Rollie Tyler looked up from his computer when the door slammed.  All he saw were two shopping bags flying across the room, not in any specific direction, just soaring past him and into the lounge.  “Hey Ange, Luce.  Have any luck?” he asked tentatively.

The blonde young woman gave her boss a look that said ‘Don’t ask’ and then proceeded to sort out the shopping bags.  Angie was trying her best not to lock Lucinda in the nearest closet; she knew that Luce was under some heavy-duty pressure so she didn’t bother the actress…yet.  ‘She had best watch her step. Luce is getting very close to the edge. I won’t be responsible for anything if she sends me over! the young woman thought.  “So, Rol, what did you do today?” she asked hoping he would lead the discussion far away from the day’s miserable search.

“Not too much. Mostly just working on the mask that’s going to be used in the movie.  I need to make sure that Rick…” once the word was out of his mouth he regretted it immediately.  ‘I’m not going to look at them, not going to look at them.  They’re going to kill me; I just know it’. he thought to himself.  But having almost no self-control when it came to his two favorite ladies, Rollie looked anyway.  Lucinda Scott was sitting on the bottom rung of his spiral staircase looking lost and tired.  Angela Ramirez looked very pissed off.  ‘Oh great, I can see it now.  I’m going to be on the wrong end of that Ramirez temper again.  Hell, maybe I can get myself out of it first’.  “Luce, don’t worry.  You always come out on top.  I haven’t seen you not do well in these situations.  In fact, remember the time Ange and I went to that party downtown, in Tribeca? You were the only one with the cool head.  You are the one that saved the day, right?  So, you can do it again.  No worries, you’ll be fine.”  During his little pep talk to the actress, Rollie had walked over to her from his desk and squatted in front of her.  He peered into her eyes so that she would see how much he believed in her and hoped she got the message.

“Yeah, you’re right.  I did do that, didn’t I?” Luce asked in between sniffles.  She turned her weary, tear stained face to him looking for comfort and some reassurance.  Once she saw his head nod in agreement, she continued, “If I can do that for the two of you in a night, I can get myself done in a month.  You’re right, this is going to be easier.  Thanks, Rollie.  You’re such a sweetheart.  I’m going to go home and plan exactly what I need and when.”  The tall brunette composed herself, then jiggled over to where Angie stood (it still amazed both Angie and Rollie that she had her ‘actress walk’ on even when she wasn’t working) gathered her things together, squeezed Angie a thanks.  Going to back to the staircase (and some more jiggling), the Aussie found himself on the end of a Ms Scott hug.  “Thanks again, Rollie.  I’ll see you two tomorrow. Ciao!” and then jiggled herself out of Tyler FX studio.

After seeing his actress friend leave in a better mood, he turned from the staircase back to his desk.  The F/X man noticed the look his partner was giving him.  “Ange, what did I do now?  I didn’t say anything to her that wasn’t true.  She did get us dressed in the costumes in one night; we were like chickens without their heads and Luce was great during it.  C’mon, she needed something that would give her some confidence, right?”  He paused as he watched the young woman move around the loft picking up her items that had scattered from her bag.  She was just moving, not saying a word to him. ‘Great, here comes the temper tantrum! I can just feel it now’ he mused.  “Why are you being so...pissy?” He had no idea where that word came from but it fit her mood and her mood was beginning to make him pissy too!

Angie Ramirez looked up at her friend.  “Why am I being so ‘pissy’, as you call it? You really want to know?  Ok, fine!”  She decided the fight would go better in her favor if she wasn’t half under the sofa looking for her hair comb that fell out of the shopping bag.  Bounding over to Rollie, she continued, “Because my dear Mr. Tyler, I am the one who spent all day with her.  I was dragged to every shoe store on this island, and then I was subjected to being put in frilly girlie dresses.  I haven’t worn a dress like that since…in fact, I have NEVER worn a dress like that.  Then she pulls me to Long Island to look at some more places. During the whole time, I hear every one of her moans and groans about the time and the weather for that day. Will it be rainy or sunny or cloudy? Will it be cold or hot or just right? I didn’t argue with her once.  Even though I had some really good reasons why I could have, but I didn’t.  And what do I get from her?! WHAT? A teeny, tiny little air-hug. That’s it!” Angie has emphasized every sentence with a stab from her index finer on her right hand into Rollie’s chest.  Her anger now had the best of her and she was letting it all go.  Everything that she had kept bottled up from the day was pouring out into her finger and then onto Rollie, who was beginning to feel the pain.

