Free Fall (13 page)

Joseph saw them from across the living room and hurried over, setting two glasses of wine on a nearby table. Nina tried to jerk her arm away, but Mick held on. She lost her balance and bumped into a potted plant.

"Get your hands off her!" Joseph raged.

"And who the hell are you?" Mick finally let go of Nina’s arm.

Oblivious to the scene they were causing, Joseph stepped up to Mick. "I’m the guy who’s gonna kick your ass."

"Joseph!" Nina cried, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"What’s going on here?" They all turned as Peter Benson came up to the group and looked questionably at Mick. "I think you better leave. I’m not sure who you came with but I'm sure I didn't invite you."

"Jesus Christ!" Mick blustered, backing up. "What is wrong with you people?"

Trish came up with Lamont beside her. "What is going on here?"

"He, he was bothering me," Nina said.

"Then maybe he better leave," Lamont said.

"He started it!" Mick yelled. He saw the threatening look on Lamont’s face. "Aw shit! What a bunch of psychos!" He opened the door and departed off into the night.

Peter said, "Let’s sit for a while. I’d like to talk to you about the show, anyway. Come with me," he nodded towards Nina, "I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet. Come along," he urged, and Nina followed, leaving Trish and Lamont to themselves.

"Yes," Joseph replied dazedly. "That’s probably a good idea."

They settled on one end of a huge, snow white sofa, and Peter leaned over and took Nina’s hand in his. "I’m Peter Benson, and you must be Nina." His palm was warm and soft.

"You have a beautiful home," Nina said.

"Thank you," Peter murmured, and looked deep into her eyes. "Quite lovely, Joseph. Were you going to throw that ugly little man to the floor and smash his face in for her?"

"I wanted to," Joseph replied.

"I really don’t blame you, no, don’t blame you at all." Peter let go of Nina’s hand. "I must apologize, to both of you. Sometimes we get crashers and sometimes my friends bring in the riffraff. Did he harm you?" he said to Nina.

"No, he just wouldn’t leave me alone."

"Don’t worry about a thing, he’s gone and you did absolutely nothing wrong. Now, on to business" Peter waggled his finger. "Have you forgotten the job in Las Vegas this weekend?"

Confused, Nina looked to Joseph and said, "Las Vegas?"

"Yes," Joseph admitted. "I did forget. I have just one scene," he explained to Nina. "It should take only one day of shooting. I’ll be back on Sunday."

Nonplussed, all Nina could say was, "Oh."

"I have another bit of news, and you’re not going to like it." Peter took a deep breath, "Karen has read for the part of Celeste. I haven’t heard yet whether she’s got it or not."

"Celeste?" Nina thought that she really should pay more attention to Joseph’s business so she would know what the hell was going on. Mumbling one and two word sentences were making her feel like a nitwit.

"It’s one of the cop characters," Joseph supplied, his good mood gone. "She’s not even right for that part! It’s so far out of her range. She did this on purpose!" He paused, "Does she have a chance?"

"As good a chance as any. I understand the show needs some window dressing and although I think you might be wrong about her range of character, she can certainly play sexy. This is business," he said smoothly. "I want you to make nice with her and get along. I realize that Karen isn’t the easiest person to deal with. But, she made it clear to me that everything was quite right between you two. So, is it?"

Before Joseph could answer, Peter gazed over his shoulder and said, "Ah, here she is now. Karen, my dear! You look ravishing, as always." He stood up and extended his hand toward Karen who was dressed in a sky blue strapless cocktail dress that contrasted beautifully with her tan skin, and assisted her to a seat on the other side of Joseph. Karen raised her hand, her chest rising, to pat her blonde coif. Nina searched the room. Where were her reinforcements?

"Joseph! How are you, baby?" She smiled widely, put her hand on his thigh in a proprietary manner and shot Nina a triumphant look. "Hi! I’m Karen, and you are?"

