Star (30 page)

Of course he's okay. Are you kidding? Did you look around that office? It must have cost a million bucks just to decorate it, or something like that. You think he'd have an office like that if he weren't someone important? Baby, you fell right onto the gravy train and you don't even know it. And he's doing all this because he knows you're going to be a big star one day. The only one who doesn't know it is you, you dummy. She grinned at her young friend, and Crystal laughed. Listening to Pearl she suddenly felt better, and after they called Harry before they left the hotel, she felt terrific. He told her how proud of her he was, and what a big break she was getting. It was why she had come after all. And she had gotten exactly what she wanted. And they were right. She was crazy to worry about all of it. She had nothing to worry about at all. All she had to do now was sit back and enjoy it.

The suite in the new hotel looked like something in a movie set, as did the red velvet and white marble lobby. It was a small hotel in a good neighborhood, and it was undeniably very showy. But Pearl told her it would be a great place for her to be seen, and suggested she change clothes several times a day and walk around the lobby. Crystal laughed at the idea, but that afternoon she decided to try it, and the two women laughed uncontrollably as Crystal changed clothes three times and kept going back down to the lobby, ostensibly to mail a letter, get another key for her friend, and ask if someone had dropped off a package.

Did anyone see you? Pearl asked excitedly. She had insisted Crystal go alone, and Crystal was still laughing when she came back to relax and change into her blue jeans. She had brought them with her just in case, along with her cowboy boots and Jared's red socks, which were still among her most treasured possessions.

Yeah. Crystal was still laughing as she hung up her dress and peeled off her nylons. The desk clerk saw me. He probably thinks I'm a hooker.

Wait until he starts going to your movies, then he'll know who you are! She said it so proudly that Crystal turned slowly to face her, and walked across the room to give her a hug. She had been such a good friend for the last four years. It was going to be strange when Pearl left, being without her.

Thank you. Crystal said it very softly.

What for? Pearl sounded gruff but it barely concealed how much she loved her. Crystal had become the daughter she'd never had, and it was going to kill her to leave on Sunday and go back to San Francisco.

Thank you for believing in me. I'd never be here if it weren't for you and Harry.

That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. The agents found you at the restaurant. We had nothing to do with that.

You had everything to do with that. Harry hired me, you trained me. You taught me everything I know about singing on the stage. You've believed in me for all these years and now you've brought me down here. That's a hell of a lot, if you ask me.

Don't be silly. Just be happy here, She turned to smile at her as she walked to the huge red Formica and gold bar, and helped herself to a beer in the fridge, and then sat down on a tall black velvet stool and toasted Crystal with the bottle. To you, kid ' And then grandly, waving at the suite he had reserved for them, And to Ernie.

To Ernie! Crystal agreed, helping herself to a Coke, and feeling a lot better about him than she had that morning. She wasn't sure anymore why she had been worried, but she knew she had been. And obviously, without reason.

He arrived at six o'clock for drinks, as promised, and found Pearl more than a little sloshed, and Crystal in blue jeans. And Crystal felt as though she'd been caught cheating on her homework. She knew she was supposed to look glamorous, and behave herself, he had told her about the morals clauses in studio movie contracts. And here she was in blue jeans only hours after signing the contract. But he laughed at her, and even seemed amused at Pearl, and Crystal decided that he was much nicer than she had originally thought him. And when she looked at him more closely as he opened the champagne he had brought, she decided cautiously that he was actually fairly handsome. But his looks were very different from Spencer's. Spencer was all distinction and handsome young warrior. This man looked as though he had been making his way through drawing rooms in Europe. At least once she had had several glasses of champagne, that was how Pearl described it. She called him suave and debonair, and after a few minutes, Ernie ignored her, and concentrated on Crystal. He spoke to her in a gentle voice, and told her how happy he was about the contract. He also put a thick envelope in her hand. It was a gray envelope, with his name and the address of his office engraved on very expensive paper.

I forgot to give you that this morning. I'm awfully sorry, Crystal. I don't usually make mistakes like that. He smiled, and he looked as though he was accustomed to being forgiven. He was accustomed to a lot of things, things Crystal had never even dreamed of.

