The First Assistant (31 page)

She ran off to find the piano just as Luke walked out with a glass of white wine in his hand. I hadn’t seen him since that morning in bed, and it was as if I’d been kicked in the stomach. I watched from a distance as he put his hand on the girl’s long graceful arm and whispered something in her ear. She took the glass of wine and kissed him playfully on the lips. My heart was in my throat. I wanted to scream or cry or find a sharp ob-ject and drive it into her perfect heart. Then he looked up and our eyes locked. His hand dropped from her arm and I may have been imagining

it but it looked like he took a physical step back from her. He said something and she nodded and disappeared into the house.

Luke walked in our direction and Lara grabbed the brunette by the hand.

“Let’s go find some snacks in the kitchen for the boys. I’m sure all that gambling is going to make them ravenous.” She pulled the brunette to standing. “Hi, Luke,” she said with a nod, then walked off toward the kitchen. I could hear some Chopin tinkling away in the background as Luke sat down across from me.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” he said without much emotion. “Yup. I guess so,” I said, trying to sound light and breezy.

“I wanted to call you and say it earlier today, but I was so angry with you after our last conversation, that I deleted your cell number from my phone.” He laughed at himself and shook his head. I looked at him and desperately wanted to melt into his arms. “So I couldn’t.”

“That’ll teach you,” I said pathetically. “I don’t blame you for not ever wanting to speak to me again, actually.”

“It was a moment of madness. I know you didn’t kill Charles on purpose and well ...I can understand why you did the Emanuelle thing. Really immature, but understandable.”

“I guess that’s me. Immature. Unlike Grace Kelly at the piano,” I said. I couldn’t help myself, but Luke graciously ignored me.

“Lizzie. I’m really happy for you. I mean it. And if you ever need anything, I’m always just a phone call away. Okay?” he said. “Unless you’ve deleted me, that is.” I was too terrified to look into his eyes to see if he was offering me his eternal friendship or something a bit more interesting. So I focused on my chipping nail polish and waited for him to elab-orate on his statement.

But before he could continue, a proprietary arm slid around my shoulder.

“Lizzie babes. I need you to come and be my good luck charm. I’ve just lost my first hand,” Jason said possessively. And to make his point crystal clear he gave me a lingering kiss on the neck. I glanced up nervously at Luke and caught a flash of recognition and then slight annoyance in his eyes. This was all the ammunition I needed to behave like the immature girl I was trying desperately not to be.

“Okay, baby. Luke and I were just about to come in, anyway,” I said as I turned around and planted a lingering kiss right on Jason’s lips.

“We sure were,” Luke said in a clipped tone as he stood up, just as the genetic engineer reappeared. She took his hand and he slipped his arm around her reedlike waist. “Grace, have you met Jason Blum and my friend Lizzie Miller?”

I picked up my vodka and took a gulp to calm my nerves.

“Lizzie thinks you’d be a very lucky man to marry me,” Grace said playfully. I inhaled sharply and the drink went down my windpipe. I started to cough and splutter, turning an unattractive shade of red.

“Are you okay?” Jason said as he slapped me hard on the back.

“I know the Heimlich manoeuve,” Grace said. Of course she did.

Eighteen

Hollywood is a place where a

man can get stabbed in the back while climbing a ladder.

—William Faulkner

Award season was heating up and Universal had, to my astonishment, started to include me in a few interviews to promote
Sex Addicts in Love.
Jason had mentioned to one of the publicity girls that we were dating and they decided to use it as an angle to sell the film. They put Jason and me in a room together and had us talk to whomever wanted to listen about how we’d met at the coffee shop and what I’d done to get the script into the right hands. And then how after the film had finished, we’d fallen in love. That was pushing it, but neither of us bothered to contradict them as we were buying into the fantasy as much as everyone else was. We both easily ignored the middle part where Jason had totally screwed me over and then put me on as producer only after he thought the film was going to be a total flop. But who cared about the truth? We were in Hollywood after all. Maybe it was because Jason and I were such good friends or perhaps it was because we were sleeping together, but we just bounced off each other in the most organic way. I thought I’d be terrified, but it was actually a lot of fun.

