Chapter 24

A little more than two months had passed and Vin had kept his promise, giving Luna time and space to think about all the things that had taken place between them. However, it had been harder than he suspected at the beginning even though Vin had been really busy with the release of “Find Me Guilty” and the pre-production of “Seth”.

After all the things that had happened in Santo Domingo, Vin had decided that he was going to move back “Hannibal”, shooting “Seth” instead, following Luna’s advice.

Marcela had said that it was a wise decision after the mess he had caused with the Dominican girl. Who had gone to each and every media outlet, telling her sad story about how Vin Diesel threw her and her friends out of a club when she refused to have sex with him. Just like he expected.

“No comment” was what Marcela said and kept silent about the matter. She knew that in the end it was one of the many of Vin’s fuckups. No big deal. People would get over it in a few more weeks. No point in adding more wood to an already burning fire. Valentino answered a couple of questions about it in one Dominican newspaper.

However, as soon as the Dominican Government knew about Vin Diesel’s little mess they contacted Marcela assuring her that Mr. Vin Diesel would be as welcome as always. They seriously expected that the actor was still interested in the country concerning his original plans. Who cared about some chick’s feelings when there was an investment of millions still on the table?

“Find Me Guilty” has been presented at the Berlin Film Festival and Vin flew to Europe, supporting the premiere with his presence, promoting the film before it was released in the US. After that, Vin’s mess in Santo Domingo was ancient history; nobody was interested anymore apart from the tabloids.

All the critics were unanimous concerning Vin Diesel’s performance. He had struck numb one huge sector of the media with his role of “Fat Jack”. In a couple of weeks, Vin Diesel was rolling again, making headlines on the Internet and in every prominent magazine and newspaper across the country.

So, as a direct consequence, the Studio gave the green light to “Seth”. Just one thing had to be changed, the time line of the story. Instead of being set after the civil war, they would move it ahead, showing the characters in the latest fifties, giving more relevance to the racial conflicts.

At first Vin thought that it might be that Fate was in the mood for games, but then again he had made a promise to Luna and he meant to keep it. Maybe he was going too far with his behavior, but Vin didn’t want Luna thinking that he was using the unexpected decision of the Studio to push her. So, he made it possible that they could be working at the same time on those changes in the script without contacting each other directly.

Luna rolled her eyes, grunting as soon as she knew about the decision of the Studio, but kept cool and started to re-write those parts that were affected in the script. She was more than just a little busy now. Between the scripts of HBO’s soap opera and the changes in “Seth”, but she discovered that she was an even better writer when she was working under pressure. So she stayed locked in her small apartment, writing like a woman possessed, giving silent thanks because Vin hadn’t used the opportunity to see her or talk with her.

Vin had been thinking non-stop about Luna since the very first day he was back at LA, but he had to respect her wishes, even if those were killing him inside. Vin hadn’t phoned her since they came back from Santo Domingo, but he had been talking with Marcela about Luna’s career and making sure that everything was ok with her. It was one thing to be at a distance and another to be oblivious to her.

Vin wanted to be with her and he missed her terribly, especially when he needed someone to talk to. Many things were happening to him in the past weeks and more than ever he would have loved to phone her, but he knew full well that he couldn’t do that. At the end, it seemed to him that not everything was reduced to sex. And, for some unthinkable reason, he didn’t feel like fucking around with other chicks like he had been doing until that moment. Just a couple of one night stands with unknown girls.

Nevertheless, coinciding with the Berlin Film Festival, a whole collection of Vin’s pictures was published on the Internet. In those pictures he appeared with a chick, kissing her while talking in a restaurant or something like that.

Vin wasn’t dating any girl and the rumors concerning whether he was gay or not was again rolling, so Marcela contacted a French model agency and arranged the details with them.

As soon as Vin knew about Marcela’s plans, he cursed himself silently, but obliged. In the end the girl accomplished all that was requested.

The media bought it when he dropped the comment that he dated in Europe because he felt more relaxed when people didn’t recognize him, adding that European paparazzi weren’t like those in the US. However, Vin made sure that Luna knew about Marcela’s plan concerning the girl and the pictures.

In spite of the fact that Luna was literally overwhelmed with both scripts, she felt really lonely. Renee and Valentino had been out of the city for almost two months with Vin and she missed them terribly even though Renee was calling her practically every day.

