Perfect Summer (11 page)

            The
parking lot was full when I pulled up to my reserved parking. The doors to the
Academy were already open, and students ranging in age from seven to fourteen
were walking in with their parents.

            Nat
and I grabbed everything we could and headed into the Academy from the back
entrance, usually reserved for the theater crew when the Academy used to be a
working local theater. From there, we placed everything in the kitchen, where
there seemed to be a large display of catered foods – a cheese and ham spread,
fruits, raw vegetables, stuffed mushrooms, fried dumplings, and meatballs.

            A
girl with blonde hair in a ponytail, dressed in all black and wearing a black
apron came in with a silver tray, which she filled up with more food.

            Another
girl with red hair came in and did the same thing.

            Nat
and I looked at each other before I asked, “Who ordered catered services?”

            The
pretty blonde girl said, “Oh, we’re from the studios,” she said, handing me a
card. Lisa. “We normally cater events like film releases, but this was very
last minute and smaller.”

            “From
the studios?” I asked. Where was I going to have a budget to afford this for a
small acting school like ours?

            “Yes,
the one Astor Fairway had contracted for his next film. Cold Desert Studios.”

            “So
Astor Fairway hired you to be here?” I asked.

            “Well,
it was a friend of his who got a hold of us, told us the contract was ours for
the rest of the year for film releases if we can make this one work, last
minute. We only had an hour to get this all done, believe it or not. Luckily,
our restaurant is a couple of blocks away, and we had all this ready to go.
Just needed heating up.”

            “It
wasn’t Astor who hired you?” I asked. “Then who?”

            “I
did,” a familiar male voice came from the doorway. I looked up into the
ceiling, unable to believe that it was Drew who arranged all this.

            “Drew?”
Nat said, incredulously. “How did you figure we’d probably need something like
this?”

            Drew’s
eyes burned into mine, the intensity of his desire for me clearly on his face.
The memory of his hands rubbing lotion on my body, and then the heated hunger
in his eyes as he watched me with Nat; made my face flushed with desire. I
looked down, not wanting to betray how I felt, in front of Nat and the
caterers.

            Drew’s
eyes didn’t falter from looking at me. “When you called me to remind me of my
promise to help out at the Academy and told me I had to be here today for the
Open House and class, I went ahead and arranged all this…thanks to the help of
Astor, who seemed to know a lot of people in town.”

            I
couldn’t help smiling to myself, a little surprised but happy with how well
Astor had started getting along with the boys…now that he no longer dated me.

            “Well,
good thinking, Drew,” I said, walking up to him and patting him on the
shoulder. “This…is incredible!”

            Drew’s
gaze drank me in from head to toe. “It’s the least I could do, Summer.” He
winced as he tried to smile.

            I
reached out to touch his bruised cheek, and instantly felt horrible. “I’m sorry
I slapped you,” I said. “I should never have resort to that. It’s not in my
nature to be violent.”

            Drew
looked pained and said softly, “I probably had it coming, Summer.” He laughed.
“Not the slap, but the anger.”

            “I
don’t even want to revisit why I felt the anger, Drew, not right now or I’d
lose it. I’m still not quite over everything you said to me.”

            “Summer,”
Drew’s eyes looked so sad at the moment. “I wished I can take back what I said.
“But it’s already out there, and this is a way to make it back to you.”

            “Drew…”

            “So,
how’s the food?” another familiar voice said from the doorway.

            I
turned and saw Astor standing there, his arms crossed casually around his
chest. He was wearing a USC t-shirt and loose black jeans that fell down to
black combat boots.

            The
two caterers looked from Astor, Drew, and Nat to me, and exchanged looks. “Some
people get all the luck,” one of them muttered as they headed out with their
trays stacked high with food.

            I
rushed over to Astor and hugged him, welcoming him into the kitchen where he
immediately headed to the table for some food. “Is the food alright?” he asked
again.

            “Haven’t
tried it,” I said. I took one of the stuffed mushrooms and popped it into my
mouth. It was good, decent as you would expect it to be, but not earth-shattering
good. “What do you think?” I popped one of the mushrooms into Astor’s mouth
while Drew and Nat busied themselves with sampling some of the food, too.

            “Ehh,
it’s alright,” Astor said.

            “I
know,” I smiled over at Drew and Nat, who were standing next to each other,
watching me joke with Astor, taking samples of the food. “This is good, though.
I wouldn’t be able to get this all together on such short notice so this is all
good.”

            Astor
smiled at me, his eyes crinkling with such affection. “I wanted to do something
special for you, Summer, especially with the attack here and all. Thank
goodness, there’s a restraining order against Sloane for getting anywhere
remotely close to you.”

            “Thank
you for getting all that done for me…the police report, getting the office
cleaned up…”

            “I
had help, Summer. Your friends there happened to be well connected in certain
circles, and they helped to get things going faster than normal.” He stepped
aside and walked over to Nat and Drew, who were talking.

            “Hey,
thanks for all your help with the Sloane incident,” Astor said. “Donovan
Dynamics really does know its stuff.”

            Nat
glanced at me and said, “No problem, we were actually already working on
Summer’s case so we had a head start in resources and research.”

            “Cool,”
Astor said. “I went to the right security firm then.” Astor turned to Drew and
said, “What do you think of the catering? Does it live up to your standards?”

            “They’re
fine,” Drew said. “Good recommendation, Fairway, considering there isn’t much
of a choice when you only have an hour to get caterers at the last minute like
this.”

            “That
or you and Nat could have whipped up something and brought it over,” I said.
“Your cooking is wonderful. I bet you could’ve made something better than this
in an hour.”

            Nat
grinned, “But Summer, we didn’t have an hour at the time. You were busy
showering and getting ready, while I had to go out to buy food, and…” Nat went
over to the food we brought in. “Forgot about this,” he said. He took the food
out of the containers and arranged them on the caterers’ trays before heading
out to the main floor of the Academy.

