Page 93 of Doc Hollywood

“Hi.” She smiled widely when his face appeared.

“Hey. Did you see my message about the premiere?”

“Yes. And I got a message from Damien about it,” she told him, grinning happily at the thought of the director’s kindness.

“Did he invite you?” Taylor sounded hopeful.

“Yes. And he’s paying for my flights and hotel. Which is amazing, or I couldn’t have come.” Clara frowned when Taylor’s face tightened. “What?”

His voice was soft. “Clara, I would have paid for you.”

Clara shook her head. “I couldn’t have accepted. It’s not up to you to pay for things for me.”

“Even if I want to?” Taylor challenged.

Clara sighed. “I can’t let you pay for things for me. It’s not right.”

“But it’s okay to accept something from Mr Atrosky?”

“Yes, no. Maybe. They’ve been sending me flowers every single week. And Louisa keeps sending me knick-knacks that she thinks I’ll like. They keep telling me how they want to repay me, which is crazy. I’m hoping that by bringing me to the premiere, they’ll stop feeling beholden to me and stop sending me stuff.”

“You don’t like people doing nice things for you.” He wasn’t asking a question; it was a statement.

“I just don’t like people wasting their money on me.” Her firm words hung in the air between them.

“You deserve so much more than flowers,” Taylor finally muttered so quietly that Clara wasn’t sure if she had heard correctly.

Clara didn’t want to dig any further because it made her uncomfortable. After years of Jack telling her she wasn’t worth anything, it was tough to believe that people could be so generous to her.

“Anyway, what have you been doing today?” Clara asked, moving the conversation to safer topics.

CHAPTER 26

The journey to LA had been like a dream. Damien had made sure everything was arranged for Clara: a taxi from her house, first-class seats on the plane, and a limousine when she arrived in America that whisked her to the most beautiful hotel she had ever stayed in.

When she arrived, the room she was escorted to was overwhelming—a one-bedroom suite with views of the ocean.

Clara stood staring in the mirror at herself, admiring the incredible dress that she wore.

She had tried subtly checking for a price tag when Louisa insisted she try on the magnificent dress, but nothing in the boutique they had shopped at was priced. This had given Clara a bad feeling that it was likely in the four, if not five-figure range. But however many times she had asked and insisted it was too much, Louisa had just waved a hand at her and told her to be quiet and drink her champagne.

The bodice was midnight blue and covered in tiny sequins that rippled as she moved. It was tight in all the right places and flowed into the most beautiful full skirt as the material changedfrom sequins to midnight-coloured silk, which swirled around her legs as she walked and twirled.

Her makeup was perfect, done by a woman Clara swore was a wizard. The end result was subtle but somehow enhanced all her features, so what usually looked nice, or sometimes even graduated to pretty, could now be described as stunning. And her hair, which never normally behaved, had been tamed by the hairdresser and was woven into a beautiful braid that snaked over her shoulder.

Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of finally seeing Taylor again. The FaceTime calls and the texts were great, but they weren’t enough; she wanted to see him.

Her phone buzzed with a text.

‘I wish I hadn’t been stuck on the press tour. I can’t believe you had two days in my home town without me.’Taylor had complained numerous times to her over the last couple of days about that fact.

‘I know. But Louisa and Damien have been great. They’ve shown me around and fed me so much nice food that it’s a good thing I work in scrubs, not proper clothes. As they wouldn’t fit anymore,’ Clara replied.

They had taken her for sushi when Louisa had coaxed out of her that it was her favourite food, and they had insisted that she order everything she wanted, and if she even looked at a dish, they ordered it for her, even if she had tried telling them it was too much.

‘You’re lucky Mom was out of town. She wanted to hang out with you.’Taylor had added a laughing emoji to the end of the message.

‘That would have been nice.’

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