Body Heat

by Mia Ford

  “Harper!”

  I shout even though it’s the last thing that I feel like doing right now. I’m tired, angry and so darn frustrated right now. Why did I think that Eric Turner would be a nice guy? One that would offer me more than a ride home.

  “Hey,” she says as she comes running up to me.

  “Considering you’ve been getting down and dirty with the one man that you’ve idled for so long you look as if you’ve just come back from a funeral.

  I shake my head, “That’s because I was stupid. You were right I got carried away, and then he just called the taxi and told me that it was outside waiting for me.”

  “Wow, not even a goodbye kiss?”

  She purses her lips together and closes her eyes. I walk past her not feeling in the mood to laugh about it.

  “Hey, Valentina wait up. I was only kidding.”

  I sigh, “Yeah, yeah I know it’s just that I thought that he would string me along a little you know.”

  “Exchange numbers?”

  I nod my head feeling silly for even thinking such a thing.

  “Well, you know he’s a bad boy with a crappy reputation. Remember the court case last year?”

  I sigh as she starts to open the front door.

  “The one where he pretended that he needed an operation and couldn’t shoot for another couple of weeks,” she says as we start heading towards the shared kitchen. The one where we tend to avoid going in because we never know what kind of mess it is in at the best of times.

  I sit on the stool and say, “Or the time that his mom died and he said that he was going to the funeral and needed compassionate leave, but was caught in the Bahamas sunning himself with his last leading lady.”

  I nodded remembering the news like the back of my hand.

  “Yeah Sandra Hanson.”

  “Valentina, does it matter? The thing is the guy’s hot to look at, but he’s pretty arrogant. He thought that his reputation was enough for him to keep doing all these kind of stunts and as a result of it. I don’t think that anyone wants to hire him.”

  “You know the weird thing?”

  She blurts out, “What?”

  As she stops in her tracks and hands me a drink. I didn’t feel like eating, let alone drinking but I grab the bottle of beer as if my life depends on it and take a swing of it.

  “When we got to his house, his car was parked outside. But then he said that he couldn’t take me home because his car was in the garage.”

  She sits next to me, “Maybe the garage came to take it. Does it matter?”

  I frown, “I suppose not. Just weird that’s all. Anyway, all I can say is that I had a birthday of a lifetime.”

  “Good, because Janice’s pissed with you.”

  “Shoot, I was going to buy her a bottle, but after paying for the taxi, I’m short.”

  She waves her hand and takes another swing of her beer.

  “Don’t worry about that as long as you tell me every dirty detail about last night. Even if you look as miserable as hell, you look tired. Someone who’s been sexed up.”

  “You can tell that by my face.”

  “Uh-huh. You look different that’s for sure. Now are you going to put me out of my misery or are you going to keep me guessing.”

  I nod, “Okay, okay as long as you let me finish my beer first.”

  “Finish it then spill. I want to know all about it. Seeing as I haven’t had any for a while.”

  “One week doesn’t constitute as a while,” I smile at her before taking another swing of my beer.

  She laughs, and I soon forget the way that I left Eric’s house. I just focus on a good time that we had last night and I hadn’t had a chance to tell her about the audition. I have a feeling that things are going to change for the better. Even if Eric didn’t act as if he wants to see me again. I have a feeling that we would do. Maybe it’s destiny, and things have a way of changing, he knows where I work. He’ll want to see me again. I know he will. I can feel it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Eric

  Fuck, I feel like shit right now. I had one too many cocktails last night at the bar after four weeks of waiting for the fucking phone call to confirm if I got the role. I fucking got it. Not even the first one that I wanted, but the second one too. I took the first one because it was the best one. It had the best options and I had to celebrate.

  I need another drink to get over this hangover, I pick up my flask and have a few sips of the gin that I poured in it to help me sleep when I came home in the early hours of the morning. Not even sure how I made it into bed.

  I need to the drink to loosen my nerves before I get a flight. Shit, I hate flying, but my reputations down and no one wants to hire me in Hollywood. Not anymore. Not after the court case, even though the case was dismissed and we settled out of court.

  No one wants to work with me. After I’ve been seen to be unreliable on more than one occasion. Going to jail is even fashionable these days, going to jail guarantees a job, but when it comes to fucking up contracts no matter how much of a star you are, that’s a no-no.

  “Eric, you ready?”

  Florence, my manager, shouts out, she stayed over to make sure that I make it to the airport. I can’t believe that I have to fly all the way to fucking Aspen to shoot this movie.

  I expected her to dump me, like everyone else. But she’s been loyal from the start ever since, but most likely because like me she has a hard time keeping the stars intact. The industry’s getting so fucking competitive it’s unbelievable.

  “Eric! You’re not drinking again are you?”

  She takes the flask away from me; I’d stopped and started more times than I cared to remember. When they took the car and my bike, I started once again, but then I stopped when I had another audition. Another wait. Another chance of not getting the job, I started again.

  “Jesus! I didn’t even hear you creeping up behind me. Don’t fucking do that.”

