Chapter Two

DreamInColour © 2004

 

He smiled at the sound of her voice and leaned back on his pillow, “So I told someone today.”

“Really? Who did you tell?” She asked as she pushed her friend out of her room and firmly shut the door.

“Jen.” He said, “Well she actually guessed I just sort of confirmed it.”

“Jen?” She thought for a moment then laughed, “As in Anniston?”

“Huh? Oh yeah she came out to support Brad…anyway she found me being all moony and guessed. I figured it was okay.”

“Of course!” Rose said with a laugh, “She doesn’t strike me as the type to blab.” Sometimes she forgot that her boyfriend hung around people like ‘Rachel’ from ‘Friends. It was surreal at times, because he was so far removed from stardom when he was with her.

“She won’t. It felt good actually, we’ve kept this a secret so long I kind of liked not being paranoid.” He admitted.

“Do you want to tell people?” She asked.

“Not press people no, but I am going to have to tell my family and close friends. I won’t be able to be around Sophia for ten seconds before she figures it out anyway.”

Rose chuckled, “Your cousin is a treat that’s for sure. I almost thought she was going to have me arrested when I called. You imitate her rather well!”

Orlando laughed, “It’s simple, she’s been like that her whole life. She’d give all my security a run for their money. She’s just slightly over protective of me.”

“That’s sweet.” She replied wistfully. She hoped one day she’d get to meet the people that meant so much to him. He constantly talked about his mom, sister and cousin. “How are things going with her and Elijah?”

“According to Dom they are disgustingly cutesy, but I suspect he’s just as bad with Nila.” Orlando laughed, “After my last week in Morocco I’m going home to see them.”

“And then what?” She prompted.

“I’m coming to see you?” He responded with a smile knowing that she’d never ask.

Her heart leapt in her throat, “You are?”

“I don’t am I?”

“Well I was thinking about…” She trailed off.

Orlando chuckled, “Oh come off it love, you’ve got a plan brewing in your pretty head. What are you going to do to me?”

“How did you know?”

“I know everything about you.”

“You do, do you?”

“Would you like a detailed description?”

She shuddered in spite of herself and stopped the conversation before she embarrassed herself, “I’ll take a rain check. I actually do have an idea, although I don’t know if you’ll go for it.”

“Try me.”

“I want to take you camping.”

“Camping?” He echoed, “As in outdoors?”

She laughed, “Yes doofus as in outdoors. Don’t worry though it won’t be tenting, I have a friend who has a cabin up north at Williston Lake. It’s remote and out in the middle of nowhere. So you won’t have to worry about fan encounters or press.”

“Let me get this straight. You want me to go with you to a cabin up north somewhere in Canada where no one else will be?” He asked incredulously.

“Yeah…well…only if you want to.” Her voice faltered wondering if she had gone too far.

“Want to?” He finally started laughing, “Are you kidding me? That sounds like bloody heaven!”

She sighed again, this time in contentment, “So I should make sure the cabin is free?”

“Most definitely.”

“For how long?”

“Two weeks, I don’t have to be anywhere location wise till the middle of July and they only scheduled me one day here at Cannes. One more week on KOH and I’m a free man.”

“What about Troy premieres?” She asked.

“OH they’ll be going for the next couple months…if I miss a couple no one will care.”

She begged to differ but she didn’t say that, “So then I get to see you when?”

He looked through the day timer his assistant made him carry, “Ten days?”

“I can’t wait.”

“Me either love, me either.”

Rose hung up the phone after a lengthy goodbye then stared at her wall for what seemed like forever. Why was it that the mere sound of his voice drove her insane, not a bad insane either? If she could have transported him there at that exact moment she would have.

“Rose dear did I hear you hang up?” Eddie called from the other room.

Smiling Rose stood up, “I’m coming.”

Eddie was cuddled under a blanket in the living room with a cup of what appeared to be tea and smiled up at Rose, “I’m ready for the story. Bring it on, who’s the guy you’re in love with, I hope he’s the one with the sexy British accent.”

Sitting down Rose just stared at her friend for a second. ‘It’s Orlando Bloom’ still sounded weird to her so she wasn’t exactly sure how to go about saying it without sounding like an idiot. “Well…” She cleared her throat, “To start yes I’m in love with the guy with the accent.”

“Good.” Eddie grinned and handed Rose a mug of tea she had made for her, “Now where did you meet him and are you FINALLY going to tell me where you were working?”

Rose took a deep breath and spoke; “I was working as a private chef for Orlando Bloom on the set of his newest movie Kingdom of Heaven.”