She saw the images of the premiere in NY and smiled sadly when she caught glimpses of Renee and Val behind him, but it wasn’t the same. Of course, there was still Alice, Vin’s secretary, but she had a new boyfriend and she had been hanging around with him.

Luna and Renee were talking about what had happened in Santo Domingo, Renee’s imminent wedding and Luna’s feelings concerning Vin. Both women had spent a whole night chatting about how they were going to face their own relationships with Vin and Val and made up their minds. No matter what the future had in store for both of them, they were always going to manage to keep their close friendship above and separated from their relation with both men.

Concerning Vin, Luna wasn’t sure how she felt. She missed him more than just a little, but she loved the fact that Vin was respecting her decision. Luna desperately needed to find a way to control her feelings and emotions concerning Vin, if not she would end up hurting again and she wasn’t going to shed one more single tear for him. That was for sure.

Vin had been controlling since the beginning of their relationship, but things were going to change and greatly. She wasn’t going to allow him such control and power over her anymore. From now on things were going to be different and for the first time she was going to get the upper hand in whatever they were going to have in the future if they were going to have something. No more games.

Vin was presenting the movie around the country and Luna knew in advance that almost every day he was going to be on TV, giving interviews. So, Luna decided that it would be better if she didn’t watch those shows, at least until she had made up her mind.

Vin was always answering exactly the same questions and repeating himself no end. Lately all his interviews were arranged in advance and almost nothing seemed to be out of Marcela’s control. She was determined to clean up Vin’s public image and for that task; she had been talking with Vin’s closest friends and his parents, giving directions about how they had to act concerning the actor in case the media contacted any of them. And, at the same time, Marcela had been searching through everything about Luna’s life in order to anticipate future events that she was sure were going to take place.

Marcela knew Vin pretty well and her suspicions concerning Vin’s and Luna’s friendship had been confirmed. She had always known that Vin’s interest in Luna was beyond just plain friendship. So Marcela took a deep breath, grabbed her pants and got ready for the unavoidable consequences.

In any case, it wasn’t that Marcela didn’t like the idea, quite the opposite; she was more than pleased with the course of events. But still, she had the responsibility as Vin Diesel’s manager and agent to be ready for whatever unexpected thing that might be able to come up. And she was sure that they would come up. It was just a question of time.

————–

Vin was staying at his parent’s home while Valentino and Renee were at Val’s parents. Marcela and Renee made the promotion in NY the following week after Samantha’s weeding, so that way Vin could enjoy a few days to relax before the interviews and photo shoots that would take place started.

Vin had enjoyed himself endlessly, seeing his little sister dressed in her bride’s dress, teasing her and making jokes about Peter, Samantha’s future husband. Secretly he was jealous of the couple because Vin was sure he was never going to find someone for himself.

Paul was already married and Valentino would be soon, in just a few months. They hadn’t decided yet where they were going to get married, but at least they had a date. 15th August. A little less than a month after Vin’s birthday.

Vin had been over the entire ceremony by his mom’s side, thinking about how happy Peter and Samantha seemed.

Delora glanced at her son from the corner of her eye and her heart skipped a beat, seeing the sadness that his eyes showed when their dad gave Sam to Peter. She knew full well that Vin was more than happy for Sam, but she knew better than anyone that deep inside he was suffering in silence.

Vin felt the intense gaze of his mom and looked at her. Delora took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently, making a slight grin grace his lips. He squeezed his mom’s hand back and looked at his sister. And it was then when Vin saw in complete amusement how Sam’s eyes were sparkling with an emotion that almost immediately brought him memories of Luna’s eyes, holding his gaze. Shining in a much similar way as his sister’s eyes were shining while looking at her husband and Vin couldn’t help but curse himself silently.

—————

New York

Samantha and Peter were flying to their honeymoon the following week and Samantha wanted to spend some time before she left alone with Vin. Between the wedding and Vin’s schedule they had almost no time to talk with each other.

That afternoon, Vin was recording on Letterman’s show and Marcela asked Delora to go with him.

Vin and Samantha had been having lunch and shopping, and now they were going back home. They were talking about Sam’s job while walking when suddenly Vin came to a stop as soon as he spotted a flower shop. He glanced at his watch, narrowing his eyes, thinking.

