Hi guys, sorry this took me a while. I have been pretty busy. Here Ты go with part 2. I know it's not that long. Forgive me. I'll post еще this week. Thanks to Belle for reviewing this. The секунда part I am posting without her ok, so....I just hope Ты like it and that I didn't screw this up.


6 January 2010

Lisa looked herself up and down in the mirror and tied up the folds on her black dress looking for imperfections. She turned over, checking the cleavage on her back….did that hairstyle work on her? Maybe she needed to tie them up high differently. She gave that a few tries, but was back to gathering them in a bun in no time. She took a step closer peering worried at her face. When has she got those wrinkles? Without taking her eyes off her image, she outstretched her hand looking blindly for her clutch bag, sifting inside it in the attempt to find her lipstick. She carefully outlined the contour of her lips, meticulously applying the gloss over.
She was procrastinating. She knew that. She had no reason to be nervous. This was something she had made a thousands times. She took a deep breath, stepping backwards. I can do this.
Robert was scrutinizing her face in the meanwhile, trying to figure out the way she felt. Was he allowed to step in? Bring the subject up?
Lisa sensed his gaze on her. Didn’t take Nostradamus to know what was coming, but the safest course, if she wanted to do it till the end of the night, was deflecting “Thanks for coming by earlier. I appreciate that, Rob” She turned and casted a thankful smile at him.
“You’re welcome. Does it still hurt?”
“A little. But Ты don’t have to worry about it. Jess will be helping me tonight…”
“I know, I know…”
Lisa headed to the living room and he followed silently. Maybe he could just…check on her. See if she was doing ok, for real...“Lisa?”
She froze the very moment she heard the tone he had called her with, although she managed to keep a cheery face, with the most oblivious smile painted on it “Yes?”
He locked eyes with her, trying to look beyond her mask of composure. Her eyes weren’t glowing as usual either. They had darkened a pinch since the last time he saw her. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. She did look ok, after all. She wasn’t sparkling all over as the woman he had knwon for years but...what was the point of ruining the night to her?
He shrugged, eventually “Nothing…I was just thinking...you look lovely tonight”
She tilted her head smiling at him but there was something unconvincing about it, as if her mind had already raced to something else.
“What?”
“Who’s driving with us?”
He knew who she was asking about “He is coming by himself. сказал(-а) he needed to stop by somewhere first”
“Oh…Good” Hasn’t she hoped for this? So why wasn’t she relieved now?
“You ok?”
Lisa sighed. She was being ridiculous “Yes, of course”
They kept silence for a while. It was quite outside too. Every little rumour seemed to be boosted by the deep quiet of the surroundings. Wouldn’t be hard to hear the noise of the limo coming by. It was just a matter of minutes. Lisa looked nervously down at her watch
Why wasn’t he driving with them? Sure it couldn’t be her fault, could it? They hadn’t talked since the other day, though….maybe he wasn’t doing well. Luckily, the shooting this год didn’t require her to stay on set that long, so she didn't have to deal with it the день after. But on other hand she really started to miss him. Wasn’t this one of the reason she had left him? To keep being Друзья without screw everything everything up? Started hating each other for something that wasn't noone of their fault? He was married. She had always known that. And he wasn't hers and never would be. She had known that all along, so she had no right to cry over the spilled milk. She had promised herself she would take distance from him. Let time pass by a little. And she would hold the promise. How hard could that be?
“How is he doing, by the way?” So much for that....
Robert frowned, but he hadn’t been really taken by surprise. He could swear she has been thinking about him “You don’t know?”
Lisa stared at him with questioning eyes. “I thought he told you”
“Some….He told me you’re seeing another guy”
“Well…there’s no much еще to say” She added pensive, staring down at her кошелек “He left before I could say something more. Didn’t even give me a chance to explain”
Robert thought it through for a moment. “He is good” Was he lying to protect him или her? Which one he was supposed to be loyal to right now? He wasn’t sure.
Lisa pressed her lips and forced herself to curl them into a convincing smile “Good”
He couldn’t take sides in this. He just couldn’t. “Liz….it’s like the third time Ты say good”
“The секунда actually…”
He raised an eyebrow “Whatever" He pondered whether to add something "He also told me Ты think he is not being serious about it. That putting off his ring doesn’t prove he is ready to take such a step”
“It…isn’t exactly just that” it had been painful and hard enough to tell Hugh, already. She didn’t want to go through it all once again. Not tonight. She couldn’t afford that.
“Then how is it?”
Lisa took a deep breath, working hard to steady her heartbeat. How was it then? It was too complicated. It all had got to be so complicated.
“Not tonight Rob”. They turned their head to the window, simultaneously. The limo was there already. They could hear Jess laughing with David as they get out crossing her front garden “Let’s go now”
“I thought you….”
“I just asked if he was ok”
She was deflecting, for sure, and she was lying but the look inside her eyes was so pleading he felt it was time to give up.
“Yes. He is”
“That’s all I need to know”

..............................................