Rollie decided to back up thinking she would take the hint, but Angie needed to vent some more.  “But, you Mr. Tyler, you just say a few sentences and you get ‘sweetheart’, two Thank Yous and a better hug!  It’s not fair!!” Looking down into those very familiar eyes, Rollie didn’t see anger but hurt and some tiredness.  ‘She’s not having a temper tantrum; she’s cranky!’ he thought with some amusement.

“Aww, sweetie! You must be tired.” He tried to keep the laughter out of his voice but he knew it didn’t work when her eyes flashed blue fire. That just made him laugh out loud.  Wrapping his arms around the frazzled woman he commented, “Ange, I don’t think Luce did it on purpose.  You know her; you know what she’s like.  I love her dearly but she’s an airhead.” That got a snort from her, which let him know that she wasn’t mad at him.  “Luce is just under a lot of pressure with the movie and their deadline.  I am sure once everything is done and taken care of, she will be thanking you from here to Kingdom come. C’mon, c’mon show us a smile.  In a month this will be over, I promise. Ok?” He dropped a kiss onto the top of her head to show her that there were no hard feelings between them and that he understood her moodiness.

By now the younger woman had turned her face into Rollie’s chest.  The day’s activities had finally taken their toll on her.  Angie gave Rollie a small shrug of the shoulders and a very weak “I guess so, yeah.”  Looking up so that her blue eyes were meeting his brown eyes, Angie heaved a miserable sigh and then whined one last time, “But she made me wear a pink frilly dress, Rol!  Pink frills, Rol!  I hate pink.” The last sentence was hardly heard over the loud rumble in Rollie’s chest that Angie understood to be his laughter.
 

The next day found the members of Tyler FX working busily away on their latest movie Werewolf In New York which incidentally Lucinda and Rick were working on also.  Angie was upstairs, in Rollie’s private living quarters, trying to get some of the glue out of her hair; this was the latest battle in their ongoing War of Goop.  So far this month, Rollie was ahead by three points. ‘I’ll get that crazy Aussie yet.  There’s still three and half weeks left to the movie and enough scenes that I can even the score and even bypass him’ she told herself.  Then, with a wicked grin, she thought that since Lucinda still had a few more scenes to do, she might even be able to give Luce some payback too.  After checking her hair all over in the mirror for any more signs of goop or glue, the nod of approval was given and she headed back to the workshop.  On the way down, she heard male voices.  ‘Voices? Wait, I left Tyler by himself.  Which means one of two things: Rollie is having a conversation with his program in Blue or HE is here!’  She noticed the laughter coming after Rollie’s was not computerized or that of a dog.  Hurrying down the stairs, the worst case scenario had emerged: Leo McCarthy was in the workshop.

Rollie looked up to see his assistant coming down the stairs.  He still had on the sly grin from the battle.  He inspected the blonde closely and fairly shouted, “Hey!  You got all the glue out this time.  Way to go, Ange!  How did you do it?  Last time it took us nearly a week to get that stuff out.”  His statement was more of work curiosity than concern for her hair. The look she shot him told him loud and clear she did not want to discuss this right now.  Giving a mental shrug, he said, “Ange, look who’s here.”

“Leo.  What a surprise finding you here.” It was said in such a monotone that all she could think of was the comic, Steven Wright, who never smiles.   She knew it was a very smart arse comment to make but after having picked out glue from her hair for nearly an hour, Angie was not in the mood to be sociable.  ‘Just what I need after dealing all day yesterday with Luce!’ she thought miserably to herself as she settled in her clean room to try salvage some of the day’s work.

