Rumor Has It

Part 25

"Why do you look like someone lifted a gigantic weight off your shoulders?" His mother was trying for neutral but he could hear the slight edge in her voice. Sometimes it could be so annoying how well she could read his mood when he had not even said anything yet. Gloria handed the wooden spoon to Lea to stir after having convinced her that pancakes would be better the next day.

Bradley felt like he owed her the truth by now and she knew it too. She was the person he trusted the most and the full volume of their film project could be very public soon enough.

"I got the first okay from the studio." He started, carefully trying to steer the conversation in the right direction and his mother's face lit up.

"That sounds amazing! And what did Todd say?"

"Todd?" He asked back and already got distracted watching Lea try to handle the pan on the stove. Gloria sighed and stepped in before Lea could pull it too far off to the side.

"Isn't that who you called? You've been on that for a while."

"No...well, yes."

"Bradley." She interrupted him and broke into a smile when she spotted his face blushing in embarrassment.

"I've already cast the female lead. I went to a Jazz show a while ago where she performed and...I asked Lady Gaga to join us. Well, Stefani. And she gets very involved in her projects, so I had to call her right away."

The spoon was dropped onto the stove and Gloria blinked at him, not comprehending what he was saying. "You asked whom?"

"I met with Lady Gaga and asked her to join me for the first film I'll direct myself." It sounded more insane when he tried to explain it to someone else. He paused as if waiting for a different reaction and his mother was still collecting herself. She began fidgeting and cleaning up the counter while Lea watched, confused at the turmoil.

"It's Stefani." Lea corrected as if she were trying to help her grandmother understand and Bradley gulped down the air in his throat.

"Honey, would you get Charlie his dinner, too?" He asked and Lea looked at him questioningly, but jumped off her chair to get the dog food from the storage room.

"How do you even know her?" Gloria asked quietly. "You can't simply walk up to her...I mean, maybe YOU could, but..." She shook her head.

"I went to her Jazz show with Todd and I met her afterwards. She's amazingly talented. And she's been really lovely about it so far."

"Ah." His mother commented dryly like she was figuring out the rest of this story in her head. "I thought as much when you spent almost a week filming a screen test and didn't think to invite me over once." She was looking at him expectantly, like she was waiting for him to finish his story and it dawned on him that she knew.

Bradley stopped setting out the dishes and turned to his mother. "I need you to promise to keep this between us."

"I'd never tell anyone, Bradley. You know better than that."

"Emily is hers. Lea's friend from school."

He expected Gloria's face to fall, but she only looked at him with a serious expression and he felt confirmed in his suspicion. "I thought I had recognized her when I saw her while you were Facetiming. Back then, when Lea was sleeping over. That's a big secret to keep."

The biggest worry bottled up inside him burst out of him as soon as Bradley saw the genuine concern in her eyes. "I'm really worried about Irina finding out. It's been a horrible idea to tell Lea she can't talk about her when she's been over there so often and now I'm basically making her lie to her mother."