We spent all day trying on looks which she loved. Charlie’s mum bought everything I suggested, and she swiped her credit card as if she went to Target. Now, we are at lunch together in Beverley Hills at her favorite restaurant. As soon as we walked in, the staff started fawning over her and we got one of the best seats in the house.
“So Everly tells me you have found an apartment?” she asks, sipping on her wine.
“We have,” Charlie answers. I didn’t know that. “It’s not far from here.”
“So, you bought something?” she asks.
“No, just a rental for the moment,” Charlie explains.
“But we said we could buy you something,” his mum argues.
“We know, Mom, but we aren’t sure where we want to live. This way we can rent and work out what area suits us,” Everly explains to her.
“That makes sense. And how is the job hunting going, sweetheart?” she asks Everly.
“I have some interviews next week which look promising.”
“You know I can put a call in for you,” her mum tells her.
Everly gives her a face that tells me they have had this conversation many times before, and she’s exhausted by it. “Mom, I told you I wanted to do it myself.”
“I know you can, but I can help if you need.”
“We know you can, and we appreciate it, but we want to do this ourselves,” Everly explains.
“Fine. I’m sure Derrick’s family wanted to help him when he moved to LA,” his mum says.
Charlie stiffens beside me, and he must make a face because I see the panic on his mum’s face as she realizes she might have put her foot in it. I reach out and place my hand on his knee, letting him know I am okay.
“It wasn’t my family, unfortunately, that helped me, it was one of my closest friends, Vanessa Taylor. She’s married to Christian from Dirty Texas. It’s a long story, but she’s the one who got me over here,” I explain to her.
“Did she? I’d love to hear it, if you are okay telling the story?”
I nod. “Sure, it’s a tale as old as time. It involves my best friend, Sienna Wyld, who is married to Evan from Dirty Texas. She found her previous husband in a compromising position in the middle of her thirtieth birthday party with his ex.” Charlie’s mum’s eyes open. “Then she finds out she’s actually pregnant too.”
“No.” She gasps.
I nod. “It gets worse because they ran away and got married in Vegas, but they didn’t file the paperwork correctly, so they were technically not married. His father used that to take everything from her because her ex didn’t own anything, the family trust did.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It was, but it was also a blessing in disguise. Because of who they were as a couple back home, the media attention was intense. That’s when Vanessa asked us if we wanted to style the Dirty Texas guys for their European tour, and we jumped at it, to get out of Australia and away from the attention.”
“And that’s where she met her husband?” she asks.
“Yep, and the best thing was, Evan Wyld was her hall pass.” I smirk, taking a sip of my champagne.
“Hall Pass?”
“It’s a celebrity that your partner lets you sleep with,” Charlie explains to his mum.
“You seriously think Dad is going to let me sleep with a celebrity?” She chuckles.
“It’s not like it’s ever going to happen, Mom, it’s just something couples do,” Charlie explains.
“Seems like it worked for your friend Sienna.” She smiles.
“It did, but it was not an easy road to their happy ever after,” I explain. Charlie’s mum urges me to finish my story, now totally invested. “Well, her ex came back on the scene after finding out his father and his ex set him up because she was sleeping with his dad, and that the baby was his dad’s, not his.” The entire table gasps. “And as he was telling her this news, he tried to kiss her. Some photographer took a photo of the kiss, but not the slap that followed, and ran with the story that she was going back to her ex. Evan was devastated, and things between them soured so we packed up and went to Paris, where Sienna was involved in a car accident, and that’s where she found out she was pregnant. When Evan was told about her accident, he flew to Paris and basically proposed. He realized he couldn’t live without her, and now they are about to pop out their third child.”
