| The Search Is Over By Ladybug |
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| Disclaimer: This story is fictional. All characters, including Tony, though he is protrayed by Oded is mine, mine, mine! **sigh** It's as close as I'll ever get to owning the man! lol The picture above is taken from Brntwd magazine and I borrowed it from OdedNotes. Special thanks to Arriall!! This story is also dedicated to Iceshiva16 for inspiring me with her wonderful short story "Best Friends" to go ahead and write this. Personally, I think hers is better. lol This story is rated R for sexual content __________________________________________________ |
| Chapter 1 What do you do when your best friend is a guy and you suddenly discover one day that you are in love with him? I have known Anthony Tusse my entire life. We grew up together. We lived next door to each other. He used to sneak into my room at night through my bedroom window and we would lie on my bed and we’d talk for hours then fall asleep. He’d sneak back out at dawn, our parents none the wiser. We both had other friends. He had his guy friends and I had my girl friends, but if he had problems with a girlfriend or troubles at home, etc., he came to me and I did the same. We were best friends; there wasn’t anything that we didn’t share with each other. In fact the only thing we didn’t do together was have sex, but he certainly shared his experiences with me and I shared mine with him. It was, I guess, an unusual friendship, but it worked for us. Tony was always the dreamer, living life to the fullest. He discovered acting in college when we both took a drama class together. He excelled in it and the teacher told him he had great potential. Tony was hooked and he moved to Hollywood to get his start. But it was slow going at first. He started out with small parts, but he kept pushing and trying. He called me one day and begged me to move out there with him. He needed a roommate to share the rent and he wanted someone he trusted and not just some stranger. I figured I could finish collage at UCLA just as easy, so after the semester was over I transferred. I hadn’t seen him in almost a year and I was stunned at the changes. He had cut his shoulder length hair. Tony had this thick, dark curly hair that the girls had always gone wild over during high school and into college. He was never short a girlfriend and I had sometimes wondered if he would ever settle down. So he had cut his hair really short and I couldn’t believe at the gray I saw at his temples. I remembered though that his dad had grayed early and I decided it looked good on him. He also sported a goatee, which I thought looked really good on him. He was really a good looking guy and I remembered thinking at that time how I could have not noticed something like that growing up with him. It wasn’t until a little while later that my feelings of friendship began to shift into something more, but I believe the seed was planted the day I arrived at his apartment. The day I arrived in Hollywood, it was hot. Summer was in full swing and I had driven all the way from Chicago. All my stuff was packed in the U-Hall attached to the back of my truck and after driving around for a while not wanting to admit I might be lost, I finally found his apartment complex. I was getting excited to see him. I hadn’t seen my best friend since he’d left the year before. We’d stayed in touch by letter or by phone calls, but that was it. I knocked on the door and he answered wearing only a raggedy pair of cut-off’s and a big smile. “Tessa!” he grinned and grabbed me up for a big bear hug. I shrieked and wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as he spun us around happily. He sat me back on my feet and planted a hard kiss against my lips then stepped back to take a look at me. “Damn Roo, you look good! I’m so glad you’re finally here!” Now Tony hadn’t called me “Roo” in ages. It was a nickname he’d given me when we were kids because my favorite Winnie The Pooh character had been the baby Kangaroo named Roo. I would learn later that his reverting back to calling me by that nickname was his way of dealing with his own attraction to me. By calling me “Roo” it reminded him that we were just friends and he could put any other feelings he might be developing for me in a box and stick it in the closet. “Oh my god, Tony! Why didn’t you tell me you cut your hair?” He just grinned at me and reached up to push his fingers through it. “I wanted to surprise you. You like it? I just did it the other day and I’m still not used to it.” “No, it’s great. It looks great.” I walked around him to get a good look at it and was pleasantly surprised that I did indeed like it. I had loved Tony’s long hair, but I found I equally liked the short too. I was also disturbingly noticing his well-muscled bare chest. I had to work at not staring. “I decided to cut it at my agent’s urging. He said I’m starting to get typecast and need to change my look if I’m going to get a variety of different roles.” “Good idea,” I answered. “Glad to hear you are finally starting to follow orders!” He growled playfully at me and reached over, wrapped the length of my ponytail around his hand and tugged. That was another childhood act he had developed when we were kids. I shrieked again, laughing, and he pulled me close for another hug. “Ahem.” Both Tony and I turned at the sound, and I noticed for the first time the blonde woman sitting on the couch. I tried to step back, but Tony wouldn’t release me. “Tony, you lug, why didn’t you tell me you had company?” Tony leaned close until his lips were against my ear. “She is my Barbi doll,” he whispered then he released me and stepped back. I snorted, then went into a coughing fit trying to cover up my laughter. The woman stood up and looked none too happy, but Tony was right, she resembled a Barbi doll. Perfect white blonde hair fell around her