When she got to the office, Molly realized Freddie must have left just minutes before she got there. On her desk was a hot cup of coffee and a plate of fresh, sliced pears… she loved fresh pears. No note, just the coffee and fruit. She set to work and drew up next week's itinerary, and refined the list for Friday's youth club opening, then on to the bottomless mail.
Time flew by and she heard the front door close. "Bonita?"
"In here, thanks for breakfast," she told him as he entered and hovered in front of her desk.
"Well if it weren't for me you'd starve and work twenty four-seven." he declared, then pointed to the reorganized piles on her desk. "Wow, all them piles are neatly piled into new piles. Good work!"
"Ha ha. In fact I got lots done today; I'm thinking I'll knock off early."
Freddie staggered back, clutching his heart in exaggerated shock. "My God, my God. The work junkie is gonna quit early? Call my doctor!" He recovered a straight face and added with a sly smile, "Want some company?"
She could do melodrama, too. "Desperately," she gasped.
"Then I'll meet you in our loooovvve nest."
Molly laughed and faked a look of shame. "We have a 'love nest.' How tacky… you'll forgive me if I don't put a sign on my door."
He gave her "that look", all soft brown eyes and quiet smile. "How 'bout a hug, chica?"
She nodded and flew around the desk and into his arms. He held her so tight she could barely breathe, but she didn't care.
"You're so good for me, Freddie, so good."
He broke the Rules and pressed his mouth hard into the side of her head. "I try, even if I screw it up totally sometimes."
"It wasn't your fault, Freddie. Reggie showed up at the bar that night and nobody expected it. You lost it and acted like, well, like a macho idiot, and he acted like Reggie, and kaboom. It's over and done now."
His voice tightened. "I'd like to mess him up good."
"Living well is the best revenge, novio." She heard the laugh in his chest, and he stepped back with a big smile.
"Chica! You're learning Spanish!"
As she gathered her things to leave he asked a hesitant question. "Look, I know you said Wendy doesn't think I'm an asshole, but I really want to know. It matters, because you're best friends."
"She said you're a baby, but a hot one. She said if you're good to me then I should hang on with both hands and fuck the birth certificate. She said if you hurt me even a little that she'll 'geld that hunk-a-Rican motherfucker.'"
"Ouch." He cringed and grabbed his crotch, then straightened up with a bright smile. "Well in that case I guess my jewels are safe, huh? Because I'd never."
When he got to her apartment that night, Molly wasn't interested in giving Freddie a tour, she just dragged him in the door by his belt.
"Kiss me, dammit, kiss me until I can't breathe," she demanded, and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him to his knees on the carpet.
"I love it when you're masterful..." He kissed her, hard and long, all over her face and neck, then covered her mouth again with his own.
Molly felt so strong, as if Wendy's words gave her permission to not be afraid of anything anymore. She shoved Freddie to the floor and ravished him with hungry mouth and hands, she tore his belt and zipper open and hauled his jeans and jockeys down and did things to him even the wildest-eyed groupie never thought of. After coming so hard he damn near blacked out, he lay there like a dead man with his pants around his thighs and her lying half over him kissing his neck and chest as she pulled his shirt open.
"So good," he murmured over and over, and returned to his mouth with kisses so wild she almost pulled his tongue out.
He gripped her shoulders and held her back, "Jesus, take it easy Molly, easy. Don't use me up so fast, huh?" He lifted his head and kissed her, lightly, on her wet mouth. She looked a little ashamed.
"Now don't get me wrong," he said, kissing her cheeks one after the other, "I think it's very cool that a woman of your, uh," he searched for a safe word, "experience…"
"Ooh, good choice."
"Thank you. And under, er, pressure" he grunted, so she moved her hip off of his groin, "Better, thanks. Ay, I may need to see a doctor," he groaned, then went on. "What I was saying is that I think it's totally cool that a woman of your impressive experience wants to eat me alive all at once," he smiled his patented wicked smile, "but you want to leave some for later, yeah? And you wanna leave some for the camera or Jimmy'll sue us both. If you burn all the hot sex appeal out of me, how will I make a living?"
"Maybe you'll have to learn to act. Or else get a real job, like I have," she deadpanned, then sat up to grin at him where he lay, hair pulled in all directions and clothes pulled up and down. He didn't look very hot-star together at the moment.
"Cold, that's cold," he accused. "Well maybe I'll have to work for some hot mama who wants me all the time... you got an opening?"
When she smirked wickedly and he headed her off with, "I mean a job opening. Man, you are one nasty girl, you know that?" He added hastily, "Still not complaining! So, can I pull my pants up now? Or do you wanna take pictures?"
"Sure, you can put that away for now," she told him with a dismissive wave, then warned, "I may need it later, though."
