The Movie (36 page)

‘ A year ago she hadn’t given a damn about that, couldn’t have cared less. But Jordan’s pregnancy had changed things, dragged all her background regrets howling viciously into the foreground of her mind. Now Eleanor did care, very much.

.Her own longing for a child was amplified to obsessional proportions. She thought about it all the time, but then again, how could she do anything else? It was Jordan this, Jordan that, all day every day. Eleanor kept recalhng the story of Ehzabeth the First of Englandl how she had turned her face to the wall when told that Mary Queen of Scots had given birth to Prince James; on being asked what was the matter she had replied, ‘The Queen of Scots is delivered of a fine son, and I am but barren stock.’

Barren stock.., that was exactly what Eleanor felt, every day. Barren. Empty. Lost.

It would be easier if she was one of those women, like Isabelle Kendrick, who only wanted to be married, to have children, to take a place in society’s tight, inviolate ark of coupledom, that huge boat that only lets the animals in two by two. She knew she could have that, if she wanted it. Paul Halfin was right there, with his pohshed good looks

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and successful investment banking firm, holding out an engagement ring and a one-way ticket to permanent respectability. Eleanor smoothed down the sof lapels of her cashmere jacket, thinking how many other women would 161l for that opportunity. She tried to be grateful. At least she had a ticket; do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.

But she had never wanted to be married for the sake of it. She had wanted to marry for love, she’d wanted Tom Goldman. And she had wanted her child to be a bright, shining star, to meld her own genes with those of the best possible father, the brightest, funniest, most ambitious and intelligent and passionate man she’d ever known.

A month ago, perhaps she could have forgotten all that. Taken heed of Dr Haydn’s six-month warning and wrapped things up with Paul. After all, what hope had Tom ever given her? He’d married his baby shiksa princess and there was an end of it… .

Until those hints in the office, the stolen moments at Isabelle’s party and that final, earth-shattering night in New York, when he had reached out to her and his touch had awoken her body and exalted her soul.

She could have lived with settling. But Tom had taken that away from her. In those few glorious hours he had opened life itself to her, revealed to her verything she was capable of feeling and being.

Son ofa titch, Eleanor thought, and struggled against the new tears forming in her eyes. You made it ten times worse. You make it so incredibly painful. “

Shaking her head, she opened the bathroom door and walked quickly back to her own office. A plastic cup of thin coffee from the machine in the hal/was cooling there, next to an untouched bagel she’d brought with her from home; she didn’t have time to eat breakfast there these days, she’d been at the studio from half past six. It was necessary. Work was in crisis.

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Funny, isn’t it, Eleanor thought, the way you can get to be grateful for the weirdest things. She took a sip of the watery coffee and picked up her report on Dog Days, an Artemis comedy she had bought for halfa million dollars that was now recommended for turnaround, a polite way of saying you didn’t want to make it any more. The director was fighting with the screenwriter and three lead actors had pulled out at the last minute, leaving Eleanor with her fourth choice, if she wanted him, or the option to cancel. But Mary Truant, the director, had a pay-or-play clause in her contract which meant they would lose a further two million if Eleanor killed the picture. Yet a turkey of a movie could wind up costing a lot more than , three million bucks.

Dog Days was only the latest crisis. There was that fiasco in Marketing in Southeast Asia, the one where their advertising for Heavy Artillery, a minor Artemis hit of last summer and the kind of action-adventure that normally did good in Asia, had been designed to read ‘R.ick Hmmond Raises Hell’, and had apparently wound up meaning ‘tkick Hammond Desecrates Graves’. Not good, in a market where ancestor-worship was all the rage. They’d been staying away from that in droves. Plus, the Miramax distribution deal had gone sour at the last minute, with the other side claiming Eleanor’s figures were false and misleading. She ,had a team of lawyers battling desperately to stop a lawsuit.

That was the story of her life right now, Eleanor thought, trying to take in the words and figures that swam before her eyes. Fighting fires. The last month had been a succession of disasters; ever since that triumphant presentation to the board in New York, it had just been one crisis after another. She had no time to manage the studio, to give it the kind of planned leadership that Tom Goldman had been banking on when he chose her for the job: Every

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spare moment was taken up with brainstorming a solution to the latest problem.

