The Brand (24 page)

Jansen was blinded by
love
, but even the blind
sometimes perceive things in their minds, and it has nothing to do
with divine intervention. As they neared the start of the French
Tennis Open, it was increasingly becoming apparent that Chris
Healey was not the man to take Jansen to glory in 2013. Cracks
began to develop in their relationship in the weeks leading to the
French Open, leading to doubts as to the existence of their future
together – either as work-mates or sleeping partners.

Without seeking to pity them, it is
important to note that it is extremely rare to find a romantic
couple that can sustain a healthy personal affair together with the
strains of working together. With that in mind, perhaps Jansen and
Chris Healey deserve our sympathy when we learn that the two of
them went to Paris, France, both as lovers and work-mates, only for
Jansen to be defeated in the second round of the French Open.
Subsequent to that embarrassing defeat, a scathing attack was
leveled by an enraged Jansen on Chris Healey’s person, leading to
her calling off her wedding engagement to the man.

Naturally, there was widespread public
speculation revolving around the breakdown of Jansen and Chris
Healey’s relationship, but we shall not dwell on matters of
conjecture. Instead, we will focus our attention on the private
wars that took place in order to deliver Jansen from shame and
restore
her within the
vicinity of glory.

After her dismal performance at Roland
Garros, Jansen went to South Africa to talk to Gary Speckman
once again at his farm in
Heidelberg. Apologetically, she poured out her grief to Gary,
telling him how sorry she was that things had gone the way they
had, and that she and Chris were no longer an item…

‘I heard that, but I dint know whether to
believe it or not,’ responded Gary.

‘It’s true. It’s over…It was a mistake, and
I’m grateful I woke up to my senses before something terrible
happened.’

‘You mean marrying him?’

‘Yes,’ she replied in a low voice, an
embarrassed look on her face. ‘I was wrong about him, Gary. I do
admit that. You warned me…not in so many words, but you did. I’m
sorry that I didn’t trust you, and I’m sorry I treated you the way
I did. Even love is no excuse for my stupid actions.’

Gary Speckman did not know how to respond, so
he kept quiet.

‘
We’ve been through this before in the
not-too-distant past, and I’m ashamed to have to do this again, but
the reason I’m here is to ask you – no, to
beg
you – to coach me. I’ve said it many times before,
and I’ll say it again; I’m nothing without you. Please, Gary, I’m
begging you. I’m sorry for what I did, and I deserve to be
punished, but not by you refusing to be my coach…It’d just kill
me.’

They were sincere words, spoken from the
bottom of her heart, and he would have to have
had a heart of stone not to be touched by
them. Still, no matter how tempted he was to jump up and be her
knight in shining armor, Gary Speckman had his own life to
consider.

‘It’s not easy for me, Jan,’ he said and then
fell silent.

For a long moment they gazed at each
other’s eyes, and it was such an emotional moment, filled with
mutual reminisces of what they’d been through together, that Gary
became overwhelmed and rose to his feet.

They were on the front porch of his home in
Heidelberg, facing a horse stable in which a white horse and a
brown stallion were feeding. Gary walked to the waist-high wood
railing surrounding the porch. He gazed out at the plain, the trees
and the grass yellow with the severe temperatures of winter. He
turned to face Jansen, sitting on a rocking chair against the wall,
and leaned his back against the wood railing.

‘It’s hard for me to say this to you, Jan,’
he began. ‘I love Sheila. She’s very important to me…to my life. I
left her before, and I was lucky that she took me back when I
returned. I would be a fool to leave her again. I am sorry, but I
can’t coach you.’

