Choices

Instead, she said, "He hasn't been your boyfriend since you cheated on him. Hell, for the last ten years he hasn't even been your friend. And for what I saw and heard the last days he never will."

"Well, he won't be yours either. I'm trying really hard to make up to him for what I did, but nothing makes him look at me the way he was looking at you when you came into the house."

How did Spence look at her?

"We're friends," Lindsey said. "Nothing else. I was the one who was there for him when you betrayed him."

"Which side are you on, Linds?"

"For once in my life, I'm on my own side," Lindsey replied with a defiant look in her eyes. "I'm your sister and I love you, but you don't own me."

"You say you love me?" Mel snorted, "You call dating Spencer behind my back, love?"

"Don't you dare blame me for all the bad choices you've made! I didn't steal Spencer from you. You lost him! Of course, blaming me is easier than blaming yourself."

Mel took a deep breath, "I'm sorry... I don't know what to say anymore... I wish I could go back in time. A normal life doesn't sound too bad right now."

Lindsey shook her head in disbelief. "For how long, Mel? How long do you think you'll be able to stay away from the fame, the money, the love of your fans?"

Melissa sighed, "It gets old. Trust me. Sometimes all I want is to be invisible."

"Being invisible is overrated. I know it pretty well. Besides, if you feel this way, why don't you quit?" Though Lindsey asked the question, she already knew the answer.

"You think it's because I love all the money and fame," Mel said in a small voice.

"Isn't it? Ever since we were kids you always needed to be the center of attention." She turned around and, with her back turned to her sister, she added, "We have to go back to work, we have deadlines, previous commitments, and people are depending on you. Vacations are over."

CHAPTER 16

As Melissa and Lindsey pulled into the hotel entrance, they were suddenly surrounded by hordes of people rushing to their car from every direction. Mel had almost forgotten what it was like to be accosted at every turn.

The press loved a good drama.

Cameras flashed all around her, blinding her even in the daylight. Reporters shouted questions so loudly, she couldn't tune them out.

They were asking her all these horrible questions about her supposed battle with drugs and alcohol and suicide.

"Mel, did you really try to kill yourself?"

"Do you have a drinking problem? Drug overdose?"

"How was rehab? Did you recover?"

"We heard Brandon found you and saved you. Are you two getting back together?"

Brandon and Carl Carson were waiting for them in the hotel lobby.

"Get off me," Mel hissed at Brandon, knowing that this was the ultimate publicity stunt for him. If Mel Dawn could forgive Brandon, then why couldn't the rest of the world?

"Stop being so difficult, Mel," he said through clenched teeth. "Let me help you inside." He smiled brightly at the cameras before kissing the side of her head.

The moment his lips touched her, Mel recoiled and fought off the urge to puke all over her fancy shoes. The paparazzi continued to shout, cameras continued to flash, and she no longer cared about any of it. She pressed her palms against Brandon and shoved him away from her so hard he almost fell to the ground. She wished he would have.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled without considering the implications. "I don't want you here! You disgust me!"

She rushed into the lobby of the hotel and into a waiting elevator, in which Aaron, her reliable bodyguard, held the doors open. It was nice to see a familiar, friendly face.

"They've been here since yesterday, Miss Dawn. It's like they knew you were on your way back. They won't leave."

"This is Carl's doing... He staged this whole drama," Mel muttered under her breath. She wondered if Brandon's cheating and the video with the stripper that 'leaked' to the press weren't part of a complicated publicity stunt.

"It's not true, Miss Dawn, right? All the things they're saying?" her bodyguard asked her.

"No, Aaron, they are not true," she said with a tired sigh. She was exhausted, and she'd only just returned.

A wide smile transformed her bodyguard's face. "I knew it. None of it sounded like you at all."

Thankful to finally have someone on her side, Mel said, "Aaron, please make sure that no one, not even Brandon or Carl Carlson comes up to my apartment without verbal permission from me first. Okay? It's important. I need some time for myself."

Melissa no longer trusted her agent. She had only considered the notion before she left town, but she was now convinced that he didn't have her best interests at heart.

"No one will come up," Aaron assured Mel with a nod.

"Thank you."

