Ginger and Zac ended up staying the night but didn't get to talk to each other about Gwendolyn until the morning. It was mostly because Zac didn't want to talk about it at all, but in the morning he ran out of excuses to talk about something else. They woke up around nine o'clock feeling kind of lousy. Neither of them had a real hangover because neither of them got drunk the night before. Zac had come back into the room after brushing his teeth and Ginger was awake and waiting for him.
"So that was Gwen?" she said as soon as he walked in the door. He couldn't blame her for asking right away. She was obviously itching to find about this girl since she showed up and Zac didn't even give her a chance to say anything until now.
"Yeah�" Zac said. "That was Gwen."
"And she was your girlfriend?"
"Ginger�"
"No, I want to talk about this." Zac sighed and sat down as far away from Ginger as he could without making it obvious that he was trying to get away from this conversation. "She was your girlfriend?"
"Yes."
"She's very beautiful."
"Not as beautiful as you." Ginger smiled. He had said the right thing. "Ginger, you have to understand that my relationship with Gwen was really weird. It's done and over with and frankly I'm glad."
"Did she break up with you or was it the other way around?" He didn't want her to ask that question. He didn't want her to ask any questions. Gwendolyn was a sore subject for him and everybody knew it. He didn't talk about her for a reason and he liked to keep it that way. But, Ginger had asked, and he always said he would tell the naked truth if she ever asked.
"She was going to break up with me but I beat her to it," he said. "So, technically it was me."
"Did you love her?"
"No."
"How long were you with her?"
"About a year."
"Is she always like that?" Zac sighed.
"Unfortunately," he said. "Yes. Yes she is." Ginger made a face and put her shoes on. "I'll find Taylor and we can go." Zac stood up and walked out of the room, letting Ginger continue to wake up. He looked around and found Taylor in one of the bedrooms, still asleep, with a random girl. Zac wasn't surprised. He walked back out of the room and back to Ginger.
"Did you find him?" Ginger asked.
"He's still asleep. Vinnie will take care of him. We can go." Ginger nodded and stood up, pulling her hair back in a ponytail. The two of them walked out of the bedroom and downstairs where Vinnie was already awake and cleaning up the last of the mess that they hadn't gotten to the night before. "Hey Vin," Zac said. "We're going to take off."
"All right," Vinnie said. "Don't be a stranger. Call me before you leave Tulsa."
"I will, Vin," Zac said. He gave his best friend a hug and Vinnie turned to Ginger.
"Take care of him, all right?" he said. Ginger smiled. "He needs it." Zac gave Vinnie a look and Ginger gave Vinnie a hug as well.
"Taylor's upstairs," Zac said, giving Vinnie a knowing look. "So if you don't mind."
"I'll make sure the both of them get home all right," Vinnie said. "Bye, man."
"Bye Vin." Zac and Ginger left and as soon as they were outside, Ginger turned to Zac.
"What did he mean by 'the both of them?' " she asked.
"Taylor's known for spending the night with random girls." Ginger nodded.
"Does he do that often?"
"Yeah�he's not a whore or anything. He does usually spend more than one night with the girl, but there have been a lot of girls in Taylor's life." Ginger sighed. "What?"
"I don't think I want to introduce him to Kris."
"You don't have to if you don't want to." They reached Zac's car and he opened her door for her. She got inside and waited for him to get in the car. "I understand completely. I wouldn't introduce him to Kris either."
"I mean, its just Kris is important to me and I don't want him to throw her around like that." Zac nodded.
"Then don't. He'll get over it." Ginger sighed and looked out the window as Zac pulled out onto the road. Zac could tell she was still sour over seeing Gwendolyn. "Listen, I'm sorry about last night. If I would have known she was there, we wouldn't have gone."
"It's okay, Zac."
"No it's not and you know it's not. I didn't mean for any of that to happen," Zac said. He took in a deep breath. "Everybody told me she was no good for me and I never listened to them. Now I finally understand what they were talking about. She wasn't a good person, Ginger, and I ignored that for a long time. But she doesn't matter anymore. All that matters to me is you." He glanced over at her. "You're it." Ginger smiled.
"It's hard not to feel threatened by her," Ginger said. "She's gorgeous. She's, like, supermodel gorgeous."
"No she's not," he told Ginger. "It took her five years of bulimia and a boob job to get her body to look like that. She's been in and out of the hospital for just about as long and I would not be surprised if she died soon."
"Zac!"
"It's true, though," Zac said. "She's wasting herself away and she refuses to get any kind of help. Everybody's been trying to get her to go to this clinic to get better but she refuses to go. She's eighteen now and she's on her own, so she thinks she doesn't have to listen to anybody." Ginger didn't say anything because there wasn't really anything for her to say to that.
They sat in an awkward silence, the first one they'd had, on the way home. Zac tried to mention Taylor again but Ginger blew that subject off quickly. "Um, I have a show to do tonight if you want to come," Zac said. "You don't have to, it's just going to be about an hour, but it'd be nice if you were there."
"I'll go," she said, looking at him.
"Good."