  “Don’t get drunk!” Her rouge lipstick flashes in front of me.

  “I need this to work and so do you. No one’s knocking at your door. No one! You’re nearly dead in this industry, and this one movie could be the one that brings your name back into the spotlight.”

  “Not my fault that people are so touchy.”

  She came back towards me, “I’ve worked with you when you were a kid. A spoiled brat that thought that his big blue eyes and dark hair could keep him in work for life. But this industry isn’t like that. Do you know a number of wannabe actors there are out there?”

  I nod my head, thinking that I’ve heard this speech so many fucking times that it’s giving me a headache. One caused by her shouting and my desperate need to finish off my gin in the flask.

  “If you know then why did you do it?”

  I feel like a kid in the principal’s office being told off for not doing his homework.

  “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I needed to celebrate. Fuck, I thought that I wasn’t going to get the role. My bank account’s nearly zero; everything feels as if it’s on a downward spiral and for once I’ve been giving a fucking ray of sunshine. I had to do what I know how to do best. Drink!”

  I had another choice of going to the bar that Valentina works out and seeing if she’s still there. I was kind of curious about whether she got the role or not? She was talking about an audition she had; maybe she got the role. I went past the bar a couple of times, but like a coward I never went in. Especially when it seems like the bartender has a thing for us. That guy must work every fucking day of the week. He’s always there.

  “You’re twenty-three, when are you going to grow up? I stood by you when no one else wanted to work with you. I mean did you think that no one would find out?”

  I shake my head, as she adjusts her pink wig and sighs as she takes the flask out of my hand.

  “You can’t think that you’re a golden star and jump ship when it suits you.”

  “It wasn’t like that. Acting’s fu
cking painful at times. Sometimes it works, and other times it’s hard to connect especially when the scripts so fucking shit.”

  “Eric, that’s not your fucking problem. Your only concern is to star in the role. No fucking around and coming out with some lie. You’ll get caught. Get it!”

  She’s pointing her finger at me, making it known that she’s not messing with me this time. She’s said that she’ll dump me before, but back then the money was so good that I knew that she'd stay with me. Right now, I know that she’ll leave. And if she does that then no one will work with me. That part I know for sure.

  “It was stupid and the arrogant Eric, the one that thought he could do whatever he wanted is a thing of the past.”

  I try and reassure her, tell her that I’ve learned my lesson. Having your cars seized, cards canceled and the possibility of a notice on your house puts everything into perspective, and I’m not going to let her down. Not again. She nods as her dark eyes look at me, “Look I get it. Since you were five, you were in the spotlight. Everyone wanted to work with you. It must be hard for you to be…”

  I know she was trying to give me a pep talk. The one that my mom would give me if she were still around.

  “Ever since your mom died…”

  I hold out my hand, “Don’t go there. I just need this one break; it’ll work out.”

  I feel as if they’re false words. I’m so fucking nervous as if my lifeline’s riding on this job and I’m suffocating at the idea that it’ll either completely break me or make me. I should go and just ask for Valentina. No one has made me feel that in tune with myself ever since that night. Just one night and fucking morning, yet I still can’t get her off my mind.

  “Eric, you know if there’s anything that you need then don’t hesitate to ask. I’m here for you. Okay?”

  I nod my head, “Sure.”

  She waves the flask in front of me and says, “I told you if you’re nervous on a flight. Just sleep,” then takes my flask as she starts strutting back through my bedroom door.I know that she’s right, but I hate flying, and I need it. Like a newborn baby needs a bottle of milk. I want to go into the living room and get a bottle from behind the bar. But, no doubt she’s already made sure that there are no goodies behind there.

  I get up from the chair at my dresser thinking that I’ll just keep my fucking shades on. They’ll hide the bags under my eyes. Last night after our celebrations at getting the job. Thank you, Chris Hemsworth, for getting injured while training out a little too much. If it weren't for him, then I wouldn’t be in this job.

  I’ve spent four weeks on the sideline. I’ve done two readings in the space of the last couple of months. How things change in such a short space of time. Last year, they were all knocking at my door. Begging me to play a part in their movie. Not just any part, but the leading role.

  One wannabe star was telling me that we should get away from it all. She led me astray, and I had a warning back then. She got me in trouble, and I’ve been on the sideline since then even though I had years of being on top. I won’t make that mistake again, no leading lady’s getting me in trouble. Especially the new ones. The ones that are just starting out.

  Every time I look on the Net or step out on the street, I see her fucking name in lights. Where my name used to be. I’m not making that mistake again. Never.

  Not if my fucking life depends on it. And it does at this rate, because if this movie doesn’t work out, then I know that I’ll be out of a job. Not only will I be out of work, but I’ll be kicked out of my house and broke, just like my parents used to be before I got into the movie business.

  That ain’t fucking happening.

  Never again.

  Chapter Twelve

  Valentina

  I’ve been in Hollywood for over a year, and so far I’m living the dream. The one that everyone back home told me that I wouldn’t be able to do. They said that I was too short, too thin, too pale. There was nothing about me that was special, and girls like me only had one fate. There was only one thing that could make us special, and it had nothing to do with our talent on the screen.