"Anything for you, Miss Dawn." He leaned around her and pressed the proper floor on the button panel before slipping out of the elevator and leaving her alone.

As the doors closed, Spencer's face appeared in Lindsey's eye and she winced. Would she ever see him again? She couldn't imagine Spencer being part of all this madness. The thought broke her heart.

She needed him like she needed to breathe.

Mel's phone rang. She looked at the screen. It was Carl Carson.

"Your goon says that I can't see you! Please remind your gorilla that I'm your agent!" Carl shouted on the other end of the line.

"I want to be alone and you have a problem respecting boundaries. In case you didn't notice you're not my favorite person right now," she snapped back.

"Oh, come on, Mel! Don't be like this! Now that you're back in town, the rumor mill will most likely die down. I mean, at some point it will. It will probably get worse before it gets better. But you should use this to your advantage. Strike while the iron's hot, and people will talk about you in ways they never have before. You know what we always say, bad publicity is still publicity."

She hated it when he said that; it didn't make any sense. What the hell was Carl even talking about?

She growled with frustration, feeling herself coming unglued. "Don't say that! I hate when you and Al say that about bad publicity. This is my life, my career. I've worked hard to not have any bad publicity, ever, and I'm not going to start now. I need to think hard about what I am going to do and you're not helping!" she ended the call and turned her phone off, releasing a quick huff of indignation.

"My hero," Lindsey raised her hand in the air for a high five.

"Holy cow, that was terrifying and exhilarating," Mel admitted with a small smile.

"Oh, he deserved that, all right. It's been a long time coming," Lindsey said. Seeing her sister was in a receptive mood she went on, "This is a direct attack on your character and you. So I think staying quiet is a mistake. If it were me, I'd want to defend myself. I wouldn't want anyone thinking those things about me, especially when they aren't anywhere close to the truth."

The more Lindsey talked, the more animated she became.

"I understand you wanted to protect Mom, but I think it's safe to tell everyone about Dad's death now. You can Tweet it, or post an open letter to the newspapers..."

Mel's face lit up as she said, "Yeah, I like that idea. I like to be in complete control. I'll tell the public what I want to, how I want to, and only what I want to share in my own words. We can guess what everyone's questions will be, and we can figure out how to answer them without spilling anything we don't want them to know. I can do this."

"I'll help you," Lindsey said placing a hand on her sister's arm. "You are going to need a new agent, Mel. What happened has Carl and Al's fingerprints all over it."

Nodding, Melissa added her suggestion to the growing mental list of things she needed to accomplish since getting back. "I know."

"And a new publicist as well."

"I'll talk with my lawyer to inform them their services are no longer required."

"And please tell me you'll put Brandon in his place. Or let me do it. Violently," Lindsey said as she cracked her knuckles.

Laughing, Melissa said, "I'll do it. One thing at a time, I guess."

Mel hugged her sister tight, "I have no idea what I'll do without you. I love you, Sis."

Lindsey hugged her sister back just as tight, "I love you too, Mel. Let's kick some asses."

CHAPTER 17

Spencer hadn't accomplished a damn thing since Lindsey went out of town.

The computer at the workshop had been bookmarked up the ass with celebrity gossip sites and entertainment channels.

He was a man obsessed. Every time he saw a photo of Lindsey, always behind her sister he wanted to jump inside the monitor and be with her.

As much as he wanted to believe they had a chance of being together, he knew Lindsey was too committed to her job as her sister's assistant.

Spencer closed the workshop early and headed for his parents' home. He needed to have a heart-to-heart with them.

He took his time walking to their home, trying to sort out his mind and his heart.

When Spencer stepped through the door, the smell of fresh-baked bread hit him immediately, and his stomach rumbled as his mom greeted him.

"What a lovely surprise," she said, wiping the flour from her hands on a towel.

"I wanted to talk with you about something."

His mother's expression turned curious as she waved a hand toward the kitchen table. Spencer moved to sit as she placed a plate of the fresh, hot bread in the center, butter melting off the top.

Removing her apron, she tossed it on the counter before joining him at the table.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?"

Spencer had no idea where to begin. "It's just...I miss her, Mom."

"Mel? Of course, you miss her. You had something going for a lot of years...."