Leo McCarthy, of the NYPD, appeared not to notice.  But then again he wasn’t there to make niceties with Angie.  He needed Rollie Tyler…again.  “So, Rol, think you can make it?  We could really use you.  Look me and The Boys will pick you up.  You wouldn’t have to worry about the van or the truck; it would be at our expense?  So, whatta say, Pal?”  It was very evident that Leo was Irish; his gift of the gab was legendary at Midtown South.  Some of his fellow officers said that he  didn’t just kiss the Blarney Stone, he damned well inhaled!  His ‘gift’ could smooth talk anyone into just about anything, including Rollie Tyler.

“Um, yeah sure.  Why not?  Next month, right?  Ok, let me mark it down on the calendar before I forget.  Which weekend is it now?” Rollie inquired of his police detective friend.

“That would be the lovely weekend of the 12th.  Good choice I think.  From what I hear, there isn’t supposed to be a lot of rain at that time.  In fact, it’s the only nice weekend that month.”  Leo was looking at Angie strangely.  “Hey, Kiddo, you ok?  You seem to have stopped breathing? You’re sure you’re ok?  Fine.  Thanks, Rol.  I owe you big time.  Later, Ange and take care of that breathing thing.” and with that Detective Leo McCarthy sailed out of 256 Brewery Lane.

“ROLLIE TYLER, JUST WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!?” There was nothing Rollie feared more than Angela Ramirez on a rampage.  “Can you please explain yourself?  Do you have any clue what you just did?  Huh?  Do you?”  Her face was red from anger and Rollie wasn’t sure if he wanted to answer her now or later.

‘Might as well get it over now.  She’ll just keep on me till she gets her answer.’ The tall man moved from the smaller woman to the sofa in the lounge to get comfortable.  “Look, I don’t have to explain myself to you or to anyone.  I am going with Leo and a couple of friends fishing for a weekend.  What’s the big deal?  It’s one lousy weekend of the month.  So what?”  By now, he was furious himself.  He didn’t like the fact that he had to explain to her of all people his personal life.  ‘If she wants to have an attitude war, I’ll give her one’

“Oh, no big deal? Just some lousy weekend?  Rollie, did you look at the calendar and see anything?”  The blonde went over to the refrigerator and grabbed the calendar from there.  Next she moved to his desk and grabbed his organizer.  Fully armed with both date keepers she pressed on, “Do you now see a difference in that weekend?  Look hard, really hard.”  She shoved both items at her boss and waited for him to be hit with the bolt of lightning that was due him

Rollie grabbed the items in the same manner that they were handed to him and began scanning them for any differences that he might not have noticed.  “Ok, Wednesday on both has the meeting with Jack in Production.  Then Thursday we have an early shoot.  Ok, yeah?  I still don’t see what’s the problem with me going off for the weekend with Leo.  Ange, I really…”

But the man got no further because she pointed her finger to Friday night with an emphatic, “SEE!”

Rollie looked at the date with a grimace.  “Oh.” was all he said.  Swallowing more than just air, he asked Angie, “Is it that weekend?  I thought it was the following.”  He looked at her hoping she was wrong or she was playing a joke, but judging by the look she had plastered to her face Rollie knew that he had screwed up.  Royally screwed up this time, it seems!

“So, what you are going to do now, Mr. Brainac?  I mean, you can’t very well leave in the middle of Lucinda’s wedding just to go fishing.  You wouldn’t, would you?  Tyler, if you do that to me, to Luce, to Rick I will make you sure will never, ever fish again!”  Rollie had no doubt that she would do it too; Angie didn’t make idle threats, just full-fledged promises.
 

“Angie, I would never do that to them.  I’ve known Rick almost as long as I have known you.  No, there is no way I would do that to them.  Look, Leo said that he and the others would pick me up, so I can ask them to get me at the reception.”

“And what about me?  How am I supposed to get home from Long Island?  Remember that I am going to be with Lucinda from like 6am at her apartment then over to the hall by limo.  I have no way home!!  You were supposed to be my ride, remember? Rol, don’t make this into another problem, please?”  The blonde was now wringing her hands, her blue eyes filling up with tears for her friends.

