Then came a blur of introductions. I shook hands without soaking much in. I couldn’t get my mind to slow down enough to absorb any details. Only one face held my attention, and I had to force myself to glance at it in careful, measured-out looks so as not to be suspicious. Every time we accidentally met eyes, we jolted apart like getting caught doing something wrong. Not like last time, when he wouldn’t look away. He had made me feel like the most interesting thing when he studied me. But of course, he could make me feel any way he wanted.
He was anactor.
The revelation was met with disparity and relief. I had been right to ignore his flirtation. I found myself explaining for the hundredth time that I hadn’t seen the showTerraformative. Yes, George had helped raise me, but I’d never had the time. It was the quasi-truth I usually went with. Of course, I read the books. It was a stubborn personality trait that I wasn’t about to delve into with a group of strangers. Strangers who made their careers from said show.
But that had to be why he had looked so familiar. HarrisonfreakingEvans. He was the prodigal son from another family that George spoke of as though he walked on water. He was in half the pictures on the walls. He was a man who had his whole world thanks to George, and this was how I finally met him.
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have not put it together sooner? Brooks had to have recognized him. She was always up on pop culture references, where I purposely kept myself in the dark. She subscribed to that Nosy Nellies podcast and read ChicChat for salacious details. She must have sent me after Harrison to watch the chaos unfold.Thatwas why she had been so interested in how it had gone when I got back and also huffed in annoyance when I said I got money back but didn’t elaborate. She’d been waiting for some drama, some insider info.
That was why she kept encouraging me to work up front and pretended not to notice when I asked if the shoplifter with the magical eyes had come back. She totally knew it all along.
The next time I saw that woman, I was flicking her boob.
I felt silly and off balance. This wouldn’t have happened to a woman who had a normal childhood. Every other person in my generation would have known him in a moment. I was always a marked outsider, and this was just another example of it.
I wasn’t sure of all that I said. I felt like I was outside my body, watching it operate but not in control. I needed to get out of that room and organize my thoughts. I might have come off rude or flighty, but I couldn’t think when I felt Harrison watching me. If I wasn’t careful, would he try to get me alone? Or was he as happy to let that brief meeting slip by unnoticed? Why had I built it up so much in my head when chances were it was just another day for him?
I collected Collette and left George to say goodbye to his friends. Once Collette was in the bath singing as her bath toys did a talent show, I slipped into the closet to be alone. I let out a long breath and dropped my head back against the door.
It figured. The first time I’d have the hint of an inkling of feelings for someone since I moved here, and it had to be one of Hollywood’s, according to Brooks, most eligible bachelors. Carefree, as he should be, doing whatever he wanted.
Another unattainable, flaky actor in my life.
It was fine. My initial instinct to avoid getting close to him was right. My instinct hadn’t failed me yet.
“Frankie?” Collette called out.
I squeezed my eyes tight. “What’s up, girly-pop?” I called.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course. Why?”
“Because the closet is where you go to cry.”
How was it that this six-year-old girl could simultaneously be the most distractible and unfocused child yet manage to notice every little thing I tried to keep locked down?
I chuckled, but it came out like a growl. “I promise I’m fine.”
I would be fine. Harrison and I had miraculously managed not to cross paths yet, and we would continue that way. He was always off shooting movies and lived in LA the rest of the time. George often lamented he visited even less after William died. I wasn’t going to be here forever, either. I would just push our weirdly memorable meeting out of my mind and focus instead on my job here until I could finally get away.
“Okay,” Collette said. “Wanna see me hold my breath?”
“Sure. I’m coming,” I called and put Harrison Evans out of my thoughts once and for all.