            Astor
looked over at Drew. “Summer usually doesn’t take more than an hour to get
ready, and she takes the fastest showers, guess this Open House is a big deal
for her.”

            At
the word “shower”, I noticed Drew glanced quickly at me, before looking away. I
blushed and also looked away…thinking about my heated shower incident with Drew.

            Drew
looked down at the ground for a second, before he said, “Hey, talking about the
Open House, someone has to be out there talking up a storm to get people to
enroll.” He came over to me, kissed me on the cheeks, and walked out.

            Astor
came over and sat next to me. “Finally, alone! I just spent twenty minutes
talking to people, but most of them just wanted me to sign things and take
pictures with them. I figured, my area of expertise is to actually get some of
them to sit in the sample class we have later, and get them involved in the
acting.”

            “Good
idea,” I said.

            “I
have another idea that I’ve been thinking about for a while. I wanted to tell
you what it was that night you were attacked, but forgot. Some things were more
important at the time…and that’s you.” Astor hesitated and said, “I worry about
you, Summer. Not just that Aunt Sookie’s not here, but that you have these
haters and stalkers willing to go to fanatic extremes to hurt you or mess with
you. And you’re taking on so much with this school and college. Believe me, I
know how it feels to have the pressure to keep taking on more things and more,
thinking it would help your career; but after a while it takes its toll, and
you burn out. I don’t want to see that happening with you.”

            Astor
took my hand and played with my fingers. “I want you to be taken care of, to be
cared for.” Astor entwined his hand in mine and brought it to his lips, kissing
my knuckles. “I want to do this for you…for Aunt Sookie’s memory. I want to
become a partner with you at the Academy, maybe buy a part of it so at least
you can get funding. Plus, it’ll probably stop some of the haters hired by your
rival schools from attacking the school and you.”

            Astor
kissed my hand again, and sat closer to me. “We can hire some of the best
acting coaches to teach here once in a while. We can offer more classes. It’s
something I’d love to do with you, Summer.” He turned to me and brushed a
strand of hair off my face. “This will give me some stability, and it’ll be
something I’d like to be part of like that digital library. When I’m finished with
this next film, I’m taking a few months off to take film classes at USC.” He
smiled happily. “I get to stay here and finally get into something normal, but
best of all…” he looked deeply into my eyes. “I can have that chance to have a
normal relationship.”

            I
was speechless. This was so unexpected. “Astor, I’d love for you to get
involved with the Academy. You’re always welcome to, but Aunt Sookie left this
Academy for me and the Donovans to run. I’ll have to ask them what they think.
But I’m so happy you’re not going to be traveling so much to locations. You’ll
get to be here…”

            Astor
grinned happily. “I know. I get to go to the same school as you, maybe even
take the same classes, and be here for you when you need me, not out in some
camp filming the next blockbuster film that takes place in the woods.”

            I
laughed. “Some of the best films take place in the woods.”

            “I
know…” Astor said.

            “Hey,”
Nat came in and looked at Astor and me sitting so closely together. He stopped,
and a look of jealousy crossed his face briefly as he saw Astor drop my hand.
He came up to me and put his arm around me. “There were a lot of people asking
about upcoming classes and the schedule for summer, too, beside the spring
ones. I know you mentioned you were working on setting up the summer school
schedule, but do we have copies of them to give people?”

            “That’s
exactly what I was trying to work on, but, have been, um, distracted these past
weekends, to actually spend time on it.” I coughed. Nat should know. He had
been spending every weekend with me, making love to me, and making me forget
all about my duties and obligations.

            Nat
shot me a heated look, clearly replaying some of the heated weekends we’ve
spent together, in his mind. “That’s okay, Summer, I’ll just tell everyone the
schedule is being finalized, and it will be up in on the website when it’s
ready.”

            “Good!”
I said. “I’ll work on it this week.”

            “I’ll
keep out of your hair for a while, Summer,” Nat said. “So you can get it
finished…then afterwards…” he gave me a wicked smile that sent a heated sensation
through me.

            Astor’s
face was expressionless as he watched Nat walk out the door. He bent to finger
the charm bracelet Nat had given me, that I was wearing. “Nice bracelet,” Astor
said. “Looks like Nat has the same taste in jewelers as I do.”

            I
blushed, knowing that Astor was trying to play it cool, but wasn’t really cool
about it. But he was here, and he had catered the Open House with Drew, and was
about to teach a class just because…he liked me still? Even after we broke up
twice, publicly?

            “Astor,”
I said gently. “I really enjoy being with you and I love everything you stand
for and have a passion for, but I don’t want to give you any mixed messages,
lead you on or anything like that. But I’m getting pretty serious with Nat.”

            Astor’s
face fell then, and he said, “I kinda felt that vibe in here just now.” He
paused, “Although I always thought you and Drew…there was something there,
too.”

            “Astor,”
I took his hand in both of my hands. “I’ll always be your friend though. I
think that’s probably more of a lasting relationship than anything anyways,
and…”

            “I
know, I know…” Astor said, embarrassed. “We both don’t know what the future
holds, of course. I just shouldn’t have come on so strong. Anyways, let’s get
moving. We have some classes to teach!”

            “Ready
when you are,” I said, walking out of the kitchen with him.

Chapter
10

Nat

O
pen House turned out to be a bigger success than
we had imagined, with several of the students enrolling for spring classes and
signing up for the waiting list for summer classes. Not only was it a fun event
for Summer and the students enrolling, but it gave me an opportunity to talk to
Astor, who had now become part of our team at Donovan Dynamics working on
trying to provide Summer with more security as well as find out more about the
haters and Sloane who had physically attacked Summer.