CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
You feel like liberation
You give me new sensation
You show me what I need and
You are my life completed
Can't stop, can't brake, who's driving?
Sometimes there's no denying
Till today I feel I can't lose
I'm letting go of what I knew
I want you for always
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
I'm a fool and I don't care
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
Before you I was only
What I let control me
You are a revolution
Against my own conclusions
Till today I feel I can't lose
I'm letting go of what I knew
And now I say goodbye to the way I used to be
There is no room for question
Cause your name, it sets me free
Yesterday's troubles harm me
Today's are creeping in
So let go of the world around me
Cause your love is all I need
I want you for always
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
I'm a fool and I don't care
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
MEL
After that night in the studio, things between Mel and Taylor began to go back to normal. Well, if you consider emotional, high-strung, and inseparable normal, then that's what it was. He was constantly at her house and in her office. She had told him on several occasions that maybe he should watch himself and how he interacted with her but he continually blew the comments off. He was getting to the point where he didn't really care what everyone thought and that scared Mel. Especially since she was sort of becoming a public figure.
She didn't want to be, but it seemed to have just happened overnight. In her newfound loneliness since
Drew and Jason were filming, Mel had decided to dabble in some philanthropy, thus making her face and her name a little more well-known than it had been in earlier weeks. The guys knew about it and thought it was great and expressed some interest in having some 3CG-sponsored fundraisers in Tulsa. This thrilled Mel because it kept her busy and it kept her face out of the public as she got details together. More and more things about her had been surfacing and the more Mel found, the deeper a hole she wanted to crawl into.
One evening she got out of her car in her driveway to see Taylor pulling in behind her. Confused, and a
little annoyed--and admittedly, a little excited--she watched him get out of his car. "Did you seriously follow me home?" she asked. "You couldn't have asked me if you could come by or something?"
"When have I ever had to ask?"
Mel rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."
"I kinda needed to talk to you."
"I hate when you say that."
"Seriously."
She led him inside and did her usual, despite him being there. She kicked off her shoes, tossed her purse on the sofa and went straight into the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of wine and took a bowl of fruit from the refrigerator. She opened a beer for Tay, handed it to him, and the two went out on her patio. They sat in a pair of chaise lounge chairs connected by a table in the middle.
"Okay," Mel said, finally comfortable. "What's up?"
"When were you going to tell me about the pictures?"
"You must be joking," she said flatly, her voice laden with sarcasm.
"Seriously. Ike knew before I did."
"First of all, it's been, like, three weeks now. Secondly, IKE is the one who told ME. Not my fault his wife keeps him informed on sleazy tabloids and yours doesn't. And there are more. Every day. It's not like these people are going away anytime soon." She thought for a second and turned to look at him. "Wait--why are YOU having an issue with something you know I have no control over?"
"I'm not, I just--I don't know...I guess I don't really like the idea..."
"Of what? My becoming popular? Trust me, neither do I. I know what your problem is. But you don't see me asking you why you don't tell me when there's a new picture of you and Natalie online, do you?"
Tay sighed and swigged his beer. "I know..."
"You know, I never knew any of this was going on. At all. Ever. Not until Ike told me. There are pictures of me with all three of you guys, too, not just Jason. All the way back from New York. I'm just counting down the days until I read the headline that I know is coming. And I'll tell you, if I knew there were cameras following me in Cabo, then..." she let her voice trail off, stopping herself before she did any potential damage.
"Then WHAT?" Tay pressed, dryly.
"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? Because this isn't really much of a conversation here. Not worth storming my driveway over, anyway. What is this REALLY about?"
He was silent for a moment before he asked, "So where are you?"
Startled and a little confused at the question, Mel sat up. "What do you mean, where am I?"
"You know, with...with us..."
"I know what you mean, I mean why are you asking? I thought we had established this..."
"But, I mean, you still mean it, right? What you said..."
