The Hollywood Effect - Marin Harlock

CONTENTS Copyright Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One

Copyright © 2016 by Marin Harlock This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any

manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CHAPTER ONE Holly Monroe Caught in CHEATING SCANDAL With Her Rain Beat CoStar! Say it ain’t so! Holly Monroe has reportedly put her relationship with Aussie heart-throb Liam Burns in SERIOUS jeopardy by cheating on her handsome fiancé with Jack Lemon, costar in her most recent film Rain Beat,

only months before Holly and Liam’s planned wedding. Pictures of Holly and Jack looking entirely too cozy have recently surfaced. According to a source close to the actress, “Holly is absolutely devastated. It was a complete lapse of judgement and a one-off mistake. She’s not having an affair with Jack, it was just a one-off moment that will never ever happen again. She didn’t mean to hurt anyone, especially not Liam, who she loves with all her heart and soul.” Liam didn’t seem to take the news so well - he was last spotted getting on a plane to his home country without Holly. There’s no official word yet from

Liam’s people, but an anonymous source close to the actor said that he’s gone to “clear his head and figure stuff out.” What this means for the couple who met 3 years ago on the set of the hit film April Song remains to be seen. Check out the incriminating pics below and tell us what you think! ~*~ “Miss Pike?” I looked out over my Year 8 history class and focused on the blonde girl sitting at the back of the room with her hand waving eagerly in the air. “Yes, Marnie?”

“Is it true that you know Liam Burns?” I groaned inwardly. I hadn’t even been here a week. This was only my third class with this lot. “I was under the impression we were discussing the Black Death, not contemporary movie stars, Marnie.” I gestured for the class to keep reading. “But, Miss, you do know him, don’t you? My cousin Sara said you were, like, his best friend or something? Is that why all the reporters are in town? Is he back? Do you know him? Have you seen him?” I raised my eyebrows at the rapidfire questions, and then sighed. Might as well get it out of the way, I told myself.

Judging by the way the rest of the class were suddenly paying a lot more attention, I wouldn’t get much sense out of them until I buried this nonsense. He was an actor; it wasn’t a big deal. We also had a professional footy player amongst our recent alumni, but he didn’t seem to get quite the same response, from the girls at any rate. The current Year 12’s would probably actually remember Liam from our own school days, before he got famous and wouldn’t be quite as starstruck. To the younger ones though, he was a living legend. The kid from their small town who made it big in Hollywood and dated famous movie

stars and graced the covers of the magazines in the supermarket check-out. “Yes,” I said. “Liam is an old school friend. No, he’s not back in town as far as I know, and wait, what reporters?” “There were some in the bakery this morning,” Marnie said quickly. “And there were some in the milk bar. They were asking Betty where Mr and Mrs Burns live,” volunteered Jeremy Schmidt from the front row. I’d been studying their class photos since I landed the job a month ago and had most of their names memorised. I frowned. “Did Betty tell them?” I’d have to have a few stern words with Betty if she had.

“Nah, she told them to bugger off... but with a worse word.” I nodded. That sounded like Betty. “Did they really break up? Holly Monroe and Liam Burns, I mean?” Marnie asked. I narrowed my eyes at Marnie, but couldn’t help my mind wondering. I hadn’t actually heard from Liam for a few weeks. That wasn’t entirely unusual. He was a busy guy after all, and I made a point not to read any gossip magazines or websites, although it was definitely weird and hard to ignore when he appeared on the front covers, especially when the local businesses liked to place those particular issues in prominent

displays. Liam had assured me (and his worried mother and grandmother) that 95% of what they reported was pure fiction. Trying to figure out the 5% that was true had driven me nuts at the start when he’d first started popping up in their vapid pages. “Why do you think they broke up?” I asked and immediately wanted to take the words back. Marnie and her sidekick Sophie leaned forward eagerly. “I read it online. Holly was seen without her engagement ring getting cozy with Jack Lemon and apparently Liam was spotted boarding a flight to Australia.”

I blinked. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. If it was true. Which it probably wasn’t. “If you lot paid more attention to your history lessons than to Hollywood gossip, you would make me a happy teacher.” “But, Miss, do you know what’s going on? Did they really break up? Oh, I love Holly so much. They can’t break up!” Sophie sighed melodramatically. I resisted the overwhelming temptation to roll my eyes. “Even if I did know what’s going on, I wouldn’t tell you lot. It’s none of our business. If Holly and Liam are having problems, then that’s between them.” I

took a deep breath. “Now, can we kindly return our attention back to what we’re meant to be doing? The Black Death? It’s much more interesting than celebrity gossip, I promise you.” “Miss?” I hesitated. I was pretty sure this wouldn’t be a question about plague symptoms. “Yes, Marnie?” “Have you met Holly Monroe? Like, in real life? She was here last year with Liam. I wasn’t here though. I had to go to Sydney to visit my dad. I was so mad when I found out-“ “Enough, Marnie. Page 112. Read from the top, please.” “But, Miss-“

“Enough! Read!” I gathered up my books, papers and spare whiteboard markers, and waited a few minutes before following the kids out of the classroom. I shook my head to myself. I didn’t begrudge my friend any of his success or fame; on the contrary, I was super exited for him... but I doubted he had any idea how much it impacted my life or work. I should have taken the job in Melbourne. No one would have any idea who my best friend was in Melbourne. But no, I’d had to go and take the job in our home town. At our old school. Where absolutely everyone knew exactly who Liam Burns was, and

exactly who his old friends were. I stalked into the staffroom and made a bee-line for my desk. Old Mrs Mac, the art teacher, jumped. She still wasn’t used to seeing me as a teacher rather than a student. I swear she’d been on the verge of telling me to knock, or get out at least a dozen times since I’d started working at the start of the term. It’s just temporary, I told myself. Just until Dad starts getting better. Then I’d move out of here. Back to the city. The nice, anonymous city. “So is it true? Are they over for good this time?” “What? Who?” I dropped my arm-

load of paper and pens on my desk and looked over at Jacinta, one of the other younger teachers on staff. She was leaning back on her chair, in exactly the same pose that I’d told Kyle Harrison off for earlier in the day, looking at me with her wide, brown eyes. “Is it true about our famous movie star and his sweetheart? It’s all my kids in English could talk about.” Jacinta laughed, and then shook her head. “Not you too,” I groaned. “Why do they care so much? And no, I have no idea. It’s probably not true. Last time I talked to Burnsy they were picking out wedding colours and sampling cakes or something exciting like that.”

“Just another beat-up then?” Jacinta nodded wisely. “Yeah, probably.” I shrugged. “No other starlets shaving their heads or running down Hollywood Boulevard in the buff, so they have to make up something to soothe the raging masses. You’re an English teacher, you should know not to believe everything you read!” Jacinta laughed again. “I suppose so. I was just telling my Year 11’s that… Do you want to grab a beer after work? Tommy’s coming too. And maybe Veronica and Simon.” I thought about it for all of half a second. “Yeah, that’d be great. It’s been

a long week. What time?” “We’re going straight there. I can give you a ride if you want, pick your car up later.” “Oh. Nah, it’s okay. I have to swing by my dad’s first. I’ll meet you there afterwards.” “No worries!” I drove through the small town that I’d called home for the first eighteen years of my life. I never seriously thought I’d end up living here again. As wide and beautiful as the tree-lined streets were, they were confining. You couldn’t do anything in this town without everybody else finding out about it in

three seconds flat. Sometimes you even found out you did things that you’d never actually done. Like sleep with Liam in the back of Sara Tyler’s Volkswagen Beetle at Sara’s 18th birthday party. Besides wondering about the physical logistics of it even happening - Liam was 6ft 4 even back then, and I’d wondered if he could actually even fit in the back of that tiny car, let alone get me in as well (and I was no tiny waif!), and then also have enough room to manoeuvre for awkward teenage sex we hadn’t actually done it. I was pretty sure I would remember that. Liam had rolled around on the floor of my bedroom, clutching his belly and

laughing uncontrollably when our friend Dan had gleefully repeated that particular rumour to us. “As if I’d ever sleep with you!” he’d howled. I’d felt more than slightly indignant at that. “Gee thanks, shithead.” I’d aimed a kick at him. He’d caught it before it connected. “Sorry,” he hiccupped. “It’s not that you’re hideous or anything. It’s just that… well, you know. You’re like my sister, Jen. It’d be weird. Really weird.” He’d shuddered at the thought. “Don’t you think?” “Yeah… really weird…” I’d scowled.

Dan had laughed at the look on my face. Grant had shot me a quick look of sympathy though, but hadn’t said anything. He’d been the only one that knew I’d been nursing a crush on Liam for the previous three years. As far as I knew, he’d taken that particular secret with him to the grave. I pulled up in front of my parents’ place. I glared at the photographers camped out front of Frank and Linda’s place from the safety of my car. There was about half a dozen of them staked out on the lawn, chatting lazily to each other. I’d have to call Liam and get him to make an appearance elsewhere, far

away from Tarang. The living-room curtain flickered as I watched, and I caught a glimpse of Linda’s eye glaring out. The vultures didn’t pay much attention to me as I unloaded the bag of groceries from the back seat of my car, but then one of them - a young man with white sunglasses and a large camera hanging around his neck - came ambling toward me. “Can I help you carry that?” he said smoothly in an accent I couldn’t quite place. “No, thank you,” I said stiffly. “Matt Rivers, pleased to meet you.” He held out his hand to me. I just looked at it, and then up at him again. To my

irritation he fell into step beside me as I walked towards the gate. “Have you always lived here? Did you know Liam when he was a child?” Matt Rivers paused, waiting for an answer. I just looked at him for a moment. “I don’t live here. I hope you enjoy your stay in Tarang, but unfortunately there’s not really a lot going on here. You might have more luck finding something productive to do with your day down in Warrnambool, or even better, back in Melbourne or Sydney. Have a nice day.” I shut the gate firmly behind me and started walking down the overgrown

path to the front door. The remnants of the once immaculate garden made me sigh. This garden had once been my father’s pride and joy. Now it was neglected and weed-strewn, and stood out in the street for all the wrong reasons. I knocked quickly on the door, then pushed it open. “Dad? It’s me.” “In here, love,” Dad’s voice called out from the direction of the living room. I walked down the dark hallway, banging my foot on a pile of god-knows what. I went into the lounge room. It was dark in there as well, with the only light

coming from the TV. I leaned over and gave Dad a quick kiss on the cheek. He didn’t smell very good. “I brought you some groceries. I’ll just put them in the kitchen,” I said. “Oh thanks, love. You didn’t need to do that.” “It’s all right, Dad.” The kitchen was dim. The bright sunshine tried in vain to seep through the wooden blinds. I sighed again and strode over to open the blinds. Movement caught my eye and I watched with exasperation and mounting anger as a scruffy man clambered up the old oak tree that straddled our backyard and the Burns’. Our old cubby house was up

there. I contemplated calling the police. They’d realise soon enough that the famous Liam Burns wasn’t in town though and leave. There was nothing else in Tarang, or the entire Western Districts for that matter, to keep them occupied, that was for sure. Not unless they wanted to go climb a (very small) extinct volcano, or go out paddling on the lake. Still, I really didn’t like the idea of some stranger sitting in my cubby house. I opened the kitchen window and leaned out. “Oi! You in the tree! You have one minute to get out of there and off our property before I call the police!” The

scruffy man gave me a startled look and began to climb down. I returned my attention to the kitchen and my heart sank. For a few weeks there, Dad had seemed to be getting better, but lately… The piles of dishes had grown, rather than shrunk since I’d dropped by two days ago. The pile of mail remained exactly where I’d placed it on the counter, still unopened. I put the food away and replaced the rotting vegetables in the fridge with fresh versions, and picked through the fruit bowl to remove the older pieces that were starting to go brown. At least the chooks would be happy. I held my

breath as I emptied the tray into the chook bucket. “Dad, can you take this down to the chooks?” I called out. “What’s that, love?” “The chook bucket. It’s full. And pretty smelly.” “Oh. Yeah. Sure. In a minute.” I sighed. Yeah. In a minute… I flicked through the mail. Red letters caught my eye. I ripped open the envelope. “Dad! You need to pay your electricity bill!” “What’s that?” I picked up a few more envelopes and went into the living room. I could

barely see Dad. Irritated, I stalked over to the big bay window and opened the curtains. Dad blinked in the sudden light. “What did you do that for? I like it dark. Too much glare on the telly otherwise.” “Dad, you need to pay your electricity bill. They’re about to cut you off. You haven’t paid for months.” “I will, I will. Don’t worry about it, Jen.” “And your insurance? Have you paid that?” “I said don’t worry about it. It’s fine.” “Dad…”

“Enough, Jennifer. I said it’s fine.” I sighed again and slipped the bills into my handbag. When Mum had died, a part of Dad seemed to go with her. He barely left the house anymore, and I doubted that he would eat anything other than sardines on toast or baked beans if I didn’t come over and cook for him every second night. I wanted to come every night, but he flat out refused. Mum had been gone for almost two years now. I hadn’t realised how bad Dad was at first. I mean, of course, we were all pretty bad at the start. You don’t exactly expect your healthy, fit mother to drop dead at the age of fifty three. My older sister, Steph, had come out for the

funeral and stayed with Dad for two months before flying back to her life in Vancouver. I wished she wasn’t so far away. She’d probably be able to bully Dad into actually going to his counselling sessions and opening his mail. I started cutting up an onion and some garlic. The smell of the butter, garlic and onions all simmering away in the pan finally lured Dad away from the TV. “What are you cooking?” “Just spaghetti.” “Ah. Good.” We stood in silence for a few minutes. I stirred the saucepan and

chopped up some mushrooms. Dad fiddled with the corner of the counter, where the laminate was starting to come off. I could feel him watching me for a few moments before he let out a deep breath and helped himself to a beer from the fridge. “Do you want one?” He held up a can of VB to me. I shook my head. “No thanks. I’m gonna grab a drink later with some of the other teachers.” Dad shrugged, as if to say ‘your loss’ and cracked the can open. He took a big gulp. “How was your day?” Dad asked. I shrugged. “All right. Survived the

first week. Learned more names. Have you noticed all the paparazzi around?” Dad frowned and shook his head. “Yeah, there was one up the back oak tree as well. I told him to bugger off.” I nodded towards the window. “Liam back, is he?” “No. I don’t know. I don’t think so.” “They seem to think so.” Dad came over to the kitchen window and peered out. “I don’t see anything.” “They’re there. Trust me. Most of them are out the front, but I wouldn’t put it past them to be lurking in the hydrangeas or something.” “Why would they think he’s here if he’s not?”

“Dunno. I don’t really follow the tabloids these days, Dad. My Year 8’s told me that apparently Liam and Holly have broken up again and Liam was seen boarding a flight to Australia. I suppose they’re just covering all bases.” “Oh, that’s a pity. Poor Liam. I like Holly. She was in a movie I watched this morning. Got some good acting chops, that girl.” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone likes Holly Monroe. And don’t worry, Dad. It’s probably not even true.” Once it was cooked, I served up the spaghetti and ate with Dad in near silence. I wrapped up the leftovers.

“Dad, there’s plenty left here for you to eat tomorrow,” I said while I put the bowl in the fridge. I hoped he’d actually eat it. He used to make spaghetti for us all the time when we were kids. It was Steph’s favourite. I’d always loved his risotto more. “Okay, Dad. I’m off. I’ll come over on Sunday, yeah?” Dad just nodded absentmindedly, obviously thinking about something - or someone - else. I stopped by his chair and leaned down to give him a kiss. He reached up and squeezed my hand. “You’re a good girl, Jen.” “Thanks, Dad.”

Half the paparazzi out the front had gone when I came out to my car. Smarmy Matt Rivers was one of the absent ones, thankfully. The ones left just watched me idly as I climbed into my trusty old Astra. Maybe they’d gotten wind of Liam’s real whereabouts - or, even better, something more interesting to write about and photograph than peoples private lives. I drove around to my rented house. One nice thing about living back in the countryside was rental prices. I could maybe get a teeny tiny studio apartment in Melbourne for the same price I was paying for this 3 bedroom house. Not that I needed 3 bedrooms with it just

being me of course, but it was nice to have space after years of sharing apartments in the city. I could have my own study. And a music room! I could play my drums at whatever time I liked. I really should finish unpacking this weekend. I wasn’t planning on staying here long term, but the teaching contract was for ten months. No point in living out of my suitcase and boxes for that long. I parked the car, but didn’t bother going inside. I looked down at my clothes. They’d do. I grabbed my jacket off the backseat, and set off at a brisk walk to the pub. It was only two blocks away. Another good thing about Tarang.

No excuse for drink driving here! I think everyone in the entire town must be within walking distance of a pub. We had four. For twelve hundred people. I didn’t want to think about what that ratio meant. The Wheatsheaf was its usual bustling self. It hadn’t changed much since I’d turned 18 and started coming here. Friday nights were good for business. I smiled and waved at Nikki, the bartender, when she looked my way. She’d been a year ahead of me at school and we’d had a few classes together. “How’s it going, Jen? What can I get you?” “Yeah good thanks, Nikki. Ummm.” I

scanned the taps. For a small country pub, they had a pretty good selection I had to admit. “I’ll just have a pot of cider for now, thanks.” “No worries. Did you want to start a tab?” I grinned. “Yeah sure.” I glanced around at some of the familiar, vaguely familiar and not so familiar faces. “Are Jacinta and Veronica here?” “Yeah, I think they’re in the dining room.” Nikki placed the cider in front of me. “Awesome, thanks.” I picked up my mug, and careful not to spill any, made my way through the crowd around the bar and into the dining room. It was a

little bit quieter in there, but not much. Must be someone’s birthday, I thought, looking at the long table that had been pushed together and the crowds of people surrounding it. A lot of them looked alike. Some of them I vaguely recognised from the Catholic school. We saw a lot of them at school sports, and they caught the same school buses us state school kids did, so they were often hanging around out the front of our school, waiting for their bus. I spotted Jacinta, Veronica and Simon huddled in the far corner of the room. Jacinta looked up and waved to me. I ambled over, nodding to Mr

O’Connor, the local green grocer. Veronica pulled out the seat next to her. Truth be told, I’d had a vague girlycrush on Veronica when I was a student. She’d started teaching at the school when I was in Year 11; she was my biology teacher. She was gorgeous, with her bright blue eyes, sleek black hair and high cheek bones. Her fashion sense stood out amongst our compulsory, daggy, school uniforms (Dan had feigned shock when he’d seen me in a bikini when we were 16 - claimed he’d always thought I was a scrawny boy under the baggy school jumper I was forced to wear everyday) and the older teachers drab clothes. I’d gotten to know her

better after she joined the local netball team, and some of the mystique faded away, although I still respected her a lot. I’d been her best student in Year 12, and we’d caught up a few times in the intervening years. It was nice to have a friendly face in the staffroom that didn’t just see me as a former student, but as an adult in my own right. Some of the other teachers seemed to be struggling with that part… “So, you survived your first week then!” Veronica throatily laughed. Simon, her husband (a primary school teacher) smiled warmly at me. “Yeah, just.” “Well, cheers to that!” Veronica

raised her glass and we all clinked. “Have you eaten yet, Jen?” Jacinta asked, passing me a menu. “Yeah, actually. I had a bite to eat with Dad.” “Good, ‘cause we already ordered.” I grinned, and then groaned as Matt Rivers came waltzing into the dining room. Thankfully he ignored me and just headed to a table, followed closely by a blonde woman who I thought I saw at the house, and an older man I hadn’t seen before. “What?” Jacinta demanded, looking over her shoulder at where I was staring. I broke my gaze away and shook myself. “Nothing. Just one of those paparazzi

vultures that was stalking Liam’s parents’ house this afternoon. He tried asking me if I knew Liam.” Jacinta turned in her seat so she could get a proper look at him. Veronica just shrugged. “Bound to happen, Jen. I’m surprised they didn’t knock on your dad’s door to be honest. Some of them were poking around at the high school.” “What?” I asked, startled. “Mmm. Gillian was complaining about it. They came into the office and started asking her questions about Liam’s school record, if he’d had girlfriends, who his friends were,” Veronica said as she looked at the

reporters. I spluttered on my cider. “Why? It’s not like anything’s changed in the past three years since he first got famous.” Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know. Gillian was pretty short and annoyed with them though.” “Good,” I said and attempted to drink my cider again. Gillian was the school office lady. You had to go through her before you could access anyone in the school and she took her responsibilities very seriously, and she’d been there forever. I remembered when I was a kid, and had to call Mum who was filling in for the French

teacher, because Steph had had a bad panic attack. It had taken quite a while to get past Gillian the Gatekeeper. “So, how was your week, Jen?” Simon asked me. I thought for a moment before answering. “Pretty good, actually. Apart from the ‘Do you know Liam Burns’ questions I got bombarded with today…” The other three teachers just laughed. After having possibly a drink or two too many, I was grateful that I could just walk home. It was a pleasant enough walk. My feet started leading me along the familiar

route to my parents’ house, but I caught myself in time and turned along my new street. I tripped over a crack in the driveway and swore. I fumbled for my keys before realising I was in Tarang and no one locks their doors in this town (the real estate agent had given me the wrong keys the day I moved in. It had taken me four days to even realise) and pushed opened my unlocked door. I paused in my doorway and frowned. The TV was on. I never watched TV in the mornings. I couldn’t have left it on. I closed the door as quietly as I could, then rethought that and opened it again, wincing as it creaked. I might

need a quick getaway. I tip-toed to the lounge room, and grabbed the old cricket bat Dad had bequeathed to me when I first moved out of home for security. I froze as I heard someone sigh. There was definitely someone in my house. I quickly wracked my brain, trying to think if I’d forgotten that someone was coming up to visit, but I came up blank. If it was a thief, they would be sorely disappointed by my meagre belongings. Maybe that was why they’d stopped burgling and started watching telly. What kind of crappy burglar stops to watch the telly? What if they weren’t just a telly-watching burglar though? What if they were here

to get me? To murder me? Rape me? I shook myself. Get a grip, Pike. It’s Tarang. We haven’t had a murder here since… I don’t even know when. Ever? Statistically you’re much more likely to die in a car accident or get eaten by a hippo than be murdered in your own home by a stranger. I slightly reassured myself and started lowing the cricket bat when I heard the person sigh again - no man, that had definitely been a manly sigh. Whatever the statistics were, that didn’t alter the fact that someone uninvited was sitting in my lounge room. I took a deep steadying breath, plucked my courage down from where it

was hovering near the ceiling, and peeked around the corner. My cricket bat thunked to the floor. “What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded. Liam Burns looked up from his position on the couch and grinned at me. “Surprise.”

CHAPTER TWO “Holy shit, Liam! You scared me half to death, you dick.” I clutched my chest. I shoved his feet off my favourite part of the couch and sank down. “Oh. Sorry, Jen.” He didn’t look all that sorry. Not with that smirk on his face. “I thought you would have been home when I got here.” “I was at the pub with a few

teachers. Friday night and all that.” “Oh yeah. It’s Friday. Sorry, I think I’m still on L.A. time. I seriously thought it was Thursday…” “Then I would have been at netball.” Liam frowned at me. “Sorry. I thought you would have been happy to see me.” He looked a bit wounded which took all the wind out of my sails, as usual. “Ugh. I’m sorry. My heart’s still beating a million miles a minute and I think I’m still a bit drunk… Of course it’s great to see you.” I belatedly leaned over and gave him a hug. He held on longer than usual. “What are you doing here anyway?”

I asked as I extricated myself from his muscular arms. “Your rabid fan club were here earlier but most of them seemed to have moved on.” “Rabid fan club?” “The paparazzi, or whoever they were. Reporters. Photographers. Sleazy men camping out in our tree house,” I said. “Seriously? In the tree house?” Liam shuddered. “I feel violated.” “Yeah. Don’t worry, he wasn’t there for long. I was over at Dad’s. Saw him go up. Yelled a few choice words at him. He skid-addled.” “I’m sorry. I didn’t really think that they’d get here so quickly. The tree

house? Seriously?” I laughed, not really amused. “Yeah. Seriously.” I got up from the couch and went into the kitchen. Thankfully I’d packed most of my kitchen stuff away. I opened the fridge and poured myself a cold glass of water and gulped it down. Liam shook his head in disgust. “I had my first kiss up there. Better not let them find that out.” He winked at me. I frowned. “Who with?” The tree house had always been our spot. And Grant and Dan later on. No other girls though. I’d never taken any of my girlfriends up there. They’d always thought it was weird that I was friends with the little kid next door (that he was

only a year younger than us made him “little”), and by the time he was a bit more respectable as a choice of friend, they thought tree-houses were lame. Maybe that was the reason I wasn’t really friends with many of them anymore… And I’d definitely never taken a boyfriend up there. The thought of Liam taking a girl up there made me feel a bit twisted inside, even if it was a decade ago. “You, stupid,” he laughed. “Me?” I frowned. My first kiss had been Jonathan Graham in Year 8. It was something best left forgotten with it’s unfortunate resemblance to slugs and washing machines. I’d always thought

Liam’s first kiss had been Belinda Morrow when they were in Year 10. We had had that one drunken kiss in Year 12 after which Liam apologised profusely and declared that he didn’t want to ruin our friendship. But that wasn’t in the tree-house, and that definitely wasn’t his first kiss. He’d kissed a lot of girls that year. “Yeah. Don’t you remember? When you were in Grade One and I was in Prep. I proposed to you. You said yes because no one else had asked you yet, and then we kissed.” I relaxed into the couch and giggled. “Oh yeah. That was very romantic. I vaguely remember it.”

“Only vaguely? I’m deeply hurt.” “All the other proposals since then have washed out the memory.” He laughed half-heartedly. I frowned. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see you any time, but… Why are you here?” “Figured they wouldn’t look here. I didn’t even know where you lived. You didn’t give me your new address, by the way.” “I only moved in two and a half weeks ago! Give me a chance. I did tell you I was moving back. How’d you find me anyway?” I belatedly wondered. I hadn’t even told his parents exactly where I was yet.

Liam shrugged. “Uncle Barry.” Right. I should have known. ‘Uncle Barry’ was Liam’s godfather, and the local real estate agent. “You know he didn’t give me the right keys?” “How long did it take you to figure that out?” “Longer than it should have,” I laughed. “Why are you here?” I asked again. “I told you. Figured the paps wouldn’t know to look here. And Dan lives in a share house with a bunch of people I don’t know, they know where my parents and my brother live and that about rounds out the list of people who I

trust at the moment in this country not to dob me in for a quick buck or two.” “That’s not what I meant. Not here as in my house. Here as in Australia.” He frowned at the mute television. “Haven’t you heard?” “Heard what?” “Heard about Holly.” “Just spit it out, Burns. I heard a few rumours curtesy of my Year 8s, but I kind of make it a point not to actually read anything about you that’s written in a newspaper or magazine these days. Hope you don’t mind.” “Not at all. Wish Aunty Janet would take a leaf out of your book… I’ve had to start screening her calls. She still

believes everything they write about me. No matter how… idiotic. And then she tells me to think of poor Grandma and what would she think and my god, the woman drives me nuts.” “So, Holly?” I prodded. “Yeah. Holly.” He looked down at me. “You seriously don’t know?” I shook my head. “Wow.” He shook himself. “Refreshing.” “What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Just that… well, living over there, you get caught up in this bubble. It’s nice to know that not everyone pays attention. Y’know?”

“I guess… like not hanging out with teachers all the time. You can get a bit caught up in all the school politics.” “That’s right. How is it being back at the old High?” “Fine. Don’t change the topic.” “You were the last person I would have picked to end up back there.” “Don’t change the topic,” I said in my sternest teacher voice. “Yes, Miss Pike. I mean no. I mean…” “Oh just spit it out. Please.” “Holly cheated on me.” “Ah, shit.” “Yeah.” He sat in silence for a few moments.

“Who with?” I prodded. “Does it matter?” “No, I guess not.” “It was her co-star,” he said after a minute. “Oh. Did… did she tell you, or did you have to find out the hard way.” “Saw it on the front cover of a bunch of magazines when we were in the supermarket. I normally ignore those pieces of trash but… there were fucking photos of them. On the front cover. In the fucking supermarket.” “What did you do?” You couldn’t pay me enough to be famous, not in a million years. “Left her in the supermarket, got on a

plane and came here. Do you have anything to drink?” “No, not in the house. Have you talked to her?” “Not yet. I need some time to think first. I really need a drink though, Jen.” I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 10:30pm. “The drive-thru at The Bottom should still be open. We can walk up. I don’t think I’m fit to drive at the moment.” “I don’t want anyone to see me yet,” Liam said tiredly and rubbed his face. “Don’t you have some sort of famous-man disguise?” “Sunglasses would look kind of

stupid at this time of night, wouldn’t they?” He managed a grin. Goddamn it, he was gorgeous even when he was heartsick and jet-lagged. “Yeah a bit. Hang on,” I said. I went into my room and rummaged around in the wardrobe. I swore I’d unpacked a pile of beanies a few days ago. I gave a small whoop of success when I found them. “Why on earth do you have so many beanies?” Liam had followed me, and stood leaning in the door-way with his arms crossed and eyebrows raised. “Running joke with Steph. I lost about four of them the first time I visited her in Canada. She sends me a new one

every birthday and Christmas. Here, you can pick one. I recommend this one.” I held up a bright yellow and green concoction that made the wearer look like they had a massive fluro mohawk. Liam cracked a smile. “Not quite as inconspicuous as I had in mind, I might just borrow this one if it’s all the same to you.” He picked up one of the more sedate options, a grey Vancouver Canucks branded beanie. “Don’t Canadians call them something else? Not beanie?” “Yeah… um, toke or toque or something. I always said it wrong.” Liam laughed. “Yeah that’s it. Toque. Not toke.” He pulled the beanie over his

hair, just leaving a bit sticking out at the front, then pulled his hoodie up. “How do I look?” “Like a proper drop-kick. Or Liam Burns with a beanie and hoodie on?” I laughed. Liam looked in the mirror and screwed his face up. “I still look like me. Do you have any baseball caps?” His eyes scanned over my room. I wished I’d bothered to tidy it a bit better. I made a mental note to myself to attempt to keep my house clean; one never knows when one is going to be unexpectedly visited by one’s crush. I bit my lip, trying to think. I wasn’t really a cap-wearer. “Oh! Maybe over here.” I pulled out

one of the boxes I hadn’t got around to unpacking yet and started rummaging through it. I had a lot of random crap. “Hazzah!” I held up a white cap in triumph. Liam took it from my hands. “Do you only buy hats in Canada?” He pointed at the logo. It was from Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. I laughed. “Must do. Nah, I think that’s a handme-down from Steph. Or a present. I dunno. She worked there for a season or two, I think,” I said. “Yeah, I remember. Me and Charlie went to visit her there. She got us up for free.” “Oh yeah, I forgot about that!”

Liam pulled the cap on, and positioned it low. “So how do I look now?” I looked in the mirror at him standing behind me. “Like Liam Burns trying to hide from the paparazzi?” I laughed as he scowled at my reflection. “Don’t worry, it’s pretty dark out. I’ll go in. You can lurk creepily outside.” “Deal.” We walked side by side towards the closer of the two drive-thru bottle shops in town. The only other place to buy alcohol in town was the supermarket, and it had closed hours ago. The streets were quiet, apart from the loud doof

doof music I could hear coming from a car that was doing laps of the main street. I’d never seen the appeal of that even when I’d been a teenager. “How’d you get here anyway? You didn’t taxi it all the way from Melbourne did you?” Liam laughed. “No, not even I’m that rich. I got lucky. Uncle Barry was in Melbourne for a conference. He drove me back. That’s how I knew where you were living.” “Didn’t want to stay with him?” I asked, even though I felt quietly pleased and proud that he’d picked me. “I trust Uncle Barry, but Kasey can’t keep her mouth shut. I learnt that the hard

way.” Kasey was Barry’s eldest daughter. She was a year younger than Liam. Her quotes had popped up a few too many times in the tabloids. “Oh, does she still live at home?” “Yep. She dropped out of uni last year and moved back home. She’s been working as Uncle Barry’s receptionist.” “Oh, okay,” I said. “I must have missed her when I went in.” It didn’t take us long to get to the bottle shop. We hovered outside the pool of light. “What do you want?” Liam pulled out his wallet and handed me a hundred dollars. I frowned at it. “How much beer are we drinking

tonight?” “I don’t feel like beer. I want whisky. Good stuff too, not the cheap shit we used to drink.” “Well, your money, your choice,” I said. “I don’t care, Jen. Which ever one has the prettiest label. I know how you like to get the pretty ones.” “Well, that’s usually wine, not whiskey…” I rolled my eyes and marched into the drive-thru. It felt a bit weird walking into a drive-thru, but it wasn’t the first time. Bert, the old publican, came out off his stool. “A good evening to you, young

Jennifer. What can I get you this fine evening?” “Um, what have you got in the whiskey department? Nice whiskey. It’s, um, it’s a present for someone.” “Nice whiskey, eh? Well how about The Dalmore, it’s a twelve year old? Or a Glenlivet fifteen year - that’s a nice drop.” “Oh, um… sure, The Dalmore.” It had a pretty stag on the bottle. “Yeah, that looks good.” I really had no idea. Bert scanned the bottle through. “Better get a bottle of ginger ale too, if you’ve got it.” “Certainly do.” I handed the money over. I was glad

Liam was paying. I hadn’t had my first pay day yet. We’d be getting a cheap bottle of wine if it was up to me. I got a scarily small amount of change back. “Thanks, Bert.” I nodded goodnight and rejoined the lurking hoodlum. “Here you go,” I handed him the bag with one hand and the change with the other. “I hope I picked a good one. It wasn’t cheap.” Liam just shrugged. “It’s a special occasion… and seriously, after the stuff that gets thrown at you in Hollywood? This is nothing. Stress less, my friend. I’ll buy you some amazing stuff when you come visit me in the States.” I just snorted. “Okay then.”

Liam looked in the bag. “What did you get the soft drink for?” “Mixer?” Liam just sighed at me and shook his head. Soon enough we were back at my place. We’d successfully avoided any attention except from an adorable dog who’d followed us home. I’d had to shut the door in the poor old boy’s face. I didn’t know who he belonged to, but he had a collar and didn’t look like a stray. I hoped he’d find his way home. Liam took a seat at the kitchen table that I’d inherited from Aunty Kerrie while I found some clean glasses for us.

“Have you got ice?” “Yeah.” I went over to the freezer and pulled a tray out. I put a couple of cubes in each glass and then placed the glasses in front of him before sitting one the opposite side of the table to him. He carefully poured a more than generous serving into each glass and pushed one over to me. He raised his glass to me, and we clinked. “Cheers,” he said. “Cheers… to what?” He paused and looked into his glass.“To being free. And finding out before the wedding.” “I can cheers to that,” I said. We clinked glasses and both took a sip. It

burned all the way down. I knew you were meant to enjoy expensive whiskey by itself but… “I’m sorry, but I really need some ginger ale in this!” I blurted out. Liam shook his head in mock disgust. Or maybe it was real disgust. I wasn’t quite sure. I filled up my glass with ginger ale and took another sip. It was still very strong, but at least it didn’t make me wince anymore. Much. “So do your parents even know you’re here?” I asked. “Yeah. I’ll go and see them tomorrow. Maybe. Or maybe they could come here? I really can’t be bothered

with all that other bullshit right now.” “Yeah, sure, whatever suits. Frank and Linda haven’t seen the new pad yet. I’d been meaning to invite them over. Get them to bring Dad.” “How’s your Dad?” I shrugged. “Okay. Not okay. I don’t know. Some days are better than others. It’s a bit hard to get him out of the house.” “Yeah. It’s gotta be tough…” “I know. But, sometimes…” Sometimes I wanted to be the kid. I’d lost my mother. I wanted to huddle in a ball, crying my eyes out for days on end at the unfairness of it all. I wanted my dad to be my parent and tell me it was

going to be okay, that we’d get there. That not every day would be this hard. Be there for me, not the other way round. I realised I’d been staring into space for a bit too long and Liam was looking at me strangely. “Sorry,” I shook myself. “I just… it’s hard. This is probably going to make me sound like a selfish bitch, but I lost my mum too. I know he lost his wife, and they were so madly in love still, but… she was my mum, you know? Sometimes it feels like he forgets that we’re grieving too.” “You don’t sound like a bitch, Jen.” I let out a deep breath and rubbed my face.

