The Hollywood Project: Shuttergirl Part 24

"You're cutting off my circulation," Michael said through a smile.

"Sorry." I loosened my grip on his forearm.

"You did great."

"They're going to play that quote on a loop for three days."

"After a while, you just stop watching television."

We stood in front of another camera, another host, but my half step to the right was allowed. I was in the safe zone. She asked Michael questions that seemed complex in the disorienting buzz, but I knew they would come off as simplistic on a screen.

Each stop was different, with a different expectation of me. I stood on my feet and said words thanks to his hand on my back. The pressure of his palm was a grounding wire to my physical balance and verbal skills.

Were you shooting him when you met?

Have you ever sold a picture of your date?

How did you two meet?

Do you have a camera?

Are you excited to be on the other side of the rope?

Can you tell us how Mister Greydon got that black eye?

I answered the yes and no questions, but Michael managed to steal the complex ones with a joke and a smile. He was home, but I felt as though I was at his parents' house at Christmas, tested with every question and slice of turkey, as he gently protected me from myself.

Deanna walked in front of us, pressing her earpiece. "Mister Greydon is entering the lobby."

Then we pa.s.sed through the gla.s.s doors, and it was over.

His hand on my shoulder, my arm around his waist, he spoke close to my ear. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect that. They usually ignore the dates."

"I understand the rush," I said.

"That goes away, trust me. It's nothing compared to kissing you."

"Oh, shut up." I think that, despite my words, I flushed. He was wearing me down, layer by layer, like a heat gun peeling off coats of paint and toxic lead whitewash to the bare wood.

The lobby of the theater was nicely done but purely functional. The snack counter was open, but no cash registers were ringing. Everyone was busy talking in their evening dresses and snappy suits, voices and laughter echoing off the high ceilings and marble floors. I spotted three photographers in black by following their flashes. More hired guns shooting for c.r.a.p pay.

I didn't have another second to take in the scene and see what was different about it, because Michael was approached with congratulations and handshakes. I knew most of them by name and face, but they didn't recognize me, or they pretended not to. Studio execs, talent agents, managers, hangers-on. Sometimes Michael introduced me; sometimes the exchange was so short, he didn't. I was courteous but said little, laughed when I was supposed to, and held on to Michael for dear life.

The word bandied about most was "Congratulations." The consensus I gathered was that this was more than a movie for Michael but something groundbreaking.

During a spare second, when he pulled me away from one glowing couple, I leaned into him and whispered, "This must have been the performance of a lifetime."

"They're all just working hard to not mention my eye." He looked at me as if memorizing the details of my face.

"What?" I asked, tingling red in the cheeks.

"Can't wait until later, that's all."

Brad walked sideways through the crowd to get to us. He was wearing plaid shorts and a suit jacket and tie. His sungla.s.ses were transparent enough to make his eyes visible. As soon as he saw me, he put up his middle fingers.

"Hey, how did those come out?" he said to me as he shook hands with Michael and slapped him on the back.

"I'll send them to you."

"You're all right, Laine. I don't care what my agent says." He said it with a laugh, as if I was in on the joke.

Gene Testarossa, like a fly hovering over a plate of raw meat, came up behind Michael. "Can I talk to you?"

He didn't acknowledge me or Brad. Even when Britt, with a glittery sling on her left arm, tapped Brad's shoulder, and they hugged, Gene kept his focus on Michael.

"Hey." Michael poked Brad in the chest and gestured toward me. "Watch her."

"What do you think I'm going to do?" I said.

"You? Nothing. You're perfect." He pointed at Brad with two fingers and put the two fingers to his own eyes then back toward Brad. "Eyes."

"You got it, bro."

Gene pulled Michael away.

Britt made it a point to press her lips together until Michael was out of range, then she grabbed my shoulder. "I think I'm in love with you."

Brad cackled.

"I'm sorry?" I said.

"You are exactly what he needs."

"Oh, I-"

She slapped Brad in the chest. "Yes or no? Was he not the most boring little s.h.i.+t in the world?"

"You never met my parents," Brad said.

"Then when I found out he broke a window at the Fall Gala thing? I swear I applauded. Hug me. Hug me now." She held out her good arm and enfolded me in half an embrace. A flash went off.

Britt turned toward the girl with the c.u.mbersome camera and kissed my cheek. Brad, as attuned to a lens as a shark to blood, got in the shot. Me in the middle of two badly behaving stars and Michael nowhere to be seen. I was seen inside the unit, caught at the edge of the vortex and sucked down the drain. I forced a smile.

Maryetta muscled through the crowd to take her lover's arm. "Who is this?" she asked "This is the paparazzi I was telling you about," Britt said.

I shook Maryetta's hand, and we exchanged greetings. It wasn't until that moment that the surrealism of the situation hit me. Maryetta directed experimental theater, and she was the least famous of all those people, yet I'd photographed and sold even her image.

What the h.e.l.l was I doing there? Where was Michael? I wasn't supposed to be there. I belonged on the other side of the rope, in the dark corners. Where was my camera? How was I supposed to do my job without it?

"I'm going to the ladies' room," I said. "Excuse me."

"Hey, no way," Brad said. "I gotta watch you."

"I have her." Britt took my elbow and led me away.

Maryetta walked close on my other side, but I wanted Michael.

In the twenty steps to the bathroom, Britt was pulled away to laugh and talk about stuff I didn't understand. Maryetta joined her, and I was alone.