Mel was becoming increasingly agitated with this conversation. He was acting crazy, not saying what he
wanted to say. Still questioning her? This had gone on long enough. She had had it and she was fed up. If Taylor left her house tonight with any doubt left in his mind how she felt for him, then he was a lost cause. Truly. This was it.
Mel got up from her chair and went over to Tay. She straddled him as though she were going to sit
backward in a chair and sat herself above his knees, keeping a safe distance. The look in his eyes read pure shock but she didn't care. She extended her left arm, palm up, for him to see. "Would I have done THIS if I didn't mean it?"
"Mel, I'm ready." It shot out of his mouth and hit her as if it were a bullet. She expected their usual "I love you, do you love me" fights as normal, but she sure hadn't expected THIS.
"You--what?" she managed to creak out in a small voice.
"I'm ready. Really ready. I mean, home doesn't even feel like home anymore. This," he said, looking around them. "This feels like home. YOU feel like home. I don't want to be anywhere else."
Tears sprang to her eyes and, once and for all, she broke down. "Tay..." she squeaked out. "I love you so much I can't function sometimes and seeing you and not having you kills me and I can't--I can't do this anymore, I can't be without you. I can't watch you leave my house and have to spend the night alone. I
can't--"
Taylor cut her off when he took her by her extended arm and pulled her close to him and kissed her passionately. The kiss sent shivers throughout her entire body and her emotions sent her head in a spin that made her feel almost as if that half a glass of wine had done her in. As he kissed her, he grabbed her by the
hips and pulled her the rest of the way down on his lap as he held her tighter.
As his fingers entangled in her hair, romantic emotion was quickly giving way to lust and when she realized that it really had been ten years since they had had sex, Mel could barely contain her excitement. Back then they had worried about being behind closed doors and making sure everything was perfect. But now Mel was thirty years old and she didn't care about that crap anymore. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen and after what she had been through with him she didn't care what was perfect and what wasn't. She knew she wanted him and that was all that mattered.
After a couple of moments, Tay broke their kiss and held her face in his hands. "Wait," he said, breathlessly. "Wait. I want this to be right. Okay? Let me--let me get some legal stuff out of the way, okay? Let me have an opportunity to do this the right way."
Mel stared back into his blue eyes, bewildered. "Do you mean--are we--are we actually doing this? You and me?"
Tay smiled back at her and nodded, carefully smoothing her hair back into place around her face. "You could never know how much I love you. How much I've always loved you. It's always been us, right?
Mel nodded. She was literal putty in his hands. Of all the things they had said to each other and all the things they wanted to say to each other, at this moment there were no more words. At that very moment, all was right with the world as she laid her head down on his shoulder and he stroked her hair.
She knew for certain that life at 3CG would never be the same after tonight.
_____________________________________________
Well I know just how much I love you
There is no time to explain
I realize just what I'd give to
Get you back in my arms
And I see you Hand In Hand
With another man
And I don't know
What you see in him
And why you let us go
And if you're gonna lie
Then at least you could just let us die
And if you're gonna lie to me, baby
Well at least you could just say goodbye
Well I'm caught between
Myself and me and I
Can't find the bridge from my mind to reality
I'm trying to find
A place in the sun
But I'm drowning in the rain
That's falling every place I run
And if you're gonna lie
Then at least you could just let us die
And if you're gonna lie to me, baby
Well at least you could just say goodbye
NATALIE
Natalie and Kate were sitting in Natalie's living room having some much-needed girl talk, minus children. Zac had taken the kids for the day and Kate had chosen to come have downtime with her best friend.
They had been laughing and cutting up about a movie they'd recently seen when Natalie's cell phone rang. "Hold on," she said to Kate and answered. "Hello?"
The girl on the other end sounded nervous. "Uh, hi, Natalie? This is Bethany. Sorry to bother you."
Natalie made a face at Kate out of confusion. "No, no, you're not bothering me. What's up?"
"Um, I probably shouldn't even be saying anything and it's probably really nothing but I just thought you
should know--uh, Taylor spends an awful lot of time in Mel's office."
