Laying Low in Hollywood (16 page)

  “Who did this?” I breathed. I was so completely stunned, I couldn’t say another word. 

   “It makes no difference who did it, the point is, you are a celebrity now, you probably have a whole host of stalkers,” he told me with a sly smile.

  “But how?” I was panicking, worrying that maybe someone had planted secret cameras in my condo.  I’m sure stranger things have happened.

   I am sorry darling, but it was you, who forgot to close your drapes,” said Jorge, giving me a nonchalant shrug.

  I sighed brokenly, I kept forgetting, I wasn’t in Colorado Springs anymore.  When you were in the public eye, everyone always wanted to know what you were up to.  There was obviously no such thing as a secret rendezvous, at least not in this day and age.   All this modern technology was like a double edged sword, for the stalkers it made life easier, for the stalked, it was a nightmare, the average person could shoot video from their cell phone!

   “Tomorrow we will move all your things into my house.  That is where you will be staying until the conclusion of the show,” snapped Jorge.

   “What about Jean Luc?” I asked.

   “Jean Luc has decided to take a little holiday in Nice, until the show is over,” said Jorge.

   I was shaking my head miserably, my entire life was a fiasco.  I could see where Jorge was coming from, he needed to protect his show from negative publicity.  Ron didn’t seem to care, but the media would tear him up if they thought that the two of us were having an affair.  I had been afraid that he might show up at my condo again tonight, Jorge had taken care of that little problem.

   “Am I under house arrest?” I asked, flashing him a sly smile.

   “Essentially.  You know we wouldn’t have this problem if it wasn’t for those big blue eyes and that smile of yours, you even have me completely charmed, and I like men!” cried Jorge.

   I rolled my eyes. “Jorge...”

   “I’m serious, and I’m not the only one.  You’re such a flirt Lane, all the guys have been totally eating it up.  I doubt you’ll be single long.”

   “My mother was a shameless flirt, I guess I learned it from her,” I told him, with a little shrug.

  “Your mother...don’t even get me started on your mother!” cried Jorge.

   Jorge didn’t know my mother personally, but he knew of her, of course, lots of people in Hollywood did.  My mother was Lydia Gray, back in the day, my mother had been a very a famous dancer.  She had been in a lot of movies in the 50’s and 60’s, even now, years later, she was still kind of notorious.  Unfortunately, it hadn’t been my mother’s dancing that had made her so memorable in Hollywood, it was her hot temper and her numerous male conquests that had made my mother a Hollywood legend.

   Maybe that was why I didn’t feel all that comfortable in Hollywood.  When Jorge first met me, he had been fascinated with the fact that Lydia Gray was my mother.  He told me I should feel like Hollywood was my family, not many people could trace their lineage directly back to Hollywood’s golden era.

   Since my mother was so notorious, Jorge found it to be quite intriguing that I could possibly be the bastard child of some old Hollywood icon.  It was a thought I had considered, but never pursued.  Since I was a small child, I had my doubts about my lineage, of course, I had heard all the whispered rumors. When I looked in the mirror, it only confirmed all the rumors, I had my mother’s eyes, but I didn’t look like my dad at all.  My nose, my hair, my freckles, they all seemed to come from somewhere else, they were things I didn’t share with my parents or either of my siblings.

   Of course, my own father claimed me, but even he, had heard the rumors, I imagine.  It was not something my family had ever spoke about, but I had heard the whispers when I was just a child.  My parents were both so busy, my grandparents had essentially raised me, they tried to shelter me from all the speculation, but people are cruel.  The gossiping eventually filtered down from the adults to my classmates.  I pretended not to care, when the kids made fun of me and my family.

   Who knows what had been speculation and what had been true?  I did know that my mother had a series of affairs, she had apparently not been very discrete about them.  Apparently my mother had set her sights on Hollywood idol, Troy Donahue, and that is who our neighbors seemed to believe I had been fathered by.  Of course, I did have blonde hair and blue eyes, while my own father had green eyes and stunning auburn hair. 

