Hollywood Divorces / Hollywood Wives: The New Generation (26 page)

A
bbey Christian was young, gorgeous, famous and a pain in the ass. She gave new meaning to the word ‘vacuous’.

Brian Richter had thought when they’d hired her to star in
Space Blonde
that he’d definitely fuck her–not that he found her so irresistible, it was simply that she was there, on location, and so was he, and Brian could usually score with any woman he chose. However, Abbey was not responding in the usual way to his considerable charm, so he’d come to the conclusion that someone else on the shoot was nailing her.

He considered the various contenders and narrowed them down to Harry Bello, her much older co-star, Chris Fortune, their boy-wonder director, or Andy Moon, their Rod Stewart lookalike camera operator.

He watched Abbey and Harry’s interaction on the set. It was painfully obvious they loathed each other. He observed her behaviour with Chris Fortune. She treated him like dog shit–one of the reasons the poor guy was close to a nervous breakdown. And Andy, well, Andy was busy banging the script girl.

Which left…who?

Brian went to the source of all gossip–Billie, their Bronx-born hairdresser on the shoot. He sat in her chair while she trimmed his hair, staring at an assortment of
Polaroids of various stars taped to her mirror and asked the question. ‘Who’s slipping it to our leading lady?’

Billie gave him a sceptical look. ‘You mean
you
don’t know?’

‘I just got back from L.A.,’ he said. ‘I’m not up on what’s goin’ on.’

‘You’re always up on everything,’ Billie said, waving her scissors. ‘And since
you
’re not slipping it to her, guess who is? It should be easy enough for you to figure out.’

‘Who?’ he said.

She leaned close to his ear and whispered, ‘Evan.’

‘
What
?’ He began to laugh. ‘You
gotta
be kidding.’

‘Everyone knows. Andy caught him creeping out of her room at six a.m. the other morning. He didn’t see Andy, thinks it’s a deep, dark secret.’

‘
Evan
is screwing Abbey? My
brother
, Evan?’

‘Do we have
another
Evan on this movie?’ Billie said, snipping away with her scissors.

‘Jesus Christ! He’s
engaged.
’

‘Like
that
ever made any difference. Must run in the family, right, Brian?’

He shook his head. He was in shock. Evan
never
fooled around with the hired help. No wonder his brother had warned him to stay away from Abbey.

And what about Nicci? There she was in L.A., preparing to marry the guy. And she was a nice kid,
really
nice.

‘It’s a hoot, doncha think?’ Billie said.

‘No, it’s sad,’ Brian replied. ‘Listen, honey,
I
screw around, but not if I’m in a committed relationship.’

‘You wouldn’t know what commitment meant if it bit you on the ass,’ Billie said scornfully. ‘You’re a hound dog, man.’

‘Yeah, well, if I
was
committed, I wouldn’t fuck around. And Evan’s getting married to someone special.’ Now that he’d said it aloud, he realized that Nicci
was
special.

‘When’s this supposed to be happening?’ Billie asked.

‘In two weeks.’

‘
Ooh
, now
that
’s naughty.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ Brian agreed.

As soon as Billie finished trimming his hair, he headed straight to the set, not quite sure what he would do.

Evan wasn’t around. Abbey was sitting in her director’s chair sucking on a lollipop. She wore short shorts and a tiny tank, every curve on view–not to mention extremely erect nipples. She loved turning the crew on, it gave her a big kick.

‘Hey, Abbey,’ he said, wandering over to her.

‘Brian–when did
you
get back?’

‘Yesterday. I was on the set, didn’t you see me?’

‘I was too busy working my cute little ass off,’ she said modestly.

‘Yes, you were,’ he agreed.

‘How was L.A.?’ she asked, sucking away. ‘I miss it.’

Yeah
, he thought.
What you miss is your dealer.

Abbey was a total coke-head, another thing that shocked him, because Evan was so anti-drugs.

‘Seen my bro today?’ he asked.

‘Evan’s around somewhere,’ she said vaguely.

‘I hung out with his fiancée in L.A.,’ Brian said. ‘Terrific girl. Pretty, smart–they make a great couple.’

He watched Abbey’s face change. She was not the best actress in the world. Lucky for her career she had an irresistible smile, which lit up the screen.

‘Evan’s got a fiancée?’ she said, no smile in sight.

