Chapter 8
8
Later, after moving the conversation on to lighter things and then having left the studio on a far brighter note, Deedee was delighted to be walking through Manhattan towards a cocktail bar, swinging three big pink paper shopping bags with her gorgeous gifts inside. The sun was shining, and a flirtatious breeze was bringing a carefree, happy holiday vibe. Rosie and Gina were on either side of her with several shopping bags each too, and Anthony had his arm looped through Rosie’s. The pair of them were huddled together chatting and laughing about something.
‘What are you two up to?’ Deedee asked, giving Rosie a nudge with her elbow as she looked along the row towards Anthony who was whispering something in Rosie’s ear, making her eyes widen in mock shock.
‘Ah… we were just having a laugh and saying this is like the four of us being in an episode of Sex and the City … Samantha, Charlotte, Miranda and Carrie, and which character each of us could be,’ Rosie said, lifting her shades and nudging Deedee back.
‘Who do you reckon, Dee?’ Anthony asked, and they all stopped walking, keen to debate this suddenly seemingly hot topic.
‘Well, that’s obvious.’ Deedee moved so that she was standing opposite Anthony and Rosie. Gina stood beside her, so they formed a little square on the corner of the street now underneath the shade of a leafy green tree. ‘You would be Charlotte, darling… absolutely,’ Deedee said to Rosie. ‘Your classic style for starters, always beautifully dressed and your love of planning and nurturing, always thinking of others and making sure everything is just perfect for them, and your clients too… and you can be a little ‘self-critical’ too, just like Charlotte is.’
Rosie smiled and did a little movement side to side with her head as she mulled it over before nodding and grinning in agreement.
‘And you, my love,’ Deedee turned sideways to look at Gina, ‘maybe you would be Carrie… for the creativity. You love art, don’t you? And you’re quite contemplative, I could imagine you journaling like Carrie does, and you’re a romantic like she is too, plus of course, your gorgeous long curly hair is similar.’
Gina gave Deedee a quick hug, clearly pleased with her allocated character. ‘I can go with that,’ she confirmed, smiling, ‘although I don’t think I’m a “main character” type like Carrie is.’
‘That’s true,’ Rosie agreed, ‘I’ve never seen you seek out the limelight, apart from that time on the Greek beach when you were dancing on the sand and hugging rocks of course.’ They all laughed.
‘Mmm, fair enough.’ Gina nodded firmly, rolling her eyes. ‘It was fun though, that holiday.’
‘Sure was, and nothing wrong with having the time of your life, eh Gina?’ Deedee grinned at her.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘So who would you be, Deedee?’ Rosie asked.
‘Oh, Samantha, of course.’ Deedee winked mischievously as she mimed a typical Samantha pose… tilting her chin up imperiously and pressing a palm to her chest and enjoying the banter. And in this moment, she suddenly thought this was more like it. She was having a lovely time with her friends, just enjoying being here in New York talking nonsense and having a laugh – still wishing Joe was here of course – that would never go away, but the sadness had definitely lifted at last. And she was absolutely determined to hold on to it this time.
‘Um, hold your horses for just one hot minute, lady!’ Anthony unlooped Rosie’s arm from his and was now standing directly in front of Deedee with his hands on his hips and an outraged look on his face. ‘I was literally born to be Samantha!’ He shook his head and waggled a whirling index finger in the air.
‘But you’ve been married since the nineties so that’s hardly giving outrageously behaved Samantha energy! Also, we can’t both be Samantha. And I’m not being Miranda.’ Deedee pulled a face.
‘What’s wrong with Miranda?’ Anthony had both hands back on his hips now and his head tilted to one side in question.
‘Nothing, but she is a little bit… sensible for me,’ Deedee settled on. ‘Yes, I’m definitely Samantha. I even look similar to her with my fair hair and long legs. Unlike you darling, with your stubbled chin, brown buzz cut and solid six pack. You look nothing like Samantha.’ Looping all her bags into the crook of her left elbow, Deedee lifted her free hand and tucked a lock of her silvery blonde hair behind one ear to make the point, desperately trying to keep a straight face as Anthony gasped, before narrowing his eyes in faux indignation.
‘Ten years ago, maybe!’ He tossed an up-and-down look of mock disgust in her direction.
