The Little Barmaid

by Holloway, Taylor

  “Is that why you’re so obsessed with EGOTs?” I asked.

  He frowned. “Probably.”

  “Well, you’re going to get it,” I told him. “I’m sure you will.”

  He smiled at me. “It’s nice to have you on my side,” he said. “I’m on your side too, you know.”

  “I’m not sure how long I’ll have a side,” I confessed. “If I can’t get more roles after this one, I’ll be packing it all up and moving home to go to law school.”

  He blinked. “Law school?”

  I nodded. “My dad really, really wants me to go to law school.”

  Derek shook his head at me. “With a voice like yours, the last place you need to go is law school.”

  “You really think I’m good?” I asked him. “Be honest. I can take it.”

  He laughed. “You’re so good that the first time I heard your voice, back when I thought it was Ursula’s voice, I actually wondered if I wasn’t in love with her. Only it was you.” He paused. “That sounded really stupid.”

  My mouth was hanging open. “It didn’t sound stupid.”

  He looked relieved. “Really? Good.” He kissed me on the side of my neck, and it sent a shiver down my spine. “Because it’s one hundred percent true. When I heard your voice, it did something to me. You have a talent that doesn’t come along very often.”

  I could feel myself blushing. When you’re as pale and rosacea prone as I am, blushing can sometimes almost hurt. Like a sunburn. I don’t blush all that much as a general rule, but Derek had a real talent for bringing it out of me. “That’s a very nice thing to say.”

  “It’s not meant to flatter your ego,” he told me. “I’m saying it because it’s true. No matter what happens, you have to pursue show business. The world doesn’t deserve your voice, but it does need it.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just said, “Thank you.”

  He shook his head at me. “You’ll see what I mean when the movie comes out. Everybody will like the dancing. They’ll enjoy the acting. But it’s the singing that they’re all going to be talking about. It’s you.”

  “Only they won’t ever know it’s me,” I said sadly. “I know I agreed to Ursula’s terms, but now that we’re getting closer and closer to the release of the movie, I’m starting to wonder if I made a mistake. I knew I had to get my foot in the door somehow, but it’s really hard to hear my own voice and know that Ursula is taking credit for it.” Derek was the first person I’d been able to say these words out loud to besides Sebastian and it felt damn good. The frustration that had been boiling over in recent weeks was clearly evident in my voice. “I don’t like knowing that nobody will ever know the truth.”

  Derek frowned. “I’m sorry. I can only imagine that feels horrible. I can ask my agent, Elaine, to take a look at your contract if you want me to.”

  I shrugged. “No. My dad is a lawyer. I know he’s looking into it too.”

  He nodded. “That’s why he wants you to go to law school, isn’t it? Because he’s a lawyer.”

  “Exactly.” I laughed bitterly. “He’s convinced that I’ll never make it in Hollywood and that I need to come home right away and start law school to secure a real future for myself.”

  “Did you ever want to be a lawyer?” he asked. “I bet you’d be a pretty good one. You’re smart, patient, careful. Those are all good lawyer qualities.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Careful, you’re starting to sound like my dad,” I snapped.

  “Yikes,” he replied. “This is clearly a sore subject for you, isn’t it?”

  I defused in an instant. “Yeah. I guess it really is. He’s just so adamant that I could never be successful doing what I want to do. I think if he would just admit that I have some talent, even if he thought being a lawyer was a better path for me, I’d be able to swallow it more easily. But he’s just so intense. Like there’s no chance for me. That Hollywood will eat me up and leave no trace.”

  “Well, he does have a point about Hollywood being a dangerous place,” Derek said carefully. “But you’re right that you have a lot of talent. I’m not just saying that, either,” he replied when I made a face at him that must have looked skeptical. “I know you have what it takes. I’ve seen what you’ve put up with out of Ursula and the girls on set. If you can put up with that and the constant rejection in general, then you’re already halfway there.” He wrapped his arms around me. “Plus, you’ve got me.”