“I think this year’s been even harder on him than last year. He was meant to retire at the start of the year and they were going to go on their epic round the world trip. They’d been planning it for years…” I trailed off. Liam made a sympathetic sound and reached over to squeeze me on the shoulder. I shrugged him off. “Anyway, what are you going to do now?” I asked, in a voice that sounded falsely bright to my ears. Liam grimaced. “I don’t know. I have to go back next week. We’re starting shooting on a new movie. It’s on location in Texas though, so I can avoid her for a while longer.” He half-laughed

to himself. “Uh, is avoiding her really the best option?” I asked tentatively. “Probably not, but I can’t face her right now, Jen. I just... ugh.” I watched helplessly as he dropped his head into his hands. “Why’d I have to go and fall in love with a fucking movie star. I should have picked someone normal. Normal people don’t go off having affairs with their directors or co-stars.” “Well, no, but they do have affairs with their secretaries and bosses and coworkers... wait, director? I thought it was with Jack Lemon.” Liam sighed. “This isn’t the first time. I’m so stupid.” He shook his head

in disgust. I just waited silently. “She had a fling with one of her directors a couple of years ago. We were still pretty new. They managed to keep that one out of the press somehow. She confessed it to me and apologised and promised it would never ever ever happen again.” I winced as Liam slammed his fist on the table. “I’m sorry, mate.” It felt inadequate, and I wanted to take it back. “What are you sorry for? It’s not your fault.” He took a swig of the whiskey. “I’m the dumbass who believed her.” “I guess I’m just sorry you’re going through this,” I said. It hadn’t really hit me at first, Liam was pretty good at

putting on false cheer - he was an actor after all - but I could see how much he was hurting, and a growing anger was building up inside me. How dare anyone hurt my Liam. Was she crazy? I felt like calling her and giving her a piece of my mind. Probably a good thing that I didn’t have her number. “Me too…” Liam said. “Millions of girls would do anything to be in her place, and she fucks it up. What a complete idiot,” I said. It was true. I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any lack of willing consoling arms for him to fall into as soon as he stepped off the plane back in America. Or here in this house… no. Not the time, I told

myself with a quick shake. “Yeah but most of those girls… no I’ll go out on a limb and say all of those girls don’t actually want to be with me for me. They want to be with someone famous. That’s it. I’m kinda sick of it. Anyway,” he paused and poured us both another drink. “How the teaching gig going?” “You don’t want to hear about that,” I said, shaking my head. How mundane my life was compared to his. “No, I do. Seriously. What’s it like being back in good old Tarang?” I shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s just temporary. The contract’s just for this year. Maternity leave position. Lesson

planning is a bitch. But it sure beats the hell out of CRT work.” “What’s CRT work?” “Casual Relief Teaching. I was doing that last year while I finished off my Masters. It sucks. Well, it’s okay when you have a good day with well-behaved classes and the teacher actually left work for them to do… but all too often the students are horrid, the teacher didn’t leave enough, or sometimes any work, and you spend the whole day trying to manage behaviour and no actual teaching or learning gets done. Plus most of the time you’ve got no idea if you’re gonna get work until that morning… the pay was all right though. I only had to work

4 days a month to make the same as I got on Centrelink, and I usually got way more than that, so that was nice actually having some disposable income again!” “What are the Centrelink rates these days?” Liam asked. “I was getting about a thousand a month the first year of the Masters,” I said. Liam whistled. “Not much! I know people who go through that in a day.” “Yeah, I bet you do,” I laughed. “How’d you get by? I could have helped out, you know.” “No, it was fine. I wouldn’t take your money, Burnsy. I got by. Just gotta be

frugal. I have to say though, it’s sure hella nice knowing how much I’ll be making each week!” I said. It was true. Last year was fine, financially, but I never knew exactly how much I’d be making each month which made planning a bit difficult. “You never told me properly what happened with Evan,” Liam said. I blinked, then shrugged. “It didn’t work out. We realised we want totally different things in life. He’s a selfish, materialistic arse, and well… I’m not. And he didn’t like fish & chips. Or camping. Or anything I liked, really.” “Yeah, I was wondering what the hell you were doing with him for so

long.” “The sex was good,” I said. Liam choked on the sip of whiskey he’d just taken. “Didn’t need to know that,” he spluttered. I just laughed. “You’re better off without him. Did I ever tell you he tried to talk me into investing with him?” I raised an eyebrow. “No, he didn’t.” If we weren’t already broken up, I’d be having serious words with him. “Yeah. Some scheme to go into natural disaster struck areas and buy up land on the cheap…” “Sounds ethical!” “Yeah, not really the image I want to cultivate…”

“That guy… I swear all that motivates him is money. And who can do what for him. You know, you’re probably the only reason he stayed with me so long.” “Me?” “Yeah,” I said. “Connections to the rich and famous.” I shook my head in disgust. I’d never been gladder to be dumped. In hindsight. At the time I’d been rather upset. It hadn’t lasted long. Amazing what stories your friends will tell you after a relationship is over. We spent the rest of the night talking away and catching up. We hadn’t had a good long chat like this for about eight

months, since the last time he’d come home without Holly. It just wasn’t the same via email or text, and we weren’t very good at catching each other on the phone with the time differences. I’d missed him. Yeah, I had a massive crush on him that I’d been trying to smother for years, but I also missed the friendship, just hanging out like we used to do. Liam ended up staying the night. I tucked one of my spare blankets around him as he snored softly on the couch, and padded to my room. I lay awake for a little while, half drifting into a fantasy about Liam declaring that he’d been in love with me all along, and wondering if

anything would change, now that he and Holly had broken up. Probably not. He’d just move on to some new actress or singer. Or maybe a singer who wanted to be an actress. Or vice-versa. It was too soon to be thinking about Liam in a romantic way. He was heartbroken over Holly. And seriously, it would never work for us. Even if he was interested. Which he wasn’t. Besides, long distance was horrid. I’d tried it for a couple of months with my ex-boyfriend Steve and swore never to do it again. And anyway, his life was over there now, in Los Angeles, in Hollywood. It was a different world, one that, to be honest, I didn’t want any part of. I repeated that to

myself until I fell asleep.

CHAPTER THREE “Wake up, sleepy head.” I groaned and rolled over, pulling the doona cover over my head. “Here, I made you breakfast.” A deep, rumbly, sexy, familiar voice reached me through the pile of blankets. Liam. Here. I still didn’t open my eyes or push the blankets off me. My mouth was dry and parched. I really needed

some water. Last night flashed through my mind. Coming home from the pub, finding Liam waiting for me. The gossip about him and Holly being true. My long simmering feelings bubbling to the surface at an inopportune time. I closed my eyes tighter. “Come on, get up. Your hangover can’t be that bad. I drank more than you.” Cajoling. He was cajoling me. “Burnsy, you’ve always been able to drink me under the table.” I still remembered trying to keep up with him, drink for drink the night we celebrated him getting a call for his first major role. It wasn’t the best memory to put it lightly.

“I have pancakes. And bacon.” That made me throw the blankets off my face. I squinted in the too-bright light. The bastard had opened my blinds. “Ugh,” I pulled the doona back over my face. “Where’d you get bacon from?” I didn’t have any in the house, I knew that much at least. I hadn’t eaten bacon for three years. “Mum made an early morning delivery. Well, it’s not exactly early morning anymore you lazy piece of shit, it’s almost noon and I got sick of waiting for you to get up. I’m surprised you slept through her visit.” “What? Your Mum was here? Ugh.

And give me a break, we were up until 3am and besides, I haven’t slept in past 6am all week.” I wasn’t sure if he could understand all that through the muffled blankets. “Can’t hear you, take the bloody doona off your face,” he laughed. “No. It’s too bright. And I look hideous.” Liam just laughed, and I felt a heavy weight on my feet as he sat down on the end of my bed. “Jen, I’ve seen you worse than this, give it a rest.” I sighed. “Fiiiiine. But only because there’s pancakes. I hope your Mum brought

maple syrup, I don’t have any.” “Nah, sorry. Just bacon and orange juice and coffees… but I drank them both already, sorry.” “Well, that explains the energy…” I grumbled. “No maple syrup? I can’t have pancakes without maple syrup!” With that I threw the blankets off me and got out of bed. “Your own fault,” Liam smirked at me. “Your house after all.” “What?” I demanded. Liam was looking me up and down with an odd look on his face. “Huh? Oh. Nothing. Come on. I’m hungry.” I followed him out, grabbing my old

Monash University hoodie and some pyjama bottoms out of my wardrobe. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and felt my cheeks burn. How could I have let him see me like this? My hair was a mess, mascara smudged under my eyes, and worst of all I was wearing barely anything. I was just in a singlet and undies. You could see my nipples. I hastily pulled the hoodie on and pulled up my pyjamas, and gave my hair a quick brush - that just made it look greasy and like I hadn’t washed it for a week, so I messed it up again. Stupid hair. I quietly followed the tantalising smell of frying bacon to my kitchen. Liam had managed to find his way

around my kitchen (which I admired but would never tell him - I didn’t know my way around my kitchen yet) and set a table for two. There was a pile of pancakes to start with, and more batter on the counter. Two glasses of orange juice sat on the table, along with flowers. “Flowers? Really, Burnsy, you shouldn’t have.” “Oh. Yeah. Mum brought those too. For you. For having me last night.” I laughed. “Oh, Linda…” “Seriously though,” he said as he piled a few pancakes onto his own plate. “Thanks.” “No problemo, amigo. What are

friends for?” Liam smiled his award winning smile at me. Literally award winning. He’d won some teen choice award for cutest smile or something weird like that. I’d told him he could quit acting now and retire. He’d reached his pinnacle. “How much bacon do you want?” He poked at the sizzling strips of meat in the pan. I sniffed longingly. Bacon was the hardest to resist. “All yours, mate.” Liam turned to look at me quizzically. “I’m a vegetarian, you numbskull,” I said.

“Since when?” “About three years ago.” “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t… wait, I swear we ate steaks and hamburgers last time I was here.” I shrugged. “I don’t really make a fuss about it. I probably got the veggie burger.” “Huh,” was all he said. “What?” I said, a little defensively. “Nothing. Just something you and Holly have in common. She wouldn’t let me cook any meat in the house though. Oh - sorry - are you going to have to throw this pan out now?” He looked contrite and picked up the frying pan. “Nah, it’s fine. If I’m being deadly

honest, I sometimes fry my haloumi in Dad’s lamb chop grease… don’t judge me.” Liam laughed and piled all the bacon onto his plate. “Well, no complaints here then. More for me! Hey, I was thinking…” “That’d be a first.” “Exactly. That.” “Huh?” “I miss this - bantering, being insulted, being able to insult you. And you know I’m doing it in a loving way. America’s so different in that way. Everyone’s so bloody nice all the time. Holly would probably burst into tears if I called her a lazy piece of shit, and most

of my mates would think I was upset at them if I called them dickhead or wanker.” “Ah yes. Good old Australia where you insult your mates and call your enemies ‘mate’.” “We’re an odd lot, that’s for sure. It’s good to be back.” He put the pan in the sink and turned the tap on before I could warn him. Water splashed all over his top. “Sorry! I should have warned you -“ “It’s okay,” Liam said and pulled his soaking hoodie and t-shirt off. “I… uh…” I tried to think of something coherent to say. I guess those abs weren’t photoshopped in that last

movie of his, after all. “Lemons.” I finally said. “I have a lemon tree outside. We need lemons. For the pancakes. Yeah. Lemons…” I made myself tear my gaze away from those gorgeous ripped abs and somehow managed not to reach out and stroke them. They’d certainly changed a lot since we were in our mid teens! “All right, lemons. I’d forgotten how weird you are in the mornings.” “Yeah… mornings. Let’s blame that…” I got up from the table and led the way outside. The lemon tree was in the front yard. I stifled a yawn as I picked my way through the damp grass. I could

feel Liam’s breath on the back of my neck, and tried not to think about the fact that he was topless. We stood surveying the tree. There was only one ripe lemon on it, out of my reach. Liam reached up over me and grabbed it. Having tall males around was good for something after all. I let my gaze wander around the quiet street. Old Mr Moloney was trimming his hedges next door. Mrs Lewis was putting her bins out. I frowned. Her dementia must be getting worse. Thursday’s were bin nights. “Oh shit.” “What?” Liam demanded. I pointed. Matt Rivers was sitting in

the parked car on the opposite side of the street, camera pointed right at us.

CHAPTER FOUR Who is Liam’s Mystery Girl?? It seems our favourite Aussie hunk might have taken comfort in the arms of an old lover! Liam Burns, the on-andoff again finance of rising star, Holly Monroe, has been spotted back in his hometown in sunny Australia in the arms of a mystery young woman. We’re still waiting on reports of who this

lucky lady is, but it could be safe to assume she’s an old flame from Liam’s pre-Hollywood days. Rumours are that Holly wants to reconcile, so we wonder how she feels about this new development! Is it just Liam getting revenge for the whole Jack Lemon incident?! We don’t think Holly has too much to worry about - Mystery Girl has nothing on Our Holly! Check out the pics below and tell us what you think in the comments! I peeked out from behind the curtains. It seemed like the paparazzi had bred. All of the ones who’d been out the front of Liam’s parents’ house

yesterday were now on the nature strip out the front of my house, and then some. “Why do they care so much this time? They don’t normally follow you home. Much.” I turned to look at Liam. He was sitting on my couch, cup of tea cooling in front of him on the coffee table and scowling at his phone. “Holly,” he said miserably. “Breakups. Misery. Scandals. It’s what they thrive on.” “What do we do?” I asked. Liam just shrugged. “Do you need to go anywhere?” he asked. I thought for a minute. “No… but it’s

such a nice day, I wanted to go for a walk up the mount, and go to the cemetery…” “Oh yeah… it’s Grant’s birthday. I’m shit. I totally forgot.” “You’re not shit. It’s been six years, and you’ve got other things on your mind. I’m sure Grant wouldn’t blame you in the slightest,” I said. “Plus, he never remembered anyone’s birthdays he forgot his own mother’s one year, remember that?” Liam laughed. “Yeah, we had to run and buy a bunch of flowers and some chocolates for him. She never knew.” “Oh, she knew.” I grinned. “Six years... god, has it really?

Damn. It’s fucked up, thinking about all the things he’s missed. I was no-one back then.” “You were never ‘no-one’, I don’t like it when you say things like that,” I protested. “Okay, fine, I was just another regular Aussie kid working at the local supermarket stacking shelves coz he was too dumb to get into uni.” I raised my eyebrows. “You didn’t even apply.” “Yeah well, I didn’t want to go to uni, so what was the point?” “Remind me not to get you to come in for Careers counselling...” “Why not? I made a pretty good go of

it in the end. They should know that you can be successful without getting a fantastic Year 12 result. I mean, it’s great that you got an awesome mark and you totally deserved it, but you knew you wanted to go to uni and study. I didn’t. All you guys did. You, Dan, Grant. You all studied your arses off and got great marks and knew what you wanted to do the next year. I had no freakin’ clue. I liked drama, I liked acting. I like writing sometimes, but I hated doing creative writing classes. I just kind of figured it out as I went along.” “You did a pretty good job with that...” I murmured. “Well, I didn’t exactly set out to be a

movie star mobbed by paparazzi...” “Mmm, sure,” I said. “I didn’t, Jen. Things just kind of snowballed. You know that. One thing led to another.” “You saying you wouldn’t be famous if you had your time over?” “No. Yes. I don’t know.” He rubbed his face. “Times like this, definitely NO. But it has its perks.” “Yeah, I bet. That house of yours is pretty nice.” “There is that.” “And the car.” “Well, yeah.” “And being able to travel whenever you want.”

“Not true.” “Sure.” I moved from beside the window and over to the couch. “Would they really follow us if we just went to the shops?” I asked. “I mean, no offence, but not even you can be that fascinating to make grocery shopping in Tarang news worthy.” Liam scowled again. Even I had to admit, it was rather cute. “You’d be surprised at what they find interesting. Selena Gomez taking her garbage out is interesting to them.” I sighed. You really could never pay me enough to be famous on this level. It was crazy.

“Maybe we could make a diversion, like on the movies, and get out of here. I’m getting kinda restless when I know I’m stuck here. If you were’t here, I’d probably spend all day in my PJ’s and not even brush my hair and binge watch some TV show and not even think about going outside... but now that I can’t, I want to leave.” “Yeah, I know the feeling,” Liam said with a little huff. We were silent for a few moments, watching the cartoons on the TV. "Oh, fuck it,” Liam said suddenly. I looked over at him as he stood up. “What?” “Let’s go. Screw them. They know

I’m here now, there’s no helping that. They can follow us if they want to. Let’s go up to the cemetery and say hi to Grant, and your mum. I’ll go to Mum and Dad’s after to give you some peace.” “You don’t have to...” “Nah, it’s okay. I should go see them anyway. Charlie’s coming down today as well. Mini family reunion.” “Oh, cool. All right, let me get ready. I want to look nice if my photo’s going to be splashed around.” I groaned. “Damn it. I don’t want to go to school on Monday. My students are gonna have a field day. I was already being quizzed about you on Friday. Now there’s bloody pictures of us together and unspeakable

insinuations! Ugh.” I threw my hands up in the air in only half-mocked despair. “Sorry about that...” “Not your fault, I suppose. Really. It’s that damn Matt Rivers. Slimy bastard. What was he even DOING there anyway?! Despicable man.” I shook myself and headed into my room. I found a nice pair of jeans that I knew made my butt look nice, and sorted through a pile of shirts. After deliberating for a few minutes I settled on a fitted pale blue shirt. I spent a bit more time than usual on my make-up - I wiped off the first attempt after Liam came in, laughed, and said I looked more like I was going to Vegas than a cemetery. “I normally just

put some mascara on! I have no idea what I’m doing!” I protested. “Well then, just put your mascara on. I like you with not much make up on. You look real,” he said. I felt myself start to blush. “How do I look?” I asked as I stepped out of the bathroom for the second time. “Lovely,” he said. “How about me?” I looked him up and down. Jeans and a casual T-shirt, yet he still looked like a million dollars. “You’ll do,” I said with a slight smirk that I tried to hide. “Shall we go? Does that shop on the main street still sell flowers?” Liam

asked. “Yeah, I think so.” “Okay. Let’s run the gauntlet.” I checked myself in the hallway mirror one last time and tucked a stray curl into place. I looked okay. Maybe even nice. Nothing on Holly Monroe though, I couldn’t help but think, and as that nasty online blog couldn’t help but point out. I should really stay away from them. “Ready?” Liam turned back and asked me. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said. He opened the door and we stepped out into the sunlight. I looked out over the sea of photographers in bewilderment. I’d

always thought Tarang was a safe place. Usually when Liam came home it was an escape for him. Not this time. We both headed for my little car, parked in the driveway. Liam surprised me by grabbing my hand. I looked at him questioningly, but he just smirked. “What was that?” I asked as we got into the car. He just shrugged. “Something for them to write about,” he laughed humourlessly. “Liam Alexander Burns, are you trying to use me to make Holly jealous?” I demanded as I put my seatbelt on and started the car. “No! I...” I turned to him and gave him my

‘look’ that I usually reserved for students who were trying to tell me they forgot their USB at home but they swore they’d done the assignment. At least they’d moved on from ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuse… “Well... maybe. Sorry.” “So you should be.” I reversed slowly out the driveway, paranoid that I’d run over one of the paparazzi and that they’d try to sue me. “Just ignore them,” Liam said as we backed through the swarm. “Easy for you to say,” I said. “You’re used to this. I didn’t sign up for this - I’m not interesting. I’m nobody.” “You’re not nobody.”

“To them I am,” I said. We cleared the crowd and their flashing cameras. “They’re the definition of no-one,” Liam said dismissively. He stared stonily ahead as we drove up the street. “Should I give them the grand tour of Tarang?” I asked, glancing in my rearview mirror. A handful of cars had started following us. Liam laughed. “It’ll be the highlight of their day. Hey, who knows, we could be doing wonders for the Tarang tourism trade,” Liam said. “What tourism trade?” “Exactly.” “You probably already are. They’ve

got to be staying somewhere,” I said. “They’ve probably booked the hotel and motel and the B&B right out.” “The biggest event since the last local wedding.” It didn’t take us long to get to the main street. I was careful to drive like a nanna and stick to the speed limits. Didn’t want to give them anything else to write about that my students could hold over me. I led my train of vehicles down the wide, tree-lined main street. The rose bushes were looking particularly lovely at the moment. Maybe one of the paparazzi moonlighted as a garden photographer. Another thing that I liked

about living in a country town was the parking. I hadn’t had to learn to parallel park or reverse park or anything like that until I’d moved to the city. The bays were long and plentiful in Tarang. All you had to do was drive right in. If there wasn’t a park in front of the shop you wanted, you’d just drive around the block and more often than not there would be a spot when you came back. My ex-boyfriend Evan - a complete city boy if there ever was one - would laugh at me doing laps in Melbourne trying to find an easy park. Today was a good day. One empty spot right in front of the florist. I parked and stopped the car. The paparazzi

started to slow down, but a large Bdouble truck with a load full of cattle was bearing down on them, and they seemed to decide it was safer to keep going. I watched out of the corner of my eye as they drove around to the other side of the avenue and set up with their camera’s pointing our way. “Do you want to stay in the car?” I asked as I undid my seatbelt and fished around the backseat for my handbag. “Nah,” Liam said and got out of the car. “Secret’s out, no point hiding anymore. I’ll just be as boring as possible. Buying flowers and going to the cemetery, not sure how they can sensationalise that. Come on.”

I followed him into the florist, and tried to resist glancing over my shoulder at the waiting camera’s. I had the mad urge to wave at them. It didn’t take us long to pick out two bunches of flowers - one a nice purple and pink bunch for mum, the other a slightly more masculine looking arrangement, although I’m not quite sure how you can make a bunch of flowers masculine. We paid for the flowers, and both held a bunch as we walked back to the car. The false calm was too good to be true. “Miss Pike! Miss Pike!” a familiar voice called out. I turned, slowly and with a small amount of dread. Marnie

and some of her friends were standing there, with varying degrees of bulging eyes and open mouths. “Er… hi, girls,” I said. “Some of my students,” I murmured to Liam on the side. “Hi, Miss,” said two of the girls at the same time. None of them were looking at me though. They were all staring at Liam. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Marnie quickly glanced at me, with something like awe in her face. “Miss, can we… can we please get his autograph? Pretty please?” I half laughed. “It’s not up to me. Ask him!” I waved my hand casually at Liam

who was standing there, a bit like a lump. He shook himself. “Of course you can,” Liam said with a disarming grin that he seemed to pull out of nowhere. “And a photo too?” one of the girls asked hopefully. “Sure thing,” Liam smiled. Somehow I ended up as the designated photographer, and took over a dozen photos of the girls and Liam, going through all their phones. Of course, they all needed their own photo. The girls stared avidly up at Liam and I did my best not to laugh at them. After handing them back all their phones, and after they all got a quick hug from Liam

(Marnie went back for two) they walked us to my car and waved us off. I glanced over at the paparazzi on the other side of the avenue. Their cameras had been pointed at us the whole time. I led our trusty followers out of town, past the high school and up to the cemetery. “Are they really going to follow us into a cemetery? It seems wrong somehow,” I said. Liam shrugged. “We’ll see.” Some of them did. We tried to ignore them. It was a pretty spot, the Tarang cemetery, one of the nicest cemeteries that I’d been to. It was on a hill outside of town, and there was a lovely,

peaceful view over the dry lake bed that was now home to the golf course, cricket club and pony club. You could see most of the town, and out over the paddocks to Mt Ngoora. It was all very green and pretty at this time of year. “I hope they’re enjoying the view,” I said. “Yeah.” We walked slowly down the slope to where our friend’s grave was waiting for us. I absentmindedly reached for Liam’s hand. He gave it a quick squeeze and smiled down at me. The graves had grown again. There was a whole new row that had been filled up since Grant had been buried

here six years ago. It seemed like too much for such a small town. My mum was one of them. That still seemed surreal at times. Even now, almost two years after she’d died, I still sometimes expected her to call me, or to pick up the phone when I dialled home, or like my latest post on Facebook, or send me some silly email about the benefits of turmeric and how I should put it in all my food. Fucking aneurysm. We stopped in front of Grant’s grave. There were already fresh flowers on the headstone. I imagined his parents had already been up here this morning. I saw Grant’s mum rather regularly these days.

Her eyes still looked so sad and haunted. I wondered if mine looked like that sometimes, too. Grant Matthew Fitzgerald 29-03-1990 - 25-04-2009 Our clever, loyal son Beloved son of Debbie and John Loving brother of Isabelle and Chloe Never forgotten. We carefully laid down one of the bunches of flowers. “Hard to believe it’s been six years,” Liam said again. “I know.”

“So much has changed.” “I know,” I said. “What do you reckon he’d be doing now? If they hadn’t...” “I don’t know. He didn’t sound so sure about engineering when we were hanging out those holidays,” I said. “Yeah... I dunno, either. He’d been flip flopping between engineering and trying to transfer into med. Maybe he’d be a doctor. ” His life had been cut so short. Grant had only been eighteen. We’d only been at uni for a few short weeks. All that work, all the study to get there... and a month and a bit into it a freak car accident takes it all away. It wasn’t fair.

“I mean, who could have predicted back then that I’d become a teacher at Tarang High and be stalked by paparazzi for one weekend?” I tried to joke. “Yeah, who knows, maybe Grant’s music career would have taken off,” Liam said with a sad smile. Grant had been a pretty good guitar player, and was pretty wicked on the old recorder. I’d never realised you could make that instrument actually sound good until he’d played a few tunes on it. I laughed. “He could have led the recorder revival.” Liam chuckled, and then abruptly sat down in between Grant’s grave and his neighbour, an old man named Thomas

MacDonald who’d died when he was 94. That was how it was meant to be. I sank down next to him. I wasn't sure how long we sat there for. I looked around a few times, but the paparazzi were keeping a respectful distance for once. I glanced over in the direction of Mum’s grave, and got up, leaning heavily on Liam’s shoulder. My foot had gone numb. I hobbled over the well tended grass and looked down on Mum’s gravestone. I’d memorised it months ago. Margaret (Margie) Anne Pike (nee Wilson) 30th March 1960 - 2013

Beloved wife of Bill Cherished mother of Stephanie and Jennifer Always in our hearts I always felt a bit strange coming here. For both Mum, and Grant. I didn’t believe in any gods. I was 99% sure I wouldn’t be meeting them in any afterlife, as much as I wanted to. Here was the place their bones rested. It was a strange thought, when I thought about it too hard. This wasn’t where I felt comfortable talking to Mum. I did that sitting at the kitchen table, over a cup of tea. Or wherever I was, really. But I still liked coming up here every now and

then. I patted the grass covering Mum and almost jumped when Liam leaned down and put his hand on my shoulder. I hadn’t heard him come over. “I miss Margie,” he said, squatting down next to me. “Me too,” I sniffed. “She was way more supportive of my acting career than my parents were at first.” I smiled. Now that I thought about it, I remembered walking in on Mum and Liam huddled over the kitchen table more than once. “Is that what you guys used to talk about?” Liam just nodded. “I guess you creative types need to

stick together.” “You should write more,” Liam said after a moment. “Your Mum always said you were good.” I scoffed. “Hey, she should know.” “I think she was a bit biased. I’m her daughter. Everything I did was wonderful.” “Nah. Well, yeah. But, usually when a New York Times best-selling author says you write well, you should probably listen to her.” I looked at him speculatively. “You know that you and your brother are the only people that know about Mum’s secret life as a best-selling romance

novelist?” Liam laughed. “Yeah. She always told us not to tell anyone. I don’t know why…” “I think it was to save Steph and I the inevitable high school embarrassment. She probably would have come clean to the town if she’d lived a bit longer…” Liam squeezed my shoulder again and stood up. “Do you want to stay here for a bit longer? I can leave you alone.” I brushed my hands. “Nah, I’m good. See ya, Mum.” I kissed my hand and leant over and touched her gravestone. There was something to be said about rituals. “Death sucks.”

“Yep, it sure does,” Liam agreed. “Ready to go?” Liam asked. My foot was starting to get numb again. I wiggled my toes in my boot and nodded to Liam. I sighed sadly, patted the grass, and tried not to think too graphically about Mum’s bones beneath us. Liam stood up and stretched, then held a hand out to me. I took it, and he heaved me up. “Damn it, pins and needles,” I muttered and stamped my foot, trying to get the feeling back as quickly as possible. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Liam checked his phone. I quickly glanced at mine, but there was nothing. “Want to come over to Mum and

Dad’s for dinner? Mum’s making a roast,” Liam said as we reached the car. He didn’t even glance at the hovering photographers. Some of them seemed to have left, and at least one of them was actually exploring the cemetery, and was ignoring us. I had a quick flash of respect for him. The cemetery was old, and I’d always found the older parts interesting. The new section was full of tears too fresh. “Sure,” I said. “Can Dad come too?” I asked. “Left to his own devices he would live off baked beans and tinned spaghetti.” “I’m sure that’d be fine. Not like he has far to go,” Liam said.

“Great, thanks. He needs to get out of the house more. Is it all right if I drop you back at your parent’s and then come over later? I need to get some school work done. Lesson plans and stuff for Monday,” I said. I started the engine and slowly drove out of the cemetery. “Yeah, of course.” I dropped Liam at his parents with a wave and drove the few streets over to my house. Most of the following paparazzi stayed out front of the Burns’ place, but a couple of them followed me. I shook my head. I had no idea why they were following me. They’d seen Liam go into his parents’ house. He wasn’t

hiding in my back seat or anything. I pulled into my driveway and got out of the car. One of the blonde women I’d seen with Matt Rivers came racing up to me. “Excuse me, can I ask you a couple of questions?” she said breathlessly, bangles clanking. “No.” I frowned, and tried to channel my scariest teacher glare. It wasn’t up to snuff, apparently. “Are you and Liam an item now? How long has it been going on for? Are you the reason Holly and Liam broke up?” She said all of this without even drawing a breath. “What? I… what? No… no

comment.” My teacher glare disappeared into a puddle of bewilderment. How could anyone possibly think Jen Pike could compete with Holly Monroe. I mean, really. What were they smoking?! She started asking me more rapid fire questions that I could barely follow. I held my hand up and tried to put on my sternest teacher voice, the one I had been trying to perfect over the last few years. “Get off my property.” She looked momentarily stunned, and I took the opportunity and turned my back on her and marched inside. I slumped against the closed door and took a few deep breaths. This was

crazy. I went around the house and made sure all the curtains were shut, which was a pity on such a nice sunny day. This house had a nice little sunroom that I used for my study, with a lovely view over the overgrown backyard. I liked to do my work there, and be able to look up and outside. Now all I was looking at were the scummy blue curtains that looked like they hadn’t been replaced in my lifetime. I loved my friend but I was beginning to wish he’d hurry up and leave. The paparazzi had never been so aggressive before. Since hitting the big time, Liam had come home a handful of times. The one time he’d brought Holly, a few

photographer’s had followed them around a bit, but they’d taken their few happy holiday snaps to sell to the magazines and left the rest of us alone. Had he got even more famous since then? Or was it just because of the break-up? I made myself a nice hot cup of green tea and set myself up at my desk. I needed to finish my planning for next week’s classes, but I found it hard to concentrate for long. Lesson plans had taken me ages to do when I first started teaching, but I seemed to have finally gotten the hang of them - as long as I knew the content. Getting a new class about something I knew nothing about

was always fun. And by fun I meant hard work. I turned off the internet to avoid distractions and concentrated on getting through at least Monday and Tuesday’s classes. I had a double free Tuesday afternoon, so I could theoretically get some more planning for the rest of the week done then. As long as I didn’t get lumped with an extra. I hated when that happened. I wrote myself a quick to-do list and got stuck into it. After the first distracted half an hour I actually managed to get in the zone and smashed out three lesson plans in a row. Good ones too, even if I did say so myself. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. I still had an hour or so before I’d be

expected over at the Burns’ residence. I pulled out my paper journal. I hadn’t updated it for awhile, but I enjoyed writing in it and getting my thoughts out, and even just as a record to look back on years later. I’d been keeping a journal on and off since I was eight years old. The early one’s were a bit cringe-worthy to read, but I was still glad I had them. Liam’s back in town, with a pack of paparazzi in tow. He surprised me Friday night - turned up on my couch. I’ve missed him. Those damn feelings that I’ve been trying to repress all these years have bubbled to the surface again. Holly and him are done. Maybe.

Probably. I hope. Or do I? I’ve had less than 24 hours of paparazzi attention and I’m already sick of it. They’ll go away with Liam of course… but.. Is it a taste test of what life with Liam would be like? Hounded? Or would they not care so much if he was with a normal girl and not another movie star? Ugh, why am I even thinking that, I have no reason at all to even suspect that he has more than friendly platonic feelings for me. Plus, he’s still in love with that cheating idiot, despite what he says. Am I just trying to convince myself that it’s impossible anyway? I don’t know. I’m a bit confused. I suppose there’s

nothing to actually be confused about. Anyway. Feelings or lack of feelings aside, it’s been nice to see him, although could do without the pack. It’s weird to say the least. Don’t they know he’s just boring old Burnsy? We had too much to drink last night. Went up to the cemetery this afternoon to pay our respects to Grant and Mum. It would have been Grant’s 24th birthday today. I miss him. I miss them both. I wish Grant were around to help make sense of this craziness and laugh at the insanity of anyone finding Burnsy fascinating. I reckon he’d find that pretty hilarious.

I threw the diary away from me in frustration. I was just confusing myself more. Usually when I wrote, it helped to unravel my twisted thoughts. I was just winding myself up tighter right now. I shook myself. I was being silly. Liam and I were just friends. And friends was what we would always be. I packed up for the day and jumped in the shower. I tried to ignore the pack of waiting photographers as I stalked up the Burns’ driveway, an hour later. Why did I think it was a good idea to walk? Stupid. I resisted turning around and glaring as I knocked on the front door. After a

few moments and a swish of the curtain, the door opened for me. Liam’s older brother Charlie stood there, grinning at me. “Come in, come in,” he said and stood aside so that I could squeeze in. He shut the door firmly behind me. “Bit crazy, eh?” “Yeah, that’s certainly one word for it!” I shook my head. “Anyway! How are you?” I leaned in and gave him a quick hug. “Pretty good, thanks, Jen. How are you? Ma said you’re teaching up at the school now. How’s that going?” “Yeah, I am. It’s just temporary, I’m just filling in for Jill Gerhard’s maternity

leave. Did you have her?” “Nah, after my time, I think. Are you enjoying it?” I followed him as he led me up the hallway and into the brightly lit kitchen. “Yeah, it’s been pretty good, although it’s only been a week so far. But, so far so good! Can’t really complain.” I inhaled deeply. Whatever Frank had in the oven smelt divine. “Jen’s here,” Charlie announced. Liam, his parents, and Charlie’s wife Nina, were sitting around the lounge room, picking at a plate of delicious looking cheeses and dips. Linda got up and gave me a big hug. “Good to see you, Jen.”

“You too. Thanks for having me, it smells great in here,” I said and looked around. “Where’s Dad?” Linda frowned. “He said he wasn’t feeling well,” she said uncertainly. I sighed. “He needs to get out of that house. Excuse me, do you mind if I go and brow-beat him?” “Of course not, Frank was just talking about doing that himself,” she said with an understanding smile. Frank nodded behind her shoulder. I smiled grimly at them both. “I’ll come with you,” Liam said and put his beer down. “Thanks.” I started heading back up

the hallway to the front door, but Liam grabbed my arm. “Let’s just jump the fence.” “Good idea,” I snorted. I was glad that I’d worn my jeans instead of the skirt I was contemplating. Liam led the way out the backdoor and into the backyard. We strode quickly across the lawn to the timber fence. It was taller than I was, but Liam could easily see over it. We went to the oak tree. It was a gargantuan of a tree, and you could access it from both sides of the fence. A lot of sneaking had been done, and not just by me and Liam. There was one summer when my sister Steph and Charlie had had quite the summer fling.

We’d had to shout warnings when we were coming up the to the treehouse. Once is more than enough times to see your sister and your best friends brother who is almost like an older brother to you himself half clothed and making out and probably more. I jumped down into my side of the garden, and heard Liam thump to the ground behind me. I glanced at Liam as he looked around the overgrown garden. “Let it go a bit, hasn’t he,” Liam said with a frown. “Yeah... I hope he gets back into it soon. The councillor reckons it will help if he has something to focus and concentrate on, but so far everything I’ve

tried doesn’t interest him much. Not even the garden...” “He used to be out here all the time,” Liam said slowly. “Yeah, I know.” We walked past the chook shed (I noticed that Dad had finally fed them the scraps, thankfully) and up to the back door. I knocked and then slid the glass door open. “Dad? It’s me,” I called out. No answer. I looked at Liam. “Dad?” I called louder. “In here, love.” The voice came from the lounge room. Liam followed close behind me as I made my way up the dark passageway. The contrast to Liam’s parents house was stark. Their house

was warm, bright and smelt divine. This place was dark, cold and smelt slightly off. He’d drawn the curtains again and was sitting in his old chair watching the TV. A pile of dishes was starting to build up next to him. At least he was eating, I told myself. “Dad, Liam’s here,” I said. “Hello, Mr Pike.” Liam crossed the dim room and held his hand out for Dad to shake. Dad blinked at it for a few seconds before he seemed to come to himself and stood up, shaking Liam’s hand and then pulling him into a quick hug. “Liam! Good to see you, son.”

“Good to see you too.” “So that lot out front were right then, you are back in town.” “Yeah. Unfortunately. I was hoping to keep this trip under the radar. I don’t know how they found me so quickly.” “Well, it’s not a very big town...” Dad smiled. I blinked. I hadn’t seen Dad smile in months. “We’ve come to bring you next door. No excuses,” I said. “Yeah, Dad’s got a big roast cooking, too much food just for us. And Charlie’s home too for a visit, he’d like to see you.” Dad looked between us. I think he realised we weren’t going to take no for

an answer. “C’mon, Dad. It’ll be fun,” I said. “Oh, all right. Let me just get changed.” We waited while Dad went into his room. I opened the curtains to let in some daylight, then quickly shut them again when I remembered the paparazzi camped out the front and settled for turning the light on. I looked over at Liam. He was studying the framed photographs on the mantle-piece. Mum and Dad’s wedding photo took pride and centre. They looked so impossibly young and happy in that photo. It was surrounded by obligatory school photos of me and Steph throughout the ages. I

personally thought my Grade 3 portrait was the best one. The Year 8 one was just sad. All those pimples. That haircut. The braces. I just couldn’t win that year. “Hey, I remember that,” Liam said and picked up one of the photos that was crowded near the back. It was me, Liam, Grant, and my friend Sophie, backstage at the school play. I was dressed up as a tree. Liam had far too much make-up on. Grant looked rather dapper in a three piece suit with a bowler hat, while Sophie looked stunning as usual. “That was my first staring role,” he said with a fond laugh. “Mmm. I was in the chorus. Like usual.”

“Who was in charge of the stage make-up?” Liam shook his head in mock dismay. “Wasn’t it those Year 11 girls? MaryEllen and Kirsten and that lot? They all wore too much make-up on a normal day.” I laughed. “You’re the only girl I could ever trust that actually liked me for me,” Liam said, still looking at the old photo. “Why’s that?” I asked, slightly puzzled. “You liked me before.” “Loads of girls liked you before you got famous. Year 11 was hell for me because of you. I come back from France and you’re all tall and hot and all of a

sudden I was some threat.” “No, that’s what I mean, before then. When I was a pudgy, drama loving, nintendo playing nerd and none of the other girls would even talk to me. You’ve always been there. I can trust you.” “Well, I… um… good to know?” I didn’t really know what to say, and was about to awkwardly pat him on the back, but was saved by Dad coming out of his room. He’d scrubbed up pretty well in a short amount of time. I whistled. “Lookin’ pretty good there, Daddy-o.” Dad just looked down at himself and smiled faintly. “If you say so, love.”

We went out the front door this time; Dad refused point blank to climb the fence and told us we were being ridiculous. Liam and I trailed after him as he gave the paparazzi a brief wave and marched purposefully up the garden path. They snapped a few photos, and I tried to tell myself that they were emphatically not the reason I was wearing my nicest shirt and had spent 20 minutes doing my make-up. Nope. Not them at all. The evening went by in a blur of laughter, good food, wine, and cheer. Even Dad seemed to be enjoying himself, some of the time. He still had a

tendency to zone out and stare out the window from time to time. I thanked Frank and Linda for a lovely evening and walked Dad back to his house. He gave me a quick hug and peck on the cheek. I told him I’d be back for lunch tomorrow and he just nodded. The pack had thinned somewhat. There were only two of them sitting on the nature strip. I fought the urge to wave madly at them and walked briskly back to my house. Liam had wanted to walk me home, but I told him not to bother. I didn’t want to be followed by strangers and see any more pictures of me pop up online for my students to dissect. I really

wasn’t looking forward to my next Year 8 history class. The streets were quiet, like usual. I turned into my street and stopped dead. What the hell? Now I knew where most of the paparazzi had gone. Most of them were at my house, taking photos of something. I cautiously walked up closer to see what all the fuss was about. Holly Monroe was sitting on my front doorstep.

