Stretching out the day lasted only another glorious hour, but eventually Bonnie had to pick up her mother.
Mama appeared haggard as she ambled out to the car, carrying her big blue satchel. Through the years, Bonnie had sent money home so her mother didn’t have to work. A bad day on the job for Bonnie meant getting up at four AM in order to be in make-up and hair promptly so she could wait around for hours for her scenes to be filmed.
A bad day for her mother meant her hands hurt from ironing shirts and cleaning toilets.
Once she and Sean were married, Bonnie would have her move in with them like Sean had originally offered. Sometimes the simplest solutions were the best ones.
“Hi, Mama!” She got out and opened the passenger door for her. “Did you have a good day at work?”
“Well, well.” She appraised Bonnie, her gaze sliding up and down. “What on earth put the wiggle in your walk?”
Engaged!
She was engaged to the love of her life. Something she’d once taken for granted till the door slammed in her face. It had opened wide again, carrying with it a glorious sweetness she didn’t deserve.
“Um, well…” She slipped behind the driver’s seat and drove off. “First. I have something to ask you.”
“Dinner will be leftovers tonight. Fend for yourself.”
“I’ll cook for you.”
Mama’s neck swiveled in surprise. “If you don’t want to know what’s for dinner, what’s the question?”
“Why are you still working? I’ve sent money so you don’t have to work.”
“And it’s all sitting at the bank in Kerrville earning interest. I haven’t touched it in years.”
Bonnie nearly swerved off the road. “What? Why?”
“How else am I going to pay for your wedding to Sean?”
Well, wasn’t this working out to be an emotional day? Her mother, for years hanging on to the hope of her and Sean reconciling. Even after Bonnie had given up all hope.
“We’re both old enough to pay for the wedding. You don’t have to do that.”
“But, I want to. At least let me help.”
“Jesus, Mama. You’re going to make me cry all over again.”
“He already asked, didn’t he?”
Bonnie nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
“Well, Beulah was right. I do hate it when my own sister is always right. It really chaps my hide.”
“What does Aunt Beulah have to do with it?”
“She felt guilty all these years. Because of her, you took that first modeling job.” She cleared her throat. “Lingerie. She encouraged you. We both think that was the beginning of the end for you and Sean.”
“Y’all had nothing to do with it. Sean and I managed to screw things up on our own.”
“The least Beulah could do is bring you back, put you right in Sean’s line of vision, and see if you two might find your way to each other again.”
“She has that much influence?”
“I don’t know about influence so much as show biz smarts. That Beulah, she convinced them it would make good TV.”
And she hadn’t been wrong.
“Lots of changes for me today. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank her enough for getting me this job.”
“All the women in our family are working women.” She patted Bonnie’s arm. “Listen, I don’t mind my job. You have no idea how much I’m needed. The Churchills would be lost without me.”
“At least think about the day you retire. I want you to take the money you have in the bank for me and open up a retirement account instead.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Way ahead of you. I took about five percent of what you sent me and started an IRA.”
“Oh, Mama. That’s great.”
“Mrs. Churchill listens to a program every afternoon. It comes right through her computer and we both listen while I’m ironing. Something called ‘Girl, you Should be a Millionaire. Lots of good advice on there. You might even learn something.”
Bonnie smiled. “I think I already have.”
The next day, Lenny waited for Bonnie in the Hummer, ready to drive her back to the Truehart mansion.
He reached for her hand and kissed it. “Hello, Miss Bonnie Lee. Your chariot awaits.”
By the time they arrived, several vans were already parked meaning Lori and the crew beat her here. Inside, the crew was setting up cameras and Lori ran around the house with her clipboard, yelling.
Angela greeted Bonnie with a hug. “She’s on the warpath. We’ve lost too much production time. Which is their fault.”
“And we’re going to pay for it.”
Tabitha walked up to Bonnie. “Where have you been?”
“Staying with my mother, like I said.”
“Hm.” Tabitha narrowed her eyes and worked her jaw like she didn’t quite believe Bonnie.
She might be a mind-reader, or perhaps there really was a new wiggle in Bonnie’s walk.
“Finally! We’re all here,” Lori bellowed. “Thank you for joining us, Bonnie. Better late than never. Because we’ve lost valuable production time, we’re going to speed things up. I spoke to Sean and he’s already made his decision.”
