Chapter 106

I was so upset that it took me a few seconds to realize what was happening, but I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest when I realized that the girl with her arms wrapped around me was really Brandy. I pulled her away and screamed, “Brandy! Wha... ?”

She covered my mouth with her hand and said, “It’s a mistake, Pete, it’s all a big mistake.”

“Oh my God, Brandy, you’re okay! What happened?”

“I want to call it a comedy of errors, but there’s nothing funny about it. All my shops are named ‘Brandy’ followed by whatever street they’re on. My main store is on Melrose Boulevard so it’s called Brandy Melrose, for instance. The shop on Wilshire Boulevard is named Brandy Wilshire, and so on. That poor girl apparently had no ID on her when the paramedics got to her. She was barely conscious and when they asked her name, she kept mumbling something that sounded like ‘Brandy Melrose’ so that’s what they wrote on the accident report. It’s not clear why, but Nell and I think that she may have recently shopped there. Anyway, when they got her to the hospital someone saw the name on the report and called information, who gave her the name of the store. Well, the manager was at lunch and they got hold of a new hire. She went into the office and found my emergency contact number when they said there was an accident involving Brandy Melrose. It was Nell’s private cell number and told her that I’d been in an accident when they called her, and Nell, God love her, went into action. She called Burgers’ GM and told him to contact the hospital to make sure that I got the best treatment, then she tried to get hold of Megan, but her phone was turned off, so she called you.”

“But you’re here now. How did you find out what was going on?”

“It all happened within the last hour. I’ve been out all day, so I didn’t check my email until I got home. We’re having a sale this week and one of our vendors had a last-minute delivery problem. Some goods that were supposed to be at the Melrose store when they opened tomorrow have been delayed, so I called the manager at home to tell him about it. He told me what happened, so I called Nell to tell her that I was okay, and she said that you were over here. We tried to call you but we couldn’t get through to you, so I came right over.”

“I’m glad that you did, I was, well, you know.”

“Yes, I saw you. You thought that it was me lying there and you were upset. I can’t tell you how touched I am.”

We were still holding each other and it seemed natural for us to hug, then we kissed.

Maybe it was because I was so relieved that she was okay, or maybe it was the trauma of the last few hours, but the kiss was wonderful. The girl I was kissing wasn’t the rough, brash Brandy I knew, this was a soft, pretty girl who gently came to me and tenderly kissed me. The kiss went on for a long time.

My head was swimming when we pulled back, and I guess that hers was too, because we both went “Wow,” at the same time and stared at each other. Then, mostly to get my mind off the kiss, I asked, “So, who is this girl?”

“I don’t know. Nell said that she’d contact the hospital and tell them it wasn’t me. We can stop at the admission’s office on the way out and see what they’re going to do. Are you ready to leave now?”

I looked at the girl on the gurney, then I said, “I’ll meet you at the office. I’m glad that this girl isn’t you, but she’s all alone and even though she’s gone, I think that someone should say goodbye.”

Brandy looked at me, cocked her head, got a serious look on her face, and said, “You really are a good guy, aren’t you? Jesus! No wonder Nell is so crazy about you,” and she kissed me again. She was more animated this time, and she began exploring me with her tongue.

I felt myself responding in spite of the person lying on the gurney next to us, but I thought of Kristen and I knew that what I was doing wasn’t right, so, I pulled away a little flustered, and said, “I’ll meet you at the admissions office,” and I stood up.”

I guess she saw the bulge in my pants because she was smiling when she said, “Okay, I’ll see you there in a couple of minutes.”

The kiss with Brandy disturbed me a little, and it took me a second to organize my thoughts, then I turned back to the figure on the bed and looked at the poor girl lying there. The fact that she wasn’t someone I knew was a relief, but I had spent enough time with her that I felt she was more than a stranger, and I went to her to say goodbye. I stood by the gurney for a long while just looking at her. How could this be happening; how could a person be alive one minute and gone the next. I had never been close to death before, and it was very unsettling. I knew that she couldn’t hear me, but I wanted to say something to her. I stood there for a long time, but I started to cry again because all I could think of was ... goodbye.

I met Brandy coming out of the office, and I guess that I still looked upset, because she asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. What are they going to do about the girl?”

“The police are looking into it. I’m sure that they’ll find out who she is.”

“Will they let us know?”

“The police might not, but Nell’s people will follow up on it. Nell wants you to call her by the way. I just talked to her and she’s waiting. She said for you to hit the number ‘1’ on your phone.”