"No, not Mel. I miss Lindsey," he corrected her.

Suddenly at a loss for words, he dropped his gaze and focused on a knot in the wood table.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" she asked.

It wasn't the response he expected.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Spence, when Mel cheated on you with that young actor..."

"You knew?"

"Son, I'm old, not stupid. You were gentleman enough not to say anything. Probably trying to spare some pain to Mel's parents..." she checked on her son and he moved his head up and down. "But you wouldn't have given up on your relationship so easily unless something really serious happened. Then, when the gossip TV shows started to report she and that cocky young actor were a couple, I got it.

"After that, you never went out with another girl even when you had every single girl in Middletown swarming around you like flies.

"I always figured you'd eventually heal and move on, but you didn't. And every year that passed, you become sadder and sadder, feeling sorry for yourself. You put your love life on hold."

She reached across the table and took his warm hand in hers.

"Love is knocking at your door again, what are you going to do?"

Spencer moved his shoulders up and let them fall. "What can I do?"

Her mother's expression was stern when she said, "You don't give up. You don't quit. Go get that girl. Go to LA, find her, and tell her how you feel."

She saw the doubt on her son's face. "Unless that's not what you want?"

"Lindsey is too committed to her work as an assistant. She made it clear she's not leaving her sister."

"Well, she should..." Spencer's mother laid a hand on his shoulder. "Mel treats her like a servant more than a sister. Even her mother noticed it."

"Why does she do that?"

"Because Mel is jealous, Spencer. Melissa can't handle the fact that you want nothing to do with her. If you aren't going to be with her, then you aren't going to be with anyone. Especially not with her sister."

"How do you know this?"

"You should give your mother more credit, Spence," she said, giving him her mothers-know-best look.

"What the hell! Hasn't she wrecked my life enough?" Spencer battled with his growing fury.

"Women can be cruel. And Mel doesn't like losing."

"She lost me a long time ago."

Her mother nodded.

"I bet deep down she welcomed that agent that came to fetch her. What was her reaction to her ex-boyfriend's presence?"

"She didn't like it at all. But to me, it was a reminder of her betrayal. The guy is a true asshole. It took all my willpower not to rearrange his smile with my fists."

"I'm glad you didn't punch him, though. Not that he didn't deserve it. But you are a better man and you need to be above that."

"It was more about not ending up in jail than being a better man."

Spencer assumed she was done and he stood up to leave, but his mother stayed seated, staring at him.

"What?"

"What are you going to do about Lindsey? You're not just going to let her go without a fight, are you? That's not the stand-up guy I know."

"I can't fight alone. She has been sending mixed signals as to whether or not she wants to be my girlfriend. Lindsey seems to be a different person when Melissa is not around. But when I broach the subject of leaving her sister's employment to do something for herself, I hit a brick wall."

Spencer dropped his head into his hands, feeling worse than ever. "I don't think what we had was anything more than just a fling."

"That's poo and you know it." Spencer's mother narrowed her eyes at her son as a scowl appeared. "Or maybe you don't know it. But I saw the way Lindsey looked at you, and I saw the way you looked at her. That was no fling. And if you're too stupid to realize it, I'm sitting here telling you. That way you have no one to blame but yourself if you don't go after her."

"I can't just pick up and leave!" he snapped before forcing himself to calm down. "I have a business to run. This workshop is my livelihood and I can't abandon it."

"I think you can take a short vacation. They say LA is lovely this time of the year."

"But..."

"Butt is what I'm going to kick if you don't start packing right away. I don't want to hear another word about it," his mother said as he opened his mouth to argue, and she raised a warning finger at him. "I mean it. Not another word."

CHAPTER 18

Melissa spent the next day laying low in her hotel room. It was nice to enjoy some free time despite the paparazzi camping out on the street. It felt like an extension of their time out in Middletown.

Melissa's agent, manager, and publicist, did everything trying to reach her, but she didn't want anything to do with them right now... or ever. She'll talk to them when she was ready and on her own terms.

Lindsey and Mel decided that an open letter to her fans on her website and social media was the perfect thing to do to reach them directly and tell them about what really happened. They spent half the day writing and rewriting it so it would be perfect. It was going to be a personal message from Mel to her fans, in her own words.

