Idolized (Hollywood Stardust Book 3) (44 page)

At least twenty people descended upon him for autographs.

Rather than stand straight by his side, Cora positioned herself a little behind him and took his hand.

Never wanting to put either of them in a bad light, he did his duty, but finally nodded and smiled. They needed to get inside.

“There’s the star!” A man lifted his professional camera and rushed toward them.

Cora let out a scream and tightened her hold on his hand.

“Cora.” He tried to make his way through the crowd, but the man stopped them.

“We heard about the attack on Miss Caine, do you have any comment?” The man held out a microphone.

The police report must have been posted. No wonder Glen knew about the attack. “I thank god every second she’s all right.” He pulled Cora in closer. Did she hear his words? They were the truth.

“Do you think it was a fan?” The reporter followed them.

“We have no speculation on who it was. Thank you.” At seeing a break in the crowd, Ryder moved forward.

The reporter kept up with them. “Miss Caine, do you have anything to say?”

When Cora didn’t respond, he took over. “We have no further comment.”

Finally, they made it inside the theatre, were ushered to their box seat, and an attendant brought them both some wine.

Alone, he leaned over to her. “Are you all right?”

“I told you not to ask me that, and I told you I’m fine.” She gulped down her wine and turned to him. “And just so we don’t do this all night, you’re going to Arizona, I’m going to my meetings. You have a movie to finish, I have one to make, and now we’ll be all over the goddamned Internet with a story I didn’t want out there because we had to file the police report.”

The lights flashed, indicating the play would start soon. “Let’s feast our eyes on the land of make believe, where people can sing and dance.”

“Just not you, right?” She snarled and crossed her legs.

“Right. I only act.” He pressed his back into the seat.

“I know.” A sly laugh escaped her throat.

This was how they would play? She might own the world, but he didn’t have to buy. “After this delightful romp, I’ll pack to go on my location shoot.” He stared out over the audience. Only a few times had he played on stage, he preferred film. There were too many risks with live acting, and you could never take anything back. It was too much like real life.

HOLLYWOOD STARDOM

FADE IN:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD, CA – OUTSIDE HOLLYWOOD STARDUST THEATRE - DAY

ROXY turns to the WOMAN.

ROXY

(Points to Steven on the picture)

You may not recognize him, but in some circles he’s just as famous as WILLIAM.

WOMAN

(Nods)

I feel like he’s familiar.

ROXY

Award-winning director.

WOMAN

Oh yes!

(She jumps up and down.)

He directed that romance drama where the woman goes off to find herself.

ROXY

That’s the one.

The camera pans back to WILLIAM, STEVEN and CHARLES.  A crowd gathers around them and they all three sign some autographs.

WOMAN

(Motions over to WILLIAM, STEVEN and CHARLES)

Now the third one I feel like I have seen as well, but is that him in the picture?

ROXY

Yes. That’s my best friend.  He’s always been the calm in the storm.

WOMAN

So are you ever going to tell me?

ROXY smiles.

FADE OUT.

Chapter Twenty-Two

DAY TWO OF NO SLEEP wasn’t bad. Nope, not at all. In fact, if Cora could figure out a way never to sleep, she would be caught up at work. She glanced over at the clock. It was now three in the morning. The last time she slept was not yesterday, but the day before when Ryder was home.

Then with a kiss, and a hug, and not asking her if she were all right, Ryder left for Arizona.

Last night she didn’t sleep. She tried everything from having the television on to having it off, to a cup of some herbal tea Ryder made her sometimes, to the total girl thing, burying her face in his pillow. None of it worked so she ended up watching a marathon of
Hollywood Stardust
and
Hollywood Starburst
, working on her presentation, and trolling the auction sites. Good news—she now owned an authentic poster signed by the entire
Hollywood Stardust
cast back in the day. She thought maybe Ryder would get a kick out of it. Honestly, for the price he better get more than a kick, he better get bowled over.

By the time she got to work yesterday, she was fine, got caught up at the office. Had a meeting about the meeting the next day, and then she came home to an empty apartment. Strange, before Ryder she never thought of her place as empty and she even had a pet.

Now at 3:01 she hugged Ryder’s pillow to her and stared at Spike. Yes, Spike whom she allowed in the bed because the bed seemed empty when she used to be just fine sleeping by herself. The vision of contentment, Spike lay on his stomach, one ear down one flopped over his head. Not wanting his ear to get a draft she reached out and fixed his ear.

Spike opened his eyes.

“You don’t have any trouble sleeping, do you?”

Spike rolled to his back an indication he would like some scratching. She indulged and scratched her fingers through his fur and closed her eyes one more time.

For several moments, she literally lay there wide-awake, staring at the inside of her eyelids. In fact, the more she attempted to sleep, the more she woke up.

“This is useless.” At least when Ryder was here, she could wake him and have sex.

Great, now she was horny as well as awake and with nothing to show for anything. She flopped to her back and began reviewing her presentation in her mind. Today’s meeting was a state of union, so to speak, with the current CEO of Ultracom, George and the CEO of News Now and other contender for her job, Albert.

She had done this meeting before, but this time the stakes were heightened. It would be the first time had seen either of them since the open position was even announced.

Yes, her numbers were on point, that was the main thing, but she knew she would be asked questions about
Hollywood Stardom
. She only wished she had one more thing to put in front of George to tie everything together.

Giving up on the whole sleep thing entirely, she sat up and turned on her television, scrolling through her on-line movie selections and stopping at one of Ryder’s films,
The Label Maker
. It was a dramatic tale of a publicist who could literally make or break people’s careers until he gets involved with one of his clients.

Cora pressed play. The night of the
Hollywood Starburst
party, he told her he would make a fan girl of her yet. She really hated when Ryder was right. Since the night of the play, he had been distant, and she didn’t blame him. She just wanted things back to normal but didn’t know what that meant anymore.

For a few minutes she watched the movie. The characters were engaging enough it could have been a series where the main character dealt with a different client every week.

Wait.

With newfound strength, she threw the covers back on the bed and got out. Though her lack of sleep caused her arms and legs to feel like rubber weighed down by anchors, she went to her desk, turned on her laptop and ran some old algorithms and reports on a possible scripted series for Chargge. Her company was a frontrunner when it came to streaming live entertainment news shows, and even dabbled in live events. Some other sites were doing scripted shows, but she wasn’t proficient in production at the time, and scripted entertainment was as hot, and it was now becoming profitable. What would Ryder think? He had guest starred in some television productions.

When the hell, did she memorize his resume?

With a sigh, she clicked her chat application. Maybe he was up and on line. Before this whole dumb thing happened he told her to be ready for some video sex. Not that hit mattered, his box was grey, indicating he wasn’t there or ignoring her or blocking her. For the woman who once got upset with his texts, she could go for some now. Right before she closed her laptop, the little ping went off indicating a message.