It was now around 1:30pm. Vin frowned deeply, calculating silently. Six hours in a plane plus one hour more or less. It would mean that they would arrive between 8:30pm and 9:30pm NY local time. Three hour less would made around 5:30pm and 6:30pm. She was always home at that time.

Yeah, he said silently, and without a word, he took Sam’s hand and entered the shop, followed by Mike and Steve.

Vin bought a bouquet of twelve white roses for his mom and another one of bright pink for Samantha. After that, he ordered one bouquet of red roses for Renee to be delivered to Val’s parents in the next couple of hours. With that done, Vin turned around and headed directly to one of the stands where there were plenty of burgundy roses, searching for the right ones.

Samantha looked at her older brother as if he had sprouted a second head when he asked the girl if they could deliver to LA that same day. Of course, it was just a question of money and Vin had plenty. The roses weren’t a problem, they could send them directly from their shop in LA, but Vin wanted to send a note as well.

“I thought those kinds of things were part of Ren’s job, Mark.” Samantha teased as she looked at Vin, smiling broadly.

“Yeah. But this time is different.” He replied, winking as he asked the girl from the shop for a card and an envelope. “Besides, I need to do it myself and I hope it works.” Vin added as he wrote a note, putting it inside the small envelope, closing and sealing it. He then gave the address where the roses had to be delivered.

“Why are you sending flowers to Marcela?” Sam asked him in a whisper.

“They aren’t for Marcela.” Vin said to his sister as he returned the pen to the girl. “Here you are, babe.” He added, flashing her with one of his most sexy smiles as he handed her his credit card. “You can charge five per cent for yourself,” he whispered to the girl, winking. The girl’s face turned red hot and smiled shyly, nodding ‘yes’.

“Thank you, Mr…” She said shyly, reading the name printed on his credit card, gasping soundly when flashing at her was the name ‘Mark Vincent’. Just then, Vin knew that the girl had put two and two together. So he lifted his sunglasses.

“Vin.” He said as he beckoned the girl to come closer to him. Hesitantly, the girl leaned slightly over the counter. “You don’t know anything about those roses.” Vin whispered seductively, causing the girl to shudder at the tone of his voice. Sam narrowed her eyes.

“What roses?” The girl asked, playing dumb as she grinned wickedly. In response, Vin laughed softly. “May I have your autograph, Vin?” she asked.

“Sure, babe.” He replied, nodding and the girl gave him a piece of paper. “What’s your name?” Vin asked her.

“Jenn.” The girl said as she gave him the pen.

“Who’s she?” Samantha whispered, grinning.

Vin chuckled and ignored his sister’s question while signing the personalized autograph for Jenn. When he was done, Vin moved a couple of steps back, making more distance between Jenn and them.

“Since when are you so interested in my private life, Sammy?” Vin asked, lowering his tone of voice. “I thought you said I’m a mess concerning women.” He teased, grinning. Samantha narrowed her eyes.

“You’re sending sixty three roses to LA from NY, ordering that they had to be there today. That costs a fortune, honey. Besides, you even wrote the note personally.” She said, smiling broadly. “She has to mean something for you, Mark. Come on, sweetie. Tell your little sis. Who is she?”

Vin turned his head and looked around to make sure that nobody was listening to them and bent his head, whispering against Sam’s ear.

“Luna.”

————–

Los Angeles.

Luna opened the can of diet coke, absently sipping from it while thinking about how she was when she was younger and she didn’t take bullshit off anyone. Back then she was a real bitch though. Luna frowned, it wasn’t that she needed to be that bitch again, but still she needed to reach some kind of balance.

She was lost in thought staring at a spot only she could see when all of sudden the doorbell brought her back to reality.

Luna glanced at her watch. It was almost 6:45pm. She left the can on the counter and headed to the door. Peering through the peephole, she saw a messenger, holding a huge bouquet of burgundy roses tied with a big turquoise lace made of velvet.

Oh, my God! She gasped as her eyes were widened.

Blinking, Luna opened the door. The boy grinned as he gave her the flowers and pulled out a small pad, showing her where she had to sign.

“Whoever sent them really loves you, ma’am.” The boy said, grinning wickedly. “Those are the most expensive and came directly from NY.”

Luna chuckled at his words. Yeah, I bet they are, kid, she thought silently, rolling her eyes.

“From NY, huh?” Luna said, smiling as she handed him the pad. “Thank you. Have a nice weekend.” She added and closed the door.

