Chapter 19-24

Chapter 19

 

**This one is a little explicit**

He walked her into his small, for a celebrity, 2500 square foot traditional style Hollywood home.

The lights were all off, but the light from the city streamed in. She peered in the spotless house,

which she never had been with surprise. There were still boxes stacked over both their heads

dated 2/20/11. “You haven’t unpacked yet?”

“I haven’t time.” He explained. “I don’t know how much time I will have. I’m touring here in the

early summer, Europe again in mid-summer and then probably South America in the late

summer. I just don’t know…”

“Well, come on…you have time now. Let’s start. “ She grabbed a box labeled Kitchen and

walked it toward the kitchen. Inside, Ikea silverware and glassware. “Really? Ikea? Bruno….”

“What? I was broke…I know you have an Ikea bed…and it works just fine…”

“Don’t hate on my bed, sir. That was my first big purchase after I moved out of my parents’

house. I put that thing together by myself.”

“Nu-huh…” he said putting away his plates.

“Yeah. I’m super woman.” she was totally lying. She had her ex-boyfriend, the rugby player and

his friends put it together. She flexed her arms and kissed her left bicep.

“I had no idea Superwoman was in my kitchen.” he replied with a ridiculously cheesy smile. He

opened a cabinet door, pulled out two wine glasses and went to the fridge. She peered over his

 

shoulder to see what was in it, almost nothing. He pulled out a bottle of wine, pulled the cork out

of it with his hand and poured it in two glasses for them. She sipped it while he watched her. It

felt as though he was waiting for a particular reaction. After digesting the first taste of wine she

knew why, it was her favorite wine, a wine that can only be found at winery in Texas.

“How did you get this?”

“Lucky you, I’m superman.” he looked at her. She jumped on the counter facing the living room

to get a look at him. He was so incredibly sincere in everything he did. There was never anything

fake about him. He looked at her intently for a few seconds before he could decide what he was

going to do next. He had no idea. Everything he did with her was so spontaneous. There was

never a plan. It drove him crazy. If he planned to kiss her, she would kiss him. If he planned to

call her, she would text him. If he wanted to make love to her, she would talk about something so

above his head that he had to listen to her to understand the things that she does. There was no

winning, and he loved it. He took several steps toward her, took her wine glass from her hand,

and kissed her cheek. “You’re amazing.” he said. She started to kiss his earlobe in a way he had

never felt before. She blew on it lightly and then bit it without hurting him. No one had ever

done that to him before, and he had been with a lot of girls. She did it again. With all those

surprises. He grabbed her from behind, careful not to drop her, but never let his lips leave her

body.

“Don’t drop me, Bruno. I’ll beat you up.” she yelled.

“I’ve got skills, Marley. Just trust me.” he looked her right in the eyes and kissed her forehead as

he put her on his unmade bed. At least I managed to buy the silk sheets before I left. He thought

to himself.

“Bruno,” she said quietly to him. “What are we? I don’t want to do this if we don’t have this

figured out yet…I know I’m being that girl I told you I can be…but I don’t want to have my

heart broken…”

 

“Marla…stop thinking so hard. That’s why you’re such a mess sometimes.” God, we were so

 

almost there. When she just stops thinking she is just….oh….no words. But she’s so smart and so

analytical and she never stops to live in the right now…”just think about right now. Don’t think

about tomorrow, or where you’re going to be in a week, or a month of in 2012 or if you’re going

to survive the Mayan end of days. I’ve got you.”

“But…I’m…supposed to thin….” Marla was stopped midsentence by his kiss. She moved her

 

hands toward his hair and then to his arms. She glanced down at his tattoos. Woah. There really

are a lot of them. That is beyond hot. She dug her nails into his back as he touched below her

waist. “Ohhhh..ohhhh. Bru….Brunooo.” He put her down gently on the silk sheets after lifting

off her t-shirt and unsnapping her bra from the back. As he unsnapped her bra she grabbed the

wad of red shirt he had on and lifted it above his head. “Let me take off your shirt…”he put

down his arms for a second and obliged her. After she took off his shirt he laid her down on his

silk sheets and moved his hands from her breasts to her waist. He kissed her all over and

repeated. She grabbed his hair to brace herself because she knew that she was going to scream

louder than she ever had. She bit her lip so hard that it started to bleed as he went down on her.

“Bru…Brun….Brunnnnnoooooo….diios dioss mioooo. Oh my gooooodddd. Please, please, get

 

inside me.” She grabbed him as close as she could, grabbed his zipper and unzipped his pants.

