Hard Glamour

by Maggie Marr

  A sly smile edged up over Webber’s face. “Seven figures.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Even after Webber took his fifteen percent and the IRS took their thirty percent, Choo and I would be good for a long time. I could pay for the rest of college and if Choo kept doing so well at CTA and wanted to, he could work here.

  “Choo!” Webber yelled. I turned and saw my brother pop around the doorway of Webber’s office. “I know you were listening to the whole negotiation, don’t even pretend you weren’t.”

  Choo smiled. He slapped Webber’s hand in a high five.

  “Nice work,” Choo said. “You were awesome. I didn’t think there was any way you were going to get the box-office bonuses.”

  “You got me box-office bonuses?” I asked.

  Webber nodded with his huge Cheshire grin. “Revenue stream, my man, first step to first-dollar gross, which is what we want on the next deal.” He turned to my brother. “Go grab some Veuve from the kitchen. This deal plus your premiere tonight”—Webber pointed his finger into my chest—“means we get to start celebrating now.”

  “Yes, it does,” Choo said.

  I was flying so high. I had three movies in the can. One was premiering tonight, and my agent had just closed my next film. I took a deep breath. The panic that had raced through my chest ever since our parents kicked us to the curb because Choo was gay started to unlace in my chest.

  “You feeling good?”

  “I am,” I said.

  “You know the reason you got this is you are smokin’ hot. The young chicks, they dug that billboard, and they are going to dig you in this film. You want them to keep on digging you.”

  Choo walked back into the room with the bottle of open champagne. He held three glasses and Webber poured.

  “You have your whole life to settle down man. Why not have some fun now?” Webber asked.

  He raised his glass and clinked it against mine. I met his gaze and then looked at my little brother who cocked his eyebrow. We all took a drink of champagne.

  “Gentlemen,” Choo said. “I’m out. I’ve got to go get ready for tonight.”

  “Can you believe this kid,” Webber shot his thumb toward Choo and smiled. “Thinks it’s something special that his brother has a premiere tonight. Go on,” Webber said with a playful grin, “get out of here.”

  Choo left and Webber and I settled in for another glass of champagne.

  “Man,” I said and sighed, “I am having fun, but I have totally just hit the jackpot and met the girl of my dreams.” I shook my head and settled back into the couch. Webber didn’t understand, I saw the doubt in his eyes.

  “With a reader from Kansas?” He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet onto his desk.

  I sat forward. “Lay off.”

  Webber had found me when I was a model and he’d gotten me my first gigs and I thought his opinions were important, but I hoped my tone and the look on my face let him know that Lane would never be just a reader from Kansas.

  “Okay, okay,” Webber said and held up his hands as if he surrendered. “I mean, you’ve banged so many of them before, I didn’t realize this one was so special.” He looked over the rim of his champagne glass.

  I scowled. “She is.”

  “Great. Looks like we have some repackaging to do,” he muttered around the rim of his glass. His gaze met mine. “Boom Boom isn’t happy. She’s spent the last six months creating this carefully crafted image in the media that you’re the next bad-boy on the block. Single. Ungettable. Part of why the tabs were salivating over the leak that you and Kiley were sleeping together.”

  “Screw the tabs,” I said.

  “Right,” Webber said. “Here’s the thing, part of why I could get you the deal I got you is because of what Boom Boom has crafted. I have to tell you Kiley’s people weren’t happy about you deciding not to arrive on Kiley’s arm tonight.”

  “You tell them why?”

  Webber shook his head no. “That’s Boom Boom’s department not mine. Man, I couldn’t have closed today if they knew the real deal. Kiley is meant to play opposite you in The Legend Returns and if she thought she’d gotten the boot tonight because of a girl from Kansas—”

  “Lane,” I said, my tone terse. “Her name is Lane.”

  “Right. If Kiley, the biggest star in the world, thought she’d gotten the boot to be your date at the premiere tonight—you know, after Boom Boom spent the last four months trying to make this happen—because of a girl… I mean Lane, from Kansas, the deal wouldn’t have closed.”

  I swallowed a bitter mouthful of champagne.

