In Love with a Star Read online

  “Ok, I’ll take a taxi”, Leny surrendered, trying to consider how much that evening would cost her: the price of the taxi, the one for the car repair and finally the pub!

  She couldn’t afford all that, so she decided at last to go by taxi only half the trip and she promised to herself she wouldn’t have more than one drink…or she wouldn’t be able to pay the next instalment of her car.

  Twenty minutes later in those murdering shoes, she realized she wanted to turn her good intentions upside down.

  Her feet were aching and she should have more than a drink if she wanted to overcome the evening and to bear the pain, but above all to face the talk which was making everyone laugh when she arrived.

  “With Ethan? I can’t believe it!”, Emily burst out laughing her head off.

  “Yes, she was so drunk the next day she asked us was had happened!”, Sheila went on amused.

  Leny felt she would die: they were talking about the day she had lost her virginity. The memory of that event was enough to make her feel a nausea capable of making her feel sick at once.

  She would never forget the day after the high school leaving party, when she got up feeling pain everywhere and with her hair muddy and full of grass.

  She had never felt pain in her thighs before, so she had immediately understood someone had taken advantage on her.

  After a while she realized it was Ethan, but when she had expressed her fears of a rape, everyone had told her she was drunk and she was keeping telling she wanted to lose her virginity with the man of her life.

  That was a really bad stroke for her and she took three years before she could let another man approach her, while she had definitely put an end to alcohol.

  Emily realized her cousin was there. “Leny, at last! Come here and tell us everything!”.

  “There is nothing to talk about. It was a youth folly!”, Leny defused trying to hid her trouble.

  “But with Ethan? The one who was always making fun of you at college because of your sticking-out ears?”, Emily inquired.

  “Well…I was so drunk I didn’t even realize I had lost my virginity”, Leny giggled looking away to avoid showing the anguish which was seizing her because of those bad memories.

  Luckily Chris wasn’t there to listen to her! She would never survive the humiliation.

  She was giving thanks mentally to her fate for that little luck, but as soon as she turned to move to the counter and fetch something to drink, she had to face Chris’s petrified face.

  By his glance full of disgust, she could immediately understand he had heard everything.

  She went to the counter stumbling, nodding hello to Chris.

  She wished she could rather disappear from the face of the Hearth than get that glance from the only man she had ever loved.

  She was going to order some drink, when she felt Chris’s menacing presence next to her.

  “Two tonic waters, please”, he ordered to the waiter in front of them in a voice which didn’t allow any objection. “…or if you prefer something stronger, maybe something which could make you so drunk as to go to bed with anyone”.

  Deeply wounded, she made the mistake of looking into his furious eyes.

  She tried to speak, but she couldn’t utter a single word.

  Luckily the waiter took the order and Leny caught her glass with trembling hands, as if it was her only escape.

  “So, come here!”, Emily intruded dragging them towards the group. “Emily, do you remember when I said I would only make love with J.F. of Punks Up? Well, I lost my virginity with him and it was great”, her cousin whispered into her ear, euphoric after the third round of tequila.

  “Emily, I’m sorry but I don’t feel very well. I’ve been working hard this week and I’m very tired”.

  She had to get out of that situation at once…before Emily started telling her how Chris was in bed, giving her the finishing stroke in that way.

  “But it’s still early!”, Emily lamented stumbling and falling into Tom’s arms who was proud as a peacock, holding the famous movie star in his arms.

  “Next time”, she went away fast, leaving some money on the table.

  She didn’t even stop to say goodbye to the people present and still less to look at Chris, who was like an icy mask.

  However, once outside she got angry again.

  Her car! She had no car!

  She had thought about asking for a lift, but the idea of going back inside and ask her friends for help stopped her.

  She stood on the sidewalk for a long time breathing deeply to wipe away the evening events.

  Why was everything that happened to her turning into a nightmare?

  She started walking disheartened, trying to ignore the pain in her feet for her murderous shoes.

  “Where are you going all alone at night?”.

  Chris’s voice made her start.

  “My car has broken down, but I’m going to call a taxi”, she stammered scared seeing him approach.

  “Forget it. I’ll give you a lift.”, Chris decided in a harsh and angry voice.

  “I don’t need it!”, Leny stirred up on the defensive.

  “Let’s go”, he got angry, taking her by her arm and drugging her to a rented car.

  She finally surrendered snorting and got into the car, but she changed her mind as soon as she felt the fast beat which was making her heart gallop like a frisky horse.

  The car started fast in the direction of Leny’s house.

  “I can’t believe it, Leny!”, Chris suddenly shouted as soon as the car moved out of the car park. “You went to bed with Ethan! When I think that I even punched him on the last year at college, when you came to my house once crying for the bad tricks he was making to you in class”.

  Leny perfectly remembered that day and it made her trouble and pain for what had happened sharper.

  She had doubts about having gone to bed willingly with that idiot, but how could she be sure of that? She was so drunk that night!

  The only thing she remembered was that she was left alone at the leaving party, which she wished she could celebrate next to Emily and Chris.