It was cool in her air-conditioned oce, the silent fans cycling artificially chill breezes round the room, providing her with constant protection against the blazing LA autumn sun, already streaming over the lot outside, but the cool wasn’t helping her concentrate. Eleanor had no idea how this had happened, and she felt helpless, as if her grip on her business had somehow slipped.., but then it had slipped. Every new problem arose on matters she had already considered, budgets she had already approved, papers she’d already signed off on…

How could I have been so stupid? Eleanor asked herself, her forehead creasing in a frown. I’m usually so together. All this stuffis second nature to me.

She felt,a renewed throb of anxiety. This was no time to be cracking up. If she wasn’t careful, the shark pool would start to scent her weakness, and then it would only be a matter of time before she lost not only Tom, but her job too.

Eleanor began to make notes on Dog Days, her mouth set in a hard line. Well, if they were waiting for her to ive up they’d be waiting a long goddamn time. She might not be able to prevent Tom Goldman from smashing her heart, but then love was something that was out of your control. That was why it was so dangerous. Artemis Studios was in her control, and she wasn’t about to let it slip away from her, no matter how many fires she had to douse.

She had stmgled all her life to gt here. She wasn’t about to gve up now.

There was a knock on the door.

‘Come in,’ Eleanor called absently. ‘Mariah, is that you? I need the Mary Truant contracts, and the production executive’s notes on the script meetings. And I’d kill for some real coffee.’

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‘Would you go for just the coffee?’ Tom Goldman asked gently.

Eleanor looked up, startled.

Tom walked towards her, carrying his normal paper

bag. He was wearing the same black suit he’d worn to their meeting in New York, a gold Cartier watch and a Harvard tie. He looked great.

‘No doughnuts,’ Goldman said, unpacking two polystyrene cups of fdter coffee and handing one to her carefully. He .gestured towards the uneaten bagel. ‘But then I see you’re not hungry.’

Eleanor took the coffee without comment and put it down-on her desk. ‘What can I do for you?’ she asked coldly.

‘Eleanor- ‘

She didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to hear anything. ‘Tom, like I said, what can I do for you? Because if it isn’t business it’ll have to wait. I’m busy.’

Goldman looked at her for a long moment, his ha.ndsome black eyes soft with tenderness and compassion.

Eleanor felt sadness and weakness and longing well up inside herl Panicked, she felt a lump start to form at the back of her throat. Oh no, please, not kindness. Not pity, she thought. I can handle anything but that.

Almost of its own accord, her right hand fumbled to

open the small top drawer at the side of her desk.

‘We have to talk, Eleanor,’ Goldman said.

‘We talk every day,’ Eleanor answered, ‘about this studio.’ Her fingers closed around the small velvet box which he kept there, flicked open the lid. ‘And other than that we have nothing to discuss.’

‘We can’t pretend New York never happened,’ Gold

man insisted. ‘Eleanor, you must believe that it meant a great deal to me - I know you’re hurting, and I’m so sorry you - ‘

‘Tom!’ It ricocheted out of her. How dare you pity me?

How dare you offer me comfort? ‘As far as I’m concerned, nothing happened in New York. Certainly nothing that meant anything to me.’ She turned on him, her eyes bright with fury. ‘We both had too much to drink, and as far as I’m concerned it was an embarrassing indiscretion we’d both better forget.’ Her tone was pure ice.

Tom shook his head. ‘I don’t believe you.’

‘Believe me.’ Her fingers were working behind the desk, out of sight. ‘In fact, I hope you will be able to offer me some congratulations this time.’

He was confused. ‘Congratulate you? Why?’

Eleanor Marshall brought her left hand out from behind the desk and held it up to him, defiantly. On the fourth finger Paul’s ring sparkled brilliandy, rubies and emeralds glittering ostentatiously in the morning sun.

‘Paul pt;oposed to me this morning,’ Eleanor said, pronouncing every word clearly and deliberately, ‘and I accepted.’ She looked hard at him, her whole body brittle with the pure flame of her anger.

Tm getting married, Tom,’ she said. ‘And you know something? I can’t wait.’

