Laura Walker, America’s most popular morning chat show host, was pregnant, and Dustin was the father. She started to see the way this could potentially play out.
She was the other woman. Even though Dustin had assuredher his marriage was a business partnership that had run its course. No one would see that. He’d told her again and again how he would leave Laura now that Dustin and Goldie were in love.
Goldie realized with blinding clarity, so fast it nearly knocked her down that those were all just words. The facts were entirely different. She was the villain of this story.
Hollywood had not been kind to the other woman, no matter if she was a star or not. Elizabeth Taylor was pilloried, Ingrid Bergman roasted. She would be the home-wrecker even though she didn’t make the first move. She’d resisted Dustin’s advances. Until she didn’t.
She was in love with Dustin, and he was in love with her. They shared chemistry, a connection. It was something special. Surely, they could figure this out. Whatever this was.
Goldie’s brain felt fevered, like it was cycling through a million scenarios to find one that ended with her and Dustin and their baby together.
Dustin was pacing. He was excited. This was a different man than the one he’d been the last three months. The Dustin she knew looked her in the eye. Didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around her when they were alone in the trailer. He was attentive. It was intoxicating, to say the least, to have the world’s biggest movie star make her feel like she was the only thing he cared about. But right now, he was barely talking to her. He was talking into the air. He appeared to be envisioning the press coverage he and Laura Walker were going to get.
“We're going to be interviewed by Barbara Walters. We’re going to be on the cover of Vanity Fair. Laura is so excited. Oh, and once she starts to pop on the morning show, the fans will eat it up. LikeI Love Lucybut real.”
Goldie wanted to point out that Lucille Ball was real and actually pregnant on the show, too. But that was beside the point right now.
“What was this? You said your marriage was over. I mean, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you if I thought it wasn’t.”
Dustin stopped. He finally looked at Goldie. He turned his piercing eyes in her direction. He smiled, a smile that film critics compared to Clark Gable, a smile that she had been taken in by, a smile she thought was real. It was all an act.
“You would have fallen for me. Everyone does.”
The smile evaporated. In its place was a clenched jaw. The eyes were cruel now. Who was this person? Goldie hadn’t seen this side of Dustin, not once in their three months practically living together and working together every day.
“I—what are you saying? Spell it out.”
“I’m saying that it made the movie better. You are in love with me for real. You’re an okay actress, but not a great one, so I ensured that you didn’t have to be a great actress.”
The worlds coming out of Dustin’s mouth were insulting, humiliating, and downright vicious.
“All this, what we were doing, it was an act?”
“You’re actually asking me that?”
Goldie didn’t answer. She felt stupid. She lashed out. “I’m sure your wife would classify what we did as real.”
“Ha, well, this is the deal. She’s pragmatic. She knows that her star is hitched to mine, and now with a baby on the way, well, even more so. Besides, she’s about as monogamous as I am. You can go tell her or tell the papers, but you’re going to look really bad. As a friend and someone who knows this business, I’m telling you, keep it quiet. You’re on track for an Oscar nom for this movie. Don’t blow it by being the other woman in America’s Favorite Couple.”
Goldie blinked away tears. She had been lied to. “You have no feelings for me, all the things you said to me,” Goldie remembered promises, plans, confessions of love.
“I wasn’t saying them. They were all my character.”
“You’re a monster!”
“Come on, save the drama for your next gig.”
Goldie wanted to scratch his eyes out. She wanted to destroy his trailer. She wanted to destroy his career. She’d been a fool.
She’d come in here, ready to share her news.
She was so grateful for that one small thing that he’d gone first. She’d said nothing about the pregnancy.
“Congratulations on the baby.” Goldie turned around and grabbed the door handle. The trailer smelled of cologne and whiskey, and it made her want to throw up.
“See you at the Oscars!”
She slammed the door behind her.
