In Love with a Star Read online

  “Emily…You haven’t disappointed me, even if your love story has shocked me. I’m very proud of you and I’m happy you are going to be the new Catwoman…”.

  “I don’t give a damn about Catwoman. I made the screen test just because I had quarreled with Steven, but now that we’ve made peace, I think I’ll forget it. I want to be with him. I want to work with him. Not with another film director”.

  “In my opinion you should try this new experience instead. For you as an actress and to show that your story is true and not just depending on “Love School”. It would be a very important growing experience for you and you’ll see, he will be able to support you if he really cares for you”.

  “You’re right. Thanks”, Emily exclaimed holding her tight. “I knew you are the only one who can understand and help me”.

  “I wish I could help you, but I don’t know if my advice is the right one. If you knew about my life, you would think twice before following my suggestions”.

  “Come on! Of course what happened to you with Ethan was terrible, but your life is booming now. My aunt says you’re going out with a policeman, you have a satisfying job and a house on your own.

  Leny couldn’t avoid laughing bitterly.

  “I haven’t been telling my mum about me recently. My only confidant was Arthur, but now he’s dead and I’m really left alone to face a very messy life”.

  “What do you mean?”.

  “I mean that reality is very different”, She confessed without turning her eyes from the moving surface of the hydro-massage. “I lost my job two months ago. My boss’s new wife had me sacked because I’m single and young. She feared I could steal her husband. She accused me of having made a move on Andrew and she fired me as if I was a bitch”.

  “What a bastard!”.

  “She is and Andrew has no backbone. He lets his wife lay down the law. When I asked him for explanation about my sacking, he answered I sometimes wore a skirt. Can you believe it? I seldom wear skirts and all the ones I wear at work are knee-high! I swear”.

  “Leny, I believe you. You would never make a move on someone like Andrew Marshall”, Emily reassured her knowing how shy she had always been with boys, Chris excepted, and remembering the man’s exaggerated build.

  “It’s his fault if I had to give up my flat and I don’t know what to do now. Thanks to Pamela, that bastard’s wife, I’m not having a reference letter, so I’m having difficulty in finding a new job. I didn’t tell anything to my mum, hoping I would find another job meanwhile, but now three months have passed and I…”-

  “I’m really sorry, I’ll do everything I can to help you”.

  “Thanks, but I don’t want your money and then the thing which makes me angry is being considered like a little liar bitch”, Leny told her remembering Chris’s words, which had hurt her more than she could acknowledge.

  “Why didn’t you let Travis help you? He’s a policeman”.

  “We had already split up. My sentimental life is still worse, believe me”.

  “Leny, you’re very beautiful and I’m sure you had no problems in the past years to have every man at your feet”.

  “After Ethan, I couldn’t go to bed with any man”, Leny confessed, her eyes burning with tears. “I didn’t even have a story for three years after the accident. I’ve opened a while in the last two years, but my boyfriends can be counted on the fingers of one hand and I’ve never celebrated the third month with them. As soon as things got serious or they wanted to go to bed with me, I let them go at once. I was with Travis, the policeman, for eighty-six days, my record”.

  “That’s normal after what you experienced”, Emily comforted her caressing her back.

  “And then…”, I love Chris.

  “And then?”.

  “I love someone else. A man I won’t ever have”, Leny admitted, her shoulders shaken by sobs.

  “He’s Chris, isn’t he?”, Emily told her calmly, a large and lovingly smile on her lips.

  “How do you know?”.

  “My dear, it’s written on your face. I would understand it even if I didn’t know you since I was born and I hadn’t studied facial expressions for my work”.

  “I made a fool of myself in front of you”.

  “Are you stupid? Chris loves you crazy. He’s just waiting for you to ask him to stay with you. Every time you meet, his eyes shout “I love you. Please, keep me with you!”. If you really love him, don’t let him leave with me tomorrow. Open your heart to him and tell him you want to stay here in Pieville with him”.

