Falling in Love with a King [Elvis]

Chapter 9 - Now It's Personal

Love me tender, love me sweet
Never let me go
You have made my life complete
And I love you so

Love me tender, love me true
All my dreams fulfill
For my darlin', I love you
And I always will

Love me tender, love me long
Take me to your heart
For it's there that I belong
And we'll never part

The following night of my first day on set, I hugged my legs tightly to my chest and rested my chin on my knees as I sat in my cushion chair in my living room, watching Elvis sing on the Ed Sullivan Show. The show was live, but they were just recapturing the last star that they had on the show a few nights before when the show was in Memphis.

It was a miracle that I knew this young star personally. He was such a talented person and had such a big heart. Of course, I already knew that, but what he said to me the night I left the set touched me greatly. I had never thought about it before, that I was still beautiful as a brunette, even if the man I loved before liked blondes. After he broke my heart, I seriously contemplated dying my hair. After seeing a lot of women with blonde hair and men falling all over them, I had thought about dying it.

But then Elvis said what he did.

Love me tender, love me true
All my dreams fulfill
For my darlin', I love you
And I always will

Love me tender, love me dear
Tell me you are mine
I'll be yours through all the years
Till the end of time

Love me tender, love me true
All my dreams fulfill
For my darlin', I love you
And I always will

Elvis ended his song on the show, and it switched to the show that was going on live next. My mother told me not to fall in love with him, or if I did, to not do anything about it. Well, I had to kiss him the following week. It would be acting, though.

But a kiss was a kiss, as she said.

I buried my face in my knees and groaned. My job had suddenly become more difficult. I hadn't been working for the paper that long, and I fell for one on of the stars I worked with. I didn't think that it would happen, but it did. I expected fan crushes, yes, but really falling in love with a star and knowing him on a personal level? No way.

"I should go to bed," I mumbled near my knees. I got up, turned the television off, and went on to the bathroom to ready myself to bed. Alice was off working late so I wouldn't be seeing her until the next day. I stared at myself in the mirror, at my dirt-brown hair and eyes that could look blue on one day and green on the other. I never really liked how they switched color. And I was so tiny—a twig, even as a woman.

Elvis thought that this—me—was beautiful?

Just remember that, alright? You're beautiful.

I nodded. Yes, I would remember it. Not only would I remember that a man as handsome and wonderful as Elvis Presley called me beautiful, I would remember that the man I fell in love with called me beautiful. I would remember it every time I looked in the mirror and didn't think I was any beauty. I would always hear You're beautiful in his low voice and imagine his face and eyes.

"You're beautiful," I said to myself.

The song he sang on the Ed Sullivan Show came to mind, and the words flowed through my brain in pleasant waves. What he sang was my plea for him. Love me tender, love me sweet.

But that couldn't happen. Plus, he didn't think that way about me, at least I didn't think he did. He acted jealous because of Kenneth flirting with me on the set, but it could have been just the concern of a friend.