CHAPTER 13
Cameron
“Goal!” she yelled and raised her arms in the air.
“Why are you so surprised? I told you I was terrible,” Lacey replied with a laugh.
“You’re only down by one.”
“It’s one to zero.” Lacey shook her head. “But thanks for trying to make me feel better, I guess.”
“We go to eight, so there’s still time for you to catch up.”
Lacey retrieved the puck, and Cameron watched her as she tried to figure out where to position it on the table.
That was interesting to Cameron because, for the most part, when she played air hockey, she just hit the thing and waited for it to rebound or get hit back to her, but Lacey seemed to try to plot using geometry or trigonometry or something, which wasn’t something Cameron was any good at.
When Lacey hit the puck, and it went straight at her, Cameron tapped it back softly.
“Oh, come on… Don’t do that,” Lacey said, hitting it back a little harder.
This time, the puck bounced off the side wall, and Cameron returned it the same way.
“Do what?” she asked.
“Let me score just because you feel bad for me.”
“I wasn’t. I’m trying to play a little more like you.”
“What? Why? I suck,” Lacey said.
The puck came back to Cameron, and she hit it back straight to Lacey, who stopped it and then aimed it hard for the side of the table. A split second later, Cameron watched it as it disappeared. Lacey had scored a goal. Cameron looked up at her, and Lacey seemed surprised.
“You want to do it, too, don’t you?” she asked, pulling the puck out to put it back in play.
“I do. Can I?”
“Go for it,” she said with a little laugh.
“Goal!” Lacey yelled as she raised her arms up.
Cameron watched her, and Lacey looked both relaxed and happy right now.
It was only then that Cameron remembered that there was a camera aimed at both of them, probably taking the widest shot possible because they were playing a game with a fast-moving puck, and a professional cameraman would know how not to make people throw up when they watched, so he wouldn’t be panning back and forth on the table.
“Congrats!”
“Thanks. I never score. You did let me have that one, so I’m not sure I should brag.”
“I really didn’t,” Cameron replied honestly. “You just made it by me. You think a lot before every hit, don’t you?”
“I guess so.”
“I can see that working with pool really well because you can take your time, but with air hockey, it’s so fast-paced.”
“Oh, I’m great at pool,” Lacey said.
“What? Why didn’t we play that, then?”
“You said you wanted to play air hockey.”
“And you just let me have what I want?”
“You’re the celebrity. I thought you guys were all used to getting whatever you wanted.”
Cameron laughed loudly at that and replied, “Probably true. But we can tear this down, and you can kick my ass at pool next, if you want. I’m not great at that one.”
“We can, but aren’t we…” Lacey stopped and looked over at the camera guy. “Um… This can get cut out, right?”
“The whole thing is going to be cut down to about ten to fifteen minutes, so, yeah, most of it will get cut.”
“I thought we were supposed to have dinner soon.”
“It’s at seven. The chef is probably just getting started on it now. There are drinks upstairs if you want one, though. Oh, wait.” Cameron looked over at the wet bar. “Yeah, Jessie had this stocked, too. Want something from here?”
“Maybe just water. I thought River was going to get me one, but maybe she’s doing something else with Jessie or Kennedy.”
Cameron walked over to the wet bar and looked down at the counter, feeling like shit.
She’d actually forgotten that her girlfriend was upstairs, probably with Lacey’s girlfriend, because both of them had girlfriends and they were here on a damn double date.
As she pulled out three small bottles of water, she wondered what that meant.
There had been days when she’d thought of Kennedy every single minute.
There had been days when one of them had been in LA and the other had been in New York or even in another country, and she’d missed Kennedy so much, it had hurt her physically not to be next to her. She hadn’t felt that in a long time.
“Here you go,” she said, offering Lacey a water. “And would you mind giving us a little space?” she asked the guy behind the camera.
“I was told to film everything.”
“I know, man, and I appreciate it, but Lacey’s not really used to being on camera. Maybe you can just take a few breaks. I won’t tell Jessie if you don’t.”