  “Because as big as you are going to be in three months thanks to these films you’ve got in the can, right now, Dillon, my man, nobody knows who the hell you are and studios usually don’t pay seven figures for ‘nobody knows who the hell you are.’ They are banking on what they’ve seen in the can, who Steve Legend wants, and the fact that Kiley’s people have hinted that you two would be pretty smokin’ hot together.”

  A knot tightened in my throat. “But it’s closed, right?”

  “Yeah,” Webber said and tilted the glass of champagne. “The deal is closed, but you know this town, it’s fickle. Say if Mission Ranger tanks or Kiley decides she’s pissed with you and decides to put two other films into her next two slots, well, then we could be screwed. You could be screwed.”

  My stomach clenched. The fear that was my constant companion rooted deeper in my belly. Choo and I weren’t nearly as safe as I’d thought, even with the next film deal closed. Everything could still be yanked away from us. I could lose my career. He could lose his college education. We could still be out on our asses trying to scrape by—with Choo again trying to decide if he’d let our parents “rehabilitate” his gayness just so we could have something to eat and a place to sleep.

  “But that won’t happen,” Webber said. “Probably.” He took a long breath and his eyes watched me. “So, what about this girl? The one you want to let the world know that you’re involved with? The one you’re going to kill your image for. Doesn’t she have to go back to school? In like a week?”

  I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling and nodded my head. “Yeah, we haven’t discussed that,” I said. “I… I have to convince her not to go.”

  “Convince her? Hell, I’d think she’d have her claws so deep into the next biggest star in the world you wouldn’t be able to shake the bitch loose.”

  I glared at Webber.

  “Sorry, the girl, Lane… you wouldn’t be able to shake her loose what with the two of you finding each other and your imminent success.”

  “She’s not like that,” I said. “I don’t think it’s going to be an easy sell. She’s independent and wants her own career and wants to finish school—"

  “Plenty of schools out here,” Webber said.

  “Don’t I know it,” I said. “But for her, her finding her way on her own, her breaking in on her own and people knowing it happened for the right reasons… Man, those are some pretty important things for her.”

  “Gotcha,” Webber said. He lowered his glass to his desk. His phone started to ring.

  I stood. The celebration was over.

  Webber reached for his Bluetooth. “Limo at four,” Webber said.

  I gave him a thumbs-up and headed for the door. I had some good news to share with Lane and some desperate begging about her changing her permanent location.

  Lane

  “Here is the thing,” Amanda said. “You’re riding with me, Choo, and Jackson.” She waved her Diet Coke can toward herself and toward Choo, who was wearing cucumbers on his eyes. A woman massaged his feet and another massaged his hands.

  The woman massaging my toes lifted my foot and stuck it into a bag filled with hot wax.

  The extra bedroom had been converted into a spa for the premiere. Amanda’s pedicure was finished and now the woman was painting her fingernails a flaming red.

  “And my brother,” Amanda said. “Sterling isn�
��t taking a date, so he’s riding with my dad. Taylor is in Vermont riding his bike, so it will be just us four.”

  I rested my head against the cushion of the portable pedicure throne. An ache drifted through me, followed by a wave of guilt. I was happy that I was getting to attend the Mission Ranger premiere. I was happy I was going with Choo and Amanda, my two closest friends in L.A. I was happy Dillon wasn’t arriving with Kiley Kepner. I was happy for all these reasons, but a thick block of disappointment had settled in my belly, and I knew it was because I wanted to go to the premiere with Dillon.

  I understood the reasoning. Dillon would arrive alone in his own limo with Webber, his agent, to promote the single, sexy star brand they’d created for him. I understood this. I did. I was in the business. My friends were in the business. My boyfriend was in the business. My brain understood that this movie, this moment in Dillon’s career, was meant to be the movie and the moment that launched him. I got that how this launch took place had been decided long before I’d arrived on scene and would determine the trajectory of his career for the next couple of years. I was grateful that Dillon had put the kibosh on going to the premiere with Kiley, but neither he nor Webber nor Boom Boom had come out and said that the hints that Dillon and Kiley were involved, the leaked stories on Tattler and TMZ by someone “close to them” were untrue.

