What I Did for Love

Chapter 19

All day Bram watched the human chess game being played out in front of him as helicopters circled overhead. He observed Georgie doing her best to stay away from Lance, Jade, and her father, while Paul barely spoke to anyone. He saw Chaz pandering to Lance and Jade but remaining her customary pain in the ass to Georgie and Aaron. Meg helped out in the kitchen, sneered at Lance whenever he passed by, and acted as if Jade were invisible. Laura assumed the role of a nervous Switzerland, trying to move neutrally among all warring nations. And everybody sucked up to Rory, including himself.

With the possible exception of Chaz, Bram decided, he was the only one happy about the quarantine. He’d planned to pitch to Rory last night only to have Lance show up, but now he had the rest of the weekend to get her alone, and she couldn’t keep avoiding him forever.

Between the helicopters and the snake incident, no one wanted to go in the pool. A few of them congregated in the kitchen, and he noticed Georgie beginning to mess around again with the video camera. Chaz started to bristle, and he quickly stepped in. “Georgie, why don’t you practice your interviewing techniques on Laura? A female agent in the Hollywood shark pool and all that.”

“I don’t want to talk to Laura. I want to talk to Chaz again.”

“Only because the housecleaners aren’t here,” Chaz sneered. “She loves talking to them.”

It was unusual for him to feel like the only adult in the room. “How about interviewing Aaron then,” he said with what seemed to him great reasonableness.

“I’m not interested in talking to men,” Georgie snapped. “Fine. I’ll interview you.”

“Make him take off his clothes,” Meg piped up from the kitchen table. “It’ll spice things up.”

“Great idea,” he said. “Let’s do it in the bedroom.”

Georgie finally recalled her role of loving wife. “Don’t tantalize me like that when we have company.”

A series of semipornographic images flashed through his head. Who’d have figured Georgie would turn out to be such a firecracker? From the beginning, her sexual bossiness had turned him on. Unlike other women, she didn’t give a damn about arousing him, and somehow that only aroused him more. The sex part of this phony marriage had turned out to be a lot more fun than he could have imagined. So much fun that he’d started to feel a little uneasy. He only had room for one person in his life, and that was himself. Chaz had been an accident.

By late afternoon, everyone’s cell phones and PDAs were running out of power. Only Rory, who’d had a charger and a spare phone included in the package left by the gate, continued to work. Laura announced that being without a phone was making her hyperventilate, and she asked Georgie to sing, but there was no piano in the house, and Georgie declined. As much as he teased her about her Annie past, she was fun to listen to with her big voice and inexhaustible energy. Maybe he’d get a piano in here to surprise her.

Jade settled in his library with a book on international economics, Georgie disappeared with Aaron, and the others drifted off to the screening room. Bram headed out to his office with a glass of extra-strong iced tea, a less harmful addiction than his earlier ones.

He picked up the script his agent had sent over. With all the publicity from his marriage, he was seeing a few more scripts than he used to, but the parts hadn’t changed: playboys, gigolos, an occasional drug dealer. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen something that wasn’t a piece of crap, and after reading only a few pages, he realized this was no different. He wanted a cigarette, but he took a slug of iced tea instead, checked his e-mail, then headed back to the house so he could get down to the real work of the day.

Rory had moved her center of operations to a corner of the veranda. Even though it was Sunday, she’d been on her phone all afternoon, making and destroying careers, but now she was hunkered over her laptop. He wandered to the table where she was working and, without waiting for an invitation that wouldn’t come, took the chair across from her.

“As much as I appreciate your hospitality,” she said without looking up, “unless you want to talk about the weather, you’re wasting your time.”

“I guess that’s better than wasting Vortex’s money.”

She looked up.

He extended his legs and settled back in the chair, playing it cool, even though his guts were in a knot. “You’re one of the smartest women in town. But right now you’re being stupid.”

“It’s usually best to begin a pitch with flattery.”

“You don’t need flattery. You know exactly how good you are. But your personal grudge against me is getting in the way of your normally excellent judgment.”

“In your opinion.”

“Caitlin Carter has gotten greedy. If you wait until my option expires, you’re going to spend a lot more money for Tree House than you will now. How are you going to explain that to your board of directors?”

