Chapter 79: Her
Chapter 79: Her
Her birthday. Twenty years old. After today, her girlhood would be completely over.
It happened to be the weekend. She wandered the streets alone, feeling like a stray cat.
She spent the whole morning roaming Broadway Avenue. Passing by a small theater, she looked at the advertisement at the entrance. Students from a drama academy in New York were staging La Dame aux Camélias. It was not a professional troupe.
So she went in and watched it. The performance was pretty good. She secretly wiped away a few tears. When she came out, it was already noon. She bought a piece of chocolate cream cheesecake and sat alone on a bench in Central Park, eating it in small bites.
Ever since she successfully lost weight, she had basically cut herself off from high-calorie foods like this to maintain her figure. But today was her birthday, so she would indulge just this once. Hmph!
After carefully finishing lunch, she threw the packaging box into the nearby trash can. Only after carefully checking her precious trench coat and confirming that no food crumbs had stained it did she relax. She took out a tissue, wiped her hands, picked up her bag, and continued wandering.
She passed through Hell’s Kitchen, turned into the Flatiron District, looked at the Empire State Building from afar, then started turning back. Before she knew it, she had reached Fifth Avenue. Lifting her chin, she browsed several luxury stores, picking and choosing, picking and choosing. In the end, she bought nothing, but after noticing her Chanel trench coat, the clerks were still very enthusiastic and welcomed her to come again next time.
As if she would come again. Everything was so expensive!
The Chanel trench coat was a gift from him last time. It was white, and they had even taken that beautiful street photo. Only later did she learn how expensive the coat was. Its price was equal to several episodes’ worth of her pay. If she had known the price beforehand, she would not have accepted it.
After walking around for a while, she still could not resist the persuasion of a very eloquent female clerk and spent more than two thousand dollars on a bottle of Dior perfume. It seemed he liked that scent.
Sigh. In the end, she still could not help thinking of that… bastard.
After all, it was her twentieth birthday. Her parents and several close friends all called and mailed birthday gifts. That guy Matthew Perry even sent her an expensive diamond bracelet and solemnly declared over the phone that he had absolutely no improper intentions toward her. It was purely to wish her happy birthday and repay her a favor. She decisively accepted it. That lucky bastard.
Only he had not called for four and a half days.
On past birthdays, even if her parents were not with her, she would still call a few friends together for a meal and lively scrape together a round of gifts.
Unfortunately, now she had not made a single new friend on the crew. Molly in Motion was a workplace romance comedy centered on women. There were four female leads in total, and judging by the amount of screen time, she counted as the second female lead.
When she had just joined the crew, the other three female leads had all been very warm toward her. They had gone shopping together, watched plays together, and eaten together. After a few days of getting along, the casual probing began: could she introduce her boyfriend to them?
Only then did she finally understand the reason. As an outsider, how could she possibly have been so popular from the start?
At that time, she had already unilaterally broken up with Eric, and that guy had not flown to New York to win her back either. So she “told the truth.” After that, there was no after.
The girls on the crew all hoped to become famous in one shot through this new NBC series that the network valued highly. Stealing scenes, scheming against each other, bribing writers, sleeping with producers, all the dirty things she had heard could happen on sets had happened there.
Among those girls, she was the prettiest, even prettier than the first female lead. So naturally, she suffered no shortage of harassment. One episode director even openly hinted that he could add scenes for her as long as she had dinner with him that night. She decisively refused.
Until one day, the newly arrived handsome actor Brad Pitt was kicked out of the crew. In this circle, many things spread very quickly. After that, no one dared harass her anymore. Even the show’s producer treated her quite politely and praised her for finding a good boyfriend.
And she became even more isolated on the crew. The other actresses privately called her a scheming bitch, saying that all that talk of breaking up had just been her deliberately hiding and covering things up. She was too lazy to explain. A pack of little bitches. Jealous? Bite me.
Maybe it simply failed to hit the audience’s taste. In any case, the much-anticipated Molly in Motion had very low ratings, with fewer than six million viewers on average per episode. It would be canceled after this season. The fame she gained from it was not even as great as what she got from being that guy’s girlfriend.
The tabloids always had scattered bits of news about her, and their labels were always Eric Williams’s current girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, rumored girlfriend, and so on. In those people’s mouths, she got dumped every few days. After that, she stopped daring to read those papers. Anyway, they would never start by calling her the female lead of Molly in Motion. So heartbreaking. Damn that guy.
Before she realized it, night had fallen, but she still did not want to go back. She had gotten used to making breakfast alone, watching TV alone, doing laundry alone, shopping alone, sleeping alone…
Her twentieth birthday. A special day. Suddenly, she discovered that being alone was not lonely. Missing someone was lonely.
Across the street, a long line had formed outside a movie theater. Curious, she walked over. The poster for Pretty Woman hung high at the entrance. The two leads smiled as they stood back-to-back. The tall woman looked so sexy. So hateful. Wasn’t it just an opportunity she got by sleeping with that bastard? What was so great about it?
Click.
Click.
The familiar sound of a camera shutter rang out. She turned and saw a paparazzo turn away as if nothing had happened. Obviously, her expression just now, pouting and frowning at the poster, had been photographed.
Should she leave immediately?
Then how would the other party write it? “Ex-girlfriend sneers at Eric Williams’s new film”?
Damn it.
Before she knew it, she had still joined the ticket line. She would treat it as supporting him, then. Bastard. Look how much she thought of him.
A few minutes later, she walked into the screening room with a movie ticket in hand.
For the entire two hours, she could not help placing herself in the female lead’s position, secretly wondering what the effect would be if she played the role.
The story continued. Ah, there was actually a nude scene. In the darkness, she subconsciously covered her own full chest.
If she played the role, with that guy’s hateful personality, he would definitely cut this part out. Mm, definitely.
It seemed he did not especially care about that woman named Julia Roberts after all.
Thinking of this, she felt as if she had successfully stolen a scene, or won a game of chess, or won first place in a chicken wing eating contest when she was little. In any case, it felt like that.
Then she saw the female lead receive her own fairy tale.
What about her fairy tale?
Her heart felt empty as she walked out of the theater in disappointment.
It was already past nine. She could not wander anymore. He had reminded her more than once not to roam around alone at night. She had always been very obedient.
After walking all day, she had not felt anything, but after sitting in the theater for two hours, her calves began to ache. She did not want to move another step, so she raised her hand and hailed a taxi.
She climbed the stairs with difficulty and finally reached the door of her apartment.
Light shone through the peephole. An inexplicable expectation welled up in her heart.
With trembling hands, she took out her key and opened the door. At last, she saw the busy figure in the living room.
All her strength seemed to drain away in an instant. Who said women were born able to shop? Complete nonsense. She was so tired.
Leaning sideways against the entryway wall, she stared foolishly at that figure.
The busy man raised his head. Seeing her, he revealed a smile.
“Well, Jenny, I’m really sorry. I only arrived this afternoon. Last night, in order to wait for the box office data, I stayed up until after two in the morning. I couldn’t buy a ticket, so I borrowed Mr. Diller’s private plane. By the time I got here, it was already past three in the afternoon. You weren’t home either, so I had to decorate by myself. I’m not familiar with New York, and I almost got lost buying things, so the preparations might not be very complete.”
She listened to his rambling, warmth spreading through her heart.
The man kept talking to himself as he struck a match and lit the candles on the cake one by one. Only then did he say, “Happy birthday!”
Dropping her handbag, she continued leaning against the wall and very shamelessly raised both hands toward him, making a gesture asking to be hugged. Her voice carried grievance.
“Eric, my legs hurt…”