I was still flying high when I screeched at great speeds into the garage at The Agency. I wound my way down into the depth of parking hell and jumped out of my car while it was practically still moving. With all the excitement I’d been a bit distracted at the office lately. But thanks to the nomination and all the attention I was getting, Amber had backed off slightly. It seemed that all of her evil scheming had ended up working in my favor. She had gone to such lengths to exclude me from the

goings-on at the office that I found it remarkably easy now to spend most of my time these days playing Su Doku and fantasizing with friends about what famous designers might lend me a dress for the awards ceremony. Amber was now in absolute control and she was quickly learning that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The bonus was that she was so busy she didn’t have a spare moment to torment me. Whenever something needed to be done now, I just turned to Amber and said that I had no idea how to do it and I was sure she did it better, anyway. And no task she could think up seemed to bother me, I was so ebullient. I was even thrilled to do the coffee run, as it gave me some time to do notes on Jason’s latest script and potentially my next producing gig.

The elevator doors opened on the ground floor of the garage and I waved at the Josés as a handsome young actor joined me in the car. I was struggling to figure out if he was that sexy English actor from
Match Point
when a hand flew into the elevator and pushed the closing doors open. It was tall, skinny José. He looked at me gravely and a feeling of dread filled the tiny space.

“Lizzie.
Borra con el codo lo que escribe con la mano,
” he said urgently. “Your hand doesn’t know . . . Oh José, you know my Spanish sucks and you know I know your English is better than mine. What does it mean?” “The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” the cute actor with the double-barreled name, which I could never remember,

said with a rakish smile.

“Thanks,” I said, and then turned back to José. “Okay, now that I understand the words, do you mind telling me what it means?”

“Con paciencia y con mana, un elefante se comio una araña,”
José said even more urgently.

“Little strokes fell big oaks,” blue eyes translated again. I really wasn’t liking the sound of this.

“José, are you trying to tell me that something bad is going to happen to me?” I said, looking around. Just then Katherine Watson arrived be-hind José and stepped past him and into the elevator. I saw José nod and then disappear into the parking garage.

“Morning, Katherine,” I said, trying to mask my concern. She nodded at me. Did I see a pitying look in her eyes or was I just imagining it? The Josés had never been wrong before. Maybe I should just get off the elevator now and go home. I could call in sick, but for how long? I was already doing minimal work at the moment, not showing up at all seemed to be taking it a little bit too far.

And though I was an Oscar nominee, it made absolutely no difference to my empty bank account. I was spending money at the moment like it was going out of style. I’m sure my credit card company thought I had a chunk of the grosses at the rate I was charging, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I certainly wasn’t complaining. It just seemed that everyone in town thought I was minted after my nomination and somehow it was just easier to behave like I was. So whenever something arrived with the Washington Mutual logo on it—my bank— or a familiar random PO box—my credit card—I stuffed it into a drawer to deal with later. They were stacking up, and I knew that one day soon I’d have to deal or I’d end up in debtors’ prison.

So on the ride up to the top floor, I experienced a bit of a reality check. Nothing bad was allowed to happen to me for a couple of months. I needed my health, my job, and my sanity in order to get my finances in order. Once I was solvent again and had paid and recycled the bills, come what may. I decided to make a renewed effort to get along with Amber and try and be as helpful and indispensable as possible. Katherine and I stepped off the elevator at the same time and she put a hand on my arm.

“Elizabeth. Don’t lose heart, okay?” she said enigmatically. Then she smiled and walked off. I stopped in my tracks. Okay, something was go-ing very wrong and I was totally unprepared. I didn’t want to go any farther. I could see Amber’s empty desk in the distance next to mine. I glanced at my watch. It was nine-fifty-five. Amber was usually always here before me and why was Scott’s door closed? Scott was never in be-fore eleven.

I walked slowly to my desk and noticed a Coffee Bean cup sitting on Amber’s desk and her coat. I felt the cup, still hot. Then I tiptoed to Scott’s door. I heard voices and jumped back guiltily when the door suddenly flew open. Amber walked out looking all morose and tearful.

