Chapter Thirty-Four
“You’re quiet,” Sol said with a yawn. She’d spent much of the limo ride fighting sleep and as much as I had enjoyed getting to know her this past week, I was impatient to get back to the party and to find Elliot.
He hadn’t replied to any of my messages and my mind was racing as to why that might be.
The traffic had been intense as we left New York and Naya was fretting we would have to reschedule the flight.
“It’s been a big night,” I muttered.
“I’m not sure how much longer I can do this,” Sol murmured, as the taxi entered the airport gates.
“What do you mean?” I said in alarm.
“Not so much acting as … this.” She gestured around her. “The relentless travel, the cameras … I never see my family.”
“I’m sorry.” My own struggles took a back seat.
“Oh, no, don’t be.” She stretched. “Don’t get me wrong, I thank my stars that I get to do what I do every day. That’s why I think if I can set up my own company, it’ll be better for me.” She turned those luminous eyes on me, suddenly looking very young. “What do you think?”
“Sometimes, you have to think of yourself,” I said, “because if you don’t, you get left behind.”
Sol looked at me, her eyes soft. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said with a broken laugh that wasn’t enough to dislodge the leaden lump weighing on my heart.
The car pulled up on the runway, but Sol grabbed my hand. “I’m not getting on that jet until you tell me what’s going on.”
Naya got out of the car and waited, visibly stressed. I shook my head. “Everything is fine.”
Sol’s eyes narrowed. “Lucita …”
“Okay, okay!” I threw up my hands. “The Twin Roses pitch Janice received was stolen from me. I told RJ, hoping he’d help but he couldn’t give less of a shit.”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Sol said. “Start from the beginning.” I explained as quickly as I could and the more I spoke, the fierier her eyes became. “Cabron,” she uttered when I finished. “Ralf can’t do that.”
“Well, he has,” I said. “And what’s worse is RJ has a point. Can I prove it? I mean, say Noah’s admission makes a difference. Would anything happen to make it right? Probably not.” I buried my head in my hands. “I’m such an idiot.”
“Hey.” Sol dragged my hands away from my face. “Ralf is, like, a straight-up thief. You did nothing wrong. Did the studio make any decisions yet?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Hmm.” Sol continued to nibble on her lip. “Interesting.”
“Sol.” Naya leaned her head into the car. “We have to get you on the plane.”
“Ugh. Fine. Sorry.” Sol rolled her eyes at Naya then turned back to me. “Well, Lucie. It’s been my pleasure to work with you.”
“And you.” Perhaps it was the rage simmering through my veins or the deep, echoing sadness that my New York adventure was about to end that sparked my next words, but I took a deep breath.
“Sol, if you do start your company and need someone to … I don’t know, help?
Please consider me. I’ll be a runner, a PA … anything.”
She wrapped her arms around me. “You’ll be the first person I call.”
Touched, I hugged her back. “You need to get going,” I said, my mouth suddenly full of fragrant hair. “You’ve a busy few days coming up.”
“Hey.” She pulled back, regarded me sternly. “I’m never too busy for my friends.”
“Sol, we really gotta get wheels up,” Naya said, hopping impatiently from foot to foot.
“Yeah, yeah.” Sol turned back to me with an eye-roll. “You heard me, right? We’re friends.”
Of all the things I’d expected to gain on my visit to New York, a movie-star friend was not one of them. “I heard you.”
Sol blew me a kiss. “Stay in touch, Lucita.” And with that, she slid out of the car, promising to call me the next time she was in London.
“Where to?” the driver said as he pulled off the tarmac and headed to the exit.
“Can you take me back to the Botanical Gardens?” I had my phone pressed to my ear.
Elliot hadn’t replied to any of my messages and, dammit, the calls were now going straight to voicemail.
Perhaps his phone had died, or he was in a dark area.
The battery on my phone was starting to get low – I needed to find him, urgently.
“I can, but there’s been an accident on the I-95,” he said, tapping at his satnav. “Gonna take a while.”
“Whatever it takes,” I muttered, texting Elliot another urgent request to call me.
By the time we made it back to the party, it was after 11 p.m. and the after-party was still in full swing with a BBQ station churning out burgers to partygoers looking more than a little worse for wear.
My stomach rumbled at the scent of grilled meat, but I couldn’t stop.
I had to find Elliot. It had been hours since I’d learned what RJ had done and I’d still not spoken to him.
Riley came pelting across the lawn towards me. “Lucie!”
“Have you seen Elliot?” I asked. “I haven’t heard from him in hours, and I need him.”
“That’s just it.” Her eyes were wild. “He’s gone.”