“I’ll risk it. And you’re the one who’s being stupid. If you turn over Tree House now, without any restrictions, you’re guaranteed a credit as associate producer-”

“Meaningless.”

“-and you’ll actually make money on your initial investment. But if you stay stubborn, you’ll end up with nothing. I can get that picture made. What more do you want?”

“I want the picture that’s in my head to get made.” He fought to stay cool, but this meant too much, and he could feel himself losing it. “I want to play Danny Grimes. I want a guarantee Hank Peters will direct.” He came out of his chair. “I want to be on the set every day making sure the script I’m delivering is the one that gets shot instead of some studio asshole stepping in and deciding he wants to add a fucking car chase.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“You have a studio to run. You wouldn’t even notice.”

She rubbed her eyes. “Bram, you’re asking too much. To put it bluntly, you’re only known for three things: Skip and Scooter, a sex tape, and being an undependable party boy. I’m starting to believe Georgie when she says you’ve outgrown that last one, but you haven’t scored big with anything since the show ended. Can you really imagine me going to my board and telling them I’ve entrusted a project like Tree House to you?”

“I have a fucking vision! Can’t you understand that?” The veins in his neck throbbed. “I know exactly how this film should be made. What it should look like. How it should feel. I’m the only one who can deliver the movie you want. Is that so hard to understand?”

She gave him a long, steady gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I can’t do it.”

The genuine regret in her voice told him he’d finally reached the end of the road. He’d done everything he could to convince her, and he’d lost. He was shocked to realize his hands were shaking, but somehow he managed a shrug. He wasn’t going to beg.

His office offered the only refuge in this overcrowded house, but as he turned away, a movement near the door caught his attention. It was Georgie. Even from fifteen feet away, he could see the concern in her furrowed brow and the pity in those green eyes.

She’d overheard every word. He hated that nearly as much as he hated losing his dream.

Dinner was torture. Lance kept trying to charm his way back into Paul’s good graces, but Paul remained unresponsive. Jade launched into a powerful lecture about the child sex industry that left all of them depressed and guilty. Georgie barely spoke, Rory seemed preoccupied, and Laura kept darting anxious glances at Paul and Georgie. Bram’d be damned if he’d let Rory see she’d beaten him, so he forced himself to tease Meg, the only person at the table who didn’t look as though she’d rather be anywhere else.

The helicopters finally flew away for the day. Chaz served a gooey caramel dessert so rich that only Georgie ate her entire portion, forking it down with a dogged determination Bram didn’t entirely understand. Jade, who didn’t seem to care much about food, left hers untouched and, when Chaz reappeared, ordered a quarter of an apple. Her demand must really have pissed off Georgie because she hopped up from the table and slipped into her Scooter Brown act. “It’s barely eight o’clock. Let’s all go into the living room. I have a special entertainment planned.”

That was news to him. Bad news. All he wanted to do was escape.

“I’m not playing charades,” Meg said. “Or any other game you actors like to play.”

Laura and Rory looked pained, but Georgie wasn’t giving up. “I have something a little more interesting in mind.”

“Hold it right there,” Bram said, determined to make sure Rory understood she hadn’t gotten to him. “You promised you’d never let anybody see you dance naked except me.”

“No dances,” she replied, without missing a beat. “The last time I worked the pole I pulled a tendon.”

Even Paul cracked a smile, and all the women laughed except Jade, but Bram had the feeling life weighed too heavily on her to take anything lightly. Lance immediately grew solemn in support of his wife. What a dick.

As everyone else cleared the table, Jade demanded Chaz make a second pot of mint tea because the first wasn’t hot enough. He was getting the idea that Jade preferred directing her humanitarian instincts to the world at large while ignoring the people waiting on her. Eventually Georgie, still doing the chipper act, herded them into the living room and assigned seats, giving Bram the armchair by the fireplace. She pointed Rory toward the couch next to him and arranged the others in a fashion that might have made sense to her but not to anyone else. He wished like hell she’d consulted him before she began playing her little parlor games.

And then Aaron came in with a pile of scripts, and it all became clear.