“Elizabeth, can you come in here and shut the door behind you, please?” Scott said. As I passed Amber I was sure she flashed me a quick but deadly grin.

“Sure, Scott,” I said as I walked into his office and shut the door quietly behind me.

I sat down opposite him and tried to get a good look in his eyes but he just kept looking around me at the floor, the wall, the computer.

“So, Lizzie. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this for months, but I guess I just hoped it would go away.” Scott glanced at me for a brief second and the look he gave me made my heart stop. The problem was that we’d muddled that fine line between boss and friend. And now we were about to pay the price.

“Scott, if you mean the missing papers? I can explain, you know. I burned them. I know it’s stupid, but I was addicted to Su Doku so instead of actually filing them I put them in the trash and lit them on fire.” I breathed a big sigh of relief having finally revealed my big secret.

Scott of all people had to understand, no matter what Lara said. It was lazy and I probably deserved to be fired, but he would never fire me over something that unimportant. That’s why I loved Scott. He hated to be the bad guy. But when he started to laugh, I knew things were much more dire than I’d suspected. It wasn’t a jolly “aren’t you a silly, hopeless case?” laugh. It was more of a bitter, hard “you’re shit on my shoe” laugh. “You see, Lizzie. If that were the problem I wouldn’t have to fire my wife’s best friend and the godmother of my son.” Scott said something else but the only thing I heard was the word “fire” reverberating through

my head.

“Fire?” I repeated. Scott became immediately defensive and jumped up from his desk and started to pace.

“I mean, Jesus Christ, Lizzie. If you have money problems you could have just come and talked to me,” he said passionately. How on earth did Scott know about my money problems?

“Well, Scott,” I started slowly, “I thought that my silly financial affairs would bore you. I mean, I spent a bit too much on those Christian Louboutins, but I don’t think it would really count as a problem. Yes, the Crème de la Mer set me back, but the way I look at it is that it’s a whole lot cheaper than a facelift in twenty years.” I laughed lightly.

“Lizzie, cut the shit!” Scott barked. I blinked back shocked tears. “How could you blackmail our clients, Lizzie? Sell photos to the press? It’s just so fucking low and sleazy. Do you know I’ve been on the phone

with three different stars convincing them not to press charges? Though I should probably let them. A little time in jail might straighten out that drug problem of yours.”

“What?” I said stupidly. I was just too confused to even defend my-self. Scott walked to the window and stared out at the street.

“You better fucking have a serious coke habit, Lizzie, or otherwise you’re just the most reprehensible scum of the earth I’ve ever met in my life.”

“Scott. I haven’t blackmailed anyone. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who said I did? Amber? Well let me tell you, she’s been out to get me from day one. It’s like living in a constant game of dodgeball. But I have never blackmailed anybody. Call the police. Have people press charges. Because at least then I could defend myself, for Christ’s sake. Then they’d at least have to come forward and show some evidence instead of just hurling nasty invisible arrows.” I was in a fury. Finally I was standing up for myself; it’s just a shame I hadn’t done it with Amber several months ago.

Scott picked something off his desk and threw it in my lap.

“You want evidence, Lizzie? Well, there’s all the proof I need. Explain that. But you know you can’t. You got caught,” he said. I picked up the paper. It was a copy of my bank statement.

“It’s my bank statement. But that’s not my balance,” I said, totally confused by the twenty-thousand-dollar total sum.

“Now, Lizzie, you’re going to have to do better than that,” he said. There was a knock at the door and Katherine Watson walked in. Amber was hovering at the door, listening.

“Scott, I swear to you, I have no idea where the money came from. Someone else must have made that deposit.” I looked to Katherine for support. She had just said something nice in the elevator. But she just looked at me with a punishing gaze.

“Then when this mystery money appeared in your account, Lizzie, why didn’t you mention it to anyone or call the bank? Instead, you seemed to go on a shopping spree,” Scott said. It looked so bad and everything I said seemed to get me into deeper and deeper trouble. This was incredibly serious.