   Jorge had also pointed out to me that I had Troy Donahue’s nose, I had shrugged that off, at this point I didn’t even care.  I certainly didn’t have my mother’s or my father’s nose.  It didn’t really matter anyway, I was still not comfortable in Hollywood!

   I yawned as the limo cruised through the streets of Hollywood, I knew I was resigned to stay at Jorge’s home in the Hollywood Hills until this media circus was over. 

   “What about my car?  Are we going to stop off and get my car?” I asked, suddenly wondering how I would get to the rink in the morning.

   “You’ll ride with me,” snapped Jorge.

   “Holy shit, I really am under house arrest, aren’t I?” I asked, staring at him in shock.

   “Yes darling, and it is for your own good,” he replied as he watched the streets of Hollywood slip by in the night.             

                                                           
CHAPTER 16

   When I arrived at the house that night, Jorge set me up in his guest room, then he sent his assistant Ed over to the condo to get some of my things.  I didn’t really feel comfortable staying at Jorge’s house, but I was sure it was for the best.

   When Ed arrived later that evening with my laptop, I took it out by the pool so that I could do a little research.  Our next music choice had to be from a Broadway musical.  Once again, I wanted something different.  I had guessed that everyone would be using music from “Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats” and all the more recent, popular musicals.  I wanted something different, something quirky, that Elena and Ron could make into a memorable routine that would stand out from all the others. 

   Ron was essentially still a beginner, so of course, he didn’t know a lot of moves.  On the up side, Ron had quite a personality, and he knew how to project that out on the ice, so I had to make that work for us, as much as possible.  If I could play up his showmanship and personality, maybe it would deflect criticism from his basic skating skills.

   “Can I get you anything to drink?  A glass of wine, perhaps?” asked Ed, as he approached me on the patio later that evening.

   I was stunned.  “Um sure, a glass of wine would be nice,” I told him.

   “Red or white?”

   “White please,” I told him.  I smiled as he walked away.  Maybe I could get used to this, living the life of the rich and famous.

   I began searching through the thousands of songs I had loaded on my i-tunes library.  Greg and I had well over 500 cd’s that we’d loaded onto i-tunes, not to mention all the other music we’d bought.

   I’d pretty much grown up in the theater so I already knew most of the music from all the Broadway shows.  I clicked down my list, listening to clips as I went along.  After a while, I was beginning to get overwhelmed, there was just too much to choose from.  Besides, I still wasn’t sure what I was looking for.  I was waiting for a fun, quirky, song to just jump out at me.

   Jorge walked out on the patio and gave me a wry smile.

   “How’s it going?” he asked.

   “Terrible, I’m completely overwhelmed.  I have no idea what Ron and Elena will be skating to next week,”  I told him, sighing heavily.

   “This week should be easy for you, it’s Broadway week, you should be right at home.  I can only guess that you grew up listening to all that music,” said Jorge.

   “I know it should be easy, I’m just overwhelmed, there are just too many choices,” I told him.

   “What is your favorite musical?” he asked, sitting down next to me.

   “That’s just it, I could never pick just one.  I have tons of favorites,” I told him with a shrug.

    “What are they?”

   “I don’t know, I like
West Side Story
,
Gypsy
,
Hello Dolly
,
My Fair Lady
, there’s so many.

   “Why don’t you just listen to some of the music from those shows and see which ones strike you as something that will work,” said Jorge.

   “I already know all the music, I just can’t see them...”

   “Listen to the music Lane, you have to feel it.  Then you will get an idea of what your team can skate to.” he said, standing to leave.

   Jorge bent over and gave me a peck on the cheek, then he walked back into the house.  I sighed, I still wasn’t inspired, my brain was completely overloaded.  I stared distractedly at the pool in front of me, as the surface of the water was illuminated by constantly changing colors of the fiber optic lights.  The shimmering light danced across the glass-like surface of the water that was barely ruffled by the filter jets.  The light kept changing from blue to green to yellow, then pink.

