Harmony
“DiDi, this isn’t a good idea,” I warned. My sister, Melody, was currently sitting in a makeup chair, her ever-faithful makeup slave, Billy, practicing his prosthetics to make her look like a completely different person.
“It’s all good, NiNi,” she argued while trying not to move her mouth.
“Someone isstalkingyou!” I snapped. “You need to stay here...where it’s safe.”
“Girl, she won’t look anything like Melody Morgan, international pop and movie star,” Billy crooned, his swishiness on overdrive. “She’s gonna look like my high school girlfriend.”
“You had a high school girlfriend?” I challenged.
“Yep. And a boyfriend.” He thrust out his hip and waved his hand. “Decided I liked the boy better.”
“That’s right, baby,” Graham, his boyfriend, retorted from his seat in the corner.
“Dork.” I giggled. I loved Billy in all his dramatic glory. He’d been “with” us for ten years and he was one of my favorite people on the planet.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to see:Lyric Calling. “Hey LiLi.”
“Hi, honey, did you talk some sense into DiDi?”
Lyric was our eldest sister, and most days I felt like it was her and me against the world...or at the very least, her and me trying to keep Melody from making more stupid decisions.
“No.” I sighed. “Billy’s making her look different, but I don’t know if that will help.”
“Put her on speaker,” Melody demanded, and I did. “LiLi, we are in a new city, I want to explore.”
“Might I point out, you’ve been here before. For three months of shooting and I recall you exploring then, too.”
“But that was, like, two years ago. I want to see what’s new.”
“I get that, honey,” Lyric said in her ‘patient’ voice, “but you’re going out with a man you’ve only met twice.”
“He’s in the movie with me, sissy,” she countered. “I’m going to see him every day for the next four months.”
Melody was in the blockbuster sequel to the blockbuster film adapted from a local author’s romance novels, so we were in Portland to film. She also had two singles she’d wrote for each of the movies, which had gone platinum three times over, so she was famous on every level.
Lyric had a real job as an attorney, so she stayed behind in Savannah, however, I was Melody’s assistant, so I was with her...as always.
“Sweetness, he is a new character and hasnotbeen vetted,” Lyric ground out.
Melody and I rolled our eyes, almost in sync. Whenever Lyric called one of us “sweetness,” we knew she was beyond irritated.
Lyric was two years older than me and six years older than Melody. She’d been a second mother to us, especially considering our own mother had a tendency to sleep all day and drink all night. Our father died almost thirteen years ago, right around the time Melody “hit” big as a kid star. Mom’s cirrhosis of the liver caught up to her two years ago and we’d buried another parent. Our lives were irrevocably rocked, in both good and bad ways.
Tonight fell into the bad category.
“I’ve made a few calls,” Lyric continued. “So, would you please stay in? Just for tonight. I’ve got a new security person coming tomorrow.”
Melody let out a loud, dramatic sigh. “Fine, I’ll stay in,” she said, as she shook her head.
“Thanks, DiDi. I’ll talk to y’all tomorrow.” Lyric hung up and I slid my phone back in my pocket.
“If you’re insisting on being an idiot, I’m coming with you,” I threatened.
“No, you’re not.”
“Mel?”
