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He swished back into the main store area, and Brooke sprang into immediate action. Knowing she’d lose her nerve if he came back – or anyone else walked into the room – she grabbed the first non-themed outfit and tossed it into her shopping basket. She practically sprinted to the cash register, tossing in a bottle of shampoo, a travel-sized packet of Kleenex, and some refill razor blades on the way there, just to throw off the cashier. It wasn’t until she was on the subway home, sitting in the far back car, miraculously isolated from other people, that she allowed herself a peek in the bag.
The picture featured a redheaded woman who didn’t look drastically different from Brooke – save the forty-two-inch legs – wearing a high-necked, long-sleeved, full-length mesh bodysuit. The woman jutted out her hip provocatively and stared at the camera, but despite all the dramatic posturing, she managed to convey ‘sexy’ and ‘confident’ and not just ‘sleazy’ and ‘slutty.’ I can do this one, she thought to herself, and that very night, when she walked out of the bathroom wearing that bodysuit and a pair of heels, Julian had nearly fallen off the bed.
Brooke had donned the now-infamous jumpsuit over the years on some of Julian’s birthdays, their anniversaries, and the occasional warm-weather vacation, but lately, like all the old remnants of their pre-exhaustion sex life, it had gotten pushed to the back of the drawer. As she unrolled the material over her legs and shimmied first her hips and then her arms into the outfit, she knew it would send the message loud and clear: I’m so proud of you for this amazing accomplishment, now get over here so I can show you. No matter that the one-size-fits-all jumpsuit was digging tightly into her thighs and doing a weird thing on her upper arms; she felt sexy anyway. She had just shaken her hair out of her ponytail and reclined on top of the covers when the landline rang. Certain it was Julian calling to say he was on his way home, Brooke answered on the first ring.
‘Rook? Honey, can you hear me?’ Her mother’s voice rang through the receiver.
Brooke took a deep breath and wondered why the woman had an uncanny knack for calling at exactly the worst possible times. ‘Hey, Mom. I hear you.’
‘Oh, good. I was hoping I’d catch you. Listen, I need you to grab your calendar and check a date for me. I know you hate planning ahead, but I’m trying to make some arrangements for—’
‘Mom! Hey, sorry to interrupt, but it’s not a great time right now. Julian’s going to be home any second, and I’m late getting ready,’ she lied.
‘Are you going out to celebrate? Such amazing news. You both must be so happy.’
Brooke opened her mouth to talk and then remembered she hadn’t yet told her mother Julian’s good news. ‘How did you know?’ she asked.
‘Randy, sweetheart. He saw some update on Julian’s fan page – is that what you call it? I wish I could say my daughter had called to tell me on her own, but luckily Randy remembered his dear old mom.’
‘Mmm, right. Facebook. I almost forgot. So yeah, we’re both really excited.’
‘So how are you two going to celebrate tonight? Going out to dinner?’
Brooke glanced down at her mesh-covered body; as if to emphasize the ludicrousness of talking to one’s mother while wearing a crotchless mesh jumpsuit, one of her nipples popped through the fabric. ‘Um, I think Julian’s bringing dinner home. We already have a bottle of good champagne, so we’ll probably have that.’
‘Sounds lovely. Give him a kiss for me. And as soon as you have a second, I’d really like to get a date nailed down—’
‘Uh-huh, okay, Mom. I’ll call you tomorrow.’
‘Because it’ll only take a second, and—’
‘Mom …’
‘Okay. Call me tomorrow. Love you, Rookie.’
‘Love you, too, Mom.’ She heard the door open just as she hung up the phone.
She knew he would take his coat off and greet Walter, which gave her just enough time to peel off the foil wrapper and unscrew the wire basket around the cork. She had remembered to bring two flutes, which she placed on her bedside table before stretching out, catlike, atop the made bed. Her nervousness lasted only a second, just until Julian opened the door.
‘Guess who’s staying at the Chateau Marmont?’ he said, his smile a mile wide.
‘Who?’ She sat up in bed, momentarily forgetting her outfit.
‘I am,’ he said, and instantly Brooke felt a wave of anxiety.
‘No way,’ she breathed. It was all she could manage.
‘Oh yes. In a suite. Where I’ll be picked up by limo and taken to the NBC studio for the Leno taping.’
She forced herself to focus on his good news and remind herself that it had nothing to do with her. ‘Wow, Julian, that’s amazing! They mention that place constantly in Last Night,US Weekly, all of them. Kate Hudson just hosted an all-night party in the bungalows. JLo and Marc Anthony ran into Ben Affleck by the pool and Marc supposedly made a scene. Belushi overdosed there, for chrissake. The place is absolutely legendary.’
‘And guess what else?’ Julian asked, sitting down beside her on the bed and running his hand over her mesh-covered thigh.
