Loving David (20 page)

Charlotte’s cheeks flamed red at her naiveté. She plunked her forehead down into the palm of her free hand. “I’m such an idiot,” she shook her head.

“You really do need to get out more, love,” David laughed.

“You sound like Karen.”

David nodded his head toward one of the wait staff, who smiled and immediately planted himself next to the table. He presented Charlotte with a menu, and her eyes widened when she noticed her and David’s names were printed across the top. She peered at David over the top.

“What did you do?” she repeated.

David’s grinned. “You should really learn to go with the flow, love.”

Charlotte gave David a knowing look before she scanned the menu, which looked to be a smaller version of the restaurant’s standard menu. Charlotte hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she laid eyes on the still plentiful selection of food David had chosen.

“Would it be bad if I got steak?” she whispered.

David chuckled. “Why would that be bad?”

Charlotte shrugged and went back to the perusing the menu. “I should have the salmon,” she reasoned. She flicked the menu down. “But I really want the filet,” she giggled.

David took a sip from his water glass. “Then you shall have it.”

Charlotte nodded, satisfied. “Then I will.”

The waiter came to take their order and to deliver two ice-cold cosmopolitans with curlicued lime rinds floating in the middle.

“A little twist on your favorite,” David said.

“Huh?”

“Cape Cods. A cosmopolitan is just another way of making a Cape Cod, right?”

Charlotte shook her head and picked up her glass. “Seriously, I can’t keep up tonight. Did you slip me something?”

“I plan on slipping you something later.”

“Mr. King!” Charlotte feigned indignation. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

“I know exactly the kind of girl you are,” David leered as he picked up his glass and motioned for Charlotte to do the same. Charlotte complied, and David licked his lips and stared at Charlotte for a moment.

“To you. For saving me. In more ways than one.” David clinked his glass with Charlotte’s. “I love you.”

Charlotte smiled and sipped her drink. “The feeling is mutual, Mr. King.” She let out a soft groan as the cosmo slid down her throat. “Oh man, this is good.”

“Much better than my heavy-handed attempts, eh?”

“Let’s just say you should stick with movie-making and leave the bartending to someone else.”

“Indeed.”

Charlotte took another sip of her drink, her gaze moving over to the window and the New York City skyline as it crept past her.

“This view is amazing,” she murmured. “I never knew New York could look so incredible.”

David put his chin in the palm of his hand and joined Charlotte in enjoying the scene.

“William first brought me here. It was to celebrate me getting my first lead in a movie. He said I should feel like I was on top of the world. And he was right.” David turned back to Charlotte. “Up here, you feel like nothing bad could ever happen to you.”

Charlotte reached for David’s hand and they stared out into the night, never saying a word but comforted by each other’s presence. Members of the wait staff broke their reverie by first bringing goat cheese salads followed by dinner: the filet for Charlotte and rack of lamb for David. They each dug in with gusto, surprised by how ravenous they were. As they indulged in their gourmet meals, soft music spilled forth from some unseen corner of the candlelit room. Charlotte crinkled her nose and cocked her ear toward the sound. Her jaw dropped open in warm surprise as she realized a DJ had been spinning the same tunes from the night she and David cleaned the kitchen at Lake Arrowhead. She set her fork down on her plate and smiled at David.

“Okay, you really have thought of everything, haven’t you?”

David shrugged and grinned as he popped a bite of lamb into his mouth. “I’m trying to impress you.”

“Oh, I’m impressed, Mr. King.”

“I hope that means I’ll get lucky later.”

Charlotte resumed eating. “Maybe,” she winked.

More cosmopolitans magically appeared, and before long David and Charlotte were giggling about the party they’d left and speculating as to how William had made out with the brunette giraffe. The dinner dishes were cleared, and two thick slabs of cheesecake slathered in marinated strawberries materialized. Charlotte laughed and speared a strawberry with her fork and held it up to David.

“Strawberries,” she whispered.

“Strawberries,” David smiled as he bit down on Charlotte’s offering. After they lapped up their cheesecake, David held out his hand to Charlotte.

“Dance with me, love?”

Charlotte took his hand and allowed David to lead her to the dance floor, where they slow danced to “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” which they’d first danced to in Lake Arrowhead. Charlotte sighed happily and laid her head on David’s shoulder.

“This sounds a lot better with a professional DJ than it did coming out of Hendra’s ancient radio,” she said.

“I should hope so. But we won’t tell her that.”

“Oh, no, of
course
not,” Charlotte whispered and closed her eyes as David spun her around the dance floor. Just as when they made love, their bodies fit together with ease, responding instinctively to each other’s rhythm. The DJ continued to play all the oldies they’d listened to before, and Charlotte was impressed by David’s stellar memory, though she guessed she shouldn’t have been all that surprised since he memorized words for a living.

Charlotte turned to look out the window at the skyline. “You know what’s sad? The only building I recognize is the Empire State Building.” She shook her head. “I gotta get out of L.A. more.”

David rolled Charlotte around so her back was against him. They swayed together in time to the music.

“What do you want to know?” he whispered in her ear.

Charlotte leaned back against David. “That’s the Chrysler Building right?” she pointed to a building as it came into view.

David nuzzled his chin into Charlotte’s neck. “Yes, that is the Chrysler Building.”

“Right, right….” Charlotte said. “Hmmm…, we’ve already established the Empire State Building. What about that one?”

“New York Times Building. And over there is Manhattan Plaza.”

“You’re really good at this,” Charlotte grinned.

“I told you, I’m trying to impress you,” David murmured. “Okay, now we’re facing New Jersey. Doesn’t the Hudson River look magnificent?”

Charlotte just gave a contented sigh and continued to let David point out various buildings: Carnegie Tower, the Time-Life Building, Rockefeller Center.