CHAPTER FIVE Fighting for Liam! In a new twist to the saga, Holly Monroe has turned up in Australia to fight for her man! And who is she fighting? Well, dear readers, we’ve identified our Mystery Girl, and it seems she’s one Jennifer Pike, an old school chum of Liam’s! Our source claims they were very close in school,

but never dated. “Oh yeah, they were always together. They were part of the same little gang. There was a rumour going around that they slept together at a party once, but I don’t think anything came of it.” Holly must be worried though, because we have exclusive information that she turned up on poor Ms Pike’s doorstep! What we would give to have been a fly on that wall! Check back for updates! I’d left my front light on. Holly was sitting in the old rocking chair, looking as beautiful as she usually did. Her blonde hair looked a bit dishevelled, but she was still every inch the celebrity.

She was looking glumly down at her phone and doing her best to ignore the photographers lined up along my fence. Maybe I should get a vicious guard dog, I thought absently. One trained purely to attack people with huge cameras. Mmm, yeah that would be delightful. Although they’d probably sue me and get the dog put down, so maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. I shook myself. What on earth was Holly Monroe doing sitting on my front verandah? It was surreal. I’d only ever met her twice; once when she’d come out to meet Liam’s parents after they got engaged, and the second time just briefly when I’d visited Liam in Los Angeles

last year. She’d only been there for one night; she’d had to fly out to somewhere in the Caribbean to shoot one of her films. I stood frozen in the shadows. No one had noticed me yet. What should I do? I pulled my phone out to call Liam, but then slowly put it away. I’d find out what she wanted first. I didn’t want to ruin Liam’s night. I gathered up my courage and pulled my shoulders back and walked, in what I hoped looked like a confident manner, through the gathered pack and up my driveway. The gravel crunched under my boots. Holly must have heard it, because she looked up with a frown, that changed to

a relieved smile when she saw it was me. “Jennifer! Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!” She bounded over to me and surprised the hell out of me by giving me a hug. The camera’s flashed behind us. I stood stiffly for a few seconds before reaching up and patting her awkwardly on the back. “Hi, Holly... uh... come in?” “Thanks, it’s been a long day. I didn’t know when you’d be back home. I didn’t want to bother you, but I need your help,” she said quickly in her American accent. It was always odd seeing Holly Monroe in person. This was probably the oddest.

I led the way, with Holly at my heels, up the steps to the verandah and opened the front door. As usual, it wasn’t locked. “You didn’t have to wait outside, it wasn’t locked,” I said over my shoulder. Holly looked at me in surprise. “Oh, no I couldn’t just barge in,” she said. Oh really, I thought. Aren’t you just barging in to my life right now? I ushered her inside and closed the door firmly on the still flashing paparazzi. I leaned back on the door with a sigh and closed my eyes for a moment to collect myself. I could hear Holly moving around the hallway.

“Would you like a drink?” I asked, eventually to break the awkward silence. “Yes, thank you. That would be wonderful.” I dutifully led the way to my kitchen, where just this morning I’d had Liam cooking bacon and pancakes. I’d probably just doubled the value of this house with my guests this weekend. The landlord should thank me. “What would you like?” I opened the fridge. “I’ve got water, orange juice, tea, uh… cheap white wine, whiskey…” Liam had left the half empty bottle. “Tea would be lovely, thank you.” I bustled around, filling the kettle up and pulling down two tea cups. Holly

took a seat at the table. “What kind of tea would you like? I’ve got Earl Grey, normal black tea, some flavoured green tea, Lady Grey…” I stopped talking and turned to look at her. She was American. Did they even drink tea? “I’ll have whatever you’re having,” she said after a moment. I pulled down the jar of green tea. I waited for her to say something else, but all was silence while we waited for the kettle to boil. It seemed to take forever. I resisted the urge to twiddle my thumbs. It wasn’t until I placed the tea cup in front of her that she started to speak.

“You must be wondering why I’m here,” she started. “The thought had crossed my mind…” I admitted. Holly started twirling her cup around, before blowing on it. “Well. I don’t know if Liam told you or not, but we’re having a few…problems…” I nodded when she looked up from her cup at me. “I want to fix them.” “…Okay…” I said slowly. I had no idea how she thought I could fix her problems. “It didn’t mean anything, you see. Nothing at all. It was a big mistake. He’s got to know that. I would never intentionally hurt him. Liam is my soul

mate.” She actually had tears in her eyes. I hated it when people cried. It either made me cry too, or feel completely helpless and want to hug them. “Ummm… I’m sorry, Holly, but I don’t really know what you think I can do?” I said uncertainly. I still had no idea why she was here, in this country, sitting at my kitchen table. “I know he’s not serious about you,” she started. I just stared at her and then blinked rather rapidly. “I mean, I know he’s just trying to make me jealous, and to get back at me.” She looked up at me and pushed her blonde hair out of her sky-blue eyes. I

don’t know what my face looked like, but it must have been fairly amusing. “Oh, honey, I don’t mean anything nasty by that. I know you’re a nice girl and all, and you’re pretty enough in you’re own rustic girl-next-door kind of way, but Liam and I have something very special, and we understand each other. When you’re in our business, you need someone who gets it, and I get it, and he gets it and we get each other. You’re a normal person, he couldn’t make you happy,” she said confidently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said stiffly. “I know there were some pictures, but Liam and I are just friends.”

“So you didn’t -” Holly started. I cut her off before she could say anything else. “No, we’re just friends. The last time we so much as kissed was last century.” “You’ve kissed him?” Holly sat up straighter. “We were five…” I sighed. “Oh,” Holly laughed and slumped back into her chair. “I’m sorry again about barging in here. I guess I’m not in a very good frame of mind. I’m so very tired. Do you know how long the flight from Los Angeles to here is? And then the drive on top of it! My goodness.” “Yes, I’ve done it a time or two…” I

said slowly. “Do you want to take a nap or something? You can have my bed,” I said. “The sheets are clean,” I added when I saw her hesitate. Holly nodded. “That would be lovely. I’d like to freshen up a bit before I see Liam. You’ll call him for me won’t you? He’s not answering my calls.” I knew I’d probably end up regretting it, but I promised Holly that I would call Liam for her and at least tell him she was here. I showed her to the bathroom and got her a fresh towel from the linen closet. “Take your time,” I said and closed the door on her. I slowly walked to my bedroom,

shaking my head to myself. So much for a quiet weekend. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I hadn’t looked at it since I’d left Dad’s. There was a message from Liam. Thanks for coming tonight, it was fun. Hope you got home safe xox. See you tomorrow? I took a deep breath started typing a reply. I really would have preferred to call, but the walls in this house were pretty thin and I didn’t really want Holly eavesdropping, accidentally or not. Me: Hey, thanks for having me, I had a great time. You’ll never guess who was waiting for me when I got home…

Liam: Ohh, a guessing game. Dan? About time we had a reunion. Or was it your ex-boyfriend? Hah, I wished it was as simple as our other best friend turning up. Me: I wish it was that simple. It’s Holly. I held my breath after I sent the message. How would he react? I didn’t have to wait long for a reply. My phone rang. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Liam exclaimed. “Nope, sorry, mate. She’s in the shower right now. She wanted me to call you for her… said you’re not answering her calls.” “Yeah, because I need some

goddamn space! I can’t believe she’s done this. Wait, no, yes I can. She’s impulsive. I’m sorry…” “What do you want me to do with her?” I frowned at my bathroom door. Liam was silent for a moment, and I was beginning to think there was something wrong with the connection, but I heard him sigh, and then he said, “I’ll come over. I’m sorry, Jen. I didn’t want to drag you into this mess.” “Hey, it’s fine. I’ll… uh… put the kettle on.” “Thanks. Uh, does old Mrs Miller still live in the house behind your new one? I used to mow her lawns.” I blinked. “Um. I think so?”

“Cool. Okay, I’ll be there soon.” He hung up. I stared at my phone for a moment before letting out a sigh and, with a glance at the bathroom, went into the kitchen to tidy up. There wasn’t much to tidy up. I rinsed the cups Holly and I had used, and set them to dry on the rack. I padded over to the front bedroom, which was currently piled high with boxes, and peeked through the curtains, careful not to make them move too much. The horde of photographers were still there. I looked at my watch. It was getting late, surely they would want to sleep at some point? Although, not if Liam turned up. Liam Burns, Holly

Monroe, and the Mystery Girl all in one house would be far too tempting. I’d probably be reading about a threesome we supposedly had tomorrow. I really needed to stop looking at those gossip blogs. It was so very strange for them to be writing about me though. I was nobody. It was almost like Year 12 all over again, when everyone was spreading rumours about me and Liam. Nothing had even happened. They’d stung all the more because I’d wanted something to happen. And here we were again, but instead of a few teenagers spreading gossip, it was international, and thousands of people were commenting on it. On me. On how I was

a home wrecker. Me?! Had they already forgotten that it was Holly who had cheated on Liam? I’d had nothing whatsoever to do with it! And once again, insinuations that Liam and I were a thing, that we were more than just friends. And once again, me secretly wanting it to be true… I really needed to get a grip and move on. Nothing was ever going to happen with me and Liam. Holly was right. He lived in a different world now, one that I frankly did not want to be a part of if this weekend was any indication of what life would be like. I liked my anonymity. I almost felt like banging my head against the wall, anticipating class

tomorrow morning. I just knew the Year 8’s would be insufferable. I glanced down at my watch. Holly had been in the shower for ages. Didn’t she know what water restrictions were? Probably not, I reminded myself. Before long there was a tap on the back door. Liam had let himself in before I even reached it. He had his hoody pulled up and sunglasses on. “Dude, it’s dark out there. Do you really need the sunnies?” “Disguise,” he grunted. I raised my eyebrow. “I think they’d know it’s you, my famous friend.” I patted him on the arm when he looked downcast at my words.

“Don’t get famous, Jen. It’s annoying as hell.” I laughed. “I don’t think there’s much chance of that! Teaching’s not really known for being a glamorous career. Although I do have to watch out for kids snap-chatting. At least I don’t have to worry about the photos turning up in magazines. Just on Facebook…” We were still standing in the back hallway. Liam kept throwing glances up the hallway. “She’s still in the bathroom,” I said, quietly. “Come into the kitchen. They can’t see in there from the road.” Liam followed me up the hallway. “Sorry again about this, Jen.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I said. “Drink?” Liam let out a sigh and then nodded. “Yeah, a coffee would be great, if you’ve got it.” I bit my lip. “I’ve only got instant.” “That’s fine.” “Are you sure? When’s the last time you had instant?” “Relax, Jen. I had some at Mum and Dad’s this afternoon. I’m not a complete snob now, you know.” I put the kettle on. I shouldn’t have one. I really should get some sleep. I glanced at my watch again. I needed to get up in six hours. Bleh. The shower finally stopped. Liam and I danced around the elephant in the

room. After what felt like an awkward eternity, Holly finally made her appearance. I looked at her in slight consternation. She managed to look movie-star quality even without her team of stylists. How did she manage it? I didn’t even want to look in the mirror to see how I compared. I realised we were all just staring at each other, not saying anything. Well, to be more accurate, Liam and Holly were staring at each other, while I glanced nervously between them. “What are you doing here?” Liam finally managed, almost in a low growl. “I… I…” Holly seemed to deflate a bit. I’m not sure what she imagined -

them running into each others arms, possibly, after her romantic gesture of chasing him halfway across the world and barging in on his best friend’s house. “I needed to see you,” Holly finally managed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” All of a sudden, she was just a girl, not some big movie star. Just a girl who stuffed up and wanted to make things right. “I’ll leave you two to it,” I said, and slipped out of the room, closing the door firmly behind me. I don’t think they even noticed me. I resisted the very strong temptation to eavesdrop, and went to my room instead. I sat down on the edge of my bed and shook my head. What a crazy

weekend. Liam knocked on my door after an hour or two. I’d fallen asleep, with my book next to me. I looked at him blearily, trying to make my sleepy brain process what he was saying. “Thanks for everything, Jen. Sorry again for…” he paused and waved his hands around in the air. “Everything. You’re a true friend.” I mumbled something in reply that I wasn’t quite sure was English. “I’ll let you get back to sleep. I’ll take Holly back to Mum and Dad’s. I’ll go out the front door, so they’ll leave you alone.” “Thanks,” I mumbled.

He came over and kissed me on the top of my head. “I’m serious. I owe you one.” “I’ll take you up on that someday,” I yawned. “Wait,” I said and rubbed my eyes. “Are you and Holly…” Liam sighed. “I don’t know. She wants to get back together and keep the wedding on track. But I don’t know. I have some big decisions to make, I guess,” he said quietly, with a glance over his shoulder. I’d half forgotten Holly was out there somewhere. In my house. Still weird. “When are you going back?” I asked, with another yawn. “I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know

when I figure it out.” “Okay. Don’t be a stranger. If you need to talk, I’m here,” I mumbled and then buried myself back under the covers. “Just not at two am on a school night,” I belatedly added to his retreating back. I closed my eyes again, settling back in to sleep, only to be jolted awake again. Someone had sat on the end of my bed. “I just wanted to say thank you, Jennifer. You’ve saved my life, you have no idea. You’re a real friend to Liam, and I hope we can become true friends as well in the future. Liam means the world to me, and I’m so grateful to you

for helping him see that we belong together.” Huh? Holly didn’t wait for a reply before patting me on the leg and then leaving my room. My brain was too tired to think through everything and I slipped back into sleep, wondering if that last visit had been real. The blaring of the alarm clock woke me up sooner than I was ready. I groaned and turned it off, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and contemplating what had happened the night before. I leapt out of bed and all but ran up to the lounge room to peek out the front. They were gone. My front yard was its usual deserted

self. Had all of that really happened? I shook myself and got ready for school. I really hoped my Year 8’s would behave.

CHAPTER SIX The wedding of the year is back on! Yes, happy readers! You read that right! After that unfortunate little blip last week, it seems that all is well once again in the Burns-Monroe household. The wedding is back on! Like life imitating art, Holly won her man back, flying all the way across the Pacific to woo him back in person. How romantic!

The loved-up couple have been spotted by reliable sources very cozy and happy looking on a Caribbean island. Pics to come soon (we hope!). Holly is reportedly over the moon to have Liam back where he belongs - with her. After the craziness of that weekend, I couldn't quite decide whether or not the next few months flew by or dragged on. Teaching made the passage of time seem a bit strange. I was doing the same thing every day, but every day was completely different. Before I knew it, five weeks has turned into ten, and it was the school holidays again and all the teachers were revelling in their short-lasted freedom -

or curled up in a stupor, trying to recover a sense of normality after a hectic term with crazy kids and insane parents. Holly and Liam hadn’t stuck around for long. I think Liam felt guilty for bringing all the paparazzi to town. The town thought it was pretty nifty, having a couple of movie stars around, and the town was a lot busier than usual with people driving in from the surrounding towns to see if they could catch a glimpse of the famous couple, but it wasn’t to last. Liam had tried to call me, but I’d been in class. He left a voicemail

message saying that despite his better judgement, he was giving it another go with Holly. The wedding was tentatively back on, but no date. They were flying out to a private tropical island owned by one of Holly’s friends for a couple of weeks to ‘re-find’ themselves. He’d thanked me again, and said he’d call me again when he was back in LA. I listened to the message more times than I should have. He hadn’t sound super excited about getting back together with Holly. I told myself not to read anything into it and forced myself to delete the message after listening to it for the twentieth time. Tragic. I was tragic. The paparazzi and gossip blogs lost

interest in me as soon as Holly and Liam got on the plane together, and photos of them all loved up on a tropical beach surfaced, but it hadn’t stopped some of my students treating me with a kind of awe - I was famous, according to them. I’d just rolled my eyes at them, and assured them I was most definitely not famous. That had been a good segue into how celebrity and the concept of fame had changed over time, and the difference between medieval ‘celebrities’ and our modern ones. Imagine the field day the press would have if we had a modern day Henry VIII. Now that court would have been able to fuel a thousand gossip blogs. Although

Henry probably would have chopped the head of anyone who dared publish incriminating photos of him and his lady friends. Pity we couldn’t do the same… Thankfully as the term rolled on, and assignments started piling up, the kids soon forgot about my so called ‘fame’ and stopped asking me every lesson if I’d heard from Liam. Or Liam Burns, as they always called him. Always the full name. Poor Liam was no Adele. I always ignored their questions. I didn’t really want to admit to a bunch of 14 year olds that I’d barely heard from Liam since he’d left.

Dad seemed to be making a bit of progress. He was at least taking the scraps down to the chooks and I noticed he’d started opening his mail. Sometimes. He even cooked me dinner one night when I went over there. “This is really good, Dad.” I said through a mouthful of risotto. He’d just smiled at me and then went back to staring out the window. Over a long weekend towards the end of term, my friends from uni, Sammy and Mel, came down to visit me in the countryside, laden with wine, cheese, and gossip from our cohort, and, of course, questions.

“So, you were kinda vague in your messages,” Mel said once we were comfortable and set up in my lounge room with a cheese platter and wine in front of us. “About what?” I asked, my mind more on trying to decide whether I wanted blue cheese or cheddar. “About what?” Mel mimicked with an eye-roll at Sammy. “About your extremely famous friend, that I might add, you neglected to mention last year!” “Oh… him,” I muttered. “Yeah. Sorry about that. I just don’t like throwing it around.” “But we’re your friends!” Sammy

protested. I shrugged. “It’s weird, okay. He’s just an old mate from school. I’m really not a part of his new life. I hate all that side of it,” I said with a shudder at the memory of the paparazzi horde that had stalked us that weekend a month ago. “Fair enough, I guess, but still. You don’t need to hide it. I wouldn’t have!” Mel said. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” “Apology accepted,” Sammy said. “Now, what’s he like?” I frowned. “What do you mean, what’s he like? You’re starting to sound like my Year 8’s… He’s just a nice guy who likes acting. He was always the

lead in the school plays. Even when they weren’t cool. He’s nothing special. I mean, he is special, he’s great, but he’s just a regular guy, you know?” I trailed off and took a big gulp of wine. Sammy and Mel both laughed at me. “What?” I demanded. They glanced at each other. “You like him, don’t you?” Sammy said, and leaned over to refill my wine glass. “What? No! He’s just a friend! I’m getting kind of sick of saying that!” “Maybe because it’s not true,” Mel smirked. “Of course it’s true. Liam’s just an old friend, we grew up together, he’s

like my brother. I’m not secretly in love with him.” I said with so much conviction that I almost believed myself. “It’s not so secret, hun.” Mel held up a magazine with a blurry picture of me, next to a much clearer one of Liam and Holly. There was a lightning strike through Holly and Liam. “What the hell? Is that new?” I reached over and snatched the magazine out of Mel’s hands. “It came out yesterday. I don’t usually buy them, but the line was really long at the supermarket and I was bored and started flicking through…” I skim read the article before

throwing it away from me in disgust. According to ‘unnamed sources’ Liam and Holly were once again on the rocks, and this time it was because Liam and I were pining for each other, wanting to rekindle our high school romance. “High school romance?” I spluttered. “What high school romance?” “So you never…” Sammy raised an eyebrow. “No! We were just mates. Good mates, but never more.” “Ever?” “You’re not fishing for information to sell to the tabloids are you?” I said with sudden suspicion. Mel and Sammy actually looked

shocked. “Of course not. We’re sorry. We’ll stop talking about it if you want. We were just teasing you,” Mel said quickly. I sighed. “Sorry. It’s… it’s just been a weird few months.” “Yeah, I bet,” Sammy said and patted me on the back. “Have some of this blue cheese. I got it from the Queen Vic Market. It’s pretty good.” I could hardly resist Sammy’s beseeching look. I took a bite. It was surprisingly… not bad. Actually rather good. “We did kiss, once. Properly, I mean. Not like when we were five.”

“Who’d you kiss?” Mel asked. The conversation had moved on to Mel’s ongoing lack of sex life with her partner. I didn’t know why I was bringing it up again. Blame the wine. “Liam. In high school. It was… nice. One of the best kisses I’ve ever had actually…” I sat there for a moment, staring into my wine glass. How many had I had? “Then what happened?” “Nothing.” I shrugged. “He said he didn’t want to ruin the friendship, so we pretended that it never happened.” “Oh, hun,” Mel said, full of sympathy. “Nah, nah, it’s fine. Sheesh, it was

ages ago. I’m well over it.” I saw Mel and Sammy exchange a meaningful look. “Seriously, girls. I am! Let’s change the topic. Have you tried actually telling him that you’re unhappy with the amount of sex you’re having?” I asked Mel. “Yes, of course I have. He says sorry, and that he’s just been tired and stressed, and he’ll try harder. But… it’s still been six months since we fucked. I’m going mad.” “If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t been laid in almost a year, not since Evan dumped me,” I said. Sammy grinned. “Well, I have you both beat. I,” she paused to hold up her drink. “I have not laid with a man for

four years.” She finished off the rest of her wine with a flourish. “Four years?!” Mel and I both exclaimed. “Wait, you said man. What about…” Mel added with a slight smirk. “I may have experimented with a few lovely ladies in that time…” I laughed. “I wish I didn’t love Ben,” Mel said with a deep sigh. “It would be a lot easier if I could just say ‘well, if you don’t wanna make love to me, it’s over.’ But I can’t.” “Sure you can,” Sammy said. “Come over to the dark side of single-dom.” “My mum always said there are

worse things than being single,” I added. She’d said this a lot when my sister Steph had had a particularly repulsive boyfriend for a few years. None of us understood why she was with him, not even Steph now that it was in the past. “But I love him,” Mel said plaintively. “We do have good times.” “But you’re not satisfied, and you’re not happy. And to be honest, he’s a bit of a dick, Melly,” Sammy said. “What? No he’s not.” “Yeah, he kinda is,” I said, and offered Mel some cheese. Mel frowned at us both. “Sorry,” I said. “Wine makes me honest. And just because you’re in love

with someone, doesn’t mean you should be with them.” Another of Mum’s sayings. “Jen’s right,” Sammy said. “I’ll think about it,” Mel said eventually. “It’s hard though. We’ve been together for four years. And we live together… and who would get the cat?” “Figure that stuff out later, my dear.” Sammy patted Mel on the head, which made Mel scowl. “We need to plan our night of prowling. What are the menfolk like in these parts?” Sammy turned to me. I shook my head. “Not worth it. Most of the good ones left. You two need guys who can string more than a few

sentences together and actually know what mise en scene means and have at least read a book in the last decade that wasn’t for English class.” “Nah. I’m not talking future husbands here, Jen. I’m talking one night stand. A nice farmer would be something fun and different.” “The farmers are probably all in bed. They have to get up at 5am to milk the cows. You’d be stuck with the dole bludgers and uni students.” “I could do a uni student,” Sammy said slowly. “You sly old fox,” Mel laughed. “Just be careful of the school students,” I said. Mel and Sammy both

gave me an aghast look. “Okay, I was only partly joking about the uni student, but I wouldn’t touch a school kid! Gross!” I laughed. “Oh, no, I didn’t mean you would. It’s just a few of the Year 12 boys at school have turned 18 in the last couple of months. They keep turning up at the pub. It’s… a bit awkward.” I said. Jacinta and I had started going to the pub in the next town over to avoid them, or just drinking at home. “Oh. Right. Small towns. I didn’t even think of that. How weird would have that been, going to a pub with your teachers!” Sammy exclaimed. Mel shrugged. “I grew up in a small

town too. We only had two pubs, so you saw them out a bit. We mostly stayed away from them though.” “Well, we’re lucky, we have four pubs in this town. But there was a bit of an incident a couple of weeks ago. One of the kids had a few too many and hit on one of the other young teachers. We’ve kind of been avoiding the pubs since then.” “Oh, wow! What happened?” Mel asked eagerly. Teachers: biggest gossips out there. “Nothing really. Jacinta shot him down and told his mates to take him home. The kid was pretty embarrassed and apologised the next day at school.

He turns red every time he passes her in the corridor now. It’s weird though with the younger teachers - some of the Year 12’s look older than the teachers. Like, our school captain, his name’s Ricky, he’s got a full beard and is like 6 ft 4 or something. If I saw him out in the city and didn’t know who he was, I wouldn’t think twice. And then I’d be aghast that he was 18. He seriously looks like he’s in his twenties.” I made myself stop talking. I could definitely tell I’d had enough wine. I got very chatty. And way too honest. “Anyway, we should organise a girls night out in the city, at least,” said Mel. “Get Jenny out of the countryside and

away from her students.” I nodded in approval. “I actually have a friend you might like, Jen,” Sammy said. “He’s into all that science fiction stuff you like, and he’s a boring old teacher as well. No crazy paparazzi attention with Will. Just good old fashioned teachers breeding with teachers, like we have been since time immemorial.” “Breeding… let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said with a startled cough. “Okay, okay, sorry, but you should meet him anyway. He’s pretty awesome. And cute, I guess, if you like the tall, kinda nerdy types.” “Hmmm. I dunno…” I said,

hesitantly. “How about I just invite him along to the next group outing and lets pretend I didn’t say anything, so you don’t get all caught up in your head?” Sammy suggested with a short laugh. “Okay. That sounds do-able.” The conversation shifted on to school, and quickly devolved into who could out-surprise who with stories of what students and teachers got up to in our respective workplaces.

CHAPTER SEVEN Trouble in Paradise? Not again! We really hope it’s not true, but we’ve got some breaking news for you, dear readers. There are rumours that the Burns-Monroe wedding is OFF! Again! Holly was spotted without her engagement ring and refused to comment, but a source very close to her has confirmed the

unhappy news for us, and even told us Liam’s making plans to move out! Will they be able to work it out again? Only time will tell. I relaxed. Another teaching day over that didn’t involve a disaster or a meltdown. I plonked down at my desk and accidentally scattered a shower of Year 8 history posters all over the place. I quickly shoved them into a haphazard pile that would pass a brief neatness inspection, and pushed them to the side, next to the pile of Year 10 English essays I needed to mark. I’d deal with them tomorrow. I really didn’t feel like marking just then. By brain was fried

after a double with the Year 8’s. They were like gremlins. Some days they were lovely and fantastic, other days someone had obviously got them wet and they were utterly horrid. Today they’d just been a bit damp. I flipped open my laptop. An email from Liam was waiting for me, and despite my earlier words to Mel and Sammy, my fingers tingled and my heart skipped a beat. I really needed a local distraction, I told myself for what must have been the hundredth time. From: L B To: Jen Pike Hey Jen,

Hope this email finds you awesomely swell, and your kids are behaving for you. I’m writing because I wanted to tell you something before it’s splashed all over the press. Holly and I are over. Done. For good, this time. Wedding is off. I’m moving to a different place. No, she didn’t cheat this time. It just wasn’t working. She’s not what I want. And I’m not right for her, either. Anyway. I’m okay. It’s been brewing for a while. It’s still hard, you know, but… yeah. I’ll be fine. So will she, I think. She didn’t want to break up, but I’m sure she’ll see sense sooner rather than later. She’s not a bad person. I

just… I don’t know. It’s late over there. I feel like talking to you, but I don’t want to wake you up. I stopped reading and took a deep breath. Could it be true? Were they really over? I closed my eyes, wondering at my physical reaction. My heart had started palpitating and I felt my palms getting sweaty. I should be sad for him, not this weird, nervous, gleefulness. What was wrong with me? I opened my eyes and kept reading. I know your school holidays are coming up, and I’m really hoping you don’t have plans. My movie premiere is

in the second week of your holidays, and I’m really, really hoping you’ll be my ‘date’. I’ll pay for your ticket of course, and you can stay at my new place. It’s kinda nice even if I do say so myself. Anyway if you do me this MASSIVE favour, I will be eternally grateful. Oh, and to sweeten the deal, Dan is dropping in for a few days on his way to London, so you have to say yes. It’s about time we had a reunion. Let me know. Call me any time, I have no schedule at the moment, so it doesn’t matter if you wake me up. -L Could I actually go? I checked my

mental calendar. I didn't really have anything planned for the holidays. I'd thought about having a Melbourne trip, and staying with Mel or Sammy for a few days, and going to the museum and art gallery, and maybe see a gig. There were a few other friends I wanted to catch up with as well, and I'd agreed to meet up with Sammy and her teacherfriend Will. That would be much more sensible. Date a fellow teacher. Live a quiet, normal, uncomplicated life. I checked out the airfares. I didn't want Liam paying for me. I had a decent job, I could afford it. I didn't want him thinking I was using him for his money or anything, or that I couldn't look after

myself. The flights were affordable. As long as I flew economy and left at a ridiculous time in the morning. I hesitated before writing back to Liam. I still wasn't entirely sure. I decided to think about it on the drive home, which in the end really didn’t give me much time as it was a very quick four minute drive, even with having to wait at the intersection for 10 cars to go past. Tarang had spoiled me for city driving and commutes. I rang Mel when I got home. “Liam wants me to come over to Los Angeles in the holidays and go to a movie premiere with him,” I said, once we’d got past the initial compulsory

pleasantries. “What? That’s so awesome! I’m actually jealous.” “What? Really?” “Of course! Are you crazy?! I’m a drama teacher! I’d give my right foot to go to one of those things!” “Oh... I wasn’t sure whether to go or not...” “What? Why?” Mel demanded. “I don’t know... after all that crap that was written about me last time. I don’t want to give people the wrong idea,” I said. “What’s the wrong idea?” Mel teased. “You know... that we’re together or

something.” “Just say that you’re old friends. Or that you’re his cousin or something... He’s with Holly Monroe, don’t worry about it.” I was quiet for a moment. “Don’t tell anyone this yet…” I started, then stopped. I trusted Mel. Mostly. “Don’t tell anyone what?” “Liam and Holly are over. He’s moving out.” “Oh, shit! That’s… wow. Um.” “Yeah…” I said, slowly. “So you can see why people might get the wrong idea?” “Well, now it makes a bit more

sense. Don’t worry about it though, Jen. You can’t live, or in this case, not live your life because you’re worried about what strangers will think of you.” I contemplated her words for a minute. She was right. It was the kind of advice we were always dishing out to kids at school. Don’t worry about what other people think of you. It’s their problem, not yours. “You’re right,” I said. “Anyway, I doubt anyone will pay attention to me. All the attention will be on the movie stars. I’ll just be noted as ‘Liam Burns, and friend’ if noted at all.” “Good old anonymity.” “Nothing’s going to happen with

Liam anyway. So there will be nothing for them to write about.” “When’s that ever stopped them. Those gossip rags are full of mediocre creative writing efforts. They’re worse than Year 9 girls. Before you know it you’ll be pregnant and secretly engaged. Just you wait.” “Oh, joy,” I mumbled. “Do you want something to happen?” Mel said after a moments silence. “Of course I don’t want anything to happen. Gross. That would be like hooking up with my brother or something.” “Or something, uh huh.” I rolled my eyes, slightly annoyed

that she couldn’t see me. “So you think I should go?” I said after a moment. “Of course I do, you silly goose. It will be an amazing experience.” “Yeah, I’m just imagining the grief I’ll get from my Year Eight’s…” “Nah, they’ll think it’s super cool.” “I don’t think saying ‘super cool’ is super cool anymore, Melly.” I could almost feel her poke her tongue out at me all the way from Melbourne. “Whatever. Anyway. You’re going, right?” I sighed. “I guess...” “Geez, give me his number. I’ll go in

your place!” I laughed. “You’re right, I’m being silly. I’ll book the tickets soon and let him know.” “Good girl.” “Thanks for the pep talk. How are things with you?” I belatedly asked. “Oh, yeah fine. The usual. Hey, sorry hun, Ben just got home. I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later!” We hung up and I re-opened the booking site. I looked at the calendar again and decided to go for just a week, instead of the entire two weeks I had off. I had a bunch of school work I needed to get done over the holidays, and that

would still give me time to do a few things in Melbourne. It felt like a long way to go for just a week though. A fourteen hour flight, plus the three hour drive to the airport. I opened up my email again and started writing a reply to Liam, mulling over what to say about the Holly news. Keep it simple, I decided. From: Jen Pike To: Liam B Hey Burnsy, Nice to hear from you, although I’m sorry to hear about things with Holly not working out. I’d love to come over for your

premiere. I just need to know the date, and I’ll book the tickets! I think I’ll just come for 7 or 8 days instead of the whole two weeks - there are a few things I need to get done over the holidays here, but I’m really looking forward to coming! Things here are pretty quiet. It was the school play the other night. Some rising talent, but nowhere near as good as the old Burns days ;-) I do wish they’d break away from musicals some years though. The school’s too small to hope to always have a full cast of strong singers! Some of them were rather painful, to be honest, but props to them for having a go.

Okay, I’m just rambling to avoid marking a pile of English essays I promised my kids I’d get back to them yesterday. Ciao. -Jen I didn’t have to wait very long for a reply. My computer beeped just as I opened up the first essay and uncapped my red pen. Rather grateful, I put the pen down. From: L B To: Jen Pike That’s awesome, I’m super stoked

you are coming! Premiere is on the 27th of September. Send me your passport details and I’ll book the tix for you. :-) -L I went back to my calendar and then the airline page. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was so resistant to Liam paying for my tickets. He certainly had a lot more disposable income than I did, but I was also enjoying actually having some money in the bank after years of student level poverty. A return ticket to Los Angeles wouldn’t break the bank, and I didn’t want anyone thinking that I was taking advantage of my friendship with Liam. I could take care of myself.

From: Jen Pike To: Liam B All good, Burnsy! I booked the tickets! I get in at 6:35am on the 24th. Sorry it’s so early! I hope you can pick me up! Or, if it’s too early I can always catch a taxi. Anyway. Flying with Qantas. I’ll send you through the flight details. Excited. -Jen I didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

From: L B To: Jen Pike Hey! I said I’d pay for your tickets! Man, eaaaarly. It’s all right though, I’ll come and pick you up. Send me your bank details please, I’ll forward you the money for the tickets. Let me do this, no point me having all this extra money lying around if I can’t treat my friend who is coming across the world just for me. -L I quickly hit reply and typed back. From: Jen Pike To: Liam Burns

Invest your money wisely, my friend. Who knows, this movie may be a total flop and you will be blacklisted from Hollywood and not make another cent :P Seriously though, it’s fine. I’m a working professional, I can afford my own plane ticket. If it was this time last year, I would probably have taken you up on it… See you in a couple of weeks! I closed my laptop with a strangely satisfied smirk and pulled the pile of essays towards me. Might as well get the damn things out of the way. I should have been a maths teacher instead of an

English/Humanities teacher… so much easier to mark maths tests, rather than read twenty language analysis essays!

CHAPTER EIGHT Reconciliation? Liam and Holly were spotted together at a Los Felis cafe over the weekend. According to our sources who were lucky enough to be in the cafe at the same time, the two seemed to be on good terms and friendly even. Is this the beginning of a reconciliation? We can’t tell for sure yet. Liam has spotted

out and about with a bevy of beautiful women over the past month, presumably drowning his sorrows, while Holly was spotted in Paris last week looking very comfortable with an as yet unidentified tall dark and handsome man (she sure does have a type, doesn’t she?!) We’ll keep you updated on any developments. We’re still Team Holly + Liam here! The last two weeks of term flew by in a whirl of paperwork, figuring out how the interim reports worked, and parent-teacher interviews. I’d been quietly nervous about the parent teacher interviews; they were they first ones I

had to do alone, without a mentor sitting next to me. Of course, only the good students’ parents actually turned up, and the parents who I actually wanted to talk to stayed away. After the first interview, where I could feel my damn face burning up, I got the hang of it and was pretty sure I stopped looking like a glowing tomato and sounding like a quivering imposter. “How’s it going?” Jacinta, one of the other young teachers, asked as she perched herself on the corner of my table. We had a scheduled twenty minute break for a bite to eat. “Oh, yeah, not too bad. I’ve only had about eight parents turn up so far

though.” Jacinta shrugged. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” This was her second year at the school. Fourth set of parent-teacher interviews. “And so far it’s only been the kids who are doing well and have no behavioural issues.” Jacinta laughed. “Yeah, well. Again, sounds about right. Come on, let’s grab some sandwiches before Graham takes all the good ones.” I pushed my chair back with a groan and followed her into the staffroom. A variety of finger foods were laid out over the main table, and sure enough, Graham, the woodwork teacher, was

hovering over the sandwiches, picking out the best looking ones. I followed Jacinta’s lead and picked up a plate and grabbed a few of the tastier looking items. Nourishment gathered, we positioned ourselves in the corner of the room, in a couple of the comfy chairs. “So, any plans for the holidays?” Jacinta asked around a mouthful of tomato and ham sandwich. “Yeah, actually. For once. Have a few things to do in Melbourne, and then I’m going to Los Angeles for a week and a bit.” “That sounds awesome! What are you going to do over there?” I hesitated, and then wondered why.

It was no secret. “Liam invited me to go to his movie premiere with him. I thought it sounded like too good of an experience to pass up.” “Oh. My. God. Are you serious?” Jacinta almost choked on her mouthful. I patted her on the back. “Yeah,” I half laughed. “A bit crazy for a history teacher from Tarang, but there you have it.” “That is fucking awesome, dude. Wow. You have my holidays completely beat.” “What are you doing?” I asked, trying to be polite. I’d never quite mastered the art of polite small talk,

even with friends. Jacinta waved her hand dismissively. “Nothing, really. Just going up to Queensland to visit my grandparents for a few days. I’ve got a few Year 12 holiday classes to run, so I can’t be away for too long… but whatever, a real Hollywood premiere? Really?” I laughed. “Yeah, really. I guess?” Jacinta laughed and shook her head. “You’re full of surprises Ms Pike.” She took another bite of her sandwich, chewing slowly. “But what about his fiancé?” she asked. A frown filled her face. “Oh. Uh. Yeah…” “What? Spit it out.”

