Phoebe
Waking up in Grantley’s arms for the past few days had been wonderful, especially when he had an extra special way of doing it. I could thoroughly recommend an orgasm – or two – before breakfast, it gave you a much better glow than porridge ever could. However, having been woken with his fingers or ‘Little Dick’, as I now liked to call it, I was now dreading going home. I’d missed Beth and the boys like mad, but I had a feeling my yearning for Grantley at six each morning would be just as great. But, I guess I had to go home sometime. I just didn’t want it to be yet.
Going home also got me thinking about what was going to happen when Grantley left. We only had a few weeks of filming left and then he’d be gone. Back to LA, his life, and numerous women desperate to get inside his undies. In all the time we’d spent together, we’d never discussed what would happen post filming, and if I was being honest, I didn’t really want to. It was ridiculous of me to even contemplate him keeping in touch, never mind there being anything more, but the alternative was a horrible thought.
“So, how was your trip?” I heard Penny ask Grantley, as he prepared to shoot his last scene of the day, with Francesca.
“Good, just some business I had to deal with.”
I was watching from behind the camera. I hadn’t had any scenes to film, but Grantley had insisted I go with him to the studio, so that he and Barney could drive me home afterwards and maybe get some dinner with Beth and the boys. I loved the idea, although I was definitely starting to flag with jet lag, and wasn’t sure I’d stay awake through dinner. But, I’d soldier through it, because I had a suspicion that Grantley wanted to do it because he was filming his sex scene the day following our rest day, and after the Serena incident, probably suspected that I would be feeling a little insecure.
“Phoebe enjoy it too?” Penny asked with a smirk and a glance over at me.
Grantley’s eyes followed Penny’s and I returned his stare with my mouth gaping open.
“Yes, she did,” he replied, while staring at me with a beautiful smile. “We had a fantastic time.”
Penny patted his arm, powdered his nose and turned to leave. As she did, there was a loud bang and shouting behind me. I quickly turned to see the studio door fling open and Sue-Ann stumble through, wearing boots which I was pretty sure were replicas of Julia Roberts’ in Pretty Woman.
“Where the hell is my son?” she yelled, pushing a boom operator to one side. “Grantley, where the hell are you?”
Grantley fisted his hands at his sides and took a deep breath before storming in my direction.
“How the hell did she get in here?” he shouted to whoever was listening. “Someone get security and then fire their damn asses.”
“Grantley,” I said, trying to catch hold of his arm. “Calm down.”
He swung around to face me, his pale green eyes burning with anger. “I’ll calm down once she’s out of here.”
“Grantley,” Sue-Ann called as she spotted him. “I need to talk to you now.”
Grantley pulled away from me and stalked to Sue-Ann, with me following behind.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he hissed, taking her arm and turning her around.
“I need to talk to you. Do you know what that bitch has done?” Sue-Ann stopped dead, causing me to barrel into her. “Watch what you’re doing,” she snapped, looking over her shoulder at me.
“Don’t you dare speak to Phoebe like that.” Grantley poked a finger in his mother’s face. “I told you before, you treat her with fucking respect. Now get the hell off this set.”
With a hand against Sue-Ann’s back, he pushed her to the double doors. Kicking them open, Grantley ushered her through them and marched her down a corridor towards his dressing room. I followed part of the way and then stopped.
“I’ll tell Alexi,” I called.
Grantley looked over his shoulder. “No, I need you in here with me.”
“But Grantley-.”
“Phoebe please, just get in here.”
As they disappeared inside, I looked back to where we’d come from, expecting to see Alexi following us, but the corridor was silent. So with a deep breath, I jogged to the dressing room, went inside, and closed the door quietly behind me.
“What the hell are you doing, letting her put me on a flight out of here in the morning?” Sue-Ann screeched.
“Marcia told you then?”
Grantley placed himself in front of Sue-Ann, his hands on his hips. He was wearing a scowl that I’d never seen on his face before, and it was at that moment I saw the true likeness between him and his mother.