I owned the city. Nothing intimidated me. Nothing, really, except being in a room full of people I'd self-righteously annoyed, or bothered, or hurt even. I never imagined I'd be in such a room, never understood that my high heels and camera bag had been a costume, my camera a weapon, and the night a s.h.i.+eld. I had none of my gear, and I was in a room full of targets with eyes that stared, mouths that pursed in judgment, laughter that cut.

I was back at Breakfront. I was a reviled outsider clothed as a member but painted, tarred, and feathered in my wrongness.

The door out and the door to the bathroom were equidistant from me. If I went out, I'd be seen by the few photographers and reporters who were left, but I could get a cab home, where I'd cry. If I went into the bathroom, I could get myself together and reemerge to face the room.

The door out seemed most appealing. I wanted to be alone more than anything, but Michael would wonder what had happened to me. He'd chosen me to be with him tonight. It was important to him, not as an actor but as a man. If I split, I would make the event about me, and it was about him.

So I took a deep breath and went to the bathroom.

I'd been to the ArcLight before. Most of Los Angeles had, but that night, the bathroom looked different. It was lit with scented candles and soft lights that set off the gla.s.s vases of flowers. It looked less inst.i.tutional and more luxurious.

Ute Herman and Gabrielle Sanchez chatted in the powder room. Garden Jones sat on a damask chair and chatted on her cell phone. The SVP of marketing from Overland Studios leaned kiss-close to the mirror and picked a false eyelash off her cheek. And Lucy Betancourt strode away from a sink, right toward me.

"Laine," she said gently, "how are you?"

"Fine." I swallowed.

"I saw you come in with Michael."

"So?" I said, unable to stop my venom. "You going to put a fiver in my bra?" If I'd realized how close to the edge I was, I would have left immediately, but it snuck up on me.

"No, Laine-" She glanced around the room.

Everyone was working hard to look at anything else but us.

"I'm not going away," I growled. "I won't be chased off."

She sat on a couch and twisted sideways, so she faced the s.p.a.ce next to her. She smiled curtly and patted the seat, indicating I should sit by her.

When we were in school together, she was the queen bee, and as cruel as she'd been to me, I'd craved her attention.

Nothing had changed. Nothing ever changed. I'd shed my Breakfront persona years ago, yet in her presence, I shrugged back into the broken-gla.s.s-lined coat as if I needed to get cut.

I sat, but I didn't face her. I faced front, my one act of childish rebellion. I felt pathetic doing it, but I couldn't look at her.

"You look like a deer in headlights," she said.

"Lucy, is there something you want? Because Michael will be looking for me."

"He's a good man. You don't find too many of those."

"I know. On both counts."

A bell rang somewhere, and women started filing out.

"Why won't you look at me?" Lucy said.

I turned toward her. She was as patrician as she'd been as a teenager, with her straight turned-up nose and angular cheeks. People paid good money for her features, but hers had come free as a genetic gift.

"Because you're going to tell me I'm going to be a stripper when I grow up, and I'm all out of patience for it," I said.

"You shouldn't let other people tell you what you are. Especially insecure seventeen-year-old girls."

"I'll put that on a postcard."

"Does it matter if I apologize? I'm aware it's too little too late. I knew I couldn't keep Michael. He was on his way across the country and then you. Of all the things that worried me, you were the easiest target." She opened her purse and found a compact and lipstick. She opened the compact and looked into the little mirror, even though there were mirrors all over the room. "Being cruel to you made me feel good. I'm sure that reflects poorly on me, but I'm past worrying about appearances. I don't know if you even understand what appearances mean." She got her lipstick out and twisted it.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It wasn't an insult. It means I don't know you, and you're different. Different expectations. He brought you here, and everyone's talking about him losing his mind." She smeared color on her lips and pursed them. "I can defend him to everyone, but I can't defend you. You were a rat punk in school, a real viper. Every time we tried to talk to you, you practically spit on us. So no, I'm not defending how I acted, but I want you to know that if you bring him any trouble, I'll make you miserable."

"There's going to be trouble."

"I mean if you hurt him. If you disrespect what he's done tonight by being seen with you." She shook her head as if loosening the worst of the options. "If this is a business deal to you, I swear on my face, I'll make sure you don't sell another picture." She slid the cover on her makeup and snapped the compact closed.

"Nothing like spending a first date being threatened by the ex," I said, standing. "But I promise you, I'm not here on business. Up until now, it was strictly pleasure."

She snapped her bag shut and looked at me. "Tell me, how do you feel about him?"

"I haven't even told him that, but I'll tell you how I feel about you."

"This should be fun."

"You're a good friend. A little scary, but still," I said. "He did all right with his friends."

Michael swooped in as if dropped from the back of a white stallion, half breathless and impeccable, his motions proportionally attuned to a constantly s.h.i.+fting universe. "Here you are!"

"This is the ladies' room," Lucy said, standing.

"So I see." He took my hand. "Come on, there are people waiting everywhere." He turned to Lucy as he opened the door. "Are you going to the after party?"

"Good Lord, I'm not going to Mort's. I don't have to abide by a contract. It's not my movie."

"I want you to go and watch Laine."

"Oh, no way!" I said a little too definitively.

"No one else is qualified. Britt and Brad are already half drunk. And I'm going to get pulled away. The press knows you. I didn't realize it. But you won't have a good time if they're all over you."