"You know who she is," Joseph said heatedly, removing her hand. "You met at Willie’s, remember?" He got up from the couch, "Excuse us," he said to Peter, "we’ll talk later."

"It was nice meeting you, Peter." Nina gave a nod in Karen’s direction, acknowledging her presence for the first time. "Ronnie."

She and Joseph walked around the house looking for Trish. "Let me text her," Nina suggested. "And then I would like to get out of here." She typed off a text and waited twenty seconds before she got a reply. "They're in the library." She followed Joseph up a grand staircase to a room on the second floor. Trish and Lamont were standing in front of a large book case looking at the photographs of Peter with various celebrities that sat on the shelves.

"I was wondering if you would mind if Lamont gave me a ride back to Joe’s crib," Trish asked playfully. Eyes sparkling, she looked supremely complacent with a pińa colada in one hand and Lamont’s hand in the other.

"Nuh uh, no. Absolutely not!" Nina took the glass from her hand. "I won’t allow it. This is your first night here! You can see Lamont tomorrow night, right?" She looked to Lamont for confirmation. He nodded and said, "Of course!” and turned to Joseph, "if I could get the address to your house?"

Nina guided Trish out of the library as Joseph and Lamont discussed the logistics of getting to his house. Once outside the door she said quietly, "She’s here."

Trish caught on immediately. "Show me where she is!"

Nina had to take Trish’s hand to negotiate the stairs because of her spike heel shoes. When they reached the bottom, she saw Laura in a group of people. Nina caught her eye and gave a jerk of her head as if to say, ‘Let’s go!’

Laura came right over, bless her heart, and led the way back to the front room. They passed by the sofa where Karen still sat next to Peter, smiling brightly, her hands folded between her legs like a coy little girl. The smile faded when she saw the three women walk past towards the front door. She locked eyes with Nina and held her gaze.

Peter rose from the couch. "Laura! I didn’t know you were here! You’re not leaving already?" He sounded disappointed. "And who is this beautiful creature?" His eyes took in Trish’s leopard print pumps, lavender skirt and lavender top. "The purpleness of it all!" He took her by the hand. "I’m Peter Benson. Where on earth did
you
come from?"

"This is my friend Trish from Seattle," Nina said. "she’s visiting. I hope you don’t mind that we brought her along." Trish simply stood there and allowed Peter to pay homage to all her glory.

"You must be kidding! You can’t be leaving yet. Please stay and have another drink. Shandra is going to sing a song pretty soon. You’ll miss the best part of the evening!"

Nina wasn’t interested in being with these people any longer. She felt extremely uncomfortable with Karen’s eyes on her. All of her previous bravado had vanished. She wanted desperately to get away. She saw Joseph coming. "Thank you, but we’re going to go home now. I hope we get invited again, soon."

"Certainly you will. I look forward to seeing you all again." Peter bowed slightly and returned to his party.

Karen was smiling again, the same cheap-ass fake grin she’d given her in the bathroom at Willie’s. The look in her eyes said clearly that, although Nina might have won this round, it wasn’t over by a long shot. Nina felt a niggling feeling of dread creep up her spine. A hand brushed against hers and she looked down to see that Laura had clasped her hand in her own.

"Courage, dear heart," Laura said out of the side of her mouth. "Don’t let her see you sweat!" She wiggled her fingers in Karen’s direction and muttered, "Yes, hellooo. You freak of nature. You filthy slut bag."

They heard Trish’s muffled giggles behind them and Joseph gave Laura a stern look. Karen made as if to rise and join them but Joseph turned his back on her. "Ready to go, ladies?" They all nodded and he ushered the small group to the door.

As soon as they got home, Trish headed straight to the guest bedroom. "I’m beat. Too much excitement for one day, I need my beauty sleep." She closed the door firmly behind her.

Nina and Joseph went into the master bedroom. She changed out of her dress and Joseph took off his jacket, kicked off his shoes and flopped across the bed. He grabbed the remote for the TV.

"Do you want to go Las Vegas with me?" He flipped through the channels to catch the late evening news.

