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“Trust you, bah!” I mumbled under my breath, sounding convincingly like a cantankerous old man.
The server attentively showed up and asked, “What may I help you with?”
“I need the check if you don’t mind.” She gave the young man her million-dollar smile and turned her attention back on me like she was the cat and I was the cornered mouse.
“I’m not done eating yet,” I complained.
“Hurry up or take it with you. I have to get home and pack.”
“Pack?” I was confused. “Where are you going?”
E rolled her eyes at me. “Luce—I work PR for the cons…I’ll be on the circuit as well; they just need me sooner than they do you.”
Why did I keep ignoring her job title? Maybe it was my way of subconsciously messing with her. Either way, she was suddenly in a rush. And it kind of pissed me off.
“Well, when are you leaving? When am I leaving? Wait, where am I going?” It was typical for her to bait me with the shiny, fun information, only to leave out the important details until last minute.
“I leave Sunday. You fly out Wednesday. To Portland.” She was grabbing her purse, reapplying her lipstick though we were headed for home directly after dinner.
“Oh. That’s sudden. Portland, huh?”
Now she was standing. “Yup.”
“Sit down, will you?” I whisper-yelled. I was just hitting my stride with my steak, and there was no way I’d leave the potatoes behind. I was committed.
“Honestly, Lucy, just get a take-out box,” she scolded.
But I didn’t want to eat it later. So, I did what I knew would embarrass the shit out of her. I took a large potato-smeared chunk of the medium well meat and stuffed my face.
I too, stood.
“Ready when you are, sis,” I declared loudly around a mouthful of delicious food.
I heard the click of her stilettos as she left me.
I would have smiled from ear to ear, but I didn’t want my food to fall out of my mouth.
Chapter 4
Jake
Newport Beach
“As much asI hate being away from the surf and sand, the cons are always entertaining, man.” Liam was reclined on one of the chaises, facing the ocean. We had been home for a few hours and he had just gone for a dip in the pool and was now nursing his third beer.
I say ‘we’ because Liam lived with me. And no, it wasn’t one of those frat house situations; I owned a home in the Crystal Cove neighborhood of Newport Beach. It was too large for me, too fancy for my tastes even, but it was a good investment and one I knew would only appreciate with the California housing market trends.
Where did Liam fit in, though? With a career as successful as mine, Liam owned his own house too. But he was currently letting his extended family stay there. Indefinitely, apparently. He always coveted the beach front access I had, and one day when he came over to surf, he just never left.
It suited me just fine; like I mentioned, the house was too big for me and I only occupied around a third of its thirteen-thousand square footage.
“That they are,” I agreed, thinking about the day spent at the convention center.
The fact of the matter was, now that Liam and I had wrapped on the final movie for the Velram Comic franchise, we were bigger than life. And I’m not saying that to sound smug. The prescreening ratings, hype and merchandise sales were through the roof, or so my manager Chet had said.
It didn’t matter that it was the seventh time reprising the role of Koil, a man with superpowers. It was a job and one that I was grateful to have had. But at the end of the day, I was just a regular guy. I still had to put one foot through my pant legs like everyone else.
Regardless, I was out of a job presently. There weren’t any auditions that I was interested in at the moment, and with the con circuit coming up next week, I figured I’d take a little time off afterwards and relax. I might even join Liam catching the next big wave.
