Leap of Faith - I

Gina flipped through the tabloid with a grin on her face. All these tabloids ever carry, are stories of some incident woven out of hand. Maybe that is why she was never ever allowed to read such ‘trash’, as her parents called it. As she flipped through artfully put together photographs, Gina could not help but feel enchanted by it all.

Growing up, she could not remember a single glossy tabloid at home.  Even the celebrity news section that the daily carried was never there! She did not notice this for the longest time till she tried looking for page 25 after a friend at school mentioned it. The newspaper at home went miraculously from page 24 to Page 29! The fact that her parents were big in the movie business was something she did not know for the longest time.

Gina carefully read each alliance on the ‘New on the Just Friends List’. Jaxier and Rhea – they did make a brilliant couple but then they had a movie coming up. It was possibly a well timed ‘romance’. Rachel and Jimmy – she knew that was wrong. She knew exactly who Rachel was seeing. She had to admit though, Rachel and Jimmy looked quite spectacular together. Rachel was smiling into the camera donning a rather brilliantly put together royal blue sheath. Gina made a mental note of the designer.She would need to look him up.

But the media got it right quite often. Gerard and she had been on this list sooner than they had figured out their feelings for each other!

Her parents always looked so in love.She had seen them argue but then all marriages have those moments. Her friends at school were always cribbing about warring parents. She considered herself lucky that she had two loving parents who loved her as well as each other. But how hard could it have been for professional actors to fool a 14 year old? She had been devastated when her parents decided to split up. When she had told her friends about it, they had not been surprised. The tabloids had reported a rift before she got to know about it herself.

As she turned the page, the blood drained from her face. There was a picture of Gerard and Nina. The two had been together in drama school and had joined the movies at about the same time. Gerard was in Naples this month. And apparently so was Nina. Gina was unaware of this till now. The article went on about the weekend the two had spent in private gambling rooms. Gerard didn't even like gambling. They must have gone because of Nina. There was a speculation about Gerard missing the premiere tonight as he was otherwise occupied by Miss Nina. In a fit of anger, she threw the tabloid across the room.

She had never expected to join the movies herself, but the lure been too great for her to ignore. Today was the media premiere of her sixth movie. Time sure flew fast. 

Gina turned towards the mirror and gave herself a critical appraisal. As she went through her mental checklist, her mind was in turmoil. She had met Gerard while dubbing for an animation movie and the two had hit it off. That had been more than a year ago. Everyone thought they made a beautiful couple. She herself thought they complimented each other perfectly. She was the restless soul and he was the solid rock. Their relationship had pretty much been smooth sailing. They were planning a short vacation once her movie was released. In fact, they were supposed to meet his parents.

But what if this was true? 

She had read all the stories published about her parents. Her parents had fed her a lot of half truths about lunches, dinners and weekends spent away from her. But should she doubt what she had with Gerard because her parents had lied to her?

To be fair to Gerard, the media premiere had been re-scheduled at the last minute. He was not going to be able to make it. Even without Nina in the picture. 

She decided she would wait for his version of the story. As Savage Garden said, trust was more important than monogamy. Nina had been his friend since a while now. If they had wanted to get together, they would have by now. If Gerard had moved on, then he better tell her himself. Till then, she was going to be happy and deliriously drunk on love. If things were to go south, they would and she would deal with it.

Breathe in, breathe out. She could hear the commotion build up outside the door of her green room. She could hear Brenda, her assistant, soul sister and confidante, all rolled into one. This movie was important for Gina and Brenda knew just how much. She closed her eyes and thought of Gerard. I wish you were here to hold my hand.

When she opened her eyes, she half imagined she was dreaming. Gerard was standing there next to a beaming Brenda. Gina was very glad she was sitting down. She half feared she would have flung herself at him if she wasn't. 

All she could see was a smiling Gerard. She did not notice the bouquet of her favorite orchids he was holding. 

Her Gerard was not in some hell hole gambling away. He was here where he belonged.