AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Valerie shook her head. “Nope. I don’t mind one bit.”
The other two women shared a glance, identical grins pulling up the corners of their mouths before their attention snapped back to Valerie.
“What was it like working with Rory Strand?” Colette gushed.
“Were the tears inLove You, Hate Meactually real? Or did they use eye drops?” Sarah blurted.
Neither woman waited for her to answer before firing off question after question, and Valerie’s eyes darted between each of them in turn.
“Is it true what they say about male movie stars having to do pull-ups before a shirtless scene to make their pecs look bigger?”
“What was your favorite movie to film?”
“No. Who was your favorite co-star to kiss?”
Valerie began laughing, holding her hands up in the air, palms facing forward in a gesture of surrender.
“I can’t keep up.” She chuckled, shaking her head slightly. “One at a time.”
Both Colette and Sarah’s expressions turned sheepish before they started repeating their questions, one at a time this time, and they actually gave Valerie plenty of time to answer. And then, they asked many more questions as after that, everything from awards show gossip, her worst run in with the paparazzi, what it was like to do aVoguephoto shoot and interview.
They sat there talking for hours, and surprisingly Valerie didn’t once feel the slightest bit tired or overwhelmed. The women, while interested in what she had to say, weren’t treating her job like a superhuman feat like some did. They were excited about her answers, but it seemed like the kind of excitement to be learning something new. And the more Valerie talked to them, the more that she realized she liked them both quite a lot.
And they didn’t just talk about her. She was able to pepper them with questions about the town and its residents. She learned that she absolutely had to try Frosty’s Shack, and to also meet the owner, Louise. She had been told all about the dogsledding, and the town’s giant Christmas tree. By the time they were wrapping up their conversation, with Sarah needing to leave to tend to a new rush of customers and Colette getting a call from Zach, Valerie had a long list of things for her to check out while she was in town.
The three women stood, clearing the table off and helping Sarah carry all of it back to the counter. Colette had insisted on walking back to the Warm and Bright Hotel with Valerie, telling her that it was on her way back home, and Valerie had to admit that she was grateful for the company.
While she waited for Colette to finish up her last goodbyes with Sarah, she took her phone out of her coat pocket. It had been in there the entire time she had been in the bakery, and she was only just now realizing that she had been so absorbed in her conversation with Sarah and Colette that she hadn’t even thought to check it.
As she brought the screen of the phone to life, she only had one notification. A message from her agent, Florence Brennan. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she unlocked the device and clicked into her messaging app and read what her agent had to say.
Hi, hun! Just checking in to make sure everything is going okay. When you left,
you didn’t say how long you were going to be gone. Do you know when you might
be coming back? We miss you. Kisses! -F
“You all ready to go?” Colette’s voice brought Valerie back to the present, forcing her to stop staring at her phone.
“Absolutely,” she said, plastering a believable grin on her face as she locked her phone and tucked it into her pocket without answering Florence.
The two women fell into step beside one another, walking toward the hotel and with Colette pointing out many of the attractions she had told Valerie about while they sat in the bakery. Valerie nodded and made approving noises, trying as hard as she could to push all thoughts of the message out of her brain.
“Oh,” Colette said as they approached the hotel. “I also forgot to tell you. I don’t know how long you plan on staying, but two weeks before Christmas the whole town is putting on a Twelve Days of Christmas Festival. A lot of the businesses, bakeries, and whatnot are participating, plus there will be performances of different kinds. Carol singers, kids doing an ice-skating showcase, all that kind of stuff. You should go!”
Valerie considered this. Thanksgiving had just been last week, and they were in the final days of November. So the festival Colette was talking about was only a couple weeks away.
“If I’m still here, I’ll come,” she answered honestly, knowing that she wasn’t in any position to give a full commitment, especially when she couldn’t even tell her agent how long she would be away.
Colette didn’t try to pressure her or inquire any further. She just told Valerie that it was fine before pulling her into a big goodbye hug in front of the hotel. Valerie relaxed in the other woman’s arms, shocking herself as she did so. When had been the last time that someone who wasn’t family or already a close friend had embraced her like this? With warmth and familiarity? It had been quite a while, that was for sure.
The two women said their goodbyes and then turned away from each other, with Valerie walking into the hotel and Colette sauntering off in the direction of her home. Valerie retired to her room for a bit, sitting in the large reading chair by the window and staring out at the snow-covered lawn below. Valerie couldn’t figure out why Florence’s message had made her feel so crummy, but it had. From the moment that she read it, the small pit in her stomach had begun to grow.
She loved her life in California and loved her job. So why did the thought of going back make her feel ill? She took out her phone again and stared at the message Florence had sent her. And no matter how hard she tried, she could not come up with an answer to Florence’s question. But even after only a day, she was starting to wonder if she might end up being in town longer than she originally expected.
CHAPTERSIX
“No, honey, a little to the right,” Lacy called, staring up at Derek as he struggled to place the star on the very top of the tree that they were decorating.