He moved gently towards her. He quietly kissed her neck. She could hear him moan. She tried

not to be too loud, biting her lip again. Then she suddenly stopped, stopped moving completely.

 

Chapter 20

“Marla?” He stopped quickly, moving himself toward her, brushing her hair out of her face. Her

eyes were glazed over for a few seconds. “Mar?”

“Yeah? You’re, you’re oh….oh…like really no words…” she responded.

“Well, yeah. I could tell, “ he rolled over on to the side of his bed next to her. “But you…but

Marla…you disappeared there for a second…like it wasn’t normal….it was like a seizure…”

“What?” she was stunned by his statement. “Wait….like my eyes were gone and I was all limp?”

“Shit.” she sat up covered in the silk sheets and turned around not looking at him.

“No secrets, baby. I promised you. Trust me. What happened?” He touched her arm. She moved

it away from him.

She wasn’t contemplating not telling him, she was just figuring out the best way to tell him. It

was an odd subject. Like really weird. Who has epilepsy? But only during their cycle? Why

didn’t she think of that? I mean, look at what he does to her. Of course this would happen. Duh.

She had a single tear coming down her cheek when she turned around to look at him. She

sniffed. Thank god I didn’t put on make-up, it surely would have run after this, she thought.

“Can we talk about this dressed?” she asked.

“Of course, here…put this on.” he handed her a white and purple v-neck shirt and a pair of his

boxers that were laying on the top of his suite case. She savored she clothes as they smelled of

cigarettes and cinnamon. She secretly smelled it a little longer while he put on his clothes.

“Downstairs?” he asked.

“Yes, please.” She answered. They both walked downstairs with messy hair and no shoes on. It

 

was almost 1 in the morning. She quickly thought, Oh shit, I have to work tomorrow…oh…no I

 

don’t it’s summer.

He sat at the end of his brown couch and took her hand giving her one of the most sincere

concerned looks she had seen him given her in the 6 months she had known him.

“Marla, you scared me…” he explained. “What in the world is going on?”

She sighed her signature enormous sigh and started, “I have epilepsy…”

“Wait what?”

“Let me finish before you ask questions…it’s not as weird as it sounds….” she interjected during

his reaction. “I have epilepsy. It’s genetic. My aunt has it, but not my mother. She was obviously

a carrier and my dad was too, so I was the lucky one. I had the big scary seizures when I was

 

little –even when I was a teenager. I grew out of them. But I still took medication for them. They

are mostly gone. But, I’ll get them when I stress out a lot, every once in a while at night, but

usually that’s when I stress out, and mostly the week before my period. After the auction, when I

was laying down reciting that poem, I was trying to keep myself from having a seizure. There’s

small things that can keep them away, but mostly they’ll just pop up. I can tell mostly when

they’re coming, like that one…that’s why I pushed you away. I had the seizure that Sunday

afternoon. It wasn’t anything major…but…”

“So….soo…that…that’s weird. But you’re okay? Like you’re not sick or anything?” he

wondered out loud.

“Oh no, I mean, if you count me taking a pill everyday to make sure I don’t fall on my face in the

middle of the day sick, then yeah, but otherwise I’m fine. It’s scary. That was scary. It hasn’t

happened in years. Maybe since like sophomore year of college…but I didn’t think it would

happen…”

“So what do you do…like…when it happens?”

“Have you ever had a really bad migraine?” she asked him trying to compare the two.

“Like once…Eric hit me in the head with something when I was 13 and I had to go to the

hospital. I saw stars and everything was green and red for a while…”

“When I see things are starting to get blue and white, like everything…like your face would be

white and the table would be blue…that’s when I know I need to lay down and I’m going to have

a seizure. Sometimes it happens quickly, other times it happens it happens hours before hand.

This one…I kind of remember your hair getting blue, but there was so much going on that I

couldn’t stop it from happening. If it’s a regular day, like the auction I just lay down and wait for

it to pass. Angie knows, so I knew she would have found me and would have waited for

everything to calm down. She would have driven me home, because of course you can’t drive

within 36 hours of having a seizure and I would have had someone pick up my car for me

later…or even then. No one would have even noticed. It’s just incredibly normal for me…”

“It’s not normal for me…” he told her sincerely.

“Bruno...it was weird…it was weird for me too. I planned on telling you about it. It was just…it

wasn’t right.”

“I just don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me, Marley….” it struck her when he called her

Marley. Only those closest to her called her Marley.