I hesitated again, chewing the inside of my cheek. I really didn’t want to gossip about my famous friend, but it had already surfaced online and I assumed, in the magazines. I was kind of surprised she didn’t already know. “They broke up again, didn’t they? I’ve been so out of the loop. My internets not working at home,” Jacinta said quickly, before I had a chance to formulate a reply. I nodded silently. “You didn’t hear anything from me, and before you ask, I’m not telling you any details.” Jacinta mock-scowled at me. “You’re no fun. Did she cheat again? Or,” she smirked at me. “Did he finally

declare his long simmering passions for a certain old friend from back home?” I punched her lightly on the arm. “Of course not. We’re just friends.” “Uh huh.” “Why does no one ever believe me?” “Because. You’re as transparent as that window over there.” I looked at the dirty window Jacinta gestured to, that I swore hadn’t been washed since I was a student at the school. “Okay, bad example. But, c’mon. You kind of just… light up… whenever he’s mentioned.” “I do?” Jacinta nodded. “Crap,” I muttered, then looked

down at my watch. “Double crap. Times up, back to the trenches.” The next day was the last day of term. The kids were silly, I was silly. We ended up playing Pictionary in Year 8 History, and I made an epic trivia game for my Year 9 and 10 English classes. They broke my heart when none of them knew how many wives Henry VIII had, and even more so when they all declared that knowing that K2 was the second highest mountain in the world was completely useless knowledge. “Ah, except for when you do trivia quizzes!” I retorted. Half of them rolled their eyes at me. A few of them actually

groaned. I joined the rest of the staff for the traditional end of term drinks, although made sure not to have too much fun. I needed to be productive the next day, not spend it lying on the couch feeling sorry for myself. I’d written myself a list of all the things I needed to get done before heading off to Melbourne, and then Los Angeles. I definitely didn’t get into teaching for the paperwork… A few surprisingly productive days later, my bags were packed and I was on my way to Melbourne. The plan was to crash at Sammy’s for a couple of days and then lend her my car while I was

gone, on the caveat that she dropped me off at the airport. “Good to see you, darling.” Sammy greeted me with a kiss on the cheek after I knocked on her front door. “You too, thanks for having me.” I followed her down the narrow hallway. Sammy was lucky; her parents had wisely invested in a terrace house in Brunswick back in the Eighties. Now Sammy got to live there virtually rent free and charge her housemates rent. My parents just owned a bush block out in the middle of nowhere. Not quite the same. Good for camping on though, as long as you avoided the snakes, cow poo and flock of feral roosters. Dad had gone

soft in his older age and stopped chopping the heads of any excess roosters that the backyard chickens hatched. One memorable batch had five roosters out of the five chickens that had hatched. Mum had said he needed to butcher them, they were driving her and the other hens insane. Instead of getting out the old butchering cone, Dad had taken them out to the bush block and let them roam free. The foxes probably got a few of them, but Dad figured they had a better chance out there than the certainty of getting their heads chopped off if they stayed in town. Mum had shaken her head fondly at him, and lamented the lack of roast chicken for

dinner. “You can sleep in Erin’s old room. She moved out last week, and thoughtfully left her bed behind,” Sammy said. “That’s nice of her. Where did she go?” I asked as Sammy opened up the third doorway and ushered me in. I vaguely remembered Erin from a few classes at university. She was a rather short, quirky girl, who I remember feeling intimidated by when she said she had a Ph.D in philosophy. She’d been able to drink most of us under the table at the pub, belying her petite size. “London. She got a teaching job over there.”

“Nice.” I dumped my backpack on the bed. “Don’t worry, I think I’ve got a spare pillow and doona lying around here somewhere. I was thinking of going over to the UK next year as well if I can’t get anything lined up.” “What about your current school?” “I don’t like it there. I wouldn’t take the job even if they offered it. Which they probably won’t. I think I rocked the boat a bit too much for a lowly new graduate.” “Why doesn’t that surprise me,” I laughed. Sammy smiled. “Come on out the back. I’ve got a few friends over.”

I patted my hair down and followed her out, through the kitchen and into the courtyard. Four other people were sitting around a makeshift table on an eclectic collection of chairs. To my relief, Mel waved to me and then got up to give me a hug. Another friend from uni, Aruvin, was engrossed in conversation with a tall (judging by the way his knees awkwardly hit the table), bespeckled, rather handsome black man. Sammy coughed to get Aruvin’s attention. “Jen!” he exclaimed and leapt out of his seat to give me a rather exuberant hug. I hugged him back, hard. He’d been a

huge support to me last year and I had neglected him. “How are you?” “Fantastic, actually. I just got a call from my school this afternoon - they want me to come back next term!” “That’s great! Well done, you!” “Yeah, the lady that was on maternity leave decided not to come back after all, so I’m there ’til the end of the year. I’m so relieved. I really didn’t want to go back to relief teaching!” “I’m so happy for you, Aruvin.” “Me too,” he laughed. “How’s the countryside treating you, my dear?” “Good. Nothing’s changed. It’s still

stuck in a time-warp.” Sammy coughed. “Sorry to interrupt, but I haven’t done introductions!” I glanced guiltily at the other man. “Jen, you know Mel and Aruvin.” “No, never seen her before in my life,” Aruvin said with a straight face. I elbowed him. Sammy ignored him. “And this is my friend Will.” Will stood up, revealing himself to be even taller than I had expected, and held his hand out. I reached over and shook it. He had a very firm handshake. And he was indeed, very handsome. It took me longer than it should have to realise this was the guy Sammy had wanted to set me up with.

“Nice to meet you,” I finally said. “You need a drink,” Sammy said to me. “Will, you know where the glasses are. Can you do me a favour and show Jen?” Wow, subtle, Sammy. Real subtle. Will just smiled and started walking back towards the house. I stared wideeyed at Sammy, but she pushed me to follow him. I rolled my eyes, and did as I was bid. Sammy grabbed my arm before I’d gone far and pulled me close to her. “Be nice,” she whispered sternly and let me go. “I’m always nice.” I scowled at her and rubbed my arm. I glanced at Mel,

who just smirked. I’d get no sympathy there, it seemed. Will was pulling down a wine glass from the top shelf of the cupboard when I came into the kitchen. He turned around with a smile and handed it to me. “Thanks,” I said, and then didn’t know what else to say. I really didn’t like being set up. I wondered what Sammy had told him about me. “No problem. What would you like to drink? We’ve got, uh…” he opened the fridge and leaned down to squint in. “Chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, a pinot gris, beer or some red wine. Judging by the fact that it’s just called ‘red wine’ I can’t promise that it actually tastes any

good.” I let out a short laugh. “I think I’ll stick to the sauv blanc, thanks.” Will pulled out the bottle and handed it to me, and then grabbed a jug of water. “So, you’re a teacher too?” Will asked, glancing at me sideways as he poured a glass of water out of the jug. “Yup. Sam told me you teach English and History?” I didn’t want to beat around the bush, pretending I didn’t know anything about him. I poured myself a glass of wine and put the bottle back in the fridge. “Yes, that’s right. And a bit of geography, philosophy, politics and

commerce when the timetable demands it of me.” “Wouldn’t it be nice if we just got to teach what we are qualified in…” I lamented. I had bad memories of filling in for a commerce teacher. I didn’t know the first thing about marketing, but had been expected to teach a unit of it last year, with no resources left by the actual teacher. It had been a steep learning curve! “Yes that would be nice, although it’s always good to learn new things. Keeps me on my toes.” “I suppose so,” I said. “But I’m still so new at this, I’d like to get my head around my own subjects first.”

“Good point,” Will said. “Is this your first year?” “Second. Although, this is my first year with a semi-permanent job. I did a lot of CRT work last year.” “How’d you find it?” He leaned back on the sink. I looked up at him. He really was very tall. And handsome. I wondered how much trouble he had with crushes from his students. I shrugged. “It wasn’t too bad. I didn’t want to do it forever though, it’s pretty isolating, and kind of souldestroying.” He nodded. “Yes, I can imagine so.” “You’ve never done it?” I asked. He shook his head. “No, I was lucky

enough to get a job lined up before I finished my course.” “Did you do MTeach?” I asked. I didn’t remember seeing him at university. I was pretty sure I would have noticed someone like Will. “Yeah, but a few years before you guys. You were there with Samantha weren’t you?” I nodded. So, she’d told him a bit about me. How much, I wondered. “How do you know Sammy?” I asked, and took a sip of my drink. “We work at the same school.” “Oh, right. I think she told me that.” Will smirked. “Yes, it would appear that she’s been telling each of us quite a

bit about the other.” I looked around, and leaned in closer to him. “I think she’s trying to set us up,” I whispered in mock surprise. Will laughed. “I think you might be right.” “Shall we go back out there? They’ll be imagining us in all sorts of compromised positions.” Will laughed again and I felt my confidence shoot up. We spent a very pleasant evening, sitting around Sammy’s back yard. Thankfully there were no non-teachers there, as they most likely would have been bored shitless with all the teacher-

talk, but I enjoyed it. The others all left a bit after midnight. We were all yawning by then. A few days of holidays didn’t change the fact that for most of us, 9:30pm was our usual bedtime! “What are you doing tomorrow, Jen?” Mel asked me as we were hovering around the front door, waiting for the Uber to turn up. “I wanted to check out the Pompeii exhibit at the museum,” I said through another yawn. Will perked up at the mention of Pompeii. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to go and see that,” he said. Sammy made some exaggerated faces

at me behind Will’s back. Half looking at Sammy, I stuttered out. “Er, would you like to come with me tomorrow?” Will smiled and nodded. “It’s nice to go with company.” “Yeah…” “What time were you planning to go?” Will asked. Sammy ushered Aruvin and Mel up the pathway, leaving Will and I on the front porch. It didn’t really help that they all kept staring at us though. “Around ten or eleven,” I said after looking at my watch for some reason. “Sounds good. Maybe we could grab a coffee beforehand?”

“All right. I’ll meet you at ten, and we can grab a coffee and then hit up the exhibit.” “Sounds like a plan,” Will said, and awkwardly swung his arms at his side. I stifled a laugh. He reminded me of me. “Well, uh, see you then. Oh, wait, where are we meeting exactly?” I blinked and then laughed. “Yeah, that would be helpful. How about we just meet out the front of the museum, up the IMAX end, and go from there?” “Okay. I’ll give you my number in case you need to cancel or anything.” He pulled out a bit of paper and pen from his satchel (of course he carried around paper and pens) and quickly scribbled

his number down. “Thanks, I’ll text you so you have mine as well.” “Okay, see you tomorrow then!” “Good night,” I said with a smile.

CHAPTER NINE Will they? Won’t they? Liam and Holly have been spotted in the same vicinities a few times over the past weeks, giving hope to us hopeless romantics. The premiere of Liam’s new movie ‘Gertrude’s Promise’ is coming up this week, and there’s speculation that he’ll bring Holly as his date! Although, Holly is currently down in the Bahamas

working on a film, so it’s not sure if she’ll be able to come back or not, but we sure do hope so! “Soooooo?” Sammy asked as soon as the others had left and we were standing in the hallway. “So, what?” I asked, playfully. I turned and walked down to my temporary bedroom, leaving Sammy to trot after me. “So, what did you think of Will? He’s great, isn’t he?” I started to laugh but it turned into a yawn. “Yeah, he seems pretty cool.” “I knew you’d like him,” Sammy said in a distinctly self-satisfied way.

“Doesn’t mean we’re going to get married,” I warned her. “Or even date.” She just rolled her eyes back at me. “All right, all right. So you’re meeting up with him tomorrow though, right?” I nodded. “Do you want to come too? I thought I remembered you saying you wanted to check the Pompeii exhibition out as well.” Sammy shook her head. “Sorry, dude. I have a family brunch thing tomorrow that I can’t get out of.” “We could wait for you,” I offered. Sammy rolled her eyes again. “No. You two go. Alone. And don’t try to rope Mel or anyone else in.”

“But…” “Good night,” Sammy said firmly and backed out of the room, shutting the door behind her. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day the next day. I jumped on a tram and made my way to the Melbourne Museum. Days like this made me want to move back to the city. I strolled up through the gardens, admiring the flowers coming out to bloom, and listening to the hum of the city. It was never truely quiet here. Will was already waiting for me, leaning back casually on one of the pillars and reading a paperback. I watched him for a moment, before stepping closer towards

him. He glanced up and scanned around, dark eyes settling on me. He broke into a quick smile. “Hi,” he said, tucking the book away. I didn’t get a good look at the cover, but it looked tattered and well-read. “Hey there,” I said, in a really bad impression of a Southern American accent. I did stupid accents when I was nervous, but thankfully he didn’t know that yet. “Um, whatcha reading?” I said in my normal voice. “Robin Hobb. Have you heard of her?” “Are you kidding? I love her. She’s one of my favourite authors ever.” Will looked relieved. “I was just re-

reading Assassin’s Apprentice.” “Good choice,” I said. “I do that once every few years as well. There’s just something decidedly comforting, reading a familiar book.” “I agree,” Will said with a smile. “Shall we get a coffee?” I nodded. “Do you have anywhere in mind? I don’t know this area super well.” “Yeah, there’s a nice cozy little cafe that just opened up around the corner. Do you want to try it?” “Sure. Lead the way.” I fell into step beside Will as he lead the way to the cafe. I had the distinct impression that he was shortening his

long stride to keep even with my little legs. Before long, we were seated at a small table in a bustling little cafe. Will was right, cozy was the word to describe it. We both ordered flat white’s from the waitress and then smiled rather awkwardly at each other over the table, and then fell into natural Melbourne small talk - complaining about public transport (Will’s train had been late, my tram had been early) and the weather even though today was a perfect Spring day. Melburnians loved to complain about the weather though. The city of four seasons in one day and all that. That lasted us until the waitress came

back with our coffees. I picked mine up and inhaled the aroma, while cradling the warm cup in my hands. “Mmm, I haven’t had a decent coffee in ages,” I sighed. “That’s right, you’re living in the country aren’t you. Where about again?” “Tarang,” I said. At Will’s blank look I added, “down near Warrnambool? You basically just get on the West Gate Freeway and keep driving for two and a half hours.” “Oh, yeah, right. I’ve been to Warrnambool before. It’s nice.” “Well, then. Chances are you drove through Tarang and didn’t even notice!” “I do apologise to the citizens of

your fine town.” I laughed. “It only takes a few minutes to drive through it, don’t worry, we don’t mind.” “Coffee no good there?” “Weeeeelllll, they’re getting better. I’ll give them that. I have high hopes for a new cafe that’s opening up soon. One of my old friends from school is opening it. She’s worked as a barista in Melbourne, so she hopefully knows her stuff.” “Well, for your sake, I hope so too!” “Cheers to that,” I said and took a sip off coffee. “Have you always lived in the countryside?” Will asked after a

moment. I wobbled my head. “Yes, no. I grew up there, but I moved to Melbourne for uni when I was 18. I didn’t think I’d ever end up back there though, to be honest. I’ve only just moved back there a few months ago for work.” I didn’t really feel like our first coffee date was the time to unload about my depressed father and dead mother. “Where abouts do you live?” I asked. “Yarraville,” Will said. “I’m sharing a house with a couple of friends at the moment.” “Nice, I like Yarraville. My sister used to live in Seddon. She took me to the Sun Theatre a few times.”

“It’s lovely there,” Will said. “Where’s your sister now?” “Canada,” I replied. “She was only meant to go for one year, but it’s been…” I thought for a moment. “Almost five years. We’re starting to wonder if she will ever come back.” I was only half joking. I missed having my sister around. We weren’t the kind of sisters who were best friends, but we got along just fine… and with Mum gone, sometimes I really could use a female family member around. I heard myself sigh. “My brother’s been living in the UK for ten years,” Will offered. “Married to a Brit and they’ve got three kids now. I

don’t think he’s coming back.” I snorted. “You never know. Maybe they’ll get sick of weather. Do you have any other brothers?” Will nodded. “Two younger than me. The older one is in London.” “Four boys,” I whistled. “Any sisters?” “Yeah, actually. My sister Mary just turned eighteen.” “Poor kid,” I said. “Four older brothers?” “She was the spoilt one,” Will laughed. “Did you grow up in Melbourne?” I asked. I wanted to ask about his background, but didn’t want to seem

rude or racist. He seemed to know what I was getting at though. “Yeah. Mum and Dad arrived in Australia in the early Eighties. Mum’s from Zimbabwe and Dad’s South African.” “Wow,” I said. “Do you still have family there?” Will leaned back and took a long sip of his coffee. A little bit of froth caught on his lip. I stared at it, slightly mesmerised, until he wiped it away. “Yeah, my grandma is still there, and a bunch of cousins. We try to go back and visit every few years. Do you see your sister much?” I shrugged. “Not as much as I’d like

to.” “Have you ever been to Canada?” I nodded and drained the last of my coffee. “Yeah, once. It’s so nice over there. Although she’s always complaining about the weather. Too much rain.” “Rain? I thought it would be snow,” Will laughed. “You’d think so, being Canada and all, but she’s in Vancouver, and apparently it’s mostly rain there. She gets excited when it snows.” “So do I,” Will said with a smile and put his cup down. “Shall we go?” “Lets. The ruins of Pompeii await!”

We spent a very interesting and enjoyable couple of hours, slowly wandering through the exhibit. I lost track of time as I stared at the plaster casts of the poor people caught in the eruption. What a horrible way to die. Will turned out to be a fantastic museum partner. We both seemed to go at around the same pace, and I didn’t feel rushed at all by him like I usually did when I was with someone else at a gallery or museum. I liked to take my time. Once we’d reached the end, my stomach was getting pretty gurgley. “Are you busy this afternoon?” I asked, suddenly a bit tentative as we walked through the gift shop.

Will shook his head and picked up a cheese grater. “Just where I always go to get my cheese graters; the museum.” I let out a laugh. “And no, I’m not busy,” Will added. “Do you want to grab some lunch on Lygon Street and then come back and make the most of our free museum pass?” The Pompeii exhibit was seperate to the main museum, but our tickets got us in to the main part as well. “Sure. That sounds great. I haven’t been for awhile. I got a bit museum-ed out, if that’s possible, during the first MTeach year - we came down here so many times for History class.” “Yeah, same.”

The museum was only a couple of streets away from bustling Lygon Street, full of Italian restaurants and men (and the occasional woman) out the front, accosting half the passersby, trying to persuade them to come into their restaurant with specials and deals. I had intended to walk up and down and have a look at some menus, but me being me said yes to the first young man who promised us a free glass of wine and garlic bread. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to Will as we took our seats. “I hope the food’s good. I’m terrible at saying no to people.”

Will laughed softly. “It’s all right. I’ve been here before. The food was pretty good, if I recall correctly.” “I’m shocking, really. You know those people who hang out in shopping centres trying to sell you perfume or skin care products or whatever? I have to avoid eye contact, because they always suck me in and I end up buying their stupid stuff. It’s terrible.” “I guess there are some advantages of being a tall, scary looking black man. I don’t get approached very often. Those annoying charity collectors at the train station always never bother me. It’s kind of great.” “Pfft, you’re not scary looking. You

look like a nerd. Sorry. But it’s kind of true.” Will shrugged. “I guess I can’t deny it.” The waiter came out with our wines. “It’s not too early for wine is it?” I asked, slightly worried he’d think I was an alcoholic. Will checked his watch. “Nope. It’s school holidays. No time is too early.” “Cheers to that,” I said and raised my glass. Will nodded and clinked his against mine. The food did end up being delicious, to my relief, and lunch was nice. No one apart from our waiter paid us the

slightest bit of attention. There were no photographers in the bushes, and I didn’t have to worry about my students gossiping about my private life. Not just yet. “So what are your plans for the rest of the holidays?” Will asked as we walked out of the museum. “I’m going to America tomorrow, actually,” I said, trying to be casual. “Wow! That’s awesome. Where are you going?” “Los Angeles mainly. Have you ever been?” “Once. I didn’t like it much to be honest. I preferred San Francisco.”

“I’m visiting a friend, that’s pretty much the only reason I’m going. One of my best friends from high school has been living there for the past few years, and another friend has been travelling around a bit. We’re gonna have a bit of a reunion in LA.” “That sounds great.” “How about you? Holiday plans, I mean.” “Nothing as exciting as going overseas. I’m going up to Sydney for a few days with one of my brothers, but that’s about it. I’m teaching Year 12 Revolutions this year, so I need to stay close to home for revision classes.” “The joys of school holidays for

teachers,” I said. “You spend half of it at school.” “Yep, sounds about right. And the other half you spend convincing yourself that drinking beer while marking essays is a great idea.” I laughed. We reached my tram stop and I stopped to look up at him. “I’d like to see you again, Jen.” I smiled at him. “I’d like that too.” “Call me when you get back.” “I will. Thanks for the company today, I really enjoyed it.” “My pleasure. Have a safe trip.” The tram pulled up and I waved as I climbed on. Normal. Nice and normal. I smiled to

myself all the way back to Brunswick. I got up early the next morning, and somehow managed to wake Sammy up. She threw a few choice swear words in my direction before she full woke up and remembered that she’d promised to drive me out to the airport. I bought her a large coffee to make up for the early-ish hour. The car ride was still far quieter that I was used to with Sammy around. “Everything all right?” I asked. “Sorry, dude. Mornings are not my time.” “How to you go in term time?” I asked, slightly amused. “Not well,” Sammy admitted. “I have

well trained housemates. The coffee is already ready when I finally drag my sorry arse out of bed. And I have my morning routine down to a tee. I can go from bed to door in fifteen minutes.” “I’m impressed,” I said. “I’m usually still writing last minute lesson plans before I leave the house.” “You nerd. Lesson plans are for pussies. You haven’t really taught until you totally wing a double lesson on the themes and symbolism of a book you haven’t even read yet.” I just shook my head and laughed. “Have fun!” Sammy said when we pulled into the Departures drop-off area.

“I’ll try,” I said, with a wry smile. “I fully expect to see you grinning up at me from the pages of a glossy magazine before you get back.” I rolled my eyes, stuck my tongue out at her and got out of the car. I went around to the back and got my case out. “Take care of Gertrude,” I said, coming back around the side and leaning through the window. My friend, Sophie, had dubbed my car Gertrude when I’d bought it years ago. The name had stuck, and started attend amongst a few of my friends. Sophie had Wilma, Katie had Dulcie and Ruby had a motorbike she’d named Gustav. “Of course. Now get going before

you miss your flight.” “Thanks!” I stood there and waved to her as she drove off. I had always liked coming to the airport. A subtle thrum of excitement always seemed to underlay everything. People coming and going. The endless possibilities of destinations, people excited to go on holiday, people excitedly reunited with their loved ones, people crying at their departure. I’d always got a quiet buzz whenever I’d come to the airport, even before I’d gone anywhere myself. I still remembered coming when I was around ten years old, to see Mum and Dad off. I couldn’t even

remember where they’d gone, but I remembered looking around me in awe, Grandma clinging firmly to my hand. I’d had a reputation for wandering off when I was smaller, and Grandma hadn’t seemed to let that go. Even back then, I’d wanted to go on one of the planes. I imagined what it would be like for me to be going somewhere exotic, and how exciting it would be. Of course, when it finally was my turn to go through the big metal doors, I was in tears and Mum had to push me through the doors when I’d baulked at the threshold. I shook my head at the memory, and had a faint pang, wishing Mum could have been there to see me off this time. I knew some

families who would just give their kid money for a taxi, but my family had never been like that. Not before Mum died, anyway. We all, always came to see anyone off. Every time Steph left the country, we would all trek out to the airport to stand there, hug and wave, and then try to pick which plane she’d be on. I handed my passport to the tired looking lady behind the ticket counter. She barely looked at me as she typed in my details. “Any checked bags?” I nodded, which of course she did not see. “Yes, this one,” I said.

“Put it on here.” I lifted the suitcase up onto the scales and held my breath. I’d forgotten to weigh it at home. I hoped it would be under. I needn’t have worried. It was way under. The lady tore her eyes from the screen and tagged my bag. She handed me my ticket, with a slightly more cheery, “Have a lovely flight!” I felt one of my eyebrows raise. I don’t think I’d ever had what I’d call a ‘lovely’ flight. Bearable was about as generous as I’d get. “Uh, thanks,” I muttered, taking back my passport and ticket. I glanced down at the ticket to see if I had an aisle or window seat and frowned.

“Um, excuse me. I think there’s been a mistake,” I said. The lady just looked at me. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I booked an economy seat, not first class.” The ticket lady held her hand out and I gave the ticket back to her. Why did I open my big mouth? “There has been no mistake,” the lady said after tapping away for a minute. “Your ticket was upgraded last week.” “Oh,” I said, taken aback. I’d heard of people getting randomly upgraded, but I never thought it would happen to me, and definitely not from economy to first

class! Maybe economy to premium economy… “Uh. Thanks? That’s awesome,” I finally managed to splutter out. “There is no reason to thank me. It was a paid upgrade. Not an airline upgrade.” “Oh…” I blinked a few times. I had a pretty good idea who it was I had to thank. I silently cursed him. It would take me ages to pay him back. “It would appear that you have a generous friend,” the lady said with a kind smile. After a moment she added, “your ticket entitles you access to the First Class lounge. Make the most of it.” Was that a wink I just saw?

“Right. Yeah, thanks. Um. Have a good day.” “You too, Ma’am.” I was reeling. First class? What was he thinking? He’d spoil me for all future flights. I shook my head, and realised I probably looked like a crazy person, walking along shaking my head and muttering to myself. I’d never flown better than Premium Economy before. Mum had been upgraded to Business Class once before and had said it was wonderful. I wondered just how much better first class would be. I guess I’d find out soon enough. I glanced down at my watch. I still had awhile until I needed to board. I didn’t even know

where the First Class lounge was. We’d always just hung out at the cafe when we’d drop Steph off at the airport. I felt very under dressed and out of place when I glanced around the lounge. A waitress greeted me with a large, bright white smile and offered me an option of sparkling water, orange juice or glass of champagne. She was polite enough not to look me up and down and refuse me service for being out of place, like I half feared she might. “Thank you,” I said, and reached for the champagne. I thought it might help calm my nerves. I had dressed for comfort, not style.

My oldest, comfiest pair of jeans. A loose fitting t-shirt and sneakers that had definitely seen better days. I was surrounded by well-dressed people in suits, business attire, designer labels, with manicures and hair cuts that had definitely cost more than $25. I pulled my phone out of my bag and started tapping away. Me: Dude. What the actual fuck?? First Class? Are you crazy? Liam: Relax. It’s not a big deal. You deserve it, anyway. You’re doing me a huge favour. Me: Not a big deal? Not to you maybe. What did it cost? $20,000???

Liam: Ha ha ha. No. Not even close. Don’t worry. I got a good deal :) It’s my thank you gift. Enjoy it, you idiot!! Me: If you insist. Liam: I do. Have a great flight. See you on the other side :) I half scowled at my phone. Relax, I told myself. Enjoy this. It would probably be the only time in my life that I’d be flying First Class, that’s for sure! LA, here I come, I thought.

CHAPTER TEN I walked straight past him in the end. He could barely contain his laughter as he wrapped an arm casually around my shoulders from behind, grabbed my suitcase with his other hand and started leading me away from the terminal. I jumped a mile, thinking some stranger was trying to molest me, and punched him slightly harder than friendly when I

realised it was my famous friend, in a very strange disguise. I looked him up and down. He had an old, ratty cap on that looked like it was on top of a disgusting bleach blond mullet, huge hipster glasses that hid half his face, and I squinted my eyes. I was pretty sure that wasn’t his normal nose. “Nice mullet. Did you get a nose job?” He laughed and pulled me out past a flock of bored and tired looking photographers who didn’t even glance twice at us. “It worked!” he exclaimed gleefully. “And no, I did not get a nose job.” “Please do not try and tell me that’s

natural. I’ve known you since you were born.” He laughed again. “Nah, my friend Raquel is a make-up artist. I let her have a bit of fun with some prosthetics.” An unwelcome stab of jealousy hit me at the name Raquel. I shook myself. Where did that come from? Stop it, I told myself rather sternly. “And this mullet? You look a bit like Steph’s horrible ex-boyfriend.” “It’s attached to the cap.” “Ah, the old mullet in a cap trick. I should have known.” I tried my best Maxwell Smart impersonation. “Something like that,” Liam said with a faint grin. “C’mon, the car’s over

here somewhere. Oh, there it is.” I looked at the car he gestured to. “I would have expected more from a movie star who doesn’t blink twice at flying First Class. What happened to your old car?” It was a decidedly suburban hatchback. Something like my teacher-friends would drive. Last time I’d visited, he’d been driving a nice fancy car that I had no idea of the name, but Evan had been very impressed. “That was Holly’s car. And I left my Ferrari at home,” Liam laughed. “Oh,” I mumbled. “I’m kidding. I don’t have a fucking Ferrari. This is it, for now. Well, this and the bike.”

“You have a motorbike?” I could feel my eyes bulge slightly. I’d lost count of how many accidents my Uncle Kevin had had on his motorbike. I think he was at least three quarters metal these days. Liam actually blushed. “Um. Nope. Just a regular old push bike.” “You… you actually ride a push bike to the shops?” I couldn’t help it, I let out a little laugh. A mental image of Liam cruising along on his bike, followed by a pack of paparazzi also on push bikes popped into my mind. “Well, yeah. Need to keep fit. And anyway, I like cycling. Plus, people never think anyone halfway famous would be caught dead on a bike. They

always just think I’m a look-a-like if they recognise me at all. It’s great!” He waggled his eyebrows at me, full of glee. “If they start talking to me, I can do a pretty killer Southern accent. Then they really don’t think it’s me.” I laughed and shook my head. “You’re great, you know that?” “I tried British one time, but they didn’t seem to know the difference between Aussie and British…” “Or maybe your British accent is just really shit,” I laughed. Liam shrugged. “Entirely possible. So, how was First Class?” he asked, turning to smirk at me. I looked up and scowled at him. “It

was bloody brilliant, and I hate you for it.” He snorted. “And why is that?” I opened the passenger side door while he wrestled my suitcase into the back, then shut it again when I realised it was the drivers side. Stupid Americans and their driving on the wrong side of the road thing. I waited until Liam came around and sat in the drivers seat, which to my eyes looked very wrong - I had a strong urge to readjust the rearview mirror, because I felt like I was in the driver’s seat. “Well, now I’m going to be miserable every time I fly now because of you. I’ll know how good I could be

having it up the pointy end of the plane.” He just smirked at me. “Stop smirking,” I complained. “It’s easy for you.” “Actually I’ve only flown First a few times, mainly just to see what it’s like. I usually fly Business, or Premium Economy. I don’t want to be a pretentious dick, but if I don’t have to sit in economy, I won’t.” “I don’t blame you, my friend. Last time I flew I was surrounded by six screaming babies. Six! Thank goodness I was only going to Sydney.” “I had a screaming baby in First once. That was fun.” “What? Really?”

Liam nodded. “Actually it wasn’t that bad. Those noise cancelling headphones are pretty ace. They should give them out all over the plane.” He started the car. “All right. So, my idea is to take you back to my new place and give you the grand tour, and let you shower and whatever, and then you can sleep… how jet lagged are you?” “I actually feel pretty good, surprisingly. Those beds on the plane were surprisingly comfortable.” “All right then. Well, see how you feel. When you’re good, I’ll show you around. There’s a few people I want you to meet.” “Okay.”

I spent the first ten or so minutes of the drive staring at Liam more than anything else. It was eery, seeing him dressed up like that. He didn’t look like him at all. Liam eventually diverted my attention by pointing out sites and famous peoples houses. I hadn’t even heard of half of them. He drove me through some very nice neighbourhoods. I gawked at all the beautiful houses and manicured gardens. It was completely different from what I was used to in Melbourne or Tarang or any of the towns and cities in between. The parts of Melbourne I hung out in were full of terrace houses from the 19th century and cute little cottages, and hideous blocks

of flats built in the 70’s. Tarang was all weatherboard houses or brick veneer on half acre blocks and a Holden Commodore parked out the front. Liam slowed down and pulled into a driveway. The glimpse of the house I could see looked rather impressive, although not as crazy fancy as some of the ones we’d passed. He pressed some contraption and the gate opened. “Nice. I remember always having to get out of the tractor or ute at your grandparents farm and opening the gates ourselves.” “Yep. I’ve come up in the world,” Liam said dryly. “Automatic gates. And not a cow to be seen. Although one of my neighbours does have a pig…”

I tried to take it all in as Liam drove slowly up the driveway. He must have pressed another button on the contraption, because the garage door slowly opened as well. “I don’t even know where the key to my garage is,” I complained. “I can give Uncle Barry a hard time if you like,” Liam laughed. “I’m sure it’s not his fault,” I sighed. “I don’t even know if a key would work… it’s pretty rusty.” Liam just shook his head softly and concentrated on parking the car. Lo and behold, there was a bicycle in the garage. Maybe he was still as down to earth as he claimed to be.

“Alright! Welcome to my humble abode.” I snorted. “Yeah, super humble.” Liam ignored my comment. “I’ll grab your bag. Oh… I have to warn you. I have a roommate at the moment.” “That’s fine,” I said, although I was slightly downcast. I’d kind of anticipated just the two of us here alone, with none of his Hollywood cronies around. “He’s cool. A bit different. You’ll like him. Just give him a chance… and uh… don’t be too surprised if he walks around in his underwear…” I made a face at Liam. He just shrugged in response, as if to say ‘I

can’t help it!’ Liam led me from the garage to inside. “Wow,” I breathed. I stepped past the threshold and stood, almost stunned, in the entrance. Liam’s house was beautiful. It probably helped that the morning light was streaming through the large bay windows, draping everything in a lovely golden glow, but I felt like I was standing on the precipice of a picture from a real estate magazine. The room was at least twice as large as my lounge room back home, maybe even three times. A collection of guitars that I’m sure were very impressive if you knew anything about guitars, were lined

up against one of the walls, and there was a giant television dominating another wall, along with a collection of different gaming modules. I’d had no idea they even made televisions that big. The couch and armchairs looked comfy and cozy and a huge upgrade from the old futon he’d had that I’d been ginger to sit on at his first place. There was even a bunch of flowers sitting in a vase on a bench. It was also very different from the place he’d shared with Holly. I’d only been there once, but it had been dominated by trendy white furniture. It had been very nice as well, but it wasn’t exactly homey. This was homey, despite the luxury. Or maybe because of it? I

wasn’t quite sure. “You like it?” Liam asked quietly, coming up behind me, and leaning his arm on the top of my head in the reverse of how we often used to stand as kids. He’d been rather gleeful when he’d first been able to do that to me sometime around his 16th birthday. I’d been the taller one of us for most of our childhood, and then there were a couple of years when we were about the same height. Then I went off to France for a six-month exchange and he’s shot up six inches, lost his baby fat and somehow morphed from my pudgy kid neighbour to a damn heart-throb. “Like it? I love it. You have seen the

house I call home, haven’t you?” Liam laughed. “Hey, your house is nice. It’s got character.” “Thanks for saying that… no, this is lovely, Burnsy. Good choice. Much nicer than that share-house you had when you first came over.” I decided not to mention Holly for the time being. “Who picked your furniture? And the flowers?” I asked, recalling with vivid clarity Liam’s favourite, disgusting futon from years past that had been his pride and joy in his old share house and the shrivelled potted plant that had stayed in the same spot for three years. I’d had a hard time dodging the empty beer bottles when I’d briefly visited him there on my

way to spend some time in Canada with my sister, Steph. “Some interior decorator lady I hired. She has good taste, no? And the flowers are Alba’s touch. She’s my housekeeper person.” I shook my head. People I knew didn’t hire interior decorators or housekeepers. They went to Ikea. And maybe had a cleaner that came over once a fortnight. It was a strange world that I had entered. As I stood there, hovering on the threshold and soaking up the luxurious atmosphere, a scruffy man in track pants and not much else came meandering into the room. He didn’t even glance in our

direction as he slid over to the fridge, opened it and started drinking from a milk carton. With a loud burp, he slowly turned around. “Oh, hey,” they man said in a distinct American accent. He put the milk down and scratched his chest. “I didn’t think you’d be that quick.” Liam snorted. “Jen, this is my friend Mike. Mike, this is my friend Jen.” Mike came over and held out his hand. I tentatively shook it, wondering vaguely if he’d washed it in the past week. “Nice to meet you,” I said, somewhat lamely.

“Likewise. Any friend of Liam’s, is a friend of mine.” “Mike’s been crashing here for a few weeks,” Liam whispered in my ear as Mike turned on his heel and slouched back out of the room. “We did a movie together back in the early days.” “Oh. I don’t remember him…” “He hasn’t been in much since. But he’s a good bloke. Just, uh, don’t trust the milk or juice if you’re afraid of cooties…” I laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind…” “Here, let me show you to your room,” he said and, touching my elbow lightly, guided me through the living areas and down a long hallway.

“My room’s down the end there,” he nodded towards it. “Mike’s staying in the basement, just don’t go down there and you’ll be safe. You can have the room next to mine. Dan can have that one there,” he said and nodded towards the room we were passing. I glanced in. It had a respectable queen size bed and dresser and not much else in there. The bedspread was surprisingly tasteful. “Let me guess, your interior designer picked your haberdashery as well?” Liam smirked. “You should be grateful. If it was up to me, you’d have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle doona covers from Walmart. Trust me, these are much nicer. Or so Nicola assured

me.” “Nicola?” There was that really unwanted twinge again. Was I going to do that every time he mentioned a girl? That would get old quick. Get over it, Pike. “The decorator,” Liam said like I was a half-wit. “Keep up with the times, Jen.” “Oh, right, sorry. Maybe you should email me a list of your entourage.” I rolled my eyes at him. He looked shocked for half a second and then laughed. “I miss you when you’re not around. You should move to L.A.” Now it was my turn to laugh.

“And do what, exactly?” Liam looked taken aback. “They do have schools here, you know.” I quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah, and the teachers here have such a great international reputation for pay rates.” He paused for a moment. I reminded myself that Liam Burns had probably not thought about money much for a few years now. “What if I said it would be fun?” “I’m sure it would be. On weekends. But so would London.” “You want to move to London?” Liam said, slightly taken aback. “I didn’t say that. The thought has

crossed my mind though. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do when this contact at Tarang is up. I don’t like the thought of leaving Dad when he’s… like this… but I never saw myself settling down in the country. At least, not til I was married with a kid or two or something.” “Oh yeah, and who are you planning on marrying?” Liam asked with a strange look on his face. “I have no idea. Spot’s still open to applicants. Now show me to my room.” I paused. “That came out wrong.” I could feel the beginnings of a blush creeping up my face. Liam juts laughed and kept walking.

“This is your room,” he opened the door and stood back. I peeked in. “Oh, it’s lovely,” I breathed. “Is this your ‘girls guest room’?” I asked after a moment. Liam shrugged. “Blame Nicola. I kept shooting down all her ideas for my room, so I let her go nuts in here.” The furniture in the room was lovely and elegant. There was a huge vase of lilies sitting on the dresser. “Alba,” Liam quickly said when I glanced at him. I grinned. I’d like to meet this Alba lady. She had good taste in flowers. “I’ll give you the grand tour, then I’ll let you freshen up or have a nap or whatever you want.” He put my suitcase down in the doorway of the

room and gestured for me to follow. “This is my room,” he said, leading me to the room next to my appointed room. “Wow,” I breathed. It was a huge room. He’d furnished it pretty simply. A king sized bed was in the middle of the room, but the main thing that grabbed my attention was the floor to ceiling windows along one wall that had a stunning view over the gardens and surrounding hills. “How do you even get up in the morning? I could just stay in bed all day, looking at that.” I laughed. “This was one of the main reasons I picked this place,” he said, coming to

join me by the window. “And it’s oneway glass, so we could stand here stark naked and no one outside would know.” “Kinda creepy,” I said after a moment. Liam punched me softly on the arm. “I’m not a creep,” he said. “Sure you’re not. You just stand there in the buff watching people all day, don’t you.” “Uh huh. Not like I work or anything…” I laughed. “It’s beautiful, Liam. Now show me the rest of your palace.” Liam nodded and took my arm as if we were from the eighteenth century. We walked past a few rooms that he

barely paused for. “More guest bedrooms,” he muttered. “You could open a B&B,” I said. “Sometimes it feels like one. Remember Jonathon and Ben?” “Your brother’s friends?” I asked. They had been a couple of years ahead of me at school. We’d hung out a bit over many summers spent at the Burns’ pool. “Yeah, them. They were here for a few weeks. They only left on Monday. I was starting to think I should charge them board.” I laughed. “I’m serious,” he said, but the smile playing around his mouth belayed that seriousness. “Sometimes it feels like

everyone who I halfway know from home has slept on my couch. Whenever they come over to America, I get messages, wanting to catch up, and usually stay.” “Are you actually complaining because you’re popular?” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. Liam scowled and then laughed as well. “I know, I shouldn’t complain. But sometimes I just want my own space, and some of the people that come out of the woodwork just surprise me. I got a friend request from Jacqui Lyons the other day.” “Oh god, you didn’t accept her, did you?”

