Falling Stars (Starstruck Series Book 2) (15 page)

A few minutes passed and she figured it was time enough spent away from her company, so she returned to the bedroom. Upon exiting the restroom, she pulled her hair out of the ponytail and ran a brush through it.  It was too quiet.  When she turned, she discovered Evan sleeping soundly in the middle of the bed, sprawled out comfortably.  Alisa walked over and gently covered Evan with the comforter.  She poured another glass of water and set it on the nightstand beside the bed then returned to her writing.

The night had become cooler in the time she’d spent with Evan, but she didn’t mind it.  She kept tightly wrapped in her hoodie and started in on the character outline like she had originally set out to do.

Ian Holden, a musician.

Sara Parkman, a writer.

The cursor flashed, and she left the two names there for a few minutes before she wrote a short paragraph elaborating on their backgrounds.

Ian Holden, a musician.  Comes from a very rich family.  Went to Boston Conservatory for music and is a master at the guitar and piano.  Divorced.  Meets Sara at an art exhibit in New York City and finds her in her hometown of San Francisco to get to know her.

Sara Parkman, a writer.  Very imaginative. Story mostly focuses on the narrative surrounding her life; divorced twice. Written a few scripts for short series and web and was a consultant on a children’s show.  Still trying to find her perfect story.

Jackson Charles, a triple threat: actor, writer, director.  Friends with Sara since they were in the fourth grade.  A friend who ultimately falls in love with her.

This wasn’t like anything she’d written before.  All of the content in her books fell into the science fiction or fantasy genres, so this was quite an intriguing turn.  Was this too cliché? Was this too close to home?  Her friends, notably Ray and Alex, would see right through this story as juxtaposition to her own life, but a lot of writers did that.  She resisted the urge to select it all and delete it. It wasn’t a complete reflection, after all.  It was a romantic dramedy she even had a title for:
Falling Stars
.  It was going to show the dark side of life in the entertainment industry as well as the light side.   The witty title could be assumedly based on the concept of wishing on a shooting star.

Be careful what you wish for…
was the tagline.

Alisa took another sip of her wine.  She had the glass by the stem and turned to see Evan still sprawled out and lightly snoring.  The sight of him made her smile. It was strange but cute, she thought, and she was thankful he hadn’t thrown up on anything.  

Then her mind went wandering.

If she had met Evan Gable before running into Logan Rider, or perhaps gone a different route instead of falling head over heels for someone who was out of her league, what would her life be like now?  Perhaps she was destined to find the Kurt’s of the world and end up in some miserable hole to live in a melancholic state forever. Or maybe Logan could have stayed the perfect husband instead of a Hollywood nightmare? Or maybe Evan may have had a couple of kids by now, girls, an award-winning movie with a script penned by none other than Alisa herself.  It was a dream, a really refreshing one, one that was nowhere near obtainable.   

Everything that could have been, the consequences because of what would have been … or the decisions she should have made instead? There were so many possibilities, so many ‘what ifs’.

There were plenty of opportunities for her to jump in bed with Evan Gable, but she refused. Sure, she’d fantasized about numerous situations, and may have admitted her attraction to him, but Alisa never acted on it.  He kissed her.  They kissed each other, or whatever … it was nowhere near the brutal betrayal of cheating, sexually.  In Hollywood, sex was like currency.  It could be used as blackmail, as a status symbol, another notch in another bedpost in a borrowed bedroom.  Alisa didn’t want that.

She was already frustrated with her life. 
Two marriages that fell apart, and for what?

At least she had her work.

Bundling under the throw blanket she’d brought, Alisa closed her eyes and lie back on the balcony chair, falling asleep in a matter of minutes.

Chapter Ten

Evan was gone by the time she woke up to get ready to leave the hotel, which was around 7:00 a.m.  She blared the latest album by her favorite band on her way home, twice over, since it was roughly a two hour drive.  As much as she wanted to turn down the highway to Alex and John’s, it was time for the movie team to meet.  It was their first meeting together since Alisa and Evan had come back from New York. She was excited to talk about their adventure and their exchanges with Joey and Jenn.

With her freshly made coffee next to her notes, Alisa took her seat beside Ron, and Evan sat next to her.  

“I, for one, am
so
sorry for last night ….” He whispered quietly.  Evan was just lucky Ron had selective hearing.

Alisa snickered.  “You have San Diego; I have Cora Rivera’s.  We’re even?”

“Deal.”

They bumped fists.

There was a third chair, empty, across the table.  Another person entered the room.  

“Logan, thanks for joining us.”

Alisa could have sworn it dropped at least ten degrees. The last person she wanted to be in a room with had unfortunately been invited to the meeting. She inhaled sharply as she looked up to see Logan walking through the door. It had been over three weeks since she’d been near him in an intimate location like this.  San Diego was too crowded, too busy for her to worry about being in such close proximity to him, and yet, here he was. His eyes never lost hers.  Evan had stood up to shake his hand, and he finally broke eye contact to acknowledge the new director before sitting down.

