Friends With Way Too Many Benefits (16 page)

"Are you in any discomfort at all right now?" He narrowed his eyes, shocked.

"Not really. I can hold pretty much any position for pretty much any length of time."

"I don't believe it." He chuckled. "If I were doing that, I think I'd need to go to the hospital."

"Well, if miss stick-up-her-ass wasn't throwing us out, I could prove it here."

"It doesn't have to be here… necessarily." He flashed her a grin.

She returned a giggle.

"I just want to see you get out of that position without hurting yourself. I'll move back so you can—"

"I don't need you to move back… In fact, move closer."

"What?" He lifted his hands high above his head and stretched.

"Move closer. I promise I won't fall on you or anything." She gave him a wink. "Unless, of course, you want me too."

They shared a laugh and her body began to shake. She said, "Now it isn't easy to laugh in this position."

"I'll bet. Okay, I'll move." He slid a little closer to her spreading his legs wide and holding back a laugh. "I'm so glad I came to this class today. I was totally going to blow it off, but, uh—"

"Closer."

The flirting pair was no more than a foot apart with her smiling face still a few inches from the floor looking right between his spread legs as he glanced self-consciously toward the door.

"Closer," she repeated.

"Come on." He scoffed. "You can't be serious."

"Do it," she commanded.

Closing the gap to six inches from her, he sighed gazing mesmerized at her tight supple scantily clad body.

"Now, don't move."

With complete control, she gracefully lifted her feet until they were pointing straight to the ceiling. His eyes traveled slowly up from her breasts stopping on her tiny shorts and he swallowed hard. "Wow."

"You see." She held the position almost effortlessly.

"I, um, really don't understand where you can go from here. You sure you don't need me to move?"

"Positive."

Spreading her legs apart, she dropped them parallel to the floor and he gasped.

"Come on what are you an Olympic gymnast or something?"

"Ballet."

"Oh, ballet…"

"Maybe you're right. I don’t think I can… um, could you just bring your legs together and duck your head down like two inches."

"You're serious?"

"Uh-huh."

Following her instruction, he held perfectly still, his lips now three inches from her bare stomach and waist band of her tight shorts. He breathed in her perfume and his eyes fluttered closed before opening wide.

Slowly she brought her legs half way back up in a V position and without moving her torso forward, curled her legs over his head, planted them securely on the floor, then gracefully allowed her upper body to glide upward smiling at him as their faces passed one another as if she were rising on an elevator.

"Holy shit."

"Told you." After stepping back, she walked to her mat and retrieved her water bottle and sensually placed the rim to her lips.

He rose to his feet and shook his head. "I've never seen anything like that before and I've been to Cirque Du Soleil… twice."

She shrugged then took another sip of water.

In a trance-like state, he said, "I'm leaving for Miami in the morning and I'll be gone for three months. Have dinner with me."

"Oh, I've heard that before. I know how this works." Shaking her head, she walked toward the front of the room and grabbed a towel.

People started spilling into the room as Paul moved to her. "No, I'm serious. I'm shooting a movie there and I know we're going to be working weekends and it's… I have to see you before I leave."

She flashed him a smile. "Can I think about it?"

"Sure."

She headed for the door and he took off after her. "But don't think too long because I—"

"How about I meet you in the parking lot in twenty minutes." She dabbed the perspiration from her neck. "I just need to get out of these wet clothes and take a shower."

"Yeah, sure. Twenty minutes."

"I'm driving the baby blue beetle convertible." Moving to him, she pressed her sweaty towel to his chest. "Wait for me by my car, okay?"

"Yeah," he mumbled then lifting her towel close to his face, he subconsciously breathed it in, watching captivated as she walked toward the locker room. She didn't look back, she didn’t need to— as she could feel his eyes on her body. She disappeared into the locker room wearing a wide grin.

Twenty eight minutes later, Natalie emerged from the gym to find Paul's Jaguar now parked next to her car with him inside on the phone. As he spotted her nearing the car, he said, "Call you back."

"Sorry, I took so long."

"No, don't, uh…" Tossing the phone down to the seat next to him, he smiled and looked her over. "My God… You, you must be an actress."

"No, I'm a model."

"But you must have some interest in being an actress?" He climbed out of his car and leaned back on the door.

She shook her head. "No, not really. I'm happy doing what I'm doing."

"That's refreshing because you wouldn’t believe how many girls out here think they can be the next Reese Witherspoon. There just aren't that many jobs. It's an incredible long shot."

"Tell me about it. I mean, I have friends who are trying to break into the business."

"Sure. So, dinner. As I said, I'm leaving tomorrow and I… it's not often that I meet a woman like you. Have you been to Moonshadows?"

"No."

"It's just south of here on the PCH. It's great. It's where Mel Gibson had that crazy incident."

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that."

"Meet you there at what? What's good for you… eight?"

"Eight." Smiling, she headed to her beetle and clicked the key fob to unlock the door. He hurried behind her and pulled open the door.

"Thank you."

"Natalie, it was great to meet you. See you later."

Climbing into the car, she smiled up to him. "Nice to meet you Paul."

He closed her door, walked to his car and got inside. As she backed out of the space, he gave her a wave.