"Well...she works there..."
"No, I mean, not like normal. Like--I mean, not like Isaac and Zac do. I mean, Taylor spends a LOT of time in there."
"Really..."
"Yeah and like I said, it's probably nothing, honestly--"
"So then why are you feeling the need to tell me?"
"I don't know, because--it's weird, I guess. I mean, they act like..."
"They act like WHAT?" Natalie pressed on. She was growing ever more angry at every word Bethany said.
"They kinda act like they're married."
Natalie felt as if she'd been hit by a ton of bricks. She was ready to go absolutely insane, but she chose to keep her composure. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah, and...well a few weeks ago? They kinda spent the night in the studio..."
"Together?"
"Well Isaac and Zac weren't here."
"How do you know this?"
Bethany let out a small laugh. "Well, we all work here. Kinda hard not to know it. But I heard they were writing a song, so I'm sure it was all business."
It wasn't uncommon for Taylor to spend all night writing. This had been the norm for years. But this struck a chord with Natalie now. "Since when does Mel write music?"
"I don't know. I mean, she is part owner so it probably was just business. I just felt like you should be informed."
"Well. Thank you, Bethany, I appreciate you telling me."
"Oh, and Natalie? Please don't tell anyone I said any of this. I really need to keep this job."
"Don't worry. It's safe with me," she answered.
Natalie ended the call and looked up at an expectant Kate. "What in the world was that?" Kate asked.
"I knew it," Natalie said. "I just knew it. That little bitch just slid her way right in, right under the radar."
"What??" Kate pressed her.
"I think Tay and Mel are sleeping together."
Kate shook her head. "No. No way. That's not possible."
"Isn't it? This girl just said he spends all kinds of time in Mel's office and that she was there with him the last time he spent the night at the studio. What does that look like to you?"
Kate was silent. "Um...so are you gonna confront him about it?"
Natalie sighed as tears sprang to her eyes. "I don't know." Her voice choked up and she began to cry. "I don't know what to do."
Kate tried comforting her best friend. "You can't know until you've confronted him about it. I mean, he's never lied to you before has he?"
Natalie shook her head.
"Well, okay then. This girl could have been reading more into a situation than there actually was. Don't jump to conclusions and get yourself all upset yet. Just wait until you talk to him and then see how you feel about it."
Natalie sniffled and dried herself up. "You're right. I know. I've just been so scared since she came along."
"I know," Kate said. "But if there were really anything to it, he would have left you by now. You know? And besides, Mel has that Jason guy. Between you and me, why would she wanna pass on that for Tay anyway?"
Natalie couldn't help but giggle. "You gotta admit, that guy is insanely hot."
"Oh, I know," Kate laughed. "I was there."
Natalie was able to calm herself down and laugh. She felt a little better with Kate's help but that nagging feeling was still there and she wasn't able to shake it. So she chose to do what she'd been doing with it all along, pushing it down and keeping it at bay. She didn't want to freak out at her husband without good
reason. She glanced at the clock on the wall and began counting down the minutes until Taylor came home. It would be any time now.
____________________________________________
ZAC
Drew picked up on the second ring. "Hey!" She sounded excited to hear from him.
Zac smiled into the phone. "So what are you doing?"
"I'm actually about to step into my trailer. We just wrapped rehearsal for the day. What are you doing?"
"Taking a break at the studio, started thinking about you. Thought I'd call and see what was up. Haven't head from you."
"I know, I'm sorry," she said. "It's been so crazy around here. Between rehearsals and sessions with the voice coach and makeup and molds--"
"Molds?"
"Yeah," Drew said, excitedly. "Apparently there's going to be latex involved."
Zac chose that moment to be naughty. "You've never needed latex before."
"Well whoever had time for such silly things as that?" she shot back.
Zac laughed. "I miss you."
"I miss you, too," she said. "Hey, you would NEVER recognize me. It's so weird looking at myself in the mirror...freaks me out. Kinda drives me insane--it's great for my acting!"
