Love Unscripted (2 page)

Everything, for the most part, was calm; that was until the big-named Hollywood actors arrived. With them came the news crews, photographers, and mobs of obsessed fans. It was like having wild, rabid dogs unleashed in the streets. Everyone was in a tizzy.

The biggest commotion, however, was caused by a twenty-six year-old actor turned mega-star overnight…

Ryan Christensen

Six foot two, dirty blond hair, blue eyes, incredible body from what I’ve seen in the magazines that Marie keeps stuffing in my face, and reportedly single again.

Oh, how they all swooned - everyone, except for me.

Marie and several of my female customers were completely flustered just from getting a quick glimpse of him on TV. I was relieved that they didn’t behave like the mob of screaming fans that was shown on the news.

I could never understand what drove women to the point of hysterics when they saw a famous singer or movie star. I remembered seeing video clips of women going out of their minds from seeing Elvis or The Beatles - screaming, crying, and passing out from getting their glimpse. I knew it was thrilling, but there has to be a limit before you lose control of your emotions and behavior. I just couldn’t relate.

Growing up, it wasn’t in my personality to hang pictures of teen heartthrobs on my walls. By the time I was in my teens, I had discovered fine art instead. My bedroom was covered in the classics with my own artwork dotted in between. That was more my style, more… realistic, tangible.

I slid a fresh pitcher of beer over to my current customer. “That’s five-fifty please.” I smiled in return, dancing slightly to the song playing off of my iPod over the pub’s sound system.

One of the firefighters from our local Seaport Fire Department, who was sitting with a group of co-workers at the large, round table in front of me, raised his empty beer pitcher in the air to get my attention.

“
Phil really likes you,” Marie whispered.

“
Who’s Phil?” I asked, pulling my long blond hair back to remove the few strands that annoyingly stuck to the corner of my mouth.

Marie rolled her eyes at me. “Taryn!” she scolded.

“
Sorry, but I don’t know who you’re talking about!” I honestly had no clue who Phil was.

“
Fire Department?” She motioned the direction with her eyes. “The cute guy smiling at you? The one who is recently divorced and now on the open market?”

“
Him?” I pointed with a tilt of my head. “I thought his name was Todd.”

“
No, it’s Phil,” Marie corrected, laughing at my confused expression. “He’s been asking about you.”

I opened a new bottle of vodka, wondering where I ever got the name Todd.

“
Well?” Marie asked impatiently, waiting for my response.

“
Not interested,” I muttered while I prepared a Dirty Martini. Sandy had asked for three olives in this one.

Marie put her fist on her hip, just like she always does when she feels the need to lecture me. I started laughing at her stance; it reminded me of when we were teenagers, leaning on our school lockers and talking about boys.

I was thankful that she at least kept her voice down this time to reprimand me so all the people sitting at the bar wouldn’t hear her every word.

“
Taryn, what’s wrong with him? He is freaking good-looking!” Marie whispered.

I sighed. “Nothing is wrong with him.” I quickly hurried down the long bar to deliver the martini. It didn’t matter how handsome he was; I did not want to be any man’s second choice for a wife.

“
What about Dan over there?” Marie suggested. “That poor guy asks you out at least once a week. He’s adorable too. Or Jeff, or Kevin, or Andy?” She pointed inconspicuously around the pub.

I glanced around at the faces of the men that she was referring to. All of them had asked me to go on a date at one time or another and I had lied to each and every one of them, telling them I already had a boyfriend.

“
You need to give a few of these assholes a chance… you just might find one that fits!” Marie teased me. “Besides, if I had a body like yours, I’d be putting it to good use every day!”

She didn’t need to shake her butt for me to grasp her innuendo.

I rolled my eyes. “No you wouldn’t! And you’ve known me long enough to know I’m not like that either.”

“
Tar, it’s been like eight months. This existence you’re in is not healthy.”

“
Healthy in comparison to what?” I asked. My chest still had a lingering, dull pain from the last man who shattered my heart into a million pieces. I didn’t need to explain further; Marie knew exactly what I meant. “Besides, I like my existence,” I informed her with an exaggerated grin. It was safe – predictable – painless.

“
I just want to see you happy again,” Marie uttered in defeat.

“
Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” Actually I had grown quite accustomed to lying to her, too. Little did she know, I had another stupid dream, or should I say nightmare, about Thomas again this morning.

“
I don’t need some divorced guy on the rebound to make me happy,” I said to her in passing.

“
Ehem, Taryn?” I heard a man’s voice call my name. Phil the fireman was standing at the bar.

Instinctively my shoulders hunched from the fear of having been overheard. I hoped like hell that he didn’t just hear my comment; I would feel awful if he did.

I looked at Marie for confirmation. Her eyes opened wider and she shrugged the slightest bit, which was absolutely no help. I started to panic a little inside; the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt his feelings.

Phil waved a twenty at me and gestured for the new pitcher of beer I still held in my hand.

“
I wanted to ask you if you’ve tried that new steakhouse over by the mall yet?” Phil mumbled nervously, almost to the point that I didn’t understand him. As I processed his question, my eyes closed briefly and I took a deep breath through my nose. This was his opener to ask me on a date.

“
No, I haven’t, but Marie has.” I hurried away to the cash register with his money in hand and punched the keys slowly, trying to figure out how to let him down easy. I could sense what was coming.

“
Do you, I mean, maybe sometime, can I take you there for dinner?” It was hard for him to ask. I felt really bad for him and for what I was about to say next.

“
Phil, that’s very sweet of you to offer, but I’m already seeing someone. I’m sorry.” My candy-coated lie sounded so convincing I almost believed it myself.