  “It happened”, she just whispered trying to keep her eyes on the road.

  “Did it? I’m sorry but these things don’t happen if you don’t want to”, Chris burst out following the last sign to get to the girl’s house.

  “I don’t even know whether I wanted to”, she muttered in such a low voice she thought she hadn’t said it actually.

  “What do you mean? You didn’t want to? Did he…”, Chris tried to understand shattered. He couldn’t believe that Leny had surrendered to the advances of a guy like Ethan, but thinking about violence…no, it couldn’t be! It couldn’t have happened!

  “No, it’s not like that!”, Leny immediately replied scared. She couldn’t face a similar subject with the only man she wished she could see in her bed next to her. “I was just so drunk I don’t even remember how it happened. That’s all”.

  Chris tossed his head and rubbed his forehead by the hand as if he wanted to wipe away the bad images which had overwhelmed him.

  “Leny”, he sighed disheartened while parking the car beneath the house. Why was he feeling so guilty?

  “Thanks for the lift. Good night, Chris”.

  She didn’t even wait for Chris to turn off the car, she run out of it, rushing to the front door, which some neighbors had luckily left open.

  “Wait”, Chris shouted to her, but she pretended she hadn’t heard, she closed the door at her back and she run to the stairs.

  When she got home, she started crying once more.

  However she didn’t want to think about the reason of that new sadness and she blamed the blisters on her feet which were making her feel a pain capable of breaking her heart.

  4

  The next day she took the bus and went to Tom’s garage to ask him for help with her broken down car.

  “Bring Emily here and I’ll do all the work for free”
, Tom suggested her, still angry with his colleagues who hadn’t believed his run- down of the Saturday evening at the pub with the famous and half- drunk Emily Keys in his arms.

  Even if she didn’t like that sort of things, she decided to accept.

  She couldn’t afford being fussy at the moment.

  Tom repaired her car in a record time and he called her two days later, warning her to go and take it.

  Even if she had agreed with Tom, she hadn’t still been able to talk to Emily about it.

  Luckily her aunt organized a lunch at the house in Pieville and Leny accepted the invitation, hoping she could persuade Emily to go with her to Tom’s garage and take her car.

  As soon as she got home, she met Chris.

  “Good morning”, she told him trying not to notice his tight sweatshirt showing up his fit chest and broad shoulders. He had always been quite muscular, but he had become still fitter by now.

  Leny realized she was no more in front of the boy she used to peep at from her window, but of a real man, with an unkempt beard and fair wisps outlining his tunny and perfect face.

  “Good morning”, he answered in an indifferent voice, as if he had forgotten their last meeting.

  Emily took hold of the conversation at lunch, talking continually about her job.

  It was evident she was proud of her and consequently her mother and aunt got deeply moved.

  “And what about you, Chris? How do you like being an actor?”, Claire asked him after a while.

  “I’ve never eaten such a good baked pasta in my life”, Chris exclaimed smiling so charmingly that all of them forgot having questioned him.

  Leny was trapped by that smile too and when he opened his lips to put another forkful of food into his mouth, she felt her throat so dry she was forced to drink long sips of water to gulp down a morsel.

  She was so charmed by his mouth, she didn’t realize his eyes were staring at her.

  When she realized that, she blushed like a poppy and the morsel got down the wrong way, forcing her to drink between coughing fits.

  “Eat slowly, dear”, her mother immediately worried striking her gently on her back as if she was a five years old child.

  She was almost recovering from the fit, when she stared back at Chris.

  It was a terrible mistake because his amused look caused another coughing fit, making her blush even more.

  At the end she decided to stop eating. Her stomach was closed and she could feel Chris’s eyes on her.

  Completely embarrassed, she finished lunch sitting silent at her place like a girl being punished.

  When she had finished eating, she started clearing the table under Chris’s attentive eyes and he finally offered to help her like the previous time.

  Even if she had finally recovered from the cough, she couldn’t avoid blushing again because of his proximity and if that wasn’t enough, Chris seemed to be always trying to touch and skim her while he was passing her the dishes or put the spare wine bottle into the fridge. The wine he hadn’t even touched.

  “You’re blushing”, he smiled with his most sensual look.

  Leny’s heart turned a somersault and she almost let one glass fall to the ground.

  “It’s hot in here”, she tried to justify feeling silly since she had said such a stupid thing.

  “Do you think it’s so hot here?”, he asked her in a languid voice and approaching Leny’s burning face still more.

  “A bit”, she was just able to say panting while that proximity forced her to look directly into his emerald eyes. The most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

  He addressed one of his most charming smiles to her, then he moved to fetch the last glasses still on the table, letting Leny start breathing again.

  When he came back to her, he leaned on the counter next to the sink and hold the glasses to her.

  “Leny?”.

  “Yes?”, she whispered hypnotized by the sensual voice he had uttered his name with.

  “Do you like me?”.

  I like you? I love you! Leny was dumbfounded. Her neurons got crazy looking for the right answer she could give, while her heart just wished her to be true and show her real feelings.