Rollie jumped up from the sofa and hugged Angie before moving on back to his desk.  With a puzzled look on her face, she followed her boss to the other side of the workshop.  “What?  What are you thinking about now?  I hate it when you get the look on your face.  Rollie, please, please don’t come up with any crazy wacky schemes.  This is their wedding day.  Promise me, Rol, that you aren’t going to do anything stupid.  Ok, nothing stupid?” she begged.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders and giving her a soft squeeze, he countered, “Ange, don’t worry.  I mean there’s only what, like a month left to the wedding.  What could possibly go wrong?
 

“I can’t believe we’re here.  I can’t believe it’s today.  I can’t believe we’re here today.  This makes absolutely no sense.  No sense whatsoever.”  Rollie kept looking at Angie while she mumbled.  He knew that the day and the place were special to her, but not together.  They were waiting outside their car for Lucinda.  He had decided that it would be easier this way.

“Ange, you ok?” He knew it sounded stupid the moment he said it but there was nothing else to say.  It was just so…difficult being here.  With them.  Taking a deep breath he asked her, “Want to take a walk?  C’mon, let’s go visit Manny. Ok?”  He took her by the hand and walked towards the row of headstones on their left.  Angie gave him a slight nod and with one last look at Lucinda, let Rollie take her from the spot.
 

“Hey, Baby.  I’m here.  I told you I would come.  I know, you thought I would forget, but here I am.  Oh, I brought you your favorite.  Daisies!!  It was hell to get them, especially at this time of year.  Rollie helped me; you know he has to help everyone.  But this time, he came in handy.”  Lucinda Scott knelt by the headstone to rearrange the flowers in a more appropriate way.  “There, that looks so much better.  I wish you could see how pretty they look.  I wish…you were still here with me, Rick.  I miss you so much, Baby.”

The actress forgot about her cashmere coat, leather gloves and plopped her butt on the ground next to Rick Forsythe’s grave.  Tears, which came from nowhere, ran a hot trail down her face off the chin and onto the flowers.  “I can’t believe that it was only 2 weeks.  We had two more lousy weeks before our wedding.  Two weeks, seven hours and 45 minutes till the day we would have spent forever together.  Two weeks and then that stupid accident, with fire and explosions, and you dying….” her voice broke on that last word.  Even though it was nearly a year since her fiancée died, Lucinda Scott still couldn’t say ‘died’ and ‘Rick Forsythe’ in the same sentence.

Taking a cleansing breath and wiping her tears away, she continued talking to Rick.  “Ok, no more tears.  I know that you hated them.  So, no more.  I remember the song you sang to me the day you proposed: “Light My Fire.”  I know that I giggled when you sang it to me, but believe me it was the best song I have ever heard in my life.  You weren’t one of those romantics that gave flowers and candy, although at times they would have been nice too, but you were honest with me.  I will always remember that.  Baby, you were the best.  I mean that in every way possible.”

Standing up and brushing off the dirt from her coat, Lucinda said,  “Ok, I have to go now.  Rollie and Angie are here; I think they are visiting Manny.  Might as well say hi to him for them, they really don’t deal with these types of things, you know.  We were the strong ones, really.  They were too busy with all that goop F/X stuff and cop work.  Yeah, well, I can see them coming back this way.  They are taking me to the airport; gotta catch my flight to LA.  I finally landed a great part in this great movie.  I know it is going to be huge, really huge.  Wish me luck, Baby.  And don’t worry, I will be here next year and every year after that.  I could never spend Valentine’s Day without you.  I mean you proposed to me on this day, you sang to me.  This is our day.  Take care, Baby.  I love you, Rich Forsythe.”

With one last hand blown kiss to the headstone, Lucinda Scott headed to where her friends were waiting for her.  They all got piled into the car for the airport.  The plane would take her away from New York City, away from her pain but never away from Rick.  She would come back year after year to spend it with her good friends to reminisce about her one and only true love on the most important day of the year for her: St. Valentine’s Day.