"What did they do to you?" he chuckled. He couldn't imagine her being anything but beautiful. They could have shaved her bald and put snarling, bloody makeup on her and he still would have gotten hard at the sight of her.
"Well, they bleached my hair. It's, like, white. Almost silver. With extensions and hair pieces--I've never had this much hair in my life! They're making it, like huge! And they darkened my eyebrows a dark brown. And they arched them. Well, some of it is makeup, but they did change the shape just a little. And I'm going to be wearing red contacts. It's gonna be so freaky. They fit me for costuming in a couple of days and then filming starts next week. Everything is on schedule, I am so excited!"
"I am so proud of you," Zac said to her. "I know I've said it a million times but I really mean it. This is totally awesome."
"Thank you, it is, isn't it? Oh, hey, wait hold on--" Drew began talking in the background. "Hey, I gotta go," she said. "Gerard, my director, is at the door."
"Gerard Cline? THAT Gerard?"
"Yeah. You know him?"
"Are you kidding, his movies are kick ass! That is so cool!"
"Yeah, he's not bad. Look, I gotta go. I'll call you soon okay?"
When their call ended, Zac sat back and sighed. He should have felt better after talking to her, but the truth was, it hurt worse. And while he was totally excited to learn that she was doing a Gerard Cline movie, it wasn't enough to hide the hurt he felt from missing her. Maybe he shouldn't have called her. She sounded
busy. Maybe it had been a bad time and he had imposed. Maybe that was the problem, why she didn't seem that interested in talking to him. He could totally understand the work thing. Hell, nobody could better
understand it than him. But it nagged at him. It nagged at him and nagged at him.
Amidst his self-loathing and personal pity party, Mel burst in the door. She'd been different lately. Happier. He liked that side of her.
And then she said the most beautiful words a woman could ever utter to a man: "Oh, just the person I was looking for. How do you feel about going with me to the shooting range?"
"You are a god," he answered.
_________________________________________________
You feel like liberation
You give me new sensation
You show me what I need and
You are my life completed
Can't stop, can't brake, who's driving?
Sometimes there's no denying
Till today I feel I can't lose
I'm letting go of what I knew
I want you for always
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
I'm a fool and I don't care
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
Before you I was only
What I let control me
You are a revolution
Against my own conclusions
Till today I feel I can't lose
I'm letting go of what I knew
And now I say goodbye to the way I used to be
There is no room for question
Cause your name, it sets me free
Yesterday's troubles harm me
Today's are creeping in
So let go of the world around me
Cause your love is all I need
I want you for always
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
I'm a fool and I don't care
I hear your name in Every Word I Say
MEL
After that night in the studio, things between Mel and Taylor began to go back to normal. Well, if you consider emotional, high-strung, and inseparable normal, then that's what it was. He was constantly at her house and in her office. She had told him on several occasions that maybe he should watch himself and how he interacted with her but he continually blew the comments off. He was getting to the point where he didn't really care what everyone thought and that scared Mel. Especially since she was sort of becoming a public figure.
She didn't want to be, but it seemed to have just happened overnight. In her newfound loneliness since
Drew and Jason were filming, Mel had decided to dabble in some philanthropy, thus making her face and her name a little more well-known than it had been in earlier weeks. The guys knew about it and thought it was great and expressed some interest in having some 3CG-sponsored fundraisers in Tulsa. This thrilled Mel because it kept her busy and it kept her face out of the public as she got details together. More and more things about her had been surfacing and the more Mel found, the deeper a hole she wanted to crawl into.
One evening she got out of her car in her driveway to see Taylor pulling in behind her. Confused, and a
little annoyed--and admittedly, a little excited--she watched him get out of his car. "Did you seriously follow me home?" she asked. "You couldn't have asked me if you could come by or something?"
"When have I ever had to ask?"
Mel rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."
"I kinda needed to talk to you."
"I hate when you say that."
"Seriously."