  I knew that I was the only girl in Dillon’s life, but I still didn’t like being smacked in the face with the tabloid rumors that Dillon and Kiley were a couple each time I went to the grocery or the pharmacy or flipped on the TV or my phone or my computer. Even the Huffington Post had run a story about the possibility of Kiley and Dillon dating and what “this coupling” could mean for the Steve Legend film they were scheduled to film together this fall.

  My life was private. Dillon’s was not. I had to sit through the lies knowing the truth, knowing I was the girl Dillon was with, and even though I felt like it should have been enough knowing that Dillon wanted me, was faithful to me… it wasn’t. I wanted the world to know too, or at least not to think he was with Kiley Kepner. I pressed my toes through the hot paraffin. The muscles in my feet relaxed. I exhaled and tried to savor this moment of luxury.

  “Your rack of dresses is upstairs,” Amanda said. “The stylist came by while you were out with”—she cocked a disapproving eyebrow—“the wolf pack.”

  Amanda couldn’t understand how now that Dillon and I were together that I was still reading scripts and walking dogs, but here was the thing—I loved walking the dogs. I loved Runyon Canyon and the way that Kong and Bernie loped up the hill while Scorsese and Spielberg bounded to the top every morning. And the script reading? Well, I still intended to get a job in the business, and I would have read close to two hundred scripts by the time my summer was finished. I’d definitely read everything that was green lit and everything that was cast-contingent. All this reading put me in a good place for when I started at CTA next spring.

  “The stylist gets back at two,” Amanda said. She wore flip-flops since her toenails were still wet. “I’m going home to get ready there. Makeup and hair gets to my place in twenty minutes.” She bent down and air-kissed my cheeks. “This is called pampering.” She sighed. “Okay? Enjoy it.”

  Choo lifted the cucumber from his eye. “Don’t worry. I will force her to love every moment.”

  They both liked to tease me about how low maintenance I was. When I’d first met with the stylist Dillon had hired for me for the premiere, I’d been not only intimidated but absolutely terrified. I’d stood there and nodded and not said a word about what I liked or what I wanted. After I told Amanda about our meeting, Amanda had made Marni the stylist return. That time Amanda and Marni had gone through a look book with me and picked out the gowns that were now waiting for me upstairs. I didn’t even want to think about the cost of the stylist or the gowns—so luxurious, so expensive. Everything was so plush; I was nearly overwhelmed with the luxury of it all.

  “Okay, my mani-pedi is complete,” Choo said. He sat up and tossed the cucumber slices in the trash. “Also this facial. I am going to get myself glorious, then I will be down to your room to supervise hair and makeup for you, tout suite!” He bent down and gave me a peck on the cheek. My heart swelled. I was lucky to have found these people for my life—I loved Choo and I loved Amanda. I was going to miss them when I had to go home.

  Hair and makeup took two hours, but picking my dress for the premiere from the rack of gowns was nearly instantaneous. I knew immediately which one I wanted.

  “You look amazing,” Marni said. “I wasn’t sure when I pulled this one, but it’s perfect for you.”

  I twirled in front of the three way mirror she’d set up in my room. The dress was a pale nude color with gold threads woven throughout the fabric. The front had a deep V-neck and the back plunged low. Dillon loved my legs, so I wanted them bare. The hem was above my knees. I wore a pair of extra-high heels, my first set of Loubies and they weren’t on loan. I thought back to the day at the beginning of summer, that most horrible day when CTA had given away my job. I’d had no work. I’d had nowhere to live. I’d had no money. I remembered that girl in HR who had been wearing her pair of Loubies and how I’d thought that wasn’t in the cards for me.

  This was more than a fantasy—all of this was nearly surreal. I was wearing a designer dress that cost more than my final year of college tuition. A makeup artist had just completed my hair and makeup. I had a stylist futzing over my wardrobe so that I could go to the premiere of my boyfriend’s first film.