Eddie scrunched up her face, “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Cause he’s the guy who played Legolas in Lord of the Rings and Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean.” Rose explained then watched as her friend’s eyes grew wide and her mouth slowly fell open. “The same guy I am madly in love with, the guy that was on the phone.”

“Are you serious?” Was all Eddie could say.

“As a disease.”

“Wait didn’t you work the LOTR set too?”

“Yeah but I didn’t know him then...I was too scared to talk to the cast...at least the main cast.” Rose explained, “I wasn’t going to even tell him about that, but apparently...” The she launched into their story, every second she felt herself feeling better. Orlando was right; it did feel good telling someone else. It almost made the whole thing feel more real.

 

Orlando was having an issue. It was a rather big issue, or maybe it wasn’t, at least not yet. As soon as Sophia heard it all THEN it would be an issue because Sophia was going to be quite put out about the fact that she hadn’t been told about Rose Phillips. She had made it quite clear that this woman was going to be explained to her. You see Orlando had just spent four hours with Sophia, Elijah, Dom and Nila talking about everything except Rose. He could tell that the guys had no clue he was keeping anything from them but Nila and Sophia spent the whole time exchanging looks. He knew he was being discussed in those stares and he knew he’d have to explain himself.

He was home now, in his flat waiting. Sophia was in the drive saying goodbye to Elijah. Orlando didn’t want to be anywhere near them because their obvious affection for each other made him miss Rose even more.

“So!” He heard his cousin enter the flat and drop her bag in the front hall, “Start from the beginning and don’t stop till the end. Who is this Rose bird and should I hate her?”

“Why would you hate her?”

“Because she obviously is held in high regard by you and if she has any intentions of exploiting that I’m going to have to rearrange her face.”

Orlando smiled and walked over to hug his cousin, “I love you too Soph and no you don’t have to hate her.”

“Good.” Sophia said into his shoulder, “Now then tell me when it was exactly that you fell in love with this woman and why in the WORLD you didn’t tell me about it?”

Leading her into the living room so they could sit Orlando began, “Remember that cook I told you about that I used to see in the mess tent way back when Rings was being shot?”

“The blond with the incredible eyes? Yes.”

“That’s Rose.”

Sophia stared at him, “Are you taking the mickey?”

He laughed and held up his hand, “On my honour it’s the same woman. Andy hired her cause she knew my diet and was familiar with film sets; he had no idea that I knew who she was. In fact she didn’t have any idea either...” He went into tell his cousin the story, by the end of it he couldn’t wait to see Rose again. It was rather unfair that she couldn’t be there with him to talk to Sophia so his cousin knew that she was real. All in good time, he thought, all in good time.

 

Rose scanned the airport for about the fiftieth time and tried to fight the churning in her stomach that was giving in to the fear that he wasn’t coming. Of course he was, he said he’d be there; she’d checked the flight schedule, she was on time. So where was he?

“Sorry about that love.” A voice said into her ear. “The pilot’s daughter is a fan.”

Her body relaxed into him as he wrapped his arms around her, “Oh I wasn’t worried.” She managed to say.

He chuckled, his lips somewhere below her earlobe, “Sure you weren’t.”

Licking her lips slowly she stepped away from him and turned around, “Unless you want a picture of me taking advantage of you in this airport keep a three foot distance buddy.”

“As much as I want you to take advantage of me I get the point.” He said with a wink. Reaching down for his bag he hoisted it over shoulder and smiled, “So my dear I’m at your disposal.”

Taking his other hand and starting to walk with him out of the airport Rose sighed, “At my disposal sounds so seedy.”

He laughed, “Doesn’t it though?”

 

When they arrived at the apartment Rose felt the need to explain, “Now whenever I go camping I have to pull out all the necessary gear and spread it all through the living room.”

“Uh huh. So?”

“Well see…” She opened the door and swept her arm in front of her.

“Fuck me that’s a lot of gear.” He whistled stepping passed her into the room.

“Exactly.” She laughed. “I was uh wondering…”

He dropped his bag and cut her off, “I’ll help you with anything you want…” He read her mind, “But first you have to give us at least one kiss.”

“Right.” She cleared the distance between them in rather record time.

Three hours later Eddie returned home from work, “Mercy Rose how the hell do you expect to take all of this?” She called as she dumped her purse in the kitchen.

“We’re not taking it all, I’m just trying to figure out what we need.” Rose explained from her room.

Grabbing an apple Eddie wandered into the living room saying, “I don’t get it I thought you and the elf were staying in a cabin.” The apple stopped right in front of her lips and her eyes grew wide.