“Hell, no. Spiteful woman. I don’t even know how she found my profile.” “And you’re such a prolific poster…” I snorted. Liam rolled his eyes. “You know I only use it to stalk you,” he said with a wink. It was my turn to punch him. “I’d better make an effort to update more often then.” “You should,” he said. “And this is the library.” I peeked in. “You need more books,” I said. Half the shelves were bare, but it was a lovely room, with a wide window complete with window bench overlooking the gardens.

“Yeah, I know.” He moved on and I followed. “Music room,” he gestured. There was a keyboard, drum kit and even more guitars. “I think you have a guitar addiction,” I said. “You might be right,” he admitted, rather sheepishly. “Use it as much as you like while you’re here. It’s mostly soundproof, so don’t worry about disturbing anyone.” I nodded, my fingers slightly itchy to try out the keyboard. I trotted after Liam as he kept walking, feeling slightly turned around. “This room is pretty cool, even if I do say so myself,” he said and opened the door for me.

“Awesome,” I breathed. It was a mini-theatre. The seats were more like couches. It looked very comfortable. Liam was a total movie buff, so it made sense that he’d have his own theatre. It was a long way from the old second hand tv that Mr Burns had picked up from the side of the road and VCR from our childhood. More rooms, some of them empty. We didn’t go down into the basement. “I leave that alone at the moment. I’m actually a little scared to go down there,” he laughed. It’s basically just like another apartment down there. You could rent it out, theoretically. It’s got its own little kitchen and entrance, although for

some reason Mike always come up to use the upstairs kitchen. Probably because it has food in it…” Liam trailed off. I yawned. “Anyway. That’s my house. I’ll let you settle in.” He led me back through the warren of corridors to the bedroom he’d designated at mine. “You’ve got an ensuite through that door.” He pointed behind me. “There should be some fresh towels in there. Holler if there aren’t.” “All righty. Thanks, Liam. Your house is great. And… thanks for the ticket. It was pretty amazing.” Liam grinned at me and backed out, shutting me in the room.

“So when’s Dan get in?” I asked. We were sitting out on the deck, overlooking the pool and gardens. It was late afternoon, but the sun was still shining brightly, lighting everything with a nice afternoon glow. I’d had a wash and a nap and felt very refreshed. There was a bowl of chips and dip in between us, and a couple of beers. Music was playing softly from somewhere. I couldn’t figure out where exactly the speakers were. “In a few days. I need to confirm the exact date with him, actually. Thanks for reminding me.” And with that, he whipped out his phone and stared intently at it for a few minutes, tapping

away. “Don’t worry, you’re definitely both here for the same few days. I triple checked. We’re gonna have so much fun. I really want you to meet my friends.” “I thought I did, last time.” Liam shrugged dismissively. “They were mainly Holly’s friends, to be honest.” He stared into the bowl of chips for a moment. “She didn’t like many of my mates.” “Oh. Why not? Are they all like Mike?” Liam laughed. “Nah. Well. Yeah. Some of them. But… I dunno…” “Do you still talk to her?” I asked, and then held my breath. I’d never be

able to compete against Holly Monroe. Wait, where did that thought come from? Liam was my friend. Friend, friend, friend, I reminded myself. Nothing more. I didn’t need to be competing with anyone, let alone Holly Monroe. Liam sighed. “A couple of times. Not really.” “Ah…” I didn’t know what to say. I’d ever been very good at knowing what to say when someone was upset. I think I took after my dad in that. Mum had always seemed to know what to say. “At first she wanted to get back together, but I think she’s moved on now. At least that’s what she wants me to think. I think.” He frowned into his

hands. “Sounds complicated,” I said after a moment. “Not really,” Liam shrugged. “I’m done with her. I mean. I wish her well, and I don’t hate her or anything… but I don’t want to get back together. You get it, right? I mean, you and Evan? You said you got over that pretty quick.” I thought for a moment. “Yeah. I was a bit shocked at first - I wasn’t expecting him to break up with me, especially not on the first night of an five night holiday up in Queensland, but in hindsight it was the right thing to do. Being up there gave us time to work things out without real life butting in, and

by the end of the trip I agreed with him. We’re not right for each other. He’s so materialistic it’s not funny, and… well, it just would have been a lot of heartache and arguments if we’d stayed together and had kids or anything. He’s a total snob as well. He thinks teaching is a stupid career. He wanted me to become a lawyer, did I ever tell you that?” Liam snorted. “You? A lawyer. Hah. You’d be wasted in that field. I’m sure you’re a fantastic teacher. You’re smart and conscientious and you care about people.” “Aww, shucks. You made me blush.” I held my hands up to my cheeks to hide

the fact that I actually was blushing. “Evan was surprised that you can get a Masters in teaching, and how much work I had to do. I think he was under the impression that teachers just did a twoweek certificate or something and then were let loose on the youth of Australia.” “I still have no idea what you saw in him, Jen.” Liam leaned back in his chair and took a swig of beer. I shrugged. “He was kinda cute. And we had good arguments.” “Really?” “Yeah. We agreed on nothing. It was very mentally stimulating.” “Sounds like great relationship

material,” Liam rolled his eyes. “Well yeah, like I said… hindsight. Not agreeing on anything politically and morally and practically wouldn’t make for the best long-term relationship, but it was fun for a couple of years. It’s not like we lived together or anything. Really, we’d just meet up for dinner once or twice a week…” Liam just shook his head again. “I guess after that loser your sister was involved in, anyone would look like a great catch.” I laughed. “Oh god, he was horrid. I’m so glad that’s in her past. She’s dating a really nice guy now. One that’s not an alcoholic, unemployable,

emotionally abusive mooch.” “Why’d she stay with him for so long?” “I have no idea. She doesn’t either. I’ve only really talked to her about him properly, once. It was pretty fucked up. He totally isolated her from her friends, and she thought all she had was him. Mum and Dad couldn’t stand him, but they were afraid that if they were too hard on him, she’d cut contact with them as well. He was always trying to start fights between Steph and us.” “Why’d she leave in the end?” “He hit her. That was the last straw. It didn’t matter how many times he screamed at her, or threatened to kill

himself, or called Mum a big fat bitch to her face… she always ended up forgiving that. And expecting us to as well. But then one night he punched her in the face. Thank god she left after that. Mum and Dad were at their wits ends. They were seriously contemplating kidnapping her and camping in the bush for a few months!” Liam shook his head. “Nuts. I thought Steph had better sense than to get involved with a guy like that.” “We all did, Steph included. But he was her first boyfriend, and she seemed to think it was normal. Anyway. The new guy is great, it’s just a pity he’s Canadian. She’ll never come home at

this rate.” “More excuses for you to come over to this side of the Pacific,” Liam said and shot his award winning grin at me. “Can’t you move to the south of France? I’ve always wanted to go back there.” “Why don’t you?” “I will, one day. I fantasise about renting out a villa for a few months and just relaxing and reading and maybe some writing. Finally learn how to play the guitar.” “You need to go to France to learn the guitar?” Liam laughed. “Make time for it now. If you really want to do something, just do it.”

“You make it sound easier than it is.” “Seriously. Buy a guitar. Set aside fifteen or twenty minutes and practise every day. You can’t always push off stuff until tomorrow.” “I know. I know. There’s no guarantee of tomorrow. You’re right. I will. When I get back.” “Or you could do it today. It’s not like I have a shortage of guitars,” Liam said. “Oh, all right. You win. You’re right.” Liam nodded in satisfaction. “So what are you learning right now? Do you take your own advice?”

“I do, actually,” he said, looking rather proud of himself. “Oh?” “I’m learning Japanese. I’ve got this app on my phone.” “An app?” I asked, skeptical. I’d had to go all the way to France to get my French past the basic standard. How could you possibly learn to speak a language fluently from an app? “Yeah. I’m learning the basics. It’s fun.” “If you say so.” “It is.” “So what’s on for the rest of the day?” I asked. I actually had no idea what the time was. Thanks to the time

difference, I’d left Melbourne on Wednesday morning and arrived in the US on Wednesday morning. Such is the wonder of the International Date Line. “I thought you might want to take it easy today, so we’ll just hang out here. If that’s okay?” “Sure,” I said. “Not like you live in a scummy house anymore. I’m sure I can cope hanging out here for a day.” “Good. I invited a few people over for dinner tomorrow night. And I asked my neighbour to come over at some point to meet you.” Almost on cue, a strange voice called out Liam’s name. “Out here on the deck!” he yelled

back. A tall, willowy woman in tight blue jeans and an even tighter white shirt came bounding up the stairs to where we were sitting. Her long, dark brown hair bounced behind her. I was momentarily captivated. She was stunningly beautiful. “Mike let me in, I hope you don’t mind,” the beautiful woman said as she approached us. Liam stood up with a smile on his face and gave her a hug, and then turned to me with one arm still casually over the woman’s shoulder. Did he have a new girlfriend already? If he did, what on earth was I doing here? I forced my eyes to move from where

Liam’s arm was resting to look them both in the face. Liam was smiling at me. “Jen, this is my friend Raquel. Raquel, this is Jen. She’s my oldest friend.” “Oldest because I’ve known him since we were toddlers, not because I’m ancient. I’m only a year older than him,” I started to waffle. Raquel laughed warmly, and leant over and gave me a hug. “It’s lovely to finally meet you. Liam’s told me a lot about you.” “Oh, really? I hope it was only good things.” “Naturally.”

“Raquel is the one responsible for the nose job and mullet,” Liam said and gestured for us both to sit down. “Ah, I see. So… you’re a make-up artist then?” Raquel nodded. “And I live next door.” Great. Lucky you. Liam gave me a speculative look. I tried to look casual and attentive and to shove the green-eyed monster back in her hole. He turned to Raquel and offered her a drink. “How’s Fi?” he asked. My eyes swivelled to Raquel, who took an elegant sip of the beer Liam had just handed her.

“She’s good,” Raquel said, a small smile playing around her lips. “She’s getting ready for her show tomorrow night.” “Fi is Raquel’s partner. She’s a fashion designer,” Liam said for my benefit. “Ah,” was all I managed. I swiped the imaginary hair that was suddenly in my eyes. “Cool,” I said after an awkward minute. Liam shot me a bemused look before turning back to Raquel. “You’ll have to give our apologies to Fi, I’ve organised that gathering tonight to welcome Jen to my neck of the woods, remember?” “Right! Sorry, it totally slipped my

mind.” “All good, mate. Are you still good for tomorrow?” Raquel glanced at me and nodded. “Sure are! It’s gonna be fun.” “What’s tomorrow?” I asked when they both turned to grin at me. “You’re going shopping,” Liam said with a smirk. “Huh? I’m what?” I hated shopping. “I’m one hundred and ten per cent sure that you did not bring an appropriate dress for the premiere with you.” “What? I brought a dress,” I protested. “I know you, Jennifer Margaret

Pike.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Is it the red and blue dress you wore to graduation and almost every wedding you’ve been to since then?” I narrowed my eyes back. “Maybe…” Damn it. I liked that dress. It was very flattering. And it had been expensive. I needed to get my money’s worth out of it. Screw that stupid habit a lot of my friends seem to have of only wearing a dress once. “I knew it!” Liam crowed at me. “I knew it,” he repeated to Raquel who just smiled. “Anyway, Raquel and Fi are gonna take you shopping in Beverley Hills and get you some stuff. Stop scowling, it’ll be fun.”

I pulled a face. Raquel looked a bit hurt. “Oh, sorry. I don’t mean anything against you Raquel. I just… well, shopping’s not really my thing,” I finished off somewhat lamely. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll make sure you have fun.” Raquel shot me a wicked grin. I half believed her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN She’s back? Well, dear readers! We didn’t see that one coming! Mystery Girl aka Aussie Jennifer Pike is back in the picture! We thought she was safely tucked away in Australia, but guess who Liam was spotted out and about with! None other than the Aussie teacher. A source close to the couple

maintains that they’re just friends, and Jen is just here to support Liam and for a holiday. What this means for a possible Holly and Liam reunion, we can’t be sure! I ended up falling asleep on the couch not long after Raquel left. Liam put on a movie (not one of his, and definitely not one of Holly’s) and I don’t think I even made it past the opening credits. The couch was just so comfortable. I didn’t remember getting up and going to bed, but that was where I woke up at 4am, according to the little clock on my bed side table. I stretched out

under the covers. The sheets were luxuriously soft, and the feeling of my bare leg rubbing against them made me move my legs around a few more times. I was sorely tempted to ask Liam to ship me out this bed. It was ridiculously cozy, and about a thousand times more comfortable than my bed back home. Although, if I had this bed back home, I’d probably never be able to get up for work. A double period of Year 10 english? Or stay in this bed? Hmm, it would be a hard choice some mornings. I lay awake, I don’t know how long for. I kept telling myself to stop looking at the clock. I eventually realised I wasn’t going

to be able to get back to sleep, so I threw the covers off me and got up. I ventured into the ensuite. The shower was unnecessarily complicated. Really, all you needed was a hot tap, a cold tap, and a shower head. This shower had a ridiculous amount of settings. I didn’t even know where to start. I cautiously turned one of the taps on and experimented until I had a decent temperature and stream. I didn’t want to think about how much water I’d been wasting. I took more care than usual in selecting my outfit, rejecting one combination after another. LA was already getting to me. I didn’t want to be

visibly identifiable as their version of a hillbilly, which I guess I sort of was. Country girl, through and through. You could take the girl out of the country, but you couldn’t take the country out of the girl. Although the girl had gotten used to impeccable coffee within walking distance… something my hometown was still catching up on. Once I was presentable, I cautiously opened the door and peeked out. I couldn’t see or hear anyone. I glanced towards Liam’s bedroom door, but it was firmly shut. I padded down the corridor towards the living areas. It was all still and quiet. No sign of Mike. I randomly opened cupboards until I found some tea bags,

and made myself a nice warm cup. Blowing on the hot liquid, I drifted over towards the bookshelves in the lounge room. He had a bunch of framed photos scattered around. I stood there, studying them. Some of the people I recognised from movies or television shows. There was a nice one of Liam and his family at the beach that I had a feeling I might have taken. I stopped and picked up one with my spare hand. I smiled wistfully down at Liam, me, Dan and Grant. We all had our arms wrapped around each other, and the boys were wearing school dresses. I was laughing madly at something. Grant was staring out of the frame. Liam still looked slightly gawky.

It was from our last day of school. Smiling, I put the frame down. Life had changed so much since then. My smile faded. Grant would be dead within six months of that photo being taken. I moved on, scanning the other photos. There was a nice one of me and Dan that looked a bit more recent. I grinned when I spotted an old photo of me, Liam, my sister Steph, and Liam’s brother Charlie. We were all in our underwear, standing in a paddling pool in our backyard. Definitely in the pre school era. There was a nice one of Liam and his family at Charlie and Nina’s wedding. I could see myself hovering in the background, talking to

Steph. And yep, I was in the red and blue dress. I grabbed a book off the shelf and settled into the comfortable couch. I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t even hear Liam come into the room and got a fright when he plopped down on the couch next to me. “How long have you been up?” I glanced at the book. “About 112 pages worth of time.” Liam laughed. “How’s the jet lag?” “Not too bad. I woke up pretty early, but I feel fine.” “Well, I hope you’re able to stay up a bit later tonight - I’m having a few people over. You’re the star attraction. I

can’t have you passed out on the couch again.” I punched him softly on the arm. “You shouldn’t have such comfy couches if you don’t want people sleeping on them,” I said while he rubbed his arm. “How many people have you invited to this thing?” “Oh, only half a dozen or so. We’ll save the big party until after the premiere.” “Cool,” I said. “Maybe I should have a nap this afternoon to make sure I stay awake…” “You and your naps…” “What’s wrong with naps? Naps are great. I nap every day of the school

holidays.” “Of course you do, you old nanna.” I punched him again, slightly harder. “So what’s on for today, apart from your little shindig tonight.” “Nothing much. I thought we could go out for brunch, and then ummmm, then you’re going to go shopping.” “Just me? What about you?” “Raquel and Fi are going to take you dress shopping, remember?” The conversation from the previous evening came rushing back. “Oh yeah… I kind of put that out of my mind…” “I know nothing at all about dresses, and neither do you - don’t protest, I

know you don’t. Raquel and Fi will be able to help you.” He got up and grabbed his wallet from the bench and slipped me his credit card. “Don’t protest,” he repeated. “This one’s on me. The prices of clothes here are ridiculous, and let’s be honest, when would you ever buy a designer gown if you weren’t going a movie premiere?” “Hey, the Year 12 graduation dinner is a pretty happening thing.” I paused, twisting his card around in my hands. “Can’t I just go to Target or something and get a dress? No one else will be wearing them.” Liam laughed. “No.” I pulled a face. “Well, thanks. You

can sell it on eBay afterwards and get some of your money back. Like you said, I’ll never have a chance to wear it again.” “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that.” I held my hands up. “I was kidding. Chillax.” “Chillax?” Liam raised an exquisitely plucked eyebrow. I shrugged. “I hang around with teenagers all day.” Liam rolled his eyes. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, young man.” I waved my finger in his face. He reached out and grabbed it. The smile slowly faded from my face as he held on and stared into my eyes.

“Morning, y’all.” Liam dropped my finger as Mike shambled into the room and collapsed on the other end of the couch. “Morning,” I said faintly. “Any auditions today?” Liam asked casually. Mike nodded. “Yeah. Got one for a tv pilot.” “Nice. What’s the role?” “A space detective who is haunted by his lost family.” “… Cool?” Mike shrugged. “Probably won’t get it, but hey. You gotta be in it to win it, right?” “Too bloody right,” said Liam.

“Well, good luck,” I said. Liam nodded and then got up. He held a hand out to me. I gazed up at him and then placed my hand in his. I was pretty sure I was the only one who felt the tingles. He yanked me up, slightly more gently than he used to when we were kids. He’d dislocated my elbow once, when he’d pulled a bit too enthusiastically. I think I’d been about eight at the time. “I’m gonna take Jen out for brunch. Kick ass with the audition, bro.” “Will do.” Liam took me out to a cafe where the waitress flirted with him outrageously and basically ignored me.

“Am I invisible?” I asked eventually, torn between amusement and exasperation. “Sorry, usually they’re pretty good in here,” he said, looking slightly uncomfortable. I shrugged. “You can’t help it that you’re stunningly gorgeous and no female can resist your many charms.” “Oh shut up.” I smirked and glanced around the cafe. A few people were staring at us. I frowned at one teenager who was pointing her phone in our direction. “You manage to resist these socalled charms pretty well,” he said while looking down at his plate. I

blinked. Before I could even figure out what to say, the waitress was back again, making small talk at Liam and all but thrusting her cleavage in his face. I rolled my eyes behind her back, which he caught and almost laughed. “Well despite the terrible service, the food was pretty tasty,” I said after we’d walked out. The waitress had begged for a photograph when Liam went up to pay. I could see the manager scowling at her from behind the counter. Liam had obliged, as usual, although his smile was a bit tighter than I was used to. “Are you excited for your shopping

trip?” Liam asked with a laugh once we were back in his car, safely behind the tinted windows. “Totally,” I said dryly. “Do I have -“ “Yes, you have to,” Liam cut me off. “Don’t stress about it, Jen. It’ll be fun.” “Uh huh. Sure it will be.” “Well, not if you go in with an attitude like that it won’t. Chin up, girl.” “Yeah… sorry. I promise I shall try to have fun.” “Swear?” “I swear.” “Pinkie swear?” Liam held out his hand. I looked at it for a moment and then wrapped my little finger around his.

“I solemnly do pinky swear that I will try to enjoy myself.” Liam grinned at me. “Good.” There was a knock at the door. Liam glanced at the security screen and asked me to get it. Raquel and a pretty little red-headed woman who I assumed was Fi were at the door. They greeted me with kisses and hugs. “Honey, this is my girl, Fi. Fi, this is Liam’s friend Jen.” “Nice to meet you,” I said, slightly taken aback by the warm greeting. “Oh, darling,” Fi gushed. “I’ve been hearing so much about you. This is so exciting!”

“Oh. Um. Okay then.” I had no idea how to respond to that. I stared pleadingly at Liam. He just blinked at me. I cursed him silently, hoping he’d pick up on my telepathic abuse. He didn’t seem to. He cheerily waved us off from the front door. Fi and Raquel bundled me into their car. I looked around, slightly apprehensive. The car smelt new. I felt awkward all of a sudden and didn’t know where to put my hands. “So, how are you liking L.A so far?” Fi asked, swivelling around so she could face me briefly. “Yeah, good,” I said. “Although I’ve only been here for a day so far.”

“Is this your first time in the States?” I shook my head, then realised they couldn’t see me from the front of the car. “No, I’ve visited Liam a couple of times before, and my sister lives up in Vancouver so, yeah…” “Wow! Vancouver Washington, or Vancouver Canada?” Fi asked. I’d forgotten that there was another Vancouver. “Canada,” I said. “That’s so great, I love it up there. It’s such a pretty city. Why does your sister live there?” “Um… a guy, I guess.” The two women laughed. “Typical,” Fi murmured.

“She was only meant to stay for a year, but it’s been almost five years now, so…” “Is the guy worth it?” I nodded. “Yeah. He’s really good for her, actually.” “That’s good. My cousin moved across country to be with a guy and he was a total dick-knob,” Raquel said. “Oh… that’s not good.” “It’s okay. She’s free of him now. And back here where she belongs,” Raquel laughed. “So, Jen. What’s your style?” Fi asked. I blinked a few times. “My style?” I stammered.

“Yeah,” Raquel turned in her seat to look at me and giggled at the look on my face. “I honestly have no idea.” “Oh, honey, we’re going to have fund with this one,” Raquel said to Fi and shot a wink at me. “Don’t worry, love. You’re in excellent hands. We’ll get you a stunning dress for the premiere and a few nice things to wear for the party tonight.” “Oh, yeah. The party. Are you two coming?” I asked, hoping I’d have at least a couple of familiar friendly faces. Raquel shook her head. “No, Fi’s got a show. But I’m sure you’ll have fun. All of Liam’s friends are nice.”

“Right! The show, you mentioned that yesterday. Er… are you sure you have time to take me out?” I asked tentatively. Fi waved er hand dismissively. “Everything is good to go, and I need a little break and distraction to be honest. It’ll be all hands on deck and go go go in a few hours.” The afternoon went by in a whirl of shops and boutiques. I lost count of how many dresses, tops, pants, skirts and shirts I tried on. The two women seemed to have pretty good taste, I admitted to myself after a couple of shops. I hadn’t hated anything I’d tried on so far, at least. I felt a bit uncomfortable in a few

of the more revealing pieces they had me in, but Fi told me confidently that I could pull it off. The sales assistant nodded in the background. I disregarded the sales assistant - she’d probably tell me I looked fantastic in a potato sack if it was for sale. More dresses. And even more dresses. I was starting to get really sick of taking my clothes on and off, but we hadn’t found a dress yet that both Raquel and Fi approved of for the premiere. I was happy with the first, second, third, up to twelfth dress I’d tried on (apart from number eight - that one had not worked at all), but apparently my opinion didn’t matter very much at all.

The attendant helped me slip into a lovely gown of different shades of blue. It had looked gorgeous on the manikin, but I didn’t know if it would translate very well on my short, stumpy body. “Ohhh, you look lovely,” the attendant gushed. I’d heard that with almost every dress, from half a dozen different attendants so I took her words with a grain of salt. I smiled at the woman and then pulled back the curtain. “Oh yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! That’s the one! Fi? This is the one, isn’t it? Fi?” I looked up at Fi. She drifted over from where she was examining some other gowns. Her eyes gleamed as she

looked me up and down. Slowly, she nodded. “Yes. Yes, my love. I think we’ve done it.” She leaned up and kissed Raquel firmly on the mouth, then came up to me and kissed me on the cheek. “You’ll look stunning.” Raquel nodded. “I’ll do your makeup, if you’d like me too. On the night, I mean. You’ll fit right in.” A part of me sagged in relief. I didn’t want to stand out as a country bumpkin who shouldn’t be there. I mean, I was a country bumpkin who probably shouldn’t be there, but I didn’t want everyone knowing that at first sight. “Thanks, that would be great. I’m not

very good with make-up.” “That’s all right, love. I’ll teach you a few tricks. I know what it’s like to feel like a bit of an outsider in this crazy city.” I smiled weakly, and then glanced over at the full length mirror. I could feel my eyes slightly bulge. The gown was stunning. It made my figure look… it made my figure look, well, not like me. In a good way. I felt like I could wear this gown proudly next to Liam Burns: Movie Star, and not feel like a total imposter who was about to be dragged off by security. “Now, let’s get you an outfit for tonight!” Raquel clapped her hands.

They ended up picking out something that I never would have, which I suppose was the whole point. It did look good on me, but I didn’t really feel like me wearing it. The jeans had way too many holes in them and the top was a bit more revealing than I’d usually go for, but they promised me it worked and I looked great. I’d have to take their word for it. “Thanks so much for your help,” I said. We’d pulled up in Liam’s driveway and the two women were helping me get my bags out of the car. “No problem at all. It was fun for us, wasn’t it, Fi?” “Sure. I love a good shopping outing,

especially when I’m not paying!” I smiled helplessly. I still felt a bit guilty about Liam paying for my clothes. Liam opened the front door, and came out. He was shirtless for some reason. Raquel nudged me. I realised Liam had said something, but I’d been too focused on his abs. “Sorry, what did you say?” I felt a blush rushing up my cheeks. Fi giggled and turned away, hiding her face in the boot of the car, fishing around for a stray shopping bag. Liam gave me an odd look. “I said, how did you go?” “Oh,” I mumbled. “Yeah, great. The girls were fantastic. I now have a

respectable gown and a couple of nice outfits. Thanks.” “No problem. It wasn’t that bad was it?” he grinned down at us. I shook my head. “We had fun, I told you we would,” Raquel said with a big grin, and put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “Do you want to come in for a drink or anything?” Liam asked, stretching his lean arms. Raquel glanced at Fi, who shook her head minutely. “Thanks, but another time. We’ve got to prepare for tonight - Fi’s show, remember.” “Oh, right. Okay then. Good luck!

Thanks again.” “Anytime.” “Yeah, thanks. Really. I would have been totally lost without you.” Raquel and Fi both gave me another hug and kiss on the cheek. “Our pleasure. You have fun tonight! I’ll see you on Friday, if not before then.” I nodded, and then arms laden with bags, climbed the steps. Liam took some of the bags off me so I could wave goodbye. “They’re nice,” I said, as we watched them back down the driveway. “Yeah. They are. I got lucky - my last neighbours were a bit on the weird

side…” Liam turned and I followed him back inside, secretly admiring his toned and muscled back and shoulders. I shook myself. Stop it. I followed Liam over to the kitchen and sat down at the bench. He opened the fridge and look in. “What do you want? Is it too early for beer?” He looked at his watch. “Nah. You want a beer?” I snorted. “Sure. I need one after a shopping trip.” “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.” He rolled his eyes and handed me a beer. I shrugged, and tried to open the beer. Not a screw top. I looked around for the bottle opener.

“Sorry,” Liam said and took the beer back. He opened it with a faint pop and handed it back. I took a sip. I wasn’t usually a huge beer drinker, but this was quite nice. “There are some really good craft breweries around here these days. We should go to a few when Dan gets here.” “Yeah, it might be a bit wasted just on me. Wait, Americans do good beer? I thought they all drank Budweiser and Miller Lite.” It was Liam’s turn to snort. “Oh how little you know, my friend. Craft beer is huge here.” “If you say so.” “I do say so.”

I grinned at him. “Well, this one’s pretty good.” “Actually… that’s an import. That’s from back home.” I looked at the bottle. Boatrocker. “Ah. So it is.” “I hope you can manage to stay up later tonight than you managed last night.” “Right. Yep. The party. Got any red bulls hiding away in the fridge?” “Probably.” “Yeah, nah, I’m just kidding. I think I’ll be fine.” I squinted at him. “Unless you Hollywood types don’t start your parties until almost midnight. You might lose me then.”

Liam chuckled. “Nah. Don’t worry. I invited them over for six or seven. We’ll order some pizzas.” “Whose coming again?” “Just a few friends.” “Okay, cool.” I leaned over the bench and grabbed Liam’s wrist and twisted it so I could read his watch. “Well, I might go and have a nap after I finish this beer, just to be on the safe side. Trying on a bazillion dresses is exhausting.” Liam laughed. “Sure.” Liam started telling me about a new movie role he was thinking about accepting. “It’s still kinda surreal, you know. For ages I was the one chasing the

directors and producers, and taking anything I could get my hands on and now they’re the ones chasing me and I can actually pick and choose what I want to do.” “You deserve it,” I said. “You’ve worked hard.” I took another sip of beer and held the bottle up to the light. I was almost finished. Liam shrugged and looked a bit abashed. “No harder than lots of other actors. Mike works damn hard, and so do lots of other people I’ve met over the years. But they’re still chasing auditions and trying to get in with the right people.” He shrugged again. “I just got lucky, I guess.”

The beer must have started going to my head, because without really thinking I said, “it doesn’t hurt that you’ve turned into an absolutely drop dead gorgeous man.” I tried not to blush when my brain caught up with my mouth. Liam laughed and shook his head. “I’m not that out of the ordinary. There are loads of decent looking blokes trying to make it here.” I pretended to look at him objectively. “Nah. You’re pretty all right, Burns. Mike’s got nothing on you. Neither does any other male I know.” Liam raised his impeccable eyebrows at me and scoffed. “You, my friend, are completely

biased. And possibly drunk.” He leaned over and reached for the bottle in front of me. “How strong is this beer anyway?” “Oh shut up and just take the compliment. I’m going to go have a nap. Wake me up in an hour or so.” Without waiting for an answer or acknowledgement, I jumped down off the bar stool and walked towards my room. Once I was in the corridor, away from the living area I held my hand up to my face. It was burning.

CHAPTER TWELVE Is it Jen and Liam now? An anonymous source tells us that they are VERY MUCH an item and have been for “quite some time”! Apparently Jen is quitting her teaching job and moving to LA to be closer to her movie star hero. While some have speculated that she doesn’t have the chops to make it in LA, others fear that Liam is selling himself

short and can do a LOT BETTER! What do you think dear readers? Is Jen good enough for our Liam? “Oi, wake up sleepy head!” I groaned and rolled away from the obnoxious noise. “Jen. Wake up. People are going to be here in half an hour.” “Go away,” I grumbled. “You leave me no choice.” Before I had a chance to even open my eyes or to wonder what was about to happen, Liam flopped on top of me. “Ugh! Gerroff! Too heavy!” I wheezed. The pressure on my whole body lessened. I opened my eyes warily.

Liam was propped up on his elbows, grinning down at me. A mischievous look had taken over his face, and I watched in morbid fascination as a spit bubble formed in his parted lips. I yelped. “Don’t you effing dare spit on me, Liam Burns!” He sucked the spit back in and grinned evilly at me. “That woke you up.” “You’re a dick.” I tried to push him off, even though I was kind of enjoying having him so close to me. Liam just laughed. “Come on, get up. People are gonna be here soon. Can’t have my guest of honour passed out in

her bedroom.” He shifted slightly so he wasn’t directly on top of me anymore. I felt slightly more awake, and my heart was beating a bit faster than usual. “Well go away and let me get ready.” I rolled out from under him and straightened my clothes. “Is that what you’re wearing?” I looked down at myself. “What’s wrong with it?” I demanded. Before he could say anything though, I continued. “Don’t worry. Your kindly neighbours picked out an outfit for me to wear tonight. I won’t embarrass you.” Liam frowned. “I wasn’t thinking you’d embarrass me. Don’t be silly.” “Right. Well, anyway. Go get ready

yourself.” I started to push him out of the room. It had been a lot easier to push him around when he’d been smaller than me. “I’m ready,” he said, resisting my push. I looked him up and down. “Why? What’s wrong with how I look?” he demanded. “Oh. Nothing. You look fine.” Liam narrowed his eyes at me. “That t-shirt is kinda ratty,” I said eventually. Liam huffed and stalked out of the room. I laughed to myself. He’d probably spend the next ten minutes trying on all his shirts. I walked slowly over to the corner where Liam had dumped my shopping

bags and rummaged through them until I found the outfit Fi and Raquel had said I should wear tonight. I looked at it again. I wasn’t entirely sure, but what the hell. A quick shower later, and I was squeezing myself into the outfit. I could hear Liam rummaging around in his room, muttering to himself. I examined myself critically in the bathroom mirror. I contemplated trying to do something fancy with my make up to match the clothes, but in the end I felt rather out of my depth so I just whacked on my usual eye-liner, mascara, foundation and lip gloss. I’d save the fancy make-up for the professional. I’d probably just make myself look more like a clown than the

sophisticated, sexy lady I was going for. “Is this all right?” I looked up as Liam barged back into my room. We both looked each other up and down. “Wow, you look great,” Liam said before I had a chance to open my mouth. I was thankful that I’d just put some foundation on - hopefully it was hiding the colour I could feel my cheeks going. “Thanks,” I mumbled to my feet. I looked up again. “You look not too shabby yourself.” Liam preened for a moment. I rolled my eyes at him. “Do we need to get anything ready?” I asked and pushed passed him to get out into the corridor.

“Not really,” he said, following me down to the kitchen. “It’s a nice night, I thought we could sit out on the deck. Can you help me stock up the bar fridge?” I nodded and stood obediently while Liam handed me a a bunch of things out of the fridge. I couldn’t possibly carry them all at once, so I piled up a couple of six packs, three bottles of wine and a few bottles of soft drink on the counter. Plus some cheeses and dips, olives and salami. “Olives? Wow, you’ve really grown up, haven’t you.” I’d been expecting beer and a couple of packets of chips. Liam laughed a little self consciously and shrugged.

“What can I say? I’ve been partially tamed over the years.” Right. Holly. I smiled weakly. “Well, it’s an improvement, I’ve got to admit. Remember your first house warming party?” Liam chuckled and opened one of the cupboards and started pulling out bags of chips and crackers, as well as a fancy looking baguette in a paper bag. He must have gone shopping while I’d been out with Raquel and Fi. “Yeah. We didn’t exactly plan that very well.” They’d invited a stack of people over around dinner time, and all they’d had was a single packet of Doritos. And a lot of beer. We’d all been

milling around getting progressively drunker and hungrier until someone had the bright idea of pooling our megre money and ordering some take-away. Thank goodness for pizza delivery drivers. Once Liam seemed satisfied that he’d freed everything he wanted from their captivity in the cupboards, we loaded ourselves up and I followed him out to the deck. We set up and Liam proudly showed me his fairy lights. I made an effort not to laugh as he said, “I put them up myself!” “Looks great,” I managed when I was sure I wasn’t going to burst out laughing. The deck did look nice. Very nice.

“What would you like do drink, Madame?” Liam positioned himself behind the bar and posed. “Madame?” I mock frowned. “I’m pretty sure I’m still a Mademoiselle, thank you very much, Sir! And I’ll have a glass of that Nelson Bay Sauvignon Blanc, thank you kind sir.” Liam laughed. “Right you are, Mademoiselle.” “I should make my kids call me that. I’m sick of getting called ‘Miss’ all the time. I swear some of them don’t even know my actual name. I’m just Miss to them.” “What, really? I don’t remember ever calling any of our teachers Miss.”

He handed me a glass of wine. I took a sip and then sighed to myself. It was delicious. I was going to have to upgrade from my usual $10 bottles after this trip. My taste-buds were being spoiled. “I know, right? It was always their actual name; Mrs Mac, Mr Jones. But yeah. Nearly every school I’ve been at, they call you Miss or Sir. Sometimes both.” Liam spluttered. “You’ve been called Sir?” I laughed at the memories. “Yeah, a few times. It’s pretty funny. The kids are always mortified when they do it. The best was being called Mum though. You

shoulda seen the look on his face. My brattiest year 9 boy, and he goes ‘But Muumum!” Liam laughed. “I did get called Sir at the the airport last year. I didn’t realise he was even talking to me at first. The parking guy kept saying ‘Sir, you need to move your car. Sir? Sir, I need you to move your car.’ I gave him a pretty good stink-eye when I realised he was talking to me. Do I look like a bloke to you?” “Oh, I dunno. Some days you look pretty rough,” Liam said in a dead pan voice. I scowled at him. He grinned at me. “Of course not. Although I think Grant always thought you were just a

very small bloke with weird lumps on your chest.” I smiled. “Dunno about that. Remember Sarah’s 18th? At the restaurant in Warrnambool?” Liam shook his head. “I borrowed one of Steph’s tops and it was a bit more revealing than the good old rugby jumpers we wore at school. All three of you kept staring at my boobs and then one of you had the bright idea of having a competition to see who could throw the most stuff down my cleavage!” Liam laughed. “Oh, yeah. I remember that now. Good times,” he said. “Good times? I had a pea in my

cleavage! It smushed up when I tried to get it out!” Liam just laughed harder. “Remind me to remind Dan about that when he gets here.” I just rolled my eyes and said, “Sure thing.” “You hungry?” While we’d been talking, he had been busy putting a couple of platters together. Housetrained indeed. I grabbed an olive and popped it in my mouth. Liam’s phone buzzed. He grabbed it and smiled slightly. “First lot are here. Wait here, I’ll go and let them in.” I stood awkwardly, waiting for them

to come back. I put my drink down on the bench and then picked it up again when I realised I was swinging my arms. I didn’t have to wait too long. Liam came back out, followed by a familiar looking young man and woman. I frowned, trying to place where I knew them from. The guy was tall, but not quite as tall as Liam, with sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. The woman was curvy in all the right places, with red hair so bright I couldn’t tell whether it was natural or out of a bottle. Liam led them over to where I was, and beamed at us all. “Jen, this is Pete and Abigail. Pete,

Abigail, this is my very good friend, Jen.” Duh. I mentally shook myself. Peter Cornish and Abigail Wilson. Movie stars, that’s why they looked familiar. They’d been in one of Liam’s films. “Call me Abby, please. It’s lovely to meet you.” I smiled faintly, and took her outstretched hand, feeling slightly overwhelmed. For some reason I hadn’t put two and two together. When Liam talked about friends over here, of course they’d be other actors. I don’t know why I hadn’t expected it. He didn’t exactly name drop much. Although he had talked about his mate Pete a few times. I just

didn’t realise Pete the guy who liked karaoke was Peter Cornish, internationally renowned character actor. I shook Abby’s hand and then turned to Pete, but he surprised me and gave me a casual hug and a kiss on the cheek. No big deal. Just Pete Cornish kissing me on the cheek. “Great to finally meet you, Jen. Old Burns here has told me all about you,” Pete said, surprising me by speaking with a British accent. I’d always assumed he was American; he always spoke with an American accent in the movies I’d seen him in. But then again, Liam often did as well, and he was

about as Aussie as you could get. “Good things, I hope!” I eventually managed to blurt out. Pete laughed charmingly. “Of course.” He smiled dazzlingly down at me and then winked at Liam. Liam’s phone buzzed again. “Excuse me,” he said and headed back inside, leaving me standing slightly starstruck with the two actors. Abby turned her sparkling green eyes to me. Surely they were contacts? Could eyes really be that intense?! “You’re visiting?” I nodded, mouth annoyingly dry and took a gulp of wine. “Yes. For the premiere.”