“What was I supposed to say? Tell you on our first date….oh by the way…if we sleep together I

might pass out if you’re really good? But don’t worry I’ll wake up and everything will be okay?”

“Yes! Exactly!” his eyes lit up with her honesty.

She rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that.

“I just want you to be comfortable. I want you to be able to tell me anything, Marla. And I want

to be able to tell you anything too. Like the mole on your right butt check is hot.”

 

“Bruno!” she punched him and started to laugh.

He kissed her gently and led her upstairs. He set his alarm for 7am.

“I’m tired, B.” she yawned. “Can we just go bed? Today was perfect.”

He stood up and took her hands to take her to his bedroom. He turned off the light and led her to

the bed. He wrapped his arms around her, smelled her hair and whispered the lyrics to an

unknown song to her. She fell asleep to his voice. He fell asleep to her breathing.

 

Chapter 21

Marla rolled over and hit a body. She opened her eyes and saw the darkest brown eyes she had

ever seen in her life. She smiled and then remembered what she was doing.

“Oh. I’m so sorry….”

“It’s quite alright…” he responded in the same way she did the night before. He wrapped his

arms around her bringing her closer to him.

“Oh no, I haven’t brushed my teeth…an…I don’t have….”

He shook his head at her…”Stop thinking so much. I have a tooth brush in there. My baby sister

and boyfriend were here for the Grammy’s…she left an unopened toothbrush. It’s even pink.”

She pinched his side and went to brush her teeth. “I’m dying.” he whined. She took longer than

 

the required 2 minutes to brush teeth. What is she doing?

 

Marla walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Really? No make-up? I have

 

red spotty skin, and my hair is…oh…so greasy. I need to wash it…or run. Or both…maybe both.

 

I need to get out of here…breakfast and then go…breakfast and go…that’s it. And then we’ll do

 

this again when he’s here again. And then again and again and again…but now I’ll forget about

the hair. She came out of the bathroom with fresh breath and gritty hair.

“What’s wrong?” He was sitting up with his phone in his hand checking text messages.

“My hair is gross.” she obviously couldn’t hide her emotions from him. She made an obvious sad

face and slunk down onto the unmade bed next to him.

“Really? That’s it?”

“Maybe.” she responded, suddenly reminded that she actually liked being around him and the

way he made her feel, the way her hair, lack of make-up and even slight hair stubble didn’t seem

to even matter. “How long are you here for?” she asked now able to wrap her head around the

emotions.

“4 days. I have a video shoot for the next three days and interviews later this morning.” Marla

grabbed his phone to check to see what time it was. She was sure it had to be about 6 o’clock

since that was when she usually woke up. She was right 6:19. “What are you looking at?”

“I just wanted to see what time it was.” she glanced back up at him. “Oh…okay…” he was still

so confused by her over reliance on time, schedules, plans and life. He didn’t understand why

 

she couldn’t just be. But it intrigued him to no end. He was going to make her just live. What he

didn’t know what that she was going to do the opposite to him.

 

Chapter 22

“You have no food. What in the world am I going to do with you, Bruno?” Marla looked at him

with a serious face.

“I’m trying!” he laughed at her. “I just unpacked my kitchen.

“Get in the car. We’re going to my house. I’ll make you breakfast.” she demanded.

They had each taken quick showers and gotten dressed. She put on an old white shirt of his and

her shorts and he let his hair air dry which made it look even more desirable in its curly state. He

wore skinny jeans, converse and a red and purple plaid shirt to her house.

“Watch this….” he followed her to the kitchen. She pulled out a handful of tortillas, corn and

flour. “Corn or flour?” she asked.

“Which one am I supposed to choose?” he wondered out loud as he sat down watching her crack

eggs, cut peppers and then grab onions from the fridge, all at once.

“Corn.” she told him. “I’m making you Migas. It’s not Puerto-Rican, but it’s equally as

amazing.” She continued to explain to him what she was doing, mixing, dicing, and completing

the dish. “Final touch….” she ran to the cabinet farthest away from everything and grabbed a

small frying pan. Grabbing the vegetable oil that was left, she sprinkled it on the pan, let it get so

hot that it popped.

“Yikes!” he said from his distance. “Don’t burn yourself.

“No te preocupes, Bruno. Todo va a ser bien.” She turned around and smiled at him.

She dropped in several slices on the flour tortillas, flipping them over until they crunched like

tortillas chips.

“We get tortilla chips too?” he asked.

“Almost…”she spooned a small amount of the egg dish onto a spoon and blew on it to cool it off

for him. “Taste…”

“I want it all…” he told her with a smile.