She then headed back to the kitchen, putting the roses inside the sink, and started to look for a couple of vases. When she found them, she disentangled the turquoise lace and picked up the small sealed envelope, pulling out a handwritten note.

One rose for each day we’ve been apart.
I miss you, Luna.
V

Nice handwriting. Funny, she had never seen it before.

There were exactly sixty-three roses. Luna loved that exact variety of burgundy roses and she wondered how Vin knew it. She didn’t remember telling him, Val or even Renee.

The rose had petals with a thin line at the top so dark that it seemed almost black surrounding each of them. Luna grinned and pulling one out, she inhaled deeply its scent, closing her eyes. The silky petal almost tickled her nostrils and Luna found herself grinning like a loony, thinking about Vin.

Chuckling at her own thoughts, Luna pulled them one by one out of the sink and put them inside the two vases, adding a couple of aspirins along with the water. A little trick her mother told her once.

Still smiling, Luna went to the living room, putting one of the vases on the small table. Then she left the other in her bedroom and returned to the kitchen. Glancing at her chrono she drifted, lost, thinking about if she should call him back.

Luna wasn’t sure if she was ready to see Vin again yet, but in any case, she should at least say ‘thank you’.

After a long moment recalling what she wanted to say, Luna picked up her cell phone and dialed Vin’s number as she went to the living room, sitting on the couch. After a second, she was being redirected to his voice mailbox and silently she gave thanks to God.

Picking up a rose, her heart beating fast, Luna took a deep breath, swallowed hard and cleared her throat.

“Hi, Vin. This is Luna. I’m calling you because I received your roses and…and I wanted to tell you that you didn’t have to do it, but ….damn!” she laughed nervously. “They are beautiful, Diesel!! Thank you very much…” She went silent for a heartbeat reading the note silently again. She suddenly felt really nervous and swallowed hard. “I…I m-miss…you” she finally forced out in an almost inaudible whisper, hanging up the phone. Staring at the note, Luna sighed hard. “I miss you too, Vin.” She repeated as she stood and headed back to the kitchen, playing with the note between her fingers and the rose pressed against her nose, inhaling deeply.

————–

New York.

Vin was on the Letterman show, presenting the movie and Delora was watching him through a monitor comfortably seated on a couch in the guestroom. Until now, they had been talking about the importance of having a twin brother to making Vin’s chart and they had been making jokes about his stage name.

Delora rolled her eyes while listening to them. She couldn’t believe that Vin was here talking about pointless things instead of talking about his role in the movie and how important it was for him, but she knew how these things worked. The important matter wasn’t to be talking about the movie; it was just have Vin talking. Period.

Suddenly the conversation turned in another direction unlike what had been arranged in advance and Delora found that she was really interested in her son’s reactions. She knew what he was going to say, everything had been arranged beforehand, but what hadn’t been arranged was Vin’s unconscious reactions to those questions.

“So…you’re not married, are you?” Letterman asked Vin, grinning wickedly.

“No, I’m not married.” Vin answered, smiling.

“Are you engaged?” Letterman asked and he couldn’t help the ironic tone of his voice.

The audience burst out laughing hard, so Letterman did as well. Vin narrowed his eyes and kept cool, smiling too.

“You’ve probably got a lot of girls you’re dating and stuff…right?”

The sarcasm was evident now in Letterman’s tone of voice and Delora stiffened slightly on her seat, noticing it.

The audience was still laughing and cheering. For a heartbeat, Vin felt uneasy, but then again he was Vin Diesel, so he played along like always.

“Now, David, come on…” Vin rolled his eyes, chuckling. Letterman laughed hard. “You know me. I’m not the kind of guy that comes here and says ‘Oh my God, I’m so in love…,’” he added, mockingly, grinning.

The people in the studio started to clap and Letterman laughed with him.

“Right…yeah…” Letterman said as he burst out laughing hard, leaving time for the people of the studio to laugh a little more with Vin’s joke. Then he made himself comfortable on his seat and went serious. “What kind of thing do you like to do on a date?” Letterman asked, making Vin look at him pretending to be shocked about the question. Letterman grinned wickedly. “Can you take us like through? What would it be like?” the audience started to laugh again and Vin laughed with them. “From the minute you pick them up…so somebody from a first date. What’s a first date like?” He asked and Vin looked at the ceiling, pretending to be thinking hard about it.

