15. Danny
Danny
Ishould have been exhausted, but my mind kept spinning.
Back in Jess’s hotel room, we were snuggled together in bed.
She was asleep, and I could feel her soft breathing against my neck.
Her arm sprawled across my chest and her leg had slipped across my waist. Her hair brushed up against my cheek, and I enjoyed the citrus and floral scent coming from her.
My arm lay under her to hold her close to me.
The light from the TV screen cast a dull blue glow across the room.
My favorite character, Angus McDougall of The Scotsman, was wrestling with his inner turmoil between rescuing the woman he loved and saving the world from the Cossack.
We discovered the movie playing on cable sometime in the small hours of the morning.
Jess had been delighted to find it and snuggled in with me to watch it before dozing off fifteen minutes into the movie.
She stirred beside me, murmuring, “Did I miss it?”
“Miss what?” I asked, as she burrowed in closer to me.
“The Cossack cutting off Salazar’s head,” she mumbled, without opening her eyes.
“That was two commercial breaks ago,” I replied.
She pouted, letting out a small sound of disappointment. “That’s the best part.” She gave me a small kiss on my neck. “Why are you still awake?”
I smiled. “I’m just enjoying the moment.”
Her eyes were still closed, but I could see her lips form a small sleepy smile. “Me too,” she mumbled. Her eyes slowly opened. “Hey.”
I grinned. “Hey. Go back to sleep.”
“I thought of a question,” she said, her hand trailing up my chest. “The BMW. Why do you have something so ancient?”
My grin became tight, the embarrassment burning my cheeks. “It was right after I got the job with Minutes. I purchased it with my first big paycheck… all because I wanted to impress a girl I’d been dating.”
Her interest pulled her out of her drowsiness. “Ohhh?”
“Yeah. We had been dating while I was auditioning for Minutes. She loved beemers. She was crazy about them. So when I got the part, I thought I’d surprise her with a project we could work on together.”
Her eyebrows went up. “You bought a car as a project? For a girl?”
“I got the body at a salvage yard. I thought if we could work on it together, our relationship would get stronger. I thought it would bond us,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It was stupid. She dumped me two weeks later.”
“Because of the car?”
“Partially. She had no interest in getting her hands dirty. But mostly it had to do with how much money a soap opera actor makes,” I admitted. “I guess she wanted something better.”
Jess smiled. “Her loss. My gain.” She kissed my neck and nestled back into me.
“Does that mean you’d restore a car with me?” I joked.
“I would do more harm than good fixing a car. But I would bring you cold drinks and Jorge approved snacks,” she replied, “Besides you’re not the only one who’s done something ridiculous for someone you were in love with.”
“Oh?” I rolled over on my side to face her. “Do tell.”
Her hand went to her shoulder and ran down her arm where her watercolor tattoo of the Glen Orrin crest was. “This tattoo is a cover up. The original one had my ex’s name and an infinity symbol. A week later I found a bra that wasn’t mine in the couch cushions.”
I winced. “Ouch.”
“He’s one of the many reasons I hated actors.”
“Hated? Past tense?”
“I’ve had a recent experience that has turned me around.” she said, closing her eyes.
“Good enough for me.”
She hummed sleepily in response. A few moments later, she fell asleep again and missed Angus declaring his endless immortal love for Desdemona.
My eyelids grew heavy. I tried to savor every sensation in that moment, unable to recall the last time I was this happy or content before I drifted off to sleep.
“You watched The Scotsman without me?” Faye asked in disgust.
This particular breakfast was the only meal I liked on my diet plan.
Fresh fruit, cottage cheese, and an English muffin with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
The ladies, however, were having Belgian waffles with fruit, whipped cream, and syrup.
I was strongly considering grabbing Paige’s plate and making a run for it.
Paige scrunched up her face in disgust. “I don’t see how anyone could like that movie. It’s so bad.”
“Bite your tongue. Best movie ever. I will not be taking any comments,” Jess declared, around a mouthful of waffles. “Anyway, Faye, the movie started early in the morning. You would have been asleep.”
“Plus, you are grounded for life and never leaving my sight, let alone watching a movie. And they were watching it in Jess’s hotel room,” Paige teased. “I think you would have felt very awkward.”
Faye made a face. “Ew. I’m done.” She walked away from the kitchenette, leaving half her waffle behind. Before I could even think up a plan, Paige’s fist connected with my shoulder.
