The Trouble with Marrying a Movie Star (8 page)

"Don't look this way. Andrew and I are far from that."

Rebeca wrinkled her nose. "Nonsense. When you know, you know. You and Andrew are soul mates."

"That may be, but it may still be a while."

"Trust me dear, it will be quicker than you think," she said with finality. Erin flashed a hopeful smile while Taylor chomped on a breadstick.

Andrew and I married...what would that be
like
?
I thought while I took a sip of wine. What I did know for sure, was that I did not see my future without him, and I hoped Andrew saw one with me also.

"Then, we can have another grandchild," Rebeca added gleefully.

I choked on the wine that I had been drinking.

"Too soon, dear?"

I nodded, and wiped the spill from my chin.

"How was your day?" Andrew asked as we stood in the kitchen.

"Great. I missed spending time with your Mom."

"She missed you as well."

"Were you able to resolve the missing money issues?"

He looked hopeful, yet pissed off at the same time. "We're narrowing it down. What do you want for dinner?"

"Nothing special. I could cook?"

"Not necessary, I have the perfect place where we can go."

We were taken back by the hostess to the same area where our first date was.

"Did you have this pre-planned?" I asked Andrew.

The section was empty again, and we were the only patrons in the room.

"I thought this would be a welcomed change. Something familiar. Especially coming off of a world tour."

"I do love The Anchor. You think of everything."

He shook his head. "I have a lot of making up to do."

"You do." I smirked. "But, as long as you keep this up…"

"Oh, I plan to keep a lot of things up." He smirked back.

We made ourselves comfortable in the booth. This time, Andrew sat next to me.

"Keira's found an assistant for you, by the way."

"Great."

"His name is Owen King."

"A dude?"

"Yes, a dude. Why, did you want…a monkey?"

"I’ve never had a guy before." He scrunched his face.

"Great. You'll get to experience something new then."

The waitress came and took our order. The moment she left, I noticed Andrew just sat in thought.

"Owen is a great guy. He currently works as a second or third—I forgot—assistant to Elena, but he's been wanting a new challenge."

"I'm a challenge?"

"Nope. Just everyone around you."

He tilted his head, and stared at me. I raised one brow, and took a sip of my wine.

"I also asked Keira to become my personal assistant. I spoke to Elena about her taking a personal leave as a junior editor, which would give her a chance to see if she would like the job."

"She's doing the job now. What more does the poor girl have to do?"

"I just wanted her to be happy, and having Owen work for you may help."

He grinned. "She has the hots for this guy?"

"The guy has the
hots
for her. They're dating."

"He's
that
Owen?" he said shocked.

"Catching up, I see."

"What happens if they break up?"

I turned my body into his. "Mr. Pessimistic aren't we?" He leaned in and kissed my neck. I love how he always touches or kisses me somewhere.

"Andria?"

Thinking about that made me lose my train of thought. "Sorry…Keira called this afternoon, and it looks as if wedding bells are in the future. They are going to visit her parents, at Owen's request."

"Wow. They just met, right?"

"They started dating a few weeks after us." That didn't come out right. "I mean, they have known each other for a year. I think it finally came to a head when she left for the tour."

He popped a fry into his mouth as the server placed my burger down. "So, wedding bells in the future?" He chomped out in between bites.

"Looks like it."

We started eating in awkward silence. I hadn't felt like this since we had first met. The air around us changed.

"Owen sounds like he may work out," he said out of the blue.

"Why do you say that?"

"If Keira takes you up on your offer, and Owen works for me, they will be able to spend time together."

"I thought so, too. Even though I'll be here, and you'll be in LA, Keira can visit anytime.  I’m not sure how that will work once they're married."

"By that time, hopefully we'll be in the same city."

I put down my food, and turned into him. "You want to move back here?"

He stopped eating, wiped his mouth, and turned into me. "Do you want to move to LA?"

We sat, and stared at each other before I answered, "Well...honestly, the reason I was moving here was to be closer to my dad and Erin. Add your Mom and family…I guess I never thought about living there."

"We're going to have to do that, Andria."

This conversation was not what I had expected to have right then. "Do you mean think about the future?"

"Yes, and thinking about our future...living in different states...well, it isn't what I would want. It was hard enough being away from you while you were gone."

I swallowed hard before saying, "So, what do we do?"

"I've thought about this—"

Did I hear him right?

"—Keep the house, live in Virginia, and use the house in LA when needed."

Okay, I missed something
.

"You want to live in Virginia?" I asked.

"Isn't that where you'll be?" He smiled.

"Yes."

"I want to be where you are."

It took several days to pack up the things that I wanted to bring to Virginia. I decided to leave most of my furniture in Dallas, except that I had packed up my entire office.

Andrew surprised me by taking time off to help me pack. We flew down from Virginia to Dallas on a private plane. No one knew he had arrived, and it was a peaceful paps free week being cooped up in my house. Even though Andrew had been there to assist, he had spent most of the time snooping through my things. When he found my high school yearbook, we had spent over an hour going through it. Andrew was fascinated by it, for whatever reason, and, needless to say, I didn't get much packing done until he had left. There was another surprise in store for me that week, when my mom and Bob rang my doorbell, right after a marathon love-making session with Andrew.

Imagine the look on my face when I mistakenly answered the door in my robe, shocked to see my mother as she walked passed me and asked, "Why did it take you so long to open the door, and why are you in a robe in the middle of the day?"

Andrew then shouted my name from the bedroom, which perked up my mother's ears. "Is that Andrew?" She exclaimed.

Before I could answer, Andrew walked out shirtless with his pajama pants hanging, and showing his very happy trail. "Andria, what did you say?"

The look on both he and my mother's faces as he walked in was priceless. Bob lowered his head not saying a word as always while my mother's mouth fell open as she blurted out, "Damn! I'm surprised you ever get out of bed with him in it."

"Mom!"

"Do you see him? You did good honey." She held up her hand to high-five me. I left her hanging.

"My apologies. I shouldn't have come out improperly dressed." Andrew said, looking over to me sympathetically.

I touched his arm and said, "Why don't we put on some clothes, and when we come out, I can introduce you properly."

"Alright honey, but Andrew, don't trouble yourself. You look fine just the way you are."

"Mom! Sophia!" Bob and I shouted in unison.

We all had dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. The sangria was flowing, but my mother didn't need much of the libation to fall in love with Andrew.

She kept commenting on how down to earth he was, and made it a point to mention that he was the first movie star she had ever met. Who knew she wanted to meet more? Andrew invited both of them to come out to LA, where they would receive the star treatment. My mom was all in. I had had enough of the "star treatment" and said that I would sit that day out. Mom was worse than Rebeca when I told her Andrew was going to relocate to Virginia, so that we could have more time together. She embarrassed the hell out of me, when she cheered and offered a toast in hopes of a future wedding and grandchildren. I died when she said that, and peered over at Andrew, who didn't seem at all affected by the mention of weddings and babies. He actually smiled at her. I hadn't gotten a handle on the whole dating a movie star thing, but marrying a movie star….

Andrew left at the end of the week, and I would be in LA that following Sunday. I was excited to start sitting in on casting meetings. They were roundtables to throw out ideas. Casting was one of the most important things for me to participate in other than the script meetings. The actors would be the ones who would be conveying my words onto the screen, and that was crucial.