‘Yeah–Nicci. What a girl!’

‘I didn’t know Evan was engaged,’ she said, thunderclouds forming.

‘That’s my brother for you. Secretive to the end. See you, darlin’.’

And, job done, he left her stewing.

Lissa lunched with the reporter from the
L.A. Times
, delicately dodging all the questions she didn’t care to answer. The man gazed at her adoringly, and she knew it would be a puff piece–which was all right with her, because after Gregg’s character assassination she could do with some positive publicity.

Later she informed Max that she was not prepared to do any more sit-down interviews for at least a few months.

‘Your choice, babe,’ Max said. ‘The
Times
was important. And you’ll do the electronic media in Vegas.’

‘If I have to,’ she said reluctantly.

While Lissa was at lunch with the reporter, Danny received a phone call from Gregg Lynch. He was most surprised.

‘Danny,’ Gregg said, sounding overly friendly, ‘how’ve you been?’

‘Fine, thank you,’ Danny replied in his best guarded voice, quite perturbed at having to speak to the bad husband, although he’d always harboured a secret crush on Gregg, and had been quite dismayed by the break-up and subsequent betrayals.

‘Listen, Danny,’ Gregg said, ‘you and I always got along well, didn’t we?’

‘Uh…I…I suppose so,’ Danny stammered, not quite sure where this was leading.

‘I wasn’t even given a chance to say goodbye to anyone,’ Gregg complained. ‘And you were always nice to me, Danny. I never had any complaints–although Lissa did her share of bitching about you.’

‘
Excuse
me?’ Danny said, his face reddening at the thought of his princess saying anything negative about him.

‘So I was thinking,’ Gregg continued, ‘there’s no reason why I can’t come to the house to collect some of my things that were left behind in the rush to throw me out.’

‘There’s security at the house, Mr Lynch,’ Danny said quickly. ‘I’m afraid you’re not allowed here.’

‘Isn’t that unreasonable? And probably not legal. I
am
still her husband.’

‘I only work here, Mr Lynch,’ Danny said. ‘I don’t make the decisions.’

‘And I wouldn’t think of making it uncomfortable for you, Danny.’

‘What is it that you wanted to get?’ Danny sighed, feeling sorry for him.

‘I don’t need to go in the main house,’ Gregg said. ‘There’s a box in the pool storage room that contains some of my possessions. Letters from my mother, personal things like that. You can understand why I’d like to retrieve them, can’t you?’

‘I suppose so,’ Danny said unsurely. ‘What are you asking me to do? Get you the box?’

‘No, there’s a lot of junk in that room. I need to look for it myself.’

‘Well…’ Danny said, thinking that there couldn’t possibly be any harm in Gregg collecting his personal letters, especially since they were from his mom, and probably had sentimental value. ‘We’re leaving tomorrow at ten. I’m sure if you came when the pool man is here, nobody would object to you taking your box of personal letters. As long as you don’t go anywhere near the house.’

‘What time does he come?’

‘About noon.’

‘Thanks, Danny, you’ve been a big help. I always knew you were a good guy, in spite of Lissa’s comments.’

‘That’s very nice of you, Mr Lynch,’ Danny said, wondering exactly what Lissa’s comments were.

‘And remember,’ Gregg added.

‘Yes?’

‘There’s always two sides to every story.’

Danny hung up the phone full of mixed feelings. He knew he was supposed to hate Gregg Lynch, only he couldn’t. And what possible harm could there be in the poor man claiming some of his personal stuff?

By the time Lissa arrived home, Danny had conveniently put the phone call out of his mind. Not that he would have told her. She would be livid if she knew he’d spoken to Gregg.

Some things were better left unmentioned.

When Taylor arrived at the studio she felt fucked, literally. Montana sensed it immediately: she had an uncanny knack of psyching into people’s private secrets.

‘Hmm…Larry must be performing better than he was when he was married to Susan,’ Montana remarked.

‘What do you mean?’ Taylor answered, sitting down in the makeup chair.

‘It’s written all over your face.
Somebody
had great sex this morning, and it wasn’t me.’

‘I never discuss my sex life,’ Taylor said primly. ‘I’ve always found that people who do are usually not getting it.’

Montana laughed. ‘You’re so right.’

‘How late did you stay at the party last night?’ Taylor asked.