  “I can’t”.

  “But why?”, Emily asked, made angry and nervous by her cousin’s stubbornness.

  “I can’t ask him to give up his career for me”.

  “Why not, if you love him?”.

  “Just because I love him! Do you think I didn’t wish to implore him on my knees to stay here seven years ago? Do you believe Arthur was happy knowing he was far away? Do you know why his grandad and I were so close? Because we shared the same deep love for Chris and just in the name of this love, we gave him up”.

  “Well, what you did was just crap!”, Emily got furious. “Chris was sure you didn’t want him anymore and started drowning his sorrows in alcohol. I stayed next to him, but I wasn’t enough. I could hardly make him go into hospital, but it was useless, because he started again three months later. He could get out thanks to his grandpa, who he had phoned to one night in despair. It seems that phone call was useful to him and I saw him determined when he came out of the community for the second time”.

  “He had the heart compass tattooed, just like his grandpa called it”, Leny remembered, thanking Arthur silently.

  “Yes, that tattoo on his heart always reminds him who and what is important in his life. He told me one night at dinner after we had filmed a sex scene, where I could see his tattoos very closely”, Emily told her.

  “Leny, listen to me. Please. Let yourself go with Chris. You love each other and distance will just make both of you suffer”.

  Leny didn’t feel up to replying and to tell her about her last quarrel with Chris, who had shown her all his scorn. He had called her a bitch and it was evident he considered her just an opportunist.

  8

  When they got to Leny’s mother, the two cousins had still their skins wrinkled like prunes, but their hearts were light thanks to the confidence they had done each other. Being able to tell their doubts and their fears to the other one had restored the mutual and loyal relationship they used to have.

  What’s more, having revealed all the worries she had been keeping hidden for all those years made Leny smile spontaneously and naturally, so she got into the house holding Emily tight, while she pretended to be angry because they had left the spa before she could have a long draining massage.

  Leny was so hungry that, after they had emptied the buffet made of yoghurt, fruit and rice crisps, she dragged her cousin outside to take her home and have “real food”.

  “How can you be still hungry?”.

  “I didn’t have breakfast this morning and you are a fool if you think that a cup of diuretic infusion and an apple are enough to satisfy my appetite”, Leny answered cheerfully, before Chris’s arrival.

  “Emily, dear”, he told her trying to kiss her, but she turned the other side.

  “Chris, we aren’t together anymore. I love someone else, you know”, Emily whispered to him in a soft voice making only the three of them hear her.

  “Are you joking?”, he got angry looking at the woman with a knowing look.

  “No, I’m not. And now, if you want to, put your threats into practice or leave me alone”, Emily answered blinking to her cousin, who couldn’t avoid bursting out laughing.

  Emily was the only one who could get rid of a man like Chris in that way.

  “Leny, I can see that staying with Emily has been good for you. You’ve started laughing again as you used to do”, Claire said moved, after she had spent the previous seven years
wondering if her daughter would ever get over her cousin’s desertion.

  Leny addressed to her one of her most beautiful smiles and then ran to the table, dragging Emily with her.

  “We’re hungry like wolves, mum”.

  “Talk about you. I’ve already had a cup of fruit salad and a yoghurt. I’m already full up”, Emily intruded, always careful to avoid exaggeration.

  “You promised you would eat as much as me”.

  “But then who’s going to listen to my agent?”.

  “Don’t give it a damn! You’ll have a liposuction at the most”, Leny made fun of her, causing the anger of her cousin, who kicked her strongly under the table.

  “So, how was your morning?”, Rose, Emily’s mum, intruded, taking the hors-d’oeuvres to table.

  “Great!”, the two cousins exclaimed at once laughing.

  “Wow…and what have you been talking about?”, Rose got curious, happy to see her daughter so light-hearted.

  “About Leny’s hen party”, Emily told fast, her eyes excited, making Leny’s food go down the wrong way and holding the attention of all the people present, also Chris’s, who had closed up like a clam since Emily had betrayed him.