Georgie handed the first script to him. “Surprise, honey.”

He gazed down at the cover. It was Tree House. What did she think she was doing?

“Some of you may have heard by now that Bram has optioned Sarah Carter’s Tree House.”

That caused more than a few heads to shoot up.

Georgie’s hand dropped to his shoulder. “But as far as I know, he’s never heard it read, so this afternoon I had Aaron make copies for us. With all this amazing talent in one place, I think we should give our host a treat, don’t you?”

All this amazing talent in one place…And Rory Keene sitting next to him. Georgie had thrown the dice. She didn’t want him to give up, even after the conversation she’d overheard. She’d arranged the ultimate audition for him.

And then he woke up.

She wasn’t doing this for him. She was doing it for herself.

He saw exactly how she hoped this would play out. She knew Rory would snap up his option the moment it expired, and she intended to use tonight as a private audition to get the inside track on Helene.

A ballsy plan, he thought bitterly, even though it wouldn’t work. Georgie didn’t have it in her to play that part. She dug her fingers into his shoulder. “Honey, if you don’t mind, I’ll play casting director.”

He had to hand it to her. She was doing exactly what he’d have done under the circumstances. So why did he feel so disappointed?

Because he was the selfish jerk, not her.

She began passing out scripts. “Bram, you’ll read Danny Grimes, of course. Dad, why don’t you take Frank, Danny’s dying father? Lance, you’re Ken, the abusive next-door neighbor. Playing the bad guy will be such a nice change for you. Jade, you read Marcie, Ken’s doormat wife.”

The most thankless role.

She held a script out to Laura. “Call on your inner child and read Izzy, their five-year-old. And Meg, you read Natalie, the home care nurse who’s Danny’s love interest, but don’t get any ideas.”

“I’m not an actress.”

“Pretend.”

He couldn’t blame Georgie for wanting a shot at Helene. It was the kind of role that turned careers around. But Helene needed an actress like Jade, who’d cut her teeth on strong characters. Even in a cold read, Jade would be fantastic, something Georgie knew as well as he did, which was why she’d assigned Marcie to her.

Georgie took a straight chair at the opposite end of the living room. “Aaron’s agreed to pick up the slack with the leftover male characters. I’ll read the action and handle the female leftovers.”

Helene was hardly a leftover. His confusion turned to shock as Georgie handed Rory a script. “You never get to have any fun. You read Helene.”

“Me?”

“Try out your acting chops,” she said with a bright smile.

“I don’t think I have any.”

“Who cares? This is just for fun.”

He didn’t get it. Why had she chickened out? He could come up with only one explanation, and something like panic tripped through him. She was giving him the audition instead of taking it for herself.

Damn it! He hadn’t asked for this. She must have decided Rory would be more invested in the project if she read such a key part. Or, even more disturbing, maybe she wanted to keep the spotlight focused on him, instead of herself. Whatever her logic, Little Miss Scooter Brown was once again flying around sprinkling her goddamned fairy dust.

He started to sweat. She was so fucking stupid. When was she going to realize she needed to look out for herself? If she wanted to change the course of her career, she should be going after what she wanted and to hell with everybody else. He’d never have made this kind of sacrifice for her. But she didn’t care. Because Georgie York was a fucking team player.

She crossed her legs. “Bram, talk a little bit about the script before we start, will you? Give everyone an idea of what you want from them.”

He hadn’t prepped, and he was shaken. If he blew it, he wouldn’t get another chance, but he couldn’t pull his thoughts together. “A few of you…Some of you have…uh…probably read the book. Most of you, probably. You know it’s a-” He forced himself to get a grip. “It’s a beautiful story. A beautiful script-maybe better than the book.” The words began to come more easily. “Since this is a cold read for everyone, let it be what it is. Don’t try to push your character beyond what you see on the page. Strip it down and read it naked. First…”

Georgie watched Bram from the other end of the living room. He’d gotten off to a bumpy start, but slowly his passion began to shine through. She stole a glance at Rory, but it was hard to decipher anything from her expression.

