Chapter 5

Wasn’t everyone?

On subsequent nights we’d often cuddle on the sofa and watch a newly restored print of Vertigo on my DVD player. Hitchcock’s filmcreated a dreamlike, hallucinatory mood while we explored each other’s bodies. In time, this celluloid masterpiece became our movie; we watched it at least once a month, often stopping the film after Judy Barton’s transformation into Madeleine. We preferred our happy ending to Hitchcock’s darker interpretation. Alec said he would always associate our love with exhilarating falls from high towers and endless spirals swirling off to infinity.

He had a way with words.

I was busy with the TV series most weekdays so our courtship continued on weekends, normally dinners at a favorite Italian restaurant in Malibu followed by long walks on a moonlit beach. For the first time life was imitating art. I felt as if I were truly living one of my scripts. I’d met the perfect mate, and all was right with the world.