The Movie (14 page)

‘No, it’s fine,’ she said, taking the dishcloth from him.

Jenkins grunted. ‘Yeah, well, you better make it snappy. We got another six in five minutes ago.’

‘OK.”She’d be Zen about this, take the path of least resistance, Megan told herself as she sank her arms in the washing-up, right up to the elbows. It was lukewarm and viscous, almost made her want to gag. That was the way the guys handled things in Frisco.

‘Are you all right?’ Stacey said. ‘You look real upset.’ Tm fine,’ Megan said, but she couldn’t keep it up, and the tears started to roll down her cheeks, big, splashy tears that pooled at the end of her nose and dripped into slimy water.

‘Hey, don’t let it get to you,’ Stacey whispered, squeezing her arm. ‘It’s the weekend tomorrow.’

Which meant it had been three whole days since that SKI agent had taken her screenplay. Which meant he hadn’t liked it. And God, that story could have been written with Zach Mason specifically in mind. If it wasn’t good enough for his project at Artemis, it certainly wasn’t good enough for anyone else. She was also absolutely sure that See the Lights was the best she could do.

Time to face reality. She wasn’t good enough.

lO7

‘Yeah, I know,’ Megan sobbed, not wanting to discuss it. She searched for a reason Stacey would understand. ‘I was thinking about my ex-boyfiiend.’

‘I understand,’ Stacey said gravely, patting her sympathetically.

Miserably she started to wash up the dirty dishes as fast as she could, grateful to have some work to do, but she just couldn’t keep her mind off it. It was so viciously heartbreaking to want something so hard, wait for it so long, and then fail so completely. And what made it even worse was that finally she had had that shred of hope. The way the young agent had taken her screenplay - the older guy, the literary guy who should have been in charge, he’d been ready to hit him, but that hadn’t stopped him from

, taking her script. It was as though she’d eventually stumbled across an ally. And he was so hot-looking, and he’d given her that sexy once-over that made her feel so wet and squirmy, so that when she pulled up outside the apartment she’d felt more alive, more bright with hope than she’d done in years. Like she was on a threshold. And ttat night, a hot, sticky night, she hadn’t been able to sleep, just lay on her bed with her eyes open listening to the cars and the gangbangers streaming past in the street, until finally she started to touch herself, thinking about that agent - somebody Tauber, the other guy had called him thinking about his muscles and his eyes and his tan and his walk, what that silky hazel hair would feel like brushing between her thighs, until she’d had a gentle climax, orgasm running sweetly over her like ripples across a pool, and slept at last.

The phone had rung on and offall that week, sometimes for her. Calls from the caft, even a call from Dec up in Frisco. But as Wednesday became Thursday, and Thursday became Friday, the lling of the phone turned from hopeful music into sadistic mockery. There were a lot of calls for Megan, but not one of them from SKI. Today was

Friday, Friday afternoon to be exact, and Megan Silver had learnt enough about the movie business to know that if they don’t call you quickly, they don’t call at all.

She shook her head, aware that Stacey was sill] gazing at her sympathetically.

‘You must miss him like crazy, Megan. I’ve never seen you this upset.’

‘I’ll get over it.’

Stacey wasn’t convinced. ‘If you want to go home, yon can always just go, honey. You don’t have to stay here. I know you wanted to try out with your script, but…’ Her southern twang trailed off, embarrassed. ‘Well, you know how you hate the place…’

Megan glanced down at the greasy washing-up. ‘It’s not exactly Shangri-la.’

‘Kids come here all the time and try out. Mostly it doesn’t vCtrk, an’ I seen a bunch of them slip into really bad stuff. You might be better off going home. You worked for the library, right? Maybe you could get a mortgage, get a house.’ She shrugged. ‘Gotta be better than this.’

Somehow Megan just didn’t want to hear it from somebody else, especially not somebody as pretty and as stupid as Stacey. It sounded so true. Jesus, it was true. But is that all there is to life for me, truly? she wondered. A detached bungalow, a mortgage, a comfortable, passionless marriage? Was that, in real life, the highest goal, was that as high as she should set her sights? And just pray God that at least she’d feel something when the kids came along?

‘It worked for Jeanne,’ Megan said.defiantly. ‘She got a part just last week. Second lead in an art movie by a guy called Kay Tyson.’

