Hollywood Wives - the New Generation (25 page)

'Evan calls you a total fuck-up,' she blurted.

'I bet he does. He's been trained by the best.'

'Anyway,' she said defensively, 'how do I know you're telling me the
truth?'

'All you gotta do is ask Lynda. She'll be happy to fill you in.'

'There must be a reason he hasn't told me,' Nicci said weakly.

'Evan's secretive. Always has been.' He gave her a sleepy
bedroom-eyed stare. 'Drink up, we're goin' to a rave.'

'We are?'

'Yeah. Nic, I've decided it's about time you got back into livin'
again.'

Over dinner Michael revealed more than he was planning to. It seemed
Lissa had a way of getting him to talk about things that were intensely
personal. He found himself telling her about his estrangement from his
family because of Bella, and the difficulties he'd had being raised by
a violent stepfather after his real dad had left home when he was ten.
'Eddie used to beat the crap outta me,' he confessed. 'Until one night,
when I was sixteen, I took off for eighteen months, and didn't come
back until I was sure I was stronger than him.'

'How did you support yourself?' she asked, her blue eyes wide with
interest.

'Lied about my age an' got a job as a bartender,' he said ruefully. '
Real
smart for a budding alcoholic'

'What happened then?'

'I finally went home, decided I wanted to be a cop, and made it into
the Police Academy. That
really
pissed the family off,
considering my brother, Sal,
and
my stepfather regarded all
cops as the lowest form of life.' He laughed at the memory. 'Too bad.
It gave me a feeling of strength and purpose, and I kinda moved through
the ranks fast. Then, much to Eddie and Sal's disgust, I got promoted
to detective.'

'Good for you.'

'By the way,' he said, eating heartily, 'this lasagna is delicious.'

'Tell Nellie.'

'I will.'

'Only please,' she added, with a slight smile, 'try to look
businesslike when you do it. I'm sure she thinks there's something
going on between us.'

'Now why would she think that?'

Lissa shrugged. 'Who knows?'

Their eyes met for a long, intimate look.

'Hey, I guess I've been talking too much,' he said, breaking the
contact.

'Not at all,' she said. 'Your stories are so interesting, especially
after I bored you with
my
life story the other day.'

'You told me nothing,' he said, trying not to stare at her lips.
'What you gave me was a press release.'

'No, I didn't,' she objected.

'That's exactly what you did,' he said, cleaning his plate. 'Any
chance of hearing the real truth? Like why you left home so young?
Sounds as if you might've been stuck with violent parents too.'

'No,' she said, vigorously shaking her head. 'They were merely
emotionally bankrupt.'

He gave a hollow laugh. 'I know
that
feeling.'

'My shrink informed me that emotional neglect is equally as damaging
as violence, and I think she's right. After I left, they never tried to
find me.'

'You haven't seen them since?'

'No,' she said, as if it didn't matter, although deep down it still
hurt when she dredged up the painful memories.

'Sounds to me like you should call them, Lissa.'

'Why?' she said defensively. 'They mean nothing to me. If they'd
wanted contact, they would've come looking. Believe me, Michael, I'm
glad they didn't.'

'You don't
know
that they didn't,' he said, pushing his
plate away.

'I also don't know that they did.'

'I think you
should
call.'

'Do you?'

'Yeah, why not?'

'Have you called
your
family lately?' she asked sharply.

'Hey, I
told
you what my brother did. He stole my daughter
and claimed she was his.'

'You also told me she
was
his.'

'Yeah,' he said, his stomach churning every time he thought about
it. 'When she was five years old he kidnaps her, and I'm the last to
find out. My mom didn't even tell me.'

'I'll make a deal with you,' Lissa said, thinking he looked even
more handsome when he was angry. 'When
you
talk to
your
dysfunctional family,
I'll
talk to mine.'

Nellie knocked and entered the room. 'It's five minutes before nine,
Miss Lissa,' she said. 'You asked me to remind you to switch on the TV.'

'Thanks, Nellie,' Lissa said. 'You can take the trays, we're
finished.'

