Three days later Zac stood in front of a hotel room, his hands shaking. He'd called Kris and gotten the name of the hotel and the room number that Ginger would be staying in, but he couldn't for the life of him bring himself to actually knock on the door. It'd been over a year since he'd seen her. He knew she'd tried to contact him a few times, but he'd managed to avoid her for this long.
She had no idea he was coming. He told Kris not to mention anything. As far as he knew, it was still a secret. And as far as this was going, it was going to stay a secret because he was ready to chicken out.
Gwen had all but kicked him out of the house. He spent a lot of time at the studio and out of the house, coming home only to sleep and shower, then going back out again. He hadn't seen her since their fight. He still didn't know what he was going to do about it, but he had other things on his mind than how to make it up to his girlfriend.
He raised his fist to knock but lowered it again and paced back and forth in front of Ginger's door, silently. A million thoughts were going through his head. She wasn't expecting him, and for all he knew she could just slam the door in his face. She could not even open the door. There was a peephole. She could see him and just not open the door. That would be the worst.
He turned around and walked down the hall, back to the elevator to leave. When the doors opened Kris was standing there. "Shit," he breathed.
"Zac!" she said, walking out of the elevator. "Did you see her?"
"No."
"Then where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm leaving." He walked into the elevator but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back out. The doors closed behind him. "Dammit, Kris�I can't do this. The only reason I'm here is to spite Gwendolyn and frankly I don't think that's a good idea. She'll kill me if she finds out I'm here."
"Well you didn't come all the way out here just to turn around and go back home! Gwen is no good for you anyway."
"Yeah, everybody seems to be telling me that," she said. "And when I was dating Ginger, everybody told me she was no good for me either. I just can't pick anybody who's good for me. I should just turn gay now and do the world a favor. I shouldn't be allowed to procreate."
"Heh, that's funny, Zac," Kris said, awkwardly laughing. "But think about it, Zac. Honestly, is it worth it?"
"Is what worth it?"
"Not seeing someone you obviously want to see for Gwen?"
"What the hell is wrong with Gwen?"
"Nothing, nothing," Kris said, putting her hands up. "Forget, I didn't say anything. If you want to walk out again, go right ahead. Ginger's doing just fine on her own."
"Walk out? Again? I didn't walk out on anybody! And what the hell are you talking about?" Kris gestured to Ginger's door.
"Find out for yourself."
Zac turned around and looked at Ginger's door. Kris opened the door to her own hotel room and went inside, leaving him the choice of the elevator or Ginger's door. He could go either way at this point, but instead of going back he went forward. He stepped up to room 922 and knocked on the door.
"Just a minute!"
He heard a shuffle and Ginger opened the door. She froze immediately, locked in place in the doorway. Her bright violet eyes were slightly aged but wide as saucers as she stared straight into him. Her hair was up and messy, piled loosely on top of her head with a few stray strands falling over her cheeks, down her neck, and over her shoulders. She looked as flawless as always; she was definitely still the Hollywood girl he knew her to be. She was wearing a black tank top and jeans, with no shoes on. She had on diamond studded earrings, but no other jewelry. She had one accessory he wasn't able to keep his eyes off, however.
She had a child resting on her hip.
"Zac!" she said, completely confused. "What are you doing here?" She adjusted the kid in her arm and gave Zac a hug. He hugged her back, just as confused as she was.
"Well�" he said, letting go of her and trying his hardest not to look at the little girl who he presumed was named Jenny from what Kris had said the other night in Milan. "I met up with Kris in Milan and she said you'd be in town and that I should come to see you. So, here I am."
"Oh," she said, looking down. "Oh! Excuse me. Come on in. you're standing the middle of the hallway there." She stepped back and let him come inside. "I'm sorry about the mess, but I really wasn't expecting anybody to come around today. Sit down." She picked up some toys and threw them into the portable playpen in an effort to pick up. It was so unlike Ginger to have her room be so messy, but then again it was very unlike Ginger to have a daughter.
He sat down at the table that had her movie script on it, amongst other papers. "So, you're doing another movie?" he asked. She nodded. She put Jenny in the playpen with her other toys and sat down across from Zac at the table.
"Yeah."
"I thought you said you were done."
"I was done," she said. "And then I realized how boring it is to be done, so I came back and wrote another script. I thought it was pretty good and Kris loved it, so I sent it out and what to do you know, here I am." She smiled that movie star smile Zac had fallen in love with. "Um�I heard about your album. I'm very anxious to hear it."
"Yeah, I'm very anxious for people to hear it as well. I spent a lot of time and effort on that. I didn't really want to do it to begin with, but I'm glad I did. It's a really great album."
"Is that so�" she said, more of an observation than a question. "Taylor was pissed off when he first heard, but now he's more excited than anything else." Zac openly cringed at the sound of Taylor's name coming out of Ginger's mouth. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay," he said. "He's still a sore subject for me."
"I'm sure."
"So�" Zac said. He looked to Jenny and decided to ask the inevitable question. "Is that your daughter?" Ginger nodded and looked over at her daughter. Jenny had red hair like her mother and big bright eyes. They were blue, but Zac had a feeling as the little girl got older they were turn into violet.
