chapter010
‘What does it involve?’ Edie asked. ‘Apart from the obvious.’
‘Well …’ Elliot got down from his seat, walked over to a bag slung on the kitchen table and rummaged, producing a wad of A4 held by a bulldog clip.
‘I was going to suggest you read the script. Then you know exactly what I know, and I can’t misrepresent it in any way. This is episode eight at the end of the first season.’
He handed it over.
‘Why does it have your name across it in big letters on every page?’ Edie said, leafing through.
‘The watermark? If the pages get out, they know whose script it is and can collar whoever leaked it. Welcome to the showbiz jungle, baby. Nobody knows anything, and no one trusts anyone.’
‘I thought you were too senior for that.’
‘Oh, no one is. They’d shout at my agent first though.’
He gave her a winning smile. Edie smiled back and yet felt weak and sick. She wanted Elliot to herself; it was very early days to consider sharing like this.
She better understood why actors often dated other actors: it’d help if she had any reference points in her own career. She didn’t have to French kiss and fake-fondle the guys at the Vienna beef hot dog account.
‘Got time now?’ Elliot said. ‘Softer seat?’
They went through to the sitting room, with its two overstuffed sofas making a right angle.
Edie lay down on one, hooking her sixty-denier-stockinged ankles over the arm, and began reading. Elliot lay out on the other, phone scrolling.
Her initial intention was to get the gist, as she was seven episodes behind, and then start skipping forward to find the grot. Very soon, Edie had forgotten that was why she was reading it.
Within ten pages, she was completely absorbed; after twenty pages, she realised that she straight up loved it. She laughed. She caught her breath. She couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what happened next. Edie muttered one zinging Gaby line aloud to commit it to memory.
‘Enjoying it?’ Elliot said, and Edie nodded.
She felt like she knew these people, despite not being conversant with the fast-paced world of substance-fuelled hospitality in the Big Apple, circa the Clinton administration.
And oh my God – she was, inconveniently, achingly desperate for fast-talking, charming-yet-damaged Matteo and whip-smart, insecure firecracker Gaby to shag. Even while she wanted Matteo to not be that man, right there. That said, imagining Elliot somewhat enhanced it, too. What a psychological mess this was.
When Edie got to The Scene, she didn’t exhale for the four pages it took for them to spit insults, accuse the other of a crappy attitude and deliver the mutual ultimatum that one of them was going to have to go – before they realised they didn’t, in fact, only crave the other’s absence.
As their fictional mouths met, Edie went warm and cold and physically felt things. Neither of them can quite believe what they’re doing, and yet neither of them can stop …
Fade to credits.
Edie sat bolt upright and waved the script accusingly. ‘What was the word you used – grappling?!’
‘Yeah,’ Elliot replied, also shifting to sit up and looking intimidated.
‘More like you devour each other in a deranged level of desire. Your face makes contact with her chest quite explicitly.’
Edie had to euphemise the nipple in mouth to cope.
‘OK, look, I won’t do it. I really want the role, but I am fairly sure they want me back, so I’ll make it a condition they tone it down …’
‘No!’ Edie cried, startling Elliot even more. ‘It’s so hot, and you have to do it! You can’t pay off the mad build-up of Matteo and Gaby without this.’
‘… OK,’ Elliot said, frowning. ‘Is this a trap?’
‘No,’ Edie said, grinning at last. ‘I loved it so much. I even love that scene. I don’t love you tearing away Ines Herrera’s bra like a hungry wolf, but I’m still not going to ruin this piece of art. Just swear to me on your family’s lives you don’t fancy her.’
‘Oh my God! You loved it?! I loved it, too! The script I mean, not the wolf bra stuff.’
‘I’m going to need the promise.’
‘Ines? I swear. I’ve only met her on Zoom, and she seemed nice enough, but she does her tiny dogs those hairdos with ribbons. I’m too busy fancying you. You honestly loved it?’
‘Yes, I truly did,’ Edie said. ‘I can’t believe how much. When The Cranberries’ “Linger” comes on the jukebox, in the half dark and they’re alone! The way they stare at each other, and the whole mood twists and changes during the opening bars when they’ve ranted themselves to a standstill. And Gaby seizes him right on the words it’s just your attitude … Massive swoon.’
Edie sighed, with a degree of wistful lust.
Elliot put his phone aside. ‘Yeah, the script really conjures up an atmosphere, doesn’t it? There’s so much dialogue to learn, the way they talk at a mile a minute. I’m so pleased they brought it to me, because there’d be a long queue to play Matteo.’
‘It’s going to be a huge hit.’
As she said those words, Edie realised that this might in fact be the bittersweet part, not the topless snogging. Goodbye to Elliot moving back here for another five years, at least.
An inner voice, Margot’s voice, whispered: He never was going to, darling.
‘This response is beyond my wildest dreams,’ Elliot said. ‘Not to the sex. To be honest, I was half hoping you would object because I’m shitting myself about doing that justice. The rest of it.’
‘Only thing is, did you ever read the memoir by Robert Evans, the Hollywood producer? He said he deserved to lose Ali MacGraw because he left her on her own to make a film with Steve McQueen,’ Edie said. ‘As in: what was obviously going to happen?’
‘Right …’ Elliot said, smiling at her with starry eyes. She’d forgotten how easy it was to impress even enlightened men by reading the books that they did.
‘Am I freely and foolhardily letting you make The Getaway with Steve McQueen?’
Elliot gazed at her with a look of purest adoration that was as much reassurance as anything he was about to say. ‘I’ve got no interest in anyone I work with in that way – none. But the only thing that can really prove that to you is my word, plus time.’
Edie nodded. She had unfortunately figured out that only by this becoming something she was used to would it ever not be intimidating.
‘I’m so thrilled you like it, you know. Now I’m making this show for you,’ Elliot said.
He looked up at her under his brow, with dark eyes. He must be fully aware of his effect and unfair advantages in that moment.
‘Is Fraser definitely not coming back today?’ Edie asked.
‘No …?’ Elliot said.
‘I’ve got an idea.’
She led him upstairs by the hand to the bedroom.
‘OK, you can sit down there.’ She gestured at the bed.
Edie climbed onto Elliot, pushing him backwards and pinning him down by the wrists.
‘Tell me you can’t stand the disregard that I show to everyone, most of all, to me. No, actually, most of all, towards YOURSELF.’
Elliot was both laughing and muttering, ‘What the fuck?’ under his breath.
‘Say it! I want you to be FUMING.’
‘In a British accent or the American one?’
Some time later, they lay side by side, staring up together at the skylight, in a sort of stoned haze.
‘I mean,’ Elliot said, eventually, ‘There’s taking it well, and then whatever that was.’