“I have a feeling I’m never going to live that elf thing down.” Orlando looked up from where he was trying to stuff a sleeping bag into a smaller bag. He blew at the hair that had come out of the ponytail at the base of his neck and smiled at Eddie.

Walking into the room from her bedroom Rose put down the backpack she’d been filling and laughed at her friend, “Eddie this is Orlando, Orlando meet my roommate Eddie.”

He stood up and dusted his hands off before reaching out to shake her hand, “Pleasure to meet you Eddie.”

“You too Orlando.” She stared at him shaking her hand for about ten seconds then shook her head, “Anything you need help with Rose?” She asked.

“Actually yeah. You wouldn’t by any chance know anyone who has hiking boots we can borrow for Orli would you?”

“I still maintain that I can just go buy some.”

“Right we’re just going to waltz you in all your Elvin glory into a Payless and buy you boots.” Rose rolled her eyes, “The point was to have you visit and NO ONE know dearest.”

He laughed, “Right.”

Eddie squinted for a minute, “You know I just might one sec.” She ducked into her room and could be heard rummaging in her closet. “Ah HA!” She called a moment later and returned with a pair of Olympus Mons, “ See if these fit.”

Orlando accepted the boots and tried them on, “Perfect fit, thank you.”

“No problem.” She shrugged.

“Where in the world did you get those?” Rose asked staring at the expensive boots. “Those things are over 600 bucks at least!” 

Eddie grinned, “I don’t think Mike will be coming by any time soon to get them. And if he does I’ll tell him I gave them to Orlando Bloom and he’ll shut up.”

“Cause he won’t believe you.” Rose said with a laugh.

“Never did.” Eddie shrugged, “Anyway do you have a checklist or anything?”

“Uh yeah,” Rose reached into her back pocket and handed a scrunched up paper to her roommate.

Orlando stepped over all the gear in the living room trying to get used to the heavy boots, “Are you sure we need such heavy duty footwear?” He asked.

Rose raised an eyebrow at him, “We’re hiking in the mountains baby, got to have the best for the best.”

He scrunched up his face, “What in the world have I gotten myself into?”

She leaned over and kissed him quickly, “You have no idea. Now go finish rolling up the sleeping bags like I taught you.”

“Right.” He busied himself with the task while listening to the two women going through the list.

“Okay you obviously have the sleeping bags.” Eddie started grabbing a pen so she could mark it.

“Check.” Rose responded.

“Okay, tent.”

“Check.”

“Mats?”

“Check.”

“100 litre backpacks?”

“Check.”

“I’m sorry 100 litre?” Orlando was confused.

“Just means how big the pack is.” Rose explained. He nodded at her although he still wasn’t sure.

“Burner?” Eddie continued.

“Borrowed my brother’s.”

“Okay, check. Water purifier?”

“Check.”

“Won’t that be heavy?” Orlando asked.

“It’s that little thing over there in the box.” Rose pointed, “We really only need it when we’re hiking so we can fill our Nalgene bottles.”

“Nalgene bottles check.” Eddie mumbled.

“The cabin has a well.” Rose continued.

“No running water?” He asked.

She smiled at him with a twinkle in her eye, “A well, an outhouse and a lake.” She said with a wink.

He raised his eyebrows at her then shrugged, “Uh I can take it.”

“Sure you can.” She laughed.

“Speaking of the lake do you have enough camp suds?” Eddie asked.

“Got a whole bunch yesterday. Environmentally friendly soap.” Rose explained to Orlando before he could open his mouth.

“Of course.” He went back to rolling the sleeping bags.

“Okay so last but not least we need to get the food together.” Eddie said, “He has the right clothes doesn’t he?”

Before he could speak Rose nodded, “I got Sophia to pick him up all the right fleeces and stuff.”

“THAT’S why she just handed me that backpack and told me to go.” He said with a laugh, “Is it 100 litres?”

“You’re catching on.” Rose grinned at him, “If you’re going to get the food together Eddie I’m going to finish packing my stuff.”

“Got you covered.” Eddie said already going into the kitchen mumbling, “Porridge, fruit bars, juice powder…” She trailed off, “You have fishing tackle?” She called.

“That’s at the cabin!” Rose called back.

“Perfect. Now all I need is to pull those pasta packs out of the back of the cupboard.” Eddie said mostly to herself.

Orlando kind of chuckled as he looked around him, Dom would have a field day with this. So would Elijah. Orlando had camped before but it had been many years earlier. Recently he had gotten quite used to being indoors and being catered too. He really didn’t know what Rose had planned, but he was looking forward to a change of pace.

 

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