‘ANTHONY,’ Deedee expelled.
‘Weeeeell, I don’t have a buzz cut !’ he retorted, looking wounded, but she knew he wasn’t really… it was all just play acting and she was here for the show. ‘Plus, darling Dee… Samantha is an essence, an exhilaration, an adventurous goddess, undefined by mere looks alone,’ Anthony mused, lifting his stubbled chin and gazing skyward with a hand in the air as if delivering his vision for world peace or whatever in a beauty pageant.
‘Exactly!’ Deedee batted his arm. ‘You all know how adventurous I can be and how important se?—’
‘AND SEX IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME TOO!’ Anthony bellowed, making a passing elderly lady with a shopping trolley near jump right out of her own skin!
‘Oh gosh, so sorry, ma’am,’ Anthony said, immediately turning the charm on and bowing his head humbly as the woman shoved her shopping trolley into him, hard, so he had to duck out of the way as she backed the trolley up intending to ram him for a second time. ‘See what you did now!’ Anthony shook his head, giving Deedee a pointed look as he fake-smiled at the elderly woman as she muttered to him and went on her way.
‘You did that all by yourself, darling,’ Deedee quipped, but couldn’t help laughing now at the even more indignant look on Anthony’s face. ‘And I’m still Samantha,’ she tagged on, unable to help herself as she was feeling fired-up now, in a gloriously fun, halcyon kind of way. Squabbling with Anthony and trying to outsmart each other was something they had always done, right back from when they first met in their twenties, and she supposed in this moment that being nearly seventy didn’t change any of that. And it felt good. Maybe seventy wasn’t so bad after all… especially if she still got to trade outrageous insults with her best friend of over forty years.
‘Samantha would faint from horror if she was compared to you,’ Anthony spluttered, giving Deedee another up-and-down look.
‘Actually, she likes me very much,’ Deedee retorted, revving up for round two. ‘Did I mention that I met her once at a movie premiere?’
‘No, you didn’t…’ Anthony paused, and Deedee blew him a kiss as she waited for him to deliver his retort. After rolling his eyes, he yelled, ‘Because it’s FAKE NEWS!’
‘OK, maybe that’s enough now,’ Gina stepped in and stood like a peacemaker with her arms out wide in between Deedee and Anthony. ‘Couldn’t you just both be Samantha?’
Silence followed as Deedee looked at Anthony and he stared right back at her.
‘Yes, good idea,’ Rosie pitched in. ‘And it is getting very humid standing here under this tree, so why don’t we get to the cocktail bar and carry on the debate in the cool comfort of their air con?’
‘Hmmm, well, possibly… I guess so,’ Deedee and Anthony muttered in unison as they were chivvied along with Rosie and Gina on either side of them like security at a boxing match. ‘But you’d have to wear a wig over that buzz cut of yours!’ Deedee quipped. She couldn’t help herself.
Turning the corner, and with Rosie leading the way, they had just reached the floral-arched doorway of the cocktail bar when Deedee felt her mobile vibrating inside the handbag tucked under her arm. She stopped walking and stood aside to retrieve it.
‘Why don’t you all go ahead? I need to take this call. I’ll find you in there,’ Deedee told the others as she looked at the phone’s screen and instantly felt a jolt of sorrow from the sad association when she saw who it was. Joe’s lawyer. Why on earth was Harry Steinman calling her from his mobile number? The last time they had spoken was at Joe’s memorial service in Los Angeles when all the Hollywood stars came out to pay tribute to him, ‘the best casting director in town’, a year after Joe had died. What could Harry possibly want now, three years later, when the will and all the legal obligations had long been taken care of? Taking a big breath and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear to quickly centre herself, Deedee pressed to answer the call.
‘Harry, how are you?’ she asked, trying to sound breezy and together, but it was difficult not to immediately feel pulled back to that dreadful time the very second she heard his voice again.
‘Deedee! I’m very well, and how are you?’
‘Um, good, thank you,’ she said on autopilot to be polite but really just wanted to get straight to the point, so she followed it up with a swift, ‘What’s this about, Harry?’
‘My assistant has been trying to reach you for quite some time now without success which is why I’m calling you personally…’
‘Oh, um… I have seen some missed calls…’ Deedee remembered, ‘they were from you?’