“Wouldn’t miss it.”  Logan replied as he got comfortable in his chair.

“You okay?” Ron looked at her with slight concern.

“I’m fine.” She smiled that Hollywood smile.  “I was just unaware Logan would be here today.”

“Why wouldn’t he be?  He did co-write the screenplay on this one.”  Ron replied matter-of-factly. He knew the couple was having trouble, but chose to ignore it.  Ron was one of the few execs in Hollywood who tried to stay away from the PR nonsense, but Alisa did feel like it was a low-blow to invite them both to their meeting without so much as a heads up.

Evan watched all three parties and raised a brow in observation. Yet he said absolutely nothing, just offered Alisa a grin.

This should be interesting.

It was all business.  Ron kept the discussion on topic.  Evan pointed out a couple of concerns in the script, and Logan gave his thoughts on how he wanted a few of the scenes to work out.  Ron was choosing names for casting calls beyond the pair chosen and any returning actors from the first movie. Alisa sat and observed, chiming in when needed.  She was simply a consultant on the story.  She wrote the original book, but with a sequel coming, it had become more than that for her.  It was a bad habit to stare, but she couldn’t help but watch the interactions between Logan and Evan closely.  Alisa noticed the tension in Logan when he talked.  Evan was dealing his words directly, but Logan didn’t glance up nearly as often.  Ron was busy typing notes from their chat, so he didn’t notice the scene unfolding behind the lid of his laptop.

Typical.  

Alisa was standing at the coffee maker, refilling what would be her third cup.  She was a coffee connoisseur, so the effects of the caffeine took a bit to actually hit her, even though she drank it with very little cream and sugar.  The conversation between the four of them covered a lot of what she had been stressing over.  A couple of hours later, the meeting adjourned. Relief swept through her, knowing the movie project was finally gaining speed.  It had felt like an endless abyss of work with no purpose
  
but with both Evan and Logan there to get the wheels turning, they were finally getting somewhere.

“The first read is in two days. Since the show is nearing its mid-season finale, I think we’re right on track.”  Ron noted, and everyone nodded in agreement. “Alisa, are you going to lock up?”

Alisa nodded.  She normally left later than the others, so she didn’t mind.

Ron dipped his head at all of them before taking his leave.

When she went to grab the cups, papers, and other miscellaneous trash from the room, she found Logan and Evan chatting in the hall.  As she neared them, she half expected a fight to break out but instead, she heard them talking civilly.  They sounded like two pals catching up on old times.  They were discussing sports, she assumed, as she recognized some of the terminology and names of players from Logan’s favorite baseball team.  

“You two are getting along quite nicely.” Alisa raised her brows as she stopped to join them, her work bag over her shoulder.  It was hard to keep up this façade, but the less people who knew about it, the better. Her face was hurting from faking the smile.

“Turns out we like some of the same things.  Go figure.” Evan grinned.

“How cute.” She teased, as the heavy tension returned.

Logan turned her way and grew silent.  Actually, everything became still for a moment.  Evan took a good look at both of them before realizing it was a good cue to take his leave.

“I’ve gotta get going.  Good meeting, though, I’ll see you both soon.” He winked at her, unseen by Logan, as he started to back away.

“Good to see you, man.”  Logan uttered, his eyes fixated on Alisa.

“You don’t have to go,” Alisa called after him as she looked up at her husband.

Evan, already a few feet away, shook his head.  “It’s fine. I’ll text you later, Lis.”  

“
Lis
?” Logan repeated, curious. 

Only a select few were allowed to call her that.  Her mother, her girlfriends (yes, that included Ray and Alex), and of course Logan.  Evan had sort of adopted the nickname by accident, but Alisa hadn’t minded, especially not now that she knew how much it bothered her husband.

“Forget about it.” She whispered back.

“Please talk to me,” Logan pleaded.  “You should come home.”

Alisa tried hard not to be distracted by how his tight shirt hugged his sculpted chest and arms.  As much as she wanted to go home, she didn’t want to be around him, which was odd considering how much she had missed him when he was in London.  Part of her wished he was still overseas.  “I don’t know; would Kirsten be all right with that?”

Logan’s mouth opened to reply, and a barely audible sound was uttered.  He said nothing.

Shaking her head, Alisa pushed past her husband and raised an arm, her pace quickening as she saw the elevator doors closing.  “Evan, wait up.”

As the doors closed, she saw Logan in the distance, facing them. While she longed to embrace her husband and tell him everything was going to be okay, Alisa was quite unsure anything would be.

“Are you okay?”  Evan looked at her, his hands behind his back.

Fighting back the tears, she nodded.  “I just want to go home.”

He didn’t pry.  He just hugged her.  It was amazing how she disliked him less and less as their relationship grew.  With everything that had happened in New York and San Diego, Alisa was surprised how much she’d let Evan into her life, even if by accident.  She welcomed his hug and responded by squeezing tightly.  Once the elevator doors opened, they had separated.  There was no need to get the paparazzi involved in this and spread rumors like they had done with Logan and Kirsten -- whatever had really happened between them.

