Hollywood Stardust Supporting Roles - Wilson and Giselle by Kim Carmichael Page A

their
personalities.” Ivy sat down by her. “What’s going on?”
    “ Well, today sucked.”
Giselle inspected her nails. “I learned not all publicity is good
publicity.”
    “ Yeah.” Ivy took her hand.
“Are you all right?”
    “ Why does everyone keep
asking me that?” With a grunt, she turned to her friend. “This
doesn’t even involve me. Not really.”
    “ You’re such a liar. You
know it involves you, and it hurts.” Ivy turned to her and leaned
in. “You’ve been crying.”
    “ It’s the LA smog.” She
shook her head.
    “ It’s a beautiful day out.”
Ivy tapped her.
    Slowly, she looked over at Ivy.
    “ You care, admit it. You’ve
been crying and you haven’t cracked one joke.” In a best friend
move that said she knew more than anyone, Ivy jutted her jaw
out.
    “ I’m more than comedy
relief.” The tears started again. “Fine, I care. I didn’t want it
to hurt Wilson.”
    “ See?” Ivy
grinned.
    “ What do I do now?” She
swore she sounded like her mother the day her father passed away.
“What can I do for Wilson?”
    “ Why don’t you try loving
him?” Ivy gave her a hug.
    She cared too much and it would be the end
of her, but at this point she had no choice.
    She should have thought of that.

Chapter Eight
     
    “ ARE YOU READY?” Blindfold
in hand, Giselle trotted over to him.
    “ What am I doing again?”
Before she covered his eyes, Wilson took another long look at his
gorgeous girlfriend in what he would only call a traditional pink
strapless party dress with a short flared skirt. Everything fit
with her theme for the soft opening, right down to her.
    Her theme…birthday party. Her explanation…it
was the birth of the bar. Her idea…genius.
    Ike, his liquor vendor, elbowed him. “Do you
want us to leave so Giselle can show you how to use that in
private?”
    “ He doesn’t need any
lessons.” Giselle pushed Ike away.
    A couple of his friends nodded. For the
first time in his life, he was the one with the coveted girlfriend.
Better yet, she never even glanced in another guy’s direction. Her
attention was focused solely on him.
    “ I told you. We’re playing
pin the shot glass on the bar.” She squealed, kissed him, and
handed him the little picture of the shot glass with tape on the
back.
    “ That’s right.” Wilson
primed himself to play.
    Their guests’ laughter resonated way above
the ragtime music she chose to fit her theme.
    Apparently, she left no detail unattended,
from the black and red streamers and balloons decorating the club,
to a magician doing a show, and even games.
    She spun him around three times, stood in
back of him, and took him by the shoulders. “Okay, do your
best.”
    “ What do I win if I hit the
mark?” Though he felt ridiculous, he lifted his arm with his game
piece. All his friends were having a ball, and he certainly didn’t
want to be the buzz kill. Plus, he wanted to let loose a
little.
    “ You’re the host, so you
can’t win the prize.” She slid her hand down to his backside and
gave him a pat. “I guess we’ll have to get you a special
present.”
    With a newfound sense of competition and his
guests cheering him on, he walked forward until he basically
collided with the wall and stuck his paper shot glass wherever it
landed.
    He lifted the blindfold and frowned. Rather
than the bar, he managed to get the shot glass near the sink.
    “ Not even close, my
friend.” Once more, Ike came over. “At least I made it to a
barstool.”
    “ Hey, Ike, one more word
and that extra ten percent off you gave me will become fifteen
percent, and I’ll start shopping around.” Once more, Giselle moved
the guy out of the way, then kissed Wilson’s cheek. “You put your
glass away, so you get your present.” She motioned to one of the
wait staff to have her continue with the game and high fived a
couple of his buddies. “Come here.” Like a kid at, well at a
birthday party, she dragged him through the crowd.
    He jumped