Chapter Two: Beth

"What's it's name?" I asked disgustingly, as if we were discussing a beetle.

"*It's* name is Beth. Isn't that a beautiful name?" My mom. She still treats me like I'm seven years old.

"That's great." I said sarcastically. "Tell Bethany that I'm not interested."

My mother ignored me. "*Beth* really likes you."

"Yeah, maybe because I own four limos, eight summer houses, a mansion, a TV studio, most of LA, and all that other useless junk?" I rolled my eyes.

"She likes *you*, David, not your money."

"She doesn't know me. She hasn't seen me or talked to me. How can she judge?"

"I showed her your picture. She says she's in love." My mother said dreamily.

"Oh, and what else have you told her that I don't know about?"

"Not... much."

"Does she know about Lizzie?" I demanded.

"Yeah-yeah, she-she knows about her... sort of." Mother stuttered.

"What does this Bethany do?"

"Her name is *Beth*, and she's a newspaper journalist."

"Great. You want me to marry a member of the press. Are you insane? She'll gab every secret I have!" I exclaimed.

"No, she's very privacy-respecting. She won't print a thing unless you tell her to."

Privacy-respecting. Right. "Whatever."

"Do you want to see what she looks like?" Mom asked.

"Not really."

"Okay, I'll send you a picture or her. It'll get to LA tomorrow."

I scoffed.

Mothers.

She hung up, and as soon as she did, I redialed her number. "Let me meet her.. Then I'll make up my mind."

I could just *see* my mom grinning on the other side of the phone. "Her address is 289 Forest Drive."

289 Forest Drive? That sounded extremely familiar. Wait a second... 28*7* Forest Drive!

I gasped. "That's next door to..."

"Yep."

"Oh, great." Lizzie's old house was Beth's next-door neighbor. Could my life get *any* worse?

"She has seen every movie, documentary, and TV show you have ever took part in." Mom said. "She really loves you, David. Don't let us down. Beth's an amazing girl. Beautiful, too."

" Mother, I don't *care*." I rolled my eyes.

"Just... make sure you visit her tomorrow. She'll be glad."

"Fine, I will."

"David, call on line 2!" Felicia shouted. "It's someone called Beth."

"Bye." I hung up and clicked onto line two. What did this Beth want? "Hello, Beth." I said disgustedly.

"Hello, Mr. Gordon." A female voice filled the room.

"It's David." I said

"Oh."

"Why'd you call?"

"I wanted to see if you'd talk to me."

What kind of person calls to see if a guy would talk to her? "I'm talking to you now, aren't I?"

"You have a point there." Beth said. "But I didn't think you'd talk to me after Lizzie." She giggled.

'Hee, hee, hee.' I mimicked in my brain. "What's so funny." I asked.

"Nothing."

"Look, I'll *talk* to you, I just won't *marry* you. There's an enormous difference." I said, lowering my voice. "Try to understand. I love Lizzie more than I love myself. Living without her is like living without water. I'm sorry, Beth, but she's in my heart, and I *know* she's out there. I love her so much that I'd give anything, my movies, my mansion, *anything* to see her one more time."

"Really?" Beth whispered. "Oh, that's so sweet. You really love her, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." I said, and hung up.