The idea for the script reading had come to her right after she’d overheard their conversation and seen the desperation Bram was working so hard to conceal. Two big obstacles lay in his way-his reputation for unreliability and his insistence on playing Danny Grimes. She couldn’t do anything more about the first, but it occurred to her that she could give him a shot at the second. He’d either be able to pull off the character or he wouldn’t, but at least he’d have a chance.

Everyone listened intently as he briefly described each character. Asking Rory to read Helene instead of taking the part herself had been wrenching, but this was Bram’s project, and this needed to be his audition. Besides, on the remote chance her plan worked, Bram would owe her big-time, and she intended to make sure he paid up.

Still, she’d once again put the needs of a man ahead of her own, but witnessing Bram’s passion for this project had given her a peephole into his soul. Right or wrong, this felt like the only path to take. She’d wait for another day to be ruthless.

They began to read, and it quickly became obvious that her ulterior motives had led to some serious miscasting. Jade couldn’t resist adding a repressed anger to Marcie that wasn’t on the page, turning her into a more formidable character than either Rory’s stilted Helene or Meg’s Natalie. Lance practically twirled a villain’s mustache in the role of Ken, and Laura was an unconvincing five-year-old. Her father, on the other hand, was shockingly good as Danny’s father. But not as good as Bram, who peeled his character down to its bones so that everyone in the room felt the mute suffering of a man wrongly convicted of one of society’s most heinous crimes. A man who was doggedly trying not to see the same crime unfolding in the house next door.

They reached the last page. Danny Grimes stood over his father’s grave with Natalie at his side.

NATALIE

The rain’s stopped. It’s going to be a nice day after all.

DANNY

(Takes Natalie’s hand)

A good day to build a tree house. Let’s get started.

Silence fell over the living room. One by one, they began closing their scripts.

Bram’s eyes found hers, and she felt her mouth curve in a slow smile. His performance had been brilliant-quiet, desperate, inspired-completely unexpected. Once again, she’d sold him short.

Meg finally broke the silence. “Damn, Bram…Does anybody else know you can act?”

Laura blew her nose. “Son of a bitch.” She gazed toward Paul, who was staring off into space.

“Good job, Bram,” Lance said. “A little flat, but not bad for a first reading…”

“I thought it was brilliant,” Jade said bluntly. “You’ve been wasting your talent on bullshit parts.”

“Right.” Lance jumped back in. “A really interesting performance.”

Georgie gazed at her ex-husband. Bram and her father were right. Lance was like a…a giant block of tofu. He had no flavor of his own. Instead, he assumed the flavors of the people closest to him.

Laura still had her eyes on Paul, who abruptly left the room. Georgie was afraid to look at Rory until she heard a long, weary sigh. “All right, Bram…This is against my better judgment, but let’s go someplace and talk.”

Georgie gave a strangled yelp, but other than a small twitch at the corner of his mouth, Bram didn’t exhibit anything except lazy confidence. “Sure. We can talk in my office.”

“Well…well…,” Jade remarked as Rory and Bram disappeared.

“I’ll say.” Meg uncrossed her legs and rose from her perch on the floor. “I can’t wait to tell Mom about this.”

Lance drummed his fingers on his thigh, something he did when he was unhappy. Chaz came in from the kitchen, where she’d undoubtedly been eavesdropping, and asked if anyone wanted more coffee. What Georgie wanted to do was leap up and dance.

Her guests drifted off to their various beds. Georgie finally went upstairs. She was dying to hear about Rory’s conversation with Bram, and she tried to read while she waited but finally gave it up. Her thoughts drifted to her ex-husband. From the time they’d started dating until the end of their marriage, she’d let her love for him define who she was-first Lance Marks’s girlfriend, then Lance Marks’s wife, and finally Lance’s tragically victimized ex-wife. She’d let herself become the emotional slave of a famous, talented, unfaithful, but not really rotten…slab of tofu.

Bram shot through the door and dive-bombed the bed. Yanking the covers away, he kissed her until she was delirious.

“I take it…,” she said breathlessly, “…that you’re demonstrating your gratitude.”