"It feels good to take control of my life, to be in charge of my image," Mel said typing away at the laptop on her lap.

For an answer, Lindsey just smiled. She missed Spencer. She missed the person she'd been when they'd been together. She missed the way he made her feel on the inside.

"Have you heard from him?" Mel asked her sister, raising her eyes from the screen.

Lindsey sucked in a breath. At least she was thoughtful enough not to mention his name.

"No," Lindsey turned away from Mel and blinked away the tears that threatened to overwhelm her again. Things between the two of them had been under some kind of truce since they left Middletown, but Lindsey knew there was a conversation coming about the elephant in the room and she dreaded it.

"We need to focus on looking for a new team. People who have your best interests at heart," Lindsey finally said to her sister."

"I'll deal with my heart later," she thought. She had become really good at procrastinating her personal life.

Melissa nodded. "I agree. I think the letter and the announcement of my new team should come together. If the letter comes first, they'll try to book me on every show to talk about it. They'll probably ambush me to meet Brandon again on the air. Anything to garner extra attention," Melissa said, unable to hide her sarcasm. "I realized they're not the best people to have in my corner," with a sigh, she added, "I honestly don't know if they ever were. Brandon recommended them to me when I started my acting career. That alone should have been a red flag."

Lindsey's phone vibrated, and she glanced down to see Hilda Bohan's name flashing on the caller ID.

"I need to take this. It's Hilda Bohan. She is said to one of the best agents in the business."

"You trust her?" Mel asked her sister.

Lindsey nodded. "I do, actually. She's Cassandra's agent."

"That's good enough for me. Hire her to represent me. I want to talk with her about the letter. Tell her to call me when everything is settled." She smiled at Lindsey and added, "Guess I'd better go tell Carl and Al they're fired."

She picked up her phone and dialed Carl Carson's number.

"Mel, why weren't you taking my calls? Are you crazy?" he yelled instead of answering with a normal greeting. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm about to tell you as soon as you stop yelling at me," Melissa said evenly, forcing herself to stay strong.

He groaned. "What is it?"

"You're fired." She enjoyed saying that so much.

"Excuse me?" he shrieked.

"I'm pretty sure you heard me," Melissa said firmly, her inner confidence growing and building upon itself. "My lawyer has sent you an e-mail asking to terminate our business relationship effective immediately."

He breathed harshly into the phone line, and knowing what was coming, she pulled it from her ear.

"I made you what you are, Mel! Good luck getting any work in this city again! You're an idiot. An idiot who will be out of work," he screamed before hanging up.

Instead of feeling nervous or worried about his threats, Melissa instantly felt relieved. Her shoulders lightened as the load she subconsciously carried lessened.

Dialing Al Jenkins while she was still brimming with confidence, she listened as the phone beeped each time it rang, signaling that he was on the other line. When his voice mail clicked on, she left a message.

"Hi, Al, this is Mel. As of today, I will no longer be requiring your services. You should have an e-mail detailing our termination clause in your in-box from my lawyer. Thank

you for your time and help over the years. I wish you the best." And with that, she ended the call and danced in the room, freedom filling her from the inside out.

After her dance party, Mel pulled open her laptop to read over the draft of her open letter one last time before sending it to her new agent for review. She attached it to a quick e-mail telling her that she was officially on the market for a new agent and asking if she would be willing to represent her.

Dear Friends,

There has been a lot of speculation about where I've been the past weeks. Since returning to LA, I've been bombarded with questions, accusations, and unkind words, brutal reminders of the reality of this business that I otherwise normally love.

You have no idea how hard it is to read such utter lies about yourself printed everywhere for everyone to read. Worse than the made-up stories is the fact that people believe them... a lot of people. And that's why I'm here, writing this letter to you now. I needed to talk to you the way friends do, and I wanted to be the one to do it, not a publicist or an agent or manager, but me.

The truth is that my father died of a heart attack a few weeks ago. My mother needed me and my sister with her and I didn't want to turn my father's last goodbye into a media circus. I'm human, just like you, and sometimes I wanted to cry and be there for my loved ones without having flashes blinding me to get a picture of my tears, or answer all kinds of stupid questions, like 'how I feel'.