‘What?’
‘My extremely hot wife is going to be joining me, so long as she promises to bring this mesh outfit with her,’ he said, leaning in to kiss Brooke.
‘Stop it!’ she shrieked.
‘Of course, only if she wants to.’
‘You’re joking!’
‘I’m not. I spoke to Samara, my new publicist’ – his eyebrows shot up and he grinned at her – ‘and she said it’s fine so long as we pay for your plane ticket. Leo thought it’d be better if we went alone, just so I wouldn’t be distracted, but I told him I could never do something this big without you. So what do you say?’
She ignored the Leo part. ‘I think that’s freaking incredible!’ she said, throwing her arms around his neck. ‘I think I can’t wait to canoodle with you by the bar and party all night in the bungalows.’
‘Is that really what it’s like?’ Julian asked, pushing her backward against the pillows and arranging himself, still fully dressed, on top of her.
‘Hell yes. From everything I’ve read, we can fully expect Cristal-filled pools, heaping mountains of cocaine, more cheating celebrities than a high-end escort service, and enough gossip on an hourly basis to fill ten tabloids. Oh, and orgies. I’ve never read that, but I’m sure they happen. Probably right in the restaurant.’
Walter jumped up on the bed and, chin to the air, began to howl.
‘That does sound pretty awesome, doesn’t it, Walter?’ Julian asked, kissing Brooke’s neck.
Walter howled in response and Brooke laughed.
Julian dipped his finger in his champagne glass, put it up to Brooke’s lips, and kissed her again.
‘What do you say to some practice?’ he asked.
Brooke kissed him back and pulled off his shirt, her heart swelling with the sense of possibility. ‘I’d say that’s the best damn idea I’ve heard in a long, long time.’
‘Can I get you another Diet Coke?’ the bermuda-clad waiter asked as he sidled up next to Brooke’s lounge chair, blocking her sun. In the direct sunlight it felt reasonably warm, and although she thought the low seventies was a bit too chilly for bikini weather, her fellow pool-goers apparently disagreed.
She glanced at the half-dozen or so people sipping delicious-looking cocktails around the pool, reminded herself that although it was only midafternoon on a Tuesday this was still a vacation of sorts, and said, ‘I’d love a Bloody Mary, please. Extra spicy and two stalks of celery.’
A long, lithe girl who, judging from her astonishing figure, was definitely a model lowered herself elegantly into the pool. Brooke watched as she swam a charming sort of doggie paddle to the side, taking great pains to keep her hair dry, and called out to her male companion in Spanish. Without glancing up from his laptop, the man answered her in French. The girl pouted, the man grumbled, and within thirty seconds he was walking toward the pool with her massive Chanel sunglasses in hand. When she thanked him, Brooke could’ve sworn she did so in Russian.
Her phone rang. ‘Hello?’ she said quietly, although no one seemed to care.
‘Rookie? How’s it going out there?’
‘Hey, Dad. I’m not going to lie, everything’s pretty damn great.’
‘Did Julian play yet?’
‘He and Leo just left so I’m guessing they’ll be in Burbank soon. I don’t think the actual taping starts until five or five thirty. It sounded like it was going to be a pretty long afternoon, so I’m waiting at the hotel for them.’
The waiter returned with her drink, the Bloody Mary in a glass every bit as tall and skinny as the women she’d spied so far in Los Angeles. He set it on the table beside her, along with a little three-part tray of snacks: marinated olives, mixed nuts, and baked vegetable chips. Brooke wanted to kiss him.
‘What’s the place like? Pretty swanky, I’d bet.’
Brooke took a small sip at first and then a gulp. Damn, that was good. ‘Yeah, it really is. You should see the people sitting by the pool. Each one is more gorgeous than the next.’
‘Do you know Jim Morrison tried to jump off the roof there? And that the members of Led Zeppelin rode their motorcycles through the lobby? From what I’ve heard, it is the place to be for badly behaved musicians.’
‘Where are you getting your information, Dad? Google?’ Brooke laughed.
‘Brooke, please! Don’t insult me by suggesting—’
‘Wikipedia?’
A pause. ‘Maybe.’
They chatted for a few more minutes while Brooke watched the gorgeous thing in the pool shriek like a child when her boyfriend jumped in and tried to splash her. Her father wanted to tell her all about the non-surprise surprise birthday party Cynthia was planning for him in a few months, how determined she was to celebrate his sixty-fifth since it was also his retirement year, but Brooke had a hard time focusing. After all, the woman-child had just climbed out of the water, and Brooke clearly wasn’t the only one who noticed that her white bikini was entirely transparent when wet. She glanced down at her own terry-cloth sweats and wondered what she would do to look that good in a bikini, even if just for an hour. She sucked in her stomach and continued to watch.