“Tonight, you’ll all come downstairs for your exit interviews. I’ll slap together a killer montage to pace the show. I’ve got plenty of unused footage. Then, tomorrow, Sean will choose his bride. Badabing, badabeh, we’re done, it’s a wrap. My crew will clear out of here.”
“Is she talking faster than normal or is that my imagination?” Angela said.
“Oh, my gawd, I might be engaged by tomorrow!” Tabitha jumped up and down. “Wait till they hear back home. My brothers swore no one would ever marry me!”
Oh, poor Tabitha.
Bonnie was no longer threatened, just sorry. She’d never met anyone quite so deluded. Or hopeful.
Might be a fine line some days.
“Hey, Lori!” Elton beckoned. “Come look at this.”
He seemed to be studying something coming out of one of his monitors. Lori and Elton were animated for several minutes, gesturing back and forth to each other, then finally embracing.
She’d never even seen them touch. What in the world?
Lori bustled over again. “Fabulous news! Bonnie’s old series is number one on a streaming network this week. Who knows how long it will last, but it will be a giant ratings boost to our own show when it comes out. We’ll try to rush to release, obviously. Got to strike while the iron is hot and all that. Take advantage of the old show’s resurgence in popularity.”
“What show?” Tabitha asked.
“Kavanaugh’s Way?” Angela said. “She mentioned it to you before. Don’t tell me you didn’t recognize her.”
She shook her head. “Before my time, I guess. Never watched it.”
Bonnie sank into the couch. It was bad enough Sean and Robyn had watched the show together but now the entire country would watch a much younger, kickass Bonnie Wheeler. Much as she’d loved her first big break and working with some stellar talent, she’d still been honing her craft. It wasn’t her best work by a long shot. She believed her best performance to date was the independent film from the Cannes Film Festival, but no one would be watching that anytime soon. Deep sigh.
“Something wrong?” Angela took a seat beside her.
“Not at all.”
She pictured Sean on bended knee and went straight back to her happy place.
Angela cocked her head. “You strike me as being squeamish about all this attention which you have to admit is strange for an actress.”
“Yeah, she’s generally being weird today.” Tabitha joined them, circling her hands in the air all around Bonnie. “Something is different.”
Bonnie hid her left hand, even though she had purposely removed the ring this morning and put it right back in its box, now in her luggage.
“I’m fine. Ready for this to be over.”
“So, you really are an actress,” Tabitha said.
“Of course she is!” Angela said. “I’ve seen her work.”
“Well, okay then. I had counted on you being an actress, that’s all.”
“Why?” Bonnie said.
“D-uh, because you’re acting about wanting to marry Sean.”
“Oh.”
“Or is she?” Angela smiled wickedly.
“Well, good luck. He and I have a special connection. I know y’all have a history but well…let’s just say I think I finally have his attention.”
It took everything in Bonnie not to wipe the smug smile off Tabitha’s face. Bonnie knew exactly how Tabitha had tried to get Sean’s attention because he’d later confessed and swore he hadn’t even looked when she stripped her blouse off.
Yeah, right.
“Well…too bad for me.” Bonnie folded her hands in her lap. “I guess I should give up right now.”
“Are you kidding me?” Angela wagged her finger from side to side. “Uh-uh.”
“I can’t tell.” Tabitha crossed her arms. “Is she acting?”
“Alright, ladies!” Lori screeched and clapped her hands. “Go upstairs and get your glam on. Angela, we’ll do your exit interview first, then the rest.”
“I don’t care for being rushed like this,” Angela said, going up the steps.
“What are you wearing?” Tabitha asked.
“My pride,” Angela said. “I know I’m on the chopping block. It’s all good.”
“I don’t know about that,” Tabitha said. “It could be Bonnie, after all.”
“Yeah, right,” Angela muttered under her breath, giving Bonnie a conspiratorial smile.
There would always be a special place in her heart for this show, for these ladies, who’d for lack of a better word, been her co-stars. After this, Bonnie was turning in her membership card to the Screen Actors Guild. Maybe she’d look into community theater work where her experience would be rewarded.
She could be a character actor and take on the type of parts she’d never considered before. The kind where you no longer cared to be the prettiest woman in the room. The type that meant admitting you were getting older and didn’t give a hoot. Older also meant experienced. She’d had her moment and the rest of the world, if not Hollywood, saw a woman who had a lot of good years ahead of her.
