“I don’t think that’s what she’s—”
But Carmen sighed so deeply that I shut my trap.
We’d moved our meeting to a little café in the older part of town. Carmen was in no mood to be on display at one of the Cannes hot spots, where we might bump into someone we knew. We were in hiding mode, riding the storm and counting down the hours until this ordeal—and the festival—was over.
At least that’s what Ithoughtwe were doing. I truly didn’t see it coming.
It was cloudy, but Carmen pulled down the sunglasses that had been resting atop her head.
“I’ve always thought you were like me at your age,” Carmen said. “Well, I was never so uptight and desperate to have life figured out, but I saw how ambitious you were. How smart. I trusted you. I don’t think I’ll be making that mistake again.”
Carmen’s tone had gone from wistful to ice cold in seconds.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I know it was you. All these stories. You did this. I didn’t want to believe it, but Odetta saw right through you.”
I wouldn’t insult Carmen by denying it. I’d always known I’d need to fess up to it at some point.
“I did this for her, for you. Forus. I had a plan.”
“You spread nasty stories about the director of the movie we’re promoting forme?”
I shook my head. Ihadspread tons of stories, but they were never about Odetta Olson. In fact, they were about anyone but her. Now I was using Lou to get good publicity for the movie. It wasn’t my fault if the media still found a way to spin a bad tale around Odetta Olson’s supposed jealousy.
“I never shared one bad thing about Odetta,” I started to explain. “I wouldnever. I was trying to fix things!”
“Odetta is convinced the stories about her are an orchestrated smear campaign. And frankly, I agree. It’s pretty obvious.”
“It wasn’t me!”
Carmen took a sip of her coffee. Her lips were pressed in a thin line. She waspissed.
“Let’s pretend for a moment that it’s true,” she said coldly.
“Itistrue!”
“So whatdidyou do?”
“I, um”—I took a large sip of my water before continuing—“I realized there were lots of interesting things happening in Cannes. Lots of gossip that people might find interesting. And I thought if the media started talking about other people, there would be less bad press on Odetta. It was strategic.”
“And at what point were you going to run that ‘strategy’ past me?”
“You said you didn’t want to play dirty.”
“So you decided to play dirty behind my back?”
“I figured it was better if you didn’t know. And then I’d show you the results, and you’d see how great my plan was.”
Carmen made a face. “Odetta asked me to fire you.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t want you working on the movie or anywhere near her.” Carmen lifted her sunglasses. “So you see, I’m in a tricky position.”
Shame sizzled on my skin. I looked around, but no one was listening. We were surrounded by locals, not festival people. No one we knew. That’s why we were here away from the action. So that if I made a scene, it wouldn’t matter.
“What did you tell her?” I asked. “Oh my god. You’re firing me?”