  Boyfriend. Was Dillon my boyfriend? The word didn’t even seem accurate. When I considered the one high school boyfriend I’d had and the couple of dates in college I’d gone on—Dillon was so much more. He was my everything.

  My heart trembled in my chest. The idea of Dillon being my everything terrified me. I knew he cared for me. I knew that I was important to him, but I wasn’t his everything. I doubted I could ever be everything for him. His career meant so much and taking care of his brother—making certain that Choo got through school and didn’t have to deal with their parents—those were the things most important to Dillon.

  “What do you guys think?” I looked over at the pack on the bed. Four sets of ears perked up with my voice. Kong stood and barked but the other three just rolled their eyes toward me.

  “Damn!”

  I turned to the doorway where Choo stood.

  “Girl you clean up good!”

  “I could say the same thing.” I smiled. He looked so handsome in his black Armani suit and tie. “Going for the Hollywood glam look tonight?”

  He nodded. “Jackson is wearing a similar suit and I am certain will look amazing. We pick him up after we get Amanda.” Choo circled me and checked out my dress from top to toe. He glanced over at Marni. “You did an amazing job. She looks perfect.”

  Marni smiled. “I didn’t think this would be the dress tonight,” Marni said. “But it totally works. Looks like it was made for her.”

  His phone chimed and he pulled it from his pocket. “Meet me downstairs in five? I’m going to introduce the fellas to their pet-sitter for the night. Come on guys,” Choo called and patted his legs. Kong leapt off the bed. Scorsese and Spielberg were next. Bernie lifted his head, examined Choo, sighed, yawned, and put his head back down, hopeful, I gathered, that everyone would leave without him and he could just sleep.

  “Bernie, come on!” Choo said and gently nudged the big guy with his hand. The dog finally stood and lumbered off my bed. He looked back at me and jerked his head as if to say I looked good.

  I walked toward the backyard balcony while everyone who was there to make me look beautiful packed up their things. I searched the view. The Big Risk had been magnificent. I had two more weeks before I needed to go back to Kansas. Dillon’s movie wrapped soon, then he had two weeks off before he started his next film with Amanda’s dad, Steve Legend, and the director Hunter Fabian. We hadn’t discussed what was going to happen to us when I went
back to school for my last year. We hadn’t even really talked about there being an us after the summer. All I knew was that when I left, if I left without an “us,” I would be devastated, completely heartbroken. But leaving alone, without a commitment from Dillon, without a relationship, was what I expected. I would take with me the most amazing memories. Memories of falling in love with the soon-to-be biggest star in the world.

  “I…”

  I turned at Dillon’s voice. My room was empty of the makeup artists and stylists and all their paraphernalia. Only Dillon stood just inside my doorway. His eyes were wide. My heart beat harder in my chest. His gaze locked onto me.

  My heart slammed into my ribs. He was every bit the exquisite male model. He wore a suit cut to perfection. A hint of shadow tugged on his jaw. His jet-black hair curled over the edges of his crisp white shirt. My breath whooshed from my lungs. The sight of him was like being kicked in the chest. He was so beautiful. I wasn’t sure how, but I’d become used to his beauty, not oblivious to it, but used to it, until a moment like this, when he wasn’t wearing jeans and a T-shirt. A moment like this, where he looked like he’d stepped of the cover of Esquire magazine. He was, quite simply, the most gorgeous guy I’d ever seen. And he was mine… at least for a while longer.

  “I don’t think you should wear that dress,” he said.

  “What? Why? I love… you don’t like it?”

  A sly smile broke across his face. “No, I love it, and I think every guy at the premiere tonight is going to love it too.” He walked across the room to me and his fingertips grasped my arm. “I’m going to go nuts thinking about what every guy in that room tonight is going to want to do to you.”

  He was so close. His breath was hot on my face and I could smell the mint on his breath. His touch, his possession, sent a deep thrill through my body.

  Heat started in my chest and worked up my neck. “But there is only one guy who gets to,” I whispered.

  His hand grasped the back of my neck. His lips were so close to mine. The fingers of his other hand traced down my neck and slowly into the open spot between my breasts. My breath gasped out and heat pooled in the V of my legs.