The second Bloody Mary went down just as smoothly as the first, and she was soon so happily tipsy that she almost didn’t recognize Benicio Del Toro when he emerged from a poolside bungalow and collapsed into a lounger directly opposite her. Unfortunately he didn’t remove either his jeans or his T-shirt, but Brooke was content to stare at him through her sunglasses. The pool area itself wasn’t anything special – she’d seen many grander pools in ordinary suburban homes – but it had a discreet, quiet sexiness that was hard to pinpoint. Despite being only a few hundred feet above Sunset Boulevard, everything felt hidden, like it was carved out of a jungly tangle of towering trees, hemmed in on all sides by plants in huge terra cotta pots and black-and-white striped umbrellas.
She could’ve sat by that pool downing Bloodys all afternoon, but as the sun got lower in the sky and the air grew chillier, she packed up her book and iPod and headed to the room. A quick spin through the lobby on her way to the elevator revealed a jeans-clad LeAnn Rimes having a drink with an older, well-dressed woman, and it was all Brooke could do not to whip out her BlackBerry and send a picture to Nola.
When she got back to their room – a one-bedroom suite in the main building, with gorgeous hillside views – she was delighted to discover a massive gift basket with a note that read, ‘Welcome, Julian! From your friends at Sony.’ Inside was a bottle each of Veuve Clicquot and Patrón; a box of those tiny, funkily painted chocolate truffles; an assortment of energy bars and snacks; enough Vitaminwaters to stock a grocery; and a dozen Sprinkles cupcakes. She took a picture of the whole thing splayed out on the coffee table and sent it to Julian with the caption, ‘They love you,’ and then she tore into it, demolishing a red velvet cupcake in under ten seconds.
It was the room’s landline that eventually woke her.
‘Brooke? You alive?’ Julian’s voice rang through the cordless handset.
‘I’m alive,’ she managed to say, looking around to get her bearings, surprised to discover that she was under the covers, wearing only her underwear, and the entire room was dark. Cupcake crumbs were scattered around her pillow.
‘I’ve been calling your cell phone for the last half hour. Where are you? Is everything okay?’
She bolted upright and looked at the clock. Seven thirty. She’d been asleep for nearly three hours. ‘Must’ve been that second Bloody Mary,’ she mumbled to herself, but Julian began to laugh.
‘I leave you alone for one afternoon and you get yourself drunk?’
‘It wasn’t like that! But whatever, how was the taping? How did it go?’
In the brief pause that followed, Brooke had a mental flash of all the potential things that could’ve gone wrong, but once again, Julian laughed. It was more than a laugh – he sounded downright giddy.
‘Rook, it was incredible! I nailed it, just absolutely nailed it, and the backup band was way better than I expected with so little practice.’ Brooke could hear other voices in the car and Julian lowered his to a whisper. ‘Jay came over to me as the song ended, put his arm around me, pointed me to the camera, and said how that was awesome, and he’d like for me to come back every night.’
‘No!’
‘He did! The audience was clapping like crazy, and then when the whole taping was over and we were hanging out backstage, Jay even thanked me, said he couldn’t wait to hear the whole album!’
‘Julian, that’s incredible. Congratulations! This is huge!’
‘I know, I’m just so relieved. Listen, we’ll be back at the hotel in twenty minutes or so. Meet me on the patio for a drink?’
The mere thought of alcohol made her head throb a bit more – when was the last time she was hungover at dinnertime? – but she sat straight up. ‘I’ve got to change. I’ll meet you down there as soon as I’m ready,’ she said, but the line had already been disconnected.
Climbing out of the warm, soft sheets wasn’t easy, but three Advils and a stint under the rainfall shower helped. She quickly pulled on a pair of legging-style skinny jeans, a silky tank top, and a blazer, but a closer inspection revealed that the jeans were doing hideous things to her butt. As hard as it was to pull the damn things on, it was hell trying to get them off, and Brooke nearly kneed herself in the face trying to yank them down her legs, inch by painful inch. Her stomach rolled and her legs flailed and still, they barely budged. Did White Bikini Girl ever have to suffer such indignity? She flung the jeans across the room in disgust. The only thing left in her suitcase was a sundress. It was too cold for it, but paired with the blazer, a cotton scarf, and a pair of flat boots, she’d have to suck it up.
Not terrible, she thought as she checked herself one last time. Her hair was mostly air-dried and – even Brooke had to admit – looked pretty damn good for requiring zero effort. She’d slicked on some mascara and a few dots of this glimmering liquid blush Nola had pressed into her palm a few weeks earlier and politely insisted she use. She grabbed her phone and her bag and ran. The lip gloss went on in the elevator. The blazer sleeves got rolled while walking across the lobby. She gave her hair a final shake and tousle and actually felt fresh and pretty by the time she saw Julian holding court at a prime patio table.