She led him inside and did her usual, despite him being there. She kicked off her shoes, tossed her purse on the sofa and went straight into the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of wine and took a bowl of fruit from the refrigerator. She opened a beer for Tay, handed it to him, and the two went out on her patio. They sat in a pair of chaise lounge chairs connected by a table in the middle.
"Okay," Mel said, finally comfortable. "What's up?"
"When were you going to tell me about the pictures?"
"You must be joking," she said flatly, her voice laden with sarcasm.
"Seriously. Ike knew before I did."
"First of all, it's been, like, three weeks now. Secondly, IKE is the one who told ME. Not my fault his wife keeps him informed on sleazy tabloids and yours doesn't. And there are more. Every day. It's not like these people are going away anytime soon." She thought for a second and turned to look at him. "Wait--why are YOU having an issue with something you know I have no control over?"
"I'm not, I just--I don't know...I guess I don't really like the idea..."
"Of what? My becoming popular? Trust me, neither do I. I know what your problem is. But you don't see me asking you why you don't tell me when there's a new picture of you and Natalie online, do you?"
Tay sighed and swigged his beer. "I know..."
"You know, I never knew any of this was going on. At all. Ever. Not until Ike told me. There are pictures of me with all three of you guys, too, not just Jason. All the way back from New York. I'm just counting down the days until I read the headline that I know is coming. And I'll tell you, if I knew there were cameras following me in Cabo, then..." she let her voice trail off, stopping herself before she did any potential damage.
"Then WHAT?" Tay pressed, dryly.
"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? Because this isn't really much of a conversation here. Not worth storming my driveway over, anyway. What is this REALLY about?"
He was silent for a moment before he asked, "So where are you?"
Startled and a little confused at the question, Mel sat up. "What do you mean, where am I?"
"You know, with...with us..."
"I know what you mean, I mean why are you asking? I thought we had established this..."
"But, I mean, you still mean it, right? What you said..."
Mel was becoming increasingly agitated with this conversation. He was acting crazy, not saying what he
wanted to say. Still questioning her? This had gone on long enough. She had had it and she was fed up. If Taylor left her house tonight with any doubt left in his mind how she felt for him, then he was a lost cause. Truly. This was it.
Mel got up from her chair and went over to Tay. She straddled him as though she were going to sit
backward in a chair and sat herself above his knees, keeping a safe distance. The look in his eyes read pure shock but she didn't care. She extended her left arm, palm up, for him to see. "Would I have done THIS if I didn't mean it?"
"Mel, I'm ready." It shot out of his mouth and hit her as if it were a bullet. She expected their usual "I love you, do you love me" fights as normal, but she sure hadn't expected THIS.
"You--what?" she managed to creak out in a small voice.
"I'm ready. Really ready. I mean, home doesn't even feel like home anymore. This," he said, looking around them. "This feels like home. YOU feel like home. I don't want to be anywhere else."
Tears sprang to her eyes and, once and for all, she broke down. "Tay..." she squeaked out. "I love you so much I can't function sometimes and seeing you and not having you kills me and I can't--I can't do this anymore, I can't be without you. I can't watch you leave my house and have to spend the night alone. I
can't--"
Taylor cut her off when he took her by her extended arm and pulled her close to him and kissed her passionately. The kiss sent shivers throughout her entire body and her emotions sent her head in a spin that made her feel almost as if that half a glass of wine had done her in. As he kissed her, he grabbed her by the
hips and pulled her the rest of the way down on his lap as he held her tighter.
As his fingers entangled in her hair, romantic emotion was quickly giving way to lust and when she realized that it really had been ten years since they had had sex, Mel could barely contain her excitement. Back then they had worried about being behind closed doors and making sure everything was perfect. But now Mel was thirty years old and she didn't care about that crap anymore. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen and after what she had been through with him she didn't care what was perfect and what wasn't. She knew she wanted him and that was all that mattered.
