Chapter 21
“Hi, Lily, this is Dorian. I hope you don’t mind, I asked Stacy for your number. I know Wilson has a busy week of work ahead and I wondered if you and Nicola would like to see Griffith Observatory.”
Lily finished reading the text aloud to Nicola, who immediately snatched the phone from her.
“No. Way.”
“I know. How does Stacy Black have my phone number? I don’t have hers.”
“She would have gotten Wilson to give it to her, you jellyfish. The important thing here is that YOU have DORIAN KHAN’s number in YOUR PHONE! Do you know what that’s worth?”
“Yes, it’s worth a trip to the Griffith Observatory, which I’m actually desperate to see but you have refused because it’s up a hill. Now we can go in style!”
“With him?” Nicola made a face.
Lily shrugged. Sure, she and Dorian had clashed a little at Stacy’s party, but the experience was more amusing than actively annoying.
“It could be fun.”
The two of them spent five minutes composing a text with no emojis and a restrained use of exclamation marks.
(“Just one smiley sunglasses face?” pleaded Nicola.
“No!” insisted Lily.) Just as everything was settled, Lily all the while wondering why on earth an internationally famous person would voluntarily leave his luxury hotel to go to a tourist hot spot just to show two Aussies around, Nicola’s face fell.
“Oh no!”
“What?”
“The launch!”
Wilson had gotten them tickets to the launch of Vegan Eggs’ new album at a cool record store in West Hollywood, back before what Nicola was calling the Great Rejection.
“I know you love cultural landmarks and astronomy and whatever, but I love this band much, much more—”
“It’s fine,” said Lily.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why? Go to the album launch. Take Wilson. If I’m not going, I’m sure he’d be delighted.”
“And you’ll go to the observatory?”
“Why not?”
“Alone?”
“I’ll be with Dorian.”
“Exactly! Alone with Dorian! It’ll be like every single romantic Hollywood movie ever.”
Lily laughed. “Yes. A bit superficial and unconvincing, terrible dialogue, with very pretty scenery. I’m looking forward to it. And this time, no one is telling me what to wear.”
The next day, at one o’clock sharp, Lily opened the door to Dorian looking surprisingly ordinary in jeans.
They exchanged casual greetings and Lily noticed how much more comfortable she felt without the pressure of a dress code.
It was much easier to own being an outsider than to pretend not to be one.
Dorian led her to his top-of-the-line (compact size) electric vehicle and she climbed into the front seat, suddenly very aware of how close they were.
They’d been this close before, even closer, but there was something about being confined to a car, where every outside sound was muffled and every internal sound amplified, that felt very intimate.
“Thanks for taking me,” Lily said.
“No, of course,” Dorian said. “I’m glad you could still make it.”
He didn’t smile. He was so awkwardly aloof, Lily wondered if Franklin had put him up to it. He seemed a little put out.
“Do you want music?” Dorian asked.
“Sure.”
He turned on the audio player in the car, which immediately began playing a 1950s-era crooning love song from a playlist named “D-Dawgz Sik Beatz.” Lily stifled a chuckle and Dorian looked alarmed.
“Casey named it.” He frowned. “Nobody calls me that.” But Lily thought she may have caught the tiniest self-deprecating smile.
As they drove up the winding road, the hill became steeper and the sky bigger. The shaded houses and swaying palm trees fell away and glimpses of the city beneath them expanded into commanding views. They parked in a small parking lot at the base of the mountain.
“I remember you like hiking,” he announced.
“I do,” replied Lily with a smile, wondering if there was anything that Dorian liked.
A black SUV pulled up right next to their car, and as she got out Lily found herself practically face-to-face—or rather face-to-chest—with a big, burly man.
As she slipped around the car to join Dorian, the man followed close behind her.
Oh dear. Lily had thought this might happen.
Dorian was the face of one of the biggest movie franchises and he wouldn’t have the same anonymity that Lily enjoyed while traveling.
Although she’d expected Dorian to be hounded by teenage girls Rosie’s age, not six-foot-two men with thick eyebrows and biceps.
But to her surprise, Dorian shook the man’s hand.
“Good to see you, David,” Dorian said. “Lily, this is David. He’s, uh … well, he’s my security. Sometimes. When I need it.”
“Nice to meet you,” said David in a surprisingly light voice as he took Lily’s tiny hand in his massive one. “Don’t worry, you won’t even know I’m here.”
He said this more to Dorian than Lily and winked, at which Dorian turned red and just nodded, then led Lily away toward the hiking path to the observatory.
“How long have you known David?” Lily asked as they started walking. She checked behind her to see David’s tall form following, just behind an older couple walking their dog.
“About five years,” said Dorian, clearly not wanting to talk about it.
Lily felt sorry for him, that going outside was such an ordeal.
It was a bit surreal, being tailed all the way up the hiking trail.
She kept wanting to turn around to see if David was still there.
She thought maybe she should just ask him to join them so she wouldn’t feel so weird.
