The Magic of Hollywood // Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 42

"J, you coming to the club with me?" She just nods and grabs her purse. We're almost out the door. "What about me?" Charlie pouts and I try real hard not to laugh. "Don't you have a life of your own?" He sighs. "Yeah, I guess I sadly do. But don't think I'm not coming to Open-Mic-Night tomorrow!" I laugh. "If I would have known you're that clingy I would have thought twice about this whole dating thing." He catches his breath and holds his hand to his heart. I laugh a little and walk over towards him. "I'll see you tonight." I place a gentle kiss on his lips and walk out the door before he can protest.

Jenny and I walk down to my club. It isn't too far from Charlie's place. We walk quite slowly and talk a lot, making a short stop at the usual Starbucks on our way. After about 30 minutes we walk around the corner of my club only to be met with paparazzi. I sigh a little, having completely forgotten about that issue. "Ms. Porter, any comments on your relationship to Charlie Gillespie?" I ignore them and push my way through as gently as I can. They are not as aggressive as they were after my opening, with just a little effort we can actually push through. Before we get to the door I turn around and say "I am not gonna be making any comments about that matter. Everything you need to know we said. If you don't want to know anything about my club than I would appreciate you leave." With that I go inside.

"V, this is crazy." I nod. I can only hope it'll eventually die down like Jeremy and Carolynn said. I look around the club. It looks so good. We did some cleaning after the opening, but there were still things that needed to be done. Afterwards I hardly had time to deal with any organizational matters. "Oh Victoria, I didn't think you were coming in today." Valerie walks into the club. "Did you do all this?" I gesture around the room. She just nods. "I figured you have enough on your plate right now." I can't help it. I walk over and give her a big hug. "Thank you. I honestly appreciate it." Once again I'm blown away by how much my life changed since I got into that airplane. Back at home, after my grandpa died, I had no one who truly believed in me. Of course, Jenny supported me, but she was always quite skeptical about this whole thing. Who can blame her, it was a really crazy idea to leave my life behind. But now? I have Valerie, who honestly is a gem. Without her non of this would have been possible. I have my best friend here with me and I even got a caring boyfriend.

"Victoria, can I talk to you for a second?" I follow Valerie to the couch on the side of my club. "So... it's official now, is it? My niece was going crazy about that instagram post on Charlie's account." I nod a little. "Yeah... it's crazy. It all happened so fast. But I guess it is." I don't know why but I suddenly get incredibly conscious about this whole situation. Maybe it is because by now Valerie has sort of become like a mother to me. Talking to Jenny about this is a whole different story. "Victoria... I am happy for... I truly am but... you know it won't be easy, right?" I nod again. "Are you sure you can handle that?" - "I handled worse." Is all I say. I came to Los Angeles to get away from my past with Max and everything that happened after we broke up. I guess you can never fully get away from your past. What happened back then made me who I am now and it will always be a part of me but it's over. I know, eventually I have to tell Charlie at least some part of it but he's the only one that needs to know. I don't want Valerie to treat me differently because of what happened. Also, I know that if she knew she would personally drag me out of his place and into hers.

My phone rings, announcing a new text. It's from Charlie. Can we at least have lunch together? I can't help but smile. You really can't get enough of me can you? His response comes in immediately. No. So... back entrance at noon? I send back a thumbs up and return to work. Since Valerie cleaned the whole place there isn't too much for us to do today. Jenny and I go through the stock of drinks and snacks to order what needs to be filled up. Since I only opened for one day so far there isn't much missing. Then we continue to wipe down all surfaces and check the lights and sound system. My phone rings once again. Where are you? Oh shoot, I completely lost track of time. "Guys, I'm gonna go have lunch with Charlie. See you in a bit." Jenny and Valerie both wave at me and then return to what they were doing. I know I should feel a little bad about leaving Jenny alone so often since she came here just for me but this morning she told me she wants to FaceTime here boyfriend today so I guess now she has a chance to do so. When I open the back door Charlie's car is truly right in front of it. I hop in. "Finally!" he exclaims, raising his hands in the air as if he's been praying for this moment. "Drama Queen" I say laughing. We start driving. "Were are we going?" He shakes his head slightly. "Victoria Porter, when will you ever learn that I like to surprise you?" I roll my eyes but a big smile forms on my face.