Page 9 of Country Road Romance

Finally they took a seat on one of the stone benches, each of them content to sit in silence for a few minutes. Sitting there in peaceful quiet was his idea of a good time, and while he wasn’t sure what had possessed him to share this particular location with someone that he barely knew, he was glad he’d done it.

“Thank you for bringing me here, Jared,” Charlie said softly. “It means a lot to me that you’d share this with me, even though you don’t like me that much.”

Something about the raw vulnerability in Charlie’s voice caused a tiny little knot to start twining itself together in Jared’s chest, and he knew that he had to nip this in the bud before it got any worse. He wasn’t going to start falling for this movie star, no matter how charming and handsome he was, and no matter how vulnerable he was.

You know you have a crush on him, so why don’t you just admit it?That little voice in his head sounded irritatingly like Rebecca, and he pushed it away.

“Do you want to go to the Stonewall?” The words had popped out of his mouth before he could really think about what he was saying, and he kind of regretted puncturing the softly intimate mood that Charlie’s gratitude had created.

Charlie looked hesitant, and Jared immediately regretted asking him. He should have known that he wouldn’t want to go to some busy bar, particularly not after that little altercation in the front of the hotel. While the bar was usually free from protesters these days, things had been getting a little tense of late. What if that same guy showed up with his little sign once he found out that Charlie was going to be there?

“Before you answer that, I have another question” he said, to give Charlie a bit of an out from having to decline going to the bar.

“Hit me,” Charlie said, taking it.

“How is it that we haven’t had paparazzi tailing us all day? I thought that was one of the things that went along with being a star. I mean, there were some of them at the hotel when I picked you up, but they haven’t been swarming after you every second of the day.”

Charlie barked out a laugh.

“Well, I’m not exactlythatkind of star, you know? I’m more of a grannies and wine moms kind of star. The press is usually just interested when I’m out doing something official, like arriving at the hotel. Of course, part of the reason there were so many of them there was because Sheri made sure of it. It’s the same reason I came in on a private jet. She wants everyone to know that this is a big deal. She wants to make sure that I make the next big leap in my career.”

He hesitated. “The reporters also tend to show up when I say something that I shouldn’t.”

Charlie rushed on, as if he didn’t want to dwell on his past indiscretions. “If everything goes as planned while I’m here, I might finally get to be a real star, not just a made-for-TV movie wannabe.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jared almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re one of the most famous people to have come out of West Virginia, and you’re going to say that you’re not the right kind of star?”

Charlie shook his head.

“You don’t understand. There are TV movie stars and then there arerealmovie stars. As I said, the only time the press really gets worked up about us is if our publicists do a lot ofheavy lifting to make us a big deal or we do something stupid or controversial.”

“You mean like punching a homophobe?” Jared asked. “Or saying something that ruffles a few feathers?”

Charlie looked sheepish. “Yes, exactly. Then my face would be splashed across every news website in the country, and I don’t think I need to tell you that that would be very bad. In fact, it would probably torpedo whatever chance I had of actually making it big.”

Now we’re getting somewhere,Jared thought.Now I get to see therealCharlie Garrett.Unfortunately, however, he’d moved on from that bit of confession into safer territory.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m really happy with what I’ve managed to accomplish in my career, and I love my fans but, well, I’ve always wanted to become the kind of star that might even get an Academy Award. I know that sounds dumb, but that’s the way it is.”

In fact, it did sound a little silly–he wasCharlie Garrett,for goodness’s sake–but Jared also had to admit that there was something kind of sweet about Charlie’s desires, too. Even if he’d never known what it was like to be a star of any kind, he did know what it was like to end up not quite where you expected to. When he was young he’d wanted to become a famous writer, someone who the world could look at admire but, though he’d managed to get a few pieces placed here and there, and he was occasionally asked to write press releases and other material for the Council, the truth was that his dreams hadn’t worked out the way he’d planned. He loved the work he did for the Council and for the city of Huntington, doing what he could to make life better for the queer folks living there, particularly the young ones, but there were a lot of times when he wished that he’d been more adventurous when he was young.

“What are you thinking about?” Charlie asked.

Jared was so taken aback by the question, banal as it was, that he couldn’t think of anything to say right away.

“Uh, I guess you could say that I was thinking about dreams, and about how sometimes life doesn’t work out like you think it will.”

“That’s very deep for a country boy.”

“You know, it’s not just movie stars and people like them who get to think about big things,” he said. “But yeah, it’s just…well, I grew up wanting to be a writer, to see my stuff in print, to have everyone know my name, but I’m afraid it hasn’t quite worked out like I wanted it to.”

“It’s never too late to do something about that, you know.”

Jared decided to let that one go by without a sarcastic comment. Of all people, Charlie should know how hard it was to break into the creative industries, particularly when you didn’t have any connections or know anyone.

But then, Charlie was able to do it, so why can’t you?

That was a line of thought that he didn’t want to pursue too closely, in part because it made him wonder whether his resentment of one Charlie Garrett was due more to his own jealousy and sense of failure than anything Charlie himself had done.

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