Page 14 of A Little Christmas: Star
“Davis, I could kiss you.”
“Please don’t. I don’t need to be the one pissing off Caelum right now.” He stuck out his tongue.
“No kisses. Got it,” I said. “You really are the best, Davis.”
“It’s true, I am.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and held up a finger, indicating I had one minute left of my break.
“All right, I’m going to go nail this scene. Then, when I’m done, I’ll make some excuse to sneak away, and you can tell me all the details.”
I walked out of that storage closet feeling better than I had all day. Davis was amazing at what he did, and that included the side stuff that no one could know about, like helping me sneak away to see my Caelum.
When he came back, he had done better than give me a plan. He’d managed to get me a day off.
Chapter Eleven
Caelum
My shopping trip had me thinking that I needed to do something special for Star. We still hadn’t found time for an evening together, and his voice held more and more strain every time we talked on the phone. It made me sad because we both knew what he needed. What would help with his tension and stress.
Finally, I pinned him down to a day when he’d be able to steal some time, and then I went off to make the arrangements. I was pleased with the toys and things I’d bought for Star, and they would be great to play with at my home, but I didn’t have a playroom or a nursery set up, and I thought it would be amazing to spend some time at Chained. It had been where he was going that night he’d stumbled onto my office, so how appropriate would it be for our first time together to be there.
At first, I’d thought about bringing him in the evening, when we could play with others, but a quick call confirmed he had filming or other obligations every night, and he wasn’t able to get away when the club was open. Sometimes there were little events scheduled for the afternoon, but a quick check of the app showed nothing in the next week, and I didn’t want to wait any longer. Running out of ideas, I stopped at a coffeehouse down the block from Chained to sip a macha with a shot and try to come up with something. Star’s time was so limited, and when he finished with this production, he’d be headed back to Hollywood or New York or wherever his next project took him. We needed to make use of our time together. See if we were really meant to be together. As long as I’d been without him, I’d assumed it wasn’t meant to be. I’d grieved and never forgotten. Maybe even wished a little but never allowed myself to hope.This was a second chance I’d never seen coming and if there was any way we could make it work, I wanted it with every fiber of my being.
My house wasn’t special enough; the little room wasn’t available unless…
I went to see Ms. Lily with a big ask.
“Well, yes,” she said. “It is possible to rent the room out, but it would have to be in the morning, if that works for you?”
“That works perfectly.” I worked out all the details and by the time I left to go home, we had the use of the little room just for ourselves on a midweek morning. It was pricey, but since they had to open the place for us and have some staff on hand, there was nothing wrong with being charged a fair amount for the opportunity. We could make a memory together. I didn’t kid myself that even if we did have a future, he’d likely be traveling a lot, I might need to move. Maybe I could open a second office? It was something that I’d been thinking about, not necessarily in a big city, but I’d do whatever I had to do. If…there were so many ifs.
I texted Star on the way back to the office to tell him I had made arrangements for our special date on the day he had the time off.Set up a distraction and I will pick you up at the side door of your hotel at nine thirty.
Where are we going? How should I dress?
It’s a surprise and casual is fine.He’d be changing as soon as we got to Chained anyway, if he agreed to play with me. Of course, it was up to him, but we had talked a bit about a playdate in the future, and if I’d ever seen a little in desperate need of a scene, Star was the one.
Although it was only a couple of days away, time slowed to a crawl. I packed a cute backpack with a couple of outfits I’d picked up at the boutique/gallery, a sippy cup, a bottle, apaci with clip, and both diapers and training pants because we hadn’t gone into detail yet about his little age and I wanted to be prepared. Star was working hard, but he texted me at least a dozen times a day, begging for hints, but I held firm.
Then, on the morning in question, I dressed in my own outfit, grabbed the backpack, and headed for the hotel. Halfway there, it occurred to me that if I didn’t want to be a distraction myself, I probably should have changed at the club. But I’d been so enthusiastic about the whole surprise element, I slapped on the red suit first and thought about possible repercussions later.
I pulled up at the hotel and picked up my phone to let Star know I’d arrived, but before I had a chance, he was at the passenger door, hoodie cinched close around his face, pointing at the lock.
Star jumped in. “Let’s go. I don’t know how long before they figure it out.”
“Gotcha.” I left the curb and drove to the end of the street, signaling for a left turn. “I’m glad to see you.”
“Me, too…Santa?”
“Took you long enough to notice. I don’t usually have a long white beard, you know.”
“I was frantic. There were more paparazzi than usual out front, and I called in sick.”
Steering the car toward our destination, I stole a glance at him. “I thought you had the time off.”
“Me too, but then I got a call this morning telling me they needed me in to reshoot a scene.”
“So you said you were ill?”