“I am.” He grinned and brushed her temples with his thumbs. “Thank you, Georgina. I mean it.” He slipped his hand under her tank top and pinched her nipple. “But don’t ever do anything like that again without warning me. I nearly had a heart attack.”

She decided she could wait to hear the details of his meeting and arched her breast into his hand. “You’re welcome. Now show me how grateful you really are.”

He did exactly that.

The next morning Bram was as happy as Georgie had ever seen him. His eyes sparkled, and the razor edges of his mouth had softened. Rory had agreed to produce Tree House through Siracca Productions, a subsidiary of Vortex that made low-budget, so-called independent, films. He finally had exactly what he wanted. Georgie experienced a brief pang of envy. She felt more creative excitement filming Chaz than she’d felt for her real work. And then she remembered Helene.

That afternoon the health department lifted the quarantine after blood tests determined that Jade’s assistants were suffering from a virus, not from SARS. Both women were still weak, but improving. By the time everyone was ready to leave, three helicopters buzzed overhead, and a media maelstrom waited at the gates. Rory slipped out the back, but the rest of them waited for the police to arrive and clear the way.

Now that Bram’s dreams were coming true, Georgie had to take the next step toward realizing her own. She went outside to find Laura. As her agent came back up the path from the guesthouse, Georgie walked down the steps to meet her. Laura’s baby-fine hair bounced this way and that around the soft prettiness of her face. She didn’t look tough enough to be an agent, and maybe she wasn’t. Georgie licked her lips. “I want you to cancel my meeting with Rich Greenberg tomorrow.”

Laura stopped in her tracks, her brown eyes widening with alarm. “Georgie, I can’t do that. You have no idea how hard I worked to get that meeting. You weren’t even on Rich’s radar screen until I talked to him, but now he’s thinking seriously about you.”

“I understand, but you didn’t talk to me about it first. I’m not doing that film.”

“Rich has some great ideas. You should at least hear him out.”

“It’s a waste of his time. I’ll call him myself and apologize.”

Laura tugged on her necklace. The deep shadows under her eyes indicated she hadn’t been sleeping well. “Your father is…He strongly believes this is the best project for you.”

“I’ll make sure he understands this was my decision.”

Laura looked unconvinced.

“I can’t do it,” Georgie said. “That last film I made…All I did was go through the motions.”

“Don’t say that. You’re a brilliant performer.”

“Spoken like a true agent.” She knew what she had to do. Bram, of all people, had shown her. “I don’t think people should live their lives just going through the motions. I want more from myself.”

“I understand that, but-”

“I want to play Helene in Tree House.”

Laura blinked. “Wow. I didn’t see that coming. That’s…quite a different part for you. Bram has…agreed to this?”

“He owes me an audition. I know I can do it. It’s a role that excites me, and I’m going to put everything I have into landing it.”

“Of course you have my support, but…”

“We’d better get inside.” She squeezed Laura’s wrist, a gesture of regret, and led her across the veranda.

The police were at the gate, and Bram met Georgie in the foyer to see everyone off. Aaron appeared with a notepad and asked Lance and Jade for their autographs. “Would you sign these to Chaz?” He passed the notepad and a pen to Jade. “Maybe something about liking her food. She’s too embarrassed to ask for herself.”

Jade looked blank.

“Our housekeeper,” Georgie said. “The girl who’s been making our meals all weekend.”

“Oh, yes…”

Bram snorted.

Jade signed, then tapped her foot, impatient to go. Lance hung back, still waiting for Georgie’s forgiveness. The wounds he’d inflicted on her began ticking through her head. But she’d played the filmstrip too many times, and watching it had grown boring. She thought of all the things she could say to hurt him, but that proved to be boring, too.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re absolved, Lancelot. Go and sin no more.”

Bram’s hand settled in the small of her back and rubbed.

“Do you mean it?” Lance said. “You’ve forgiven me?”

“Why not? It’s hard to hold on to a grudge when you don’t care anymore. Besides, you have enough trouble on your hands.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She meant that Jade never looked at Lance the way Lance looked at Jade, with such single-minded adoration. Jade probably loved him in her own way, but not as much as he loved her, and that didn’t bode well for a man with such massive insecurities.

