Limelight Love Story

4. Roommates

Lucy woke up at 11:01AM to a pounding headache that was made worse by the sound of her phone ringing, which was the real reason she arose. With closed eyes, she felt around the nightstand beside her bed in her New York City hotel suite that she was not accustomed to and finally located her device. The name that flashed on the screen surprised her, and she immediately felt fully awake, her pulse racing a little faster as she slid a finger across the screen to answer the call. "Hi," she rasped, her throat still sore from her concert the night before and disuse as she slept.

"Hello? Lucy?" Tim said, not recognizing the sound of her voice.

She cleared her throat and sat up straighter. "It's me. Sorry, my voice is still hoarse from last night." She lunged for a water bottle on her nightstand and started chugging as if she had never had a drop before in her life.

"Oh, okay. I-I just wanted say thank you again for the V.I.P. treatment last night."

"Are you kidding? It was my pleasure to have you and your friends at my concert, and you already said thank you last night. You didn't have to call."

"Well, a wise woman told me I could find a spare minute to call a girl up and tell her I'm thinking about her, so that's what I'm doing."

Lucy perked up even more and felt her cheeks warm. When he was not being awkward, he was quite charming. "You took this wise woman's advice, huh? That's surprising."

"Not really. I know the golden rule of marriage. Happy wife, happy life," he smirked. Admittedly, it was easier to be comfortable speaking with her over the phone where staring at her beauty was not a possibility, and therefore, he was less distracted, so he could be his more confident self.

"Sounds like Angela and Wes didn't need to give you any marriage advice yesterday. You've got this all figured out."

"I don't know," Tim shrugged and continued casually, "Maybe they gave me ideas about some stuff to try at some point." Wes and Angela had spoken about how to keep married sex spicy and called it "marriage advice", which had originally made him uncomfortable, but her scratchy morning voice and an image of her messy hair and a sleepy smile changed his mind.

There was no denying, she was blushing all the way to her toes.

When all he heard was silence, he paused and tried to backtrack from his previous statement, and stumbled over himself to say, "I-I mean with someone I'm actually with. I'm sorry, I didn't mean...I wasn't trying to be like creepy or anything...God, this was such a bad idea." Thankfully, her light chuckle floated through, and Tim relaxed slightly.

"No, I really do appreciate that you called me. It's sweet. As for the other thing...I'll admit I'd be tempted. You ARE hot. It's just a bad idea, you know? We have a fake relationship to maintain, so we should keep things professional."

"Right. Yes. Professional. That might be hard for me seeing as I only work with sweaty guys, and you're definitely not. I mean, you're gorgeous...but, I'll figure it out. For the sake of our fake marriage. For appearances. For my new contract and your public image."

Part of her wanted to let him continue to babble on and embarrass himself further, but she snickered and interrupted, "Speaking of our marriage, I'll be back in town Monday night. Can I move some stuff into your house then?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. I can be moved out of my bedroom by then."

"Moved out of your bedroom? What are you talking about, Tim?"

"You're a woman. You should have the best bedroom in the house, so of course I'll move into one of the guest rooms, and..."

"No way. That's so not necessary. I'll take any old guest room, and before you say anything else, you should know I'll be happier knowing I didn't totally uproot your life by kicking you out of your own bedroom. Happy wife, happy life, remember?"