After a couple of moments, Tay broke their kiss and held her face in his hands. "Wait," he said, breathlessly. "Wait. I want this to be right. Okay? Let me--let me get some legal stuff out of the way, okay? Let me have an opportunity to do this the right way."
Mel stared back into his blue eyes, bewildered. "Do you mean--are we--are we actually doing this? You and me?"
Tay smiled back at her and nodded, carefully smoothing her hair back into place around her face. "You could never know how much I love you. How much I've always loved you. It's always been us, right?
Mel nodded. She was literal putty in his hands. Of all the things they had said to each other and all the things they wanted to say to each other, at this moment there were no more words. At that very moment, all was right with the world as she laid her head down on his shoulder and he stroked her hair.
She knew for certain that life at 3CG would never be the same after tonight.
_____________________________________________
Well I know just how much I love you
There is no time to explain
I realize just what I'd give to
Get you back in my arms
And I see you Hand In Hand
With another man
And I don't know
What you see in him
And why you let us go
And if you're gonna lie
Then at least you could just let us die
And if you're gonna lie to me, baby
Well at least you could just say goodbye
Well I'm caught between
Myself and me and I
Can't find the bridge from my mind to reality
I'm trying to find
A place in the sun
But I'm drowning in the rain
That's falling every place I run
And if you're gonna lie
Then at least you could just let us die
And if you're gonna lie to me, baby
Well at least you could just say goodbye
NATALIE
Natalie and Kate were sitting in Natalie's living room having some much-needed girl talk, minus children. Zac had taken the kids for the day and Kate had chosen to come have downtime with her best friend.
They had been laughing and cutting up about a movie they'd recently seen when Natalie's cell phone rang. "Hold on," she said to Kate and answered. "Hello?"
The girl on the other end sounded nervous. "Uh, hi, Natalie? This is Bethany. Sorry to bother you."
Natalie made a face at Kate out of confusion. "No, no, you're not bothering me. What's up?"
"Um, I probably shouldn't even be saying anything and it's probably really nothing but I just thought you
should know--uh, Taylor spends an awful lot of time in Mel's office."
"Well...she works there..."
"No, I mean, not like normal. Like--I mean, not like Isaac and Zac do. I mean, Taylor spends a LOT of time in there."
"Really..."
"Yeah and like I said, it's probably nothing, honestly--"
"So then why are you feeling the need to tell me?"
"I don't know, because--it's weird, I guess. I mean, they act like..."
"They act like WHAT?" Natalie pressed on. She was growing ever more angry at every word Bethany said.
"They kinda act like they're married."
Natalie felt as if she'd been hit by a ton of bricks. She was ready to go absolutely insane, but she chose to keep her composure. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah, and...well a few weeks ago? They kinda spent the night in the studio..."
"Together?"
"Well Isaac and Zac weren't here."
"How do you know this?"
Bethany let out a small laugh. "Well, we all work here. Kinda hard not to know it. But I heard they were writing a song, so I'm sure it was all business."
It wasn't uncommon for Taylor to spend all night writing. This had been the norm for years. But this struck a chord with Natalie now. "Since when does Mel write music?"
"I don't know. I mean, she is part owner so it probably was just business. I just felt like you should be informed."
"Well. Thank you, Bethany, I appreciate you telling me."
"Oh, and Natalie? Please don't tell anyone I said any of this. I really need to keep this job."
"Don't worry. It's safe with me," she answered.
Natalie ended the call and looked up at an expectant Kate. "What in the world was that?" Kate asked.
"I knew it," Natalie said. "I just knew it. That little bitch just slid her way right in, right under the radar."
"What??" Kate pressed her.
"I think Tay and Mel are sleeping together."
Kate shook her head. "No. No way. That's not possible."
"Isn't it? This girl just said he spends all kinds of time in Mel's office and that she was there with him the last time he spent the night at the studio. What does that look like to you?"
Kate was silent. "Um...so are you gonna confront him about it?"
Natalie sighed as tears sprang to her eyes. "I don't know." Her voice choked up and she began to cry. "I don't know what to do."