'And, wow, was it good!' Michael said, flashing a killer smile in
Nellie's direction. 'You can cook for me any time.'

Nellie beamed and removed the trays, first placing the small votive
candles on the coffee table.

'She likes you,' Lissa said, when Nellie left the room.

'I meant every word. I ate like food was going out of style!'

'I'll have to invite you again,' she said, with a good-natured grin.
'I appreciate a grateful guest.'

'Name the day. If Nellie's cooking, I'm here!'

Lissa picked up the remote and clicked on the TV.

'Have we
really
gotta watch this?' Michael groaned. 'You
know he'll have nothing nice to say'

'I think I should stay informed.'

'Why? It'll only piss you off.'

'No, it won't,' she said firmly.

'Here's an idea,' Michael said. 'You go put on a movie in the other
room, and I'll monitor the show for you. How's that?'

'I
want
to see what he has to say. I want to hate him even
more.'

'Hate's not good, Lissa.'

'Then why are
you
so full of it?' she questioned.

'I've got a legitimate reason to be mad at my family. My scumbag
brother
stole
my daughter.'

'It must have been very tough,' she said sympathetically.

'You have no idea,' he said, shaking his head at the memories. 'I
loved that kid.'

'I'm sure,' she murmured.

The Real News
started, and they settled down to watch.

Belinda Barrow appeared on the screen, blonde and brittle. She
favoured the camera with a superior smile. 'Good evening. I'm Belinda
Barrow bringing you the real news.'

'Isn't she a little tight around the eyes?' Michael observed.

'This is Nip and Tuck City,' Lissa said. 'One has to stay looking
good.'

'I don't get it - what's the point of looking thirty if you're
fifty?'

'Who says she's fifty?'

'I can tell.'

'Oh,' Lissa said, amused. 'So you're an expert on women, huh?'

'Didn't say that.'

'How old am
I?'

'Pushing seventy,' he joked. 'But I gotta say - you look great!'

She burst out laughing. 'Forty,' she said. 'I'm forty.'

'I know,' he said, laughing too.

'And you?'

'Gettin' up there,' he said ruefully. 'Forty-four.'

'You look good.'

'You should see the picture I got hangin' in the attic'

'You're funny when you let yourself go,' she said, smiling.

They exchanged another long look.

'Here we go,' Lissa said, turning up the volume on the TV.

'Tonight we'll be talking to up-and-coming singer-songwriter,
Gregory Lynch,' Belinda said, reading the teleprompter with assured
professionalism, her eyes barely moving as they scanned the words.
'Gregory's been in the headlines lately because of his separation from
superstar, Lissa Roman, and later on we'll be bringing you
his
side of the story. Our interview with Gregory Lynch makes particularly
fascinating viewing, so don't go away, because we'll be right back
after the break.'

'Oh, God,' Lissa groaned, running a hand through her platinum hair.
'This is making me nervous. Why would he want to get on TV and talk
about me?'

'For money.'

'You should've heard what he said on the phone earlier.'

'What?'

'I can't tell you,' she said, hesitating for a moment. 'It'll only
make you mad.'

'Did he threaten you, Lissa?' Michael asked, angry at the thought.
' 'Cause if he did, I'll pay him a visit.'

'I hung up before he had a chance.'

'Do me a favour, don't answer your phone again. By tomorrow you'll
have all new numbers.'

'It won't be too difficult for him to get them.'

'What does your lawyer say?'

'He informed me that I'll have to agree to a settlement since we
were married for two years.'

'Doesn't your pre-nuptial cover that?'

'I'm supposed to pay him two hundred thousand dollars a year for
every year we were married. My lawyer says I'm getting off cheaply.'

'That's cheap?' Michael said, raising an eyebrow.

'According to him it is.'

'Jesus!'

'So I'll pay, and hopefully he'll go away. Wouldn't
that
be nice?'

'You'd better remind your lawyer to have Gregg sign a
confidentiality agreement. Something that'll stop him going public.'

'I'd like nothing better than to shut him up,' she said, adding a
venomous - 'Permanently if I could.'

'We should be discussing whether he has a gun,' Michael said.
'That's why I'm here, isn't it?'