“Yes, she fucking told me. You’ve put me on a six am flight that takes forever to get home. And why the hell are you sending me home, anyway. We have things to sort out.”
“Do we?” Grantley asked, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets. “And what would that be?”
“You know,” Sue-Ann said, looking at me and then back to Grantley. “Things with your father.”
“Oh my father.” Grantley nodded slowly. “The same father who died of a heart attack years ago, probably brought on by his liking for blow, or the one you told me was my father?”
Sue-Ann’s face blanched as she took a stumbling step backwards.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, guilt written all over her face. “Who’s told you that crap?”
I couldn’t help my snort of derision, as she straightened herself up and jutted out her chin defiantly.
“What’s your problem?” Sue-Ann snapped at me.
“I don’t have a problem, but I’d say you do.”
“You going to let her speak to me like that?”
Grantley sighed. “We’ve had this fucking conversation before, Sue-Ann. So, let me spell it out for you. Yes, I am, because you are a lying piece of work, who should have been sterilized at birth. You have no rights being a mother and I’m damn well ashamed to call you mine.” Grantley took a step forward and leaned into Sue-Ann’s personal space. “The person who told me that ‘crap’ was Trent Miller, the man who for twenty-six years I’ve believed to be my father.”
Sue-Ann’s breath faltered as Grantley moved in even closer.
“He told me everything,” he hissed. “About your sordid hook-up while I was watching TV and how you wouldn’t let him take me with him.”
“You’re my damn son,” she cried. “You weren’t his to take.”
“But he wanted me. You didn’t.”
“I did want you. I loved you, I do love you, baby boy.”
“You left me alone for days on end and thought I’d be okay because I had ten fucking dollars in my pocket.”
A vein on the side of Grantley’s head was bulging with the rage inside of him as he poked a finger at Sue-Ann. His other hand was fisted at his side, as his fury of the last twenty years spilled out. I was worried he was going to collapse, or have some sort of aneurism, as his face grew redder with each word he spat at Sue-Ann.
“Grantley,” I whispered, moving alongside of him. “Please, just take a deep breath.”
“She’s right, Grantley,” Sue-Ann simpered. “Calm down.”
“No, I won’t calm the fuck down,” he bellowed, so loudly that both Sue-Ann and I jumped. “I am sick to death of having to deal with you. Either giving you money, or bailing you out of some other shit or other. Well this time, you’ve gone too damn far.”
As he took a step forward, I moved with him. I didn’t think he would, but he was so angry I wondered whether he was going to hit her. I held my hand up to stop him, but he didn’t raise a finger, but moved his face to within an inch of his mother’s.
“I know you’re fucking game,” he said, his voice dripping with venom.
“W-what game?” Sue-Ann flicked her hair over her shoulder, trying to appear nonchalant, but the tremor in her voice and the tremble in her chin gave it away.
“Who did you really need my kidney for, Sue-Ann?”
Grantley’s voice was so quiet and measured that it scared me. Grantley being in control was more worrying than when he was losing it with her. Sue-Ann must have recognised it too because she gasped and tried to make a run for the door. Grantley was too quick for her though, and grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her back in front of him.
“Who the fuck were you going to sell my kidney to?”
“I-I. Grantley you don’t -.”
“I asked you a damn question. Was it some dealer you owe money to, or were you just going to sell it to the clinic. Tell me now.”
Sue-Ann flinched and closed her eyes.
“It wasn’t…I wasn’t.”
“Now, Sue-Ann, because I swear to God, I’ll-.”
“Stop,” I said, pulling on his arm. “She won’t talk if you keep badgering her.”
Grantley turned his head. “Badgering her? This is nothing to what the damn cops will do.”
“Sue-Ann, just tell him what he needs to know.”