‘Long after you,’ Montana said. ‘I’m directing Kyndra’s next video as a favour to Norio. We go back years, he’s a very interesting man.’

‘I’ve always liked him,’ Taylor said.

‘Where do you know them from?’ Montana asked.

‘There’s a group of us who get together for lunch whenever we can. Lissa put everyone together. When she was first starting out she sang back-up for Kyndra.’

‘And how did
you
meet Lissa?’

‘I had a small role in one of her movies and we bonded. She’s the best. Never changes.’

‘Yes, she does have a dynamic presence,’ Montana said thoughtfully. ‘I’d love to work with her.’

‘Then you should,’ Taylor said. ‘Anything’s possible, right?’

‘It certainly is.’

‘And speaking of anything being possible,’ Taylor added, ‘guess what I did last night.’

‘I’m not into guessing games.’

‘I actually asked Larry why he didn’t put me in one of his movies.’

‘Good for you,’ Montana said. ‘It’s about time you did that.’

‘I mean, here I am, an actress, married to one of the most powerful men in town, and he’s never even suggested that I appear in one of his films.’

‘What was his reaction?’ Montana inquired.

‘He got very edgy and changed the subject, started talking about
my
project, which he’s
finally
decided to help me with.’

‘What’s your project?’

‘I developed a script I’ve been trying to get off the ground for two years. One of the reasons I haven’t been able to is because Larry would never put his weight behind it. Now that I’m acting again, it’s making him nervous. So he’s hired a young writer to do another rewrite, and he’s also promised to attach himself as executive producer. It’ll make a big difference.’

‘I’m sure it will,’ Montana murmured. ‘Who’s the writer?’

‘Oliver Rock,’ Taylor answered casually.

‘Don’t think I know him.’

‘He’s a young guy who just sold a spec script for a lot of money. Larry seems to think he has plenty of talent.’

‘Never heard of him,’ Montana said, ‘but that means nothing ’cause I don’t read the trades. Gave them up a long time ago when I realized they were full of deals that never materialized.’

By the end of the day on Wednesday Michael knew he couldn’t avoid it any longer. He had to call Carol.

She was still at her office. ‘I might’ve sold a two-million-dollar house today,’ she said cheerfully, as if nothing else was going on in their lives.

‘That’s good,’ he said.

‘Good!’ she exclaimed. ‘Don’t you mean great?’

‘Yeah, uh, that’s great, honey,’ he said, wishing he never had to see her again. ‘And thanks for dinner last night.’

‘I knew I could snare you with my cooking,’ she joked.

He laughed nervously. ‘Uh…Carol, I’m off to Vegas tomorrow. It’s work, and I won’t be back until Monday. So Monday night you and I should sit down and talk.’

‘Yes, Michael. My place or yours?’

‘I’ll come to you.’

‘Around seven?’

‘See you then.’

He didn’t know what he was going to say to her, he only knew that something had to be worked out. He’d already decided he would support the child financially; it was the least he could do.

Memories of Bella kept drifting back to haunt him–the little girl he’d thought was his. He remembered the day she was born, her first steps, the way she’d called him Daddy. He tried to put her out of his mind. It was impossible.

Quincy put his head round the door and asked if he wanted to drop by the house for dinner.

‘Does Amber know about Carol?’ Michael asked.

‘
I
didn’t tell her, man,’ Quincy assured him. ‘Not me.’

‘So you’re saying she
does
know?’ Michael said, lighting up a cigarette.

‘Carol talked to her,’ Quincy admitted.

‘
Shit
!’

‘She’s cookin’ her famous fried chicken.’

‘I’ll pass.’

‘You’re not pissed at
me
, are you?’

‘No, Q. I’ll be better off alone tonight.’

‘If you change your mind—’

‘Thanks. I gotta pack, get ready for tomorrow.’

He stayed late at the office, and by the time he got home he was too tired to think. He switched on the TV, watched ten minutes of
The Sopranos,
and fell into a deep sleep.

Nicci was frantic. Evan’s mother was impossible, sticking her nose into everything as if she had a right. During the course of the day, the maid almost quit, and the gardener mumbled a few Spanish insults in Lynda’s direction after she’d nagged him about the state of the grass, the hedge and the flowers. Unfortunately, Lynda understood Spanish, so then she was hot to fire the gardener.