Page 140 of Reel Love

“I don’t have room for more clients, Alana. I’m good. Besides, your mother won’t be too put out by your choice. It’s enough of a concession on your part that she will be pacified.”

I can only hope—for Stevens’ sake.

I’m standing outside Phyllis’ home, finishing my phone call. When I pocket my cell, I walk through the gate and up the porch stairs. Phyllis swings the door open before I knock.

“I thought you might pop by.”

“You heard?”

“Dear, I’m retired, not dead. I keep my ear to the ground about Hollywood gossip. Most of the time it serves to keep me grateful I got out when I did.”

“Do you miss it, though? The good parts?”

“Of course.” She walks out onto the porch. “Let’s sit.”

Phyllis takes one of two comfortable seats set around a bistro table on her porch. I take the other.

“So, in answer to your question, yes. I miss memorizing scripts, bonding with my fellow actors, the well-stocked tables of food during filming, though we weren’t supposed to eat most of it. I miss acting. And I miss the fans. But I don’t miss all this—the invasion of privacy, the need to please the press, the fact that you don’t really fully belong to yourself.”

“Fame is like this living thing,” Phyllis says, looking me in the eyes as if to emphasize how important her words are. “You have to feed it, and then it grows. And you think it’s fun and harmless, alluring and desirable, until it turns on you. You thought you had the leash, but one day you wake up wearing the collar with fame yanking the chain. So, to answer your question, yes. I love acting. I’m not sure I love being famous. But I didn’t hate everything about being famous, even though my star never rose to the heights yours has.”

“I don’t hate everything about it either. I love being an actress, the variety of roles, being known. The best part is when I get to make a fan’s day by posing for a photo or signing something. I love so much about it. But this part? Not so much.”

“Of course not. And you wear it well. But you have become accustomed to being holed up in that house of yours. You can’t even go out to buy your own loaf of bread without being mobbed. It’s a price you pay. I hope it’s worth it.”

“Most days it is.”

“So, about Stevens,” Phyllis says. “I know him. Did you know that?”

“Do you? What do you think?”

“He’s remarkable. Such a bright boy. And kind.”

I chuckle at the thought of Stevens being a boy. Though, I knew him then too.

“We played together at Locals’ Cove as children. Isn’t that wild?”

“It’s not so far-fetched. The island is small. You both were here on weekends. What a thing—finding one another after all these years.”

“It’s been the most amazing surprise. My parentshateme being with him.”

“I can only imagine. He’s not exactly boyfriend-to-a-star material. Not on the surface. I’d venture to say he’s been very good for you. You’ve been reclusive, even lonely. And now you have that glow to you lately. It’s the glow of a woman who knows she’s loved.”

Loved?

“I’m not sure if he loves me.”

“Well, from what I hear, he’s being awfully loyal for a man who’s merely in like.”

“I desperately want to protect him from the paparazzi machine. I’d do anything to keep him from facing all that brutality and invasion into his private life. He’s just so … good. He’s a truly good man. He's my Marbella. My safe place.”

“Yes. I see that,” Phyllis says. “And your parents are your Hollywood. I’ve been hoping this for you—that you would find friendships, even a romance, where you don’t feel like a pawn in someone else’s game.

“I held them off as long as I could: my parents, the paparazzi, the public eye. But now I messed up and he’s about to be in the thick of it if I don’t do something to pull the attention away from him.”

“And what do you have in mind?”

“I need to make the press believe he’s not what he is to me—that he was just running lines from a script, a stand-in to help me get a feel for the production. He can’t be seen as my boyfriend. The press will eat him alive—and not just this once. It won’t end for him. They’ll be persistent like a terminal disease, even in remission it looms on the horizon with the threat of a relapse. I can’t put him through that.”

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