Breaking Hollywood(45)

     



 

"Really?" That picks me up.

"Really." She smiles.

She comes over and straddles my lap, handing me my phone. "You should take a look, see for yourself."

"I will. In a minute." I put the phone on the sofa beside me. "I just want five minutes with my girl."

I take her face in my hands, bring her to my lips, and kiss her.

"Thank you for being here," I murmur against her mouth.

She leans back, looking me in the eyes. "Where else would I be?"

"After the way I treated you, I wouldn't have been surprised if you had  never come back to me." I sigh. "I know I'm difficult and an asshole  ninety percent of the time, but I do love you."

"Ninety percent's a bit generous. More like ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time."

"Funny."

"I'm a comedian, didn't you know?" She grins. "You're being too hard on  yourself. Let's just forget everything that happened and focus on the  future. You've got a house to build me, remember?"

"Yeah, I do, don't I?"

She nods.

"I'll still have to deal with Digby and Sandy though."

"I know. But we'll do it together, Gabe."

"Together sounds pretty fucking good to me." I tightly band my arm around her, bringing her closer.

"Baaahhh! Baaahhh!"

"Sounds like Gucci's finished her food."

I chuckle, and Ava laughs.

"I'll go let her out." She gets up from my lap and walks to the kitchen.

The next thing I know, the bundle of fur called Gucci comes flying into  the living room. She jumps on the sofa and head-butts me in the arm.

"Jesus, Gucci! Nice to see you, too."

"Babe, you want a coffee?" Ava calls from the kitchen. "I'm making one."

"Sure," I say.

Gucci settles down on the sofa beside me.

I pick my cell up and swipe the screen open.

It's still on the video. The comments are filling my screen.

I'm reading through them when Ava comes back in the living room. She hands me my coffee and sits on the sofa next to me.

Gucci gets up and climbs over my lap and onto Ava. Then, she sprawls out, stretching across us both.

We chuckle at her.

"What are people saying?" Ava asks.

"That they think I'm awesome."

"You are."

I turn my phone off and put it down.

"You okay?" Ava asks me.

I look at her, sitting here beside me with Gucci lying on us, and I know that I've never been more okay in my life.

I reach out and cup her cheek with my hand. I press a kiss to her lips.  "I'm more than okay," I tell her. "You're everything to me, Speedy. You  know that, right?"

She presses her hand to mine. "I know. And I hope you know, the same goes for you."

"I do." I smile.

And I really do.

I know, with her by my side, everything is going to be just fine.





Gabe



One Year and Ten Months Later


Taking a drag of my cigarette, I stare out at the view of the reservoir  and the canyon surrounding it from my spot on our porch at the back of  our house.

Speedy and I had the ranch of our dreams built pretty much straightaway, and we've called it home for the last eight months.

I look at Gucci and Donnie running around in the paddock, chasing a butterfly. The sun is shining, glinting off the pool.

It's fucking idyllic.

It's home.

I can't believe I got so lucky to have all of this.

But, most of all, to have Speedy. The girl that dreams are made of.

She's inside, getting dressed to go out for dinner. It's our two-year  anniversary of the day she ran over my foot. We class that as the day we  got together because that was the day that she came into my life and  never left.

Oh, if you're wondering who Donnie is, he's our new pygmy goat. Speedy  bought him for me for my birthday six months ago. He's all black with a  white patch on his head. He's the cutest fucking thing, not that I'd  ever admit that out loud.

I called him Don Corleone. I had to give him a cool name, right? But  Speedy said it was too much of a mouthful to say every time. And she  said Don sounded like an old man's name, so she nicknamed him Donnie,  and it stuck.

Gucci loves her baby brother.

Probably about as much as I love mine. Tate's doing really well. When  his residency finished, Presbyterian offered him a permanent job, which  he took, even though I offered him money to set up his own private  practice. I still offer the money on a regular basis, and he knocks me  back every time.

Stubborn asshole.

