Chapter 17

Colleen

David A. Dawson was Colleen’s make-believe boyfriend. Oh, he was real enough. He just didn’t know he was her boyfriend. Yet.

Why a make-believe boyfriend? The best answer was that she wasn’t ready to have a real one, and her grandfather used to tell her to dream big or go home. So why not pick the best one she could imagine?

David was drop-dead gorgeous. His abs should be on display in some sex-god museum. As far as male posteriors went, his was borderline perfection, halfway between Adonis and Michelangelo’s David. His pants rode lean hips that tapered down into a pair of muscular legs. And if the pictures on the internet were real, the rest of him was even more impressive.

Colleen had decided on a make-believe boyfriend because she was done with men. Dreaming about David helped her start to move on, to get over a near-legendary heartbreak.

And how sad was that? Colleen was twenty-two years old, and she’d only loved one man. Bart had been her college sweetheart. He’d been her TA her freshman year. After four years, Bart was getting his Master’s in Fine Arts while she was in the home stretch of obtaining her BA. They were both enrolled in USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. More specifically, the Film and Television Production Program.

After dating for two-and-a-half years, Bart asked Colleen to marry him the summer before her senior year. Half a year later, he dumped her on Valentine’s Day. There’d been a massive blowup in the middle of a fine restaurant, which they were asked to leave. It had only been four months, and it still felt like part of her was dying every time she looked at her bare left hand.

Looking back, Colleen had never been very successful with boys. During her junior year of high school, she was convinced that she was deeply, madly in love with Dan Kilroy. He was this nerdy sophomore who somehow got the nerve to ask her to the homecoming dance. Three months later, they were contemplating doing the deed.

One night, Colleen’s mother had to work late while her dad was off casting a movie, so plans were made. It was going to be everything a girl dreamed of for her first time. The problem was that Dan had no clue what he was doing. That afternoon, Colleen came to understand why teenage girls liked older boys for boyfriends.

Dan got frustrated with her bra. He was jerking on it, and it started to hurt. Colleen remembered the look on her mother’s face when she came home early. Her teenage daughter was close to tears because a red-faced boy had been trying to tear her bra off. Colleen still had nightmares from that encounter.

As can happen in the aftermath of a situation like that, new draconian rules were implemented that prohibited dating boys. By some miracle, she avoided going to an all-girls school when her father saw reason. Later, she figured out that the cost of a private school was why he’d caved.

The rules were lifted for her senior prom when Mitch Jacobs, the minister’s son, asked her to the dance. On the fateful night, he’d reserved them a hotel room to ‘change in.’ He had just as much experience as Colleen had with the opposite sex, so when she insisted that Mitch get undressed first, he obliged. She made the mistake of touching him, and everything ended prematurely ... all over her prom dress.

By the time Colleen started college, her plan was to wait for the right man.

She found that she was very popular. The boys either wanted to sleep with her or, like the girls, wanted to get close to her dad for his movie connections. Hollywood was a close-knit community, one where knowing the right people could make a real difference in your career path. Colleen’s father was the casting director for many successful films, which meant he knew almost everyone in the business.

Luckily for her, Colleen’s roommate was Gail Peck. She clued Colleen in about why she was suddenly attracting so many ‘friends.’ That bit of knowledge allowed Colleen to start to figure out who was genuine and who was not.

In the end, the kicker was that four years later, her dad actually helped her ex-fiancé get a production assistant job on a film being made in France. It just proved that sleeping with her really did pay off.

Her father, realizing that he’d stepped in it when he got Bart the job, had taken Colleen with him to the premiere of the James Bond movie he’d cast. That was the first time her make-believe life and real life collided.

It was at an after-party for the movie premiere. Colleen loved the movie because her imaginary boyfriend was one of the main characters. It simply confirmed what she already knew: he was perfect.

At the party, she was thinking about how much Bart had hurt her and how David never would when her imaginary boyfriend walked up to her and said, ‘hi.’

What did you do when your fantasy became a reality? Did you drag him off somewhere and do all the naughty things you’d imagined late at night?

The problem was, she acted like some sixteen-year-old virgin from Dorksville. She’d blown her chance and all but chased him away. The only saving grace was that Colleen would never see him again.