"Where is she?" Diana asked Zac. He and Ginger had been home for about three hours now and he was just sitting down to lunch. Vinnie had dropped Taylor off about a half an hour before, and Taylor immediately crashed upstairs in his room. Zac had a feeling Taylor pulled an all-nighter with this chick and probably didn't get to sleep until sunrise.
"She?" Zac asked, looking up at his mother. "She? Her name is Ginger, Mom. Listen, I don't know what you have against her but she's a good person if you'll just give her a chance. She's my girlfriend. There's not much you can do about that."
"Fine," Diana said, sitting down next to Zac at the kitchen table. "Where is Ginger?"
"She's on a conference call with her editor Kris and a publisher in New York. She'll be done in about fifteen minutes if all goes well," Zac explained. Ginger had been speaking on her cell phone with Kris for nearly an hour now, and she promised she'd be done soon. Until then the door to her room was closed and she didn't want to be bothered.
"Why?"
"She's writing a book," Zac said. "And the publisher is discussing what she has so far. She won't let me read it until it's done so I have no idea what it's about."
"So, she's a successful girl, isn't she?" Diana asked. Zac nodded.
"Yes," he said. "She did nearly everything on that movie herself, so most of the proceeds went to her. She's writing this book and she's got opportunities flying at her from every direction. She's very successful."
"Imagine that," Diana said.
"Mom�"
"What? It's just she's so young and she's so successful."
"So am I! Please at least try to like her. At this point I don't care what you think, but you're so obvious she's starting to notice and that bothers me. All she says to me when she sees you is 'Why does your mother hate me?' I don't know what to tell her!"
"I don't hate her, Zac�"
"Then start acting like it."
Zac wasn't able to say anything more he spotted Ginger as she bounced down the stairs and came quickly into the room. "Hello," she said, giving both Zac and his mother a smile.
"Hey honey," Zac said. "How was your call?"
"Just fine. They like what I have so far," she said, sitting down. Diana got up quickly.
"Well I'll leave you two to talk," she said, smiling sweetly at Ginger. "Good luck with your book, dear."
"Thank you," Ginger said. Ginger's eyes followed Diana quietly until the woman left the room, then she immediately began to hit Zac in the arm.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! What the hell, Ginger?"
"You talked to her about me!" she said in a whispered yell, hitting Zac in the arm again. "You told her to be nice to me!"
"What? No I didn't!"
"Don't lie to me! I'm an actor, I can tell when people are acting. She was just acting. The only reason she would be doing that is if you said something to her!"
"I'm sorry!" Zac said. "I just don't like the way she's treating you. I don't know what her problem is. She's never been like this before. I just want her to treat you better." Ginger sighed, but gave Zac a smile.
"Zac�you don't have to do that," Ginger said. "When's your show?" Zac had completely forgotten about his show. He looked at the clock.
"It's at seven, we have to leave here at five," he said. "So in about four hours." Ginger turned around and looked at the clock. "Are you bored? Do you want to do something?"
"Zac, I just got off a conference call," Ginger said. "Of course I'm bored." He smiled. "I don't want to go anywhere, though. It's too hot out to do anything. We can go to your room and make out or something."
"Or something," Zac said. She stood up. Behind her, Taylor walked into the room. He seemed awake now, although they were both sure that he hadn't had much sleep at all, and opened the refrigerator.
"Hi Ginger," he said. He looked in the refrigerator, then back over at Ginger, seeing Zac. "Oh, hi Zac."
"Hi Taylor," Ginger said.
"It's good you're up," Zac said. "I was afraid I was going to have to pry out of the bed later for the show tonight."
"Oh shit�" Taylor said, putting his hands over his face. "I completely forgot about that. Shit. I'll be back." Taylor closed the refrigerator, not having eaten anything, and ran out of the room. Zac heard him running back up the stairs.
"What was that about?" Ginger asked.
"When we perform Taylor has a whole ritual he has to do or he feels he's going to royally mess up. He's kind of OCD about it. It's best to just ignore it."
"All right," she said. "Hey, is it all right if Kris comes here tomorrow morning? I think I'll let her meet Taylor."
"Really? Why the change of heart?"
"Well I was speaking with her before we had to call my publisher and I mentioned what Taylor said. She wants to meet him and practically begged me to let her come. She'd get here in the morning and we'd both leave on the flight tomorrow night."
"All right," he said. "That's fine with me. You'll have to tell Taylor, though. He might have a random interlude with a girl planned." Ginger nodded, not catching Zac's joke. "Ginger, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, honey," she said, giving him a smile.
"When was the last time you were home?" She paused to think about it. "If you have to think about it, it's been too long."
"It's not like I can just randomly go home, Zac," she said. "I've been very busy. You know how it is, especially when you blow up all of a sudden�"
"Yeah, I know," Zac explained. "I know better than anybody, but, Ginger, I think you should be headed home." She sighed, looking at him, her hand propping up her chin. She gazed at him lovingly, her violet eyes breaking into him.
"You're right," she said. "You're very right. I'll see what I can do. When Kris comes by tomorrow I'll run it by her." Zac smiled.