After getting back to Alex and John’s and getting into a hot bath, Alisa looked at her phone.  On her Facebook, she was tagged in a few pictures Evie had taken from their monthly girl’s outing. Checking to see who had liked the posts, she saw both Logan and Evan’s names. She sighed and set down her phone.
Great.

Alisa leaned her head back on the soft headrest offered in the tub and swirled her hands in the bubbly water.  As she closed her eyes, she thought of Evan and the progress that was made between the initial meeting, the New York trip, and more recently, their moment in the elevator.  She couldn’t help but smile.  His timing was just too convenient for her vulnerable state of mind.  She shunned any thought of him, as that surely would make things worse.  Alisa was dealing with this Logan and Kirsten thing (which was still hot on the gossip wires) and any involvement, other than a professional one, with Evan would just make things worse.  Prior to this mess, Evie had scolded her multiple times and told her to figure herself out before making any rash decisions, even if her separation from Logan hadn’t gone public.  Joann told her to get even, but that was expected.  She loved and hated having the angel and devil on her shoulders.  

No
, she thought,
I can’t get even
. It wasn’t her style. She refused to do so when separated from Kurt … and Logan ... she still truly loved him.  But she couldn’t get Evan’s face out of her head. His eyes, pools of ice blue, were even more gorgeous up close.  The way he smelled.  The way his body felt against hers when she hugged him. Alisa breathed out slowly and calmed herself down.  She couldn’t think about him any longer without getting into trouble.

Her phone buzzed beside her.  

Hey, you, everything ok?

It was Evan.

Reflexively, she set her phone down on the bathtub railing and pushed it away from where she sat.  Is he in my head? Did he know that I was thinking about him?

Her phone buzzed again.

You there?

Alisa didn’t know how to answer, so she simply didn’t.

By the third time her phone went off, it was a video call.  When she ignored it the first time, he called again, making her frantic.  She didn’t want to ignore it, lest he give her grief over avoiding him, so she tapped to answer it and left it facing the ceiling.

“Lis?”

She gulped.  Her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it reverberating in her head.

“Lis, you there?”

“I-I’m here.”  Alisa responded, pulling her hands out of the water.  

“Is that … are you in a bathroom?”

No reply.

“If so, it’s a nice one from what I can tell.  Though, I am getting a little tired of video calling to get ceiling views.”  He joked.

At a loss for words, she remained still.  Her thoughts were racing, and she had no idea what to do.   It would have been bad form to hang up.

“You can pick up the phone, you know.”

“I know,” she finally spoke up, and with a deep breath, she picked up the phone, careful not to drop it into the tub, and angled the camera perfectly so only her neck and up were in view.

“Bubbles. Nice.”

“What is it, Evan?”  Alisa didn’t want to seem rude, but she wanted him to cut to the chase.

He shrugged.  “I just wanted to check on you.  After what happened earlier in the elevator, I wanted to make sure you had enough time to wind down.  When you didn’t text back I just got a little worried.”

“Fair enough,” Alisa nodded.

“Well?”

Her bare shoulders rose and fell as she took a breath, “I’m better now.”  She said; honesty in her words.

“Looks like it.  Nice luxurious bathroom to relax in ... At least one of us is living large.”  He showed her his surroundings, an old, rundown hotel room that looked familiar to her living situation just last year.

Alisa knew there were extra rooms back at her house, but she wasn’t sure if it was safe to return just yet. Even if Logan wasn’t staying at their home, it wouldn’t be appropriate to invite Evan over with the eagle eyes of the tabloids hanging around.  Still, it was the thought that counted.

Living with John and Alex for the time being was nice, but she knew she’d have to go home at some point.  She wouldn’t necessarily classify it as living with them, either. It was more like Alisa was breaking in the new house John bought for Alex, and they were sharing an extended period of time together.

“Wait, go back?”  She waved to him, gesturing that he pan the camera back some.

He turned his camera back, aiming it towards the bed.  

“Is that a coin dispenser?”  Alisa squinted, looking at the stand next to the bed which looked a little different than a nightstand.  It had an open slot for quarters.  

“Yep. Settings are low, medium and
that’s
the stuff.”

The two of them laughed.

“Sounds like a party.” Alisa said.

“Sure is.”

She snickered, “Oh geez, I don’t want to know.”

Evan waggled his eyebrows playfully, and the pair kept laughing and making terrible jokes about the motel when she heard the alarm system beep. The sound of the door in the kitchen from the garage opening and shutting made her jump slightly.

“We’re home!” John announced their entrance.

“Oh! I gotta go.  Alex and John are home.”

“So that’s where you’re staying, eh?”  Evan arched a brow.

“Yes,” Alisa laughed, “It’s temporary. I do have to go.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I will?”

“Don’t we have a meeting?”

“Um … not that I have written down.  But we can always make one happen if you think it’s necessary. Prep for the next episode or something.”  He smiled at her.