Bonnie slipped on the dress wardrobe had laid out for her. It was red. A redhead wearing a red dress wasn’t always regarded as the best choice. It was, some said, an “in your face” choice. A “screw you and the horse you rode in on” choice. But tonight, she didn’t care. She’d record her exit interview doing some of her best work. She’d call on every one of her skills to pull it off. Because Sean had already chosen her.
After the last mascara wand pass and lipstick application, Bonnie walked into the hall where downstairs, she could hear Angela speaking in the calm and professional manner of a financial podcast leader:
“I’ve had a wonderful time and met so many kind people. Yes, Sean is wonderful. I hope he picks me…”
Bonnie walked further down the hall to Tabitha’s room. Peeking inside, the saw her primping in the mirror. She wore a dress so tight she might have trouble walking. The poor girl’s insecurities ran so deep she couldn’t even be herself.
With brothers like hers, she’d obviously been told somewhere along the line that all she had to offer were her looks. Maybe even that a man would only want to fool round with her. And this had been reinforced over and over again when her appearance became all that mattered to her.
Because this made her who she was.
Remind you of anyone else?
Thank God she was finally over all that, but how long had it taken? Decades, or from the first time someone told her mother that she ought to put Bonnie in a beauty contest. Even Daddy used to call her his very own little Miss Texas.
Sean claimed to love her for more than her looks, but she hadn’t believed him because even she hadn’t seen her own value beyond them. Her beauty would get her out of Stone Ridge and get back the life she and Mama had before Daddy died. All the pomp and pageantry of the rodeo, Hollywood style.
“Hey,” Bonnie said in the doorway of Tabitha’s open door.
She turned and almost spilled out of her dress. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful. Any man would be lucky to have you. You do realize this.”
“Oh, sure.” She turned back to the mirror, fluffed her perfect hair, licked her bottom lip. “But I hope the man is Sean. This is going to be on film, for all posterity for everyone to see. Including Sean. And either he’s going to be reminded how grateful he is to have me as his fiancée, or he will rue the day he let me go.”
“Tabitha, if he doesn’t pick you, you’re going to be alright.”
“I can’t even think like that. I want to show everyone back home that I can be special. Chosen.”
A ball of emotion formed in Bonnie’s throat. It was like watching someone boarding the Titanic unable to save them because it might alter the timeline or some such thing.
“You know, a long time ago Sean told me that he didn’t love me simply because of my looks.”
She snorted and adjusted her cleavage. “Yeah, that’s what they all say.”
At that moment, Bonnie realized what she both loved and hated about Tabitha. She was Bonnie a decade ago. Like looking in a fun house mirror with everything twisted and bent out of shape. Everything Tabitha said and did triggered Bonnie. No wonder she’d been on her last nerve the entire time. It wasn’t just Tabitha’s relentless pursuit of Sean.
It was Bonnie. She hated looking in this particular mirror. No distortion. Plain and simple. This is your life, Bonnie Lee. Look back with regret at the stupid mistakes you made based on a false belief.
Or move forward from this point forward.
“Tabitha.” Bonnie cleared her throat. “Thing is, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says or thinks. It only matters what you believe. You’re obviously smart, not just beautiful. And I’m sure you’re kind under the right circumstances.”
“Then why don’t I have a husband?”
“You’re only twenty-five. Maybe you haven’t met him yet.”
“But I did. It’s Sean, I just know it. He’s so nice and cares so much about all of us. I can see how much he hates hurting anyone’s feelings. And there was that thing he did with your slimy ex all because he insulted you. He’s a real man and all I meet are boys.”
“Interesting. You didn’t once mention how very handsome he is.”
Tabitha blinked. “Well, that’s obvious. You have eyes and you know how good looking he is.”
“That’s not the point. What if Sean had all these wonderful qualities but maybe he wasn’t quite so handsome? Maybe he had a little bit of a gut, or crooked teeth? Wouldn’t you still like him?”
“Hm.” Tabitha seemed to consider it. “Maybe, but I still want the hot body.”
She waltzed by Bonnie, on her way to the exit interview which would be broadcast when the show released. When all the decisions had already been made and all her hopes and dreams were crushed.