What is it? She opened the envelope cautiously and was surprised to see a check, and when she took it out of the envelope, she saw that he had signed it. Why was he giving her more money, he had already given her five hundred dollars for clothes, as an advance, but an advance on what, she wondered, and as she looked up, she saw that he was smiling.

It's the money I owe you for signing the contract. You don't expect to seal a major business deal with just a kiss, do you? Although I must say, if that's the case, I'd rather like it. Crystal looked at him in embarrassment. She didn't understand anything about their business arrangements.

You owe me that? She looked amused, and suddenly delighted. She hadn't even started the picture yet and she was already making money. And living like a queen in the hotel where he'd set her up. Who ever said Hollywood was tough? They must have been crazy ' but then again they didn't know Ernie Salvatore. She'd rolled in right at the top, just as Pearl had told her.

Actually, my dear, I owe you twenty-five hundred. But the five hundred for clothes was an advance' from me, as I mentioned, so I subtracted it from your check. He didn't want her feeling as though she owed him too much, not yet anyway, or it would scare her off. And that was not what he wanted. She had to feel as though she was earning the money from him, and she was. He had made a fat fee on her that afternoon, for her very first picture. And from that, he would pay her a small salary, and pocket the rest, which was the agreement she had signed in his office that morning. I'll set you up at my bank, Crystal. You can open an account tomorrow morning. She had never had a bank account before, and the idea excited her, as she took another sip of the champagne he had poured, and then in a little while he stood up, and told them to have a good evening. He smiled down at Crystal as she walked him to the door, and he kissed her cheek before he left, but this time there seemed nothing strange about him, and she was even beginning to like him. Who wouldn't have, as Pearl said. He was so good to them. The fancy hotel, the suite, the champagne, and Crystal was grinning as she waved her first check after he left them.

I'm not sure if I should spend it or frame it. But the UQKI morning, she decided easily on the former. After Ernie's secretary called her that morning with the information, she went to his bank and then to a jewelry store across the street, and bought Pearl the charm bracelet she had been staring at earlier. She had been fascinated by it, because all the charms were related to the movies. Dark glasses, a megaphone, tiny klieg lights with a diamond in them, a gold director's chair, and a little chalkboard that actually snapped open and shut like the ones they were going to use on the set of Crystal's first movie. Pearl cried as Crystal put it on her, and they spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and talking and acting like tourists. Ernie had offered them the limousine again, and it never dawned on them that he had done it to keep track of exactly what Crystal was doing. It just seemed like an enormous kindness to them, and the driver was very pleasant.

The voice coach came to meet her that afternoon, and when she sang for him at the piano in the suite, he was surprised by how good she was. It was just too bad she wasn't going to have a singing part in the movie. He was also doubling as drama coach for her, and he gave her several pointers about the script and told her not to worry. And before they knew it, the week had flown by and Pearl had left, with tears and hugs and promises to call her. And suddenly Crystal was alone in Hollywood. Her dreams had come true, she was starting work on a movie the next day, and as she went for a long walk in the cool night air, she suddenly found herself thinking of Spencer. She wondered where he was and what he was doing and who he was with. If he was in Korea, or back home, and if he ever missed her. But no matter how hard she tried, she found she could never erase him from her mind, or forget the two magical weeks they had spent together. And no matter what else happened in her life, she knew she would always love him. He was still as vivid in her mind as he had been the day he left, and the days before ' and as when she was fourteen and fell in love with him at first sight, at her sister's wedding.

My, my, that's a serious face. You ought to remember that for a dramatic part. The voice spoke just behind her, and she wheeled around in surprise, to find herself looking up at Ernie. She was only a few blocks from the hotel, but she had been miles away in her own mind and she hadn't heard him approach. I thought you might be lonely without your friend, so I dropped by to see how you are. And they told me at the desk you had gone out for a walk. Mind if I join you?