  “Leny? Leny, are you going to get married?”, Rose tried to understand, being used to her daughter’s tricks.

  The girl was petrified by Chris’s shocked look, who was staring at her incredulously.

  “Of course, and I’m going to be her bridesmaid, aren’t I, Leny?”, Emily intruded cheerfully and blinking to her cousin, who was blushing at the moment.

  “I…”, Leny remained speechless and feared she could understand what her cousin aimed at.

  “Chris, you’re coming to the marriage, aren’t you?”, the last one added with a deceiving smile, but he didn’t even answer her. He couldn’t move a single muscle.

  “Of course you’ll be there, I’m just silly!”, Emily exclaimed cheerfully, hitting him gently on his tense shoulder.

  “You aren’t talking about Travis, I imagine”, Leny’s mother said, having stood aside till then wondering if that was a joke or not.

  “Of course we aren’t, auntie! Travis is water under the bridge, he has never existed, but I can understand that, by the way. The man Leny is in love with is surely better. I’ve given her my blessing today”.

  “Emily”, Leny tried to speak feeling terribly uneasy and with a lump in her throat because of Chris’s unhappy look. “Stop it”.

  “Leny, you must stop feigning and not telling the truth. You told me in the swimming pool you love him, don’t you? So why are you always restraining?”.

  “For the same reason why you’re doing the same!”, her cousin replied trying to put an end to that ordeal.

  “But Emily is not feigning. She has been with Chris for ages now”, Rose intruded.

  “No, mum. I lied to you. Chris and I split up a long time ago. We’re just friends now”, Emily confessed drily, looking daggers on Leny with a look like “Are you happy now?”.

  “Emily…”, her mother whispered broken-hearted.

  “Well, he loves someone else!”, Emily tried to justify herself, playing with the food in her dish to avoid the inquiring look of all the others, including Chris’s murderous and furious glance.

  “But Chris, how did it happen?”, Rose asked him, overwhelmed by the news.

  “Ask your daughter. She’s going out with someone else secretly”, Chris answered angrily, getting up from the table to leave.

  “What?”, Rose exclaimed shocked, while Chris run outside without even saying goodbye, but Emily didn’t listen to her at all. She took her cousin by her arm and dragged her to the door.

  “Now go to him and bring him back! Immediately!”, Emily ordered imperiously and pushed her outside.

  “But I can’t. He’s angry. I don’t think you should have told everyone that you and Chris had split up”.

  “He’s not angry for that, silly girl! Now go to him and tell him you love him. Don’t think of coming back before you do it”.

  “But Emily!”, Leny tried to reply, but her cousin had already closed the door in her face.

  Emily on her part should give her mother some explanation, but she didn’t feel like doing that and she wasn’t ready to talk about Steven and herself yet.

  Left alone, Leny started running after the boy.

  “Chris! Chris, stop, please”, she called him trying to get at him.

  “What do you want?”, Chris shouted to her panting. He was still angry.

  “I’m sorry for the things Emily has been saying. You know she can’t control herself sometimes. She has always been so impulsive”.

  Chris stopped to look at her with icy eyes and crossing his arms. “What else?”.

  “I just wanted to apologize for her attitude. She made you uneasy and I’m really sorry. Believe me”.

  Chris didn’t seem to contribute to that conversation.

  “She’s just like that”, Leny went on uneasy, trying to calm him down with a smile.

  “Have you finished?”.

  Leny nodded slowly. How could she tell him about her feelings when her mind kept reminding that he had called her little liar bitch?

  “Ok. I’m going to prepare my luggage for tomorrow now”.

  “So I’ll see you tomorrow”.

  “No need. You’ve got a marriage to organize and…sorry if I won’t come, but my career must keep going on”, Chris was ready to tell her before he turned to go away.

  “My marriage was just Emily’s joke”, she hurried to explain, but Chris didn’t seem to listen to her.

