Destined for the Star (Starstruck) (20 page)

”I’m so sorry, Liv, but it
is
true. Some even say they are already secretly married. See that gold ring she keeps fidgeting with, on her right hand?”
 

Olivia looked closer and saw the ring in question, a simple gold band, that the actress kept fingering, a secretive smile on her face whenever she looked at it.
 

Olivia felt dizzy and sick. Was she having a nightmare? It certainly felt like it. Or was this some elaborate and very cruel practical joke someone was pulling on her? But who would do such a thing? Sasha would never do that to her.
 

”I don’t understand,” she breathed.
 

”I know this is a shock to you, sweetie, and a lot to take in all at once, but just listen to me, please. I’ll try and explain what I’ve found out.” When Olivia didn’t respond, Sasha just went ahead.

”You remember how Nate’s name sounded familiar to me, when you first told me about him?”

Olivia nodded slowly. She felt as if there was a great divide between her and reality. She simply couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing and hearing.
 

”Well, I couldn’t remember why his name seemed so familiar to me then, so I forgot about it. Until today, when I was reading the paper, Aftonbladet, on my way home from work and I happened upon this article.”

She fell quiet.

”What article?” Olivia asked.

”Here it is,” Sasha said quietly and pulled out a torn off piece of newspaper.
 

The headline read:

’Time-traveler stars to become parents?’

And then there was a picture of Nate and Julia standing close together at what looked like a movie première. He was gorgeous, of course, looking dapper in a stylish dark suit. Julia looked breathtakingly beautiful in a pale pink gown. All the more so because of the look of love that lit up her face as she looked up at Nate and he smiled down at her. The fingers of her right hand, with the gold ring clearly visible, were tucked a little bit inside Nate’s shirt between a couple of the buttons, resting on his stomach, as if she were tenderly caressing his skin. It was such an intimate gesture, Olivia felt something break inside her. She knew she really ought not to, but she couldn’t stop herself from reading the article.
 

It said that the Time-traveler stars, now on a tour of Europe to promote the fifth and last installment of their hugely successful movie franchise, ’The Time Traveler’s Tale’, were thought to be expecting their first child together, after Julia had been spotted sporting a small baby bump. There was a small insert of the purported bump, but it could also have been a mirage caused by the cut of her clothes.
 

Still, what was hard to contest, was the fact that Julia had been spotted buying a pregnancy test at a pharmacy in Beverly Hills the week before. It was apparently all over Twitter. The fans of the two stars were said to be delirious with happiness at the news of their idols procreating.
 

’Although the notoriously private couple has yet to publicly confirm their relationship, after more than four years of them living together at Montgomery’s luxurious Hollywood Hills home, not many still doubt that their off-screen romance is every bit as steamy as their on-screen ditto.’

Olivia dropped the piece of paper to the floor and just sat there staring at the screen where the press conference was still playing. She reached to turn if off, when a question from one of the reporters caught her attention.
 

”So, Julia, are there any babies in your near future?”

Olivia watched in horror as Julia looked over at Nate with a smile and said:

”You never know.”

That prompted the next question for Nate.

”Nathan, are you looking forward to starting a family any time soon?” the same reporter called out.
 

Nate looked down, a small smile playing on his lips, and then he looked out at the journalists.
 

”I’ll steal Julia’s answer to that one. You never know.” He turned his head to Julia and winked.
 

Olivia suddenly shot up and ran to the bathroom, Sasha following closely behind. She just made it to the toilet before she hurled violently into it. Her stomach heaved and heaved until it was completely empty. She was vaguely aware of Sasha standing over her, gently holding her hair out of the way. The pain she felt inside was excruciating. She didn’t know if she could take it without losing her mind. Everything she believed about Nate and about the love they shared, was a lie. He didn’t really love her. He was in love with someone else, they were starting a family together. He lived with that woman. Still, a small part of her refused to believe what she had seen at the press conference and what she had read.
 

”No,” she murmured, ”it’s not true, he loves me. He loves me, I know he does.” She started crying.