But, one of these days, he'll say yes. I'm sure of it.         

     



 

Tate is also heavily involved with the charity that he, Speedy, and I set up.

I came up with the idea for it a couple of days after I did the live video.

It went viral. My story was in every newspaper, and the video was  playing on every chat show for weeks after. I received thousands of  letters and emails of support. And almost every celebrity came out to  support me. A lot of the messages I received were from people whose  parents had gone to prison, and they had been left either in the foster  system or with relatives. I heard stories that were very similar to  Tate's and mine. Kids who'd ended up on the streets. People who had  turned to prostitution to feed themselves and their siblings. People  who'd had it worse than I had. And I knew I had to do something to help.

So, I came up with the idea of Healing the Breaks.

It's a nonprofit charity designed to help kids and young adults whose  parents have gone to prison. Whether it's making sure they have  somewhere to live or if they need counseling or support or even money to  help get them started, we provide that for them.

Speedy does the day-to-day running of Healing the Breaks. She was  running that and still working at the theater where she had gotten the  job, but as the charity expanded, she decided she wanted to dedicate all  of her time to that. Tate and I do most of the fundraising along with  Vaughn, Charly, and Julian, who are heavily involved with the charity,  too.

I'm still making movies.

I did the espionage thriller that I'd signed on to do before I met  Speedy. I had half-expected the studio to pull me from the role. But,  with the positive response I'd gotten from the fans and media after the  video, I guess they would have looked bad if they'd pulled me.

Also, five days after I did the live video, I went to a rehab center and stayed there for thirty days.

It was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do.

The first seven days, going through withdrawal, were fucking horrific. And being away from Speedy made it even harder.

But I did it.

And, when I came out, I got myself a therapist to continue on with the  counseling I'd received in rehab, and I joined AA, where they assigned  me a sponsor.

I'm now one year and ten months clean.

Do I still want to drink?

Every fucking day.

But I fight the urge.

Because I have too much good in my life now to ever go back to using alcohol to make me feel better.

After rehab, I went home and spent a few days with Speedy, and then I  went straight into filming the movie. When it was done, I didn't sign on  for any others even though the offers were rolling in, and Gil wanted  me to take them up.

Also, I had the issue of Bradford Digby and Sandy White to deal with.  While I was in rehab, Martin was able to track down where the bugs had  been purchased from and who had made the purchase. Seems Sandy had been  stupid enough to pay for them with her credit card. And, with the fact  that she'd had access to my apartment, it was enough to contact the  police. But, after speaking to the police, they said that it would be  hard to make a charge stick, as all they could really potentially charge  her with was spying. They advised us to go the civil route and sue her  with invasion of privacy. So, my lawyers slapped her and Digby with a  lawsuit.

Surprisingly, Digby settled out of court-for both him and Sandy. It  shocked the fuck out of me when the offer came through. I'd like to  think he grew a conscience, but I highly doubt it. The bastard just  didn't want to have the negative publicity, especially after all the  support I had been receiving.

Part of the deal with Digby was that he would hand over all the  recordings made in my apartment, and he would erase any copies he had.

I received them in the form of five USB sticks, filled to the max. I  didn't listen to them. But, that night, Speedy and I had a bonfire on  the terrace.

After everything was done, I just wanted to spend some time with my  girl. But, first, she wanted me to meet her family, so we flew to New  York for a few days, and I met her mom and dad and her brother, Jayce.  They're really great people. Her mom fussed over me and fed me some  incredible food. And, don't tell Speedy I said this, but her mom's  cooking is even better than hers. Her dad and Jayce are really cool,  too. They're both Lakers fans, so we had plenty to talk about.

Then, from New York, we flew straight to the Maldives for our first  vacation together. We spent two weeks relaxing, eating, and fucking.

It was awesome.

Then, we came home and threw ourselves into getting the ranch built and  setting up Healing the Breaks, using the money from the lawsuit and some  of my own along with donations from some celebrity friends of mine.