"Yeah," Ginger said. "That's Jennifer Kristina."
"So this is the Jenny that Kris was mentioning."
"Kris mentioned her?" Ginger said, surprised. "When?"
"The other night in Milan, after the show," Zac said. "My girlfriend Gwen was in the show and I met up with Kris. She said you couldn't come because Jenny was sick. I was kind of confused but I had no idea it was your daughter. I had no idea you'd had a baby. How old is she?"
"Almost six months," Ginger said.
"Wow," Zac said, sitting back. He reached up to scratch his eyebrow. "That's�" He froze, his hand at his face. Doing quick math in his head, she must have gotten pregnant last summer. When they were going out. He turned to her and she was looking down, tears in her eyes. "Ginger?" She didn't respond. "Is�is Jenny mine?"
"Yes," Ginger said, nodding. She put her hands over her face. "I meant to tell you, actually I was going to tell you. I went to your house to tell you, but then you'd found out about Taylor and we broke up. I was so mad that I just said 'Oh, he doesn't need to know!' By the time I realized that yes, you did need to know, you were out here already."
"Ginger, you should have told me." He leaned forward in the chair, putting his elbows on his knees and his hands in his hair. He closed his eyes, facing the floor.
"What was I supposed to do, Zac? I tried to contact you but no one knew where you were or how to reach you. It was like you'd isolated yourself from the world! And then I found out you were living out here with that Gwendolyn chick�it's bad enough you were dating her, but living with her? My God, Zac, you said that girl was no good for you!"
"If I would have known that you were pregnant I wouldn't have left! I would have stayed with you. I didn't�I don't want you to do this alone."
"I've done it alone all this time, Zac. I don't expect now to be any different."
"It's my daughter! I'm not going to let you just raise her without me," he said. "I just cannot believe you never told me. For six months I've had a daughter and I didn't even know it."
"I don't expect you to do anything about this, Zac. We've been getting along just fine without you. Kris and Taylor have really helped out a lot."
"Taylor knew?" Zac asked. "Taylor knew before me?"
"Of course he knew! He was actually around all the time! He hasn't left Kristina's side for the past year."
"I cannot believe this."
"Maybe you should just go," Ginger said. Zac looked over at her. She looked serious. "You have a girlfriend and you have a big album coming out. You're going to be awfully busy for a while and the last thing you need to worry about is a daughter. Don't ruin anything because you want to do the right thing here, Zac. I don't need you."
"Did you ever stop and think about me?" he asked. "Did you ever think that maybe I might just want to be a part of my daughter's life? It's not just your daughter here, Ging. It's mine too. If you had told me right off then I wouldn't have broken up with you. I would have done the respectable thing and married you."
"I didn't want to get married then, Zac!"
"What about now?"
"I don't want to think about this now!" she yelled. "I don't want to deal with this right now. You could have at least called before you came over�maybe I would have had time to think about this."
"Fine, whatever," Zac said. He stood. "I'm leaving."
"Whatever," Ginger said.
"I'll be back, though," he said, looking back at her. "After we both have some time to think. We'll talk about this the right way."
"Fine," she breathed. He walked out of the room and went down the hall. He went to the room that he'd seen Kris go into earlier and knocked on the door. It'd seemed like a lifetime since then, knowing what he knew now.
Kris opened the door. "Zac! Hi!"
"Is Taylor in there?" he asked.
"Yeah, but�"
"I need to speak with him." Kris opened the door and allowed Zac to walk in. Taylor was sitting on the bed watching television. He stood up when he saw Zac walk in.
"Zac, what're you�" Zac punched him.
"Zac! What the hell are you doing?" Kris yelled.
"You knew about Jenny and you never told me?" Zac yelled. "You knew I had a daughter and you never fucking told me??"
"Zac!" Kris yelled.
"That is a new low for you, Taylor," Zac said. "You don't even tell your own brother shit like that."
"Like you even wanted to know," Taylor said, wiping at the blood under his nose. "You did everything imaginable to get away from seeing her. Why do you think we kept telling you to go see her? It wasn't for our own health, Zac. It wasn't my right to tell you. Then you come out here and excommunicate yourself from everybody else�you didn't even deserve to know." Zac hit him again and Taylor fought back, hitting Zac in the face a few times. Kris pulled Taylor away before either of them could do any more damage.
"Calm down, the both of you!" Kris yelled. "So Taylor didn't tell you, Zac. I didn't tell you either! Are you going to hit me too?"
"You're not my brother."
"But I'm going to be your sister," she said. "He didn't tell you. It wasn't his right to tell you anyway. He could have said that in a nicer way�" She shot a look to Taylor, who walked to the bathroom to clean up and get away from Zac. "But the important thing is that you know now."
"Well," Zac said, loosening himself up. "I'm going to go home and think about this." A small smile came to his face. "You are going to be my sister, aren't you?" Kris smiled.
"Yes I am."
"Anyway�I'll be going now." Zac turned around and Taylor flicked him off on the way out. Zac ignored it and left, going straight to the elevator. Looking at his reflection, he wiped away the blood from his lip. He could only imagine what Kris was going to say to Ginger about this.