“Diva VI”

Once, just once, she would have liked to be seduced; to melt like ice cream under warm butterscotch into a silky, sensuous puddle.

“That’s nice,” Vera observed, “but ice cream is always shocked when the butterscotch first hits.”

Ellie sucked thoughtfully on her spoon, thinking that her friend was absolutely right but missing the point nonetheless.

“He’s butterscotch, huh?”

A slow smile formed around the spoon in Ellie’s mouth. She sucked a little more, then let it slide free. “I should not be talking to you about this. You write a gossip column, for God’s sake.”

“Yes, but I’ve read enough ‘Dear Abby’ to qualify as advisor to the lovelorn. You don’t quite fit ‘lovelorn’, though. Don’t tell me you regret sleeping with Dane Seward.”

“Of course I don’t,” Ellie scolded. She drew the tip of her spoon through the dregs of her sundae, threading caramel through vanilla swirls. “I just wish … Vera, do you think I’m too easy?”

“Compared to whom?”

“I don’t know.” She hedged, making it seem like a struggle to answer the question. After a minute of faking it, she took the plunge. “Julia Miles.”

Vera’s pencilled eyebrows shot toward her hairline. “The ice princess?”

“Dane’s last girlfriend,” Ellie amended.

“Hell, El, the Pope’s mother was easy compared to her. Why do you think Dane—I mean, I doubt that romance got much hotter than your butterscotch leftovers, there. Oh, I know what you’re doing, Eleanor Bond. You want to know what I know.”

“What do you know?” Ellie asked.

“About Dane and the ice princess? Not much,” Vera admitted. “She’s obsessive about her privacy. She was dating him for weeks before any of us got wind of it.”

“How long do I have with him before it becomes public knowledge?”

“Too late,” Vee replied. “I knew about it before you told me. Don’t look so betrayed, kiddo. That kiss on the set got more tongue than you did. I had three phone calls before happy hour. You’re lucky I like you, else I’d have gone to print the same day.”

“You’re a good friend, Vera.”

“Only because I know you’ll give me the real scoop.”

Eleanor smiled as her unlikely confidante brandished a last spoonful of ice cream for emphasis. Her agent had advised early on that she establish a good relationship with Hollywood’s premier gossip reporter. He had arranged their first meeting, never imagining that the two would hit it off like gangbusters from their introduction. Vera had taken immediate liking to the fledgling actress, recognizing in her the same promise of stardom that Bernie had sensed, and Ellie was nothing if not loyal. At the start of Ellie’s career, Vera had often thwarted the competition when rumours began to stir and now, with Eleanor’s orbit firmly established, she enjoyed the right of first refusal. She had a good reputation with the studio, as well, though Ellie was the only actress on contract who was considered a friend.