Colleen was now working on her MFA and was TAing for Professor Blum’s film class. She had a conflict the first day of class, so she expected she’d have some catching up to do today. As an undergraduate, this had been her favorite class because it was designed to help film students figure out what path they wanted to take. It was project-based, where they created a film, short, or TV show.

The medium wasn’t critical; it was the whole process that the professor wanted his students to learn about in a firsthand, practical manner. Doing projects like this touched on everything from writing a script to dealing with actors to setting up cameras, lights, and sound. After they had the film in the can, they got to piece it together into a polished product.

When Colleen had taken the class, she’d been teamed up with a local boy who loved to surf. He’d talked her into creating a short about a surfing term—they called it ‘The Blue Room.’

He described it as catching the perfect ride where you hit the sweet spot of the wave. As it topped out and began to roll over, the wave’s lip would reach out and touch the water in front of it. The rolling wave created a tube of water all around the surfer; it looked like a blue room. If you timed it correctly, you would shoot out of the beautiful blue room at the last possible moment, emerging safely into the bright sunlight.

By the time they were finished, Colleen knew that she wanted to make movies for a living.

Today, the class was supposed to turn in their ideas for their project. All Professor Blum really cared about was that the project not be so big that it wouldn’t be completed before summer school ended.

Colleen hurried to catch up with the professor as they entered the room, eager to help her students. That was all fine and good until it suddenly got ... awkward. Sitting in the center of the room was David. Colleen hadn’t realized that her boss had suddenly stopped and all but knocked him down.

The commotion caught the attention of everyone in the class, including David. She almost died when he recognized her with a smile and a small wave.

After class, Colleen tried to remember what had happened, but all she could think about was that David A. Dawson was in the class she was helping teach.

Professor Blum had tasked her with reading through all the project proposals, so she’d gone back to his office to work. He had some faculty function to attend, so she was left all alone.

As she began to sort through the proposals, Colleen found she couldn’t focus. She wanted her best friend and roommate to talk some sense into her, so she called Gail.

“I need you to bring me over a change of clothes,” Colleen said as soon as Gail answered.

“Did you have another mishap at lunch?” her roommate guessed.

While that had happened two years ago, Gail brought it up whenever she could to needle her roommate.

“I look like something the cat wouldn’t bother dragging in.”

Colleen heard Gail suck in her breath before saying, “You met someone!”

“I have not!” Colleen whispered into the handset.

“You have!” Gail cried out gleefully. “You used to care what you looked like when you were with Bart. Now you just put on whatever’s at the top of your drawer.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“Please. Remember our conversations? You were going to wear such-and-such a dress to please Bart. You were going to go to the whatever-it-was restaurant because you thought he’d like it.”

“That’s crazy talk! I certainly didn’t wear my sweats and faded t-shirts on Sunday mornings because I thought David would like them.”

“Who?!” Gail asked.

“I meant Bart.”

“No, you didn’t. Who’s David?” Gail pressed.

“Just an actor in my production class. I have a meeting with him this afternoon to discuss his project.”

Gail could always tell when Colleen was omitting something important and waited her out.

“Okay, fine. He’s David A. Dawson.”

Colleen could hear the phone clatter on the floor and Gail scrambling to pick it back up.

“You lucky bitch! You so have to bone him.”

“Gail!”

“You know what I mean.”

She did, but Gail was wrong. David A. Dawson wasn’t a hookup, he was her make-believe boyfriend. Well, no longer make-believe. He was the man she was going to meet one-on-one this afternoon.

To throw Gail off the scent of any possible romantic feelings she had for David, she said, “I’m not ‘boning’ David. He’s one of my students.”

“And you’ve never heard of an interoffice romance?”

“He’s my student,” Colleen repeated. “I have a moral and ethical obligation to not sexually harass him.”

“And he’s drop-dead gorgeous,” Gail countered.

Colleen could see Gail’s pleased expression in her mind’s eye. She should have known her roommate would give her a hard time. And Colleen didn’t need to be traumatized today. What she needed was for Gail to bring her a change of clothes.

“I’m not going there.”

Gail only laughed.

“I’m hanging up on you now! I’m going back to work!”

But Colleen was laughing, too. Before they hung up, Gail promised to bring her a change of clothes.

Colleen heard a knock at the office door.

“Come in.”

In walked David, his hair still damp from a recent shower.

“Sorry. I was working out and lost track of time. I hope I’m not late,” David said and then smiled when he saw it was her. “It’s good to see you again.”