The Lonely Lady (32 page)

Frank nodded. “You’ll have my check for a million dollars in the morning.”

Vincent suddenly smiled. “This calls for a drink. Another bottle of champagne,” he said to the headwaiter.

Frank got to his feet. “It’s already past my bedtime. I’d better get going.” He shook hands formally with the producer and Carla Maria, then said something in Italian to which they responded with smiles and nods. “Good night, young lady,” he said to me. “Nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you,” I replied.

“Good night, Vincent. Don’t forget to give my regards to your father.”

Vincent got to his feet. “I won’t, Uncle Frank. Good night.”

I watched him walk toward the door. There was something about the man that radiated power. Even the headwaiters seemed to bow more deferentially than usual. He went up the few steps to the entrance to the street and I saw two men come from the little bar and join him. They walked out together.

“To the film,” Vincent said, raising his glass of champagne.

“And you’re going to be in it,” Vincent said to me. “The second lead next to Carla Maria.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“I’m not. It’s part of the deal.”

“How did you manage to do it?”

He laughed. “Simple. I couldn’t get the money anywhere else so I put it up myself.”

“Where did you get it?” Then it dawned on me. “Is that the money your Uncle Frank was talking about?”

“I put up my share of the club as security.”

“Does your father know?”

“What difference does it make? I have the right to do what I like with my share.”

I was silent.

He refilled my glass. “Stop thinking about it and drink up. You’re going to be a star, baby.”

It was a little after three o’clock when we came out of El Morocco. Vincent pushed me toward the limousine. “You go to the hotel with them,” he said. “I’ll run over to the club, make sure that everything is okay and then join you.”

“I’m tired,” I said. “I’d just as soon go home to sleep if it’s all right with you.”

He was smiling but I could tell from his eyes that he was angry. “It’s not all right with me. You go with them. I have some things to settle with Dino and they have to be settled tonight.”

I knew better than to argue with him when he was in that mood. I got into the car. He waved his hand and started walking up the street as the limo moved down to First Avenue.

Carla Maria smiled at me. “It’s like a dream come true. Making a picture with the two of you.”

She reached across her husband and patted my hand. “You Americans are so funny.” She laughed. “I mean tonight.” She read the expression on my face. “Didn’t Vincent tell you that we were going to spend the night together?”

I shook my head. “He said that he would meet us later.”

She said something to her husband in Italian, then spoke to me. “We will call Vincent from the hotel and straighten this out.”

“No.” I reached across to the front seat and tapped the driver on the shoulder. “Could you stop the car here, please?”

The car pulled to the curb. Neither of them said a word as I got out. I flagged a cab and went to the apartment.

I had just finished undressing when Vincent came storming in. He stood in the bedroom doorway shouting at me. “You goddamn stupid cunt! After all I went through just to get them to agree to let you have the part.”

“You should have told me what you had in mind,” I said.

“Well now you know, so get yourself dressed and haul your ass over there!”

“No. I told you once before it wasn’t my game.”

“You like going around town begging for jobs and starving better?”

I didn’t answer.

“Remember what it was like the day you came into the club? You were on your ass when I took you off the streets. Now you think you can shit on me!”

“I’m not dumping on you.”

“Yes you are!” he yelled. “We can blow the whole deal just because you won’t go along with it.”

“No you won’t,” I said. “The million dollars you’re getting from him is the important thing. Not me.”

“You’re part of the deal too!” he shouted.

“You had no right to do that without asking me.”

“I had no right to commit the money either,” he yelled. “But I did it. Now don’t you fuck it up or I’ll wind up in a sewer someplace.”

I stared at him.

He suddenly slumped into a chair and covered his face with his hands. After a moment he looked up at me. There were tears in his eyes. “The only thing my family respects is success. If the picture goes over, everything will be all right.”

I didn’t speak.

“Please,” he begged. “Just this once. Afterward you can do anything you want. It’s the only chance I have to get out from under them.”

I didn’t move.

