“What is the fascination with that cathedral?" Lianna Caprice rolled her eyes and shook her folded hands in a pleading gesture. "Can we please turn the channel?"
Cyrus Gowdy stood in front of the TV, hand hovering near the tuner knob on the top right corner of the set. "It's the Sagrada Família. One of the wonders of modern architecture."
Lianna sighed and got up from the bed. "Cyrus, sweetie." She wrapped her arms around him from behind. "We're missing our show."
"Just one more minute." Gowdy pointed at the screen, where a flock of white doves was flying up around the cathedral's towers. "This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the guy who designed it. Antoni Gaudí."
"Darling," said Lianna. "When I say 'our show,' you know I'm talking about Weeping Willows, right? Which you wrote, produced, and directed, and which I star in? Which is premiering right now on another channel?"
Gowdy smiled at the screen as the camera panned along a peaked roof with pillars like crooked stalactites. "There's the Passion façade. They finished it just in time for the anniversary."
"Fascinating." Lianna said it with heavy sarcasm...then proceeded to reach around Gowdy and twist the tuner knob. She quickly switched three channels up the dial. And stopped.
Instead of the Sagrada Família, the screen was filled with an image of her.
"That's more like it." Without taking her eyes off the screen, Lianna guided Gowdy by the hand to the hotel bed. "Now let's enjoy this."
The two of them in their white terrycloth robes settled against the piled-up pillows. The gray light from the TV danced over their faces as the premiere episode of Weeping Willows flickered across the screen.
There was a shootout, then a love scene involving Lianna, then a commercial. The next segment started with a shouting match in the Team Room at the Willow family's ranch headquarters.
Lianna watched with her arms around Gowdy, her head on his chest. "This is wonderful," she said. "Like a dream come true."
Gowdy kissed the top of her head. "I know."
"Cyrus?" said Lianna. "What made you decide to watch the premiere with me instead of your wife?"
"She's not my muse, is she?" Gowdy caressed her long, red hair. "And she's not my star."
Lianna curled more tightly against him. "Do you think we were meant to be together?"
"It feels that way," said Gowdy.
"When we're old," said Lianna. "Thirty or forty years from now...do you think we'll be together?"
Gowdy cocked his head and stared into space. "Yeah." He grinned and nodded. "I have a feeling we'll be together then."
"So it's all going to work out." Lianna's voice was a purr of satisfaction. "We'll have our happy ending."
"To go with our happy beginning," said Gowdy.
On the TV screen, Lianna and Scott Savage fought a gang of thugs barehanded—and almost won. Lianna and Scott were both captured and dragged away just as the show faded to black and another commercial started.
"I'll be right back." Gowdy slipped away from Lianna, hopped off the bed...and changed the channel on the TV. The commercial was replaced by the Sagrada Família, surrounded by a sea of people bathed in sunlight.
Lianna sighed. "Not again."
"Just a minute, I promise." Gowdy sat on the edge of the bed, transfixed. "Just look at that. Gaudí was a genius, wasn't he?"
Lianna crawled across the bed and knelt behind him, twining her arms around his chest. "You're a genius."
Gowdy shook his head. "I could never create something like that."
"You made Weeping Willows," said Lianna.
"In fifty years..." Gowdy pointed at the screen. "Do you think people will turn out in honor of Weeping Willows? Do you think they'll revere it? Do you think it'll make a difference?" He chuckled. "Not a chance."
"Maybe Weeping Willows will be bigger than you think," said Lianna. "Maybe it will make a difference."
"It's schlock," said Gowdy. "Well-intentioned schlock, but still schlock."
"So make something that matters," said Lianna. "Nobody's stopping you."
Gowdy thought for a moment, then reached for her hand and kissed it. "Maybe you're right. Maybe someday."
Lianna whispered in his ear. "Do it for me."
"Will you help me?" said Gowdy.
"Of course," said Lianna. "We'll do it together."
A montage played on the screen, close-up shots of the cathedral's intricate features. "And what about that?" said Gowdy. "I've always wanted to see it in person."
"That, too," said Lianna.
"We'll see it?" said Gowdy.
"We will," whispered Lianna. "Together. I promise."