For a second Staceyjust gaped at her, and then looked swiftly down, obviously trying to stifle a laugh. ‘Christ, honey, you have to be kidding. Everyone knows P, ay Tyson around here. He bugged me for weeks when I first started this job. The guy shoots, you know, dirty movies.

lO9

Sells videotapes direct to the sex stores, gets a flick screened in a porno house from time to time.’

‘Everybody knows this?’ Megan repeated weakly, feeling sick. ‘Jeanne knew?’

‘Sure. She must have done. He’s a dirty old man, sixty maybe. Not even in the Guild. He pays a good rate, that’s what they told me before.’ Stacey wrinkled her perfect little nose. Td never be that desperate. And I know you never would either, but this place ain’t good for you. You got a college degree, you need a real job.’

‘You work here,’ said Megan, stubbornly.

Stacey gave her a long, cool stare, and then said, not unkindly, ‘But honey, you’re twenty-four. I’m still in high school.’

‘ ‘What are you two gabbing about?’ Mr Jenkins snarled, passing them. ‘Stacey, they need two pitchers on seven. Megan, Jesus. Get a move on, willya? I told you we need this done, and that means now, not some time before you die:’ He jabbed her back with a bony elbow, watching until she picked up the scourer and began to attack the pl:tes, the slimy water splashing across her bare forearms. Mr Chicken didn’t bother with mundane luxuries like washing-up gloves.

Two more hours, Megan thought, bowing her head so Jenkins wouldn’t see her reddened eyes. Two more hours before I get paid for the week. And that’s it. It’ll be enough for a bus ticket back to Frisco, and I’m gonna be on the first one tomorrow morning.

She was ashamed at how swiftly she’d given in, turned into the quitter she swore she’d never become. She’d been so certain that she was destined for a real adventure in life, something better than Dec and Trey and Francine. So sure that there had to be something out there for her, something bigger and better than listing textbooks at the San Francisco Public Library and talking about beat poets over coffee.

Well, how wrong she’d been.

No

‘Take a look at this.’

Sam Kendrick flung the paper across to Mike Campbell with a snort. It landed on the polished marble coffee table with a heap of other papers and magazines, all of them adorned with pictures ofloxana Felix. Smiling, pouting, winking. Standing up, sitting regally on a chair in the Polo Lounge, walking into Le Dome, lying curled on the beach like the proverbial sex kitten. In each and every shot she looked utterly stunning, endless legs stretching on forever, raven hair glistening halfway down her back, pale skin freshened with luminous blusher. The clothes were always impeccable, from the silk T-shirt she’d worn at the airport to the black cashmere blazer that had starred at her dinner at Morton’s, the first evening in town. Looking at the mountain of press, you’d imagine that Poxana was on some mission to check out, and be snapped at, every star hangout in LA, from Twin Palms to the Viper Poom, the tkoxbury to House of Blues.

‘Yeah,’ Mike said, attempting to frown but unable to drag his gaze from one shot oflkoxana in a copper silk dress which showed her full nipples dearly outlined under the delicate fabric. ‘I gotta say I’ve never seen anything like it.’

‘Three days! That’s all she’s been here, three days. She’s trying to snow me.’

Sam was seriously pissed-off.

‘It’s not just the papers, either. She’s on every radio show, every local TV station, Entertainment Tonight, did a guest slot on MTV at the Movies just yesterday,’ Campbell agreed hastily. If Sam was pissed with Poxana then so was he, no matter how much of a world-class babe she was. ‘I guess she’s trying to force us into pushing her, going flat out for her. If we don’t get her something good after all this-‘ He gestured at the copy of LA Weekly Sam had

III

thrown him, which had PUTTING HER FAITH IN SKI written in large black type under loxana’s picture.

‘Yeah. Thanks, Sherlock,’ Sam said sourly.

MTV at the Movies? Damn, the woman was better than he thought. She was running this campaign more precisely than most politicians. Of course, most politicians had a harder time getting coverage than tkoxana Felix. But still! This was crazy. Surely the media would have tired of her by now, or at least kept her off the cover pages and the prime gossip slots. Her arrival in town was news, but aider that? You’d think this broad was the Queen of England, the way they were fawning over her every move. They put her on the cover when she blew her little retrouss6 nose.