Of course not. He had been so kind to her, how could she object to anything he did? And in truth, she had been feeling very lonely. And thinking of Spencer never helped. It was always a blow to remember how he had simply faded away into silence. It had happened between them before ' between Becky's wedding and the christening of their baby ' and then until they'd met again in San Francisco the Thanksgiving he'd gotten engaged, and then again just before he left for Korea. But this time had been different. She hadn't slept with him before. She hadn't loved him as she did now. But there was no point thinking about it anymore. There was nothing she could do about it. He had given her up, he had stopped writing to her, or even answering her letters, and she knew he had lost interest long before that. From letters filled with love and telling her how much he missed her they had drifted down to barely more than postcards and then nothing.

Are you excited about tomorrow? Ernie smiled down at her benevolently and reminded her about her movie.

Very much so. She was honest with him, and he liked her aura of fresh excitement. It was a nice change after the jaded starlets he usually went out with.

You're going to be very good. Maybe next time we'll get you a singing part and really show them your stuif. He had heard her sing on the screen test, and he knew just how good she was. But he had wanted to launch the face before he worried about the rest, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

I'd like that a lot. She missed singing, even in the few days since she had left San Francisco.

Your voice coach says you're terrific.

Thank you. She smiled at him, and he could almost feel his body tremble as he watched her. And then suddenly he had a thought, as long as he was going to play father confessor to her, or benevolent tutor, he might as well take her to dinner.

Have you ever been to the Brown Derby? He asked innocently, but he already knew from his driver that she hadn't. He got reports of her activities daily. He wanted to be sure that she wasn't a little whore, sleeping around, damaging his and her own reputation. But so far she'd kept her nose clean, maybe because her friend from San Francisco was there. But he suspected she would anyway. He had even wondered once or twice if she was still a virgin. She was that kind of girl, and he liked that. It would make it that much easier to groom her.

No, I haven't. She smiled at him, all innocence, and all startling beauty. In any light, in any outfit, dressed, combed, or in blue jeans, the girl was a knockout.

Would you like to go there for dinner tonight? But I warn you, if we go, I'm going to bring you home very early. You have to get a good night's sleep before you start work tomorrow.

Yes, sir. But her eyes had lit up like Christmas. I'd really like that. Her ingenuousness amused him. She was going to be a good one.

He glanced at his watch, calculated quickly, and offered to walk her back to the hotel and pick her up again in an hour. He was wearing gray flannel slacks and a light tweed jacket, and he wanted to change into a suit before he took her to dinner. I'll be back at eight o'clock. And I plan to have you back home and in bed by ten, come hell or high water. And unfortunately, without him. But Ernie was much too smart to move on her too quickly. Sound okay to you?

It sounds terrific! She leaned over to kiss his cheek, as she would have a grandfather's, and he was ashamed as he dropped her off and slid into his Mercedes. He had a number of cars, and he had left one of his limousines at her disposal for the entire week. He preferred the Mercedes anyway, and he wanted to be alone with her tonight in any case. And he was glad he was when he picked her up and saw the beautifully cut tight white silk dress she was wearing, with a little matching jacket. She looked absolutely stunning, and he was extremely pleased he had tendered the invitation. And so was most of the dinner crowd at the Brown Derby.

She walked in, chatting easily with him about her life in the valley as a child, and then stood rooted to the spot, aware suddenly that everyone was staring at her. And they stared harder and longer when they saw who she was with. He certainly had a knack for finding the prettiest girls in town. No one could deny that, and this one was the best yet. He seemed to know everyone in the place, and Crystal almost fainted when she saw a man who looked like Frank Sinatra walk past her. Ernie walked her slowly toward their table, greeting everyone and introducing her to names she had only dreamed of.

Don't look so scared. He spoke to her very gently, and smiled. He was delighted with everyone's reactions, and she had done well. The white dress made people stop and stare, particularly once he made her take off her jacket, which offered a generous view of cleavage. It wasn't something she usually played on, in fact she usually went to great lengths to hide it, but Pearl had insisted she buy the dress, and she had decided to wear it to dinner at the Brown Derby. And she was glad she had. Ernie said that he loved it. And as dinner progressed, he surprised her. She felt very much at ease with him.