Chapter Twenty-Three
I checked my phone after the thirty-fifth take. It was a long shot of Michael watching the woman in question over the food counter, and with so many moving parts, it was difficult to get. But the shot was meant to show infinite hours of longing for a woman who didn’t want him, and on the thirty-sixth try, it was stunning.
I didn’t expect Antonio to try to reach me, but I was surprised by my burning hope. Did I want him? Or did I want him to want me? He was toxic, and I shouldn’t touch him even if I was operating on all emotional cylinders, which I wasn’t. I had to keep in the front of my mind the fact that I couldn’t trust any man with my body or heart. No matter how intense. No matter how strong. No matter how much the sex was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Even thinking about Antonio, I felt a familiar throb between my legs. Even as I noted the placement of every extra’s arms and legs, I ached for that treacherous man, his pine scent, his rock of a dick.
“Cut!”
Katrina was barely finished her encouragements to the actors before I had my phone out. Nothing from Antonio. Three from Gerry, Daniel’s strategist. I got back to business making my notes. I needed to arrange my finances so I could get Katrina half a million dollars in such a way that she would accept it.
I didn’t know how I’d get it done in time. I had a week before she lost her mind. I was incorporated, but not as an investor. I couldn’t decide if I wanted her to know it was me who was fronting the money. It was two in the morning, and I was tired. Hardly ready for Gerry to show up in a three-piece suit looking as though he’d just woken up, showered, shaved, and taken his vitamins.
“Almost the first lady of the city,” he said with a jovial tone, “packing binders in a parking lot.”
“What are you doing here?” I stuffed the last of the day’s work into a duffel.
“Los Angeles never sleeps.”
“Daniel Brower does. A good five hours between midnight and dawn.”
“That’s when I get to work. Can we talk?”
I slung the bag over my shoulder. Katrina would get home on her own. “Sure. You’re driving though. My car’s busted.”
* * *
The front seat of Gerry’s Caddy SUV was bigger than the couch in my first apartment. The bag was in the back like a dead body.
“He’s not performing,” Gerry said, turning onto the 110. “Every time he flubs or goes back to some old habit, it’s like a snowball. It hasn’t affected his polling yet, but soon, it’s gonna get obvious.”
“After the election, he’ll get it together again.”
“He started biting his nails.”
“The ring finger?”
“Yeah. In a meeting with Harold Genter. I think I bruised his calf.”
I sighed. Years, I’d spent years in media skills sessions. We’d discussed that every movement, every breath, was ten times bigger on camera, and those moves flowed into real life. People wanted their leaders polished. Policy was secondary, and politics took third rung. If he was seen biting his nails, flipping his hair, or slouching, he’d be a laughingstock.
“He needs you,” Gerry said.
“He should have thought of that.”
“Okay, lady, yes. You can be bitter and aggrieved. You earned it. You happy? Are you going to hold your bag of self-righteousness into your dotage? It gets heavy when you get old. Believe me.”
“I can’t trust him ever again. How am I supposed to carry that around? And for how long? Into the presidency?”
“As long as you want.” He drove on the surface streets—stop start stop start—obeying the lights even though no one was around.
I knew I’d let it go eventually. I’d learn to trust another man. He wouldn’t be Daniel, of course. I would have to invest in someone else all over again. Get hurt, move on. Hurt someone, move on. Antonio had proven how easy that was. One day, I’d fall in love. Maybe. I was thirty-four. I’d never felt too late until Gerry asked about my dotage.
“I hurt all over,” I said. “All the time. I don’t know what I feel any more. I don’t know what I want. I feel separate from my own thoughts. The fact that I’m telling this to a political strategist is enough of a red flag that I need to be medicated or institutionalized.”
I didn’t say that I think about hurting but not killing myself. I couldn’t cry. I felt unanchored. I loved Daniel still. The last time I’d felt marginally alive was with Antonio. I’d always depended on men for my happiness.
“Big Girls is opening Friday,” Gerry said as he pulled up in front of my building.
“Yeah.”
“It’s about domestic violence. We pitched that as your hot button during the campaign. I’ve seen the picture. It’s good.”
“You’re making a movie recommendation?” I asked.
“Daniel is making it a point to see it and release a statement after.”
“You’re trying to set me up on a date? Are you serious?”
“This is a high stakes date, Theresa. Please.”
I opened the car door and stepped out, slamming it shut and opening the back for my bag. “You’re a crappy Cupid.”
I should have taken a cab.
* * *
Fucking Gerry. I walked in the door cursing him, flinging my bag into a corner.
Fucking fucking Gerry. The man was made of the finest, most indestructible plastic in the universe. He didn’t have a feeling in him.
Or maybe he did. Maybe he just didn’t have a feeling for me.
Or maybe he did. Maybe I didn’t have a feeling for me.
Or maybe it wasn’t about me. Maybe it was about Daniel and the city of Los Angeles. Maybe it was about a campaign I’d invested my heart and soul in, and when Daniel fell through, what I’d wanted for myself fell through.
Or maybe it didn’t matter what Gerry thought was important. Maybe something was bothering me. Something that had excited me, given me something to look forward to, made me forget how much I despised my fucking life.
Antonio had made me feel alive, as if I’d been asleep for months. He shook me, slapped me. I was finally ready, and I’d thrown it away. It had been a casual nothing, a little dirty talk, something to fill the hours while I waited to get over Daniel. I wasn’t allowed to get upset over such a little nothing, but I was desperately upset, and I couldn’t admit it to myself until I was asked to be Daniel’s beard yet again.
I picked up a porcelain swan by the neck. I knew what I was going to do before I did, and once decided, the tension released.
I smacked it against the edge of the table. It bounced. I smacked it harder. The body broke off, clacking to the ground, and I was left holding the tiny head. In seconds, the tension came back. It was only relieved when I looked at all of my swans and stopped caring whether they ever went back into the cabinet.
I didn’t feel rage when I smashed the swans. I must have looked angry and emotional, but I wasn’t. I was dead, empty, frozen, doing a job I’d contracted myself to do. I bashed them against the marble countertop, leaving millions of plaster, porcelain, and glass shards everywhere.
It took about seven minutes to destroy years’ worth of swans and a few dishes. I stood over the puddle of sharp dust and said what I’d been too upset to consider.
“I want you.”
I pushed a china blue swan wing to the right. It had separated from the rest of the swan but hadn’t broken completely. Not nearly enough.
“I want you, you criminal punk.”
I picked up my foot and smashed the wing under my heel.
“And I’m going to have you.”