new phone. Nothing too flash, as Ruby had insisted, something to make calls and take text messages. Ruby strolled behind him with a satisfied grin. Steve had wanted the all singing and dancing latest smart phone – even he didn’t have it yet – but Ruby had a point. Unfortunately.
“You want someone to think you’re poor and still love you, right?”
“Why did I let you talk me into this?” Steve muttered, momentarily annoyed by her smug happiness. He stood in the middle of the Cribbs, by the fountain, trying to work out his new phone and put Ruby’s number in it. Ruby threw a coin into the fountain and closed her eyes. He hoped she was wishing this plan of hers would work.
Ruby nudged him. “Oh and, you know, I was thinking, you’ve got to ditch your accent.”
“I’ve worked fifteen years to get this accent. I have to sound American, only way to get the best parts, kid.”
“Hugh Grant does okay.”
“Hugh Grant gets typecast.”
“Point taken.” She nodded. “But you still need to lose it. Otherwise they won’t believe you’re not Steve Mason. You’re an actor, act British. Or something.” She waved her hands in frustration. “Pretend this is your next big role.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll try. I’m sure hanging around you will bring my accent back slowly.” Plus make me swear profusely.
“You say it as if it’s a bad thing.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and hugged her closer. “No, it’s far from a bad thing. I just can’t believe my baby sister has grown up…to someone really bossy.”
“I’m assertive, not bossy.” She elbowed him in the ribs, and he groaned.
“Right, yes, assertive. So where am I taking you to lunch?”
With paranoia setting in, Ruby decided to leave the Mall for lunch and drove Steve to her favourite local café.
They were sitting in a corner making idle chit-chat whilst perusing the menu. Ruby had checked out the dessert menu first – as well as the cake options deliciously displayed on the counter. It always helped her choose what she wanted as a main. The café was quiet, with hardly any customers, which she hoped meant fewer chances of someone realising who Steve really was.
Would he fly straight back to LA if he was spotted? She liked him being here; it had been so long. She was trying to hold in some of her excitement at having her brother back in her life, for fear of scaring him away. She hadn’t believed it was Steve on the phone until she’d seen him in the flesh at the hotel, but she needed to rein in her forceful nature, otherwise surely he’d up and leave? Was he used to being talked to like this? Hollywood-bred divas were not used to being told no. Would Steve be the same?
She couldn’t help it, this is what she’d become. At work, she played her role firm but fair. She couldn’t afford to look weak; if her staff didn’t keep the hotel residents happy, she was just as likely to lose her job as any of the others.
Since her mum had died she had no one else but herself, so she’d toughened herself up and didn’t take shit – this part she stuck to particularly after a few failed relationships with lousy boyfriends.
She watched as Steve turned over the menu, looking at the choices, utterly relaxed. He appeared down to earth and laid back, like he’d been as a teenager, so maybe Hollywood hadn’t ruined him yet.
Steve looked up, catching her staring. “What?”
“Nothing,” Ruby said, smiling. “Can’t believe you’re really here, that’s all.”
The waitress approached the table and took their order, placing two glasses of iced water down that they’d ordered when first seated. Steve had probably been a bit Hollywood Diva-ish insisting on the slice of lemon. At least he hadn’t insisted on it being sparkling. This kind of café served water from the tap unless you were willing to pay for a bottle. Ruby felt strongly that there was nothing wrong with tap water, so why buy it? Even in the restaurant at the hotel she insisted on jugs of water being made available at the table. Admittedly, they did have ice and lemon too.
Once the waitress left, Steve sipped his water, then sighed with a frown, and said quietly, “Sometimes, Ruby, I think there is a price to pay for fame. It’s called loneliness.”
“Wow, you have got it bad,” Ruby said, tucking the menu back into its holder to tidy the table.
“I’m happy, don’t get me wrong. My dream came true and I’ve found success.”
“But?”
“I’m not where I thought I’d be with life. You know… kids, family, a wife.”
“Maybe you can’t have both.”
“I want to say nonsense, but now money and fame has arrived, maybe it’s true.”
Steve’s success had started slowly, with minor character roles in television programmes, bigger parts started coming his way. Heavens, Mum and Ruby hadn’t realised how famous he would get. Their mum had died before the release of Perfection, and the interviews on chat shows and in glossy magazines had intensified. Ruby was reminded of him very often, though eventually she’d stopped watching or reading, because she didn’t like what she read. It impaired the memory she had of her big brother, her hero.
As Steve had become more successful, Ruby remembered Mum had wanted the family to stay out of the limelight. At the time, Ruby hadn’t realised why. At the grand age of twelve, she’d boasted to school friends about her big brother going off to Hollywood to become an actor, and as he’d got small parts, usually in adverts, she’d shared the news. Good job that was before Facebook and Twitter. Those days, as a proud teenager, she wanted to stand in Cribbs Causeway with a megaphone, telling everyone who her brother was because she’d been so thrilled for him, but as Steve was finding now, she’d learnt people weren’t always true to you. They could have a hidden agenda.
Fortunately, she’d lost touch with most of her school friends now – she wasn’t a major fan of social media, not after Terry – so no one would know about Steve. Nowadays she didn’t tell people she was the sister of the Steve Mason – she’d learnt the hard way. The people she worked with certainly weren’t aware. As Steve understood, it was hard to trust people if they knew you were related to someone rich and famous. Were they hanging around because they liked you, or wanted to meet your brother?
She’d had her fingers burnt good and proper only two years ago in the early years of Steve’s fame. He knew nothing about it and she wanted to keep it that way. Bitterness still lingered in her heart over that sordid affair – how naïve she’d been. It grated on her to this day, the memory of her stupidity. She wouldn’t fall for it again.
Now, regretfully, she also carried a smidge of jealousy. He’d been able to follow his dream. Ruby had not – not that she truly knew what she wanted to do. When she’d felt ready to start her own adventure, Mum had got ill.
And now they were