“Lovely! How long are you staying for? Liam didn’t say.” Abby smiled warmly at me, waiting for my response. “Just a week and a half. It’s school holidays back home, so I’ll need to be back when classes start again.” “That’s right! You’re a teacher, aren’t you?” Pete exclaimed, slightly too excited. I nodded again. “Yep. I’m a teacher. Not nearly as glamorous as you two,” I said and then wondered how weird that sounded. “Rubbish,” Pete said. “Teaching is a noble career, isn’t it Abby?” Abby smiled kindly. “It is. I always thought about being a teacher, if the

whole acting career didn’t work out. I think it’s a very important job. But difficult and under appreciated. My mother is a teacher. What do you teach? Elementary or high school?” “Oh, really? I teach high school. English and history.” “Wow, that’s so cool,” Abby gushed. I was taken aback for a moment. I’d never thought of my profession as ‘cool’, and coming from a successful actress… I was starting to suspect she was taking the piss. “No, I mean it,” Abby said quickly. I wondered what my face was doing. “Don’t I, Pete?” Pete nodded.

We were saved by Liam coming back out to the deck, followed by two pretty good looking young men. I didn’t recognise these ones, at least I didn’t think so. They looked vaguely familiar in the way that a lot of pretty people do, but I didn’t think I’d actually seen them in anything. Liam led them over to where Pete, Abby and I were still standing by the bar. Liam introduced the two young men, who it turned out were brothers. They were musicians, playing in a band I’d never heard of. “You should get a photo,” Liam said to me. “Your students will be impressed.”

“What?” I looked between Liam and the two brothers (Billy and Scott) and back again. “It’s true,” Scott (or was it Billy?) said, somewhat self-depreciatively. “We’re quite popular in the 12-15 set.” I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. Thankfully they didn’t seem to take themselves too seriously and laughed as well. Liam busied himself getting everyone a drink and directing them to his antipasto platters. They didn’t bat an eye at Liam Burns having antipasto platters, so I assumed he did it somewhat frequently these days. I was pretty sure Liam didn’t even know what antipasto

meant when we’d been at school. How things change. “The party can start! I’m here!” We all turned towards the door, where Mike was standing dramatically. “Oh, phew.” Liam laughed. Mike strutted over to us and nodded to everyone. “How’d the audition go, then?” Liam asked, handing Mike a beer. Mike took a swig and then looked around the circle. “Good, really good I think. I got a call-back on the way home. Going in again tomorrow.” He looked very pleased with himself. Liam clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s great. Maybe you can start

paying rent once you get the job!” Mike laughed and shook his head. “You’re so funny, Burns.” Liam rolled his eyes at me. I smiled back. A few more people trickled in over the next hour. Not all of Liam’s friends were famous actors or musicians it seemed - Liam introduced me to a short guy with crazy ginger hair named Bob, who he met in a park and hit it off with. Bob was a programmer, who happened to like guitars nearly as much as Liam did. I zoned out as they started raving about some new guitar. Or an old one. I wasn’t paying enough attention to be entirely sure.

Bob confessed to me later in the night that he didn’t watch many movies and didn’t have a clue who Liam was when he met him. I could see why Liam liked him. “So, are you having a good time?” Liam asked me. We were standing by the bar, and he was pouring me another drink. I picked out a chip and popped it in my mouth with a crunch. “Yeah. Your friends are nice. Although, seriously, you could have mentioned that your friend Pete was actually Peter Cornish.” He handed me my refilled wine glass and grabbed another beer for himself.

“Oh, didn’t I? I thought you knew…” I shook my head. “For some reason I always pictured him as a short tubby guy with dark hair whenever you talked about him.” Liam snorted. “Yeah, I know. Pretty much the opposite of what he actually looks like,” I said. “You look really nice, did I tell you that?” Liam looked down at me, with an odd look on his face. I opened my mouth to retort that obviously his beer goggles were in effect, but stopped, the words dying in my throat. A slim young woman, with long dark brown hair had just arrived. It couldn’t be. Liam leaned

over and gently pushed my open mouth shut. “Is that… is that Lily Bristowe?” I whispered urgently to Liam, turning my back on my idol. He glanced over my shoulder and smiled, looking pleased. “Yeah. Come on,” he gripped my elbow. “I’ll introduce you.” “What? No! No, way.” Liam frowned down at me with a bemused look. “And why not? She’s lovely. You’ll like her.” “Like her?” I whispered frantically, digging my heels in and turning my back on my idol. “Like her? I love her! I think she’s awesome and I have the biggest girly crush, you couldn’t even imagine, I

couldn’t possibly talk to her. Nope. No way.” Liam’s gave me a warning look. “What? She is awesome.” “Who’s awesome?” I froze as an all too familiar, slightly husky voice spoke right behind me. “Me of course,” Liam said after a moment where I struggled to breath. “I didn’t know you were a woman, Liam.” That low laugh. Was this really happening? I surreptitiously pinched my arm. It hurt. Be cool, I told myself. Be cool. Liam swooped down on her and gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek. She smiled brightly up and him and then

turned to me expectantly. “Lily, this is my friend Jen. She’s visiting from Australia. Jen, Lily.” Lily smiled warmly at me. “Great to meet you.” She looked behind her with a slight frown. “I seem to have lost my friend. Anyway, if you see a giant dork with purple glasses, it’s my friend George. He’s visiting the big smoke from back home. North Dakota,” she added for my benefit. I didn’t want to let on that I already knew she was from North Dakota so I just nodded. The rest of the night passed in a bit of a blur. I kept pinching myself. Yep, that really was Lily Bristowe sitting at

the table across from me, even laughing at some of my lamer jokes. I glanced between Liam and Lily. They looked cute together but I couldn’t even detect a hint of flirting. Just playful banter. Kind of like me and Liam, I thought with a sigh. “I’ll see you at the premiere!” Lily Bristowe said with a wave as she was leaving. I hadn’t even realised she was in Liam’s latest film. I should probably have at least watched the trailer for the film I was going to the premiere for. I felt like a bad friend to Liam, and as if I couldn’t even proclaim myself to be a Lily Bristowe fan. In my defence though,

she seemed to be in every second film these days. I’d lost track. Raquel came over early in the next afternoon and helped me to get ready like she’d promised to do. It was weird having someone else do my make-up. It felt very odd to just sit there passively while someone else fussed around my face. Raquel kept me from getting bored by keeping up a running commentary on what it was like growing up gay in a small Southern town. Despite being on different continents, small towns seemed fairly similar all over the world. She wouldn’t let me look in the mirror until she’d finished.

“Wow, you’re amazing,” I breathed when she finally let me catch a glimpse of myself. Raquel leaned back, looking pleased with herself. “No, sweetheart, you’re amazing. I was just working with what you’ve already got.” I turned my head back and forth, glimpsing myself from different angles. Was that really me? I barely recognised myself. Raquel watched me stare at myself with a knowing grin. “You look wonderful,” she said. “Now, lets get you into that gorgeous dress.” I was thankful that she was there because I wouldn’t have been able to

figure out the damn dress without her. I missed my simple, easy to put on, trusty red and blue dress. Not for too long though. “Wait,” Raquel said, again not letting me look in the mirror. She strode over to the door and pulled it open. “Liam!” she called out. He must have been lurking nearby, because he came in almost straight away. “What is it?” Liam sounded worried. “Come on out, honey.” I stepped around the corner and into the room properly. Liam looked somewhat like I imagined I looked the night before when I’d first seen Lily

Bristowe. I let out a laugh. “Close your mouth, your brains will all leak out.” He blinked and shook his head. “So, what do you think?” Raquel prompted. “You look bloody brilliant, Jen.” Liam’s eyes locked onto mine. I blushed. “Aww, shucks.” I managed to get out after a moment. I looked him up and down. “You scrub up all right yourself.” He was wearing a well fitted grey suit. He shrugged selfdepreciatingly. “Bit hard to go wrong with a suit,” he said. “You ladies get to have the real fun with the dresses.”

“I’m sure no one would mind if you wore a dress as well.” I grinned at him, almost forgetting Raquel was in the room with us. We couldn’t seem to keep our eyes off each other. He was just not used to seeing me all dressed up, I reasoned and told myself not to read anything into it. Raquel cleared her throat. “What time is your ride getting here?” Liam glanced down at his watch. “We’ve still got about an hour. Do you both want a drink - Raquel, I think you’ve more than earned one.” Right. She’d turned plain old frumpy me into someone who could possibly fit in. Maybe. If I didn’t open my mouth too

often. I barely noticed as Raquel nodded and said something to Liam, and they left the room. I stood there looking at myself in the mirror. I didn’t think my students would recognise me. I barely recognised myself. Thanks to Raquel’s wizardry with a make-up brush, I wouldn’t even look twice if I saw this person in the Best and Worst Dressed section of a magazine. I wasn’t sure which category this strange in the mirror would fall into. Half the time I liked the ‘Worst’ dresses and thought the ‘Best’ dresses were horrible. Obviously I was not an expert and didn’t have any taste. “Are you coming?” Liam was back,

head poking around the door. “You really do look great,” he said again with a slightly mischievous grin. I smiled wanly. “Thanks.” “What’s the matter?” he asked, concern suddenly etched on his beautiful face. I shook my head. “Nothing. Seriously. I just…” I trailed off, not even sure what was wrong. “Just what?” “I don’t know.” “Spit it out, Pike.” I sighed. “This is silly.” Liam just looked at me, waiting. I took a deep breath. “I look amazing, but I don’t even

look like me. I don’t think my own father would recognise me at the moment.” “Bullshit. Of course he would. You don’t look that different. Just more… polished.” “Right.” I rolled my eyes. My smokey, eyes that didn’t even look like mine anymore. “You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?” Now it was my turn to stare at him in silence. Liam shook his head softly. “Come on, let’s have some bubbles before we go.” I followed him obediently out. Raquel and Mike were sitting on the

couch, a bottle of champagne and four flutes sitting on the coffee table. Mike gawked at me as I came out, and then wolf whistled. I laughed, slightly embarrassed. “Well, you scrub up all right, Aussie Girl.” “Thanks,” I almost mumbled. “Oh, can I get some pictures? I promised Fi I would.” I stood and posed obligatorily for the photos, feeling slightly awkward. Thankfully she was satisfied with just a few photos. Liam popped open the bottle of champagne bottle, and poured us all a glass.

“Cheers,” he raised his glass and we all clinked and echoed him. I took a sip. It was a delicious champagne. The four of us stood around chatting, and I almost forgot I was dressed up like I was, when Liam’s phone buzzed. He peeked out the window. “Show time! Are you ready?” He turned to me. I nodded. “Time to go.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN I just don’t know what to think anymore, dear readers! Who has Liam’s heart? Is it still Holly? His old high school sweetheart, Jen, or is it his costar the lovey Lily Bristowe? Lily was spotted at an intimate gathering at Liam’s house recently and we have to admit, they would make an adorably cute couple. Quite a few of you have

pointed out that Lily would be a much better match for Liam. We’ll see what happens at the after party! We are expecting a few juicy stories to slip out. Stay tuned! I blinked. Camera flashes were going off in my face, and it made it hard to see properly. Liam climbed gracefully out of the limousine, and a loud cheer went up. He turned and held his hand out to me, smiling softly. I smiled back and reached out my hand. Don’t trip, don’t trip, I sternly told myself. Somehow I managed to keep my feet. The heels felt too high, and I was glad I

had Liam’s arm to cling to. I would have surely tumbled without him. The camera flashes were starting to make me see dots. Our limousine pulled off, to be quickly replaced by a new one. Another loud cheer went up from the horde of screaming teenage girls lined up against a pop up barrier. I turned to look behind me to see who was in this one; it was Lily Bristowe and her brother, Billy. She waved at the crowd who all but swooned, and then to my surprise she waved happily at me. I shyly waved back. I still couldn’t believe I’d met, talked to, laughed with, and gotten drunk with Lily Freakin’ Bristowe. Crazy. Liam had a charming grin plastered

on his face as he led me slowly up the red carpet. “You look great,” he said to me again. I glanced up at him. He was smiling softly down at me, ignoring the people around us. “You don’t scrub up too bad yourself, Mr Burns.” I felt like I’d already said that a few times, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Compliments were not my forte. “I always feel like I should steeple my fingers together evilly whenever anyone calls me Mr Burns,” he said quietly to me. I laughed. I couldn’t imagine anyone who looked less like Montgomery Burns than Liam. Definitely

less yellow and stooped, and much more hair. “Liam! Congratulations on the new movie. We’re sure it’ll be a great hit.” A blonde woman in a busty red dress leaned over and shoved a microphone near Liam’s face. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” I resisted the urge to snort and managed to stand there dutifully while Busty McReporter flirted with Liam in the guise of running an interview. She asked him about the film, and Liam spieled off a statement that he’d probably practised in the mirror, because I heard it a few times that night. “And who is this lovely, lucky lady

you have on your arm tonight?” I zoned back into the conversation when I realised they were talking about me. “This is Jen,” Liam said, and shot another smile at me. “Oh, come on. Is that all you’re going to give us?” I felt strangely invisible. She didn’t direct a single question to me, just to Liam, about me. It felt very strange to be talked about when I was standing right next to him. “Jen’s one of my oldest and best friends. She’s visiting from back home,” Liam relented after a moment. He started to pull me away, up the carpet. I trotted faithfully after him, one foot in front of

the other. “Don’t go too fast,” I muttered to him. “These heels could murder me. And I have little legs.” “Sorry.” Liam slowed down for me. More cameras were thrust in our face. We were asked to pose in front of the studio and movie logos. “You all right?” Liam whispered to me. “I can’t pose. I don’t know what to do with my arms. Or my face.” Liam laughed and grinned down at me. “Just be yourself.” “Easy for you to say,” I grumbled. I should have practised smiling in the mirror, or something. I glanced around

me to see what other women were doing. Some of them were posing for the camera, looking graceful and deliberate. A few others looked just as awkward as I felt. Lily was a natural, switching between laughing with reporters, fans, fellow actors and photographers, and then standing still and poised, looking directly at whichever camera she’d been told to. I stood back while Liam talked to some of his fans, signed pictures for them, and subjected himself to group selfies. Perhaps it had something to do with growing up in the middle of nowhere, but it had never occurred to me to go to these kind of events, even when

they were in Melbourne. Maybe it was because I wasn’t a screamer. My ears were starting to ring from the collective noise of the mass of teenage girls. Oh to be that enthusiastic about something. The teacher in me hoped that they were also that enthusiastic about their education, but I somehow doubted it. Eventually Liam extracted himself from the clutches of the girls and swaggered back over to me. “I can see your head expanding under all of this adoration,” I said with a slight smirk. He just rolled his eyes at me and grinned. “I still haven’t entirely gotten used to it,” he admitted as he reached for my

hand and we started walking slowly towards the entrance again. “It’s a weird thing to get used to,” I said. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to. This was such an alien experience, and I didn’t even have anyone squealing in my direction. Just a few curious looks and glances, and a few death glares. I let it wash over me. We were shown to our seats. Liam reassured me that no cameras were allowed in the theatre, so we could relax a bit. I lost track of all the people Liam introduced me to. They became a blur of faces and names. Most of them had worked on the film. I just smiled

politely, and made small talk with the few that stuck around long enough to make their way down to me. There was an excited hum of conversation over the theatre. Liam turned to me during a brief lull where he didn’t have anyone trying to get his attention or congratulate him. “Do you want popcorn or a drink or anything?” “Some popcorn would be good. Although I’d better not spill any on this dress.” “Let’s go get some then. You always need popcorn when you’re at the movies.” “The popcorn industry sure did get

their marketing right,” I laughed. Liam started leading me towards where I assumed the concession stand was. “And the good thing about premieres is the popcorn is free!” I laughed again and shook my head. Just what over-paid celebrities needed more free stuff. “That’s the only reason you got into acting, wasn’t it? So you could go to premieres and get free popcorn.” “You’ve found me out,” Liam said with a wink. “Liam! Mate!” We both turned. I vaguely recognised the bearded man waving at us. At Liam. Liam grinned and dropped my hand,

striding over to the man. They hugged each other. “Hugh! Great to see you. I didn’t know you were coming to this?” “Ah, bit of a last minute decision, honestly.” “We were just going to go grab some popcorn.” “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll go and get it. You stay here.” Liam smiled gratefully at me and turned back to Hugh. I wove my way through the crowd. They didn’t seem to part as easily now I was on my own and didn’t have a burly 6ft 4 guy’s wake to follow in. I left the theatre, walking past

security guards who were checking peoples bags and confiscating cameras and phones. I had a brief moment of panic when I realised I didn’t have my clutch with me, before I remembered putting it under my seat. Hopefully no one would steal it, but it just had my Australian driver’s license which wouldn’t be much use to anyone over here, and some lip gloss and an eye-liner pencil that Raquel had given me just in case I needed a touch up during the evening. I quickly spotted the concession stand, and sure enough there were buckets of pop-corn being lined up for people to take. I tottered over there,

promising my poor feet that we’d soon be able to sit down and that I wouldn’t make them wear anything like this ever again. I grabbed a bucket (it really was a bucket, Americans must feel very ripped off when they came out to Australia and saw how small our coffees, soft drinks and popcorn sizes were, I decided) and started my slow, careful walk back, now worried about both keeping my ankles intact and not spilling buttery popcorn everywhere. “Ticket please,” one of the burly security guards stepped in front of me. “Sorry?” “Your ticket, ma’am. Or your pass,” he said, holding his hand out. “You need

it to get in,” he said with a slow drawl when I just blinked at him. We hadn’t been asked on the way in and it hadn’t even occurred to me. “I don’t have one.” The man frowned at me. “I’m with Liam Burns,” I amended. “I’m his guest.” “Uh huh.” The man looked me up and down, skeptically. “Well, I’ll need to see your pass. Or get Mr Burns out here.” “But I don’t have my purse…” I stared helplessly at him, and looked hopefully over his shoulder, but I couldn’t see anyone I knew, let alone Liam. “I’m sorry but I can’t let you in

without-” I could feel tears start to well up, and bit my lip to make them stop. “It’s okay, I can vouch for her.” With a swish, Lily Bristowe glided up next to me and put her hand comfortingly on my arm. “She really is with Liam Burns. I can go and get him if you’d like?” “That won’t be necessary, Miss Bristowe.” He tuned to me. “You can go in.” Lily grabbed my free hand and all but dragged me into the theatre. “Honestly! Sometimes they take their job too seriously, although it is nice to know not any random stalker can get in, but still!”

“Thanks for your help,” I said, feeling very out of place again. “Oh, no problem, Jen. Come on, the directors going to start things off in a couple of minutes. Let’s get back to our seats.” I obediently followed the actress back through the throng. It was rather slow going, as everyone seemed to want to say hello to Lily. Eventually we got back to our seats - Lily and her guest were sitting next to Liam and I, along with some of the other stars. “I was starting to think you fell in a toilet or something,” Liam joked when I handed him the popcorn. I shrugged. “Security didn’t want to let me back in.”

“What?” Liam frowned, handful of popcorn halfway to his face. “It’s okay. Lily came to my rescue.” Liam turned to her and thanked her. “Pfft.” She waved away his thanks. “It happens. I remember my first premiere, I only had a tiny bit part and I -” Lily was cut off by the emcee calling for everyone’s attention. “Welcome, a big welcome to you all. Welcome to the grand premiere of the film Gertrude’s Promise. We are privileged to have the director, Archibald Douglas here with us tonight to introduce the film. Please make him welcome.” Polite applause rippled out.

A scruffy looking man with thick, black glasses took the stage and microphone. “Thank you all so much for coming. This film has been very close to my heart, and has been in production for over a decade. To see it finally up on the big screen is a privilege and wonderful achievement. I’d like to tell you a bit about the film before we get started…” I listened attentively as he told a story about his grandmother, and how much she and her life had inspired him, how he wanted to honour her by sharing her story. “… And of course, a big thank you to our stars, Lily Bristowe and Liam Burns.

You both worked so hard and with such passion. It was a pleasure to bring this film to life with you. Thank you.” Archibald Douglas held up his hands as the audience began to clap. “I suppose that’s enough rambling from me. Without any further ado, I give you Gertrude’s Promise.” He stepped backwards off the stage and I found myself hoping that he wouldn’t trip over and fall off. I probably would have. The final credits rolled. Applause rang out. I squeezed Liam’s hand. “You were great,” I said, leaning towards him so he could hear. “You liked it?” he asked earnestly.

“Of course. It was wonderful. I even cried.” Liam scoffed. “You cry in every movie. You cried in The Lion King.” “What’s wrong with that? Everyone cries when Mustafa dies.” “You cried when we watched it last year… for what, the twentieth time?!” I shrugged. “I have no defence. I’m a sucker for a tear jerker. But, still. It was good. You were great.” I leant over and gave him a quick, awkward side hug and peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Jen. I know you’re biased, but it still means a lot.” I smiled and squeezed his hand again. We stood up. Lily turned to Liam

and gave him a big hug. “I had so much fun working with you, Liam. I told you that, didn’t I?” “Just a few times.” He grinned at her. She laughed and started talking about someone I didn’t know. “You’re coming to the afterparty, right? Please tell me you’re coming.” Liam elbowed me subtly. I’d zoned out again. Lily was talking to me, not Liam. “Sorry. Yeah, we are. Aren’t we?” I looked up at Liam. He nodded. “Wouldn’t miss it.” “Great. Oh my god, I’m so famished. I didn’t eat before this. I was paranoid I wouldn’t fit into this stupid dress!” Lily put her hand to her flat stomach and

laughed at herself. “Wanna grab some food on the way? Real food. Like a burger or something. I’m dying for a burger. They’ll probably just have a bunch of fancy finger food at the party.” Liam turned to me, question on his face. Burgers with Lily Bristowe? Was he crazy? Of course I would. I nodded and looked at him like he was an idiot. We slowly made our way out of the theatre. I ended up next to Lily’s brother Billy while the two actors mingled and answered questions. “I don’t know how she does it,” Billy said quietly to me. “All this, and she’s still the same down to earth, annoying little sister that I’ve always

had.” “Yeah. Liam hasn’t changed too much either, thankfully!” Billy nodded. “Yeah. He seems like a nice guy. Not like a lot of the people I’ve met here. It’s a very strange place that’s for sure. So many plastic people. I’m looking forward to be going back home, I can honestly say. It might be a small town, and everyone might still know who you are, but they don’t want your damn photograph at every corner!” “When are you leaving?” I asked. We were a few metres behind Liam and Lily, and being mostly ignored. “Tuesday. It’s nice to spend some time with my sister, but…” Billy shook

his head. “I know what you mean. It’s so surreal. I’m going to be back in my classroom in about a week. They’re completely different worlds.” Billy nodded. “I used to think I wanted to be famous. Not anymore. Not after I’ve seen what Lily’s gone through.” “Is it that bad?” Billy shrugged. “It’s getting worse, I think. She has a security detail now. But she won’t let on that it bothers her too much. But it does. I can tell. Ah, we’re on the move again.” Lily and Liam were moving towards a limo, gesturing us to follow. A small

crowd of people had surrounded them, but as Lily was smiling warmly at them, they seemed welcome enough. Billy kept pace with my slow, careful walk. I smiled gratefully at him. “I don’t usually wear shoes like this. I should have word flats.” Billy laughed and shook his head. “Don’t know how you girls to it, to be honest. They look like torture devices or something.” “You could probably use one as a torture device. I’m sure it’s been done before.” “What are you two laughing at?” Liam asked when we finally caught up with them.

“The merits of high heels as a torture device.” Liam just raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “Jen, I want to introduce you.” Lily grabbed my hand and pulled me closer. “Jen, this is my assistant and angel, Jasmine.” I smiled and nodded at a young woman with slicked back dark hair. She looked very… competent. Jasmine smiled tightly at me and nodded back before looking back down at her phone. “And this is my stylist, Connie.” Another smile and nod. “And these are Gary and Suresh, my muscles.” Just a nod from these two. They were more interested in scanning the people around

us. It took me longer than it should have to realise they were bodyguards. So weird. Sometimes, on particularly crowded walks up the corridor, I’d felt like a body guard would be nice, but to actually need one… We all piled into the limousine. Liam pulled me down next to him. “Where’s your entourage?” I smirked at him. “You’re it, I’m afraid.” He winked at me. I rolled my eyes back at him, and made a mental note to ask him why he didn’t have an assistant like Lily did later. I knew Holly had one as well, and probably most actors and celebrities of Liam’s situation. I wouldn’t mind an

assistant sometimes. “So where do you want to go, Lily?” Jasmine asked. “Oh, um. How does everyone feel about In-and-Out? I’ll be honest, I’ve been craving them all week.” “Sure,” Liam shrugged. “Billy?” “Fine with me.” “Jen?” “Uh….” “Have you been to In-and-Out? Liam, have you taken her there yet? Please say yes.” “Well, actually…” “Oh my god. Liam! You fail as a tour guide. Utterly fail.” Lily shook her pretty

head in disgust, although her eyes were laughing. Liam looked at me, bemused and ran his hand through his hair. “Jen, trust me,” Lily turned to me. “You’ll love it. It’s an institution.” “I’ve heard of it… I just…” “Well, I’m so happy that I am going to be there when you try that delicious, juicy, wonderful burger for the first time.” “Uh…” I started. This moment was always vaguely awkward. I didn’t want anyone to think I was a pretentious wanker. “Oh, wait. Jen’s vegetarian.” Liam belatedly came to my rescue.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realise.” I didn’t see how she would, I didn’t exactly have a giant V tattooed to my forehead. “That’s okay,” Lily continued after a moment. “You could get a grilled cheese, or I think they also do the burger but without the patty?” “Have you studied the secret menu or something?” Liam laughed. Billy grinned. “Er… maybe. Don’t judge me.” She leaned over Billy and pushed Liam. “Not judging.” Liam tried to keep a straight face and held up his hands in self defence. “Sure you’re not. I know you, Liam Burns.” She glared at him.

“You do eat fries don’t you?” Lily turned back to me, alarmed. I laughed. “Of course I do.” “Phew. Half the girls I know don’t eat potato. They’re crazy.” “Oh…” I didn’t even know that was a thing. “What’s wrong with potato?” “Carbs. Or something. I dunno. Stupid fad diets.” Lily waved her hand dismissively. Jasmine must have relayed the decision to the driver somehow, because we were soon pulling into a drive-thru. I’d never been through a drive-thru in a limo. Hell, this was only the third time I’d even been in a limousine. My friend Sophie’s parents had hired a limo for her

as a high school graduation treat, and she’d picked us all up so we could arrive at the graduation dinner in style. It had been fun, but it being Tarang, there wasn’t exactly many places to go, and we had a whole hour to fill in. The nearest drive-thru was 50 kilometres away in Warrnambool, which technically I suppose we could have made it to. But we had settled on doing laps of the town… which didn’t exactly take much time. Before long, Jasmine was handing out everyone’s food, and a lot of napkins. I carefully covered my lap and the front of my dress. Now was not the time to be spilling food on myself.

We all must have been hungry, because we scoffed our food down. “It’s pretty good, isn’t it?” Lily said around her burger. I nodded in agreement, my mouth full of fries. Liam bared his teeth at me once we’d finished eating. “You’re all good,” I said after scanning his teeth and face. “Me?” I copied the face he’d made at me. “You have a bit of sauce on your nose.” “What the hell…” “Here, let me get it. It’s in a weird spot.” Liam grabbed one of the napkins and leaned over and wiped a bit of sauce off from the side of my nose. I had

no idea how it even got there. “You guys are cute,” Lily said. Liam and I both looked at Lily and then sat back self-consciously, which just seemed to make her laugh even more. “We’re here, Lily,” Jasmine piped up. The car was surrounded by photographers. I took a deep breath. It was okay. They were here for Lily. And Liam. Not me. They wouldn’t pay me any attention at all. The bodyguards got out first and stood on either side of the door. Jasmine and Connie followed, and then Billy. Lily winked at us and then got out. The noise level rose and the photographers

started yelling questions at Lily, or simply begging her to look at them. “This is crazy,” I muttered to Liam. “Is it always like this?” Liam shrugged. “Depends who you’re with. Sometimes. C’mon, our turn.” Liam held my hand tightly, probably so I wouldn’t get lost in the crush of people that suddenly surrounded us as soon as we got out of the limo. It was hard to make much sense of what the photographers were yelling out, given that they were all yelling at once, but I heard a few mentions of Holly and glanced up at Liam. He has a stiff smile plastered on to his face and all but

dragged me into the building, past the waiting security guards who were trying to keep the photographers out. The room we ended up in was full of people I recognised from the premiere, and then some. Black attired waiters and waitresses floated through the crowd with trays of champagne and plates of hors d’oeuvres . Liam grabbed two flutes of champagne off a passing tray and handed me one. I’d lost sight of Billy and Lily through the crowd. “Cheers,” I said and held my glass up to Liam. “Cheers,” he repeated and clinked my glass. We both took a sip. “So, what now?” I asked.

Liam shrugged. “Have fun. Mingle, if you want to. Don’t mingle if you don’t want to. Drink. Eat. Make the most of the free stuff. There should be goody bags here somewhere…” “Hey, Liam.” We both turned. Billy was back, glass of champagne in one hand and some sort of pastry in the other. “Yo, Billy.” “My sister told me to give you a heads up that Holly’s coming,” Billy said quietly. “What? Um, thanks mate.” Liam looked flustered for a moment and then schooled his face, planting a pleasant, bland smile on it.

“You okay?” I asked, softly. “Sure. It’s no big deal. I just didn’t know she was planning on coming tonight…” “Bit strange,” I said. Liam nodded then shrugged. “Oh well. What can you do? It’s a small business in some ways. We’re bound to be at the same events. It’s all good.” “If you say so…”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN What a night. Holly was there. Jen was there. Lily was there. Does anyone have any inside scoops? Email us if you have any! “Hello, Jennifer.” I closed my eyes briefly and then turned, a polite smile on my face. “Holly.” I paused and looked her up

and down. She looked stunning, as usual. “Nice to see you again.” She went in for a hug. I was really starting to hate awkward, fake hugs. “I’m surprised to see you here! You’re a bit far from home.” “Yeah, uh. Liam invited me to come over for the premiere.” “So I gathered.” She paused and looked me up and down, reaching out to touch my dress lightly. “You look nice.” I was taken aback a bit. “Um, thanks, Holly… so do you?” Was that the correct response when a girl told you you look nice, or they like your skirt or something? Ugh. I sucked at this. “So are you and Liam together yet?”

Holly. Always direct, I’d give her that. “No, Holly.” I sighed. “We’re just friends. Just like always.” Be still my pounding heart. I grabbed a fresh glass of champagne from a passing waiter. Holly bit her lip, looking relieved and nodded. “Maybe you can help me then?” Oh god, not again. I waited silently. “Is he… do you know if he’s seeing anyone else yet?” I took a deep breath. “Do you want to get back together with Liam?” I asked. I might as well be direct with her. Holly blinked rapidly.

“I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “I miss him. We’ve met up a few times, did he tell you that? Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed it and I got the impression he did too. Has he said anything about me to you?” “Um…” I floundered. What was I meant to say to her? I stared helplessly at her and then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Holly. I can’t do this.” Holly shook her head and it seemed like suddenly a different person was standing in front of me. Gone was the slightly vulnerable, sad woman. Back was the vivacious, confident movie star. “Of course. I’m sorry I bothered you. Enjoy your stay in Los Angeles.”

I wanted to say she flounced off, but she was actually very graceful and poised. Why couldn’t I look like that? I wove back through the crowded room to where Liam was. “What did Holly want?” Liam asked me quietly, after the person he was talking to drifted off. I looked at him. “Do you really want to know?” He bit his lip and frowned. “Not really,” he said eventually. “She wasn’t mean to you, was she?” I shook my head. “No, not at all.” “‘Cause I know she can sometimes come across as a bit of a bitch even when she doesn’t mean it.”

“Don’t worry about it, she was fine. We can talk about it later,” I said as I spotted some more people headed our way. Liam smiled tightly at me and gave my arm a squeeze. My arm tingled where he’d touched it. I rubbed it selfconsciously. I blinked, my attention catching on a young woman who was floating through the party on the arm of a much older, and also familiar face. It couldn’t be. I squinted, cursing my not so perfect vision. “What are you glaring at?” Liam laughed into my ear. I jumped. “I wasn’t glaring. I was just trying to get my damn eyes to focus. I think I know

that girl. From uni.” Liam looked in the direction I was staring. “Which one?” “The gorgeous brunette who kinda looks like a strange cross between Lindsay Lohan and Keira Knightley. In the black dress.” Black dress didn’t really help narrow down the field, as half the women seemed to be in black, and most of the men. Liam seemed to realise who I meant though. “The one with Nico Campana?” “Yeah. Them. Him. I knew he looked familiar! What the hell are they doing together?!” I demanded in a whisper.

Nico Campana had been in a bunch of movies when I’d been younger, and had been quite the looker, back in the day. I don’t know that I’d ever had a crush on him, but I’d liked him. I think he was on a tv show these days, but I wasn’t entirely sure - I didn’t watch a lot of tv anymore. Kat was just a girl in my teaching course. To say we were friends was a bit of a stretch. I’d been a bit intimidated by her, to be honest. She’d seemed so poised, and always welldressed, and knew her Seixas from her Van Sledright by the second day of classes, and exuded a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) sexuality that had half the guys in the course wrapped

around her little finger, and a fair portion of the girls as well. Queen Bee. She’d always been nice enough though. I’d just never felt very comfortable around her. That probably said more about me than her, on reflection. “They’ve been dating for a few months apparently. He and his wife split up, and next thing we know, he’s stepping out with her.” “What a gossip you are,” I teased. “She’s only my age. Or younger. Campana’s got to be close to my dad’s age.” “Mmm,” was all Liam said because they’d come closer. Kat must have noticed my stares, because her drifting

gaze settled on mine when our eyes met. She did a double-take and then rushed over, leaving her older lover behind. “Jen!” “Kat,” I replied. She gripped my arms and went in for a kiss on both cheeks. I tried to reciprocate without being too awkward. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect to see you here! How have you been?” she said in a breathless rush. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m just here with a friend,” I said, nodding towards Liam, who’d taken a step back to grab some delectable looking appetiser from a passing tray. “How on earth…” A slightly ugly

look flittered across her face, but then she smiled again, in Liam’s direction. I glanced behind me. He looked slightly startled, mouth full of whatever it was he’d just shoved in there. At least some things never changed. He’d always eaten like a pig. I half-snorted and then turned back to Kat. She was still eying Liam, a speculative look on her face that I wasn’t sure I liked. “How did you get in with Liam freakin’ Burns?” Kat leaned in close and whispered to me. I shrugged, stepping back slightly. “Luck of the draw?” Kat looked at me quizzically. “We grew up together,” I explained.

“Next door neighbours. We’ve been friends since before we could talk.” “Oh!” Kat exclaimed. She leaned in close again. “So you’re not… you know? Together?” I shook my head. “Nope. Just friends.” I repressed the sigh that bubbled up. How many times was I going to have to say that tonight? Dan wouldn’t have this problem if he’d come instead. Of course, Dan wasn’t secretly in love with Liam. Well, at least not as far as I knew… “Well, that explains it,” Kat laughed. “Explains what?” I asked, before I could stop myself. “Oh. Well.” Kat looked slightly

flustered, as if her brain had just caught up with her mouth. “You know. Holly Monroe’s a pretty tough act to follow. I just assumed he’d be.. umm… never mind, it’s nothing.” Kat shook her head, her long blonde hair bouncing off her shoulders. “You’re with Nico Campana? I hadn’t realised,” I said after a moment of awkward silence where we both just looked at each other. I resisted the urge to say something about Nico Campana’s wife being a tough act to follow. Well, ex-wife now, I supposed. Obviously I didn’t Facebook stalk my acquaintances often enough. “Yes,” Kat nodded firmly, throwing a

quick glance over her shoulder at where she’d left Nico. “We’ve been together for about six months now. It’s great. We’re so happy together.” “Not teaching?” I asked. We had met while we were both studying to become teachers, after all. “Oh. No, not really. I worked a bit last year, but I’ve taken this year off. Nico splits his time between the States and Melbourne, and he likes me to come with him. Who am I to complain?” Kat laughed airily again. I smiled tightly. Nico came over to us and put an arm possessively around Kat, drawing her close to him. “Nico, this is my friend, Jen. We

were at uni together a few years ago.” Nico nodded at me and stared intently at me for a moment, obviously trying to recall if he should know me. I could almost see the dismissal in his eyes. They soon drifted away. “Pleasure to meet you,” he said, not even looking at me. His eyes were roving over the crowd. “If you two ladies will excuse me,” he said. “I’ve just spotted someone I wanted to have a word with.” He pecked Kat on the cheek and left us. I looked back at Kat, slightly bemused, but she didn’t seem phased in the slightest. “Can you introduce me to your friend?” Kat whispered, throwing a

meaningful look in Liam’s direction. He was leaning on the bar, nursing what looked like a scotch and chatting to Billy. I couldn’t see Lily anywhere. “Sure,” I shrugged. What could it hurt? I didn’t think Kat was really Liam’s type. We manoeuvred ourselves over to the two men. The broke off their conversation when we joined them. “Hey guys, um,” I started. “This is Kat. We studied teaching together at uni.” The men both nodded at her, Billy not quite able to keep his gaze away from Kat’s plunging cleavage. “I’m Liam,” Liam said and held his hand out for her to shake. “Yes, I know,” Kat tittered and

seemed to stroke rather than shake Liam’s hand. He shot me a bemused look. I just rolled my eyes. “Billy.” He held out his hand as well. Kat stared intently at him for a moment, and then gave him a much more traditional handshake. She turned quickly back to Liam and started gushing about how much she loved the film, and touching him far more often than seemed normal. I excused myself, ignoring Liam’s pleading gaze. I don’t think Kat even noticed. Lily sidled up to me while I stood outside the ladies room.

