Author's Note: This is short and sweet, but I felt like this vignette deserved to stand on its own. We'll wrap up LA in Chapter 37. There's one more surprise left on this trip.
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Kelly had just led Kat and Jess out the front door of her palatial Beverly Hills mansion. As instructed, I popped the cork on a bottle of Dom Perignon RosΓ©. I sat on the couch, with its expansive view of the city, and savored the tiny bubbles popping in my mouth. The Champagne drank way too easily. I finished my first glass like there was a hole in the bottom of it and poured another. Almost simultaneously to resuming my perch on the couch, the doorbell rang.
I walked to the door, wondering if this was Kelly's surprise. The moment I opened it, my jaw dropped, and I knew I was right.
"Well, don't just stand there, give me a hug!" said a sultry, hypnotic voice.
It was Juliet Lawson.
"Oh my god!" I exclaimed as I wrapped her in a hug. "You are the last person I expected to see!"
"I'm not sure I should take that as a compliment," Juliet said with her movie star smile.
"Let me put it this way," I said. "There is no one else who could have knocked on that door and made me happier."
"I didn't know," Juliet said, deadpan. "I rang the doorbell."
"Oh, shut up!" I said, picked her up, and spun her around.
Juliet leaned in and kissed me. It made me feel light-headed. All in a single rush, I suddenly knew exactly what people meant when they called this city LaLa Land.
"You look amazing," I said. "Truly, truly amazing."
"You don't need to flatter your way to what you want," she said. "But I wouldn't mind a glass of that." She pointed to the Dom on the bar.
"Where's my head? Of course," I said.
I walked quickly to the bar and poured a glass too aggressively. It almost overflowed. Juliet walked inside, and I handed her the Champagne.
"Cheers, John," she said. "It's a nice surprise to see you again. Like I said, I don't make a lot of plans, but I was pretty happy when Kelly mentioned you'd be in town."
"I'm surprised you're in town," I said. "Don't get me wrong. I'm super happy you are. But I thought you were on set?"