“Seems a bit unnecessary to drag you back here so soon.”
“Most people don’t comply until you’ve threatened to deprive them of liquid refreshment for the rest of the night, and/or peeled them away from a riveting conversation or six.”
“So you’re a saint.”
I flick a speck of lint off my lapel.“That’s me.”
She tuts and flicks her gaze up to the ceiling.“I don’t think you’ve had a single saintly thought ever.I mean tonight’s not even really about the charity.Most of the people here don’t give a fig.They’re here because everyone else is here and they’re desperate to be seen in the right places.”
“You don’t have a very high opinion of my profession, do you?”
“I know making movies isn’t all fun and games, but most of what I’ve seen of your profession since I took this job with All Stars, is that you’re all piss poor examples of humanity.If you’re not snorting, popping, or injecting, you’re indiscriminately shagging whatever hurls itself in your direction.What was that girl—Mallory—whose table we passed so pissed at you for?What did you do to her?”
“I’ve never laid eyes on her before tonight.The woman with her directed an ad for Feinstein & Clairmont I was meant to appear in.Well, I did appear in.It just never got shown.”
“How come?”
I shrug.Why does anything happen in this industry?Everything comes down to the whim of the backers.“I don’t know.They went with the Endrizzi girl instead.What’s her name?Lila…Louise…Lily.Lily, that’s it.Lily Endrizzi.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of her.”
“That’s the idea.She’s the new face of F&C.”
“Yeah, to be honest, I hadn’t really noticed what she was advertising.”
Simultaneously, I kind of love her and despair over her answer.How is she really supposed to pass as a friend, when she feels the way she obviously does about my profession.
“Are you nervous about the speech?”she asks, leaning forward so that I might hear, as she’s lowered her voice.Not that there’s anyone around to overhear us.“You seem twitchy.”
I’m bored of waiting, and it’s hard to relax when I’m being spied on.
“Dylan?”
“You’d be twitchy if someone was watching you.”
“Where?”
No kidding, she looks around as if expecting to find spy cameras mounted in the corners of the room, or one of those creepy portraits with the cut-out eyes.It’s only when she fails to spot either that it seems to occur to her that I’m talking about her.
“I’m not a spy, Dylan.”She gives a huffy, disbelieving, sort of laugh.“I’m watching out for you, not scrutinizing your actions.They’re two entirely different things.”
“Are they?”
She gives a long suffering sigh.“What is it with you?You make no sense at all.You’re only too happy to imagine your production company want to spy on you, but you outright refuse to believe you’re in any sort of danger, despite a hand-delivered note threatening to cut you to ribbons.”
“Well, maybe if they’d sent me a more convincing date, I might be more willing to believe it’s not a company ploy to curtail my social life.”
“You mean why didn’t they send you a guy?Dylan, you know why.You’d go out of your way to distract them.Seduce them…” She adds quietly after a pregnant pause.“Howard Falchard sent me because he knew you wouldn’t be interested in putting your wily charms to work on me.That’s right, isn’t it?You’ve a well accounted reputation of seducing straight guys.”
“That’s bollocks.I’m not denying my history, but I don’t convert people.Snapping my fingers doesn’t magically make a person gay.They are what they are already.If they end up in my bed, it’s because they were already inclined that way, and they know a good offer when they see it.”
“Is that what the thing with Ethan Webber was about?”
“Ethan who?”
She squints at me, brows pulled quizzically low.“At your hotel.”
“You mean Oscar?Definitely.He couldn’t get on his knees fast enough.”I catch myself looking at my shoes, and smiling at the memory of his excitement.Of course, holding my memory in check so that it doesn’t progress forward from that point to Kira’s abrupt arrival proves really difficult.