I didn’t care about her, whether Grantley badgered her or not. She deserved every last bit of shit she was going to get, but I didn’t want him doing something he might regret. Yes, she was an evil, vindictive woman, but she was still his mother and if he did hurt her in some way…I dreaded the thought.
“Phoebe, I wouldn’t touch her if that’s what you’re worried about,” Grantley whispered, cupping the side of my face. “I swear.”
“You can’t say that,” I protested. “Because I’ll tell you something, I’d gladly slap her face and she’s not done this to me. She’s not my mother who has betrayed me.”
“Don’t you dare touch me,” Sue-Ann cried, pointing at me. “I’ll scream.”
“Just because I want to, doesn’t mean I will,” I replied. “Some of us were brought up with manners.”
“How dare you?”
“I dare because you have to be the most odious woman I’ve ever had the displeasure to meet.”
“I don’t smell,” Sue-Ann said, her eyes wide. “You can’t say I’m odious. I take a shower every day.”
Grantley rolled his eyes, and when I took a breath to start and explain he held up a hand.
“Leave it pretty girl, she has the brain cell of a dung beetle.”
“What do you mean?” Sue-Ann asked, pushing her hands to her hips.
Grantley shook his head. “Nothing. Now tell me who you wanted my kidney for.”
“I told you-.”
“And I heard a crock of shit. Now, one more time, tell me who my fucking kidney was for.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, rubbing a hand up and down her arm. “It wasn’t for anyone.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “It wasn’t for anyone.”
She looked at Grantley and swallowed. “I put it on Craigslist.”
“What?” Grantley bellowed. “Tell me you’re fucking joking.”
“What’s Craigslist?” I asked.
“I needed the money,” Sue-Ann cried.
“You tried to sell your own son’s kidney in a damn paper?” Grantley grabbed at his hair, almost pulling it from his head. “You’re insane.”
“It wasn’t in the paper, it was on the website,” she countered ridiculously, like that made it any fucking better.
“What the hell is Craigslist?” I asked again, a little louder this time.
Grantley swung around to me. “Fucking Ebay for those with more money.”
My eyes went big as I looked at Sue-Ann. “No way, you didn’t?” I gasped.
Sue-Ann started to wring her hands together, her eyes shining with tears. “Please Grantley, you don’t understand.”
“I know I don’t,” I yelled. “How can you do that, to your own son?”
“Because I’m fucking desperate,” she cried back. “I need the money.”
“I offered you fucking money.” Grantley turned, picked up a mug, and threw it at the wall.
“It wasn’t enough. I needed more.”
“I offered you a blank check. You only had to name your price.”
Sue-Ann started to cackle out a laugh. “Hah, and how much would you have gone to? A few grand, not a million that’s for sure.”
Grantley stopped pacing. “A million dollars. You need a fucking million dollars?”
Sue-Ann hung her head, and I damn hoped it was in shame because this was the most ridiculous and evil thing I’d ever heard.
“Please,” Grantley said with a burst of laughter. “Please tell me this is a damn joke. That I’m being punked and a camera team is going to jump out of that fucking closet.”
He pointed to the wardrobe where he kept his own clothes, his eyes still on Sue-Ann.
“Well!”
“No, it’s not a joke,” she whispered. “I figured I’d get a nice sum for a movie star’s kidney.”
“Please tell me you haven’t listed it as mine,” Grantley cried, looking as though his eyes were about to pop out of his head.
“No, of course I didn’t.” Sue-Ann snapped her head up. “I listed it as the kidney of a famous PI who likes to drive a Jenson Interceptor.”
“What the fuck?”
“Oh my God,” I groaned. “You didn’t?”
From her description it was obvious it was Grantley. Addison Yates was a Private Investigator who drove a classic, pale blue, Interceptor.
“Fuck my life,” Grantley muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How much interest have you had?”
Sue-Ann bit her lip.
“Well?”
“None,” she whispered.
Grantley let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
He moved over to a safe, unlocked it, and took out his phone and started tapping away.