Cameron handed him the third bottle of water she had grabbed, and he took it.
“Fine. But if I get in trouble, she’s yours to deal with.”
“No problem,” she replied with a smile. “Hey, the doors there lead straight out to the beach, I think. Want to check it out?”
She nodded to the French doors at the back of the basement that led to what looked like a hot tub to the right, a small deck that was under the one upstairs, and the beach beyond.
“Are we allowed to do that?” Lacey asked. “I don’t want to get you into any trouble.”
“Jessie works for me,” she said. “Well, for both of us. Don’t get me wrong: she’s in charge of this whole thing, and I don’t really want to piss her off, but we’re not locked in here or anything. We can do whatever we want.”
“What about River and Kennedy?”
“They’ll find us.”
“Okay. Sure,” Lacey agreed.
Cameron walked over to the doors, pulled them open, and having noticed that the guy had put his camera down and was now taking a drink from the water she’d given him, she put her hand on the small of Lacey’s back without thinking as she walked through the doors.
Then, she dropped it immediately, trying to get a grip.
Her girlfriend was upstairs. Fuck; Lacey’s girlfriend was upstairs.
“It’s a coffee-almond fudge,” Cameron heard said girlfriend’s voice from above them, even over the sound of the ocean not all that far away.
“You make coffee-flavored fudge?” Kennedy asked.
“Yes. And I brought three kinds with me. That’s one of them. Want to try it?”
“Hell, yes. I love coffee,” Kennedy replied.
“It’s in my bag,” River said. “I think they brought it into the bedroom.”
“I can show you where that is,” Jessie offered.
“Cool. You can have whatever I brought, if you want, or if Cameron does. Lacey can get what I make anytime, so she won’t mind skipping it this time.”
“Do not let me eat everything you brought here, River. I already have to work out too much to keep in shape.”
“You look great. You’ll be fine. Come on. I’ll get it.”
Then, all the voices were gone.
“River owns a candy shop,” Lacey said, looking a little less happy than she’d been a moment ago. “She makes most of it herself. It’s pretty successful. She’s made it profitable in record time, really. It’s like her favorite thing in the world.”
“Yeah? That’s cool,” Cameron said. “Want to sit in the chairs over there?” she changed the topic and pointed at two oversized wooden chairs off to the left that looked out at the water. “We can kick our shoes off and put our feet in the sand.”
Lacey led the way until they both had their shoes off, and Cameron buried her feet in the warmth of the sand as she stared out at the water. It wasn’t completely dark yet, but the sun was mostly gone, just hanging on by a breath, giving the whole view an ethereal feel to it.
“So, you’re a masseuse? How does that work?”
“Oh, I just give people massages, mainly. Nothing like the fancy ones I’m sure you get.”
Cameron turned to her and said, “So, River has a successful candy shop, but you’re just giving massages?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“How did you mean it, then?”
“Well, I guess just that I–”
“Why don’t we try something? Don’t use the word just to define yourself.
It’s something my mom taught me years ago when I told her that I wanted to go to drama school and I didn’t think I’d get in because I was just a kid from small town, Colorado.
I was a kid from small town, Colorado, yes, but not just anything, and I should let my work and my application do the best it could to get me in, but if I didn’t, it wasn’t because of me, necessarily.
It meant that among that group of people trying to get into the competitive school, it wasn’t meant to be.
It wasn’t my time. But I could go somewhere else where it would be meant to be and my time. ”
Lacey nodded slowly and said, “Your mom seems really wise.”
“She is. But don’t tell her I said that.”
“I highly doubt I’ll ever meet your mother, Cameron.”
“Cam,” she said.
“Cam,” Lacey repeated. “Being a massage therapist with my own business is time-consuming and hard work, but I’m not sure it’s really that interesting. I have my table and supplies. I drive them to my client. They get their massage. I get paid. I leave and do it all over again.”
“But you have to go to school for that, right?”