'So
that's
why you're here,' she said, powerless to stop
herself flirting.

'Can't think of any other reason,' he said, trying not to react.

'No?' she said, still flirting.

'No,' he said, meeting her gaze.

The sexual tension between them was mounting.

'Maybe I saw him with a gun once,' Lissa said. 'I'm not sure.'

He gave her a sceptical look. 'You're not sure?'

'I can't remember.'

The commercials finished and the show started. Belinda Barrow teased
the Gregg Lynch interview again, then proceeded to introduce a segment
about cloning.

'Gregg must love this.' Lissa sighed. 'He was so desperate to be a
star.
When we'd arrive at premieres and everyone would yell
my
name, he hated it because
he
wanted the attention. Sometimes
I think he simply grew out of love with me because I'm famous and he
isn't.'

'Hey,' Michael said, staring at her intently, 'nobody in their right
mind could grow out of love with you.'

'Why are you so nice to me, Michael?' she said softly.

'Because I can see it's time somebody was.'

Taylor loved the excitement of being back on a movie set. It made
her feel unbelievably comfortable, surrounded by a crew who almost
always became like one big family. Since marrying Larry she hadn't
worked at all, and she'd genuinely missed it. She was enamoured with
everything about film-making - even the long hours between takes.

She especially enjoyed being treated like a star. Larry was the star
in their household and she was his wife - a role she'd never coveted.
She'd always had a burning desire to be equally important, and now she
planned on achieving her objective one way or the other.

The director of the movie was Montana Gray, an interesting and smart
woman who'd been around Hollywood for quite some time. Montana wrote
and directed all her own projects, preferring to maintain control,
which was one of the reasons she worked mostly for cable where she
found she could get the freedom she desired. Succeeding as a female
director was not easy. If a male director made a film that flopped at
the box office, he soon got another deal. If a female director did the
same thing, her career was almost over. Montana had done the unusual -
she'd managed to survive in what was basically a male arena.

Montana had been married to Neil Gray, the famous English director.
Neil had expired of a massive heart-attack fifteen years ago. The
rumour was that, at the time, he'd been in bed on top of Gina Germaine,
a luscious blonde screen siren.

Apart from being a talented writer-director, Montana had a
reputation for being a wild woman. Once, when a certain producer had
pissed her off, she'd delivered an enormous gift-wrapped package of
bullshit to his office. He'd discovered it on his pristine desk early
one morning and gone totally berserk.

The story had sent shock waves of laughter around Hollywood. And the
message was clear - Montana Gray was
not
a woman to be messed
with.

When Montana strode onto the set, everyone took notice. She was, at
five feet ten inches, a lean, striking-looking woman in her
mid-forties, with waist-length black hair worn in a braid down her
back, and direct, gold-flecked tiger eyes usually hidden beneath tinted
shades.

Taylor and she hit it off immediately. Taylor was secretly thrilled
that Montana had requested her for the part. No interviews, no
auditions, she was the actress of choice, and that boosted her
confidence.

'What did you see in me that made you request me?' she'd asked
Montana, during the lunch break on her first day of shooting.

'Well,' Montana had answered thoughtfully, 'I remembered your work,
and when you married Larry Singer, I noticed you at various events. It
struck me that, even though I was sure you had a strong marriage, there
was a vulnerability about you, a need within you that works perfectly
for this part.'

'Oh,' Taylor had said, somewhat taken aback that Montana was so
intuitive. 'Yes, I do have a strong marriage.'

'Good. That's the way it should be.'

'That's the way it is,' Taylor had assured her.

'I like Larry,' Montana had said. 'We've known each other a long
while.'

'You've never worked together, have you?'

'Neil and Larry worked on a movie once. It was not a happy
experience.'

'What film was that?'

'Nothing anyone remembers,' Montana had said lightly. 'And I have a
suspicion Larry would prefer to forget it, too.'

On the second day of shooting they worked late. Taylor phoned their
housekeeper to make sure Larry got his dinner on time. The moment he
arrived home he called her. 'You didn't warn me this was a night
shoot,' he said, obviously put out.