AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
NOAH
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO
Even after all my time away from the LA scene, certain doors still opened for me without question. I walked into Smirk, the most exclusive of the restaurants situated inside The Dane, like I had a right to be there, when in reality, I was actually gate-crashing.
An album wrap party for an up-and-coming boy band had fairly strict security protocols, and yet, there I was, walking past yet another metaphorical velvet rope. Walking into The Dane, the doorman merely nodded and greeted me by name as he instructed security to let me through. It helped that my father was a sought after director. And my mother… well, back in the day, it was said she spent some time on his couch before she got the role that launched her acting career. It grossed me out to think I may have been conceived on a casting couch. That was before the lavish wedding, of course.
Not that they were still married or anything, or that they approved of my career choices. Still, the Moore name opened doors even when it shouldn’t have.
Of course, knowing the head of security at The Dane, the most exclusive hotel in Los Angeles, helped as well. Since Iwasn’t there to attend the wrap party, but rather to catch up with a friend who had left the Marines a few months before.
The host pointed me in the direction of the booth where Ronnie sat waiting for me. I inhaled the combination of Calvin Klein and flavored tobacco before I smiled as I approached my friend. We had been through the Marine Corps Boot Camp at the same time and were assigned to the same platoon for a while. Once we each had our own team we still kept in touch when we could. After his last deployment, Ronnie had decided not to reenlist. I, on the other hand, had been reassigned to Force-Recon, the special forces arm of the Marines. Since I was between deployments and in town to visit my parents, I decided to catch up with my friend.
Ronnie spotted me and smiled as he stood from the booth. “Ghost, it’s good to see you.”
“You too, Alien.” His nickname had nothing to do with how strange he was, but more about the X-Files reference his last name, Mulder. I looked around the restaurant. “Cushy gig you’ve got here.”
His face lit up as he motioned me to sit in the plush booth that gave us a fair amount of privacy. He indicated two fingers to the barman, and I knew some great whisky was on the way. “It more than pays the bills. And it means I get to see Jeanie more regularly than a few weeks at a time.”
Even with the party in full swing, the place didn’t seem crowded and we could still enjoy our conversation over the music.
Ronnie never complained about being deployed. Like me, he came from money and wasn’t graced with his family’s approval. And just like me, he was making a living without that money, and the strings attached to it. But when he met the love of his life he wanted‘safe and stable’. It was an easy decision for him to leave. As easy as it was for me to stay.
I wanted a life away from Hollywood, or the entertainment industry in general. There was a reason none of the women I dated, if that’s what it could be labeled as, were not celebrities or stars. And when I was ready for more than that, it would be with someone as far from stardom as I could find.
The server placed a glass in front of each of us and I gave her quick thanks and a small smile. I stretched my legs and leaned back in the seat. The soft rust-colored velvet glided under my hands as I made myself comfortable.
“You seen your parents?” Ronnie knew my relationship with them was contentious. It was something we bonded over. “They’ve been in here a few times. Once they were even together.”
My head snapped back to my friend. “Together? Please tell me they were at an after party together or something?”
Ronnie shook his head and chuckled. He was clearly enjoying my discomfort.
“Nope. The one time I saw them together they’d gone straight to check in. I was off duty when they checked out, so I don't know anything more.”
I shuddered at the idea of them checking into a hotel for … whatever the reason was. I took a large gulp of my drink and savored the burn as the Lagavulin went down. “I know they’re both single, but you’d think they’d be more discreet.”
“Please, two exes checking in for a quickie is one of the more wholesome things I’ve seen in this place.”
I had no doubt my friend was right. Even with all the changes Hollywood execs had to make in terms of sexual harassment and gender equality, the level of depravity in the city still put Hell to shame.
A laugh coming from the bar caught my attention. The blonde with a bright smile was enjoying something one of her friends was saying. I’d seen her before. In a music video that hadbeen everywhere on my social media feeds over the previous two weeks.
Eve something or other. She was pretty enough that I usually watched the entire video clip of her singing about being breathless and wanting to be tempted and teased. Not what I usually listened to, but she was hot. And even more beautiful in person. That blonde hair was swept up into a high ponytail that showed off a long neck, and that smile lit up the entire room. She was sitting and the flowy maroon dress she wore hid most of her body, but based on her music video, the woman had some curves. Then there were those boots, black lace-ups with sky high heels. Yeah, it wasn’t difficult to imagine them at the small of my back.
I cleared my mind of the image and looked around the restaurant. It had been arranged so the seating was around a small dance floor. I knew Smirk would accommodate a live band most nights but for an album wrap party they would hire a DJ.
I turned away from her and back to my friend. Not that I paid much attention to his soliloquy about the security in the entertainment industry. Yeah, the bodyguards were paid more and did less than in other industries. The way they were treated varied from being considered part of the family to being nothing more than a piece of meat who would take a bullet. Not that there were many shootings on the job.
No, celebrities mostly had overzealous fans and groupies who got out of hand. Occasionally, there were fanatics who didn’t like what a star stood for and they could get pelted with food and sometimes fake blood. Basically, your average Hollywood bodyguard would never face a bullet, or anything more dangerous than uncontained enthusiasm.
There were, of course, exceptions. Stalkers existed. They were real, and while some of them could be harmless, some could be downright dangerous. My mother had one who wasconsidered harmless. He broke into our house when I was a teenager, scaring all of us and leaving semen on my mother’s bed. Because he didn’t hurt anyone, no one took it seriously.
I glanced over at the blonde once more. A quick scan around her told me that she had no bodyguard. Either the record label she was with didn’t give her one, or, more likely, they assumed that The Dane security was sufficient. They weren’t wrong. Unless she reached a level of stardom where her fans were out of control or she’d acquired a stalker, she didn’t need twenty-four-hour security.
“… and hired some of the men I worked with.” Ronnie darted his eyes between me and where my gaze kept moving to. “Should I be offended that your attention is divided between me and the hottest starlet of the year?”