He got up off the floor and got himself rearranged, pulled up his jeans and buckled his belt.
"Always at your disposal, señorita," he announced with a bow.
Still sitting on the floor, she looked up at him, suddenly serious. "You are so beautiful, what are you doing here?"
He pulled her to her feet. "Little late for that question, isn't it?"
"I mean when I saw you at the door on Emmy night, I almost fainted. I have to wonder, I can't help it. So many beautiful girls your age, you've been with so many of them, what are you doing here?"
"You mean with you, right? I could ask you the same thing. All the good looking men your age you meet in the business, smart and together like you. Whatchoo doing with a kid like me, huh? You could get laid anywhere, somebody like you." He reached out to run a hand through her hair.
"I don't wanna 'get laid'" she said in a vague voice. "I've had that. It's empty and cold and always ended up hurting. I don't want it anymore. I want somebody who knows me, who gets who I am and what I need." She walked over and sat on the sofa. "See, Reggie and you know the same things about me. What I need, what I'm afraid of, where I'm strong and weak. But he used all that to control me and hurt me, every chance he got, every way he knew how." When Freddie joined her on the sofa she touched his deepening frown. "You, you know all that but use it to be good to me, to help me get back who I am. And you make me smile, it's been so long since I've had that. You reach inside and turn the lights back on. I don't know if I'm telling it right…"
The frown was gone. "Yeah you are. And you know the same stuff about me. Nobody used it against me, but so many people shove past it, ignore it, it to get at the pieces they want. I still don't know what I'm doing here, you know, all of a sudden the show and being famous, all successful and rich and shit, just because I know how to make people laugh. Sometimes I think they're laughing at the wrong stuff, you know, laughing at me. Like, 'what a loser'. Like I have all this money and success and people falling all over me because I can fake it. And I think, what'll happen when they find out I'm faking?"
He looked so disturbed, she took his hand and squeezed it. "You're not faking, you're acting. Nobody spills all of themselves out onstage, not in comedy, not on TV. You have to keep some for yourself. If that's what you think is faking, it's the best way to do it. You're not cheating anybody, Freddie, you're not. I think it all happened so fast for you that you haven't had time to figure out how it works, you just do it. And don't be afraid somebody is gonna 'find out' about you, because when they do it'll just be how good you are inside. Am I making sense? God, I think we've had this conversation so many times, so many different ways. And I'm not the only one who tells you, either."
He didn't look convinced, but he smiled anyway. "Just keep talking, and some of it is bound to leak inside. You and Jack and Jimmy are the only one who try to convince me, except my mom. My dad thinks I'm nuts for doing this. You help me keep from thinking I'm totally crazy."
They were talking like friends again, the same way they had for almost all the time they'd known each other. It felt good to her that nothing they'd done in the past week or so had gotten in the way of that.
"And I'm sick of getting laid too," he was saying. He saw the smile she couldn't control and protested, "No, don't laugh, it gets to me after a while. I see some girl lying beside me in bed in the morning and if I'm lucky I remember her name and I think, how quick can I get her to leave? It was fine the night before because I needed somebody to make me feel real, make me feel that hot rush, but after that there's just another stranger who doesn't know who I am. For a while I was thinking, great, I'm such hot stuff and all these chicks want me. But they don't want me, they want TV star Freddie Prinze, they want Chico. Who I am isn't good enough, they'd laugh at me if they knew who I really am." He stopped for a minute and rolled his eyes. "Who ever heard of a comic who's afraid of getting laughs?" He smiled a little self-consciously. "And we've had this conversation before, or something like it. Yeah I know, it makes you smile because you've seen it all, but you never laugh at me and say 'oh sure Freddie, you're tired of all that free ass' like I'm making it up. Jack understands, but nobody else believes me."
"Well maybe that's because you're still going for it, ya think?" It was harsh, but true.
He nodded and admitted, "Yeah, maybe. But I'll tell you again, with you it's different, I wake up and I don't see a stranger, you know? You're not somebody I want to hustle out the door and never see again. I don't have to worry that you'll find me out because you already have and you're still here. I don't have to worry because you've seen it all with me, and it's okay."
Molly shook her head and laughed at the absurdity. "Jesus, what a pair. Both looking for somebody who won't use us against ourselves."
"Yeah. Whatta pair. A match made in the Twilight Zone." Freddie started laughing, and Molly joined in as he put his arms around her for a sloppy hug.
"So we got serious stuff in common, real stuff, that's good, right?" Freddie said, still laughing. "Who says it had to be normal stuff? We're both a mess, in our own 'special' way. That's why we work so well together, why we fit so well together, we're both certifiable. Your friend Wendy is right. Fuck the birth certificate."