Page 2 of Behind the Scenes

And now Carla had gotten her fingerprints all over the top of the box, making Alexis furious.

Swiveling her head, she looked for something pointy to throw but found nothing but packing boxes and bubble wrap. At this rate, she’d need a full roll of that stuff just to calm her nerves by the time this day was over.

“I swear if that music box isn’t cleaned off of all your fingerprints by the time it’s carefully placed into the box, I’m going to have someone’s head!”

Carla nodded and gave Alexis her best apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry. I won’t let it happen again. I know how much this means to you, Alexis. I took care of the vase that man brought me too. I swear I don’t know where Paul found these guys.”

Knowing her assistant well enough, she recognized her sucking up for what it was, along with her attempt to divert her attention to the unknown moving men so her anger would be directed at them instead of Carla. Everyone thought Alexis wasn’t clever enough to figure out when they were playing her, but she knew.

Even if she didn’t bother to show it.

“Just take care of the music box and get those smudgy fingerprints off it,” she said as she walked away toward her bedroom to see how the packing had progressed so far in that room. “And get me a drink!”

The fact that it was barely afternoon was beside the point. Some days, it didn’t matter what time it was.

It was five o’clock somewhere anyway.

Two steps into her bedroom, Alexis saw the woman packing up her clothes bunch a dress into a ball of fabric—very expensive fabric—and nearly lost her mind right there. Running up to her, she tore the dress from her hold.

“Treat these dresses with care. They’re worth more than your life!”

The woman stammered out an apology, but it fell on deaf ears. Alexis carefully laid the dress out on the bed and pointed at it. “Do you see that? This isn’t goddamned Wal-Mart. We do not ball up clothes here. Use a hanger for every one of my dresses and put them in garment bags, for God’s sake!”

Frustrated, she stormed out and marched downstairs to her office to find some solitude. Maybe if she could get her head in the right space, she could handle this day.

Lauren, her closest friend since childhood and the assistant she depended on more than any other, sat at her desk packing up scripts. Just seeing them being stuffed into boxes made leaving so much more real than she could face at that moment.

She collapsed onto the white chaise lounge she’d just picked out for her favorite room in the house and sighed. “Be careful with those. I may never get another one. I’m going to want something to remember this life.”

“Oh, Alexis, don’t say that,” Lauren said with sadness in her voice. “Your fans love you. It won’t matter where you live. You’re one of the hottest actresses in this town. You could live on Mars and it wouldn’t matter.”

Throwing her arm over her eyes, Alexis wished Lauren could be right. She knew better, though. Out of sight meant out of mind. In the movie business, if you weren’t seen around town, you were viewed as a missing person.

And very few actors could withstand being tagged as that. Unless you were one of those famous stars who appeared in a film every few years and had the luck of being seen as one of the greats, being out of the circuit of parties and events in Hollywood meant people forgot about you.

“In this town. Those are the operative words, aren’t they?” she mumbled, turning toward the wall.

As always, Lauren tried to cheer her up with supportive words that Alexis believed she really meant. Of all the people who surrounded her, she had never let her down. Lauren could be depended on when everyone else abandoned her. At least she had that to look forward to.

Kneeling beside the chaise lounge, she touched Alexis on the shoulder. “Please don’t worry, Alexis. Everything will work out. I know it. Do you believe me?”

She wanted to. She just couldn’t.

Alexis rolled over and looked at her dearest friend in the world. In her blue eyes, she saw the sympathy she knew Lauren truly felt for her and what she was going through. Of all the people she’d met in the business, none could replace the friend she’d met in grade school back in Minnesota.

Looking around the all-white room she’d had redecorated when she moved in, she sighed. “I’m going to miss this house so much. The new place is going to be like a shoebox, and don’t even get me started on how much I’m going to miss being able to look outside and see trees. Whatever anyone else thinks, this was paradise for me. Now, it’s all being taken away.”

Lauren smiled and squeezed her hand in support. “It’s nearly three thousand square feet and a penthouse overlooking the city. Plus, I have to believe New York City has trees. It must. I’ve seen pictures and there were trees in them.”

“Not like here,” Alexis sulked.

“Maybe not, but once you choose some new furnishings and get the place exactly the way you like it, I think you’re going to love it as much as you love this house.”

“It won’t be the same. I hate the city. It’s grey. That’s all I think of when I think of New York. Grey.”

“Los Angeles is a city, you know,” she said with a smile.

“Not like New York.”

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