“Having a good time?” “Yeah, it’s great,” I said, mostly telling the truth. “I saw Holly accost you before,” Lily all but whispered, glancing around us to make sure no one else was close enough to hear us. “Yeah… that was kinda awkward.” I stopped. I wasn’t exactly sure what Holly and Lily’s relationship was. I didn’t have to wait long to find out, though. “I was so happy when they broke up! She hated me and Liam being friends. Absolutely hated it. I don’t know why. She can be such a cow sometimes. Don’t tell anyone I said that!” She covered her

mouth with her hands and I wondered how much Lily had had to drink. “Of course, I was sad to see Liam so bummed, but, c’mon. He can do so much better than her.” “Better than Holly Monroe?” I asked skeptically. “Of course better than Holly. Just because she’s famous doesn’t mean shit. I should know. Listen, Jen. I like you. I know I’ve only known you for a couple of days, but I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. You’re real. I appreciate that. I’m around so many fucking suck asses and hangers on and people who just want to talk to you because they think you’re rich and

‘cause you are good at lying and make believe and have a pretty face. Which, incidentally has nothing to do with me. Thanks, parents.” Lily paused as a waitress walked by and yanked two glasses of bubbly. She handed one to me. I wasn’t entirely sure she needed another glass, but hey. Who was I to judge? I was loosing track of how many glasses I’d had. Probably too many. “Anyway,” Lily continued. “You’re real. Liam needs a real girl, one who won’t let his head explode with his giant ego. Or get a giant ego.” “Liam and I are just friends…” I said quickly, slightly shaking my head. “Mmm. Yeah, you both keep saying

that but, see, I’m not so sure about that.” Lily took a gulp of the champagne and a small burp came up. “Oops. Excuse me! I’ve seen the way you two look at each other, when you think the other one isn’t looking.” “What?” I knew I was guilty of doing that, but Liam? “Liam doesn’t look at me like that.” Lily winked at me. “Uh, yah he does. Trust me.” With that she giggled, drained her glass and bounced off. “You should go for it!” she yelled over her shoulder. I shook my head, belatedly realising people were looking at me. Thankfully Liam wasn’t anywhere nearby.

I went back to rescue Liam from Kat’s wily ways. He didn’t seem to mind the attention too much, but when he smiled at me, I realised that was his ‘real’ smile. The one he offered up to Kat was his polite, business smile. The realisation made me feel slightly fuzzy. Or perhaps that was just the champagne. I couldn’t be entirely sure. Nico eventually came back to reclaim Kat. She insisted on getting a photo of the four of us, and roped Billy in to be the photographer. Liam put his arm casually around me, and Nico possessively clutched Kat to him. Poor Billy had to take four different photos

before Kat was satisfied. “Liam, you’re not looking!” Nico’s eyes narrowed slightly as Kat playfully slapped Liam’s arm. Once Kat was finally satisfied, she kissed me on the cheek again, and insisted we catch up again soon. “Yeah, that would be great,” I lied. An hour or so, and a few more flutes of champagne later, Liam stifled a yawn. “How are you feeling?” he asked me. “Ready to go? Or do you want to stay a bit longer?” The yawn was contagious. “I’m good to go if you want to. It’s your party,” I

said with a slight shrug. “You yawned,” he said. “Only because you did.” “Well, that settles it then.” It took us twenty minutes to do the rounds, saying goodbye to everyone Liam needed to. Lily gave me a big hug. “If I don’t see you again before you go, it was so lovely to meet you, and I really hope we see each other again! I’ll look you up next time I’m down under. Remember what I said before!” “What did Lily say to you before?” Liam asked curiously after we’d moved on to the next group of people. “Nothing.”

Liam just looked at me, but I didn’t say anything, and he was soon distracted by his director. “Thanks again for coming with me tonight, Jen. I hope you enjoyed it. I know all the industry talk can get a bit boring…” “It was amazing. Thanks for inviting me,” I said. We were both slouched in the back of a limousine, heading home. I pulled my phone out of my clutch, and then remembered I hadn’t paid for international data. “Hey, can I borrow your phone for a sec?” I asked Liam. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me.

I signed myself into Facebook and found Kat’s profile. I was surprised I’d missed it - there were photos of her and Nico splashed all over her page. “She’s already put up that photo of us,” I groaned. “Who?” “Kat. The girl I went to uni with.” “Oh, right. Was it just me or was she super flirty?” “She was super flirty,” I said dryly. “I think she thought she might be able to trade in her older model for a hot new young one.” Liam laughed and shook his head. I looked back down at the photo. “Ugh. Now everyone’s going to

know that I know you.” Liam looked taken aback and slightly hurt. “Is that a bad thing?” I nodded, and then shook my head. “I don’t know. I just don’t usually bandy it about, you’re my secret famous friend. In that circle, anyway. Well, I guess the cats out of the bag now,” I said with a sigh. “You do know where we just were, right? You were photographed on the red carpet with me.” “Yeah, but most of my friends don’t look at that kind of stuff. The only way they’d probably see that is if we somehow ended up on the landing page of The Age online or something…” “Right.” Liam shook his head and

laughed. I looked back down at the photo. It already had dozens of likes, many of them from mutual teaching friends. “Of course she posts a photo where you all look amazing and I look like a goof,” I grumbled. Liam grabbed his phone off me to have a look. “What’s wrong with your eyes?” he laughed. “I don’t know,” I squirmed closer to him so we could both look at it, suddenly very aware of where our bodies were now touching. I used my finger to cover up up half my face on the screen, and then the other half. “You seem to be looking in different

directions.” “I didn’t even know that was possible.” I laughed. It was the only thing I could do, really. “Well, apart from the weird eyes, you look great.” “Thanks,” I snorted. I scrolled down to look at more of Kat’s profile. “Woah. He bought her a Mercedes for her birthday!” Liam rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Jen, promise me something.” “Anything.” “If I’m sixty and ditch my wife for someone half my age, give me a stern talking to.”

“All right.” “But if I’m single, just say ‘well done’ and don’t judge me.” I snorted. “I’ll still judge you. If you’re sleeping with someone in 30 years, who hasn’t even been born yet, I will judge you my friend.” “It’s a guy thing. I’d congratulate you.” “Ew.” Liam laughed again and then leaned back in the comfortable seat and seemed to doze off. The city lights zoomed by as I reflected on the evening, playing scenes over and over in my mind, wondering if I should have said anything differently, and coming up with wittier

responses to things people had said to me; too late, as usual. We made it back to Liam’s place and stumbled in the front door. The house was dark. Either Mike wasn’t there or he was already asleep. “I need to get into something more comfortable,” Liam mumbled. “Me too,” I said with conviction and kicked my heels off with relish. “You do look stunning in that dress. You should where it again.” Liam looked at me speculatively. “Right.” Liam just gave me a funny look, shrugged and walked into his room,

fiddling with his tie. I hobbled after him to my room. My poor, poor feet. Whatever did they do to deserve such punishment? I looked myself up and down in the mirror. I still looked okay. Slightly more disheveled than when Raquel had put her finishing touches on, but still pretty good, even if I had accidentally rubbed my eyes a bit too much. As nice as I looked though, I was dying to get into my cozy pyjamas. I twisted around, trying to see how to undo the dress. It looked far too complicated. “Liam, can you do me a favour?” I called out. He poked his head around the corner

of my door. His tie and top buttons we undone. There was something alluring about a man you didn’t normally see in a suit dressed up. There was something even more alluring when they were half undressed. “What’s up?” “Can you help me get out of this dress? It’s impossible.” I tried not to blush. “Yeah, sure.” He came into the room proper. I gazed into his beautiful eyes for probably a few seconds too long and then turned around, pulling my hair out of the way. I could feel his presence behind me, his breath on the back of my neck. I shivered when his fingers

touched my skin. One by one, he undid the buttons, slowly going down my back. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his accidental caresses. And then they weren’t so accidental. I shivered again, as he ran his finger slowly up my spine and then down again. I stayed still, not wanting to break whatever spell had been cast. His lips softly grazed my neck and my breath hitched. His hands settled on my waist, and I leaned back into him. “Is this okay?” he whispered. In answer, I turned around and gazed up at him, breath coming hard. I stared at his lips for a moment, and then reached up on my tip toes. My eyes flickered from his dark gaze to his lips, and the

next thing I knew we were kissing. Softly, gently and almost tentatively at first, and then it became deeper and more passionate. I ran my hands up his arms, feeling his taut muscles, and then down his chest. Liam groaned deep in his throat. “You’ve got no idea how much I’ve been wanting to do that,” he said huskily. I bit my lip, looking at him, contemplating. “What?” he asked quietly. “Take your shirt off.” He shot me a grin. “As you wish.” Slowly, without breaking eye contact, he undid the rest of his shirt

buttons. His body really was exquisite. I had an overwhelming urge to run my hands over his wash board abs, and before I knew it, my hands had a life of their own. I couldn’t seem to help it. They were just as hard and chiselled as they looked. He pulled me close to him again. His hands ran over my shoulders, freeing me properly from the dress. It fell in a puddle to the floor. I stepped out of it, standing in my underwear. The feeling of self-consciousness that thrummed through me only lasted for a few seconds. The way Liam looked at me, like I was the sexiest being he had ever seen, cleared it away. He still had his pants on, which

seemed wrong all of a sudden. I stepped closed to him and leaned up to kiss him, my hands busy undoing his trousers. He picked me up and my legs wrapped around his hips. I could feel how hard he was, and it made me even more excited. I’d done that. Me. He wanted me. Still kissing, he carried me out of the guest room and into his beautiful bedroom. He laid me gently down on his bed. I lost track of time. We could have been there for thirty minutes or three hours. I had no idea. I was in bliss. I hadn’t felt that aroused or that satisfied in a long time. Well, ever, really. Liam’s

fingers and tongue worked their magic over my body and I became a quivering mess. He looked very satisfied with himself. When he finally entered me, I closed my eyes. This felt right. Amazingly right. “We should have done that a long time ago,” Liam said languidly and stroked my naked back. I lay there for a minute, just being in the moment, enjoying the feeling of Liam’s fingers running lightly up and down my spine. “No, we really shouldn’t have,” I said after a moment. The hand on my

back stopped. I wiggled a bit, willing it to continue. “Why not?” he asked eventually, evenly. I took a deep breath. “You’ve never been interested in me until now. It would have been a disaster. We probably wouldn’t be on speaking terms.” “Oh, rubbish,” Liam scoffed. “This is just going to be Year 12 all over again, isn’t it? Where you change your mind and declare that you don’t want to ruin our friendship and that we should just pretend it never happened.” I all but mumbled and buried my face in his pillow. I lay there, heart pounding in my ears, waiting to see what he’d say.

Was I about to ruin everything? It was an excruciatingly long time before he spoke. “Jen, look at me.” I peeked up at him. How was it possible for anyone to morph from the chubby kid I’d known into such an amazing looking man? I should have been used to it, but I still marvelled at him. Now he was looking at me with a strange look on his face, a slight crease in his forehead. I wanted to wipe it away. “I’m not going to regret this, Jen.” “Mmmm,” was all I managed. “I’m serious. I… I don’t regret it at all. Do you?”

I frowned at him. “No.” He looked at me intently and before I knew what was happening, he was kissing me again. I closed my eyes and let the kiss go deeper. His lips were softer, gentler than I remembered and had imagined all these years, but the whiskers were new. We spent the day in bed, exploring each other and ignoring the real world outside of our little self-created bubble. It was pure bliss. Of course, it couldn’t last.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN Dear readers, the saga continues, and saga it certainly is! Holly professed her love for Liam, Jen got her claws out, and Lily expressed her growing feelings for Liam as well! Who will Liam choose? The romantic in me is still batting for a Holly-Liam reunion. A source at the party tells us that Jen told Holly in no uncertain terms to leave

her man alone! What is she thinking? Does she really think she’s good enough for Liam?! I don’t know, dear readers. It’s hard to see what Liam could possibly see in her, not next to Holly and Lily at any rate. I know who I’d choose! “Dan!” I called out and waved excitedly at my old friend. Liam lurked behind me, cap pulled down and dark sunglasses firmly planted on. I’d told him I thought he looked more conspicuous with the cap and glasses than without, but he didn’t seem to agree. Dan hadn’t changed much. He was

one of those people who looks the same whether they’re a toddler, a teenager, in their thirties, fifties or at the nursing home. His face lit up when he spotted us, and he ambled over, dragging a heavy looking suitcase. I held my arms out once he reached us, and he leant down and gave me a big hug, lifting me off the ground. I still found it weird that they could both do that. “Great to see you, Jen. It’s been too long!” He put me down and let me go, and then turned to Liam. They went in for a quick man-hug, thumping each other on the back.

“Good to see you, mate. I think you can ditch the sunnies though, it’s not that bright in here!” Liam laughed and took them off. I noticed a girl walking past, stop in her tracks and gape, open mouthed at Liam. He didn’t seem to notice. “Let’s get you out of here,” Liam said, putting the sunglasses back on. “Can’t believe they let you in the country. How was your flight? London?” I trotted after the two boys. As usual they seemed to have forgotten that my legs were much shorter than theirs, and were striding ahead of me. Liam glanced back at me and grinned, but thankfully

slowed down a bit. “We need to get you some stilts.” I stuck my tongue out at him, in a very mature and ladylike fashion. He laughed, reached for my hand and then quickly dropped it. My heart skipped a beat, my hand tingling where he’d touched it. Dan frowned at us. I shrugged at him when Liam turned again. We made it out to Liam’s car without any more incidents, and only being photographed by one vigilant photographer. “Damn, thought I’d made it,” Liam muttered once we’d passed the camera.

“Mate, me and Jen aren’t interesting enough. I doubt that photo will sell for anything much.” “You’d be surprised,” Liam muttered. “Haven’t you seen the shit they’ve been writing about me and Jen?” Dan laughed. “You and Jen? Please.” We reached the car and Dan hauled his suitcase in the back. “So you haven’t seen any of it?” I asked. I made myself comfortable in the back seat. Dan did exactly what I’d done when Liam had picked me up and went for the wrong side of the car. “I don’t exactly rush out for every edition of Women’s Weekly,” Dan said

once he’d come around and settled into the passenger seat. “It’s online as well,” I grumbled. I was sure some of my students were having a field day. “Sorry dudes, obviously I’m reading the wrong part of the internet. You know me. If it’s not sport, I’m not interested. What are they saying?” “I’m fat and ugly and have weird boobs and obviously not good enough for Liam. Basically Year 12 all over again.You should read the comments! So bloody nasty.” Dan burst out laughing. Liam scowled out to the road. “Right. Spot on. I have a rule that I

never ever read the comments. Saves me from wanting to bomb humanity out of existence.” Dan turned in his seat so he was facing me. “I’ll give you the same advice I gave you back then: ignore them.” I sighed. “You’re right. As usual. It’s just… very, very strange. And easier said than done.” It had been hard to resist reading the articles about Liam when he’d first become famous, but I’d eventually managed to stop. Most of the time. But now that they were about me… well. I’d either have to grow a skin 8 metres thick, or I’d have to completely ignore them. “Sorry,” Liam said.

“Why are you sorry?” I asked, frowning at the back of his head. “If I was a plumber this wouldn’t be happening.” Dan and I both burst out laughing. “Please don’t apologise. If you were a plumber we wouldn’t be in L.A., living it up. We’re living vicariously through your success. Don’t take that away from us,” Dan said and punched Liam lightly on the arm. “Plus, you’d be a shit plumber. You’re terrible with your hands.” A memory bubbled up of just how un-shit Liam was with his hands, and I squirmed in my seat. I let out a giggle. A similar thought must have gone through

Liam’s mind. He turned and winked at me quickly, a sly little grin on his face. Dan missed the exchange, thankfully. Once we got back to Liam’s house, I trailed after the two boys as Dan got given the grand tour. I was starting to get used to the luxury of Liam’s house, and didn’t particularly want to go back to my house, with it’s original 1950’s kitchen, crooked floors and disgusting curtains. Three more days. “Mate,” he whistled. “If you were a plumber you’d never be able to afford this place, and this place is fucking sweet as.” “Fame definitely has its perks,” Liam

agreed, as we stood out on the deck overlooking the lush garden and pool. “Fancy a swim?” Dan asked, eyebrows raised at both of us. Liam glanced at me, eyebrow raised. “Sure,” I said. “I actually remembered to bring my bathers for once!” “Excellent,” Liam said. We all trooped back inside to get changed. In the privacy of my bedroom, I studied my bikini. I had only worn it once, and was worried it was a bit too ‘out there’. But… to be honest, I wanted to look sexy, and this piece definitely helped in that department. It was a lot

more revealing than the board shorts and rashy I’d usually donned as a teenager for swims in the Burns’ backyard pool. That Aussie sun was a killer, and my skin was far too pale to withstand it for long. I burned within 15 minutes if I wasn’t careful back home. I’d been delighted when I was 16 and living in the south of France, to discover that not living under the hole in the ozone layer had some pretty good perks - mainly that I actually got a nice tan when I didn’t have to slather myself in sunscreen if I so much as went near a window. I quickly undressed and put the bikini on. I rubbed my hand up my legs. It felt like sandpaper. I cursed. Steph had inherited

Mum’s sparse body hair, but unfortunately I’d gotten the worst of both sides. Mum’s pale skin instead of Dad’s nice olive permanent tan, Dad’s hairiness instead of Mum’s ladylike natural ‘I only have to shave my legs once every two weeks’ - ness. I gave my legs a quick shave in the sink, making them nice and smooth again. It wasn’t fair - men could have the hairiest legs out there and no one even batted an eye. But a woman misses one patch of hair and it’s ewww, gross! So much for equality. My mind drifted back to the day before. I still tingled all over when I thought about Liam’s touch. I drifted into

a daydream, reliving some of the more intense moments of our sessions. I was jolted back to the present when one of the men thundered past in the hallway. Probably Dan; he’d always sounded more like a heard of elephants than a single human male. I checked myself over in the mirror. It would have to do. I closed the bedroom door behind me at the same time Liam stepped out into the hallway from his room. His dark gaze met mine briefly, and then went exploring over my body. I stood still until his eyes came back to my face. I felt naked and beautiful under his gaze. He stared at me intently for a moment, and then with a quick growl, closed the

distance between us. My heart rate doubled. My eyes lingered on his lips. His broad hands came up and lightly caressed my waist and then pulled me close to him, pressing our bodies together. “Do you have any idea how amazing you look in that bikini?” he growled, leaning down to nibble my neck. My hand ran up his arm, marvelling at his muscles. “Hurry up, you two!” Lochy’s voice rang out. We jumped apart. I could feel my face going red. “Um.” I tucked my hair back behind my ears. “Do you have beach towels, or

should I just use the bathroom one?” “There are some out there.” He let out a deep breath and readjusted himself. I smirked. He scowled. “I love Dan like a brother, but I really wish he wasn’t here right now.” “Don’t say that,” I pushed him to start walking again. “Just you and me and no distractions.” I closed my eyes briefly. Surely I’d wake up soon. This couldn’t actually, finally be happening. “You know you want to,” Liam whispered as we came out to the deck. I noticed Liam had his towel rather strategically placed, and felt rather

gleeful that I was the cause. Dan was laying his bright orange beach towel out on one of the deck chairs. Moving faster that I realised was possible, Liam slid into the water before I’d barely taken a few steps. “Grab some beers, Jen?” Liam called out after he resurfaced, water streaming from his glistening body. “Jen?” I blinked and then blushed. How long had I been staring at him for? Dan was still fussing with his towel, but looked over at me when Liam repeated my name. “Are you okay? You look funny.” Dan looked concerned. “I’m fine,” I assured him, and tried to

walk gracefully over to the bar fridge, knowing the two men’s eyes were on me. I felt exposed in the bikini and wished I had a sarong or something. It was like walking around in my underwear in front of them, something I’d never made a habit of. I quickly grabbed three icy cold beers out of the fridge, gasping as the cold bottles touched my bare stomach when I clutched them to me. “Ta,” Dan said when I gave him one of the beers. Liam swam over to us and reached out for one. I sat down on the warm concrete and dangled my legs into the pool. The water was a nice temperature, not like Liam’s parents

pool, which always seemed to be a few degrees above zero. Nice on a stinking hot day, but it took some acclimatising. “Cheers,” Liam said and held out his bottle. “The little crew’s back together,” Dan said and clinked his bottle against mine and Liam’s. “Well, almost,” I said unnecessarily. “To Grant.” “To Grant,” the boys both echoed and we clinked bottles again and all took a sip. The silence was broken when Dan got up, put his beer down next to me and jumped in the pool. Water splashed all over me, and I shrieked, nearly spilling

my beer. “Get in, Jen. It’s lovely.” I slid into the water. Before long we’d reverted to children again and were splashing each other, shrieking, and laughing like mad. Although to be fair to the two boys, I think I was the one who did most of the shrieking. “Oh man, I miss you guys. You should both move to Los Angeles,” Liam said in a lull of splashing while we caught our breath. “And live here with you in all your splendour?” Dan winked. “Sure. I’ve already got Mike taking up the downstairs. What’s two more? Or

maybe I can kick Mike out - not like he pays any rent anyway - and you can have the basement suite.” Dan laughed. “Don’t tempt me, mate.” “How ‘bout you, Jennypenny? Ready to give up your teaching career and come live over here?” I laughed. “I’m with Dan - don’t tempt me. First day back at school, and I’ll be wishing I was on a plane back here.” Liam grinned, slightly evilly. He swam languidly over to me and surfaced right in front of me. Fascinated, I watched him push his wet hair back and wipe the water out of his eyes.

“I bet I could tempt you,” he said so that only I could hear him. Under the water, his hand reached out and stroked my belly. I pushed his hand away and quickly glanced over at Dan, but he was floating on his back, looking up at the clouds. I pushed Liam away with a splash. His didn’t take his hooded eyes off me. I could see the desire in them, and I was scared Dan would see it too. I paddled over to the other side of the pool, putting a bit of space between us. I shook my head slightly at Liam and nodded towards our friend. Liam just shrugged and mouthed ‘I can’t help it.’ I felt lighter than air. The water

probably helped the weightlessness feeling. The rest of the day went by in a blur of laughter, stolen touches, smouldering glances. It was just the three of us; Mike was out networking, apparently. I tried not to be too unfaithful to Dan and wish it was just the two of us very often, but the thought would not escape me. “So, what’s going on with you and Burnsy?” Dan asked me quietly. I glanced around. We were alone. Liam had gone to find something in his room. I resisted the urge to say a quick ‘nothing’ and shrugged.

“What makes you ask that?” I asked, curious. We had been trying to be discrete. He looked at me shrewdly. “I’m not blind. I’ve seen the way you two keep looking at each other.” “I don’t know,” I said. “It’s probably nothing?” “Probably nothing?” Dan echoed with a skeptical look on his face. “Have you talked to Liam?” I asked, curious. Dan squinted at me. “Not yet. You’re terrible at keeping secrets, I thought I’d try you first.” “Hey!” I went to punch him on the arm, but he dodged me.

“You know it’s true,” he laughed. The conversation was cut short when Liam came back in, holding a DVD triumphantly in his hand. “I knew I had this somewhere,” he said, with a laugh. “What is it?” I asked curiously. “My acting debut.” “Huh?” Dan grunted. “The production we did in Year 7.” Dan burst out laughing. “This should be good.” “Oh, pop it in then. Let’s see how embarrassing we all are. I haven’t seen this in ages.” We all looked so very young. How had we ever been that small and naive?

We all giggled when Liam’s voice cracked at an inopportune time; you could hear some of the audience trying to stifle their laughter as well. I’d never want to go through puberty again, not for a million dollars. Sometimes I missed my high school days, but especially being back there now as a teacher… I was just glad I’d survived it! High school can be a brutal place. It can also be a wonderful place. Often it’s both in the same day. “Well, gotta say, Burnsy - you’ve improved a bit on the acting front,” Dan said once the video had finished. “Just a smudge,” Liam concurred. “No idea why I keep getting jobs, they

could get any old kid.” “What’s next for you?” Dan asked. “I’ve got a gangster movie coming up.” “Nice, do you get to play with guns?” Liam nodded. “Not real ones though.” Dan shrugged. “Close enough.” “Are you filming it here?” I asked. Liam shook his head. “Nah, it’ll be in Vancouver. I’m leaving a few days after you do.” “Oh. You can say hi to Steph for me.” “Sure.” “Then what?” Dan asked.

Liam shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I’ve got a few scripts to go through. I might take a break, I dunno. We’ll see what works out.” “You have such a weird life,” Dan laughed and shook his head. “It’s awesome.” By the time midnight rolled around, the conversation was starting to wane, and the yawns were coming in faster. “Well, I think I might call it a night,” Dan said after draining the last of his beer, and standing up to stretch. “I’ll see you two in the morning.” “Good night,” I said. I was pretty cosy where I was on the couch. I knew

my bed was even cosier, but for the moment I was happy where I was. “Sweet dreams,” Liam said in a singsong voice. Dan looked startled for a second and then burst out laughing. “Thanks sweetheart,” he said and blew a kiss in Liam’s direction. Once Dan had disappeared down the hallway, Liam got up and changed the music. A slow, beautiful song came out of the sound system. Liam held his hand out to me. “Dance with me.” I placed my hand in his outstretched one. He gently pulled me to my feet and held me close. “Stay with me tonight,” he murmured

into my hair. I pulled back to look at him. He ran his finger rover my lip and then leant down, kissing me slowly, luxuriously. I felt myself drowning in bliss. I blinked, coming awake slowly, strange feelings lingering from dreams that didn’t make nearly as much sense in the cold light of day. I turned my head slightly. Liam was fast asleep, breathing deeply. He looked peaceful. I resisted the urge to run my finger along his cheek, and slipped carefully out of bed, sneaking back to my own bed.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN “Why is it that I only ever remember how much I hate nightclubs, when I’m actually in a nightclub again.” The incredibly loud music assaulted my eardrums. I felt old and grumpy, and overly dressed. We were surrounded by bronzed young men and women, scantily dressed and slathered in make-up. “ Chin up.” Dan grinned at me. At

least, I think he said ‘chin up’. It was a bit hard to tell over all of the noise. It was all Dan’s fault. I think Liam would have been happy enough to just stay at home with some beers and company. I know I would have been. Dan had wanted to experience the ‘real’ Los Angeles nightlife though. Liam had always been one to oblige, and he’d sent out a few texts to his more party-loving friends. He’d just laughed when I’d asked hopefully if Lily would be there. Apparently Lily hated nightclubs almost as much as I did. Something else to like about her. Dan and I were hovering near the entrance. Liam had disappeared off into

the crowd to find someone named Cameron. I glanced up - Dan was entranced by the dancing girls. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and settled for scanning the crowd for Liam. After what felt like an eternity, he came back. “Follow me, guys!” he yelled into our ears. I grabbed Dan with one hand and Liam with the other as we wove through the crowd. “See, now this is why I come out with you, Burnsy.” Dan looked gleefully around the VIP area that we were ushered into. “I knew you were using me,” Liam laughed and playfully pulled Dan into a headlock. It was marginally quieter over

here; I could actually hear most of what people were saying/yelling. “Cheer up, Jen. You look like someone just killed your cat.” Liam let Dan out of the headlock and reached down to grab my hand. He pulled me over to a couch and picked up a champagne flute, raising an eyebrow at me in question. I nodded. If we were going to stay here, I could not do it sober. Two glasses of champagne in, and I was starting to relax a bit. We’d been joined by a couple of vaguely familiar looking people. Dan was rather starstruck - apparently one of the girls was on a TV show that his housemate

was obsessed with. I elbowed him and told him to stop staring so blatantly. He was beginning to look creepy. Three very attractive, blonde young women had cornered Liam. Dan elbowed me and told me to stop glaring at them. “You’re the one whose starting to look creepy now,” he said with a shake of his head. I switched my glare from them to him. “They’re just flirting with him because he’s famous,” I complained. “Yeah, no shit,” Dan said with a shrug. “Doesn’t it bother you?” Dan looked startled. “Why would it?

I wish I was famous so they’d flirt with me!” I just rolled my eyes at him. “C’mon, you can’t spend all night getting grumpy about girls hitting on Liam. It’s going to happen wherever we go. Come dance with me and try to have some fun!” Dan pulled me unresistingly up and over to the dance floor. He grinned at me and started doing some really daggy dance moves. I stood there rather awkwardly swaying to the beat, watching him. “See, this, this right here is why no self-respecting women hit on you,” I shouted in his ear with a laugh. He just

grinned wider and kept going. I laughed and decided to join in. He looked like he was having more fun than I was. Before long a couple of girls who wouldn’t look out of place in my Year 11 class joined in, dancing with Dan and gradually pushing me out. I took a step back, looking around for Liam. He was still back in the VIP area, with two of the three women. I felt a scowl forming on my face. One of them was all but pushing her ample breasts into his face. I looked directly at Liam - I couldn’t tell if he was enjoying it or not. I looked down at my not so ample boobs. With a sigh I turned towards the bar. I needed another drink.

“Can I buy you a drink? You look like you need one.” I turned to see who had yelled in my ear. A tall, handsome blonde man was staring at me, bright white smile on display. “No, thanks. I’m okay,” I said quickly. “Oh, come on. Just a drink. No expectations.” “Why?” I wasn’t used to guys buying me drinks anymore. “Why not? I like buying pretty ladies a drink.” “Thanks, but no thanks.” I smiled politely so he wouldn’t think I was too rude. “How about a dance then? A pretty

lady like you shouldn’t be alone in a place like this.” “I’m not alone.” “Oh really? Is your boyfriend here?” “No… I’m here with some friends.” “Well, good. Dance with me?” I glanced over to where Dan was still happily dancing with the girls, and over to Liam. There was only one woman left and she was stroking Liam’s arm possessively. My heart skipped a beat and a green eyed monster reared up from somewhere. Screw that. “Sure, let’s dance,” I said. The guy grinned his too-white smile at me and grabbed my hand, a little bit too familiarly for my comfort. I shrugged

it off and started bopping to the beat, trying not to feel too self-conscious. The guy, who yelled over the music that his name was Caleb started dancing closer and closer, rubbing up against me more often than I could pass off as an accident. There was a tap on my shoulder and there he was. “Can I interrupt?” Liam asked me, a frown filling his face. “Please,” I muttered and nodded. Caleb gawked at Liam and then looked at me, puzzled, obviously wondering what a nobody like me was doing with Liam Burns. Liam pulled me slightly away from

Caleb and started dancing, pulling me closer . “What were you doing with a guy like that? He’s a creep.” “Nothing,”I said, slightly surprised at the jealous look that flittered across Liam’s face as he looked over at where Caleb was still standing. Liam shook himself and focused on me, and then smiled. “Sorry. I just don’t… never mind.” We danced together, somewhat hampered by my lack of co-ordination, but I was actually starting to have fun. Before long though, yet another young woman was pushing her way in to my personal space, dancing closer and

closer, trying to get Liam’s attention. My patience ran out when she elbowed me in the boob and stood on my toes with her stiletto heal. I swore under my breath, scowled at her, and pushed my way out of the dance floor. I looked around for the restrooms. The wall of sound subsided when the door swung shut behind me. I barricaded myself in one of the empty stalls and took a few deep breaths, then regretted it when the smell hit my nose. I hated nightclubs. I hated watching all the girls fawn all over Liam. I hated that I couldn’t even have one dance with him without someone barging in. A line was starting to form, and I

began to feel guilty about hogging one of the stalls. Time to put on a fake happy face and brave the outside world again. I hovered near the bar, trying to see where Liam or Dan were. I couldn’t see them. I couldn’t see much at all, really, through the darkness, pulsing lights and my limited perspective from the height of 5 feet and 4 inches. I just wanted to go home. “There you are.” Liam materialised out of nowhere. “I’ve been looking for you.” “Oh, I thought you’d still be dancing with that girl.” “What?” He said something else but I couldn’t hear him over all the noise.

“What?” He tried again, but I just shook my head. We were too close to the DJ. He reached down and held my hand, pulling me back towards the VIP area. “Are you okay?” he asked once we were back there. I nodded. “I’m fine,” I lied. “You are not. Want to get out of here?” I nodded gratefully. “Wait here, I’ll go find Dan.” He disappeared into the crowd, coming back a few minutes later with Dan and an attractive brunette in tow. Dan looked disappointed when we said we wanted to leave.

“C’mon guys, one more drink!” Liam and I exchanged glances. I shrugged and then nodded. “All right then.” We sat back down in the VIP area, and a black clad waitress soon had another bottle of champagne flowing. Dan introduced the girl he’d brought over as Isobel. She was from Germany, and didn’t seem starstruck by Liam at all. In fact, she barely paid him any attention whatsoever. I looked on in amusement as Dan basked in her obvious attraction and attention. The bottle of champagne was soon drained, and Liam shook his head when the waitress asked if we wanted

another. “Oh come on, guys. This is fun. We’re having fun,” Dan moaned when we said we wanted to go home. “You can stay if you want,” Liam said. Dan glanced around. “Won’t we have to rejoin the plebs if you leave?” Liam laughed. “I knew you were using me! But nah, you’ll be fine. Promise. Catch an Uber home when you’re ready. You have my address, yeah?” Dan nodded. “Thanks, man.” I gave Dan a quick hug. “Stay safe.” Dan just rolled his eyes at me. “Yes,

Mum.” “Jen?” We were lying in his bed. I’d half dozed off, my body needing to recover from the intense session we’d just had. It was probably a good thing I was leaving in a couple of days. I hadn’t had this much sex in a long time, and it was starting to get a bit tender down there. “Mmmm?” “Can we talk?” “I think you’re talking right now,” I said dryly. My heart started to pound despite my nonchalant answer. Did anything good ever follow those words? A thousand possibilities rushed through

my mind. He wanted to end it. He didn’t want to end it. He was confused. I was confused. “I mean, seriously.” Uh oh. I rolled over so I could look at him properly. He was sitting up in the bed, sheets pooled around his waist. “What did you want to talk about?” I prompted after a minute or two went by without him saying anything, just staring intently at me. It was slightly unnerving. He reached out and touched my cheek, and then pushed a stray bit of hair behind my ear. I still tingled at his touch. “Jen… I….This is harder than I thought it would be.” He paused. I

waited. “Spit it out,” I said, slightly impatient. He’d come to his senses, I knew it. He was ending whatever this was so we could preserve the friendship, before anything got nasty or awkward. Just like he had years ago, in Year 12, after that one blissful kiss. I wanted to roll away from him, but something stopped me. He took a deep breath and glanced away from me. “These past few days have been amazing.” “But…” I prompted, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. His eyes darted back to mine. “No but.” He reached out again and took my

hand. I gazed down at our entwined fingers. “I really like you, Jen.” I looked back up at him. He was gazing earnestly at me. “I mean, I’ve always really liked you, you’re one of my best friends. But… this is different. I really like you. I’m mad about you. I can’t get you out of my head. And I don’t want this to end.” My heart had skipped a beat. Was this really happening, or was I about to wake up from a nap? “Are you sure this isn’t just the happy sex hormones talking?” I asked after a moment, heart pounding. Liam shook his head with a laugh. “I’m sure. Yeah, the sex is fantastic. Bloody brilliant, in fact. But no, it’s not

just the sex. You’re brilliant and I want to be with you. Properly. Not sneaking around, or worrying that this is all going to end and be weird as soon as you step on the plane. I…” He faltered off and looked intently at me. “Say something,” he said. I didn’t know how long we’d been staring at each other. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say,” I said, somewhat lamely. “I thought you were going to say the opposite.” Liam frowned, then laughed softly and reached out to stroke my back. I closed my eyes for a moment. “Why would you think that, you silly goose?”

I shrugged. “We’re from different worlds these days.” “So?” “So… I don’t know…” Liam frowned slightly. “How do you feel about me?” he asked slowly. “It’s not that,” I said. “You know I’m mad about you. I’ve been half in love with you since I was fifteen, I’ve been trying to ignore it for years.” “You have?” he asked, hope lighting up his face. I nodded. He leaned down and kissed me, slowly. I pulled back after a moment wishing I could savour the kiss and just ignore everything else. “It’s not that,” I repeated. “It’s

everything else.” As I’d been lying there, flashes kept popping through my mind. The incessant paparazzi attention. The horrible things those nasty people had written about me. The girls and women, and sometimes men, constantly hitting on him. The attention he got, almost everywhere he went. “Everything else doesn’t matter,” Liam said softly. “The only thing that matters is you. And me. Us, together.” I sighed. He’d always been a romantic git on the inside. “I wish that were true,” I said after a moment. “I just don’t know…” “Know what?” “If we can make this work,” I said.

“Why wouldn’t we?” I just looked at him, flabbergasted. I waved my hand around. “This. Everything. You’re not just the boy next door anymore. Half the world knows your name, your face. They care about what you do, who you’re with. You get followed around everywhere. I don’t want to live like that.” Liam looked at me sadly and pulled away. “I can’t help all that,” he started. “I know, I know. It’s just… I’m sorry. I don’t know. I didn’t even realise it bothered me that much until now.” We sat in silence. I didn’t know what to say next. What was I doing? I’d

dreamt about being with Liam for years. Now it was finally happening and I was turning him down. “I love you, Liam. I do, really.” “Then the rest of it shouldn’t matter,” he said in a small voice. “If I’m with you, I’ll never be anything but Liam Burns’ girlfriend.” Liam frowned at me. I rubbed my eyes and put my arm over my face. “You’re my best friend, Burns. I don’t want to lose you.” Who would have thought. I was the one giving him that dreaded line. I chanced a glance at his beautiful face and immediately felt bad. I reached out tentatively. He shrugged away from me

and got up and went to stand by the window. “Sorry, Jen. I just need a bit of time to process.” “Okay…” I slipped out of his bed and pulled my shirt back on. He was still standing, staring out the window with his back to me. I longed to run my hands over those smooth broad shoulders, but instead I snuck out the door and back to my own room. I sank down miserably on the bed. I’d ruined everything. We never should have slept together in the first place. I didn’t want to lose my friend, that much I knew. The rest I couldn’t decide. I’d

dreamed about that moment, more that once. More than a dozen times. Liam finally confessing his love to me. And it finally happens and I turn him away. I groaned and pulled the pillow over my face. I just knew I couldn’t handle all the craziness that was Liam’s life. Our lives didn’t mesh at all at the moment. Maybe one day… I shook myself. He wouldn’t be single for long. Some beautiful young actress or singer or dancer or someone would come along and snatch him up as soon as I left. He’d be better off with someone who wanted this kind of lifestyle… wouldn’t he?

