Chapter Nine
On Monday, I had twenty minutes before my meeting with the fleet guy and the studio rep, exactly enough time to get briefed by Pam.
“Studio’s sending a courier,” she said, leaning into the screen. “They said you could handle it.”
“Wow,” I interjected, “they don’t even pretend to care.”
Pam dropped her voice to nearly inaudible. “Rumor is Matt got the cash for his short from a Hollywood loan shark, and Overland covered the note to the tune of way too much. So if there’s a bus coming, he might get thrown under it.”
“They need to get their own accountants to do their dirty work. They have the best of the best.”
She slipped her rhinestone horn-rimmed glasses halfway down her nose and looked at me over them. “What do you think you are?”
“Adequate, since you asked.”
She shook her head and went back to work. I cleared my desk of a few million in incidentals before going to the conference room to do Arnie his favor.
* * *
The conference room was huge, set into the office’s bottom floor. Two sides were glass, looking over the reception area, and the other two walls were glass, looking out onto Wilshire Boulevard. It was designed for big faces to be seen together by the rest of the agency and by whomever was waiting in reception. Appointments might be based around making sure Mr. Twenty-Million-Dollar-A-Picture Actor was seen shaking hands with Mr. Academy-Award-Winning-Director in front of Ms. Top-Agent just as Ms. Actress-Who-Refused-The-Nude-Scene waited for an appointment. Like everything in the entertainment industry, it was maximum drama, maximum visibility.
Every time I went into that particular conference room, I checked the smoothness of my stockings, the lay of my hair, the seams between my teeth, even when I was just meeting a messenger to pass over audit materials. What used to arrive in a banker’s box of paper and ledgers and folders now came in the form of a flash drive and a manila envelope with a few summary sheets, which were useless. They were delivered by a short man in shorts, sneakers, and a flat cap. Matt’s line producer.
“I’m Ed, nice to meet you,” he said as he shook my hand and slid the hard drive and envelope onto the table.
“Nice to meet you too. What do we have here?”
“Everything up to the minute for the whole production. Hope you can help with this. It was kind of unexpected.”
I was about to respond and open the summary schedules so I could ask intelligent questions. Then I was going to finish my work and pick up dinner. I was feeling a turkey sandwich, salad, and bottle of water.
But that got shot out the window in a storm of hormone shrapnel when I saw Arnie coming through reception with a man in a dark suit named Antonio Spinelli. They were talking, but through the window, I saw Antonio’s eyes flick up at me and a smile stretch across his face. I frowned when Arnie opened the door to the conference room.
“Ms. Drazen,” he said cheerfully, “how is the handoff going?”
I slid the papers from the envelope just to distract myself, but my hands shook with rage or nerves. Possibly both.
“Just got here,” said Ed.
“This is Mr. Spinelli,” Arnie said in full agent-smarm. “He rents exotic cars to the business.”
“I know,” I said, cutting off my boss in a way I never would. I immediately caught my faux pas and held out my hand. “We’ve met.”
“Ms. Drazen.” He took my hand, and I felt tingling heat between my legs. “I wanted to say hello before you started.”
“Hello,” I said flatly, releasing his hand but not his gaze, which seemed just as physical.
“Great,” Arnie said. “I’m heading into a meeting.” He shook Ed’s hand, nodded to Antonio, and left.
When the glass door clicked behind him, I spoke. “We’ve got it from here, Ed.” I shot him a look. We were on the same side. I was watching out for him.
As if he understood, he nodded. “Later.” Ed tipped his cap and left.
Only the pull of the air between Antonio and me remained.
“This is flattering,” I said, “but it’s not going to work.”
“You can’t prove they didn’t take care of the cars?”
“Oh, you name it, I can prove it.”
“Good, I wanted the best.”
“You got me instead, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got me.”
“So you say.”
I tried not to smile. That would only encourage him. The last thing the arrogant ass needed was encouragement. “I won’t deny I’m attracted to you. I’m sure I’m not the first. But I’m not a conquest. I don’t like being chased, especially not through the offices of WDE. This is my job, Mr. Spinelli, not a mousehole. You can’t stick your paw in and hope to catch me. I don’t care to mix business with displeasure. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
I reached for the flash drive and envelope, and he stood in my way, getting close enough for me to catch the forested smell of his cologne.
“I could kiss you right now,” he said.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
The windows suddenly felt like cameras. I felt the presence of everyone’s eyes as if they were pressure on my skin.
“I will. And you might push me away, but not before you kiss me back. You know it. I know it. And everyone else in this office is going to know it,” he said.
“Don’t.”
“See me then. Let me take you out Thursday night.”
I was relieved. That was the perfect out. “I have plans on Thursday.”
“Cancel them.”
“I can’t. It’s a fundraiser.”
“Catholic Charities?” He raised an eyebrow. If it was at all possible for him to look sexier, he did.
“Yes.” I stood straight. I didn’t want to have to explain it, but I had a compulsion to excuse myself I had to quell.
“Good.” He stood straight. “I was invited to that. We’ll go together.”
“No!”
“So we should see each other another time, then?”
Of course not. We should be together some other never. But I hesitated, and that was my mistake.
“I think I should see you before the fundraiser,” he said, “because I want to go with you and show Daniel Brower what he’s missing.”
“You going to take him out to the parking lot and beat him up for me?”
“He deserves far worse.”
Knowing better than to encourage him, I held up my chin. “I’ll decide what he deserves. Thank you, though.”
“Good. I’ll pick you up Wednesday at eight.”
“I’m busy.”
“I’ll have to kiss you now then.” He stepped forward.
I swallowed because his lips, a step closer to mine, were full and satiny, and more than anything, my mouth wanted to feel them.
“Follow me please,” I said like an automaton.
I brushed past him without waiting for a response, walking out the door and down the hall with the manila envelope in my arm. I nodded to my associates and knew he was behind me from the sense of movement and heat at my back. I slipped into a windowless, empty conference room and closed the door when he entered.
“Mister Spinelli—”
On the way to the closed office, I’d prepared a short speech about respecting my boundaries, but I swallowed every word when those satin lips fell on mine. His kiss was a study in paying attention, reacting to me as I reacted to him with increasing intensity. When his tongue touched mine, I lost myself in desire. His hands stayed on my neck, and I became aware of their power and gentleness.
When I put my hands on him, he moved closer, and with a brush on my thigh, I felt his erection. Oh, to be anywhere else. To explore that rigid dick, to feel it in me while those lips hovered over mine. My legs could barely hold me up when he kissed my neck.
“Wednesday,” he whispered, the warmth of his breath and timbre of his voice as arousing as the touch of his lips.
“You don’t really care about the cars.”
“No, I don’t.”
“I’m not making it up. I told my friend I’d be on her set after work Wednesday. I can’t ditch her. Friday. We can do Friday.”
“I accept the spirit of your agreement.”
He reached behind me and turned the doorknob. I put my hair in place and thought cold thoughts. He left, and I watched him stride down the carpeted hall. I didn’t move until he was out the office door. I couldn’t believe he left it like that, without setting up a definite time and place for me to be flat on my back. I felt ill at ease as I scooped up the audit materials and headed back to my little window in my little office in my little corner of the Hollywood system.