Kate tried comforting her best friend. "You can't know until you've confronted him about it. I mean, he's never lied to you before has he?"
Natalie shook her head.
"Well, okay then. This girl could have been reading more into a situation than there actually was. Don't jump to conclusions and get yourself all upset yet. Just wait until you talk to him and then see how you feel about it."
Natalie sniffled and dried herself up. "You're right. I know. I've just been so scared since she came along."
"I know," Kate said. "But if there were really anything to it, he would have left you by now. You know? And besides, Mel has that Jason guy. Between you and me, why would she wanna pass on that for Tay anyway?"
Natalie couldn't help but giggle. "You gotta admit, that guy is insanely hot."
"Oh, I know," Kate laughed. "I was there."
Natalie was able to calm herself down and laugh. She felt a little better with Kate's help but that nagging feeling was still there and she wasn't able to shake it. So she chose to do what she'd been doing with it all along, pushing it down and keeping it at bay. She didn't want to freak out at her husband without good
reason. She glanced at the clock on the wall and began counting down the minutes until Taylor came home. It would be any time now.
____________________________________________
ZAC
Drew picked up on the second ring. "Hey!" She sounded excited to hear from him.
Zac smiled into the phone. "So what are you doing?"
"I'm actually about to step into my trailer. We just wrapped rehearsal for the day. What are you doing?"
"Taking a break at the studio, started thinking about you. Thought I'd call and see what was up. Haven't head from you."
"I know, I'm sorry," she said. "It's been so crazy around here. Between rehearsals and sessions with the voice coach and makeup and molds--"
"Molds?"
"Yeah," Drew said, excitedly. "Apparently there's going to be latex involved."
Zac chose that moment to be naughty. "You've never needed latex before."
"Well whoever had time for such silly things as that?" she shot back.
Zac laughed. "I miss you."
"I miss you, too," she said. "Hey, you would NEVER recognize me. It's so weird looking at myself in the mirror...freaks me out. Kinda drives me insane--it's great for my acting!"
"What did they do to you?" he chuckled. He couldn't imagine her being anything but beautiful. They could have shaved her bald and put snarling, bloody makeup on her and he still would have gotten hard at the sight of her.
"Well, they bleached my hair. It's, like, white. Almost silver. With extensions and hair pieces--I've never had this much hair in my life! They're making it, like huge! And they darkened my eyebrows a dark brown. And they arched them. Well, some of it is makeup, but they did change the shape just a little. And I'm going to be wearing red contacts. It's gonna be so freaky. They fit me for costuming in a couple of days and then filming starts next week. Everything is on schedule, I am so excited!"
"I am so proud of you," Zac said to her. "I know I've said it a million times but I really mean it. This is totally awesome."
"Thank you, it is, isn't it? Oh, hey, wait hold on--" Drew began talking in the background. "Hey, I gotta go," she said. "Gerard, my director, is at the door."
"Gerard Cline? THAT Gerard?"
"Yeah. You know him?"
"Are you kidding, his movies are kick ass! That is so cool!"
"Yeah, he's not bad. Look, I gotta go. I'll call you soon okay?"
When their call ended, Zac sat back and sighed. He should have felt better after talking to her, but the truth was, it hurt worse. And while he was totally excited to learn that she was doing a Gerard Cline movie, it wasn't enough to hide the hurt he felt from missing her. Maybe he shouldn't have called her. She sounded
busy. Maybe it had been a bad time and he had imposed. Maybe that was the problem, why she didn't seem that interested in talking to him. He could totally understand the work thing. Hell, nobody could better
understand it than him. But it nagged at him. It nagged at him and nagged at him.
Amidst his self-loathing and personal pity party, Mel burst in the door. She'd been different lately. Happier. He liked that side of her.
And then she said the most beautiful words a woman could ever utter to a man: "Oh, just the person I was looking for. How do you feel about going with me to the shooting range?"
"You are a god," he answered.
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