Marla made them both plates and slid into the seat next to him.

“I’m taking you with me…” he said with his mouth full. “just to cook for me.”

“Sign me up.” she said.

“Really, though, Marley, you impress me every time I’m with you. You know so much about

things I never even considered thinking about….”

Her phone, which was sitting in between them started to vibrate and then ring.

 

“Oh, oh, ohhhh! I have to answer this. Give me two seconds!”

Marla had been going to school full time, but with the summer just starting, just was looking for

a job to hold her over through the summer. Adding to her resume and to keep her busy until the

next semester started were so important. Her parents were helping her with her apartment, but

she needed to help herself too. She had told Bruno all about this, so he smiled at her knowing it

was an important phone call for her.

“Great! When do you want me to come in?”

She hung up the phone and smiled a big smile. “I got the jobbbbb! I got the jobbbbb!” She got up

and jumped on the couch and did a little dance. Bruno knew he hadn’t known her very long, but

he knew that this was the happiest he had seen her. He let her revel in her happiness because he

knew she probably would have done the exact same thing even if she was by herself. After about

thirty seconds of dancing she jumped over the edge of the couch near him and hugged

him.“Thank you for being here for me. It was the one we talked about on the phone about a week

ago.”

“Oh! The one for the Children’s Defense Fund?” he responded. He vaguely remembered who it

was for, but he did remember her rambling about being nervous about one particular interview

and the panel interview. He talked to her for nearly an hour about just being calm and impressing

them with all the things she knew about children and connecting with the community. He was

impressed with himself when he hung up. “I told you you’d get it! When do you start?”

“Next weeeeek!” she did another little dance. He now knew what drove her…her work. Now he

just had to connect to it.

 

Chapter 23

Marla sat next to her mother on her couch who was flipping through a People magazine.

“So, this is him?”

“Mhmm.” Marla nodded her head as her mother pointed to the picture.

“El Más Bello debao 25 años, huh? Que cute. And he kisses well?”

“Mama! That’s gross!”

“So that’s a yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. He’s incredible mama…”

“He looks Puerto Rican. Can he speak Spanish?” Her mother, Analisa, was always fishing for the

perfect Puerto Rican man for her. She always wandered around the city asking for her youngest

daughter.

“No. But he can sing it.”

 

**

 

Marla’s phone rang while she was wandering through clearance clothing items at Saks Off Fifth

with her best friend Fiona. It was one of their favorite past time activities, looking at clothes they

could usually never afford, but picking up the occasional item they could. “Oh! Look at this

one!” Fiona picked up a short yellow dress and twirled it around as Marla grabbed her phone

from her purse. Fiona threw down the dress and ran over to Marla’s side of the rack to eavesdrop

on the conversation.

“Oh! You’re going out tonight? Umm…yeah? I don’t know. I don’t know what I would wear.

Or…I…you’re right…don’t press your luck, Bruno. I’m coming! I will. Okay. 11. Yes. And plus

how many? Okay. No. I’ll see you then!” she turned off her phone and turned to Fiona. “Fiona,

hand me that yellow dress. We’re going out tonight.”

“Where are we going? And with who? Wait? Is it that guy you won’t tell me about? The one

from the auction? Jaime’s little brother? Oh! God! He’s hot, right?!”

“Just calm down. You’ll meet him. Buy the red dress in your hands and come to my house while

we get ready. And call Whitney she’s coming too.”

Whitney brought over her twin sister Lindsey to go to the snazzy club where they would meet,

dance, drink and enjoy Bruno’s last night in Los Angeles.

Whitney looked at Marla’s outfit and then at her. “So you’re really doing him? Like really doing

him?”

“He’s not just Bruno Mars, Whitney. He’s more. You’ll see tonight. It’ll be good. I promise.”

 

Chapter 24

The girls arrived at the brightly lit dance club, drove around the parking lot looking for parking –

which was nonexistent on a Friday night at 11:15 pm. They were all scrabbling looking for

spots. She grabbed her phone and texted Bruno’s friend Phil.

“I can’t find a place to park….help!”

She got a text back quickly which said, “Vallet it. You’ll be fine.”

She read the text out loud. “Vallet it What the fuck? Really?”

“Marrrrlaaa! We’re never going to meet this guy if you don’t just do what he says!” Fiona yelled

at her shrunched in the back seat of Marla’s car.

“Okay, fine. But if it’s like $25 you’re paying for it.”

“Dude you pay after.”

“You know I don’t have that money!” she said as the girls opened their doors and handed over

her keys.