“Do you feel sufficiently versed on New York City architecture now?” David teased.

“Oh yes. I feel quite smart now.”

David chuckled and kissed her neck. “Glad I could help,” he said as he turned her back to face him. Charlotte draped her arms around his neck, and David caressed her cheek.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“You.”

Charlotte looked down. “You know, I didn’t think anything could top my birthday, but…” Charlotte swallowed and shook her head. “… you did. And then some.” She shifted her eyes back up to meet David’s. “Thank you.”

“I love doing things for you. It makes me delirious.”

“Ah, so you’re saying I make you crazy?” Charlotte teased.

“Crazy in love.” David leaned back. “How’s that?”

Charlotte leaned in for a kiss. “Perfect,” she whispered as their lips met. David’s hands roamed the length of Charlotte’s torso, and she moaned.

“Sounds like it’s time for me to whisk you back to the hotel and have my way with you,” David said as he and Charlotte walked back to the table so she could retrieve her purse and one of the menus as a keepsake. David winked at the DJ, who made an “okay” sign with his fingers, patted his jacket pocket, and smiled. The wait staff also beamed, and Charlotte figured William must have given them all big fat envelopes of cash before they got there. The maître d’ met David and Charlotte up front.

“I trust everything was to your and the lady’s liking?”

David nodded. “Everything was fantastic.”

“Will you be needing anything else this evening?”

David shook his head and smiled. “Oh, no. We’re all set.”

“Very good, sir. The maître d’ nodded at Charlotte. “Good night, ma’am.”

Charlotte murmured a good-night and she and David stepped into the waiting elevator. Charlotte threaded her fingers with David’s and leaned against the mirrored wall.

“It’s going to be hard to go home in a few days,” Charlotte sighed and closed her eyes. “I’m just glad you’ll be there with me.”

David was a silent a moment before he tapped Charlotte on the shoulder. “Did you just ask me to move in with you, love?”

Charlotte’s eyes flew open, and she saw David standing in front of her, a huge grin on his face. “What?”

David leaned down over her. “Did you… just ask me… to move in… with you?” he repeated, his eyes twinkling.

As the elevator came to a stop, Charlotte gulped.
Had
she just asked David to move in with her? She stayed silent as they made their way outside to their limo, which the maître d’ had called down for. Charlotte waited until they were tucked safely inside before she turned to David.

“
Did
I just ask you to move in with me?” she echoed his earlier question.

David grinned. “I think you did.”

Charlotte fell back against the plush interior of the limo. “I guess I did,” she mumbled to herself, still swimming in the three cosmos she’d had. Charlotte snapped her head up and looked at David. “Yes. Yes, I want you to move in with me.”

“You’re sure?”

Charlotte slowly nodded her head, wondering why it had taken her so long to come up with the idea.
Of course
David should move in with her. “Yes, one-hundred-percent sure. She held David’s face in her hands. “I don’t want to be without you. If that’s okay with you.”

David smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

#

The next two days flew as David showed Charlotte his New York. She got to don some of the outfits she’d picked up in Vancouver and was thankful once again for Evelyn’s foresight in making sure she had New York City appropriate attire. As they scurried around the city, Charlotte noticed David seemed freer and more alive than he had at any other time. He chalked it up to the nervous energy the city gave him as well as the ability to be more anonymous there than when he was in L.A. He showed her the old brownstone he’d lived in as a kid, and they played on the swings at the park his mom used to take him to. They took long walks in Central Park, and David introduced Charlotte to the joys of chewy, salty New York City street vendor pretzels dripping in mustard.

Their last night in town, they took in a Broadway show and had dinner at the famed Elaine’s. The whole trip had been tinged with magic and wonder, but truth be told, Charlotte was ready to head home to L.A. It was time to start their new life together.

And she couldn’t have been happier.

CHAPTER 10

“I thought you said you didn’t have that much stuff!”

“I don’t. I mean, it’s not like I’m lugging around a box of Oscars.”

Charlotte hoisted up a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Actor. “Only a box of these.”

David shrugged and smiled. “Ah, well; what can I say. The people love me.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes and continued unpacking a box of David’s memorabilia and lining them up along her mantle. A few days after returning from New York they’d emptied David’s storage unit and had spent the last week merging all of his stuff into her place. It was fascinating to see some of what he had collected over the length of his relatively short career, including various movie scripts, a letter box full of the ticket stubs from his movies, the suit he wore in his first romantic comedy. A smattering of awards and a few autographed pictures from the sets of some of his movies. What Charlotte didn’t relish was the seemingly endless supply of plaid shirts and jeans that burst from one bulging box after another. She was ready to haul them out to the curb and be done with it.

“Not too late to change your mind, love.” David said.

“Very funny,” Charlotte muttered as she opened another box of plaid shirts. “Honestly, David, how many plaid shirts do you need? Grunge is dead.”

“How many tee-shirts do you need?” he countered.

Charlotte’s mouth gaped before she closed it and the top flap of the box. “
Touché
.”

David laughed and stood up from his cramped position on the floor. “You have to admit----we’ve been making pretty good progress since yesterday. I predict we’ll be done before the days out.”

“
Hmmm
. From your lips…” Charlotte’s voice trailed off as she opened another box for inspection.

They continued unpacking boxes, making ‘To Keep’ and ‘To Toss piles’, and slowly brought order to chaos. Charlotte was stunned to discover that David’s prediction had come through: they had indeed finished by nightfall.

David took a shower while Charlotte sprawled across the couch, admiring their handiwork. Her cell phone buzzed at her from the coffee table. She looked at the caller ID and groaned a little. She took a deep breath and steeled herself.

“Hi, Karen.”