As Natalie pulled onto the PCH, she dialed Jeremy telling him to end his attempts to get her on this film. She had the matter firmly in sight.

At the Wilde residence, Jillian, Brian, Victoria and Jim enjoyed a relaxing Saturday out by the pool. Kaylie had spent the previous thirty minutes giggling, kicking and splashing around the pool along with the four adults in her Baby Spring Float complete with sunshade canopy. Exhausted, the one-year old was now sleeping, well, like a baby, inside the air-conditioned house. The baby monitor was on high alert and sitting on the table by Victoria next to her ice tea.

"So how was L.A.?" Victoria asked.

"It was... nice," Jillian replied wearing a slight frown.

"What wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. They're planning to start shooting in a few days, so—"

"Wait." Victoria smiled. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Who's playing me. Come on. They must know if they're shooting." She gazed at Jillian, wide-eyed.

Jillian gave her a hesitant look. "You're not going to like it."

"How do you know?"

"I, um, know you don't really like her."

"Just tell me."

"But we're having such a good time. I was going to break it to you, you know, later, like when the movie was about to open."

Brian shook his head. "Yeah, I think you're better off not knowing."

Sitting up from her chaise lounge, Victoria sighed. "I'm sure it's fine. Who is it? I know they were talking to Cameron Diaz and Kate Beckinsale. Either one of them would be great, I think."

"It's not Cameron or Kate." Jillian shook her head, cringing.

"Okay, so who? I promise I won't overreact."

"Just have an open mind, because she really is a great actress."

"I will." Victoria sighed.

"Okay..." Jillian smiled hesitantly. "It's, um, Debra Messing."

"What?"

"The chick from
Will and Grace
?" Victoria shot them a horrified look.

"Oh boy," Jim whispered to Brian then curled his lip.

"Oh God, I hated her in
The Wedding Date
and..." Victoria scoffed. "... she was the one who cheated on Ben Stiller in
Along Came Polly
. I can't stand her."

"I know you love Ben Stiller." Jillian frowned. "But it was just a movie, she really didn't cheat on him."

"I don't care. Remember she slept with the scuba instructor on their honeymoon, just 'cause he was hung like a horse."

Brian smiled. "Well, you can relate to that, because you're a size queen yourself."

"Stay out of this grower." Victoria sneered. "You've got Chance playing you, so you've got nothing to complain about."

Jillian said, "I think she'll be good in it. She's—"

"And what's with her nose?"

"What?" Jillian asked.

"Her nose."

"What about it?"

"It's sorta big don't you think for her to be playing me? I mean, my nose is sorta perfect for my face. Right Jim?"

"What?" Jim woke up from his self-induced coma.

"My nose!" Looking over to her boyfriend, Victoria sneered. "Don't you think she has the wrong nose?"

"Yes, baby she has the wrong nose," Jim replied, sheepishly.

Victoria scoffed. "And don't get me started on her tits."

"Please don't," Brian grumbled softly, running his hands over his face. He glanced to his brother and they shared a curled lip look as they desperately held back their laughter.

"They're too small." The crazed woman pointed to her own set, pressing her chin to her chest. "She doesn't have these. Not even close." She returned to look at the other three. "I’m not a big fan of her acting abilities already and I'm sure she can't act her way into these."

Jillian let out a long slow breath. "Maybe they'll put her in a padded bra."

"A padded bra is not going to help her pull off the nude scenes."

"There really aren't any?"

"What?" Victoria looked to Jillian, dumbfounded.

"I think there's maybe a
sidal
breast shot in one scene, but her arm is blocking the nipple so—"

"What the hell..." Victoria said slowly, her words dripping with contempt. "... kind of a movie are you guys making?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Victoria character, me, isn't going to be nude at all." She raised her palms up, utterly defeated. "I read the book, she's practically naked the entire thing. How are you going to make it sexy without showing some nudity?"

"Camera angles." Jillian replied, sheepishly.

"Camera angles?" Victoria shot her a look of exhaustion.

"Yes."

"You guys are going to screw this thing up. I know it." Victoria sighed. "Why am I not a producer on this thing, huh?"

"Um, maybe because you have no movie producing experience," Brian chimed in.

She shot him a look that could kill. "Keep it up Bri…"

"It's true." Jillian came to her husband's defense.

"Without me there would be no story to tell." Victoria looked pointedly to her friend. "Without me there would be no movie."

"Well... I'm not sure I would say that." Jillian frowned.

"Without me..." Victoria sneered, waving her hand around wildly in the general direction of Jillian and Brian. "... it's just a story about you two fumbling around scared to make a move on each other when you should have been screwing each other's brains out. I mean, I've never heard of two people so attracted to one other, sleeping in the same house together alone and not having sex. I mean, are you two actually human? If I'm not around you two never would have had the balls to get together." She pointed to Brian. "Hell, you’d still be pining away for that flexible bitch from—"

Suddenly the baby monitor exploded with Kaylie's ear-piercing cries. All at once, Jim, Brian and Jillian sprang into action and in unison, respectively said, "I'll get her." "I've got it." "I'll take care of her."

Not one of the three looked back as they rushed toward the house and left Miss Victoria Wilde stewing in her own juices and wearing a giant frown. The frown didn't last long as her high-functioning brain went to work. Seconds later an evil smile spread across her lips.