Joelyn Smith had a list of things to do
when she left rehabilitation. The first one was to get a decent
place for her family to live in. Previously, during her married
life and afterwards, it had neither bothered nor concerned her that
her family made do with a 3-bedroom dwelling that was scarcely
adequate, in an area that was increasingly inhabited by Black
families. When she returned to South Africa for her family reunion
after her release from rehab, she spent a week in Johannesburg
hunting for a house with her mother. Not wanting to be far away
from the neighborhood she had become used to, her mother decided on
a spacious 5-bedroom two-story house with a big yard in Houghton,
close to the offices of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Still riding the wave of success following
her second music album, the production of which had been the
2
^nd
thing on her list, and about to
go to Europe to shoot a movie for Columbia Pictures, Joelyn did the
3
^rd
thing on her list. She cut the
size of her immediate staff by half, getting rid of vanity
appointments and remaining only with essential individuals. She
even seriously considered leaving Hollywood, the
4
^th
item on her list, and going to
settle in the south of France, a country where privacy laws
actually worked and were respected, but she was talked out of that
idea by her brand managers, who said her presence in Hollywood
guaranteed the strength and validity of her brand name.

The 5
^th
item on her list was to get rid of the
JK’s PROPERTY
tattoo above her vagina by laser
treatment. This was done discreetly at a Los Angeles plastic
surgeon’s premises, during which Joelyn read the current edition
of
Forbes
magazine,
in which were the rankings for the previous year’s top earning
Hollywood celebrities. It was said that though Joelyn Smith had
lost “around $50-million” in 2012, mainly due to the poor
performance of her JOY-LINE PICTURES-produced film at the box
office, she had still collected $68-million during that year from
endorsement deals, movie deals, music revenues and
Jo
S
-affiliated
merchandise.

The next thing on her agenda was to resume
her film career, and that was already underway. After the joy of
removing her tattoo, she went straight to fulfilling the
7
^th
item on her list of things to
do in 2013. She contacted Jansen, and actually flew to New York
City to try and mend their strained relationship. Jansen adamantly
refused to kiss and make up.

Joelyn stayed in New York for four days,
at the end of which she concluded the purchase of an $11-million
house in Long Island. Then she used the convenience of a private
chartered Gulfstream G650 to depart from JFK’s International
Airport and fly to Johannesburg, where she had a crucial
appointment with one Gary Speckman.

Gary Speckman dressed himself in blue
Diesel jeans, into which he tucked a crisp-white shirt from the
Fabiani shop in Sandton City. He threw a navy-blue Armani blazer
over the shirt, and then sat down on the bed and pulled on his
Italian shoes. Sheila, his lover, stood leaning against the
doorframe, watching with curious eyes as her man went through the
trouble of looking presentable for his evening date with one of
Hollywood’s foremost stars, the inimitable Ms. Joelyn Smith – born
and bred right here in South Africa.

Speckman got up and stared at her. ‘How do I
look?’

Sheila shrugged and silently pursed her
lips.

‘Are you jealous?’ Gary teased.

‘
No, I’m not,’ replied Sheila. ‘She’s a
Hollywood star. What could she possible want form
you
?’ The last
word was uttered with such belittling spitefulness it betrayed her
real emotions.

Speckman grinned smugly. ‘You never
know.’

‘
I do
,’ said Sheila cheekily. ‘You’re old, and, except for a few
hairs remaining on the sides and back of your head, you’re bald.
When you sit down, your bones creak and complain. You have a hard
time getting your dick up, and once inside a woman it can’t
last…What would a Hollywood star want with spent goods like
you?’

‘Ouch!’ Gary grimaced with a hurt
expression.

Sheila’s face softened and she smiled. ‘I’m
playing.’

Gary sighed with relief. ‘Phew! I thought I
was being prepared for the grave.’

Sheila laughed. ‘If she wants you, I’ll
kill her.’ She feigned a serious expression. ‘And I mean
that.’

Gary went to her and kissed her. ‘I love
you.’

Sheila smiled into his grey eyes. ‘It
greatly comforts me to hear that you won’t be stolen from me by the
beautiful Joelyn Smith.’

He smiled back. ‘Never.’

‘In any case, if she wants to sleep with you,
bring her here for a threesome. I’ve always had this wild fantasy
of fucking you together with her…’

Gary Speckman couldn’t help but laugh.

