Chapter 36
The warmer sunshine washed away the drama of the past months and lured visitors back from the city.
Council workers in high-vis came on the barge, real estate agents in suits jumped off each ferry, and hired yachts brought lunch parties of fifty-somethings in button-down shirts, blow-dried hair, and shoulder-slung cardigans.
Lily observed the parade of newcomers largely unseen.
As a barefoot local swimming or lounging on the deck, she was just part of the landscape; as a worker hauling mops, buckets, and a vacuum cleaner, she was invisible.
But she felt no resentment or bitterness.
She had a new sense of vitality and purpose that could not be touched by social circumstances.
Her activism at Pippi had inspired her to enroll in an environmental science degree, starting next year. She felt she was growing up. Finally.
So was Lydia. She had started dating Fire-Chief-Steve by publicly announcing, somewhat embarrassingly for Lily and Rosie, that she was not going all the way with him until they had been on ten dates or he confirmed their relationship on social media, whichever came first. At least she was setting some kind of standard.
And Fire-Chief-Steve could hardly believe his luck.
He’d taken to haunting the house with his tool kit, fixing everything within reach, and had bought paint to reseal the deck in the autumn.
Community concern about filming at Pippi was also resolved.
After weeks of no news, Lily called the council to find out what was happening and discovered that they had read her submission and viewed it very favorably, but before they had voted on it, the production company had withdrawn the application.
Lily was so relieved that she didn’t even care that her submission had nothing to do with it.
She and her family could continue to live and work at Pippi and next year she would start studying.
She was ready for her new life in which her mother was an ally and Dorian Khan and everything connected with him was in the past. If only she could stop thinking about him so much.
Now that the Pippi community had demonstrated how little it cared for the moviemaking business, its connection to Dorian and Casey seemed even more special and there was much speculation about whether they would return this summer.
Any fancy yacht scudding toward Pippi or new helicopter scouting low could indeed be theirs.
So when a helicopter actually landed on the flat of green close to the beach, all shiny and loud and as completely out of place as an alien ship, the noise brought everyone out of their houses and onto their front lawns or decks.
At first, everyone wondered aloud who’d had a heart attack, snakebite or broken limb, and why had they not been told or appealed to for help?
But as the rotors thudded to a stop, a security guard stepped out, followed by a stately figure in a floppy hat and sunglasses.
This was not a medical emergency. Everyone knew at once: this was Hollywood.
“Is that … ?” Rosie whispered as they watched the figure make her way up the path, straight toward their deck.
“Stacy Black,” Lily replied. “It’s fine,” she called to concerned locals. “I know her. Thanks, Steve, we don’t need the defib.”
“Who? The fancy-pants producer? What’s she doing here?” Lydia shrieked, and Lily caught a grimace on Stacy’s face. She kept walking, however, right up to their front deck. Her black leather loafers clomped on the wooden planks.
“Stacy. This is a surprise,” Lily said as casually as she could.
“Lily,” Stacy replied, as though she landed helicopters in people’s backyards all the time. Which she quite possibly did.
“Um … this is my mum, Lydia, my sister, Rosie, and my cousin Juliet.”
Stacy smiled coldly but didn’t greet them or shake anyone’s hand. For once, Lydia and Rosie were too shocked for words.
“A word with you,” Stacy announced.
Her tone reminded Lily of her scary French teacher, but Lily was no longer at school and she refused to be intimidated on her own front deck. But she was baffled. What could Stacy Black possibly have to say to her?
“Of course,” Lily said politely, careful not to express any surprise. “Would you like to come inside?”
“No, no. Let’s walk.”
Stacy turned swiftly on her heel and Lily had no choice but to follow. She glanced back at her terrified-looking family and shrugged. Stacy caught the gesture and bristled.
“You know why I’m here,” Stacy snapped.
“I … no, I don’t.” Lily’s head whirred, searching for explanations, each one wilder than the next. A job offer? Something about Nicola? Alex King? Dorian? No. Please don’t be here to talk about Dorian.
Stacy stopped abruptly on the green overlooking the south end of the beach, at precisely the spot Lily had first locked eyes with Dorian when he called her “suburban.” The coincidence was almost comical.
Stacy’s mouth was pressed into a haughty line but her sunglasses were so dark it was impossible to discern what she was thinking. Lily waited.
“I run a very successful business, Lily,” she began. “I’ve been making movies for over twenty-five years, and I know how to make a really good one too. And that’s because I don’t tolerate applesauce. From anyone.”
Lily felt her heart rate increase as Stacy paused. This sounded threatening—but what did she have to fear? She’d done nothing to Stacy or her business—that she knew of. What was she supposed to do? Apologize for something she didn’t know she’d done?