  I smiled at him. “Do I have you?” I asked him. “After the filming is over and you and Ursula are able to break up in public, will I have you?”

  He squeezed me tighter. “Yes. You will have me for as long as you want me. For as long as we can stand one another. As soon as this media nightmare is over, I’m yours. And you’re mine. Publicly. Privately. Everywhere. I promise you that.”

  “Then I guess all that patience you say I have is going to pay off,” I told him. “Because I’m not ever going to give you up.”

  34

  Derek

  My next ‘appearance’ with Ursula came sooner than I was ready for. I just couldn’t avoid her. It was that Saturday evening. We were attending a birthday party for an ancient, influential Hollywood muckety-muck at his sprawling hillside estate. It was a beautiful night, and the band was uncommonly good. All the important people were present and on their best behavior. Ordinarily I’d be down to schmooze but being with Ursula dampened my spirits. Besides, I needed to talk to her.

  “Shall we dance?” I asked Ursula, smiling solicitously and offering her my hand. I’d really been making an effort with her tonight. I was luring her into a false sense of complacency.

  “I’d love to,” she replied, letting me draw her onto the dance floor and away from the listening ears of any onlookers. Ursula might be a terrible person, but she looked phenomenal tonight and she was absolutely the belle of the ball. Everyone wanted to talk to her. She was totally in her element. “This is a great party, don’t you think?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s fine,” I said, dropping the act. “Look, we need to talk.”

  “I have something important to tell you, too,” Ursula said. “It’s a surprise. Your brother told me I could be the one to tell you myself. It’s something I’ve been working on with Clint and our agents for a while.”

  That sounded ominous. But it would have to wait.

  “Me first.”

  She smiled and brushed my cheek affectionately. I avoided the temptation to wince. “Sure. Go ahead, dear.”

  “It’s about Ariel.”

  Ursula rolled her eyes. “Ariel broke up with you, didn’t she?” Her expression was pitying. “Well, it’s probably for the best. You really need to focus on your fiancé, don’t you think?”

  “Actually, no,” I told Ursula. “She didn’t. The news about Jacob Hercules is already in the waters. You can’t use that as blackmail, you’re about forty-eight hours too slow.”

  Ursula’s eyes went wide. “What?”

  “It sucks to be outsmarted, doesn’t it?” I asked her. “But honestly, did you really think that Ariel wouldn’t tell me why she was leaving me? Or that we were intent on keeping the news suppressed forever? Not everyone is as dishonest as you are.”

  “She can’t go back on her word to me,” Ursula hissed. “I already fulfilled my end of the bargain.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How so?”

  Ursula stared at me. She could either admit that she had a contract with Ariel that arranged for Ursula to take credit for Ariel’s voice work, or she could lie to me. She was trying to figure out if I already knew. The moment stretched.

  I wondered what was going on inside her head at that moment. Ursula probably thought that everyone was as cunning and scheming as she was. That everyone lived in a world full of lies and little plots. It must be a complicated way to live. I almost pitied her. Almost.

  “I didn’t get her fired,” she said eventually. “But now I will!”

  Hmm. So, she
chose to lie. Good to know.

  “Keep your voice down,” I hissed in her ear, dipping her to conceal the outburst. “You don’t want people to hear us arguing, do you?”

  She was seething. “I want her gone,” she said in a much lower voice. Her hand holding mine was gripping hard enough to cut off the circulation. I didn’t need my hand anyway. “I need her off the lot.”

  “She’s not going anywhere,” I said, shaking my head at her. “Come on. This is beneath you. You’ve won everything you wanted. Be satisfied. I’m here with you, aren’t I? I promise to keep everything with Ariel under wraps. Unless there’s something else you’re worried about?”

  Like, perhaps, everyone learning that you can’t sing?

  I wished I could ask her that, but it would be betraying Ariel. I’d promised to keep the secret, and that’s exactly what I’d do.