“You mean, he left the party?” I looked at my phone – nope, still no messages. What was going on?
“Well, yeah.” Riley wobbled, clearly having enjoyed the free-flowing champagne. “But also, he quit.”
I froze. “What?”
She let out a big sigh. “I told him about what Vivian did to Noah and he was furious. Said he was going to get Vivian and Noah fired, that he was going after Ralf, that Ralf was a thief …” She shook her head. “He went to RJ.”
“Oh no.” Ralf’s actions would have unlocked some deep-rooted rage in Elliot.
“I know,” Riley agreed. “I told him to talk to you, but he was steaming. So he went to RJ, but RJ …”
“Didn’t give a shit?” I supplied.
“Yeah.” Riley’s face darkened. “And when Elliot saw that RJ wasn’t outraged, they started yelling and … Elliot quit.”
“Oh my God.” I needed to find Elliot. I may have had my pitch stolen, but Elliot had lost much bigger, real opportunities.
Because of me. He’d jeopardized his Woodstock director role, and as for the second director job he’d been promised, well, I couldn’t imagine RJ giving it to him now. “Did Elliot see Ralf?”
Riley shuddered. “Ralf had the sense to stay hidden.”
“Good.” I dreaded to think what Elliot would have done to him. “Where is Elliot now?”
“Well, of course I ran after him, asked if he was okay, but, Lucie, man, he looked so fucking sad,” she said. “I offered to sit with him, talk it out, but he just wanted to leave.”
“He went home?”
Riley shrugged. “I guess. He said he needed to think.”
“That’s what he said?” I demanded. “He needed to think?”
She looked at me strangely. “Those were his words.”
I let out a long exhale. I knew exactly where he’d gone. I wasn’t entirely sure how to get there at this time of night, but I’d work it out. “Okay, thanks. I’m going to find him.”
“I hope he’s all right,” she said. “He’s the best.”
“He is,” I agreed. I turned to leave, then stopped. “What about you and Noah?”
“What about me and Noah?” Riley’s eyes shimmered. “He did something so awful to you, thinking it’d get Vivian to what, fall in love with him? I – I’m not sure I can look at him the same way ever again.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. As much I’d liked getting to know Noah, my estimation of him had taken a massive hit.
“Don’t be,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m going to be fine. Go get your man.”
I gave her a hug. “I’ll call you.” Then I made my way through the party, my innards a jumble.
What had started off as a glorious and victorious night had ended in a clusterfuck of horrendous proportions.
My time in New York should have culminated in a high but was now a tangled mess.
As I passed the pond, I had to swerve to avoid an inebriated gentleman I recognized from reality TV and my ankle twisted, sending me stumbling into a couple grinding against each other by the edge of the pond, their faces inches apart.
“Ralf?” I gaped. “Vivian?” They broke apart, looking guilty. Despite my emotional turmoil I let out a laugh. “I’m guessing Baldemar’s taken himself off home then?”
Vivian tossed her hair defiantly. “Yes, but Ralf and I were just—”
“What’s your problem, Lucie?” Ralf slurred over her. “Can’t a man and a woman dance together anymore?”
“Hey Ralf, what was it that annoyed you about Elliot?” I wondered out loud. “The fact he’s more talented than you’ll ever be? Better looking? Better liked?”
“Oh yeah, I hear he’s out of a job now.” Ralf’s face twisted in derision.
“He stuck around as RJ’s assistant for years, just hoping RJ would gift him with the opportunity of his dreams. Who does that?
Who waits around like that? Losers, that’s who.
” He guffawed, and Vivian joined in with a cackle that hurt my ears.
“Losers?” I said. “What, you mean like people who get their girlfriend to hack computers to steal work, those kind of losers?”
His face stilled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Or, the kind of person who thinks they are so charming, they can kiss their way into my good books?” I’d often wondered why he’d tried it on with me that day after the photocall, especially since I’d learned about his thing with Vivian.
Had he hoped to upset Vivian? Or had his actions been driven by his wanton ambition?
The attempted kiss had happened after the photocall, when he’d seen for himself the value of my project.
“I’m talking about the kind of person who’d kiss me only to make his lover jealous,” I said. “Real winner behavior.”
“I thought she kissed you, Ralf.” Vivian said. “That’s what you told me.”
So she had seen us that night at the gallery. “Or, maybe you thought seducing me would get you closer to RJ so you could convince him to use your AI tech on the script?”
Ralf’s eyes shifted. “You’re crazy.”
“Yeah? Well you’re pathetic.” I didn’t bother to hide the disgust from my voice.“so desperate to live up to your dad’s legacy that you’ll lie and cheat your way to the top.”