“To be reputable, there are certifications and things like that. I have my undergraduate degree in kinesiology, and my initial plan was to be a physical therapist, but I changed my mind and went with massage instead. I got all my certifications, so, yes, I’m credentialed.”
“And you like it?”
“I do. My hands hurt sometimes, and it’s generally not something you can do forever because of that, but I try to take care of them. My plan is to own my own shop one day and run it more than give the actual massages.”
“That’s cool. All I’ve ever wanted to do was act. Now, I’m only thirty-five years old and worried I might not ever get to do that again,” she said and looked back out at the water, realizing that she might have said too much.
“What? Why?”
“Um… Well, it’s complicated, but did you hear about a fight between Kennedy and me at the Golden Globes?”
“A little.”
“The gossip mill went crazy, and it got out that I, supposedly, threw a glass at my girlfriend. I didn’t.
I have never done anything like that before.
And I’d never do anything to hurt Kennedy.
She yelled at me. I yelled back. We both regret it, but there are people out there who are trying to make their money off our lives by saying that Kennedy was about to hit me, which, again, didn’t happen because she’d never do that. ”
“I didn’t hear any of that. Admittedly, I don’t pay much attention to celebrity gossip. I scroll past a lot of it.”
“You should. It’s mostly all shit anyway.
Yet, no one wants to hire us right now because they don’t want the scandal.
Today, I heard from someone that they can’t hire me on a TV show I would’ve been perfect for because if either of us were a guy, they would’ve gotten so much shit for putting us on their show right now, and they want to treat us all equally.
It’s a big pile of crap. They’re only worried that Kennedy will show up and yell again, causing drama on their set. ”
“What was she yelling at you about, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh. Some woman was flirting with me. I wasn’t flirting back, but Ken had had a bad day, night, or maybe week; I don’t know.
” Cameron sighed and dug her feet a bit deeper into the sand.
“She yelled and pointed. I told her that nothing had happened. A glass fell. It was honestly just a normal fight that any couple in the world could have, but it’s caused some issues.
We both love what we do. We were both at the top of our careers, and then, this happened.
Now, no one will even hire us for indie films in production this summer.
We might still be able to find things for the fall or winter, but we’re both workaholics.
We take breaks between projects, but never for too long.
And when we’re bored, we–” She’d been about to tell a near stranger that when she and Kennedy were bored, they fought more, and that was why she wasn’t too keen on them taking a long trip to Italy as per Kennedy’s suggestion. “We get restless,” she said instead.
“What are you going to do?” Lacey asked.
Cameron didn’t want to tell her that they were already doing it, that this whole weekend was part of their reputation rehabilitation tour. Lacey didn’t deserve to be dragged into this whole thing, but Jessie would’ve hated for her to tell this woman the truth.
“Jessie is on it. She’s working on a plan with our agent.
This… double date thing was already in the works with the charity when it happened,” she lied.
“So, we wanted to make sure we followed through with it. Kennedy and I have both been to the hospital to visit kids sick with cancer, and while I think they would’ve been much more excited if either of us were a Jonas brother or whoever is popular right now, we always have such a good time with them and try to leave them smiling if we can. ”
“You and Kennedy seem like good people,” Lacey replied.
“You are too. You donated a lot of money. It all goes to them,” she said.
“Yeah… That wasn’t exactly selfless on my part,” Lacey shared.
“What do you mean?”
“Cam!”
Cameron turned quickly and found a very angry-looking publicist standing there in the open doorway.
“What?”
“What are you two doing out here? And why is the cameraman sitting on the couch in there, drinking water?”
“He wanted to sit down and have a drink?”
“He’s supposed to have that camera aimed at you two, and he has a union break after dinner.”
“Jessie, did you need something?” Cameron asked.
“Yes. River and Kennedy are on their way to check out the downstairs. I’d like you both to be inside to meet them and, you know, have the double date Lacey and River were promised as part of their prize package.”
“Right.” Cameron turned back to Lacey. “Pick this up later, maybe?”
Lacey nodded and gave her a small smile.