“Ok, first date…first date?…uh…sixteen years old…” A heartbeat passed and people started to laugh again. So Letterman continued.

“What?!” He asked, pretending to be shocked with Vin’s answer. “Wait a minute!” He added, continuing playing. “No! No…no… not your first date ever!” Letterman stated, laughing. Vin stood, laughing hard while the people were still laughing at his joke. “What are you talking about?!” Letterman asked, grinning, playing his part in that game. “I mean, no. Wait a second…No.” He added, still laughing. “Just like somebody you might meet…leaving the theatre. What might that be like?”

“Leaving this?” Vin asked, signaling with his hand.

“Yeah.” Letterman replied, nodding.

“Like when I lived here?” Vin asked, playing dumb, smiling broadly.

“Anywhere. Anywhere.” Letterman said. “Just a lovely woman, then you think ‘oh let’s do something’. What do you do? You go to dinner, you go to dancing, have drinks? What goes on?” he asked, smiling broadly. Vin started to laugh as he made himself comfortable on his seat.

“Wow” Vin found himself thinking about his dates.

Honestly he wasn’t going to say on TV that he used to skip the dinner, and sometimes even the dancing, just keep the drinks and then a good fuck. Vin grinned, licking his lips. Nope, definitively he couldn’t say that aloud. Not here, not anywhere.

“…Hmmm….huh…” Vin said, narrowing his eyes as if Letterman would catch him off guard and after a moment he answered nonchalantly. “I’m a regular meat and potatoes type of guy.” Vin said finally and the audience started to laugh.

All of sudden a vision of Luna popped inside his mind and Vin added. “I just… you know…go to dinner…do something simple…get to know the person…”

Delora narrowed her eyes; she could almost see what her son was thinking. Or it would be better to say about who her son was thinking about while answering, pretending to sound nonchalant.

“Yeah…” Letterman murmured under his breath, thinking that it would have been in Vin’s dreams.

He was infamous because of his chaotic private life. Vin glanced at him from the corner of his eye and made up his mind. Sarcasm has two edges.

“Introduce her to my mom…” his tone of voice had changed and Delora noticed. When Vin was acting like this he was sending a message of enough of this shit, so let’s talk about what we had agreed at the beginning. “I mean…” Letterman noticed too and smiled broadly while the audience was still laughing.

“Right, right.” He interrupted him, picking up his papers, reading his next question. “What about when on Valentine’s Day when you were sixteen? What about that?” he asked Vin.

“Oh, ok, That was cool,” Vin said, smiling broadly. “I was sixteen years old; it was my first Valentine’s date….

A nice sweet story about the poor sixteen year old Vin whose first girlfriend showed up late on their first Valentine’s date and with another guy!

Vin had to explain how he had spent more than five hours in line to buy tickets for a show at the theatre, buying flowers and putting on a suit just for her. Showing real class at that young age, thinking about each and every detail to have the perfect date of his life.

A story that wasn’t even true! Marcela created it, thinking about the perfect occasion to tell the media. What better way to make people melt over Vin Diesel?

The reality was a completely different story. Just one girl had left him when he was in High School and she was his first also.

Vin had charm radiating all over and he had a charismatic personality since he was a little kid, so naturally, women always felt attracted to him.

Marcela was sure that she would be able to pull out two reactions.

One. Each and every woman would say ‘Aw, poor Vinnie’, thinking how important and romantic that date should have been for him. As a direct consequence, maternal instinct would spread all over the US like flowers in Spring.

Two. Hundreds if not thousands of sixteen year old kids would be able to identify with Vin, knowing that there was a time when he was just like them. Watching Vin Diesel, the famous actor who was on the tabloids every other day surrounded by the most beautiful chicks and partying around the country. That kid with a nonexistent social life. And if he had become rich and famous, then all of them would be able to be like him one day.

The fact that Vin admitted that he had been playing ‘D&D’ for almost all his life, even creating his own character, the infamous ‘Melkor’, surely helped also. Just an example of how the American’s dream was becoming true.

Even though if they had a different motivation, the result would be the same. Marcela could almost see all those kids and women running to the cinema to see Vin Diesel’s latest movie, “Find Me Guilty” and thinking that deep inside Vin was just a romantic sweet guy. Two goals accomplished in one move. Perfect.

next…