As usual, flashes were flashing everywhere and the arrival tent was already stuffed with enough people to make him wish there was some secret, underground passage, he could take, that from the limo would lead him straight inside of the building. All of this in the attempt to avoid all the pattern of usual exchanges dictated by these events: journalists, cameras, questions, politely deflective answers....
Hugh wasn’t certainly in the mood today, far less than usual at least, but David had insisted he was there “The hell with the Emmy commission Hugh. They are morons. But if there’s a prize Ты can get, that’s the PCA award, so you’d better be there, ok?” This were the duties of the show-business, indeed, and he knew perfectly well he sucked at it. Nevertheless, here he was. But not for the prize for sure.
He was doing his best to keep a cool attitude, although his head was pounding. Thousands of different thoughts kept obsessing him, but noone of them has something to do with the show, the ratings или his job whatsoever.
As he approached the Red Carpet with the pace of one who has been sentenced to death, a hand seized him by his arm....
It was the umpteenth acquaintance he has forgot the name of; one of those he had needed to get used to babble with in these occasions, in order to give the impression he was not the conceited, English misanthrope someone had thought he was during his early years in LA. “How are things going? It’s a while since wee last see each other”…if only he could have remembered where he had seen him “So nice to see Ты there, I thought Ты might skip this one too” Subtle reference to one of his notorious, mysterious absence at events like this “I couldn’t miss this one. PCA are my favorites” Polite answer and warm, half-forced smile in return “I must tell Ты how much I enjoyed your performance this season. Your opening two-hour episode was a phenom...” And here they all usually went with a full-session of never-ending congratulations over his job, his talent, his exquisite acting. The great crew and cast choices....He was so fed up with all of this right now. None of this things make him proud of himself. Not these days.
He managed to excuse himself successfully from the man and quickly passed through the carpet.He instinctively dug his left hand deeper into his pocket: it was not the right time to deal with it. He’d better hide that as good as he could; he just needed to cast a few unnatural smiles hither and yon, but everything was much еще simple and pleasant when Lisa was around. Where is she? Might it be she hasn’t come? He rose on his tiptoes, looking around for someone of the others, but the tent was too crowded even for him to spot somebody among that bloody mess.
In the meanwhile, he was keeping an eye and giving an ear to the journalists in the hope they didn’t want to interview him this time. The last thing he needed was for his current mood to be put on records; so as soon as he heard some calling his name, that was enough to justify a well-timed disappearance. He began to push into the crowd in the attempt to leave that dangerous spot as soon as possible...
“Come with me, this way....”Rob, who had apparently appeared from nowhere to rescue him, had suddenly grabbed him by his arm and was now dragging him away in the opposite direction.
“What are Ты doing? Not this way, please!”
Robert kept moving nimbly among the crowd, almost as if he had studied the path before “Believe me, Ты don’t want to go that way. There’s Kristin, right there, ready to catch one of you, или possibly both, if she ever was that lucky again" he added sarcastically "as soon as she spots Ты in a mile radius”
But Hugh had already forgotten the dangers of journalism and stopped abruptly “One of us? Is Lisa here?? Where?”
“Of course she is. When was the last time Ты saw her skipping an event?”
“Fair point. I guess I am just…well, not surprised but…never mind. Where is she?”
He sounded confused. His English savoir-faire was a bit off tonight. And that was a bad sign “Hugh. Listen to me” he сказал(-а) deadly serious “You won’t talk to her. Not tonight”.
He frowned half-worried he might not have his chance to get things right “She told Ты something?”
“No, but…”
Hugh stared blankly ahead not crossing his gaze “Then you’re nothing to be worry about. I have no intention to”
Rob's look was reproaching already “You’re lying. I knew you've come up with something and I back Ты up, I swear, but please....”
“Trust me. I know what I am doing. Where is she?”
Hugh looked far away from knowing what he was doing. He was rather a frightening mix of depression and hiper-excitement and that shade of resolution in his eyes wasn’t reassuring at all.
“Hugh, I just want to be sure you…”
But they had run out of time as Lisa was pushing her way through the crowd heading towards them, coming from behind Hugh’s back with a hopeful, nervous smile depiected on her face.
He sighed, nodding in her direction and hoping for the fireworks to start as late as possible.
“She is right there. Right behind you”.