"I can’t, Joseph. In case you didn’t notice, I have a friend visiting here until Monday." She came out of the bathroom scrubbing her face with a washcloth.

"You can both come with me. Who doesn’t want a free weekend trip to Las Vegas?"

Nina threw the washcloth in the general direction of the clothes hamper and pulled on the comforter, trying to move Joseph’s body off the bed so she could get under the covers. "Move your skinny ass. No, because Trish and me have plans, see? That’s what people do, they make plans and then they tell the important people in their lives about those plans." She made just enough room to scoot in under the comforter and then used her foot to kick Joseph halfway off the bed.

"I forgot about it, okay?" Joseph scrambled onto the bed and grabbed both of Nina’s arms, pinning her. “You’re ornery. I will now have to torture you into submission."

He swung one leg over and sat on top of her. He caught both arms in one hand above her head and used his other hand to dig into her ribs, tickling her viciously. Nina tried to wriggle out from under him. "Joseph, No! I hate being tickled, please!" He continued his exploration of her ribs then moved up to her armpit. "Joseph! Please! You’re hurting me!"

Joseph stopped and regarded her doubtfully as if he were trying to decide if she was serious or setting a trap.

"How ‘bout this?" He jabbed his index finger into the space where her collarbone met in the middle. "The typewriter, right?" He held her squirming body beneath him and jabbed a few more times.

"Okay!" Nina yelled. "I give up!"

Joseph bent his head close to hers. "Are you sure?" He caught her lips with his and kissed her deeply. Then he moved over to her ear, snorted like a pig and rooted around in the crook of her neck.

Nina giggled helplessly, "Stop!"

Joseph gnawed on her neck. "Yum! I could eat you up. You’re my very favorite dish," he murmured between bites. He kissed her again, his grip on her wrists relaxed then he plopped down beside her. Nina turned on her side and moved her face close to his against the pillow, so that their noses were almost touching.

She voiced what had been on her mind since they left the party. "Do you think that Karen had that guy cause a scene?"

Joseph sighed. "It does seem like too much of a coincidence doesn't it?"

"Yeah, out of all the women he could have made advances to, he came straight to me."

"I don't find that part surprising, but I do know that she is very good at manipulating men. That's why I think you should come to Las Vegas with me." She felt his breath against her cheek. "I don’t want to leave you here alone."

"I’ll be careful. I’ve got Trish and your sister, remember? I can’t go with you. Me and Trish made all these plans to explore Hollywood, find the walk of stars, go on a tour of celebrity houses or whatever."

"You can do that tomorrow," Joseph said.

"No, Joseph. If we go to Las Vegas then Trish will be spending part of her trip running around spending too much money gambling. I want to spend a leisurely weekend here, in this great house with the pool, hanging out with my best friend."

"It’s you, isn’t it?" Joseph said, "You don’t want to go. You don’t want to be on the shoot with me. You’re just using Trish as an excuse."

Nina thought for a moment. "That is partly true. It’s just not my thing, Joseph."

"Well, it’s my thing."

"I know and I respect you for that, but it’s your job. I really don’t have to go to work with you, do I?"

"I thought you would be interested in my thing."

"I am interested in your thing. Both of our things are interested in the other. If you were off doing your thing for a longer amount of time, I’d come with you. But it’s only for one night, two at the most, right? We can do Vegas another time."

"Alright, but I want to know what you guys are doing while I’m gone."

"And vice versa, man. Are you going to be out in the desert or is it in the city itself?"

"The city. Guess what?" He got out of bed and pulled a brown bag from the bottom drawer of the dresser. "I got something for you."

"For me?" Nina was as pleased as punch. She reached into the bag and felt something soft, then dumped out a pile of periwinkle blue suede. "Joseph, it’s brand new. How did you know where to find it?"

"From Laura, who else?" He took the jacket from her and hung it up in the closet. Nina fluffed up his pillow and held out her arms. "Come here and let me thank you properly."

EIGHT