I didn’t know how long I lay there, rehashing and expanding the conversation over and over again in my mind, but I must have drifted off at some stage, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up to a knock on my door and sunlight streaming on my face. “Come in.” I probably should have asked who it was first, but it was too late. Liam slowly opened the door and stuck his head in. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all. “Hey,” he said softly. “Hey,” I said, sitting up, hand pushing my hair back out of my face. “Did you sleep?”

“Apparently. Did you?” Liam shook his head. “I’m sorry,” I said and meant it. “Yeah, I wanted to talk about that. Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. I don’t want to wreck things between us. We can just go back to normal, right?” “Right,” I said, relief mingling with regret. “Just… one thing… is it just the whole famous thing?” “What do you mean?” “If I was just plain old plumber or farmer or accountant Liam, would you still say no?” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “No,” I said softly, after a

moment. “That’s all I wanted to know.” “Liam…” “I’m fine, really.” He gave me one of his famous, award winning grins. The ones I knew weren’t really real. What had I done?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN I stretched awake. It was my last day in Los Angeles. I was really going to miss this bed, despite the fact I hadn’t done much actual sleeping in it the past few nights. Despite our little talk, saying that things would go back to normal, yesterday had been kind of awkward. I kept wanting to touch him, make him

laugh, hold him. But I couldn’t. Not without sending the wrong signals. But were they wrong? Was I being a stubborn fool? I didn’t know anymore. I needed some space to think. Although I had a feeling that if I changed my mind, I really didn’t have long. Liam was never short of female attention, he’d move on soon enough. But would I? I pulled the cover over my face and groaned. We should never have slept together. It was too confusing. I was much more used to me just pining and dreaming in secret and not actually having to face a reality where Liam might actually feel the same way. I really wanted to talk to my Mum.

I briefly entertained the idea of talking to Dan about it all, but he’d always been pretty useless at relationship advice, and I wasn’t entirely sure it would be fair to Liam to blurt it all out to our mutual best friend. After lying in bed and getting to no resolution, I figured I should get up and try and enjoy the last day of my holiday. It was another perfect, sunny day. Warm, but not too warm. Dan was pottering around the kitchen, making something that looked like had the potential to be pancakes. “Morning,” he said, cheerfully. “Morning,” I mumbled. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Fine.” “Frustrated, insecure, neurotic and emotional?” “Oh, shut up.” “Burnsy told me what happened,” Dan said and passed me a glass of orange juice. “He did?” “Yeah. I think you’re making a mistake, if it’s worth anything.” I frowned into my orange juice. “You don’t understand.” “Dude, you guys are obviously crazy about each other. Even I can see that. What’s the problem? Really?” “I just want a normal life,” I said after a minute of contemplating my juice.

“Nothing about Liam’s life is normal anymore.” “He’s still the same old Burnsy, the same guy you’ve been half in love with since high school.” I shot him a look. “You knew?” “Jen, everyone knew.” God damn it. I thought it had been my little well-hidden secret. First Mel and Sammy, then Jacinta, now Dan. “I just… I just can’t do it right now.” “Why not?” I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. “Sorry, I’ll stop pushing. Just think about it though. He’s Terang’s most eligible bachelor after all.”

“What about you?” I asked with a weak smile. “Accountants aren’t nearly as glamorous as actors.” “Where is he anyway?” I asked, belatedly. “Went for a run. Said he needed to clear his head.” Dan shot me a sympathetic look. I rubbed my face. This was going all wrong. “Are you going to see Isobel again?” I asked, wanting to change the topic. Dan shrugged. “Maybe. We’ll see.” “How much longer are you here for again? Sorry, I know you already told me…” “Another week. Then back to

London.” “How much longer are you going to stay there?” I asked. Another shrug. “I might come home next year. We’ll see. Or maybe I’ll go live in Italy or Germany or something.” “You’re so lucky having an EU passport. I’m so jealous. I’m one generation out.” A few of my friends had ancestry visas or passports to Britain or the EU or the USA. I’d always been envious. My family had been in Australia too long. My most recent migrant ancestor was Mum’s grandfather, who came out from Scotland in the 1920’s. Apparently he’d almost gone to Canada instead, but changed his

mind at the last minute. I was awfully glad he had - I wouldn’t exist otherwise. Mind boggling, thinking of all the random choices made over the eons that led to me being born. It was slightly terrifying, thinking how easily something could have played out differently at any point in time. Not just big things like my great-grandfather deciding to migrate to Australia instead of Canada, but even small things, like going to a party or not. Or maybe some amorous couple getting interrupted and someone’s not conceived. The fact that I was born, me, and not some other collection of cells and brainwaves is so terrifyingly wonderfully random. No wonder people

liked to believe in fate and destiny. It was a much more comforting thought than the utter randomness of reality. It was hurting my brain to think about too much, and made me glad that time travel didn’t actually exist. But then I thought about all the utterly horrible things that have happened over time, like the Holocaust and felt guilty for thinking that. “Hello? Anyone home?” Dan waved a hand in front of my face. I shook myself. “Sorry. Got lost in a thought spiral.” Dan just shook his head and didn’t ask. I supposed he was used to me doing that.

“Pancakes?” I wrinkled up my nose. “Are they going to be edible?” Dan narrowed his eyes at me. “Of course. I’ve learned a bit in the past couple of years I’ll have you know.” “Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.” “Challenge accepted.” The front door banged open. “What smells so good?” Liam came into the kitchen, red faced and sweaty. “Dan’s actually learned how to cook,” I said. “Even if it is only pancakes.” Liam shot me a quick, small smile.

See, we can be normal, it seemed to say. “Awesome.” “So what are we doing with Jen’s last day?” Dan asked brightly, expertly flipping the pancakes in the pan. Both boys looked at me. I shrugged. “What do you want to do?” Liam asked. “I don’t care. Just chilling with you two sounds pretty good to me. It’s been a pretty action packed week,” I said. I accepted the plate of pancakes that Dan passed me. “Maple syrup?” I asked, hopefully. Liam got up and rustled around in a couple of cupboards. “Huzzah! I knew I had some

somewhere.” He held up the maple syrup triumphantly. We ended up venturing out for a late lunch at a brewpub, talking about anything other than relationships or feelings or anything like that. I was starting to get used to the extra attention Liam got. When we had to wait twenty minutes to leave, because Liam was surrounded by a pack of Japanese tourists who all wanted individual photos and autographs, I felt like I’d made the right decision. Dan shook his head. “He has way more patience than me. I’d be telling them to get lost and leave me alone.”

“Probably a good thing he’s the one with the profile and reputation to maintain and not you then.” “Probably,” Dan echoed. I could see him watching me out of the corner of my eye. “You okay? Really?” “Yeah, I’m fine. Really.” Well, I would be. I waved goodbye. Liam and Dan both grinned at me and waved back. Camera flashes went off from somewhere. I frowned slightly, and then told myself to ignore it. I turned to see exactly where I was meant to be lining up. When I glanced back at Liam, he was surrounded by a

mob of hyperventilating girls. Dan had been pushed to the side. I felt like rolling my eyes, but then remembered how star struck I’d been meeting some of Liam’s friends, especially Lily. I guess I couldn’t really blame them.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN “Welcome home!” Sammy and Mel grinned at me. I smiled wanly back. I was so tired. I’d barely slept a wink on the plane, despite the oh so comfortable seats in First Class. It would be hard, facing Economy Class seats again, that was for sure. I wrestled my suitcase into the boot of my car and climbed into the backseat.

“Do you want to drive? Or even the front seat?” one of the girls asked. “It’s your car after all.” “Too tired,” I groaned. “Too tired to tell us how your trip was?” Sammy wheedled. “It was good.” I yawned and closed my eyes. Liam’s face flashed through my mind. “We need to get some coffee into you, stat,” Mel said. “Or a bed,” I groaned. For some reason I didn’t want to tell them about the whole first class thing. It just felt a bit weird. Although I belatedly realised Sammy had probably flown at least business class more than once. Her

parents weren’t exactly the type to shlep it in economy. I’d met her folks a couple of times. They were lovely people, but it was still hard to reconcile the free loving hippie that was their daughter with the conservative free-market loving parents. Just being a spectator on Sammy and her father’s debates was entertaining and eye-opening. Sammy drove us back to her house. They peppered me with questions the whole way, my answers getting shorter and shorter. “Why didn’t you update your Facebook?” Sammy asked. “We had to venture into parts of the internet I’ve never been and never want to go again to

get some of the pictures of your trip. That must have been weird, being photographed all the time.” “Yeah, it was. I dunno how he puts up with it. I kind of thought they’d stop after he and Holly were done…” “Your kids will think you’re famous,” Mel said. “And you looked wonderful at the premiere.” “Thanks, I had a lot of help. Oh, guess who I saw over there! Kat from uni! Did you know she’s with Nico Campana?!” “What?!” Sammy exclaimed. Mel looked between us, a bemused look on her face. “You didn’t know?”

Sammy and I both shook our heads. “You two fail gossip 101, obviously. She was having an affair with him back at uni. I heard all about it then.” “Oh…” “How did I not know this?” Sammy shook her head. I sat back and listened to them banter and judge. Another reason I knew I’d made the right decision. I could just imagine old acquaintances gossiping and speculating about me, and my famous lover/friend/whatever we were, and the thought made me burn with humiliation. Sammy turned to me after they seemed to get bored with the Kat and

Nico topic. “Hey, did you hear from Will at all?” I shook my head. “Nah.” “Oh… he said he really liked you and you had a good time before you left. I think he wants to see you again.” “This feels so high school, you running messages in between us,” I said with a laugh. To be honest, I’d been so wrapt up in Liam, I’d barely even given Will a second thought. “Yeah, we had a nice day. I think he’s an even bigger nerd than I am. It was nice,” I continued. “So do you want to see him again? Like for a date?” Sammy asked.

“Wait, what happened with Liam?” Mel turned around and demanded. “He looked pretty enthralled with you on some of those red carpet photos and videos. “He did?” I shook myself. That was before… No, don’t go there, I told myself. “Yup, totally,” Mel said. “So did anything happen?” Sammy asked curiously, her eyes flicking to mine in the rearview mirror. I paused, and then shook my head slowly. “No. Like I keep saying; we’re just good friends.” “Riiiiight.”

I closed my eyes again. My heart had started pounding again for no reason and I felt a bit clammy. “So, back to my marvellous friend Will…” “You’re so pushy,” Mel laughed. “I know, I know. But do you want to see him again?” I watched the city skyscrapers coming closer. I had had fun with him. He was a nice, decent, normal bloke. No dramas there, or crowds forming wherever we went. “Yeah, I think I would like that.” “Excellent. I think he’s free this afternoon.” “This afternoon?” I yelped.

“Well, when else? You’re about to disappear back to the countryside. Who knows when you’ll venture back to the big bad city?” “But… jet lag… I’m so tired.” “Well, when are you going home?” I yawned, covering it up too late. “Well I was planning on driving today, but maybe I should wait until tomorrow. I probably shouldn’t drive in this state.” Sammy nodded. “How about you relax today at my place, see Will in the morning for a coffee, and then drive back to the middle of nowhere?” I thought for a moment. “Yeah, all right then.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Sammy demanded. “Send the poor man a text.” Will frowned at me. “You never told me your friend was Liam Burns.” I squirmed. Yikes. We’d barely gotten the polite hellos and how are you’s out of the way. We hadn’t even reached the cafe yet. “Yeah. Sorry. I don’t usually bandy it about.” “It was a bit of a shock to see your photo in the paper.” “I was in the paper?” I hadn’t realised. Will nodded. “You looked nice,” he said after a minute.

“Oh. Thanks. I hope you don’t expect me to look like that ever again,” I tried to laugh. “I had three people help get me ready to look like that.” “Are you two a thing?” Will stopped walking and turned to face me. “I hate to be so blunt, but I like you, Jen. And I suspect this has the potential to develop into something more. I just need to know if I have to compete with Liam Burns.” I stood there, speechless. After a minute, I realised my mouth was hanging open. I shut it with more force than I’d meant to. Rubbing my jaw, I said, “No competition.” “Are you sure?” he asked earnestly.

I nodded. I wasn’t though. I wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

CHAPTER NINETEEN Another day done and dusted. The end of the year was in sight. The kids had made me laugh more than once today. Not always for the best of reasons, but laugh nonetheless. I don’t know why it had taken them so long, but some of the Year 9 girls started asking how old I was. I’d already had this conversation with my other

classes, so I supposed it was inevitable. “Miss? How old are you?” Tayla (not to be confused with Taylah in Year 8 or Taylor in Year 11) asked while handing in her assignment. A few of the other kids sitting nearby perked up (probably anything to distract them from researching their questions about the Battle of Frommeles). “How are your maths skills?” I quipped back. Can’t make it too easy for them. “I was born in 1990.” “You’re thirty-five?! Wow! You look young, Miss!” I felt a very strong desire to bang my head against my desk. The girls next to her sniggered. Tayla’s friend Aminah

came to her rescue and whispered in her ear. “Oh…. Oops. Yeah, I failed my last maths test,” Tayla said, blasély. I felt like banging my head against the desk again. Tayla would have to be one of the most immature high schoolers I’d ever met. “So, Miss, are you and Liam Burns together now?” Marnie asked me breathlessly. I jumped, almost spilling the box of dictionaries I’d checked out from the library. I was really getting sick of students asking me what words meant, or if they could use this word instead of that word. The had amazing computers at

their fingertips, yet they asked me, the person at the front of the room who had a memory like a sieve. To hide that deficit, I’d started telling them to look it up in a dictionary (which was a good habit to develop anyway), but to my consternation only two of the kids even had dictionaries. When I’d told them to look it up on their phones (seeing as they were doing everything else on their damn phones - like I really can’t tell somethings up when you’re grinning at your crotch!) they would claim they didn’t have internet access. So, old fashioned dictionaries it was. “Hello, Marnie,” I said guardedly. Marnie just looked up at me

expectantly. I stared flatly back. “Do you really think that’s an appropriate thing to ask your teacher?” I said after a moment. My words seemed to wash right over the young girl. “You looked beautiful in the pics with him,” she said. “Uh, thanks, Marnie…” “So, are you going to go to more? Is he your boyfriend now? Are you going to get married?” “Woah, steady on. Marnie, you really need to learn how to mind your own business.” Marnie rolled her eyes and walked off. I shook my head.

There was an email from my sister waiting for me when I got back to my desk. I felt a twinge of guilt. I’d flown all the way across the Pacific Ocean and not bothered to do the relatively quick flight up to Vancouver to see her. Hello sister dearest of mine, What’s up? I saw some photos of you and Liam at something formal the other day - you guys both looked great. I wish you’d had time to pop up to Vancouver to see me though! All the way across the Pacific, and you don’t even visit your dear old sister. Tsk, tsk. How was your trip anyway? I assume

Liam’s moved since the last time I visited him. Everything’s pretty good up here. Ryan says hi. We both got new jobs within the past month or so, and by pure coincidence our offices are just around the corner from each other. It’s nice. We have lunch together and it’s all very pleasant and sappy. The new job is good - bit more fulfilling that the last one, although a few of the women are a bit bitchy. Don’t believe the propaganda - not all Canadians are nice and polite! Speaking of jobs, how is the old school treating you? I rang Dad the other day. He seemed okay. Is he? I’ll have a few

week of leave banked by his birthday (and the anniversary… I think I need to be around for that) in March, I thought I might try and plan a trip for then. Damn you teachers and your long holidays! I only get 3 weeks! Which is better than the 2 weeks I got at the last company, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. Let me know when you’re free and want to chat, and I’ll give you a call. Been too long since I heard your stupid voice. Take care, and give Dad a big hug for me. Lots of love, Steph xox

— I looked at the pile of assignments I’d collected from the Year 9’s. Replying to my sister certainly seemed like a more pleasant option than correcting those. Hey Steph, Thanks for the email. I wish I’d had time to come visit you up in Canada as well, but alas. I will try and come over again soon, this time without a movie premiere to go to! Congrats on the new jobs. To Ryan as well. Where’s he working? Hopefully the bitchy women ease up. I know what

that can be like, but thankfully everyone’s actually pretty nice at school at the moment. To me, at least. I’m keeping my head out of any of the politics. Trying to keep a low profile, if you will. Which has been a bit harder when Liam keeps turning up, and now the premiere. Oh well, I’m sure it will all blow over soon. The Year 8 girls are rather obsessed though, and keep showing me when a story pops up (usually on some stupid tabloid) about me and Liam. Or Liam and Holly. Or Liam and his pet dog. He doesn’t even have a pet dog! Not yet, anyway. I think I’m going to have to discourage them a

bit more - it’s so weird, seeing pictures of yourself, and finding out all of this information about your life that you had no idea of! If you happen to see the story where Liam and I eloped two months ago and I’m pregnant with twins, you can safely ignore it. I kept writing, telling her all about the premiere, and parties, and life in Los Angeles. I didn’t mention the whole hooking up with Liam thing. It was a complete change of pace coming back home. Obviously. Dad is doing okay. He’s opening some of his mail, and the chooks are all still alive,

and he’s made me dinner a couple of times. I was a bit worried there for awhile. I had to pay a few of his bills for him because his electricity was about to be cut off. He hadn’t opened any of the letters. He’s still not going to his counselling sessions very often, but Mr Dennis has been coming over, and they seem to be helping each other. I don’t know if you remember her much, but Mrs Dennis died about 10 years ago. They were both actually out in the garden when I went over the other night. Garden’s still a total mess though. Sometimes hard to remember what it used to look like… It would be great to have you home

next year. Maybe we could go to that beach house in Port Fairy Mum loved or something. Or do you think that would be too hard for him? I don’t know. Anyway, Better go. Have a pile of assignments to go over, as usual. I should stop setting any… Miss you, Lots of love, Jen xoxo I hit send and then eyed the assignments. May as well get started. They wouldn’t mark themselves, and I had nothing better to do. I got through

half of them before I wanted to rip my eyes out. Some of them were okay, a few were good, and one was brilliant, but about half of them made me wonder if I was speaking gobbledegook up the front of the room. Or written the instructions in a rare form of archaic French instead of modern English. I pushed them away from me with a sigh and made them Future-Jen’s problem. The staffroom was almost empty. I could hear someone rustling some papers on the other side of the bookshelves, but apart from that I was alone. I kind of liked it. I sat there contemplating life outside the window for endless minutes, tapping my pen

against my lips. What did I want out of life? To be happy was the main thing. I wasn’t concerned with being rich, or wildly successful. Just happy and comfortable. No dramas. No attention. My thoughts drifted to Liam. I missed him. More than I liked to admit. I didn’t want to miss him, not any more than I missed Dan, or Mel, or my sister. I checked my watch. Time to go. Dad had invited me over for dinner again. He said he’d make risotto. He hadn’t made risotto since Mum had died, so I was tentatively looking forward to it. Risotto had always been one of Mum’s favourite meals. Out of habit, I checked my emails

again before leaving. The usual school bulletin emails, and a reminder for the English faculty meeting the next afternoon. Yawn. I quickly refreshed my personal email, even though these days I got more spam than real emails. I blinked rapidly, palms instantly sweaty. Liam. I clicked on it, missing the first time. From: L B To: Jen Pike Dear Jen, Wow. That sounds formal. Maybe I should start again. Hi Jen.

I miss you. I miss you a lot, and not in the normal friendly way that I used to miss you. You’re an amazing, beautiful person and I want to be by your side. Always and forever. I guess it’s as simple as that. I know being with me isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but I honestly think we’re worth it. You’re worth it, and I’ll do anything to be with you. I mean that. Anything. You name it. I want to be with you. Properly. Just think about it, Love, your Liam. I read it over again. And then again once more. I shut the laptop and packed

up before I could read it yet again.

“You seem preoccupied, love.” I jumped, cursed and quickly turned the tap off. The jug I’d been filling was overflowing. “Sorry, Dad. I was just thinking…” “Oh? Anything you want to talk to your old man about?” I looked at Dad properly. He was actually focused on me. Proper, fatherly concern, like I hadn’t seen for a long time. I shrugged. Dad just raised an eyebrow at me. “I know I’m not as good as your

mother to talk about stuff, but I hope you know you can still talk to me. If you ever want to.” I blinked. Some dust must have gotten in my eye. I put the jug down and gave Dad a quick hug. “Thanks, Dad.” He turned, picked up a knife and started chopping up garlic. He didn’t say anything else. I poured myself a glass of water and drank it, wondering if I could actually talk to my father about this. “How did you know Mum was the right woman for you?” I asked, eventually. Dad put the knife down and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. Ah crap, I

thought. We usually avoided the topic of Mum these days. “Your mother…” Dad started after a moment. “How did I know?” I nodded, willing him to find the strength to go on and hoping I hadn’t just set him back months of progress. “Your mother wasn’t like the other girls.” “What do you mean?” Dad picked up the knife again and continued preparing his ingredients, talking at the same time. A small smile flittered around his mouth as he spoke. “She had dreams, ambitions. I liked that.” “What, and the other girls didn’t?”

“Oh, I suppose they did, in their own way. But like I said, your mother was different. She lit up the room, as soon as she came in. I could almost feel it when she was around. And she could always make me laugh, no matter what else was going on. And the way she looked at me, well it felt like I was the only thing that mattered in the world.” He sighed. “I’m not explaining this very well, am I? Your mother was the one who was good with words.” “Yes, well she was an author…” I said with half a smile. “You’re doing fine, Dad. Really.” He was silent for a moment, contemplating an onion.

“I didn’t grow this,” he said. “Uh, no… I bought it at the shop,” I said and wondered if there was something wrong with it. “I always used to grow the onions. And the garlic.” He looked down the bench and waved his hand. “And all the rest of it.” I just nodded, I didn’t know what to say. “I’ve neglected the vegetable garden. Your mother would be very disappointed in me.” “Oh, Dad…” An hour later, we were seated out on the back patio, steaming bowls of risotto

in front of us. Dad had left me stirring the risotto in the kitchen while he’d gone out and started attacking the weeds that had run rampant in the veggie garden over the past year or so. Dad was frowning out over the garden, muttering to himself about all of the work he needed to do. I almost felt like cheering. He hadn’t shown this much interest for a long, long time. “Dad?” “Yes, love?” “What do you think of Liam?” Dad’s eyes flashed from the overgrown garden to me. “He’s a good lad,” Dad said slowly. “Is that what you mean? You know your

mother and I both think… thought he’s wonderful.” “Yeah,” I said glumly. “I think he’s pretty wonderful too.” “Did something…” Dad stopped, seemed to think better of it, and then started again. “Did something happen on your trip?” he asked tentatively, not looking at me anymore. I almost laughed. Dad was actually embarrassed. “Kind of. Yeah. But…” Gee, I wasn’t much better than my father. Definitely took after him and not Mum. “I don’t know, Dad. He wants us to be together… like, together together.”

“He loves you?” Dad asked. “Something like that,” I mumbled. “And how do you feel?” I shrugged, and looked out over the garden, avoiding Dad’s gaze. “I don’t know,” I said after a moment. “I guess I’ve always felt something for him, but…” “But?” I sighed. “His life is crazy. He gets practically stalked by grown men with giant cameras, girls come up to him all the time, people make up stupid stories about him… us…” “I thought you stopped reading those silly magazines.” “I did… until they started writing

about me!” Dad blinked. “They wrote about you?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Ignore them. Most people know they’re a pile of rubbish.” I pushed the risotto around my bowl. “If Liam wasn’t famous, and he asked you out, what would you do?” I contemplated my risotto for a few minutes. “Say yes,” I said grudgingly after a minute. “Well there you go,” Dad said, as if it were that easy. “But -” “No buts. Yes, his life is a bit intense right now, but it won’t always be. Liam’s a good lad, and I think you two

could be very happy together. That doesn’t come along very often, Jennifer.” We ate the rest of our meal in silence. I wondered if Dad was right. I pulled my journal out when I got home and found my favourite pen. What do I want out of life? To be happy is the main thing, I think. I feel like I’m standing on a precipice right now. If I choose Liam, then everything changes. Drastically. If I don’t choose him, and maybe see if anything develops with Will… then… well, life seems more predictable. We’re both teachers. Sensible people. Liam… his

lifestyle - my lifestyle would be thrown upside down. I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe I should write a pros and cons list? I guess I have a pretty big decision to make, but I feel almost paralysed. I feel like I’m standing on a precipice, about to fall off. How will I land? The decision I make now could affect me for the rest of my life. That’s a scary thing about your twenties that no one really points out. What university you choose (if any), what course you enrol in, which Halls of Residence you end up in, what job you apply for/accept… which boy to choose… all of these

decisions could vastly change the direction your life takes. If I were to see how things with Liam went… what would my life look like? Is it something I want? What about Will? They’re both kind of hypothetical at the moment, but they’re both great guys and I could see myself being happy with either of them. I’ve never really believed in the whole soul mate thing. Mathematically and logically it just doesn’t make sense. There are over seven billion people on this planet right now. Surely I could be happy with more than just one particular person? Surely I could make

more than one person happy? When I was younger, I remember thinking how horrible it would be if your perfect soulmate was born 100 years before you. Or a thousand. What if the perfect person for me, the person I click with, feel secure, can laugh, support each other, make each other tingle even after ten/twenty years together… what if they were born in Ancient Egypt? Or prehistoric Britain? Or medieval Japan? But then I think, we are such a product of our times and upbringing. I’d struggle to have a relationship with a devout Christian who literally believed in Genesis. How would I go

with someone who believed in Ra and the Egyptian afterlife? Or someone who didn’t get my lame Harry Potter jokes? Or thought it was pointless educating women? I’m rambling, I know. Liam and Will are both products of our time, as am I. We have similar political and social beliefs. I just… I’ve had this stupid fluctuating crush on Liam for over a decade. Do I owe it to myself to see where it goes? What if Will, or someone else is my perfect match though? Ugh. “Jen, can I see you when you have a

chance?” The school principal came up to me after briefing two mornings after dinner at Dad’s, looking grave. I’d spent most of briefing thinking more about Liam’s stupid email than focusing on what the vice-principal had been saying. “Uh, yeah sure.” I mentally went over my timetable. “I’m not teaching period 2, does that work?” Mr Buchanan nodded and then hurried off. I stared after him, heart rate instantly higher. I wiped my palms absentmindedly on my skirt. Jacinta came up behind me. “Why do you look like someone just told you to jump off a cliff?”

I shook myself. “Oh. Nothing. Buchanan just asked to see me. He hasn’t done that since my second day to see how I was fitting in.” Jacinta frowned after the retreating back of our principal and then shrugged. “Maybe he just wants to see check in?” “Or maybe I’ve done something wrong. All that stuff with Liam was too disruptive or some parents complained or I suck at my job or something horrible.” Jacinta laughed at me, making me relax slightly. “It’s probably nothing. Don’t stress about it.”

“I’ll try not to. I’ve got my final Year 11 class this morning.” “Nice. A bit of freedom coming our way soon! I love the end of the year. Year 12’s are gone, Year 11’s are finishing up. Before we know it the 10’s will be gone too and it will just be us and the little 7-9 devils. When are you seeing Buchanan?” “Period 2.” “All right. Well, let me know what he wanted at recess.” She patted my arm. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” I nodded and picked up my supplies. The bell was about to go and I wanted to get to class before the corridor turned into a jungle fight.

I managed to put the puzzle of the principal out of my mind for most of the lesson, although the clammy hands came back as soon as the bell went. I dumped my stuff on my desk and then walked slowly up to the principal’s office. The door was open, and he was sitting at his desk, looking over some paperwork. I took a deep breath and knocked. He looked up and gestured for me to come in and close the door. Uh oh. “Jen. Thanks. Take a seat.” I sat down rather tentatively. Mr Buchanan took a deep breath and looked up at me. “I won’t beat about the bush. We

have another maternity leave teacher who has indicated that she would like to resume teaching next year. It’s not the teacher you replaced, but she is english and humanities as well, and to be blunt we just don’t have the students or funding for another teacher in your department. At the moment, we don’t have another position for you.” Crap. “Oh… I see.” “Please don’t take it personally, we’ve been extremely happy with you here, and you’re a fantastic asset to the profession. Unfortunately it just comes down to numbers.” “I… I understand. It’s okay.”

The principal nodded. “I’m sorry to do this to you, this part of the job is never good.” I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just stayed silent. “I understand,” I eventually managed to splutter out. “If anything changes, and we can keep you here, I’ll let you know.” “Thanks, I appreciate it.” I got up and walked out of the office feeling dazed, and yet slightly free. I’d anticipated being in Tarang for at least another year. If not longer. “Hey, how’d it go?” Jacinta asked as soon as I sunk down into my desk chair. “Ummm….” I started.

“What?” Jacinta asked, warily. “I’m not coming back next year.” “What!” Alarmed. “It’s okay. It’s nothing I did. I don’t think. Another maternity leave person is coming back. There’s not enough students…” “Bullshit.” “Huh?” I looked up. Jacinta looked livid. “It’s not fair! They can’t just kick you out because some mother is sick of her kids and wants to come back!” I blinked. “Well, they can. That’s kind of the whole point of mat leave,” I said with a faint laugh. “Oh I know,” Jacinta grumbled. “It’s

just not fair to the people who fill in for them. How are you meant to plan anything when half the jobs being advertised are just mat leave positions which could be six months, or could be seven years. It’s crazy.” Jacinta paused and fiddled with her whiteboard marker. “Well, I suppose I’ll think it’s crazy until it’s me whose popping out babies, and then I’ll think it’s a great system,” she said with a self-deprecating laugh. “It’s okay, really,” I said. “Staying in Tarang was never a long term plan for me.” “Yeah, I know…” Jacinta sighed. “I’ll miss you,” she said.

I was a bit nervous about telling Dad that I’d be moving back to the city next year, and not staying after all, but he took it better than I expected. After making sure I was okay, he said that there wasn’t enough for me in the town anyway. “Move back when you’re older and have kids. This isn’t much of a place for someone your age, Jen. Not with your ambitions.” “What ambitions?” I laughed. Dad shrugged. “Look around at the girls in your year level who stayed. What are they all doing?” I quickly ran through my mental list. Babies. They’d all had babies. Some were on to their second, and one was

even on to her third. None of them had been to university. One of them had even told me she was scared to go to Melbourne. It was too big and scary. “Okay yeah. I’m not ready for babies yet.” “I want grandchildren one day, don’t get me wrong. But I think for now, you should explore the world.” “I was just thinking of going back to Melbourne… but maybe if I can’t find a job there, I could go to London…” I mused out loud. “Or Los Angeles?” I shot a look at Dad. “I don’t know what’s going on there. I don’t think I want to live in Los Angeles. His house

is very nice though…” “Always knew you were the materialistic daughter.” I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue. I left Dad’s with a smile. We hadn’t joked around since before Mum died. I kept re-reading Liam’s email, but I didn’t reply. I didn’t know what to say. I started typing out replies at least a dozen times, deleting them all. Then it started feeling like it had been too long. My cheek was getting a bit raw from chewing it so much. I’d made it. The last day of school

for the year! It was a slacker of a day; the kids weren’t even there. They’d had their last day the day before. Which was definitely a good thing, because Liam turned up at lunch time.

CHAPTER TWENTY The piece of paper I’d been holding floated to the floor. I barely noticed. Liam was holding court in the middle of the staff room. Mrs Findley, the drama teacher, was all but fawning over him. Jacinta was having a hard time tearing her eyes away from him, and the trio of office ladies couldn’t stop giggling. I slowly walked over to them,

wondering if this was real, or if I was just having a particularly vivid dream. Liam’s gaze met mine and I felt a bolt of electricity run down my spine. “What are you doing here?” I demanded. “I was feeling a bit nostalgic, so I thought I’d drop in and say hi.” There was the award winning smile. Jacinta swooned. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “That’s… nice,” I managed to get out. Liam looked hungrily at me. I couldn’t keep eye contact for long and mumbled something about needing to photocopy something and escaped. I could feel Liam’s eyes on my back as I

walked out. I leant against the copy machine and closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths to try and steady my pounding heart. “You never replied to my email,” Liam said. I opened my eyes. He was leaning on the door to the photocopy room. I drank him in. As gorgeous as usual. Slightly tired looking. Stubble a bit longer than he usually had it. “No… I didn’t know what to write,” I said truthfully. Liam cocked his head at me. “What are you really doing here?” Liam looked behind him. A lot of people suddenly needed to do things near the photocopy room.

“Can we go somewhere else?” I glanced down at my watch. “I’ll be free in an hour.” “Okay. I’ll meet you back here.” I nodded, feeling dazed. True to his word, Liam was back in an hour. My desk was all empty, ready for whoever would take my job next year. I looked around, slightly sadly, but mostly with relief. I didn’t think I’d ever be back here again. I did my rounds, said my goodbyes and see you laters, got wished good luck by almost everyone. “Thanks again, Jen, for all your hard work. Have you got anything lined up for next year yet?” Mr Buchanan held out his

hand. I shook it. “No, not yet. I think I’ll head back to Melbourne, although I’m not entirely sure yet.” “Well, remember, I’m happy to give you a glowing reference if you ever need one.” “Thank you.” And that was it. I pulled my bag over my shoulder, took one last look at the old school photos lining the hallway. I paused in front of the one taken when I was in Year 12. I was in the middle of the three boys. All of them towered over me, all with identical crazy grins. I smiled sadly. We had no idea that one of us would be dead and gone within the

year. You never know what’s around the corner, do you. I walked out the front doors. Liam was true to his word and waiting for me by the gate. For once, no one was surrounding him. No photographers lurking, or fans wanting autographs. I smiled in relief. His eyes didn’t leave me as I walked up the path towards him. “I’ve missed you,” he said simply when I reached him. “I’ve missed you to,” I replied quietly and gave him a hug. It felt stupidly right, being in his arms. “You can let go now,” I laughed

when the hug went on way longer than usual. He smiled sheepishly at me. “Shall we go for a walk around the lake?” I nodded. The lake was one of the prettiest parts of the town, and conveniently quite close to the school. “All done for the year then?” Liam asked conversationally. “Yup. All done.” “What are you teaching next year? Same classes?” I shook my head. “I’m not.” “Huh?” “I’m not working there next year.” “Oh…” We kept walking. It was quiet, apart

from the birds going bonkers in the trees. “Have you got another job lined up?” Liam asked after a few minutes of slightly awkward silence. “Nope. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I guess I’ll try and find a job back in Melbourne.” Liam was silent. I glanced at him. He looked like he was mulling something over. “What are you doing here?” I asked again. His eyes locked onto mine. “I told you. I missed you. And you never answered my email.” “So you flew all the way from Los Angeles to…” To do what?

“From Vancouver actually. We finished filming yesterday. Your sister said to say hi.” “You saw Steph?” Liam nodded. “Yeah, we had dinner a few times. Her new fella seems like a nice guy.” “Yeah…” I wondered why Steph hadn’t mentioned hanging out with Liam. “Want to sit for a bit?” We’d reached a nice little grove that had a wooden bench ready for us. Liam took a deep breath. “I can’t get you out of my head, Jen.” I gazed at him helplessly. Truthfully I couldn’t get him out of my head either,

but I didn’t know how to say it, and still keep my sanity. “I know my life is pretty crazy. But I can’t… I don’t want to live it without you.” “Liam…” “So, I have a proposition for you. Just hear me out, please.” I nodded. He reached out and held my hand. “I love you, Jen.” I blinked. Love. He loved me. Not just lust, or like or fondness. Love. He stared at me, waiting for me to say something. “That’s not fair, Liam. You know I love you. I’ve loved you for as long as I

can remember. It’s not about that…” I gazed off over the lake. It was easier to look at than his hurt face. “I’m going to take a year or so off. Maybe more.” “What?” I turned to look at him again. He was staring at me intently. “I’m gonna take next year off,” he repeated. “I need a break from all this.” “But… what about your career?” “I want to be a normal twentysomething year old again. I’m sick of my picture being taken all the time and getting followed and recognised. I want to go backpacking.” “Where?” I asked, slightly dazed. Liam shrugged. “South America

looks nice. Maybe Europe. South-East Asia. I don’t know - anywhere. I’ll grow a beard, let my hair grow out. I’ll look proper hippie, no one will recognise me.” I snorted. “You’re serious?” “Deadly.” “You’re crazy, you know that? What about your career?” Liam shrugged. “Some things are more important. I can always go back if I want to. I have more than enough money to last me the rest of my life, so I don’t need to worry about that… you wouldn’t need to worry about that.” “Me?” “Come with me. Come travelling

with me. You said yourself you don’t have a job or any commitments next year. Mum told me your Dad is doing a lot better too, so you wouldn’t have to worry about him as much.” “I… I don’t know what to say.” I definitely had not been expecting this. If anything I had thought he would ask me to drop my life and trail around after him while he made movies and got even more famous. Not drop off the face of the earth together. “Say you’ll come with me.” I paused. He looked at me, his beautiful beseeching eyes locked on mine. “Yes. I’ll come with you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Six months later… “Have you ever met my Uncle Andrew? He’s the one who suggested to the vegetarian that the solution to the crazy possums in my roof was a shot gun.” Liam laughed. We were lying on a beautiful beach in Vietnam. Liam had

gone three whole weeks without being recognised, and he was loving it. He usually introduced himself as Charlie, his brother’s name. He’d said he’d been called Charlie enough times as a kid by various relatives and even his mother, that it was second nature to answer to it. “Sorry,” he snorted. “I’m just trying to imagine you with a shot gun.” He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. “Kind of like when we went horse riding. I don’t think you should give up civilisation anytime soon, my love.” I rolled my eyes at him. “At least I can light a fire. A skill I know you lack.” “With our powers combined…”

“We may be able to survive a short power outage,” I giggled. “We should learn some actual skills,” Liam said, suddenly sober. “Like, I mean, what if everything goes to shit? What would we do? I can hot wire a car? You’re scared of possums and won’t kill anything. We could probably manage to light a fire thanks to Scouts, but what would we cook on it? A koala? I heard that they taste gross.” “It’s okay. Apparently you can eat that native grass that grows up the mountain. It doesn’t taste very good, but it’s good for you. Well, you won’t starve… I don’t know about scurvy.” “Great. We’re doomed. Grass and

koalas.” I wrinkled my nose. “I’m not eating a poor koala.” “Just grass for you then,” he laughed and pulled me closer to him. “I love you.” “I love you too.” I kissed him, long and sensuous, suddenly very glad that we had a private room for tonight.