Legends

The Girl of Another Name - Part 3

It didn't feel right. I adored being with her, but it didn't feel right.

I sat there in Robert's living room, thinking about a couple nights ago when Barbara and I let loose all the emotions we were bottling up around each other. It was as if we both were a full glass, and someone tipped us both over, spilling everything.

My head was spinning, and it was giving me a headache.

Robert came into the room as I was staring at the gold clock on the wall, watching the time. We had to be at the set in an hour. And yes, that meant it was about six in the morning. I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about me and Barbara and my huge secret that only Robert knew.

"You're up and already ready?" he asked as he came into the room, fastening his tie. "You must've been up around five."

"I've been up since around three," I told him, realizing that my headache was partly there because I got around four hours of sleep. "My mind just wouldn't leave me alone."

"Because of Barbara, huh?"

He sat down in the armchair and gave me a sympathetic look. He was a good sport about this whole situation, considering that he was nuts about Barbara, too. "Yeah, among other things. Well, it's those other things that are botherin' me the most. I need to tell 'er the truth like I told you the first day I was here. You believed me in a heartbeat."

"Maybe five," he joked. "I thought you were crazy at first, but my keen sense in figuring out if people are lying told me that you were telling the truth."

"I don't know if Barbara has such a sense. She'll think I'm crazy, and... really, Robert, I can't be involved with 'er. I know 'er in my time when she's in her fifties! She's old enough to be my momma."

And Robert could possibly be her future husband.

"I say you just tell her it all and get it over with. It's best to tell her now just so the blow isn't so hard, say, a year from now? If you're here that long. You know what I'm saying?"

Did I want to be here for a year or longer? What if I never went home? What if I was stuck here, and there would be no more Elvis Presley in the future? "Ah, man..." I moaned, feeling a bit sick to my stomach.

"Wow, you suddenly turned green. How about I go and tell them you can't show up today?"

I shook my head. "No, I'll go. Let's just get goin' now. I know it's a tad early, but I wanna find Barbara and tell 'er before any more time passes. She told me yesterday that she'd be in early this mornin'."

Yesterday when we had a date at that club she wanted to go to, and we shared another steamy kiss at the end of it. Her hazel eyes had glittered in the lamp light of the street, and her smooth skin shimmered. I wanted to tell her my secret then, but I just couldn't help but be distracted by her beauty. I had to kiss her right then and there, like an impulse. She went to her apartment after that to relieve the nanny.

Robert and I left for the MGM studio, and when we got there, it was all a bustle, even at 6:30 in the morning. Robert went off and did his own thing, and I went straight for Barbara's dressing room. I heard humming in there. My heart dropped. She was in a good mood. Well, that good mood may be nonexistent in a few minutes. I knocked, and she opened the door...

"Holy mother of God..." I let out as an instant reaction to her. She had her makeup done, but her light-brown wavy hair was going down to nearly her elbows, and she wore a shimmery beige dress, almost the color of her own skin.

She giggled. "Good morning to you, too, Elvis."

I gave myself a mental shake. "I apologize. You just look... wow."