“Try it, and I’m stabbing you with a fork,” she warned me. “You might have eaten dumplings the other day, but I’m the one who heard all of Jorge’s whining.”
Jess let out a snort of laughter and almost choked on her waffle. “That was my fault,” she admitted. “He looked so pitiful. I gave in to him.”
“Yeah, if you’re in this for the long haul, you’re going to have to build up a resistance to his adorable pleading face,” Paige said, waving a fork at Jess. “Or give him a distraction.”
A devious grin crossed Jess’s face. “Oh, I think I’m already pretty good at distracting him.”
Faye let out a groan from the couch where she had been reading the book Jess gave her for the forty-third time. “You are all gross!”
Paige and Jess burst into laughter. I sat there, watching them interact with each other, not quite believing this was happening.
Paige never let anyone get close to her.
At best, she would tolerate anyone I dated.
Somehow, she and Jess clicked with each other, which had never happened before.
I began to realize that if I hadn’t been already, I was definitely in it for the “long haul.”
“Earth to Danny!” Paige snapped her fingers in my face to get my attention. “C’mon. The trailer is about to drop.”
I grimaced and poked at my cottage cheese with my spoon. “Go ahead, I don’t need to see it,” I said, shaking my head.
“You’re not going to watch?” Jess gave me a disappointed pout.
I winced. “I can’t stand seeing myself act. Every time I see myself it makes me cringe.”
“Alfie is going to ask you about it, so get over yourself,” Paige said, clearing the table.
“C’mon!” Jess shouted and grabbed my hand. She dragged me to the couch, where Faye had connected her phone to the TV to share the trailer. “I want to see it, and I want to watch it with you.”
I groaned. “You understand that this is torture for me, right? It’s like when you hear your own voice on a voicemail message, but you have to see yourself talking instead, which makes it a hundred times worse.”
“It’ll be fun!” Jess pushed me onto the couch. “If your voice bothers you, plug your ears.”
“Besides, who uses voicemail anyways?” Faye pointed out as she sat down next to me. “Use text messages like God intended us to.”
She refreshed the social media account for Tyrant a few times until the preview picture of the trailer showed up. The ladies all cheered, but what I noticed was the graphic editing job had done something fancy with my wig. It immediately took me out of the experience.
Faye tapped her phone, and I saw myself on the screen.
Jess leaned on my shoulder as she snaked her arm through mine, and I did my best not to cringe.
Watching the trailer was torture. Everyone else saw Tyrst’an, but I only saw myself pretending.
I could see where Alfie had edited multiple takes into another, and I could barely stand watching.
I concentrated on the special effects they had added with the green screen.
They had chosen the ruin in Glen Orrin as the backdrop as that seemed appropriate for the upcoming season.
Jess squeezed my hand, and Faye practically vibrated in excitement.
Paige stood behind the couch the entire time watching.
As it got toward the end, her hand gripped my shoulder.
When the trailer ended, Jess cheered. Faye screeched and bounced on the couch.
Paige gave me a quick hug from behind, and her voice was in my ear. “Dad would have loved this.”
My chest tightened, and my eyes welled up with tears. I could imagine my dad behind the couch shouting and throwing his fists up into the air. I wished he could have seen this.
Paige gave my shoulder a pat before she pulled away and headed towards the bedroom. As she walked away, she wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand.
I took a deep breath. Next to me, Faye and Jess already had their phones out.
“I liked it first!” Faye called out.
“I got fourth!” Jess said, scrambling to type a comment. “I’m posting it to my social media feed.”
“I’m sending it to your book club and the Patreon list,” Faye called out.
“Ooo! Thank you. I’ll go straight to my streaming platform and repost it there.”
Faye gave me a nudge with her elbow. “You should post it, too.”
After the last few weeks, I didn’t want to do anything with social media. “Just take care of it for me.”
“What do you want me to say for a caption?”
I took a moment, thinking back to a quote towards the end of the fourth book, The Overwhelming Tide. “If dawn breaks ,and we are still standing, only then shall the world remember our deeds here.”
I hadn’t realized I had dropped into the voice I use for Tyrst’an. Everyone in the room smirked at me.
“Thank God I’m moving to Toronto, so I don’t have to listen to that voice every day,” Paige snarked as she snatched Faye’s phone out of her hand.
“Hey!” Faye screeched. “What are you doing?”
“Grounded for life,” Paige reminded her.
I started laughing and kept laughing until I couldn’t breathe.