Meadowlark Assisted Living 2017
"How's she been?"
Eva took a deep breath as she signed herself into the visitor's booklet. She slid the pen and booklet over to Val and waited for her to do the same. Val's friendship with Lainey spanned over twenty years. With Val the director to many of Lainey's roles, most recently being The Valley, they had seen each other flourish both in their careers and their personal life. There was a time when Lainey joked that she could never just work with someone if she truly loved them, what with Val being her best friend and Eva turning from her publicist to her lover.
Eva sighed. Those days were in the past, but she hoped they weren't gone forever. "Okay, I guess. As good as she gets."
"You don't sound so sure." Val slid the book back to the receptionist and clipped her visitor's badge onto her breast pocket.
"I'm not," she admitted as she lead the way through the hallways towards Lainey's room. A nurse met with them before they continued on their way. "She has good days and bad days. Sometimes I can spend nearly the whole day with her, and others, I'm barely here for ten minutes before the excitement is too much for her."
"Hey," Val said squeezing her shoulder. "I know it's hard, but deep down inside, Lainey loves you with every fibre of her being."
Eva nodded as they approached a door. "I know."
The nurse knocked and waited. Some days it took a while for Lainey to acknowledge there was anyone at the door, but more often than not, the nurse would lead her in and she'd find Lainey painting, napping on her bed, and even sitting in her chair looking fondly out the window.
Today, Lainey was in that chair. Her skin was more pale and she looked thin. She barely turned when all three of them entered the room. The nurse left them alone, and Eva walked to the corner and crouched in front of Lainey.
"Hi, baby." She squeezed Lainey's knees hopefully. Lainey's glassy eyes stared through her. Eva had been here enough to learn Lainey's body language. She was quiet and more reserved than normal, and her foggy eyes signaled a fright of confusion. Eva turned her head to Val and frowned. "I don't know how long we can stay."
"Hi."
Eva whipped her head at Lainey's voice and grinned. "Hi, baby!"
But Lainey wasn't looking at Eva. She was staring at Val, and the glassy haze over her eyes twinkled with a hint of recollection.
Val shuffled from foot to foot before shooting an apologetic glance to Eva. She discarded her purse on the dresser and kneeled next to Eva. "Hi, Lainey. You feeling okay today?"
"Okay," Lainey repeated.
"That's good!" Val grinned. "Do you remember who I am?"
Lainey scrunched up her face as she struggled to find the word. "F-friend."
"Yeah," Val cheered. "We are friends." She motioned her head to Eva. "What about this beauty here? Do you know who she is?"
Eva held her breath.
Lainey's sharp green eyes zeroed in on Eva. She waited for her to say of course, that she was kidding. How could she forget Eva? But no answer came out of Lainey's mouth, and she turned back to Val and repeated, "friend."
Val nodded and gently patted Lainey's knee.
The Beach House 2016
"Do you think that people still think that we're friends?" Eva asked as they laid in the hammock in the backyard. They were sprawled opposite each other with Eva massaging Lainey's calf.
Lainey picked her head up and raised her eyebrow. "Are we not friends?"
Eva laughed. "I mean they don't realize that we're together, you know? Like a single unit."
"Ohh. You mean how much you like-like me."
She playfully smacked Lainey's leg. "Even at the diner the other day, I think the waitress was looking at us like we're best friends."
Lainey sat up completely now. "Seriously? Did she not see the way that I look at you?"
"I know! You were never subtle about liking me," Eva answered with a smug shrug of her shoulder.
"Uh, you were about as subtle as a rock." She playfully poked at Eva's side with her toe, finding her ticklish spot.
"Stop!" Eva laughed, nearly rolling out of the hammock. She escaped and stood with a huff, but Lainey was too quick to drag her bag down. Any reservations were quickly silenced by Lainey's lips against her own.
"Still want me to stop?" Lainey asked.
"Mm-mmm." Eva shook her head, her eyes shut and leaned in for another kiss.
When they pulled apart, Lainey tucked Eva's hair behind her ear and said, "that just means one thing then."
"What?"
"I need to be more affectionate with you in public. If people don't see how I feel about you and don't realize how lucky I am to have such a beautiful, smart, and funny woman like you, then I must be doing something wrong."
Eva pondered momentarily with a playful finger to her lips. "Well you could start by showing some affection here."
"Oh yeah?" Lainey quirked an eyebrow and kissed her lips briefly.
"Mmhmm. But you're going to have to do better than that."
Eva giggled when Lainey wasted no time in pulling her back in for a deeper kiss. Her eyes shut reveling in the way Lainey's lips moved so sensually against her own. Hands wandered under clothes, and despite being out in the open, neither were stopping their actions to move inside. Eva gasped when Lainey's fingers toyed with the waistband of her jeans.