“What are you doing?” I asked, glancing at Sue-Ann, wondering if she might bolt.
“Getting Marcia to take the fucking listing down.”
“But I need-.”
“Don’t you bloody dare,” I yelled. “How dare you expect him to go through with it. Are you actually crazy?”
“But you have no idea-.”
“No, don’t even speak.” I pointed at Sue-Ann. “You’re not having his fucking kidney and if you need money do what everyone else does and get off your bony arse and get a job, instead of drinking your damn life away. Just a suggestion, but your wardrobe already screams hooker, so you’re half way there.”
Sue-Ann watched me with her mouth open, while Grantley gave me a huge and gorgeous smile.
“Shit, you rock,” he said, pulling me in for a quick kiss.
“But what about my money?” Sue-Ann complained.
“For fuck’s sake.” Grantley and I chimed in unison.
An hour later, after Alexi reluctantly agreed to call it a day, Sue-Ann had been taken back to the hotel to pack by Marcia and Barney, and Grantley and I were driving one of the studio’s cars to take me home. Marcia had taken the listing down and Sue-Ann had finally confessed she had no plan. There was no clinic as she was hoping that Grantley would have arranged one once she had a buyer for his kidney. She also told us she needed money to pay off a dealer, but the other nine hundred and ninety four thousand dollars that she hoped to get was for her. She didn’t see why she couldn’t enjoy the good life, because in her words ‘People can’t believe my son is movie star, when they see how poor I am’. At that point, I feared for the drinking glasses that were stacked in the dressing room. Poor Grantley, he just couldn’t get her to see that while he was successful and had a decent amount of money, he was only just starting on his career. Addison Yates may well be a prestige role, but he was still a relative newcomer and wasn’t quite commanding the huge, multi-million-dollar fees just yet.
“You know, all this with Sue-Ann,” Grantley said, bringing my hand to his lips. “It’s pretty funny if you think about it.”
“It is?” I raised by brows in surprise. “How do you work that one out?”
Grantley paused as he manoeuvred into the next lane.
“Because she had no idea what she was doing. She thought she could list it and that would be it. Never once did she think about how it got from me to its new owner. Was she just going to shove it between a six pack in a cooler and deliver it?”
“It’s not the best plan, I’ll admit, but I wouldn’t say it was funny.” I reached up and brushed the hair from his forehead. He may well be laughing, but the whole episode had given him another insight into what an awful mother Sue-Ann was to him.
“Farcical then,” Grantley replied. “Farcical, idiotic, and so fucking Sue-Ann.”
“Thank goodness you went to see Trent. Imagine if you’d gone ahead with it, believing your dad didn’t want to know.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “And then I would have still been gloriously in the dark about the fact he’s not actually my dad.”
I watched his profile and saw his nostrils flare and his jaw go tight.
“And you would still be alienated from each other.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “So there’s your silver lining. And the fact that when you get back tomorrow, she’ll be gone.”
“If she gets on that flight.”
“She will,” I said with confidence. “She’ll be too scared that Marcia will give her another black eye.”
Yes, Marcia kind of lost it when she arrived at the studios.
Grantley smiled and gave my hand a squeeze and I knew then that I was falling deeply for him. Despite everything I’d ever thought about men, this one had most definitely got through to my heart, but soon he would be gone from my life.
Thinking about our impending separation and wondering how I was going to cope, I was shaken from my thoughts by my phone ringing out ‘Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves’.
“Hey Beth,” I chimed. “We’re just on our way back. I’ve missed you.”
“We’ve missed you too. So, how far away are you?” she asked.
I looked at the scenery outside. “About twenty minutes. Why, have you made something nice for dinner?”
“I-I…well, no not yet…I.”
“Beth, what’s wrong?”
She sighed deeply and then said. “My results are back. I have the letter in my hand.”
As nausea threatened to overcome me, I turned to Grantley.
“Grantley, put your foot down. We need to get to Beth as soon as possible.”