Backstage Romance: An Austen-Inspired Romantic Comedy Box Set by Gigi Blume (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📕

But Charlotte nearly pleaded with me. Moral support, I guess. I told her I would think about it.

One event I was looking forward to was Cole’s Christmas party. He invited the entire cast and crew. I was pleased as punch to find out Will didn’t plan to attend. It gave me a sense of freedom to have the liberty to enjoy the evening in the company of Jorge without looking over our shoulders or checking for poison in our eggnog. Plus, Cole pulled out all the stops for the festivities. It wasn’t an uppity Hollywood party although his house was fabulous. He had a view of the valley from the hills. The twinkling lights of the city on the horizon wrapped around his property in an absolutely breathtaking, panoramic vista. He certainly had the perfect house for one of those classy soirees with a fancy caterer and valet parking. But Cole was a Jersey guy at heart, so his idea of an ideal party included a mobile woodfired pizza truck and plenty of beer. Everybody was encouraged to wear ugly sweaters, and we had a white elephant gift exchange. Then, once everyone was warm with their innards full of spirits, Stella stood by the fireplace and recited a poem with a line for each person in the cast and crew. It was both poignant and hilarious. Mostly, it was just cheeky, but every bit Stella. Nothing got past her.

Jorge gave me a lot of his attention the entire night, but when he stripped down to nothing but his boxers and jumped in the pool, he was on his own. Lydia and Mariah got it all on video.

“That bloke is something else, isn’t he?” Stella poured herself a drink at the bar a few feet away from where I was shamelessly ogling Jorge. “Care for one of these?”

She held up a concoction that looked more like a science experiment than a beverage. Interesting. I had her pegged as more of a rosé type.

I held up my wine cooler. “I’m good, thanks.”

She shrugged and slid closer to me, sipping on the rim of her glass and casting her eyes in the direction of the pool. Jorge had convinced Lydia to jump in fully clothed. I hoped the water was heated because they’d be popsicles when they got out. They say California doesn’t have seasons. Well, I'm here to tell you that for a local girl, sixty degrees Fahrenheit might as well be sixty below. Californians are cold weather wimps and I have no shame in that.

“Mr. Wickham is the type of man to make the most of any circumstance, I gather,” she said with a smile. “If I had known it was a pool party, I would have brought my suit.”

She winked at me and took another sip of her cocktail.

“I suppose you could say he’s an opportunist,” I said.

“He’s certainly taken the opportunity to catch your notice.”

“It’s a little hard not to notice.” I smiled.

“He’s an interesting creature, I’ll give him that,” she said over the rim of her glass.

“That he is.”

“But if I may be so bold,” she added, “I must admit I thought you were more sensible than to fancy a man that gets his attention by skinny dipping in December.”

I chuckled to myself. The idea of getting carried away with a skinny-dipping heartthrob wasn’t in my bag of tricks. That’s why Lydia would catch a cold and not me.

“Well,” I said, “I’ve fallen for much stupider a fellow. It seems to be my specialty. But if you must know, we’re just friends.”

“That’s good to know,” she said with a single nod. “You wouldn’t want to let your fancy run away with you. I’d have to be seriously disappointed.”

“I’ll do my best to avoid it, then.” I winked. “But I might have to tone down my feminine arts if I want to keep shirtless men from falling madly in love with me.”

I wiggled my hips and modeled the ugly Christmas sweater I wore. I’d bought it at the Goodwill where some unfortunate grandma must have reluctantly emptied her closets.

“Speaking of madly in love,” she said. “I hope you don’t find it impertinent to ask, but I haven’t seen Jane all night. She isn’t avoiding a certain someone, is she?”

“More like the other way around,” I said. The warmth of the alcohol broke down my inhibitions. Stella was so easy to talk to.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” she replied. “Sometimes men can be like that dog from Up. They fall in love with a pretty face for a few weeks but can so easily get distracted by a squirrel.”

I laughed. “That has to be one of the most accurate analogies ever.”

I knew more than a few guys like that. But then my thoughts fled to my father. As silly as my mother was sometimes, he never once had a wandering eye. I had to believe there were more men in the world like him. I’d stupidly thought Bing was one of them.

Total fail.

“I don’t know if that’s the case with Bing,” I continued. “I’ve never seen a guy so infatuated with anyone like Bing was with Jane. It got to the point where he ignored everybody else.

“Showmances!” she scoffed. “Well, I hope they can figure it out. Now neither one of them are here.”

“Jane’s in New York,” I replied, feeling I had to defend Jane somehow. “She said she had a few auditions.”

“Good for her.” Stella’s face brightened. “I have no doubt she’ll make a good impression. I wish she would have told me, though. I could have put in a word for her.”

“You’d do that?”

“Why yes. I’d do that for any of you. It’s what I do. I’m sure you’ve heard of my academy in New York?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well, we have our charity arts program here in Los Angeles.”

I knew a little about the work her charity did. It was a theatrical program for underprivileged youth.

“Not