shoulders, perfect smooth creamy white skin. She was tall and slender with perfect curves and large breasts. I would have to say that the only thing that wasn’t fake on that woman were her blue eyes and even those could have been contacts. “Tessa Graves, this is Sandra Mason. Sandra this is my best friend in the whole world, Tessa.” He said it proudly and wrapped an arm around my shoulder to emphasize it. I fought to keep a straight face. I reached out my hand to shake Sandra’s and noticed her nails were fake too. I began to wonder if I parked her outside in the hot sun if she would eventually melt. “Nice to meet you, Sandra.” Her hand was limp in mine. God, I hate it when people give that limp handshake. “Likewise, I’m sure.” Jeez, even her voice sounded staged. Where in the world had Tony picked up this one? Sandra then turned to Tony. “You didn’t mention that you were expecting company, Anthony. Will she be staying long?” Anthony?? Good lord, nobody called him Anthony except his mom! Then it occurred to me that Tony had not told Sandra I was coming and I suspected he hadn’t told her I was moving in either. “Oh shit,” I muttered under my breath. I felt his arm tighten around my shoulder. “Tessa is not visiting, Sandra, she is moving in. She’s taking over that extra room.” He said it so matter-of-factly that it was a moment before Sandra reacted. Then her face turned red. A perfect shade of red, I might add. “She’s what?” Sandra exploded. “I won’t allow it! There is no way in hell I’m going to allow another woman to live here with you!” Well, that was the wrong thing to say. Tony does not like to be told what he can and cannot do. He especially does not like it when the woman he is dating gets possessive. It’s usually a sign that it’s time to part ways. Occasionally he allows me to tell him what to do, but even then he does it grudgingly. I watched as Tony’s face hardened, his dark eyes narrowed in stubborn anger and let me say, Tony is a sight to behold when he’s angry. He has such an expressive face and his eyes are a mirror to his soul. Normally he is so easy going. Not much ruffles his feathers, but when they do get ruffled, Lord have mercy! “I don’t see that you have any say in the matter, Sandra,” he growled softly. I knew that tone and I knew that if Sandra didn’t back off, she was history. “Umm, Tony? I think I might go wait outside.” I started to back up towards the door. Tony’s head snapped around and he froze me with a dagger look. He reached out and grabbed my hand and pulled me to his side. “You aren’t going anywhere, this is your home too, damn it.” “I will not put up with her living here, Anthony!” Sandra whined. “Just because I’m fucking you, doesn’t give you the right to tell me who I can and cannot have as a roommate!” God, he could be so crude! I heard Sandra gasp and her hand flew to her mouth in shock at Tony’s crude remark. “I see.” I could see tears forming in her eyes as she pushed past us. She grabbed her purse off the kitchen table. “Goodbye, Anthony.” And she was out the door. I jerked my hand out of his. “You creep!” I snapped. I couldn’t believe he’d been so hateful. “What?” he asked in surprise. “You go apologize to her right now, Tony, or so help me I’ll get back in my truck right now and head back to Chicago!” “Tess, I’m not going to let her tell me what to do!” He was shocked at my reaction. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about that crude remark you made about fucking her! That was down right mean, Tony, and it hurt her feelings. Now you go apologize right now or I’m leaving!” I lifted my hand and pointed towards the door to emphasis my command. “Christ!” he snapped and walked out to catch up with Sandra. I wandered over to the balcony and discovered it faced the parking lot. I saw Sandra unlocking her car door and swiping at her face. Tony came up behind her and I saw her spin around. They talked for a few minutes, then Tony pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She pulled away after a moment and climbed into her car and drove away. I was too far away to hear what was said between them, but I saw enough that something was settled between them. When Tony entered the apartment I was still standing on the balcony. He came up behind me. “Happy now?” “Don’t be an ass, Tony. She didn’t deserve that.” I heard him sigh and I turned to face him. He had a look of regret on his face. “You’re right, she didn’t. I didn’t realize my comment had hurt her so bad until I got down there and she was crying.” “So what happened? Are you two still together?” He shrugged his shoulders. “We will see. I apologized for the comment, but told her that you were moving in, period. She had no say in the matter. If she couldn’t deal with it, then we would part ways now. She said she would think about it and call me later.” “Did you explain to her that we are just friends and that there is nothing physical between us?” I asked. Tony moved up next to me. “Yeah, yeah. It’s not a big deal, Tess. It’s no skin off my nose if she walks away.” I wrinkled my nose up at him. “Yeah, I could tell.” He grinned down at me. He leaned over and pressed his forehead to mine until our noses touched. “God Roo, I’m so glad you are here! I’ve missed you something fierce!” I smiled. “Good, I’ll remind you of that while you are unloading the U-hall and you start complaining about all the stuff I brought.” His grin turned into a full-blown smile and he laughed a deep throaty laugh. I felt a strange fluttering in my stomach, but ignored it. “Did you bring everything but the kitchen sink?” he asked, straightening up to his full height. “Well, I almost brought that too, but I figured you already had one.” He laughed again as he turned away and headed back into the apartment. “Well, come on and lets get it all inside.” I followed him out to the parking lot and we started to unload all my stuff. |
| The Search Is Over - Chapter 2 |