  “Of course…All women like you”, Leny giggled embarrassed. She wasn’t ready to lose her balance so much, but Chris probably didn’t like her answer. His smile faded and turned into an icy mask, while he let the glasses fall carelessly into the sink risking to break them.

  “Chris…I’m sorry, but”, she tried to justify herself, but he had already gone away to join Emily.

  Once alone, embarrassed by the man’s reaction, she remembered the reason why she had accepted the invitation and she decided to face Emily who had been continually talking and praising her own talent in the role of Catherine.

  “Emily, can you come with me to fetch my car from Tom’s garage?”, she asked her taking advantage of a moment of quiet.

  “I don’t know”, Emily muttered unsure.

  “Please”.

  “If you want, I’ll come with you”, Chris intruded coldly. It was evident he was still angry with her.

  “Thank you, but I wished to be with my dear cousin for a while”.

  Emily surrendered at the end and the three of them went to the garage by Chris’s car.

  Even if Emily didn’t pay Tom much attention because of her agent’s phone call about the latest news on Catwoman’s remake, Tom was very happy as well and he didn’t ask Leny any money for the car repair, as they had agreed.

  “I didn’t think you were such an opportunist to take advantage of your cousin’s celebrity”, Chris whispered into her ear.

  “It’s not as you believe. Tom asked me and I couldn’t say no. He really wished to meet Emily again”, Leny replied hurt because he had called her an opportunist.

  Chris’s sarcastic smile made her understand he didn’t believe her and she got angry at the end.

  “You know what? Think as you like! She burst out nervously before she got into the car and went home.

  That quarrel made her stay awake all night.

  Cutting the figure of the opportunist, something she had never been, made her feel miserable.

  Luckily she didn’t have to get up early the day after to go to work, so she stayed in bed till late.

  As soon as she decided to get up, unsure whether to have breakfast or lunch at once, she heard the doorbell ring.

  Surprised that someone was visiting her, since everyone knew she was still working, she opened the door hoping the post woman wouldn’t bring her more bad news, because bad luck seemed to be persecuting her, then she surrendered and opened the door heedless of being still wearing her pijamas and having her hair in a mess.

  For safety’s sake, she put the box she had started filling the night before into the box room and she then run to open the door, suddenly anxious to hear the second ring.

  Her post woman never rang twice.

  Without losing more time she rushed to the door and opened it wide in a hurry, before the woman could leave, but to her great surprise Chris was in front of her.

  It took her a few seconds before she could realize his presence and it took Chris some moments as well to recover in front of the little woman in her light blue crumpled pijamas and with a dolly face, rose cheeks, full and opened lips, amber- colored eyes opened wide and staring at him incredulous and admiring.

  “What are you doing here?”, she managed to ask, trying to adjust her hair rapidly.

  “Can I come in?”, he asked even if his tone didn’t look like a question, but an order.

  “I’m busy actually”, she lied, uneasy because of the untidiness of the house due to the removal.

  “You’re in a pijamas at lunch time!”.

  Leny was going to reply when he pushed her aside badly and got straight into the house.

  “Sorry, but I wasn’t expecting anyone. I’ll be back in a minute. I’ll go and get dressed”, she fidgeted at once trying to make him settle down on th
e living room sofa, which had been covered with blankets and colored cushions till a few days before.

  She run to her room in a hurry and wore a pair of jeans and an embroidered shirt with flounces. She then rushed into the bathroom where she washed her face and brushed her teeth fast.

  She brushed her hair, gathering it in a pony- tail as she used to do years before and without stopping to put make up on, she went resolute into the living room, where she found Chris standing and looking around with curiosity.

  “Nice house. Very…minimal”.

  “That’s true, I hate the mess”, Leny giggled uneasy, noticing how Chris was staring at the empty bookcase and case.

  “I don’t know why, but I’ve always imagined your house as something full of things, memories and…warmth”.

  And it had been like that.

  “Can I offer you something? Maybe a coffee”, Leny tried to turn his attention running to the kitchen.

  “Yes, please”, Chris muttered in an engrossed voice.

  Luckily Chris stopped making questions and followed Leny into the small kitchen.

  Getting the sugar in a hurry, she almost fell completely on him.

  “So… sorry”.

  Trying to soothe her nerves for that unexpected presence, Leny concentrated on preparing a small plate full of biscuits and on filling two cups of coffee.

  There was a little table with two chairs in the kitchen and Chris sat on one of them, refusing to move into the quite larger living room. He needed to feel Leny next to him. He had to talk with her and he would never go away without getting some answers.

  Meanwhile Leny added a little milk into his coffee and he took the sweetest and full of chocolate biscuits from the plate, dipping them into the hot drink.

  “You’re still a little girl”, Chris told her, moved by that gesture which reminded him the snacks they used to have when they were children, while he took the napkin to clean her chin full of crumbs and chocolate.

  That act made Leny’s legs turn shaky and she let herself be cleaned like a little baby.

  “Why are you here?”, she asked trying to keep in touch with the real world.

  “I’ve come to thank you for everything you did for my grandpa”.