"Let's take this inside," Eva breathed against Lainey's lips.
"Or…" With a devilish smile, Lainey's fingers unbuttoned the clasp and deftly moved her zipper down, her hand disappearing down Eva's jeans.
Eva gasped and was too weak to pull away. Just as she dove back in for another heated kiss, her cell phone started to ring.
"Don't answer it," Lainey demanded, her fingers more enticing than ever.
"It's Val, she groaned as she shimmied her phone from her pocket. "She's been wanting to come over for a while and-"
Lainey grabbed the phone from Eva's hand and answered. "Call us back. I'm about to get lucky." With that, she tossed the phone into the bushes and grinned innocently at Eva. "So where were we?"
"If my phone is broken-"
"I'll buy you a new one," Lainey promised resuming her earlier actions earning herself a moan.
On Set of The Valley 2006
"I didn't realize it was in your job description to help me run lines," Lainey said with a wry grin.
"Of course it is!" Eva sat down across from the actress on the couch and pulled towards her a copy of the new script. "Your image is my job. If you mess up a scene and it gets out, then I'm the one who has to deal with the repercussions of making you look good again. I'm doing you a favour really."
Lainey laughed and flipped open to a page she had heavily marked. Eva could see notes to herself and acting directions. Lainey really took her role seriously, and Eva admired that.
"Have you ever acted before?"
"How hard can it be to play a man that's in love with you?" She flipped open her own script and read over Jason's lines in her head. It was the scene where the off-screen couple were finally going to be an on-screen pair. Truth be told, Eva had never acted a lick in her life. So when she deepened her voice and looked lovingly into Lainey's eyes, the actress burst into a fit of laughter, even before the first lines were out.
"What?" Eva straightened. "That's what he sounds like!"
"He does not sound like the Terminator." She leaned over and placed her hand on Eva's thigh. "Just relax. You don't need to pretend you're him."
"How else can I do the scene if I'm not channeling him?"
"Believe me, you aren't," Lainey teased. Her green eyes twinkled in laughter. "I am an actress, sweetie. It's my job to pretend. I mean, besides, the people around me they're just someone else too."
Eva shook her body, doing her best to relax.
"Just read the lines how you would read them and I'll work off that."
Eva nodded as Lainey put away her script. She looked down at the words on the page and exhaled deeply before speaking. "Vivian. You have no idea how long I've felt this way."
Lainey, now transformed as Vivian, had a different air about her when she assumed the role of her Valley counterpart. Eyes squinted with dominance exuding from her very core, the essence that was Vivian was more what the rumours of what Lainey was supposed to be like. Lainey was sweet and genuine and funny, while the Vivian before her was distant, powerful, and so damn enticing.
Lainey's red lips parted. "How long, Jason?"
"Too long. I can barely go a minute without you making your way into my mind," Eva recited. "How do you do it?"
Lainey laughed softly, her fingers trailing up Eva's bare knee towards the hem of her skirt. "The same way you do it for me. I feel the exact same way."
"You do?" Eva whispered. Even though it was the line on the page, it felt like it had come from the woman herself. Lainey was looking at her like she was ready to devour her, and Eva couldn't help but want the same.
"I do," Lainey whispered just as softly.
Eva reached out, her fingertips grazing the side of Lainey's face. The actress' eyes shut and she leaned into Eva's touch. Eva's fingers moved to the tip of her chin and tugged her face just a little bit closer. "I've been waiting to hear you say that forever."
Lainey's breath shuddered against her fingers. "This is the part where Jason kisses Vivian."
"Then Jason should kiss Vivian."
Eva's lips quirked into a smile. She wasn't sure if it was the moment or maybe she really had found her calling in acting, but it was way too easy to be this free with Lainey. She bit her lip. Lainey couldn't have really meant it. But there she was, lips parted and eyes closed, waiting. Wanting.
Eva's eyes slid shut just the same as she leaned in closer. They were just acting. Just acting. It wouldn't mean anything. She could feel Lainey's breath against her lips making her heart pound frantically. They were inches away, Eva's hand still on Lainey's chin, and Lainey's fingers grazing just underneath her skirt.
Suddenly the door swung open, and they shot apart.
"Where have you been, Lainey?" Val asked storming into the dressing room. "We've been paging you for ten minutes. We're ready to shoot."
Eva straightened her skirt and stood up, pink tinting her tanned cheeks. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hold you up. I'll email about…. That thing we were just discussing, Lainey."
She rushed out of the dressing room, face completely flushed and her heart racing a mile a minute. She was supposed to be helping her with her lines, not doing...that. She ran a hand through her hair and snuck a final glance at the open dressing room.
"What'd I interrupt? An important meeting?" Val asked.
Lainey shook her head, her own face heated. "Nothing."