* * * * *

Speckman drove his Range Rover Sport with
a powerful V8 engine from Lanseria and went to meet Joelyn Smith at
the Radisson Blu Hotel at the corner of Rivonia Road and Daisy
Street in the heart of Sandton. She was staying in a sumptuous
top-floor suite at the hotel, and room service had brought in her
requested meal of roasted duck served with Thai rice, pancakes,
cucumbers, and sweet bean sauce, as well as some vegetables for
her; a bottle of Evian water for her, and a bottle of Dom Perignon
for Gary Speckman.

‘Dom Perignon,’ Speckman observed with a
raised eyebrow, sitting across from her at their table in the
dining room adjacent to her sleeping quarters in the luxury
penthouse suite.

‘For your pleasure, sir,’ Joelyn said with a
breathtaking smile. ‘And water for me. You’re aware of my
unfortunate history with alcohol, I’m sure?’

The smile knocked the senses out of
Speckman’s head. Jansen was one hell of a looker, but she was like
a daughter to him; he just didn’t have those sorts of feelings for
her. But this woman…at the moment so very close to him…was a bloody
beautiful woman, with captivating blue eyes, sexy lips and lush,
scintillating skin that begged to be touched…

He controlled himself – with difficulty.
‘And duck, how did you know I love duck?’ He forced a smile to his
lips but it was a pathetic effort.

Joelyn, instantly aware of her power over
him, smiled even more broadly and narrowed her eyes seductively at
him. ‘I didn’t,’ she said simply.

‘You’re pulling my leg.’ It was a statement,
expressing genuine disbelief.

Joelyn acknowledged it. ‘Yes, I am,’ she said
with a light laugh.

The laugh, while short and meaningless,
captured Speckman’s heart and shattered it to pieces. He longed to
hear it once again. She cut a slice of the duck and carefully fed
it into her mouth. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever
seen.

‘Honestly,’ she said, swallowing. ‘I went to
the trouble of finding out about your favorite food. There is
nothing that pleases me as much as making people happy. A little
money sometimes helps to find out about people’s little pleasures
and fulfilling them.’

‘I’m humbled, Miss Smith,’ Speckman said with
genuine modesty.

‘Call me Joelyn.’

‘Fine.’ He had called her Joelyn so many
times in his dreams it was easy to do so in reality.

‘
Please eat your food, Gary. It’s tasty and
delicious. I should make a habit of staying at the Radisson,’ she
added with light laughter.

Gary picked up his fork and knife and
nervously attacked his food. The curried Thai rice…the duck…it was
heavenly! And Joelyn Smith was sharing the meal with him! He opened
the bottle of Dom Perignon and poured himself half a glass to calm
his jittery nerves.

‘I hear Jansen came begging you to coach her
once more but you turned her down.’ Joelyn took a sip straight from
her water bottle, a habit she had never made an attempt to discard.
She gave Gary Speckman a piercing look, waiting for her answer.

He challenged her stare, but was unable to
hold her gaze for long. He diverted his eyes to his plate of food
as he responded. ‘How did you know? Jan kept her visit to me
quiet.’ In fact, as far as he knew, the matter was known only to
him, Jansen and Sheila.

‘I’ve already told you,’ Joelyn answered
smoothly. ‘A little money here and there helps in acquiring
information about people. I apologize for intruding, but I want to
help.’

Speckman ignored the last part of the
question. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, Joelyn, but you don’t have a
small amount of money. You have lots.’

Again, she gave him a beautiful smile. ‘I
understand you’re not doing so bad yourself.’

He smiled back. ‘True.’

The smile vanished from the gorgeous woman’s
face. ‘Why won’t you go back to coaching Jansen?’

He shrugged expressively. ‘Personal
reasons.’

Joelyn narrowed her eyes at him in that
sexy way of hers, and he felt his loins go ablaze with the fire of
desire. ‘Your partner…Sheila is her name, right?’ She continued
talking after a nod from him. ‘She must be a wonderful
woman.’