“They’ll bury me if this deal doesn’t go through. My father and Uncle Frank haven’t spoke in years. I don’t dare give him a chance to get that share of the club.”

“You already have,” I pointed out.

“Not if the picture is made. Uncle Frank promised to keep it quiet if he gets paid back.” He put his hands over his face again and began to cry.

I stood looking at him for a long minute, then I slowly began to get dressed. As I walked past him to the door he stopped me.

He went to the night table, took out a few joints, the vial of coke and a box of poppers. He put them all in my handbag. “This might help,” he said.

I didn’t speak.

He bent and kissed my cold lips. “Thanks. I love you,” he said.

I turned and went out the door. Even then I knew I would never come back.

Ten minutes later I was at their hotel suite. Carla Maria opened the door with a smile. “I am so glad you have coming,” she said.

I laughed suddenly. It wasn’t only her English. The whole thing just was beginning to feel ridiculous. I immediately lit a stick, then I took a double hit of coke and chased it down with two glasses of champagne.

By the time we made it to the bedroom I was as high as a kite and nothing seemed to matter. Much to my surprise I even began to enjoy it. I never dreamed that a woman’s touch could be so delicate and so exciting. And the tricks Carla Maria could do with her tongue made the Green Hornet seem like a child’s toy. It was as if a whole new world were opening up for me.

And when I woke up in the morning beside her and saw how beautiful she really was, I knew I had loved every moment of it.

Chapter 23

I waited until afternoon, when I thought he would be at the club for the morning accounting, before going back to the apartment for my clothes. I let myself in and went through to the bedroom. I had guessed wrong. He was in bed, still asleep.

I started to back out of the room quietly but he awakened and sat up in bed rubbing his eyes. “Good morning,” he said, smiling.

I didn’t answer.

“Come on now,” he said. “It wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No.”

He was wide awake now. “Did she eat your pussy?”

“Yes.”

“Did you eat hers?”

“Yes.”

I could sense he was getting excited. “What did Gino do all the time you were together?”

“Once he came in the room and watched us.”

“Did he fuck her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did he fuck you?”

“I don’t know,” I repeated. “I remember he fucked one of us but I don’t remember which one.”

“What did he do afterward?”

“He went back to his own room to sleep.”

“And what did you do?”

“We snorted the rest of the coke, popped a few more ammies and kept on balling.”

“Jesus!” he exclaimed. He got out of bed. I was right. He was excited. “I wish I had been there. It must have been something to watch.”

I didn’t speak.

“Let’s ball.”

“No.” I let a moment pass. “I’m all fucked out.”

“There’s always room for one more.”

“No.” I went to the closet and took down my suitcases.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Packing.”

“What for?” He seemed genuinely puzzled.

“Because I’m moving out. Why the hell do you think I would be packing?”

“For Christ’s sake, you don’t have to be so pissed off about it. You said you had a good time, didn’t you?”

“That has nothing to do with it,” I said. “I don’t like lies, and you lied to me.”

“Shit, baby,” he said. “That was an important deal. You might have blown it for us.”

“You mean I might have blown it for you. There never was anything in it for me.”

He stared at me without speaking.

“All that crap you gave me about being in the picture was just that. Crap. Carla Maria told me this morning that she didn’t know what you were talking about last night. There isn’t any part in the picture for me. Why couldn’t you have told me the truth?”

“I wasn’t lying about my family. My father would—” He stopped when he saw the expression on my face.

“You were lying about that too,” I said. “Carla Maria told me that Frank and your father are partners in the deal, that each is putting up half the money.”

“Aw Christ, honey,” he said, coming toward me. “It’s over. Everything worked out. You know I love you.”

“You’re right. It is over. You can stop lying now.” I began to take my clothes out of the closet and put them in the suitcases. “Just let me pack.”

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To my apartment.”

“Jesus, you’re not going back to that dump?”

“Would it make more sense if I told you that I was going to Italy with Carla Maria?”

“I wouldn’t believe you,” he said.

I opened my bag and handed him the airline ticket. “Would that convince you?”