  I went to high school to get a diploma and then I set my eyes on the big screen. I’ve always wanted to be an actress ever since I had my first solo in the production of Beauty and the Beast. There was something about being the star on the stage that started hunger deep down inside of me. I had to get out of my small town. If I didn’t then, I would end up like every girl there and I wanted more than that. I deserve it. Everyone deserves a second chance in life, and I knew that from the moment I left home.

  My mom shouted, “Once you leave Valentina don’t come back.”

  I slammed the door shut knowing that I had no choice, she wouldn’t let me go back home. I had to know what it was like outside of Minnesota. I’d never been on a bus, let alone a plane and I needed to see what was out there. My dad didn’t even bother to say goodbye. He’d called me a disgrace and a whore the moment I told them that I wanted to be an actress.

  I’d been brought up in a strict Catholic household; my parents had already decided who I was going to marry from the time I hit fifteen.

  The wedding was planned for my twenty-first birthday. A surprise my dad liked to call it. He had no idea that he was the one that was going to get the surprise when I decided to call off the wedding. I went to see Ross. He was pretty much like me. He’d been brought up to take over the family car showroom business. I would be his wife, and our lives were pretty much planned by everyone, but not us.

  There was no love between us; mom had reassured me that it would take time. I knew that if I’d gone down the aisle, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. I went to see Ross, I told him that I had dreams, ‘You’re a fool, Valentina White. Not worthy of being my wife.’

  With those words, I knew that I had to get out of there. I had a little money from the odd jobs that I’d done at some of the neighbor's houses. Such as babysitting, baking and even cleaning at times. I never told my parents that sometimes the neighbors gave me money. That was my little secret. I knew that the time would come when the money would come in handy, and it did the moment I walked through the door.

  I look in the mirror one more time before I go downstairs to get in the car that the agency said would pick me up to take me to the airport. I can’t believe that my dream’s finally coming true. I didn’t think that it would do because everyone in Hollywood wants to be a star. It’s so disheartening to find out that what I thought would be so easy, is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected it would be. I shake my head at my father’s words as I left the house, “All those women are whores, do you think that they get the jobs based on their talent?”

  I knew what he was referring to, sleeping with producers. I’m a good girl; I have no intention of getting fame and fortune just to forsake the one thing that I’ve been holding on to so dearly. The car comes to pick me up to go to the airport. I know very little about who I’m staring with in the movie seeing as I have the leading role. I still can't believe that I've not only got a part, but the leading one. I just hope that he’s not too big a star and can support me as much as possible.

  No mind turns to Eric. The one that spent the whole night and morning with me and then treated me as if I was an inconvenience to him. I know that our paths will cross again. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but if this movie’s going to be as big as they say that it’s going to be then, I’ll see him.

  Maybe, I’ll be the one calling him a taxi at the end of the night. If he did ask me to fuck him again. Would I say no?

  Never.

  Because, as much as I try and think of him as being a jerk. I’ve been in love with him for too long as his number one fan. Maybe Harper’s right and I need to get rid of my infatuation. The problem is as much as I try and dismiss it, I’ve had it for most of my life, and that’s not something that you get over in a heartbeat.

  “Ms. White?”

  The driver asks as he steps out of the l
imo. I’ve been sitting outside a different apartment building for the last ten minutes. I felt too embarrassed to have him come inside, and I certainly didn’t want him to know where I lived, not that it would make a different to him. This part could be the start of change. Something new. Something good.

  I nod, “Yes. I’m Valentina White. Please call me, Valentina. Ms. White reminds me of my mom,” I smile at him, but he doesn’t realize that it’s a really bad thing to be thought of us her. The one that slapped me and called me a whore when I said that I didn’t want to marry Ross. She told me not to come back; she’ll see that I’m a star and what’s she got to say about it then?

  Nothing.

  He smiles as he takes off his hat and bows, I notice that he’s a lot younger than I expected him to be. I just think of drivers as being old men, maybe I’ve watched one too many movies.

  “Is that it?”

  He points to my small case. I’m going to be onset for four weeks, but I came to the city with dresses like the one that I’m wearing now. I can’t afford anything else in the city. Everything’s too expensive. I have a couple of jeans and a few shirts that’ll have to do while I’m on location. I only have one set of boots, and that prompted my first question about going away for a while. I was relieved when I was told that my wardrobe would be provided for the set. I gathered that it would work out that way, but apart from the big script that I have to study and only came to the bar yesterday. I don’t know how this thing works. I know that I just have to be patient.

  I lost my job at the bar. As soon as I told Janice that I’d be gone for four weeks, she said coldly, “You’ll be replaced you know that. And when you come back. Because you will come back and I won’t be able to help you.”

  Harper said that she would help me. She was so damn proud, just as I am right now going on this trip. My first time on a plane. This whole journey’s going to be wild. I wonder if I should have gone to Eric’s house and asked him for some tips.