Sam Kendrick had been around the block a few times,

, and something about this frenzy smelt odd. To be exact, it smelt of friends in high places. Very high places. And Sam hated the idea of any shadowy puppet master trying to yank his strings.

Still, he had to hand it to her. She was pretty fucking determined. My God, the first night she’d arrived Sam came back home to find his wife out at an impromptu dinner with Jordan Goldman and loxana Felix! Apparently loxana and Jordan had been Catholic schoolgirls together in San Francisco and now just couldn’t wait to celebrate their joint elevation to the Baby Millionairess Club. Obviously what loxana wanted, and right on cue, according to Isabelle, Jprdan had spilled her bimboid guts about the Zach Mason project at Artemis, including the news about the script. Jordan, meanwhile, gets a new member of the Board for her chi-chi little dinners against gang violence and AIDS and a new star at the dinner table. And Isabelle, who for some reason had htely adopted Jordan Goldman as her prot6g6e on the socialscene,just sat there and invited the bitch to their next frigging party.

Normally, both Jordan and Isabelle would have cut somebody like loxana dead. He knew that. lox.ana was

II2

far too beautiful. Too much competition. But by marking herself out as an actress, she had, in that single move, eliminated herself as a danger. She would need both Tom and Sam in her attempt to get this deal, and that meant she needed their wives.

And if Jordan was pushing Tom for loxana the way Isabelle was pushing him, she’d succeeded.

‘Did you check out her tests yet? David Tauber got the

ftlm through this morning, sent a tape to both of us.’ ‘He did, didn’t he?’

David Tauber. His instincts had been right, yet again. That kid was a corner; the way things were going he’d have his fingerprints on three out of the four deal priricipals. Only Fred Florescu, the director and therefore the most important guy in the package, was repped by somebody else - namely Sam himself.

Kendrick admired Tauber, pleased with himself as he undoubtedly was. He just hoped the kid knew his place. He better, Sam thought, grimly.

‘Not yet. I’ve been on the phone to Eleanor Marshall about the script all morning.’

‘They’re OK.’

‘OK, they suck, or OK they rule?’

‘Just OK. Not too bad, not too good. Like Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan.’

‘As opposed to Body of Evidence.’

‘You got it. She’s better than Isabella lossellini,, but not so good as Andie MacDowell. She’s -‘

‘All right, all right.’ Sam held up a gnarled hand. ‘I get the picture. Why don’t you shove the tape in the machine, let’s see what the little chiquita can actually do.’

Mike reached forward and slid the video into the recorder, artfully concealed under an original Matisse. Across the other side of Sam’s office, computerized dimmer switches automatically darkened the lights and a wall slid noiselessly back to reveal a huge digital television

II3

the size of a cinema screen. As the two powerful agents settled back into the Eames leather sofa, loxana Felix’s stunning face, her pores flawless and tiny even at ten times life size, swam into view.

Sam Kendrick watched with something like real curiosity. Interesting. So this was the woman who’d been turning the media heat on him like it was her personal flamethrower. Even though they hadn’t bent over for her right away, and she must have been used to that as a model, it hadn’t stopped her or even slowed her down. As much as he would have liked to chuck her tests in the can and send her gift-wrapped over to ICM - Sam hated clients who tried to push him around - he knew that loxana Felix had, in three days,just about removed his power to do that.

‘The entire LA wolf pack were now watching him with their little yellow eyes, checking out what he was going to do with his pretty new toy.

And holy shit, was she ever pretty.

Maybe it didn’t all come across in still photos. Would you look at that!

Mesmerizednow, Sam Kendrick stared at the screen. The supermodel was reciting some Shakespeare with bare competence, but he wasn’t listening to the dialogue. He couldn’t lift his eyes from the way her skimpy little costume swung on her slender hips, the tiny flashes of brown thigh she kept turning to camera, the way she would pause every couple of minutes and run the barest tip of her tongue over her lower lip. Her bra was definitely not underwired, the way those titties were swinging. If she was wearing a bra. Shit, maybe if she moved a bit faster he’d be able to tell for sure. And how she walked. Demurely from the outside, a woman might say demurely, but with just that suggestion of a sway, no, more than that, ofagrind that put you in mind of the better strip bars, up in Canada maybe. She was batting her eyes down now, playing it vulnerable but somehow managing to suggest with her