The next day Marshall worked hard on Amy's contract. After hours of consulting books and rereading the contract, he found a loophole that could get Amy out of doing another season of L.A. Detectives.
That night when we went to her suite, he told her the good news. "Thank you so much, Marshall." she said, hugging him. Then she pulled back. "Sorry for invading your personal space."
"It's okay." Marshall started to say.
"I already invaded your personal space." Barney interrupted, even though that really didn't make all that much sense.
"Nice to see you, Barney. How was last night with the bimbo?"
"Legendary."
"Well, I'm glad you decided to come."
"Please. I'm only here because I left my watch here."
"You mean the one on your wrist?"
Barney looked down. "Shut up, Kinser." he said, pulling his sleeve down and heading for the couch.
Amy's suite was beautiful. It wasn't tremendously over-the-top, which is how I imagined most actors wanted their suites when they traveled. There was plenty of food and drink. Everyone started in. While they were distracted, I pulled Amy aside.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Ted."
Then I realized you can't really ask someone, especially a popular TV actress, if she has friends besides you and your gang. "We're going to miss you when you go back to Hollywood." I said.
She looked at me a little weird. "That's not a question." she said.
"You're right." I said. "I guess the question I was trying to ask was… are you going to miss us when you leave?"
"Are you kidding? Of course I'm going to miss you. All of you. You guys treat me like a normal person. It's refreshing."
"That's what friends do." I said.
She smiled at me. "You know, that tour you gave me was incredible. I could tell how much you loved this city. Kind of made me want to live here."
I laughed. "Maybe you can move here when you retire."
"Maybe."
At that moment, Marshall stuck his head around the corner. "What are you two doing? You're missing all the food!"
We followed him and joined the rest of the group. I swear Barney gave me the 'did you just tap that' look, but I ignored him. During the night I would occasionally glance over at Amy. She seemed really comfortable in our group. I could almost see her as a regular. I realized that it shouldn't matter if she had other friends or not. We should still be the best friends we could to her.
As the night wore on, we eventually decided perhaps we should go home and try to get some sleep. Amy understood. "I would like to see you guys some more before I leave."
"Absolutely." I said. "That would be great." I looked back into the suite and saw Barney still sitting on the couch. "Come on, Barney."
Amy turned around. "Still looking for your watch?"
"Yes. And I'll continue looking for it all night long."
"Just be quiet about it."
"Only if you are."
Amy rolled her eyes. "Goodnight, Ted."
"Are you sure you want Barney here?"
"I think I can handle him."
"Oh, you can handle me alright." came a voice from within the suite.
"Alright. Well… see you later, I guess."
Amy smiled and shut the door. I stood there for a minute, wondering why Amy allowed Barney to stay. Then I decided that I didn't really want to know. I headed towards the elevator and went down to the street where Marshall, Lily and Robin were waiting.
The next few days went by quickly. We hung out with Amy almost every night. Eventually, the day of her flight back home arrived. We all went to the airport with her. We stood by security, saying our goodbyes.
"It was so nice to meet all of you." Amy said, giving us hugs. "I know where I'm taking all of my vacations from now on."
"Thanks for giving us a chance, even though we're fans." Marshall said.
"Thanks for not being crazy stalker fans." Amy said with a smile. She looked at her watch. "I'd better go. Thanks again."
"Stay in touch." I said.
We all watched as she got in line and walked through the metal detector. And then she was gone.
At MacLaren's that night, we all stared at the empty spot where Amy's chair had sat.
"These past few days seem so surreal." Robin said.
"Yeah," Lily agreed. "Did we really meet Amy Kinser, star of L.A. Detectives?"
"Oh, we met her alright." Barney said. "I've got the bite marks to prove it."
About a week later, a package arrived. It was addressed to all of us, even though Robin and Barney didn't live at the apartment. Inside was a letter.
"Dear friends," I read aloud. "I just wanted to thank you, once again, for all the nice things you did for me while I was in New York. Your friendship means more to me than I can say. Please enjoy these gifts. It's the least I can do. Love, Amy."
Inside the box were smaller wrapped boxes, each with one of our names on it. Inside those were shirts that said 'L.A. Detectives'. Not only that, but they were all signed by the cast. We all looked at Barney, the man who never wore t-shirts. But he wasn't holding a shirt. He was holding a signed tie. And a brand new watch. "Try not to lose this one." he read from the watch's tag. "She digs me." he said, looking up at us.
We all had something extra in our packages. Robin and Lily got some designer makeup, the kind they used on the show, according to the tag. Marshall got a little golden statue, like an Oscar award. It said 'World's Best Lawyer' on the bottom. And for me, a replica of the Chinese Theater. On the tag, Amy had written 'This is the most beautiful building I've ever seen. I'm sure it has lots of obscure architecture facts you can tell me, next time I visit'. I was touched. And she was right. I did know some facts about its architecture.
I knew we were all thinking the same thing- we couldn't wait for Amy's next visit. We loved our new friend, the detective.