(It begins after Lucky has shown Liz the scratch on the guitar.)

“I still like how you look close up,” Lucky says. Liz smiles sweetly. She knows what he wants, but she’s unsure of herself.
“Oh, you’re not really that close up. Up close I’m a big ol’ mess,” she says. Lucky leans in a little closer.
“Nope. Still enjoyable.” Liz leans closer still.
“How about now?” she asks. Lucky inches in and whispers, “What’s not to love?”

Liz’s smile begins to fade as she realizes that she is ready to repeat what happened at the boxcar. She inches in until their noses almost touch and begins to close her eyes. As she does, Lucky says suddenly, “Oh, wait! You’re right!” Liz is confused.
“What?”
“Well, I thought you were perfect, but there’s this little freckle…right…here!” He touches the tip of her nose with his finger. Liz jumps up and shouts, “Lucky!”

She whirls around to go back into Kelly’s, and Lucky laughs as he lunges to grab her hand. “No, no, wait! Elizabeth! Come on! I was just kidding!” Liz turns around, and Lucky is still holding her hand and smiling. “I’m sorry. Come here my freckled beauty.” Liz walks a little closer to Lucky, and she tries to pout…but she can’t help but smile a little. Looking down, she sulks and says, “Freckles give people character.”
“Yes, they do,” Lucky says in mock seriousness. He pulls her closer.
“I like my freckles,” she pouts.
“I love your freckles,” Lucky says quietly.

He pulls her in much more closely, and he uses his free hand to lift her chin so that they are eye to eye. He sweetly kisses the very tip of her nose, right on the freckle, and then stares into her eyes, their foreheads touching. Slowly they kiss, still sweetly, but more intensely than at the boxcar. Liz’s hand tightens on Lucky’s. Ruby sticks her head out the door and fusses, “Hey, you two lovebirds! I’m trying to get people to eat their lunches here, not lose them! Knock it off!” Liz and Lucky barely notice Ruby, but they pull away, smiling.

“I knew you couldn’t go a day without getting me in trouble,” Liz tells him.
“Well you’d better get used to it, because I’m not going anywhere,” Lucky says. As Liz walks away to go back inside, Lucky holds her hand until he can’t reach her anymore.
“I wouldn’t want you to,” she says sweetly, smiling at him. Liz goes inside Kelly’s, and Lucky walks up to the window to watch her. He sighs, smiling and shaking his head.

[TOP] [Dentonj]

Lucky and Nik are waiting in the lobby of the hotel for the girls. They look around the hotel uncomfortably, just wishing the girls would show up soon. Nik asks no one in particular, “How long can it possibly take to get ready?” Lucky responds, “Obviously you have no clue about women. I’ve waited for my mom and Lulu and Liz so many times that this is second nature to me.” Nikolas begins to get indignant. “No, I guess I wouldn’t know, since our mother chose to raise you and not me,” he says. “I didn’t have the luxury of getting to wait for her. You have no idea how much you take for granted.” Lucky has a look of disgust on his face. He has his left hand in his pocket, and he puts his right hand to his forehead to begin to massage it. “Can we not do this now?” he asks. “As much as I enjoy your princely pontificating about your deprived childhood, I’d like to avoid any confrontations tonight. Elizabeth is nervous enough as it is. She doesn’t need to worry about my being charged for murder on top of everything else.”

Just as Nikolas begins to respond, his eyes turn from Lucky to the elevators. Lucky turns to see what has his attention. Emily steps out of the elevator and says, “Isn’t she a knockout?” As Emily walks towards Nikolas, the camera turns to Lucky, whose eyes have widened. He is frozen in position, with his hand still to his forehead. We see Emily and Nikolas smiling. “You do look great, Elizabeth,” says Nikolas. “And so do you Emily.” We see Lucky once more, his eyes slowly dropping lower. The camera shows Elizabeth’s feet as she is walking out of the elevator. She is wearing strappy silver heels. The camera pans up to show her legs, and as it moves farther up, we see she is wearing a straight and very short ice blue skirt. Her midriff is bare, and the top she is wearing is a matching ice blue halter top with spaghetti straps. Liz’ hair is swept up, and she has small flowers in her hair. Liz is self-consciously patting at her hair and covering her stomach.

