The Magic of Hollywood // Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 34

What did he just say? He's sorry I met him? Is he sorry that he met me? What is happening right now? I can't hold back the tears anymore. I just sit there, crying. I wanna say something but the words get stuck in my throat. After what felt like an eternity Charlie leaves the car. Just like that he lets me sit there, crying. Why is he doing that? I try to calm myself. Slowly I open my door and get out of the car. My legs are trembling but I still somehow manage to walk to where Charlie is standing. He's looking at the horizon, his back facing me. "Charlie. What's going on?" I manage to say through sobs. He keeps ignoring me. Why did he go through the effort of secretly coming to my club to then ignore me? Something must have happen during his drive over. "Talk to me." I know I sound desperate, but I don't care. He keeps ignoring me.

I walk around him, place my hands on the sides of his face and force him to look at me. He's still wearing his sunglasses but he took off his hat in the car. I carefully push them up so I can see his eyes. There is so much pain it breaks my heart. "Whatever happened, we can fix it. You just have to talk to me." He closes his eyes for a second, resting his head in my hands. When he opens them again I feel like all life has been drawn out of them. "I can't ask that from you." - "You're not asking." I gather all my courage and place a slight kiss on his lips. "I meant it when I said this is our mess now." I can tell he wants to give in but something is holding him back. "What happened after our call?" His body tenses for a second but he quickly gathers himself again. He's silent for a while and I can almost feel his inner struggle. My phone rings, announcing a new e-mail on my business account. "You should probably check that." I shake my head slightly, not taking my eyes off Charlie's for a second. "Please? I need a second." I reluctantly grab my phone to check who it is from. It is from Ben, Charlie's manager. What the hell? It has Nondisclosure Agreement as the subject. "Charlie what is that?" I hold my phone up to him. He sighs.

"On my way over Ben called me. You can probably tell he wasn't happy. Involved a lot of 'I told you so.' He said I... we... have to end this." I shake my head. "No" is all I can say. I'm speechless. How could he do this to Charlie? "Victoria, you have no idea..." I cut him off. "I don't care! I'm happy. You make me happy, Charlie. That's all that matters to me." The pain in his face is killing me. "But it isn't. It will never be just you and me. It will always be them too. I can't do that to you." - "This isn't your call to make." I take a step towards him, wanting to close the gap between us but he takes a step back. "Charlie, I might not know what it is like to live your life but I know that you can't let them take anything away from you. What we have, that's between us. Sure, they can watch us, they can talk about us, but they will never have a clue about what it truly is we have. We can do this." Just an hour ago I was so overwhelmed by the fact that my club is crowded with paparazzi, I thought I'm gonna break down. I still don't have a clue how to handle the situation but right now it doesn't matter.

"I'm sure living that way is far from easy, but don't you think for a second my life has always been easy. I've been through a lot and I know that if it feels right it's worth fighting for." I take another step towards him, this time he doesn't move. "And this..." One more step and we're only a few inches apart. "... feels right." I fling my arms around his neck, pressing my lips onto his. For a second he seems to fight it but then he gives in. Wrapping one arm around my waist, his other hand buried in my hair, he kisses me back. This kiss is filled with so many emotions, desperation, fear, pain, but it's also a promise. A promise that we can fight this... together. We pull apart, staring into each others eyes. Charlie brushes a strand of hair from my face and tugs it behind my ear. "Are you sure you wanna do this?" - "Never been more sure of anything in my life."

He grabs his phone. "I'm gonna call Ben and tell him." For the first time today he grabs my hand. I squeeze his a little, knowing this isn't an easy call for him to make. When he picks up he puts his phone on speaker. The fact that he doesn't care what I hear means a lot to me. "Is it done?" I can't believe the man on the other end of the phone is supposed to be a friend of Charlie's. He's always spoken so high of him, but his voice seems so cold. The perfect business man, I think to myself. Charlie swallows hard before he says "No. It's not an option." I can hear Ben sigh. "Boy, we talked about this." - "No. You talked, I listened. But this is my life and Victoria is a part of it now." I can hear another sigh. There is a moment of silence before he says "You know what you're getting the girl into right?" Charlie is silent for a second and I can tell he's struggling with giving in. "The girl has a name, Victoria. And yes, I am very well aware of what I'm getting myself into."