”Olivia, honey, I’m so sorry, but he lied to you,” Sasha said, stroking her hair gently. ”He’s an actor, that’s what he does for a living. Pretending to be somebody else. He’s good at that, he wouldn’t be such a huge movie star if he wasn’t.”

”No! I don’t believe that. He loves me, I know he does,” she repeated stubbornly. ”He said he would never hurt me,” she sobbed.
 

”Liv, sweetie, come here,” Sasha said and drew Olivia into her arms.
 

”He loves me, I know he does. I know he does,” she kept sobbing, clinging to Sasha.
 

Suddenly the twins came running.
 

”What’s going on? Liv, you okay?” Markus asked, panic in his voice.
 

She couldn’t answer - what could she say? ”I just had my heart ripped out and shoved through a meat grinder”? She shut her eyes tightly, and tried to will herself to pass out, so she wouldn’t have to feel this pain. But of course she didn’t.
 

”It’s going to be all right, boys, don’t worry,” she heard Sasha say. ”She’s just had a bit of a shock, that’s all.”

”Why? What happened?” Lukas asked and knelt beside Olivia, awkwardly patting her on the back.
 

Markus asked quietly:

”Can I get you anything, Sis?”

She just shook her head. There was nothing anyone could do now. She just had to live through this, whatever this was. She still wasn’t fully convinced he’d lied to her. But it sure didn’t look good.
 

”Maybe a glass of water for her?” Sasha suggested softly.
 

”Of course, coming right up,” she heard Markus say, immense relief in his voice at being able to do something practical to try and help, however small.
 

”What happened, Sasha?” she heard Lukas ask, as he kept touching her hair soothingly, the way their mother used to when they were kids and woke from bad dreams at night.
 

”I found out who Nate really is,” Sasha finally said.
 

”What do you mean?” Lukas asked, sounding confused. ”Who is he then?”

”Ever heard of the Time-traveler-movies?”

”Sure, who hasn’t?” Lukas said, still confused.

”I hadn’t.” Olivia felt surprise at hearing her own voice all of a sudden.
 

Apparently, so did they, but Sasha recovered quickly.

”Well, I’m betting you’ve never seen one of them, because if you had you would have recognized Nate when you met him.”

”Wait, what are you saying?” Lukas asked, and then he was silent for a few seconds. ”Wait a minute, are you saying Nate is the dude from Time-traveler? No, that can’t be right. That guy’s like huge, like girls go crazy for him all over the planet,” he stammered.
 

Olivia moaned when she heard that.

Suddenly Markus voice broke in.

”Is Nate the guy in Time-traveler? What? No, that can’t be right, he’s a cowboy from Oklahoma, for crying out loud. He’s in the cattle business - you must have gotten things confused, Sasha.”

”Give me the water, Markus, and then you go online and search for Time-traveler part five Paris première. It’s streaming live right now. See for yourself if I’m wrong.”

”No, it’s not true. He loves me,” Olivia murmured to herself, trying to get the images of Nate with Julia to fade away. It didn’t work. Maybe she would never again see anything but the picture of Nate and Julia’s tender red carpet moment when she closed her eyes. She moaned in agony.

Lukas was still stroking her hair.
 

”But Nate can’t be that guy,” he said. ”That dude is with the chick who stars opposite him in the movie. Everybody knows that. It’s been going on, like, forever. I thought they were already married or something, but they can’t go public with it, ’cause his female fans would go crazy if they knew.”

Olivia suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. She stumbled to her feet and headed straight for the coatrack by the door.
 

”Olivia, honey, where are you going?” Sasha was right behind her.

Olivia shoved her feet into her boots and grabbed her winter jacket and purse.
 

”I’m going to the movies,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

”I’ll come with you,” Sasha said, pulling on her jacket in a hurry.

”No!” Olivia exclaimed. ”I want to be alone. I
need
to be alone right now.”

Sasha stopped dead in her tracks. Perhaps she understood that Olivia meant it.