‘Yes, well… from the Boston office, it’s where I’m based now,’ he explained, and Deedee nodded to herself on realising it was the New York office where Harry had been before, and that number was programmed into her phone. No wonder she hadn’t recognised any of the many missed calls, but she also wondered why Harry’s assistant hadn’t left a voice message. From experience this was never a good thing and probably meant there was difficult or sensitive news of some kind that wasn’t appropriate to just leave in a voice message, especially as he was now calling her personally. She found a nearby bench and sat down to prepare herself for whatever was about to come. ‘As you know, Joe was a dear friend as well as a long-standing client and he specifically instructed me to personally share a codicil to his will with you on or before your seventieth birthday, hence the timeliness of arranging for this to happen. I’m sorry for not being in touch sooner, I’m afraid some of my paper files and diaries were delayed in the move to the Boston office.’
‘I see,’ Deedee said, her mind working overtime. She had no idea that Joe had made changes to his will. Everything had been left to her, not that Joe had much to leave after the payments for the expensive specialist care he had needed at the end were made, his USA taxes paid and the donations he bequeathed to various charities he had been involved in were completed. ‘Could you send it to me please, in an email perhaps?’
‘I’m afraid not. You see, it’s a living will codicil.’
‘Oh, what does that mean?’
A short silence followed. ‘It means the codicil was spoken to camera when?—’
‘You mean Joe filmed it before he died?’ Deedee instinctively put a hand to her mouth to cover the sound of an involuntary gasp escaping.
‘Yes,’ Harry coughed politely. ‘That is what it means.’
‘I see,’ Deedee managed, her throat constricting and a tightness forming around her heart at the prospect of seeing Joe again, albeit on a screen. And her immediate thought was that she wasn’t sure she could do it. A million scenarios suddenly whizzed through her head making her feel dizzy. Part of her wanted to see his face come alive again right away, of course, to spend just a moment in his presence would mean the world to her – but another part of her was completely panicked. Did she have the strength to open her heart and deal with all the pain that would inevitably come after hearing his voice talking to her again? Saying something new. Fresh. Something she hadn’t heard before. And what was it that he needed to say that he hadn’t already said to her…? And why would he wait until her seventieth birthday? Several years after he had died. She placed the shopping bags that were still looped in the crook of her elbow down on the pavement at her feet and curled her fingers around the edge of the bench in an attempt to anchor herself.
‘When would be convenient for you to come to the London office?’ Harry asked respectfully, bringing her thoughts back into the moment. ‘I will fly over and meet with you there for the screening and bring the accompanying paperwork that makes it legally binding. I am sorry again that I couldn’t give you more notice, but Joe was very insistent that this happened on or around your birthday and with me personally by your side. He took great care to tell me that the film wasn’t to be sent to you online. Of course, if it isn’t possible, then perhaps we can arrange a date as soon as is convenient for you.’
‘Um, well I’m actually in New York right now to celebrate my birthday next week…’ she said vaguely before letting her voice trail off, still desperately trying to fathom why Joe would do this. Surely, it couldn’t be because he had something bad to share, a confession, something that would upset her, not on her birthday. And with Harry by my side, but why? No, that wasn’t Joe’s style at all, which meant it had to be something sentimental, romantic perhaps, a special message on her milestone birthday. Oh God. Her fingers held on tighter to the bench as she swallowed in an attempt to clear the lump that was lodging in her throat now.
‘I see. In that case, we could meet at the New York office, would that work for you?’ Harry asked, and Deedee found herself saying, ‘Yes, um… OK.’
‘I’ll have my Manhattan office call you right away after we end this call to make the necessary arrangements. See you soon, Deedee.’
She pressed to end the conversation with Harry and sat motionless for a moment until the promised call came through. When the date and time had been agreed, she stood up, gathered herself and the shopping bags back into the crook of her arm and made her way into the cocktail bar.
‘Hey, Dee—what’s up, doll?’ With a horrified look on his face, Anthony sprang up from the booth where he was sitting with Gina and Rosie. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost!’
‘I have… sort of,’ Deedee said in a daze, dropping her shopping bags down by her feet. ‘I need a drink… three fingers of Tanqueray, please! Straight up, no ice. And I’ll tell you all about it.’