   I put my ear buds in and got to work listening to clips, but soon I was bored.  This was impossible, none of these songs would have the effect I wanted them to have.  I wanted the audience to remember my team, therefore, I needed them to stand out.  Elena and Ron seemed to do best when they had actual characters to portray, and they both enjoyed acting a little bit silly.  Suddenly I had a fabulous idea!

   I began paging down my huge list of songs until I finally found what I was looking for.  I played the clip and smiled serenely as I listened to it.  This song was exactly what I had been looking for.  In moments I was almost bursting with excitement.  I could see the costumes, and the program in my mind, almost as if I had already completely pulled it together.  I was going to make Ron into a English gentleman, and Elena would be Eliza Doolittle.

                        
CHAPTER 17

   I showed up at the ice arena the next morning, accompanied by Jorge, of course.  It wasn’t often that the producer would show up for a mere practice, but these were special circumstances and Jorge was determined to play it all out!  I was getting the uneasy feeling that Jorge was going to become a permanent fixture at all of our practices, if for no other reason than to convince everyone that he and I were a couple.

    I thought that portraying the idea that Jorge and I were lovers was completely ridiculous, at first, I thought no one would buy it. I guess just had no idea how strong the power of suggestion could be.  I had never expected that people would actually believe that Jorge and I were truly a couple. 

   I had known almost from the first moment I met him, that Jorge was obviously gay.  He wasn’t really one of those guys that you silently wondered about, he was kind of flaming!  Now that Jorge and I were “dating”, apparently, everyone thought he was straight, but a bit odd.  That’s the power of suggestion.

   I was excited about our new program.  I had told Jorge about it and he thought the idea was fabulous, though Jorge seemed to think everything I did was fabulous! 

   My excitement faded quickly that morning at practice as I realized that Ron was not himself.  He was more than a little distant, it was obvious he had been stewing all night about something.  I wasn’t sure if he was mad at me, or what?  I couldn’t imagine what I could have done to hack him off.

   I played the music for them and explained my ideas.  Elena clapped excitedly, but Ron shrugged half heartedly.

   “If that’s what you want,” he said, the tone of his voice confirmed it, Ron was angry about something.

   “You don’t like it?” I asked.

   “What difference does it make.  I’m the puppet, you’re the puppet master, just pull my strings, I’ll do whatever you want!” he snapped, in a strange, fake voice.

   “Did I do something to hack you off?” I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm.  He was being a child, and now I was getting hacked off as well.

   “Don’t worry about me, I thought that the two of us were friends, but you’re just as fake as everyone else in Hollywood,” he snapped, rolling his eyes miserably.

   I gave him a stunned look, I couldn’t believe he had just said that.  “How about you stop blaming me for all your problems and you focus on what you were brought here to do, which is skate,” I told him, I forced my voice to sound as cold as possible. 

   I’d been stupid, I slipped up.  I should have never let my feelings for Ron jeopardize the show. We needed to separate our private lives from our work.  I sighed miserably.  Jorge was smart to forbid me to get involved with Ron for the time being, he was riding an emotional roller coaster right now!

   “Fine, like I said, you’re the puppet master,” snapped Ron.

   I gave him a haughty glare and skated away from him.  I wanted to clear my head, so I did a couple of laps around the ice while Ron and Elena stood there staring at me, slightly confused. 

   I felt discouraged, it seemed like it was impossible to make it through an entire practice without someone acting like a child.  I had originally thought that my six figure salary was ridiculously excessive, now I was beginning to see that working with “stars” was harder than I had anticipated.

  I returned to Ron and Elena feeling energized, I ignored Ron’s attitude and began working on teaching them the new routine.  The newest required element was side by side spins.  It had been my least favorite element back when I had skated, it was a timing thing, the spins were supposed to look identical, a very hard task.  Fortunately, the network had made things relatively easy for us.  The pair could do any spin, even the most basic of spins, and they only had to complete two revolutions, a piece of cake, as far as I was concerned.