Nell answered on the first ring with, “Are you alright, Honey?”

The ‘Honey’ part surprised me, but I answered, “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s been a weird night, but Brandy’s okay and that’s good news.”

“Yes it is, and I’m glad that you’re okay too. Look, your family is leaving in the morning, why don’t you spend the night at the beach house. I bet that Brandy will keep you company.”

I was surprised at what she said, and I have to admit that it sounded tempting, but I thought about Kristen, and I answered, “I-uhh better go home. I’m kinda beat and all I really want to do is sleep.”

“I understand. Sleep as long as you like tomorrow. I put the photo shoot off until Tuesday.”

“Will you still be home tomorrow?”

“Probably not, this trip is taking longer than I thought. We have a big problem here and all hell broke loose when I told them that I had to rush home because of Brandy. I have to get back to business now that I know she’s okay, but I should be able to get it handled by tomorrow or early Tuesday. I’ll try to get back early enough so that we can have dinner together Tuesday night if I can. I’ll call you and let you know.”

Brandy had been watching me and she said, “So we’re not going to spend the night at the beach house, eh?” when I put the phone away.

“I’m going with someone. Brandy.”

“I know, Nell said that you’re hanging with Kristen. So what? Nell said that Kristen is leaving town soon, she won’t know.”

“But I will.”

She shook her head in disgust, then she came to me and said, “Do I get one more kiss before you go?”

“No, Brandy, I...”

She was suddenly all over me. She had one leg wrapped around me and her tongue halfway down my throat before I was able to protest, then she stepped back just as quickly, wiggled her fingers at me, and walked away.

I watched her leave in kind of a daze, and it took me a few seconds to notice a couple of things. I noticed that she has a really great ass and that the tent in my pants was back.

The house was dark when I got home, so I went to my room and went to bed. I wanted to go right to sleep, but I kept thinking about tonight. Who was the girl in the hospital? What happened to her? Does she have a family? I remembered what it felt like when the doctor told me that she was gone. I’d been crushed because I thought it was Brandy, but it hadn’t been, and someone else was now going to have to go through the same thing if the girl had a family.

I began thinking about Kristen. I was going to have a girlfriend again and I liked the way it felt. Kristen had never been completely out of my heart, and the better I liked the idea the more I thought about it.

I tossed and turned for a while, but I couldn’t seem to go to sleep, so I decided to get something to drink. I went into the house and I was pouring myself a glass of milk when I noticed that light was coming from under Amy’s door, so I went over and quietly knocked.

She answered, “Yes?”

“It’s Pete, can I come in?”

“Sure.”

She was lying in bed reading and she asked about Brandy as soon as I opened the door. I sat on the bed and I was starting to tell her what happened when we both heard a noise. We looked over and saw the door to the bathroom that Amy shares with Erin slowly inch its way open until we saw Erin peeking around the edge.

Amy asked, “What are you doing, Erin?”

“I’m too excited to sleep and I heard you talking. I was trying to be quiet in case you guys were like, you know, doing it.”

Amy made a face and said, “Don’t be silly. You can come in, Pete was about to tell me what happened with a friend of ours who’s in the hospital.”

Erin came into the room, jumped on the bed, and crossed her legs Indian style. She was wearing a long t-shirt thing that came past her butt, but it rode up, exposing her crotch, when she crossed her legs. She was wearing panties, so nothing was visible, but the way she was sitting was very suggestive. I guess that I was staring because Amy growled, “Cover yourself, Erin.”

Erin looked surprised and said, “Why? It’s only Petey.”

Amy stared at her for a minute, then she smiled and said, “You’re right, it’s only Petey,” but she reached over and pulled Erin’s shirt down.

I told them what had happened at the hospital for the next few minutes. I may have been a little too graphic because Erin and Amy ended up with horrified looks on their faces and their arms wrapped around each other, but they sighed with relief when I told them that Brandy had showed up and it had all been a mistake. We talked about the girl and who she might have been for a while, but Erin’s eyes were soon closing and I looked at my watch when she nodded off. It was nearly one-thirty, so I did something that I hadn’t done since Erin was a little girl. I picked her up, carried her to her bed, and tucked her in.

I went back to say goodnight to Amy, and she was smiling.

I asked, “What?”

“That was sweet.”

“I used to do that when she was little, but she’s certainly not little anymore.”

