“Are you saying yes, you’ll come to Los Angeles with me?” I asked as I pulled apart from here briefly.
“Are you still a vegan?” She laughed.
“Nope, I like my meat now. Do you still have your tongue pierced?”
She stuck her tongue out at me and let me see the new, heart-shaped rod she had going through the middle of it. It was no longer a boring, silver color, and instead a brilliant red that matched her hair.
“Yep, I do, and yes, I’ll go with you.”
I pulled her even closer as our lips pressed together and she thrust her tongue with mine. We were going to have one hell of a time together. It didn’t matter what else happened in my life, I felt like if I had Cassidy by my side, everything was going to turn out just the way it was supposed to.
Epilogue
“Are you even putting clothes on at all in there?” I yelled from the hallway as I waited for Cassidy to come out.
“It’s a movie premiere, Erik. It takes longer to get dressed for this kind of thing. Stop worrying; we still have an hour before it starts.”
“I kind of need to be there on time, you know. I’m sure you look fabulous. Can we please just get going?” I begged her.
We had been waiting in the living room for over an hour for Cassidy to get ready. My father and brother didn’t seem to mind, but I was going crazy with anxiety that we were going to be late.
This was the first film that our movie studio had made all by ourselves. We had contributed to several films over the first year of our business, but this one was all us. So, if it did well, then we were going to be getting a ton of new jobs, but if it did horribly, we might lose all the money we had put into it.
“You really need to learn to relax,” my father said as he sat casually on the couch. “Women work faster if they aren’t under so much stress from you yelling at them.”
My dad was dressed in a black tuxedo that matched both my brother’s and my outfits. The three of us looked pretty darn sharp, if I did say so myself. Heath and I had already decided we were going to find a hot movie star and fix her up with our father. He deserved to have some fun in his old age, we joked.
“Heath, can you talk to Kelly and see if she can hurry Cassidy up?”
“Oh, hell no. Don’t bring my wif
e into this. I’m not getting on her bad side,” he joked as we all laughed.
Heath and Kelly had gotten married only a few short months after they started to date, and Kelly had just given birth to their son. It was amazing how fast life moved when all the stars aligned and you found the right one.
Kelly and Heath were perfect for each other: There was no denying it. And their son looked just like me. I made sure to tell them that all the time, and I was going to do everything possible to ensure I was the best damn uncle that ever lived. Although I was scared to death at the prospect of ever having my own child, having a nephew who I could send home at the end of the day seemed like a great idea.
Another fifteen minutes went by before Kelly and the baby emerged from the room. Finally, I thought that Cassidy would be on her way out. With Los Angeles traffic, we were going to be lucky if we made it there on time.
“Is she coming?” I asked as I tried not to sound frantic.
“I’m all ready,” Cassidy said as she strolled out of our bedroom and walked down the hallway.
I am sure that my mouth literally dropped open as I watched my beautiful girlfriend walk elegantly toward me. She had on a floor-length black gown that hugged all her curves perfectly. Her hair was styled in amazing waves that were reminiscent of the 1940s, which was exactly the time period our new film took place in.
“Wow,” my dad said as he stood up and came over to stand next to me. “I’m pretty sure she’s going to steal all your thunder tonight,” he joked.
“Seriously, Cassidy, you look amazing,” Heath added.
I wanted to talk. There were so many compliments in my head and I wanted to share every single one of them with her, but all I could do was stand there and stare. This was my woman. This amazingly beautiful creature had decided to follow me out to Los Angeles and stay with me, encouraging me along my journey to become a film producer and studio owner.
I couldn’t get the words to come out of me I was so floored by how beautiful she looked.
“Do I look all right?” she teased as she did a 360-degree turn in front of me and showed off the ultra-low back of the dress.
“Damn, yes, baby, you look like perfection,” I finally managed to say.
“Well, stop standing there. We better get going. You don’t want to be late for your own movie premier,” she said as she grabbed her purse and hustled to the door.