Stacy let out a short sigh at Lily’s silence.
“Nothing to say for yourself?”
Lily just stared at her, bewildered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb with me. We both know you’re a terrible actress.”
Still, Lily said nothing.
“A month ago,” said Stacy, “we had everything locked in to film here. We had put deposits down on construction, equipment, travel, the potatoes at the local council were all on board. But then in swoops your knight in shining armor and says to me we can’t possibly film here!
He says it’ll ‘ruin the landscape and wildlife’—take a guess which one you are, Lily. ”
Lily’s eyes widened. “Dorian said that?”
“Yes, Dorian, who else?”
So it had been Stacy Black who was going to take over Pippi.
“But the name of the film, the production company—”
“My film. My company.”
“The names were all different!”
“Of course they were; we use pseudonyms, don’t you know anything?” she barked. “Let me put this in a way you can understand. This is my business and Dorian is my actor. My lead actor,” Stacy repeated. “He says he won’t do the movie here.”
“I had no idea,” said Lily indignantly. “I didn’t—I never asked him to do that.”
“Do you think I care?” snapped Stacy. “Whether you did or didn’t, he’s jeopardizing this production because of you. So you’re going to be the reason he changes his mind.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re not stupid. Tell. Him. To do. The film. At Pippi.”
Lily was speechless for a moment. All she could say was: “But I don’t want the film here.”
“So?”
So, indeed. Pippi Beach was just a small corner of the world, with a tiny local council and a handful of residents.
And hundreds upon thousands of lizards, snakes, wallabies, jellyfish, stingrays, native plants, pristine sand …
and it was her home. This was Pippi and Lily was prepared to fight for it.
“I’m not going to do that,” she said.
Even though Stacy was still wearing her sunglasses, Lily could tell she was rolling her eyes.
“How much do you want?”
“Excuse me?”
“How much do you want? Give me a number, I’ll give it to you, whatever.”
“I don’t want money.”
“Of course you do.”
“No I don’t.”
It was all so ridiculous that Lily had to laugh.
“Bet your mother does. I’ll up the money—every resident gets a goddamn hotel room and a car. How about that?”
“I’m not for sale and neither is my family!”
Stacy drew herself up, took her glasses off, and stepped right up in Lily’s face so her floppy hat scratched her forehead and Lily got a mouthful of expensive perfume, hair product, and freshly applied lipstick.
“You think you’re a hero with your whole noble stand act. Well, you’re not. You’re a nobody from nowhere. And you are poison to Dorian’s career.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes you do!” Stacy spat. “Because you’re in love with him!”
Lily stopped smiling.
“Aren’t you?”
And it came to her all at once that Stacy was right. That was this feeling, a feeling that went all the way back to the day she had met him on set. She had thought of him every day since. She loved him!
“That’s none of your business!” Lily snapped back.
“Dorian is very much my business.”
“But I’m not! You don’t own me and you don’t own Dorian either.”
“I think you’ll find that I do.”
“Then what are you talking to me for?”
Stacy shook with fury. Her intimidation, though impressive, hadn’t worked. And she wasn’t used to it.
“Are you and Dorian together?” she asked.
“Are you serious?”
“Just tell me. I’m not leaving until you do.”
Lily shot an exasperated look out at the water. “No. No, we’re not.”
Stacy stepped back and eased off her threat with a faint smile. “Okay. So just tell him you’re fine with filming going ahead.”
“I wrote a twenty-page submission to the council arguing against it.”
Stacy looked at her with distaste. “Tell him you’ve changed your mind.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“How can you even expect that? You can’t just land a helicopter and tell people what to do! You’re not in charge of me.”
Stacy turned red and was about to retaliate, but Lily couldn’t be stopped.
“You can’t make me go against what I believe, and if you go ahead and fight for this, then you’ll be walking over me and Dorian and everyone else here. And we matter, Stacy. Pippi matters.”
She turned and stalked back to the house, legs shaking. She expected Stacy to shout after her, but she heard nothing and Lily didn’t turn around, not even when she heard the blades chop the air and Stacy Black fly away.
Everyone had watched the interaction and her family pestered her with questions when she got back.
She didn’t know what to say, so she brushed the whole episode off as a misunderstanding, which was true, and slipped away to her bedroom.
She was shocked, disturbed, upset, proud.
She couldn’t believe Dorian had saved Pippi, but had he really done it for her?
Or just to stay away from her? Either way, he was out of her life and, for the first time, Lily was forced to acknowledge to herself how much she cared.