Chapter 15

It wasn’t that hard to find a screening of the ’Time Traveler’, the first installment of what had turned into a hugely successful franchise, catapulting its young stars into instant stardom. Although the first film had come out over four years ago, due to the impending première of the last film of the series the following weekend, one of the big theaters in town was having a special Time-traveler week, playing a movie a night from the series until the big première of the final installment that Friday night. She caught the subway to Medborgarplatsen and bought a ticket.
 

She made it just in time for the nine fifteen screening. The theatre wasn’t completely full, but there were quite a few people there, especially considering it was a Monday night. Most were women of different ages. Apparently the film was ’an epic love story that crosses the boundaries of time and space’ or so the tagline for the movie read.
 

She didn’t know if she was being too masochistic in subjecting herself to the torture it would inevitably be to watch Nate fall in love with another woman. But she had to see for herself if it was really her Nate up there on the screen.
 

He had already called her several times since she left home. She let it go to voicemail every time. Perhaps she was being a coward, but she couldn’t deal with it yet. She just couldn’t. She needed to see him in the film first.
 

She sent a text to Sasha: ”Tell the boys I’m fine. Home in a few hours. Just need to see this with my own eyes. O.” As she wrote the message she had one from Nate. ”Olivia, where are you? Call me asap, I’m worried now that I can’t reach you. I love you more than anything. Nate.”

She snorted as she read it.

”Yeah, right,” she murmured. She angrily turned off her cell and waited for the movie to start.

Her heart was pounding in her chest when Nate appeared on screen a little while into the movie. It was told from the girl’s point of view and she understood why the fans had gone crazy over Nate. He looked like a demigod on film. Still not as beautiful as he was in real life, though, but mind-numbingly sexy. She understood why he had women of all ages, all over the world, tripping over themselves to swoon at his feet.
 

Her heart ached dully as she watched Nate’s character fall in love with Julia’s character in the movie. It was an incredibly dramatic and romantic storyline. A lot of shirtless takes of Nate. Every time his shirt came off, showcasing his perfect torso, the audience shrieked with delight. Olivia felt sick to her core. But what really killed her was the almost palpable chemistry between the two leads. They were looking at each other as if they wanted to eat each other. How could anyone fake that kind of intense attraction?
 

Suddenly she knew Sasha had been right. He wasn’t her Nate, he was Julia’s Nate. And he must have been for the last five years, ever since they met on the set for this movie.
 

She felt her insides go completely numb. Now it was only her actual physical heart still beating in there. The rest had died.
 

She got up and walked slowly out of the theatre, not even noticing when people complained out loud of her obstructing their view.

She didn’t turn on her cell again. Instead she went straight home, so as not to worry the boys and Sasha any more than necessary. She didn’t cry on the way back. She couldn’t feel anything, she felt completely devoid of any emotions. All she wanted now was to go to sleep and preferably not wake up for a very long time.
 

* * *

Sasha was still there when she returned home.
 

”You were right,” Olivia told her. ”They are obviously very much in love with one another. Why on earth would he cheat on her with someone like me?! She’s like a goddess or something.” Olivia kicked off her shoes, suddenly feeling a spark of anger again. ”God, I wish he were here so I could rearrange his perfect face,” she growled between gritted teeth to nobody in particular. No one said anything.

”You can go home now, Sasha. I’ll be fine, I promise. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?” she added, trying for a wry smile but failing miserably.

”Okay, sweetie. Just don’t hesitate to call if you need to talk. Doesn’t matter what time it is. Promise?”
 

”Promise,” she answered glumly. ”And thank you, you are the very best friend imaginable.” She hugged Sasha goodbye. But before she could leave, Lukas blurted:

”He called while you were gone. Well, actually he tried to Skype as we were watching the première on your computer.”

She felt a flurry of butterflies in the pit of her stomach. She chided herself silently for reacting like that. It was over, he would never be hers, she had to stop loving him. She had to. And stop wanting him. He belonged to someone else. Plus he was a giant asshole.