“No, she isn’t. She’s as tall as I am and she’s still growing. I bet that she’s going to be close to six feet.”

“Good! She’s also strong as hell. She’ll kick his butt if some boy gets out of line with her.”

“Do you worry about her and boys?”

I sat on the bed next to her, and said, “Well, she says that she isn’t interested yet, but I’m sure that it won’t be long.”

“It’s not that she’s not interested, it’s just that she has so much going on right now. This acting thing is going to be big, Pete, she’s a natural. We’ve already turned down some big offers for her.”

“You turned them down! Why did you do that?”

“We want to bring her along at the right pace. She’s not going to end up being another Britney Spears or Lindsey Lohan.”

“She’s too smart for that. Besides, those girls are a lot older than she is.”

“When do you think it started? People started catering to their every wish when they were younger than Erin is. It’s already happening to Erin at the studio from what Myrna says. People are starting to recognize her potential and some of them are already trying to attach themselves to her coattails.”

“Is she really that good?”

“Are you kidding, she practically jumps off the screen. You’ve seen her dailies, haven’t you?”

“No, what are dailies?”

Amy seemed surprised and asked, “You mean that you’ve never seen her dailies? What about yours, have you ever seen yours?”

“I guess not, what are they?”

She shook her head in wonder, then she said, “I’m sorry, Pete, this is my fault. We’ve been so busy with everything else lately that I guess we forgot that you’re new to all this. The dailies are the raw unedited footage that’s shot every day. They’re called ‘dailies’ because the film is developed, synched to sound and either printed or telecined to disk at the end of each day’s shooting for viewing by the director, the actors, and some members of the film crew the next day. They look at it to find out if changes are necessary.”

“They never mentioned that to me.”

“Well, you’ve had a pretty minor role up to now, but that may change. We’ll make sure that you know what’s going on if it does.”

“Do you think it might change?”

“Would you like it to?”

“I think so. It’s been fun so far.”

“That would all change if you got a real part. You haven’t been around much lately. You should see how much time Erin spends learning lines and things. Thank God for the twins.”

“The twins! What do they have to do with it?”

“I was a little worried that they might resent her in the beginning, but it’s been just the opposite. They watch over Erin like she’s their little sister and they’ve taught her things that only people with their kind of experience can hand down. Myrna says that she can see it in the way Erin behaves around the studio. She’s says that Erin isn’t arrogant, but she acts very confident, and Myrna says that she can tell that the twins have taught her well by the way Erin takes direction.”

“That’s good to know. I may have to look to them for some help if my acting thing goes farther.”

Amy grinned and added, “That’s not a bad idea, but be sure to ask about the price first.”

“Really? How much do you think they’d charge?”

“I don’t they’d want money, but they might want your, uhh, services.”

We both laughed at that, then Amy asked, “What were the twins like over the weekend?”

“They behaved like a couple of teenagers. Why?”

“I bet you had to keep them from getting into trouble.”

“Well, I had to make sure that they were okay.”

She chuckled then she said, “I bet you did. I bet that they would definitely have gotten into some kind of trouble if you hadn’t been there.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Myrna talked to Mom and me about them while you guys were gone. They are pretty amazing girls. They’ve been acting since they were babies. Myrna said they did their first commercial when they were three months old. They’ve done too many commercials to count, dozens of movies and they’ve starred in three top-rated TV shows since then, but Myrna has kept a tight rein on them their entire lives. She said that she talks to them about self respect and how not to make poor choices all the time. She says that they listen and she’s been proud of them and happy with the way they behave, but they’re almost nineteen now and they’re nearly grown up. They’re going to start experimenting, and Myrna sees how they behave when they’re around you.”

“What does that mean?”

“That means that you could have got lucky with them this weekend if you’d played your cards right, but you probably see them differently, don’t you?”

“Yeah, and they behave differently, too.”

Still grinning, she said, “Aha! So you’re saying they DID get lucky this weekend?”

“NO! I told Myrna that I’d look out for them.”

She shook her head and said, “That’s too bad. What about Rose, did she try to seduce you?”

“Of course not. What are you talking about?”

“Rose has a huge crush on you. Myrna was pretty sure that she’d try to jump your bones. I told her that you wouldn’t, especially since Kristen was going to be there.”

“I wouldn’t have even if Kristen wasn’t there.”

“I know, but you might not have had a choice. Those girls are used to getting their way, and they can be pretty persuasive.”