“
So who are you dating these days? Your right hand or your left?” Marie jeered when Phil walked away.

I couldn’t help it – some juvenile instinct made me react. I stuck my tongue out at her.

“
You know what your problem is? You need to get laid,” she mumbled under her breath. “And I’m not talking about the do-it-yourself kind of laid either. Just pick one of these guys and go have meaningless, mind-altering, sweaty sex already!”

I retaliated her snide remark by snapping her in the butt with my damp bar rag.

“
So is that what
you
would do if you weren’t already married?” I laughed. “I just want to be clear with this wonderful advice you’re giving me because I don’t recall you selecting Gary from the masses here.”

“
Ah…” She waved a disgruntled hand at me. “You’re hopeless.”

I left out a loud, agreeing sigh.

“
Why don’t you go over there and be nice to him? I heard the Fire Department was called out to the movie set this morning. Maybe
he
could get us in?” Marie shrugged, a glimmer of hope infused her voice.

I wrinkled my nose at her and countered her suggestion with one of my own. “Why don’t
you
go be nice to him then? I have no desire to go flock around some movie set like a pathetic groupie.”

“
Speaking of groupies, did you hear that the police had to escort his limo to his hotel last night?” she asked, tapping one of her long fingernails on Ryan Christensen’s picture in today’s newspaper. “Article says there was a mob of women there; they had his hotel surrounded again.”

I rolled my eyes and continued wiping the bar with a towel. I really could not be bothered with the trivial, but it was hard to ignore. Everyone wanted to know the most miniscule details about him and his fellow actors and their glamorous lives. The photographers and reporters hunted them down daily.

Every day the news reports had something to say about the actors, the movie, the set locations, or the disruptions caused by the hundreds of crazed fans that followed them here. It was all too absurd for my taste, but Ryan Christensen was a drug that everyone seemed hopelessly addicted to.

“
Girls have been trying to sleep out on the sidewalk and everything… cops had to tell them to leave,” Marie babbled to a few female customers sitting at the bar as she shuffled the newspaper into a neat pile.

I shook my head while trying to imagine what the payoff would be to even consider sleeping on cold concrete in 50-degree weather. It was still nice out during the day, but it was the last day of September and the evenings were chilly.

“
That’s ridiculous,” I muttered.

“
They’ll have to sleep down on the beach now,” Sandy, our local beautician, chimed in. She took another sip of her martini while everyone waited in anticipation for her to explain.

“
One of the girls who work at the Lexington Hotel was in the salon this afternoon,” Sandy babbled, like the information she had was no big deal.

“
She said it was all hush-hush, but the hotel staff was informed that all of the actors were being relocated there today. Apparently the Lexington has better security and private garage entrances. I don’t know - whatever. Anyway, it sounds like they’re going to be right down the street from us now.”

“
No shit!” Marie screeched excitedly. “You mean to tell me that Ryan and the entire cast are going to be only three teeny blocks down that street?” She pointed out the window in the direction of Mulberry Street.

Her exuberance about this entire topic was bordering on annoying.

“
I still can’t believe they are filming the second
Seaside
movie right here in our town. This one is going to be even better than the first!” Marie gushed.

“
Okay, that’s like the hundredth time you’ve said that,” I teased.

“
Well maybe if you bothered to watch the first movie you’d know what all of us are so excited about,” she snapped back.

“
I read in one of the magazines at the salon that he is sleeping with the girl who starred in his last movie… what’s her name, Suzette, Suzanne something?” Sandy commented.

“
No Sandy, that’s not true,” Marie shot back, shaking her head in disagreement. “He was dating Lauren Delaney from that TV show
Modern Times
, but they broke up.”

Marie’s tone was almost sympathetic. She tossed her long chocolate-brown hair off her shoulders, looking like she felt sorry for this man she didn’t know personally.

“
I heard that someone stole some of his clothes from the hotel last week and tried to sell them on eBay,” Traci added.

“
Oh, that’s just wrong,” I blurted out, trying to imagine what type of sick-o would buy some guy’s used shorts. The thought made me shudder. “Why on Earth would someone do that? Well, whoever did it, I hope they got arrested.”

My mind could not rationalize the actions. “It sure is a twisted world we live in.”

“
If I had the chance, I’d twist on him several times!” Marie growled. I laughed when she wiggled her hips.

“
Why don’t you twist your way over to the big table with this pitcher for me? Please? Our fire department looks like they still have fires to put out.”

I felt bad for turning Phil down, so I was trying to make it up to him with a free pitcher of beer. Secretly though I didn’t want to go anywhere near him.

“
Why don’t
you
take it over and at least talk to him? He’s a really nice guy, Taryn.”

“
Marie, I’m not interested, okay?”

“
Well, since you seem to have sworn off men…” she muttered, “here, I’ve got something for you. It’s not porn, but it’s close enough.” She laughed while rummaging in her huge purse.

She held out another gossip magazine with a big, glossy picture of Ryan Christensen on the cover. The caption under his picture read:

The truth about Ryan:

His Ex-girlfriend tells ALL!

I pursed my lips and turned away, slightly disgusted that anyone’s ex-girlfriend would have the audacity to “tell all.” He was probably better off without her.

“
Hey, let me see that!” Traci yelled, reaching for the magazine.

“
What’s your problem, Taryn?” Marie grumbled and stamped her foot. “Don’t you think he’s hot? I mean, look at him!”

“
It doesn’t matter,” I dismissed. “He is just another guy who is all full of himself. Besides, I have better things to think about - like why George and Ted look mad because I’m not bringing their drinks fast enough.”