  Ursula blinked her long, fake eyelashes. “I really want her gone,” she said, shaking her head at me after a moment. “But I guess I can put up with her on set for a few more weeks.”

  I nodded. “Thank you.”

  “But I want something in return,” Ursula said. I frowned at her and she smiled sweetly at me. “It’s tiny, I promise.”

  “What?” I asked, wondering what fresh hell she was about to unleash on me.

  “I want you kiss me when they announce the tour,” Ursula said.

  I blinked. “What tour?”

  She smirked.

  Behind us, as if on cue, a drumroll started, and the music cut off. Everyone on the dance floor turned. Holden and the old muckety-muck himself, Edgar Montrose, came out on stage.

  “Thank you all for coming to my eighty-sixth birthday party,” Montrose said. He looked pretty good for eighty-six, all things considered. Whoever did his Botox work was a real pro. He didn’t look a day over seventy.

  “I’m so pleased to have everyone who’s anyone in Hollywood here to watch me get another year closer to the grave. I know the reason you’re really here is just to make sure I’m actually still alive.” We all laughed semi-uncomfortably. Montrose was known for a lack of social filter, and it had only gotten more pronounced as he aged. “But really,” he added. “It means a lot to me. It’s especially important this year because Holden here is right in the middle of bringing my career full circle. Back when I was just a kid in Hollywood, long before most of you were born, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, this game was very different. But some things have stayed remarkably the same. Even back then, back before movie theaters, when you went to the Nickelodeon to see a silent picture with a musical accompaniment, we were all there to look at the movie stars and the wonderful stories they told.”

  He smiled at Holden who beamed back at him. Despite his stubborn, recalcitrant personality, Holden could still turn on the charm when he needed to.

  “When I was starting in Hollywood, two of the biggest stars out there were Cary Grant and Mae West. Now, everyone knows those names. They’re enshrined in the history of the city. They are giants. The film that Holden is remaking today, ‘She Done Him Wrong,’ was the first film I ever worked on, and starred Mae and Cary. This remake, of which I’m the executive producer, will probably be the very last film I ever do. Or at least if not the last, among the last. Everybody has to go out somehow,” he said, grinning at the audience. “But I’m blessed to be able to end my career right where I began it. Watching two of the brightest stars of new Hollywood, Derek Prince and Ursula Jones, stepping into the very roles that I got to watch be created for the first time in 1933.”

  The audience clapped politely. People were looking at us from all angles, and I put on my most winning smile. I had no idea what was going on, but clearly smiling was the correct course of action. Ursula was doing it too. Although, I had a bad feeling she knew exactly what was happening. She winked at me.

  Meanwhile, Montrose looked at Holden, who nodded and took his cue cards from him. He must be tiring. My brother took over for him, addressing the audience with a big smile on his face.

  “When Edgar was starting out in Hollywood,” Holden told the crowd, “it wasn’t uncommon for people to travel long distances to the few theaters that were open near their homes. Sometimes they’d drive for several hours to see a movie. Time and technology have helped connect audiences all around the world over the common stories we treasure. But there’s still no replacement for live shows. Recordings are wonderful, and new technology like virtual reality and augmented reality have helped to bridge the gap between recording and real. But there’s still nothing quite like a real show. And that’s what we want to give people—something real. So, I’m pleased to announce that Derek and Ursula will be embarking on a three-month publicity tour to coincide with the release of ‘She Done Him Wrong,’ where they will perform their numbers live for audiences in twenty-eight cities.”

  Live?

  Ursula was smiling excitedly. Ah, so not live then, I thought to myself. Lip synced, clearly. If it were live, she’d be screwed.

  Then Ursula was raising a manicured eyebrow at me and pursing her lips. I reluctantly remembered my end of the bargain. I smiled and I kissed her for the assembled crowd, pretending to be happy. The audience clapped excitedly, but I was frozen. Three months? Singing live? Traveling around with Ursula. Kill me now.