‘Brooke!’ He stood up and waved.
She could see his smile from fifty feet, and every inch of self-consciousness vanished as she ran toward him. ‘Congratulations!’ she said, throwing her arms around his neck.
‘Thanks, baby,’ he whispered into her ear. And then, more loudly, ‘Come and say hello. I don’t think you’ve met everyone yet.’
‘Hi!’ she sang, giving the general table area a wave. ‘I’m Brooke.’
The group was gathered around a plain wooden table, tucked amid an almost private awning of flowering trees. Little seating areas were interspersed throughout the lushly planted patio, and most of them were filled with tanned, laughing people, but the entire space still felt calm, unhurried. Small torches flickered in the dark. Small votive candles flattered everyone’s features. Highball glasses clinked and music played softly from speakers hidden in the trees, and if you really tried, you could hear the steady, white-noise din of Sunset Boulevard somewhere off in the distance. Although she’d never been to Tuscany, Brooke imagined this was exactly how a countryside restaurant in the middle of Chianti might look.
Brooke felt Julian’s hand in the small of her back, pushing her gently toward the chair he’d pulled out. So lost in the magical sight of the patio all lit up at night, she almost forgot why she was there. A quick glance around and she saw Leo staring back at her with a surprisingly ill-tempered expression; a thirtysomething woman – fortysomething with great Botox? – with gorgeous olive skin and jet-black hair, who must have been Julian’s new publicist, Samara; and a familiar-looking guy she couldn’t quite place who … Ohmigod, is that, could it be …
‘You already know Leo,’ Julian was saying as Leo smirked. ‘And this here is the lovely Samara. Everyone’s already told me that she’s the best, but now I can confirm beyond any shadow of a doubt.’
Samara smiled and held her hand out to Brooke across the table. ‘Pleasure,’ she said curtly, although her smile seemed warm enough.
‘I’ve heard so much about you,’ Brooke said, shaking her hand and trying to concentrate on Samara and not on the fourth table mate. ‘It’s true, when Julian found out that you would be representing him, he came home all excited and said, “Everyone says she’s the best.”’
‘Oh, that’s sweet of you,’ Samara said with a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘But he’s making this one easy. He was a total pro today.’
‘Both of you need to stop,’ Julian said, and Brooke could immediately tell that he was pleased. ‘Brooke, I’d also like to introduce you to Jon. Jon, this is my wife, Brooke.’
Good god. It was him. She didn’t have a clue why or how it had happened, but sitting right there at her husband’s table, holding a beer and looking perfectly relaxed, was Jon Bon Jovi. What was she supposed to say? Do? Where the hell was Nola when she needed her? Brooke wracked her brain. So long as it wasn’t something horrifying like ‘I’m a huge fan’ or ‘I really love and respect the way that you’ve been married to the same woman for all these years,’ she’d probably be fine, but it wasn’t like she sat down to drinks with a superstar every day …
‘Hey,’ Jon said, offering a nod in Brooke’s direction. ‘That’s some wicked cool hair you have. Is the color real?’
Brooke’s hand immediately flew to her wavy locks, and she knew without looking that her complexion currently matched her hair. Her red was so pure, so intensely pigmented, that you either absolutely loved it or unequivocally hated it. She loved it. Julian loved it. And apparently, so did Bon Jovi. Nola! she shouted to herself. I need you to hear this right now!
‘Yeah, it’s real,’ she said, rolling her eyes in mock disgust with it. ‘Source of many a cruel childhood joke, but I’m getting used to it.’ She saw Julian smiling at her out of the corner of her eye; hopefully only he knew how false her modesty was right then.
‘Well I think it’s fucking awesome,’ Jon declared, and raised his tall, tapered beer glass. ‘A toast to fire cro—’ He stopped short and an adorably sheepish look crossed his face. Brooke wanted to tell him he could call her ‘fire crotch’ anytime.
‘A toast to hot redheads and first appearances on Leno. Congrats, man. That’s big.’ Jon held his glass aloft and everyone clinked it with his own. Brooke’s champagne flute was the last to touch it, and she wondered if there was any way she could smuggle the glass home with her.
‘Cheers!’ everyone called out. ‘Congratulations!’
‘So how was it?’ Brooke asked Julian, happy to give him the opening to shine once again in front of all these people. ‘Tell me everything.’
‘He was perfect,’ Samara announced in her clipped, professional voice. ‘His performance followed really solid guests.’ She paused and turned to Julian. ‘I thought Hugh Jackman was charming. Did you?’
‘Yeah, he was good. And so was that chick from Modern Family,’ Julian said, nodding.
‘We caught a break with that – two legitimately interesting and famous guests, none of the child performers or the magicians or the animal trainers,’ Samara said. ‘Trust me, nothing’s worse than getting upstaged by a studio full of chimpanzees.’