  Broken-hearted because she finally realized that the split in their relationship could never be solved, she surrendered and took the keys of her car to go back home, since she would never have the courage to go back to Emily. She knew she would be disappointed and she didn’t feel like building a wall between them once more, after what they had shared that morning.

  Leny started laughing hysterically when the car didn’t start after she had turned the key.

  Was it possible that bad luck never came alone?

  Becoming frustrated and bitter, she got out of the car coursing Tom’s bad work.

  He was probably so lost in the memory of Emily he hadn’t worked well.

  In a rage outburst, she decided to take it out on the mechanic, but when she took her mobile to call him, she found out it was off, its battery flat.

  And now? What could she do?

  As if she was forced, she went back to her cousin, who was waiting for her at the door with a very disapproving look.

  “I told you not to come back without Chris!”.

  “Leny, it’s not the right time. My car doesn’t start and I must go home”.

  “So what? What do you want from me? I don’t even have a driving license, since I damaged the driving school car during the exam. I’d like to help you, but my chauffeur is in Los Angeles. Why don’t you ask Chris to give you a lift?”.

  “Please, Emily. Don’t let me be humiliated once more”, Leny prayed her with tears in her eyes, but Emily took her by her arm starting cursing at her for her foolishness and dragged her towards Chris’s house.

  “What the hell do you want, Emily?”, Chris burst out nervously when he went to open the door to give an end to the girl’s shouts, as she was calling him aloud.

  “I know you’re angry with me, but now try to be a gentleman and bring Leny home. Her car doesn’t start and she must go home”.

  “Ok”, he snorted irritated, taking the car keys.

  “You don’t have to”, Leny whispered shy in front of the boy’s attitude, but he didn’t even listen to her.

  “So, let’s go”, Chris shouted at her, fastening his seat belt.

  Blushing with uneasiness and sorrow because she was disliked by the only person she loved, she hurried to get into the car.

  Driving really too fast, Chris took the girl home in a short time.

  None of them uttered a single word.


  Chris kept his eyes on the road, swearing at every red traffic light, while Leny didn’t dare lifting her face from the bag she was holding in her lap.

  “Thanks for the lift and I’m sorry I bothered you. It will never happen again”, she muttered while Chris turned off the engine after he had parked the car.

  “Try to have that wreck repaired once for all”, Chris burst out irritated, holding the driving wheel tighter till his hand’s knuckles turned white.

  “I’m really sorry”, Leny stammered trying to keep her tears.

  She was going to get out of the car, when someone knocked at the window next to Leny, making her start.

  “Miss Perks!”, a woman shouted at her and she immediately recognized her as her landlady.

  Leny forgot Chris for a moment and opened the door trembling.

  She kept her breath when she faced the thin and hysterical woman, who had warned her two months before that the next time they met, she would have to leave the flat at once.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Korder”.

  “Gee with good morning, missis! I’ve been calling you for hours to warn you to bring your things away, but you never answered. I’ve just told my new tenant he can do what he likes with your rubbish”.

  “But you can’t do it!”, she screamed worn-out and scared because the moment she had feared in the last months had come.

  “So, go and talk about it with the new tenant! I have no more time to waste with you”, the woman said angrily moving to her SUV.

  Losing her home was terrible, but thinking about all the things she had put aside and kept with a quite maniacal care was even worse.

  Angry and in despair, she started running breathlessly up the stairs to her flat.

  The door was open and inside there were a pair of very young boys who were laughing and making rude remarks on some clothes they had taken out from one of the boxes she had put away carefully.

  “How can you dare touching my things? Go away! This is my home!”, she shouted furiously snatching the dress out of the youngest boy’s hand.

  “This is not your home, it’s my aunt’s! You’re the one who must get out!”.

  “I have the right of a twenty-four hours’ notice!”, Leny exclaimed remembering her landlady’s hurry in making her leave before she found herself with an unpaid month of rent.