   At least, now I would have a bit more to work with for our programs.  We would have a lift, a pair spin and a side by side spin, maybe even the death spiral, if I wanted to throw that in.  We had a good practice and Ron even seemed to be enjoying himself.  At some point during our practice Jorge had wandered off to the wardrobe department to get them started on my costume designs.

   When practice was over, I skated over to the edge of the ice and picked up my water bottle.  Elena waved goodbye as she slipped her skate guards on.  Ron skated up to me and eyed me arrogantly as I gulped down my water.

   “Where were you last night?” he asked.

   “What do you mean, where was I last night?” I asked.

   “I called you a bunch of times, then I finally stopped by your condo, but you weren’t there,” he said, I could hear the hurt in his voice.

   “The condo is officially no longer my home,” I told him nonchalantly.

   “What do you mean?”

   “I mean, Jorge is so worried about “us” he’s moved me into his house, he’s very serious about this,” I told him.

   “He can’t do that!” cried Ron.

   “Ron, Jorge knows what happened the other night.  Someone videotaped you at the condo with me, Jorge saw everything, and he’s pretty hot about it,” I whispered.

   “You’re kidding me right?” cried Ron, completely shocked that our seemingly private moment had been stolen from us.

   “I’m not kidding.  Listen Ron, this is all for the best.  You have so much going on in your life right now, you’re upset about your wife, now is not the time...”

   “I am not upset about my wife.  Jenae uses men, I can finally see that, she used me until I no longer suited her purposes, now she’s found another man to manipulate!” he cried.

   “That is why I think it would be best if we kept our relationship professional, at least until we’re done with the show,” I told him.
             

   “Is that what you really want, or is that what Jorge told you to say?” he asked, his voice was laced with sarcasm.

   “Don’t act like a child Ron, Jorge does not tell me what to say,” I told him, rolling my eyes miserably.

   “Fine, you are my boss and I will obey you, just like you obey Jorge,” he said, his tone was mocking.

  “Fine,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him.  He shook his head miserably before he slipped his skate guards on and walked away.

   I sighed as I watched him walk away.  I felt bad that I had to be so hard on him, but I couldn’t lead him on, that wouldn’t be fair.

   I snapped my skate guards on, and in moments Jorge had appeared there at my side.

  “Trouble in paradise?” asked Jorge, his tone was slightly sarcastic.

   “No trouble,” I snapped.

   “Listen Lane, I’m sorry, but Ron Brannon will be free  and clear soon.  I am quite certain his wife will divorce him for the more lucrative Roman Fleming and then two of you can hook up, after the show is done!”

   I gave him a rueful smile.  I didn’t really know what to say to him, suddenly I felt like crying.  I was an emotional mess! 

   “Personally, I think Mrs. Brannon may be shooting herself in the foot.  Ron is quite a personality, you seem to bring it out in him.  I think he may have quite a future in Hollywood,” said Jorge, giving me a sly smile.

   “Hmmm, then count me out.  When I’m done with this show I’m going back to Colorado Springs,” I told him.

   “Why would you possibly do that?  You can’t fool me Lane, Hollywood is in your blood, this is where you belong,” said Jorge.

   “No, I don’t think so,” I told him, shaking my head.

   “Oh come on Lane, what’s in Colorado Springs that you feel the need to go back to.  You have nothing to go back to but an empty house.  Baylee is closer to you here, at Stanford, Ramsey is at school far away in Boston,” said Jorge.

   “I don’t really need to be reminded how much my life sucks, “ I told him ruefully.

   “Nonsense, your life doesn’t have to suck.  You’re finally getting your chance to be somebody.  Don’t let it pass you by,” said Jorge.

   “You’re right, I have a real future as the fake girlfriend of a gay Hollywood producer,” I told him, rolling my eyes miserably.

   “Ouch!  You don’t have to be so harsh about it,” cried Jorge, giving me a hurt look.

   “Look Jorge, I’m playing the game.  I totally get it.  But when this is all over, I’m done.  I’m going home, I’ll be happy to leave Hollywood behind me.”

   “Okay, we’ll see,” said Jorge taking my hand and giving me a dubious smile.