The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

floor. They appeared to be.
    She expected to find him waiting outside the room. When he wasn’t, she walked slowly to her car, in case he’d hidden himself somewhere out of sight of autograph seekers and intended to find her alone. She got into the car without incident. She started it slowly, inched out of the parking lot, then when no Felix appeared, sped home.
    She cruised on the freeway, scarcely aware of the landmarks rolling by: Bountiful temple, amusement park, flour mills . . . Her thoughts tumbled. Felix Callahan. Felix Callahan! Could this really be happening? The whole Los Angeles thing had been just a surreal, sliding moment that sparked and was gone. Having dinner with Felix had been like seeing a UFO flash through the night sky—so real one moment, but the next explained away as the combined effect of a lightning storm and dry eyes. Even speaking to him on the phone had seemed like a daydream gone strange.
    But now, she’d seen him on her home turf. That was passing surreal. That was getting downright dangerous.
    Felix Callahan. From Rattled Cages . She’d seen it, oh, let’s say, a dozen times, because she’d never counted (and if she had, it would be closer to twenty-one). Enough, anyhow, to know most of the dialogue. Enough to be able to replay that final scene in her head . . .
    Calvin watches Katie with those dark, soulful eyes. He is painfully shy, but Katie needs him to speak. She can’t risk everything on a hope.
    calvin: Katie, I . . .
    katie: Yes?
    calvin: I’m . . . we’re out of birdseed. I need to reorder.
    katie: Oh. I guess you’re busy. It was nice knowing you, Calvin. I’ll stop by again, if I’m ever back in the city.
    calvin: That’d be . . . that’d be great.
    He watches her go, his face pained. We know he’ll lie awake for days just picturing her face. We know he’ll never love again.
    He stares down, angry at himself, at his own failure, and picks up the change she left on the counter. Beneath it, he sees again the mark she scratched into the wood—the reason his boss flipped out at this troublesome customer, the reason Calvin first stepped in to protect her, the way their friendship started, how he had the courage to buy the shop from his boss, strike out on his own, change his life. He’d never noticed before what she’d scratched there—it’s a heart . . . and we know he’s reminded of those conversations they had about what a heart is. Just a vital organ? Or the house of the soul? The most precious thing one owns and yet is eager to give away?
    He runs out into the rain.
    calvin: Katie! Katie, wait!
    She stops, her heart pounding, wondering if he’s going to say it.
    Her love life has been an endless succession of men who appreciated her looks but never saw her heart, and like Katie, we believe that Calvin is the first and perhaps only man who could love her right. But she needs Calvin to speak this time. Please, Calvin, speak . . .
    calvin: I . . . I . . .
    katie: You’re getting wet!
    She pulls him under the umbrella, their faces inches apart. His dark hair is dripping, water running down his face. The rainstorm thickens, so it almost seems there’s no world outside that space. They’re both breathing a little faster.
    calvin: Katie, I . . .
    katie: Yes? What, Calvin?
    calvin: For your birthday, I was thinking of getting you a hamster. Unless there’s something of mine you might like.
    And he looks at her, in her eyes, and smiles just a little. It’s enough. Man, even the barest wisp of a smile from that man is breathtaking. He doesn’t say “I love you,” but by cleverly echoing what she’d said earlier about hamsters and the giving away of one’s heart, we know that’s what he means. (I love you, you’re perfect, you’re everything, you toast my marshmallows, baby.)
    Katie’s mouth twitches as if she’d like to laugh, but he’s so close it’s all she can do to just keep breathing.
    His hand touches her face, tentative, and he looks at her as if