Revenge came in strange forms, but she only said, “Changing the world isn’t easy, and the two of you have your work cut out for you.”

She’d given him what he wanted, but she saw that it didn’t make him entirely happy. Some part of him had liked her suffering-just a little bit-and he wasn’t quite ready to let it go. She smiled and looped her arm through Bram’s. Lance scowled, and Jade glanced at her watch, oblivious to it all.

As they finally left, Bram chuckled softly in her ear, “Impressive. Since when did you grow up?”

“Your influence, I’m sure,” she said dryly. But in a way it was true. Life was moving too fast for her to waste time gnawing over wounds that had healed when she wasn’t paying attention.

Meg announced that she was moving back home for a while. “Now that I know Bram’s not beating you, I’ll leave you alone.” She shot Bram her version of her father’s Bird Dog Caliber squint. “But don’t think I won’t be checking up on you.”

Finally, only Paul remained. “I’ve drafted a statement to the media that I suggest you release as soon as possible.”

Georgie automatically bristled, but Bram stepped in. “What do we have to say in this statement?”

“Exactly what you’d expect.” Paul passed over the paper he was holding. “How grateful you both are that the two women in the hospital are feeling better…The past is the past…You both couldn’t be more supportive of the good work Jade and Lance are doing. Et cetera. Et cetera.”

“Who knew we were so civilized?” Georgie said.

Bram nodded. “Sounds good to me. Aaron can take care of it.” He handed the paper off to Georgie, then headed for his office with the jaunty step of a man who’d just won the lottery.

“What are you doing this afternoon?” Paul asked.

She dreaded telling him she’d canceled the Greenberg meeting. “I have a ton of paperwork to catch up on.”

“Do it later. The helicopters have flown off. What do you say the two of us go for a swim?”

“A swim?”

“I saw some extra trunks in the guesthouse. I’ll meet you at the pool.” He set off without waiting for her agreement, which was so typical. She stomped upstairs and took her time pulling on a lemon-yellow bikini, then wrapping a beach towel around her waist. She’d been through enough these past few days, and she wasn’t ready to plunge into what was guaranteed to be an ugly scene.

He waited for her in the pool, standing awkwardly in the middle of the water. He swam for exercise, not for enjoyment, and he looked odd just standing there. She dropped the towel, sat on the edge of the pool near the steps, and took her time dipping her toes in the water. “I need to talk to you about the meeting tomorrow. I spoke to Laura, and-”

“Let’s swim.”

He loved career talks, especially when they involved upcoming meetings with producers and directors. He could go on forever about the attitude she should project and what she should say. She looked at him curiously, trying to figure out why he was being so weird.

“The water’s perfect,” he said.

“O-kay.” She slipped in.

He immediately began swimming toward the deep end. As he turned back toward her, she kicked off.

It went on that way for a while, the two of them swimming back and forth in opposite directions, neither one speaking. When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she finally put her feet down. “Dad, I know how much this Greenberg meeting means to you, but-”

He stopped swimming. “We don’t always have to talk about business. Why don’t we just…relax a little?”

She regarded him quizzically. “Is something wrong?”

“No, no. Nothing’s wrong.” But he wasn’t meeting her eyes, and he seemed uncomfortable. Maybe she’d watched too many movies, because she started wondering if he might have some kind of terminal disease, or maybe he’d decided to marry one of the women he dated, none of whom Georgie could warm up to, although she was grateful her father dated age-appropriately instead of going out with the twenty-somethings he could still attract.

“Dad, are you-”

An enormous splash of water hit her full in the face. She put up her hands, but not before he drew back his arm and sent another splash flying directly at her. Water shot up her nose and stung her eyes. She sputtered and choked. “What are you doing?”

His arm dropped to his side. His face flushed with what, if she didn’t know him better, would have been embarrassment. “I was just…having a little fun.”

She coughed and finally caught her breath. “Well, stop it!”

He took a step back. “I’m sorry. I thought…”

“Are you sick? What’s wrong?”

He lunged for the ladder. “I’m not sick. We’ll talk later.”

He grabbed his towel and hurried off toward the house. She gazed after him, trying to figure out what had just happened.