  There was nothing I could think of that sounded less appealing than several more months at Ursula’s beck and call.

  Three months. Twenty-eight cities. And Ursula would be with me in all of them.

  I took a deep breath and tried to take stock of my situation. There were people all around me, in every direction. Most of them wanted to talk to me. A lot of them wanted to shake my hand and congratulate me on my career, my engagement, or some combination of the two. I was overwhelmed by the crowd.

  Ariel and I were just starting. I couldn’t just disappear for several months to travel around with her nemesis and singing with her ghost. It would kill whatever we’d just created.

  35

  Ariel

  “You’re free of the contract clause that would have made you Ursula Jones’s vocal slave forever,” my dad told me when I finally called him back. “But things aren’t exactly sunshine and rainbows, Ariel. If you hadn’t hung up on me, I would have told you.”

  Great. I was going to get another lecture now. I just knew it. I took a deep breath and tried to mentally prepare myself. Once he got it out of his system, he’d leave me alone for a while. It was better just to listen.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, sitting on the edge of my bed and painting my toenails. I’d picked out my favorite color, a bright, screaming red. I wanted something sexy for my date with Derek tomorrow. We were going to go meet at a movie. We had it all worked out. We’d arrive in separate cars and then leave separately. In the dark, nobody would know we were together.

  “I mean you need to listen to me.”

  “I did listen to you,” I said. “You told me about the problem, and I took action based on that. Now it’s fixed.”

  “Well, not exactly,” my dad told me. “You gave up all your residuals in exchange for the right to have your voice credited to you again in the future, but there’s more to it than that.”

  “So what?” I groused. It sucked, but I’d live without it.

  “So, you’re going to be out of money and options very soon.”

  I shook my head back and forth, setting down the nail polish and focusing fully on the conversation. My ugly toes could wait. “No. I’m going to get paid for my work on the film as a chorus girl. And I’m going to get more roles after this one.”

  “Ariel,” my dad said, trying for a reasonable tone of voice. “Ursula doesn’t like you much. I don’t know what you did to make her hate you, but she does. She’s already having her agent make the rounds to the various casting directors to tank your chances of getting another role. She’s going to get you blacklisted. You may have wriggled out of the most damaging part of your contract, but it won’t help you any if you can’t ever get
another job, will it?”

  “I—I’ll figure it out.”

  I had no idea how, but I would.

  I hadn’t even considered that Ursula would just go out and slander me around town. I guess I shouldn’t have been so naïve. That sounded exactly like something she would do.

  “You need to admit that this little experiment failed, Ariel.” My dad sighed. “I know you wanted it all to work out. You wanted this to be your big break. But the truth is that Hollywood is full of people like Ursula Jones. This is what I wanted to protect you from.”

  “I’ll figure it out,” I repeated. “I know I will. Ursula isn’t the only person in Hollywood. I’ve met people on this production who think I have talent. Mia, the choreographer, likes me quite a bit. I bet she’d hire me again. And the director likes me too. And one of the actors and I are actually dating--”

  “Ariel, none of those people are your friends.”

  “Derek is my friend,” I said. My voice sounded small and weak and I hated it. My dad had a special talent for shaking my confidence. I knew Derek cared about me. I knew it.

  My dad was silent for a beat. “Derek Prince? Are you talking about Derek Prince? The actor? The one on the movie with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Isn’t he Ursula’s fiancé?” My dad’s voice was deeply disapproving. My dad was a fairly conservative person. I knew he wouldn’t like hearing this.

  And I’d been dreading this conversation for other reasons, too. It was so hard to explain. And it made me sound crazy. “He is,” I told my dad, “but it’s not for real. He’s really dating me—”

  “Ariel!” he snapped.

  “What?” I asked sheepishly. It did sound bad when I said it that way. I didn’t like the way it sounded out loud at all. It made me sound deranged and pathetic.