“Good luck getting in ladies, Bruno Mars is in there. It’s crazy.” the young valet told them.

“Oh! Will I be able to see him?” Lindsay screamed. “He’s so fucking hot. Like I’d totally hit it.”

 

“Oh, I would too….” Marla trailed off as she bypassed the crowd.

“Where are you going, Mar? The lines back here?” Whitney called.

“Trust me….Marla Gonzales plus guests?” she asked the large bouncer. He glanced down at the

list with his fingers and nodded his head. There was a note.

“Upstairs and to the right, ma’am. Have a fabulous evening.”

Marla’s friends were in awe. To be honest, she actually was too.

“Hold hands until we get up there. Don’t get lost. I don’t think we’ll be able to hear our phones

in here…” Marla said as she grabbed her friends hands and led them upstairs. She saw several

familiar faces, but couldn’t put names to the faces. They all smiled at her, apparently they knew

who she was as well. Drinks were handed to the girls as ropes opened for them. It wasn’t nearly

as crowded upstairs as it was downstairs. The girls let go of each others hands.

“Where is this guy?” Fiona asked.

“Kenj!” Marla screamed.

“Why hello beautiful!” he hugged and looked at her friends. “Let me introduce you to my

friends, “Whitney, Fiona and Lindsey.”

“Nice to meet you, ladies.” Kenji said. As they began to introduce each other noise started to

come from the left of the VIP section. They all turned that way to make sure nothing too crazy

was happening. “Well, I mean…you know Bruno…” he said.

Marla saw Bruno near the edge of the VIP section where girls were screaming at him. Another

girl- with dyed blonde hair who looked younger than both of them started dancing toward him.

Everyone started staring knowing they were getting closer to each other…dancing. He wrapped

his arm around her waist and whispered something in her ear. She couldn’t make out what they

were saying to each other but she Marla started to turn around out the VIP section. “No hay

nadie mas my fucking ass.” she said loudly slamming her down her drink on the table. The glass

shattered with the rum and coke she was handed on her way upstairs spilling on the carpet.

“Who was that?” a girl sitting on a leather couch the dancing asked.

Bruno touched the girl he was dancing with on the waist quickly to say he was sorry. He looked

at everyone around him following Marla and her friends down the stairs. His bodyguard

followed him to ensure his safety. “Bro, be careful….there are a lot of people down there…” the

security told him as they walked down the stairs.

Bruno stopped and asked the club security if they had seen where the four girls had run off to. He

pointed toward the side door.

“Marla…he’s not that dumb. He likes you. Go back in there….” Whitney yelled over the loud

music.

“That’s him?!” Lindsay exclaimed.

 

“Shut up, stupid…just go with Fiona and get a fucking drink or something…..”

They sat for what seemed to be hours, but was really a few songs.

“Who am I really kidding? He’s….” she started to cry….”damnit. My make-up is going to run.

I’m so not strong enough to date him. He’s a celebrity. He’s Bruno fucking Mars, not just some

guy who sings or plays a guitar because it’s fun…he does it to pay the bills…it’s him. I can’t

deal with that. It’s too…”

“Too hard?” he interjected as he came up behind her touching her hair gently. His body guard

stood within earshot of the threesome, but far enough away to give them some privacy.

“Can I talk to her, Whitney?” he asked politely. She looked at him in shock and awe, still

amazed that he wanted her. She nodded, stood up and let him sit down in front of her.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you that you look flawless tonight.” he said moving his head toward

her ear. He wasn’t trying to be sexy or seductive, he was just trying to talk to her over the loud

music.

“Don’t flatter me, asshole.” She looked up with black eyeliner under her eyes and fake eyelashes

starting to come off. “You told me last night....I was the only one and then you were dancing

with who I assume had to be the girl from Germany. Like really? You said that you two were just

friends. That wasn’t a friend dance. I know I don’t dance with my guy friends like

that…especially the ones that have girlfriends. Unless I want to get punched in the fucking

face…” at that point she was yelling at him. She had a temper. It was well known that she could

get angry at friends and family members. She had never been in a fight with boyfriends though.

This was the closet to wanting to hit a boyfriend, or who was supposed to be a boyfriend she ever

had been. She bit her lip to keep herself from getting even angrier. She wasn’t going to hit him.

She just needed to get it out. She finished talking and punched him as hard as she could muster in

his right shoulder.

He listened to her whole rant and knew that she still didn’t know him well enough. It wasn’t the

first time that someone yelled at him for doing something