“Well I’ll be a son of a bitch.”

“You’re beginning to tell the truth,” I said, taking back the ticket.

He shook his head. “To think you turned out to be a goddamn dyke.”

I laughed. “Little boys shouldn’t play with fire. They might burn their fingers. But don’t worry about it. I already told her I wasn’t going. I don’t intend to be a whore for either one of you.”

Relief crossed his face. “You’ve had a rough time,” he said. “Why don’t you just hop into bed and get some rest. You can even have the night off.”

“I’ll do that. Just as soon as I get to my place. And don’t worry about giving me the night off. I’ve just quit.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he said. “We can still be friends.”

“Maybe you can. But I can’t.”

“What are you going to live on?” he asked after a few minutes.

“I’ve saved some money,” I said. “And I have a play to finish. I haven’t had much time to work on it lately.”

“You haven’t got that much money,” he said.

“When it runs out I’ll find another job,” I said. “But I’m not going to stop writing. Not ever again.”

***

Two nights later my doorbell rang. I got up from the typewriter and answered the door.

“Hi,” Fred said. “I just happened to be in the neighborhood so I thought I’d take a chance and see if you were in.”

“How did you get my address?”

“From the girl in the office.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

He smiled. “I got fired. I was just hoping that I wasn’t the reason you got fired too.”

“I wasn’t fired. I quit.” Then realizing that he was still standing in the hall, I said, “Come on in.”

I saw his eyes moving around the room.

“Excuse the mess,” I said quickly. “But I’ve been working.”

“I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m glad you came. I needed a break and I have some cold white wine in the fridge.” I offered to take his jacket but he made no move to take it off.

“I thought if you hadn’t eaten we could go out and get some chink’s.”

I grinned. “You just talked me into it. Give me one minute to get into some other clothes.”

“Don’t pick out anything too fancy,” he said. “I got a rich man’s taste but a poor man’s pocket.”

“Jeans okay?”

“Fine,” he said.

I slipped into the jeans and a clean shirt behind the closet door. “How’s that?” I asked.

“Perfect.”

“Now if you give me another minute to brush my hair and put on my face.” Ten minutes later I came out of the bathroom, and found him still standing where I had left him.

“You could have sat down,” I said.

“I didn’t think of it. I was happy where I was.”

The cold night air felt good. I had been inside all day. “Do you know a good Chinese restaurant around here?” he asked.

“There’s one over on Seventy-second near Broadway. We can walk.”

We chattered all the way through our meal of egg rolls, spareribs, wonton soup and lobster Cantonese with fried rice. Back to my house he stopped at the outside door.

“I still have the wine in the fridge,” I said.

“I don’t want to put you out none.”

“Come on,” I said.

It was two o’clock in the morning when Fred got to his feet. “I’d better let you get some sleep,” he said. “I feel guilty enough about keepin’ you from working.”

“It was fine,” I said, opening the door for him. “Thank you.” I stood on my toes to kiss him good night.

His lips touched mine gently, and suddenly something happened. A warmth rose between us and I moved into his arms. I pulled him back into the apartment and kicked the door shut.

Later, much later, when we lay quietly in each other’s arms, his soft voice whispered in my ear. “You know, JeriLee, I’ve always loved you. Even way back then.”

“You don’t have to say that if you don’t mean it, Fred. I’m happy enough just being with you.”

“But I do mean it, JeriLee.”

“I don’t want you to lie to me. I’m tired of people saying things they don’t mean.”

“I’m not lying to you, JeriLee,” he said patiently. “I loved you then, I love you now. And, in a way, I guess I always will.”

Because I could feel the truth in him I began to cry. Two days later he moved into the apartment with me.

Book Three

ANY OLD TOWN

Chapter 1

The dream was there. It was always there. The little girl at the top of the stairs. But in the split second between sleeping and waking it was gone. JeriLee heard the soft gentle humming of a song through the closed bedroom door and rolled over sluggishly. A sharp pain much like the headache after a hangover knifed through her temples.