Lost In Pacific Time

“Do you think the moon and the sun are in love?” I asked as I drove down the Pacific Coast Highway, Jeff was in the passenger seat filming me once again. We were doing a setup in Hermosa Beach I was driving there myself while the rest of staff took the company car and going to help unload the furniture before I got there.

“What?!” Jeff asked from the passenger seat.

“You know. The moon and the sun.” I say pointing up at the sky.

“Amber, the sun is like a thousand times bigger than the sun,”

“It doesn’t matter, they can be in love”

“Fine Amber the moon and the sun are in love. What’s your logic behind this, Amber?”

“They’re always chasing each other.” I say like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Even though math was one of my best subjects in high school, I liked English better. In English class there wasn’t only one right answer. I could write a short story about the moon and the sun being in love without sounding stupid. I’ve always been a creative person. “The moon rises and the sun sets and vice versa.”

“So? Maybe they hate each other and that’s why we hardly see them in the same place.” Jeff is holding the camera in place to film me while he stares out the window.

“Well, I think they love each other even though they’re always a million miles apart. They can’t be together though because if they did the world would stop turning”

“Amber, I’m sure if the moon and the sun really loved each other they could work it out.” Jeff replies holding back a laugh.

“There’s only one sun for the moon but there are a dozen moons from all the other planets for the sun and some of the other moons are closer than our moon.”

“So the moon has unrequited love for the sun?”

I sigh; there is nothing sadder than unrequited love. I shake my head “We don’t know if it’s unrequited because the sun is too far away for the moon to ask.”

“So the moon is looking for a relationship but the sun is a player?”

“Yup,” I replied as we pulled into the driveway.

“Are you in love with Tyler?”

“No! Jeff we were talking about the moon and the sun, not actual people.”

“You could’ve fooled me.”

The next two hours I spent directing the movers on where to put the furniture while Gabby handed me the floor plans for each room. When we were finished I sat down in one of the chairs in the master bedroom sitting area as the ELLE Décor people took some pictures. I continued sitting as the interviewer sat parallel to me.

“Hi Ambrosia, I’m Kendra,” said the interviewer.

“Hi, Kendra,” I replied.

“The house looks really great, Ambrosia”

“Thanks,” I reply, despite all the praise I’ve received over the years I never get tired of having people like my work. You never know, maybe one day I’ll lose my touch and never get work in this town again. I could sell my house and move to Idaho and buy a potato farm. I’m sure I could meet some real men there who would help me live off the land.

“I really liked the overall laid back cool look that this house gives off, so Ambrosia how’d you do it?” she asked.

“Well, in this room, we used mesh and draped it around the four poster bed to give it a breezy feel.” I gestured to the bed behind us, it look a lot of willpower not to jump into the
bed and ruin Jasmine’s hard work.

“So what about the color scheme?” Just looking at Kendra I can tell that she considers herself a serious journalist and if I were to redecorate for her it’d be very modern and grey with little hints of deep jewel tones like purple or magenta.

“The pastels were used throughout the house; we used a color scheme of yellow, lavender, and blue. I have my clients go through a special test to determine the overall look of the room if they can’t decide what kind of look they want for their room.”

“You have a very distinctive look that is very in demand right now in Hollywood, this is quite a different look than we were expecting.” She has a very professional looking Moleskin notebook and silver Tiffany pen.

“Well it’s a great location here on the beach and I think that property in Hermosa Beach deserves a different approach than a Bel Air mansion.”

“How would you describe your look?”

I look around the room. “I’d say it’s kind of fancy but in an unassuming way. I don’t want any of the homes to look like no one lives there. I want children to be able to jump on the couch and coffee can be spilt on the rug.”

“Any plans for the future?” Kendra asks

“I would like to continue what I’m going. For me it’s all about being challenged. Whether I’m being challenged with my budget or creating a look I’ve never done before. I don’t want to come to work and create a cookie cutter home.” I reply.

“Well, I think we’re done, thanks for your time Ambrosia.” She says getting up to shake my hand.

“Anytime,” I say, walking over to where Jeff is sitting on the deck chair on the porch.
________

The sound of running water woke me up. I had a pounding headache and no recollection of what happened yesterday. This isn’t me. I don’t do shit like this. Maybe this is like Freaky Friday and by drinking from the Stanley Cup I’ve switched bodies with Patrick Kane. Not effin’ likely. I look around and realize something worse, I’m not in my home. There’s too much furniture here albeit most of it is turned upside down. I assume it has something to do with last night and I’m sure whoever is in the bathroom can tell me what happened. I close my eyes and pray that it’s one of my teammates who just came over to use my bathroom. The door opens, out comes a silhouette along with a warm cloud of steam and it’s too late for me too even make a run for it.

Her face is freshly scrubbed and I’m glad I can say that I didn’t come back with a train wreck. She’s wrapped in a giant fluffy white towel and her dark black hair is wet. One look into her pretty almond shaped eyes and I remember why I left with her. She reminds me of Amber, not a carbon copy but more like Amber Lite. She’s a little taller than Amber and looks a little more manufactured but she’s got the essentials down. I remember seeing her from across the room. I had my shirt off, whatever the reason for that was, and several gulps of the 150 grand champagne, I was buzzed. She was on the dance floor throwing around her perfect curls and dancing for the hell of it. I remember asking the bouncer to bring her up to the VIP section and seeing her up close for the first time. None of the guys tried to stop me, or maybe none of them saw. The rookies, Tyler and Brad were doing some sort of dance on the bar with their shirts off and everyone else was taking pictures with the fans.

As I was talking to her, I kept accidentally calling her Amber and slurring my words. She didn’t seem to mind though which should’ve screamed puck bunny. I thought it was a good idea to kiss her right then and there at the table soon we made our way to my room. I had a moment of reflection before entering my room. In a month surely I’d be able to see Amber and have the real thing. Then I remembered that Amber wasn’t attracted to men, which I was. Basically that crushed all of our chances of getting back together, so what the hell did I have to lose?

The girl throws a silver sequinned dress over her head and walks out the door with her heels in her hand. Something tells me this isn’t her first rodeo. I don’t try and stop her, I have a girlfriend at least I used to. There was no exchange of names between us. I called her Amber the whole time and she never questioned me. I have to break up with Britney, not only because I cheated on her but because I feel like my Amber fixation has interfered with my ability to be a good boyfriend and until I can get over Amber for good, I shouldn’t be in a relationship. I’m sure it won’t take too much but the thought of Amber making out with another girl is kind of getting me more hot and bothered than it should.