David sauntered into the bedroom, spritzing Chanel’s L’Egoste under ,.his arms. He admired his magnificent body for a few seconds in Megan’s wall mirror, then picked up a white towelling bathrobe and belted it around hirnselŁ.

‘Did you finish packing yet?’ he asked.

‘Not quite.’ Megan tried to drag hereyes from Tauber’s chest. She had to stop staring at him like that, and yet somehow she couldn’t stop looking, couldn’t stop checking to see if he was real. Naked, David was quite simply superb, even more muscular than she had pictured him in her fantasies. Standing there at the door to her bedroom,. the white towelling throwing his golden-brown tan into

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sharp relief, he looked like some guy offa schoolgirl’s pinup calendar.

David was gorgeous. And didn’t he know it, Megan thought, surprising herself with the sharp stab of disapproval that ran through her at that idea.

Come on, now, she lectured herself. Women spend

hours in front of the mirror. Why shouldn’t a man? You’re operating the double standard.

‘We leave tomorrow morning,’ David reminded her.

‘Nine a.m. flight.’

Megan patted her tickets, laid out heady along with her passport on the bedside table. ‘Air Seychelles number 3156 to Victoria, Mahr. I’m not planning on missing it, don’t worry. I’ve got everything packed except for a couple of

‘ books.’

Her cases were stacked by the front door, ready to go;

no Tshirts, just one pair of jeans, and all the designer outfits she’d bought last week, even the high heels. The new Megan would wear those to dinner in the hotel, she thought, loxanna Felix wouldn’t leave her heels behind just because she was heading for a tropical island, so neither would Megan. And if she looked longingly at her floppy Metallica T-shirt once or twice, she was just looking.

‘Books? You’re not gonna have time to read,’ David said scornfully. ‘Look, Megan, I told you, it’s really unusual that you’re the only writer on the project and really unusual that you’ve been allowed so much control - ‘

‘I know, you’ve been a great agent, David,’ she said hastily. Tm not going to let you down, I know I’ll be working most of the time -‘

‘You’ll be working all the time when you’re on the set.

Little things always need redoing. And if you’re not working that minute, you have to watch what’s going on, be ready to offer suggestions.., you’ve got to stay around to be in control. Otherwise you turn into Sam Kendrick.’ He laughed at his own joke.

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Megan smiled dutifully back, but she didn’t think that was so funny. David always seemed to be dissing Sam these days, except for when he dropped in on rehearsals himself, when David turned dutiful and respectful. Whenever Sam Kendrick had spoken to her, he’d always been helpful and kind, and Megan knew that Eleanor thought the world of Sam. And Sam had given David Tauber his first break. It wasn’t pleasant to hear him getting at the guy the whole time.

Not to mention the way David was coming on strong to Mary Holmes and lobert Finn, the two main co-stars and both Sam Kendrick’s personal clients, established stars for many years. If David were with another agency, she’d have said he was trying to poach them.

There was something about it she didn’t like. That, and the way David suddenly seemed to be in conference with Jake Keller the whole time. Eleanor Marshall hadn’t been attending rehearsals, so maybe Jake was the logical exec to be hanging around. Still…

Megan shook her head, swatting those thoughts aside. She’d longed for David, and now she had him. That was what was important.

‘I brought you something,’ he was saying. ‘A going away present.’

He walked over to the wall where his coat was hanging, fished in the pockets and drew out a small package wrapped in tissue paper.

‘What is it?’ Megan asked, delighted.

David threw it across to her. Open. it andsee.’

She unwrapped it, drawing out a tiny gold pendant on a filigree chain, a delicate gold star with a cursive letter ‘D’ set inside it.

‘So you don’t forget me,’ Tauber said, giving her a bone-melting smile.

‘Oh, David, it’s lovely,’ Megan said breathlessly, Nobody had ever given her anything romantic. And from

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what she recalled of the guys back on Haight, none of them were real big on gold necklaces.

‘Here, let me put it on you.’ Tauber was beside her, pushing her cardigan back from her shoulders. Megan bent her head, feeling his large hands skilfully undoing the clasp, hanging it round her neck. The metal was cool against her skin, and she reached up with one hand, touching the slender little star.