“Nothing,” he said, pulled me up to his face. “Nothing at all.” He kissed me deeply, his tongue sweeping through my mouth, arousing me more than I already had been. “Come with me.”
Max opened the door, stepped out and turned around to take my hand as I exited the limo. “Where are we?”
The heels I was wearing weren’t the best for trying to stand on the gravel, but I managed as I turned around to discover we were at the top of Mount Lee, where the Hollywood sign overlooks Los Angeles.
The view from the top of the hill was amazing — a million twinkling lights, like looking at a constellation of stars, in more ways than one.
Max held me from behind, squeezing me tightly, kissing my neck. “I haven’t been up here in a long time.”
“When was the last time?”
He nibbled my earlobe. “Shortly after I first got here. I had to sneak up here, of course, and risk getting arrested, but it was worth it.”
“Sneak? You couldn’t drive up here then?”
“You could,” he said, “but not where we’re going.” As we started to walk, the driver popped the trunk and Max reached in, pulling out my sneakers. “You’ll be more comfortable in these,” he said.
I leaned on the car as he changed my shoes for me, then we walked down a short few steps to a gate, where I saw a sign that read: “Restricted Access. No hiking to the Hollywood sign,” followed with threats of prosecution, jail time and fines.
A man was standing there, and he greeted Max. “Good night so far?”
“Hey, Todd. Great night so far. Give us maybe thirty minutes,” Max said.
“Take your time. I’ll be in the truck.”
We walked through the gate and I asked Max who that was.
“Someone I know. LAFD guy.”
“You have contacts in the Fire Department?” I said, incredulously.
“I hired him as a technical advisor on a movie. I paid him tonight, too, and that cost me more than the fine, but saves us from having to see our mug shots on the Internet.”
We ended up sitting on the edge of one of the letter L’s.
“If you think I’m going to finish that blowjob on the Hollywood sign,” I said, “you have a more active imagination than I thought.”
Max laughed and pulled me closer to him. “I’ll let you finish it later.”
“How generous of you.” I looked up at his face, searching for his reaction to my sarcasm, but only saw him gazing out over the city. “What, you didn’t like my joke?”
He continued to look out toward the city. “I did.”
“You didn’t laugh. Didn’t even crack a smile. What’s up? Something on your mind?”
“Everything we’re looking at right now. The thousands of people down there scurrying from one after-party to the next, desperately trying to shoulder their way into a conversation they think will change their lives forever, the glee of the winners, the letdown for others…I love it all. It’s what I dreamed of being a part of my whole life.”
“And here you are,” I said. “You made it.”
He nodded. “I did. I mean, I don’t have a golden statuette — ”
“Yet,” I added.
“Right,” he said. “Yet. But I’m doing what I always wanted to do. Living the dream. But it’s not enough. Not nearly enough. Someday I know people will remember who I was and the work that I did.”
“Of course they will,” I said, detecting a note of sadness in his tone. “You know, you’re a little too young to be worrying about your legacy.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. Actually, I’m not worried about anything.” He shifted, and at the same time he moved me so we were sitting facing each other. “I’m doing what I always wanted to do, and for the most part I’ve already done it. I know the game. And that’s exactly what it is. A game. One I know how to play.”
His eyes were darting back and forth, searching mine. Wherever he was going with this, I was feeling like the point was escaping me.
“Liv,” he said, taking my hands in his. “The only important thing to me…is you.” He pulled a ringbox out of his pocket and held it in front of me, unopened, as he continued to speak. “I can’t imagine the rest of my life without you by my side, and if you give me the chance, I’ll prove that to you every day. Marry me.”
TWELVE
Max and I drove to his mother’s house the next afternoon.
“Let’s see how long it takes her to notice the ring,” Max said as he drove.
“What? That’s not nice. What if she doesn’t notice and feels bad?”
“Oh, she’ll see it.”
It was a gorgeous day, so Max had put the top down on his Porsche. He wore jeans and a black button-down shirt, untucked. Sometimes I couldn’t decide if he was sexier in casual clothing or something more formal, but I always came back to the conclusion that anything he wore was sexy, because his delicious body was waiting for me underneath.
I had to snap out of my sexual reverie as we approached his mother’s house, and I did so by turning my thoughts to the excitement of telling her we were getting married. Surely it had to go better than the way my parents sounded when I called.
She was waiting on the front porch as Max pulled into the driveway, and came down the steps to meet us as we got out of the car. She kissed and hugged Max first, then turned around for me after I walked over to the driver’s side of the car, dodging the dogs as I did so.
When we pulled away from each other, her hair caught on my ring. It was a comical scene for a moment, as she went from surprise and a quick shout of “Ooh!” to a big smile and a few tears while she looked from the ring to me, then to Max and back to the ring again.
“Well, that’s one way to surprise her,” Max said.
“I swear I didn’t plan that, Paula.”
She laughed and hugged me again. “I know you didn’t, sweetie, but I wouldn’t have cared if you did.”
Over lunch, Paula insisted on knowing every detail of the proposal, and Max let me tell the story.
“Nice touch,” she said to him, when I was finished.
“I thought so, too,” he said.
“But there’s more,” I said. “Remember when Max went to Maine for a location scouting?”
Paula nodded. “Just the one night, right before the Oscars.”