Author's Note: Wrapping up LA with some surprise fun. It's going to be a fast and furious finale when we get back to Houston! Your comments and insight really inspire me! Thanks for being such brilliantly dedicated readers!
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After the intensity of my hookup with Juliet Lawson and having drunk just enough wine to make me sleepy, I dozed off on the couch. I could still smell her perfume and arousal when Kelly and the girls came through the front door. The sun was starting to drift lower, signaling the start of golden hour in Beverly Hills.
"Hi, daddy," Kat said, sliding onto the couch next to me and helping brush the sleep from my eyes. "Did you have a nice surprise?"
"It was very nice," I said. "It's almost as if I dreamed it."
She kissed me, and I saw she was high.
"Looks like you three had a fun afternoon," I said, seeing her dilated pupils and the litany of shopping bags they had come home with.
"We had an absolute blast!" Jess said.
"Here we go, girls," Kelly said, coming from behind the bar with her favorite cocaine-laden tray. "Let's keep the party going!"
"So it looks like we're going to make it a memorable last night in LA?" I said.
Jess beat Kat to the coke and hoovered up two lines.
"We should get changed," Jess said.
"How was your surprise, John?" Kelly asked me, walking over and running a hand through my hair.
"Exquisite," I said. "Thank you."
"There's no time for thanks," Kelly said. "We bumped into a producer friend of mine who's a client. It seems he thought Kat and Jess were two of my new girls. So I figured it might be nice to arrange an intimate little party here tonight."
"That sounds like a lot of fun," I enthused.
"Peter was absolutely smitten by Jess," Kelly said. "And he has a friend that he'll bring for Kat. Do you know what that means?"
"What?" I asked.
"I get to be your date for the evening, Mr. Cameron," Kelly said with a sparkle in her eyes.
"And I thought you had already given me the best surprise of the trip," I said. "What a treat."
Kelly licked her lips. "I hope so," she said. "I'm feeling extremely decadent."
Kat and Jess had already scrambled back to the guest house to change. Kelly walked upstairs to the master bedroom.
"They'll be here in two hours," she called to me from the second floor landing. "Put on something nice but don't dress up. California casual. I'm going to warn you. Peter's friend is, well, let's just say you are going to recognize him."
I joined my girlfriends in getting ready. I put on a pair of linen shorts and a lightweight, button-down shirt. Jess wore an elegant, flowing one-shoulder dress. Kat put on tight, ripped jeans and a loose-fitting yellow shirt dotted with white flowers. She added more color with red lipstick and looked very young.
"You both look exquisite," I said. "I'll go help Kelly get things set up and see you over there."
Back in the main house, there was a flurry of activity underway. I don't know how Kelly did it, but she had catering from a restaurant setting up already.
"John, be a dear," she said. "Can you make sure we've got at least six bottles of Cristal chilled. Peter loves Cristal."
"I am at your beck and call all night," I said.
"Don't say that," she said playfully, "you'll make me weak in the knees."
The catering staff had set up and left within an hour. Kat and Jess returned just after they left, looking like knockouts.
"You two are going to blow them away, literally and figuratively I'm sure," Kelly said. "Now here's the score. Girls, I'm not going to hide the fact that you're visiting from Texas. Peter's guest has a ranch about an hour from Houston. This could be a real opportunity for our collaboration, Jess. So let's make it work. John, I'm going to tell them you're a wealthy client I met while visiting Kat one time. Just follow my lead, okay?"
We all nodded in agreement. There was palpable excitement. Peter was a well-known producer. More than well-known. He was a legend. He had won the best picture Oscars three times. Kelly wouldn't say who Peter's guest would be, though she clearly knew. It stoked the anticipation in the house.
I popped a bottle of Cristal and poured four glasses. Two more sat empty on the bar. Now that we were alone in the house again, Kat put the cocaine tray on full display.
"We are going to need a lot of that tonight," Kelly said. "What you've heard about some of these Hollywood types is absolutely true."
Kat sat on my lap as she bent over the coffee table to snort a couple lines. Jess was wired and pounding Champagne. She was climbing the walls with excitement.
"Peter just had this presence," she said. "Like just with a handshake he took control of me. It's totally larger than life."
"Come on, Kelly, give me a hint about my date!" Kat pleaded.
Kelly wouldn't spill any of the beans. She did a couple lines and drank her Champagne. We heard a car door close, and Kelly shot for the door.
"John, you go to the bar," she instructed. "Girls, come stand behind me to greet them."
She was in her element. Immediately as the doorbell chimed, Kelly opened the door. Peter walked in first, and it was bizarre to see such a famous face just nonchalantly enter the room.