“Stop fidgeting! You’re gorgeous!” assures Emily. Liz smiles in thanks, but it is obvious that she is waiting for a reaction from Lucky. Lucky, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide, and his hand still stuck to his forehead, doesn’t seem to be able to move. Suddenly he says, “I’ll be right back.” He takes off, and Elizabeth’s face falls. “Is he all right?” she asks. “I think he’s fine,” Nik says. Liz is still confused. She starts to follow him, saying, “I’m going to see what’s…” “No!” Nikolas interrupts, holding up his hand. “I’ll . . . I’ll check on him.” Emily goes to Elizabeth and rearranges some of the curls around Liz’s face as she looks worriedly in the direction Lucky went.

Lucky is leaning over a water fountain, splashing water on his face. Nik leans over behind him, starting to reach out to touch his back. “Are you all right?” Lucky reaches back to bat away Nik’s arm. “Don’t touch me, man!” “I wasn’t going to touch…Elizabeth was worried about you, so I told her I’d make sure you were O.K. I see that you’re O.K., so I’ve done my duty. See ya.” Nikolas starts to walk off, and Lucky says quietly, “Wait.” Nikolas turns reluctantly. “Did I just make a complete idiot of myself?” Lucky asks. “You’re asking me if you’re an idiot?” Nik smirks. “You may want a second opinion on this one.” Lucky ignores the insult. He’s lost in his own thoughts. “I just couldn’t…I mean, she looked so… I… I don’t want to hurt her. I’m so afraid of hurting her.” Nikolas rolls his eyes. “Lucky, even I know that you would never hurt her. In fact, I think you hurt her more by taking off than by doing anything else. I’m going to go back and check on the ladies.” A look of realization comes over Lucky’s face, as he understands that Nikolas is right. He runs his hands over his face and through his hair, straightens his jacket, takes a deep breath, and heads back out to the lobby.

Nikolas has already reached Emily and Liz. He puts his arm around Emily’s waist and says, “I’m going to go get the car. Are you coming with me, or are you going to wait here?” Emily obviously wants to go with Nik, but she feels sorry for Liz. She looks to her, unsure, and says, “Um, I’ll just wait here with Liz.” “No! You two go! I’ll be fine. I’m sure Lucky will be back soon,” Liz assures her. “Are you positive?” Emily asks. Liz motions for them to leave. “Yes! Go! Get out of here!” “I’ll have the car right outside,” Nik says. Emily and Nik turn to leave. As Emily turns away, she mouths the words, “Thank you.” Before Emily reaches the door, she turns back and shouts, “You do look great!” Liz gives her a courteous smile.

Lucky walks up behind Liz and tentatively puts a hand on her shoulder. Liz turns to see who it is and stops smiling. “Hi,” Lucky says. “Hello,” she says politely. “Sorry I bolted before,” Lucky says. “Are you sick?” Liz questions, searching for an answer. “Well, not exactly.” “Am I that revolting? I mean, I told Emily it was too much eye make-up, but she said this is how everybody on the runways is wearing it these days.” “No! You could never be revolting! How could you even think…I… I just got a little woozy. I needed some air. I needed to cool off a little.” Liz still doesn’t look so sure. “You just happened to get sick when I walked off the elevator,” she pushes. Lucky smiles a little. “I happened to get light-headed when you walked off the elevator. It wasn’t because you’re revolting. I think it was the exact opposite.”

Liz smiles slightly, almost against her will. “You certainly aren’t revolting tonight,” she says. She reaches up to fix his hair. “You look very nice.” Her hand moves over his hair to the back of his head, over his shoulder, and to his chest, where it stays. Lucky stares right into her eyes. He looks as if he can barely breathe. He laughs quietly and says, “It’s not exactly nice of me to say, ‘Hey, you’re not too revolting!’ is it?” He pauses for a moment and becomes serious. “The truth is, every time I see you, I think that you couldn’t possibly look more beautiful. And you always prove me wrong the very next time I see you.” By now he is has his hand over hers on his chest. Liz smiles and says, “I would love to kiss you right now, but it would mess up my lipstick.” “Did I say beautiful?” Lucky says. “I meant beautiful, except for the lipstick. Yeah, there’s way too much. That stuff’s just gotta go!” Lucky is waving his arms in front of him as if to say, “No more!” Liz shakes her head and laughs and grabs his hands in mid-gesture. Lucky is silent again. Liz sweetly holds his hands and turns them so that she can carefully kiss each one without messing up her lipstick. “We’d better go,” she says. “Nikolas and Em are waiting outside.” “Who?” Lucky asks, grinning. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can take off this make-up…lipstick,” Liz emphasizes. Lucky’s eyebrows rise in expectation. “Are we going to stand here all night? Let’s go!” They smile at each other and turn to walk out of the hotel, holding hands.

[TOP] [MIAs]