are.”
“That’s…an amazingly enlightened thing to say. Where have you been all my life?”
“Becoming a bigshot movie star and being too busy and too good to come back to West Virginia, according to some.”
“Ouch. Did you have to go below the belt?”
“I don’t know. Did you?”
“Would it help if I said I’m sorry again?”
“Yeah, I think it would.”
“Fine. I’m sorry for being a jerk. Are you going to continue reminding me of my transgressions for the rest of the weekend?”
Charlie shrugged, somehow managing to make even that gesture look elegant and charismatic. “I might, and then again I might not. I guess it just depends on my mood.” And then he flashed that megawatt smile, and Jared suddenly knew that he would be able to forgive him anything if it meant that he was going to get to see it again.
Easy there, Jared. You’re not Julia Roberts in a ‘90s romantic comedy. There’s no need to get all swept off your feet.
“So,” he said, suddenly desperate to change the subject. “Tell me a little something about what it’s like to actually be on the set of a movie for the Romance Network.”
Even though he couldn’t quite see the look on Charlie’s face, he thought he could sense the skepticism.
“Are you actually interested, or are you just trying to change the subject?”
“I guess it’s probably a little bit of both.”
“Well, it’s not as exciting as you might think. There’s often a lot of standing around and waiting. Then you have to do at least a few takes to get things just right. It all depends on which director you happen to get for a particular project. Then you have to wait around some more. And then get a few more takes, and then wait around some more.”
“You’re right. That’s not nearly as exciting as I would have expected.”
Charlie shrugged. “I told you. That’s the secret about the Romance Network, though. They have things set up so that the whole production goes pretty smoothly, and there are times when you feel a bit like you’re a cog in some kind of machine. It’s not always very glamorous or exciting, but it pays the bills.”
Jared had a ton of questions, but some of them would have to wait. After all, they had an entire weekend together, and he didn’t want to run out of things to talk about.
They were now passing through Sistersville, one of his favorite places along the route back home. As they passed by the huge mansions on the side of the road, he decided to share a little bit of himself with Charlie.
Or at least try to.
“You see those really nice houses there?” he asked, gesturing toward a trio of opulent mansions on the left side of the road. Charlie nodded.
“Well, they were apparently built back in the days when Sistersville was in the middle of an oil and gas boom. Every time I drive by them, I think about the kinds of mansions that you see in those old movies, somehow both very grand and also a little dilapidated.”
“Yeah, I can see what you mean,” Charlie said. He gestured at the very last one as they passed. “I think that that one reminds me of Norma Desmond’s house in Sunset Boulevard. And yes, before you ask, I’ve seen Sunset Boulevard. Several times, in fact. It was actually the movie that made me want to get into acting.”
“Did you think that you were going to end up like Norma Desmond someday, holed up in your old mansion and trying to seduce young screenwriters so that you could make your way back to the spotlight?”
“If only I were that lucky,” Charlie said with a little laugh. Jared felt some butterflies in his stomach at the sound.
They continued talking about inconsequential things as they finished the last miles of the drive: their favorite books and some of their memories, but then another silence settled down between them. Then Jared’s worst nightmare came true: they ran out of things to say.
Well, that was nice while it lasted, he thought. I guess that we just don’t have that much to talk about.
He was saved from having to say or do anything else by their arrival at his parents’ house.
“Well,” he said, “here we are. Welcome to Chateau Russell. So, just so you know, my parents’ names are Joyce and Doug. They don’t really like formality, so don’t call them Mr. and Mrs. Russell or anything like that.”
“You’ve got it, captain!” Charlie said and gave a mock salute.
“Hmph,” Jared said, but Charlie saw the way that he couldn’t help but grin a little.
They got out of the truck and started toward the house, and it suddenly occurred to Jared that he’d never gotten around to calling his parents.
Damn, he thought. Well, this should be fun.
They stepped through the immaculately-manicured lawn–Jared’s dad, Doug, did love to keep his yard nice–and stepped up to the front door.
Here goes nothing, Jared thought.