It was strange to her that this man’s job was to watch Dorian and ensure his safety but still be separate from him.
As they reached the top of the hiking trail, the observatory came into view: a cream stone building with beautiful domes like a castle, overlooking the Los Angeles haze.
To her right was the sign that spelled out HOLLYWOOD.
Nicola was right, it did feel like a movie.
Except it was swarming with tourists, the harsh midday sunlight made everything too bright, and the leading man was as silent and stony as the observatory building itself.
Lily and Dorian made their way up the steps, where they were welcomed by a uniformed attendant who ushered them onto the highest balcony, which had been roped off, apparently especially for them.
The attendant magically disappeared and David stood sentinel at the ropes.
It was a strange maneuver of privilege that left Lily astounded at its speed and at how naturally Dorian accepted it all without comment.
She decided it was best not to mention it either.
Observing the view gave both of them an excuse not to say anything.
As she watched all the tiny cars glittering like beetles down below, she wondered why Dorian had invited her when he appeared not to enjoy her company.
Aside from their little joke in the car, he had been sullen this whole time, and Lily thought it might be easier if she just turned and said to him, “Don’t worry about me, you can go home now.
” It’d put him out of his apparent discomfort and leave her to enjoy the view, and the play of shadows on the building’s angles and curves.
It was all so beautiful and Dorian didn’t even seem to see any of it.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a loud American woman directly below them blurted out to her friends, “That’s my apartment! Look, you can see my TV! I’m so glad I got sixty-five inch.”
Dorian and Lily exchanged a private smile, an acknowledgment that they both heard the remark and found it amusing.
“Do many locals come here?” asked Lily, taking this opportunity to try to start a conversation. “I thought this place was just for tourists.”
“Pretty much everyone who lives in LA started out as a tourist here,” he said. “It sounds romantic but it’s true—it’s full of runaways. People running from family, small-town life, expectations.”
“What are you running from?”
She was half joking, but Dorian didn’t see the comedy.
“I’ve never lived here,” he replied.
“Well, it’s very different from home,” Lily said. Then she wondered if it was tactless of her to use that word. Though they were both technically from Australia, he certainly didn’t live there anymore. Where was home for Dorian Khan?
“It’s so magnificent here—truly spectacular,” she went on, drinking in the view of mountains and sprawling city below.
“It is extraordinary,” he mused. “But this has nothing on the natural beauty of Pippi Beach.”
Lily smiled at his honest praise of the place she loved. “I didn’t know you liked it that much.”
“How could I not?”
“Not everyone does.”
“I expect you’ll move away to study next year.”
“Not necessarily. I don’t know what I’m doing next year.”
“Of course, the biggest challenge about it is the community,” he went on. “Those people. No privacy. Even worse for you, living on top of your family. Your mother. You must love being away.”
Lily whipped her head to look at him. Was he making a deliberate dig? Or just being carelessly rude, dismissive, and judgmental of her, her family, and her entire community? He kept his gaze on the distant horizon and betrayed nothing.
“I miss them all very much, actually,” she said coldly.
He said nothing in reply.
They walked around the building a few times, neither of them taking any photos or engaging in anything more than necessary small talk.
A frostiness grew and they descended the hill not long after.
Lily made no further attempt at conversation and became angrier as the silence between them lengthened and he didn’t even seem to notice or care.
When his car pulled up in front of Wilson’s house, Lily felt she couldn’t thank him and get out of the car fast enough.
“I—” Dorian began, then stopped himself.
Was she finally going to hear an apology from him, she wondered, for being so distant, for hardly opening his mouth except to insult her family? Was he finally going to say something real? But whatever he was originally going to say, Dorian seemed to change his mind.
“I’ll see you later,” he said. And that was that.
Lily got out of the car, more certain than ever that whatever strange friendship might have begun to form was definitely gone now.
Nicola, however, did not see it that way.
“Lily, I’m telling you, he likes you,” she said the next day as they sat by the pool, both in big hats and sunglasses, though Nicola’s were more to dampen her hangover than to protect her from the sun.
The Vegan Eggs album launch had raged until two in the morning, and Nicola had even kissed the drummer, so she said.
After hearing all about Nicola’s brilliant night, it was Lily’s turn to divulge her awkward outing with Dorian.
She included every stony silence, every insult, and she was shocked that Nicola had come to this conclusion.
“Did you listen to anything I just said?” said Lily. “He assumed I was happy to be away from my family and my entire community because he thinks they’re unbearable, which they can be, but only I’m allowed to talk about my family that way behind their backs.”
“That was off,” Nicola conceded. “But he’s totally got the hots for you.”
“I can assure you he does not. He was friendlier to his bodyguard.”
“But he’s so dreamy,” she said, as if that was at all relevant.
“My opinion of him hasn’t changed since that first day at Pippi. He’s stuck-up and he thinks my family and I are stupid.”
Lily said this with such power in her voice and fire in her eyes that Nicola dropped the subject and offered her a sparkling water to cool down.