Impossibly Tongue-Tied (23 page)

Nina fumed silently. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of watching her explode in fury in front of her child.

Prick Ring's just lucky I don't have him alone in a dark alley.

Ignoring her silence, he continued. “In any event, due to your, er, ‘change in profession,' the
majority
of the board”—his emphasis on the word majority was his way of saying that he had triumphed in having Herbie overruled—“felt that Jake would be better off in a more
accommodating
academic environment. If you'd taken the time to read the SOA handbook, you'd recall that this sort of behavior is grounds for dismissal from our strongly ethical community.”

“Well, then there goes half your parent body”—Nina smiled up at him sweetly—“because I know several fathers in this school on, shall we say, something a little more intimate than a first-name basis. Tell me,
Brad
, can you say the same?” She gave him a naughty smile. “You don't mind if I call you Brad, do you? Although if you prefer ‘Prick Ring,' I think I can say it without gagging.”

He turned blue—not just because of the taunting nickname (by now he was resigned to it, and even suspected that some of the other parents used it when referencing him as well) but because she was right:

He had no real allies—let alone friends—within the parent body.

Among the daddies at the school, he had never been considered “just one of the guys.” But then again, how easy could that be when most of those guys just so happened to be the
town's biggest movers and shakers? In their world, he was merely another fawning sycophant.

Suddenly a cold dread crept through him: In a community that so highly coveted notoriety, infamy, and celebrity, had his insistence on the Hartes' ejection—over the strenuous objection of the board's president, no less—been sheer folly on his part? Instead of the anticipated outrage at the Hartes' continued inclusion, would the expulsion instigate a mad exodus from the school?

Perhaps he'd unknowingly opened up a political can of worms! Pickering sighed out loud. Before he found this out the hard way, he'd better come up with an exit strategy, and quick!

He made a mental note to start looking for another headmastership immediately—in a town
definitely
more chaste than Hollywood.

As if there really was such a place…

 

One of the items that Tori had put in the Tommaso's care package was a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia: manna for a little boy whose world was caving in around him. Nina didn't even bother to dish out a premeasured tummy ache-proof scoop of the chewy, gooey concoction into one of his baby cups. Instead, she just handed him the pint with a spoon and the remote control. Hell, the kid deserved to binge, just like everyone else caught up in this mess their lives had become. She'd deal with the sugar high sometime later.

O's phone might be silent, but Nina's was still ringing off the hook—from what she could tell through caller ID, most of
the callers had numbers she didn't recognize. Naturally, she assumed they were reporters.

Her voice mail verified that. The people she was most desperate to hear from—like Sam, and of course Lavinia Hannigan, whom she had phoned twice already that morning—had yet to return her calls. However,
Star, Globe, National Enquirer, Insider, Entertainment Tonight, Extra
—even Diane and Barbara!—were clamoring to give Nina an opportunity to tell her side of the story, to cry on their shoulders about Nathan's departure, to come clean about her phone sex work—not to mention her affair with Sam.

As if her life was anyone else's business.

She could only imagine how news of her tryst with Sam had gone over with Nathan and Katerina. She had no doubt that Katerina had hit the roof and was calling for Sam's head on a platter for daring to be disloyal to her. And as for Nathan, well, Nina could only imagine the jealousy he must be feeling right about now, knowing that his agent had been comforting his wife (that was, his soon-to-be ex-wife) with the kind of intimacy that she'd experienced with only one other man her whole life:

Nathan
.

Well, that's too bad, she thought.

Lost in the heady fantasy of Nathan choking on some of his own bitter medicine, Nina absently picked up the insistently ringing phone.

“Nina, hi, it's Susannah.”

Susannah.

As in I-dumped-you-as-a-friend-because-you're-too-hot-right-now Susannah.

“What do you need, Susannah?” Of course she wanted something. Why else would she be calling?

“Look, Nina, I—I have to apologize for—for dropping you the way I did. It was a cowardly thing to do. Please forgive me.”

Whoa. Talk about out of left field!

Funny what little is left of your heart when you've been burned by a friend, thought Nina. It certainly seems to grow a thicker skin.

“You still haven't told me why you're calling, Susannah, and I really don't have all day. Gotta field calls from the press, know what I mean?”

There was a silence on the other line. Finally Susannah spoke: “I—I was wondering if you could put in a word for me with—with that company you work for.”

“Tommaso's? Just go on in and pick up an application. Hell, I know they've got an opening, because
I
just got fired.” Of course, Nina knew Susannah wasn't talking about Tommaso's. It was fun to hear her squirm, though—for McGillicutty's number, of all things!

“Uh, no. Not the grocery store. I mean…you know, that call center.”

“Oh, I see. You want to do phone sex! Gee, I don't know, Susannah. Has this request been cleared by Mr. Pickering?”

“
Pickering?
What does he have to do with it? He doesn't—omigod!
Does he call you, too?
”

“No, you don't have to worry about Pickering. At least, not at my service. Oh, and by the way, I haven't heard from your husband, either.”

“Oh. Well, that's good.” Susannah sounded almost surprised.

Considering what a prick the guy is, I guess that is somewhat surprising
, thought Nina.

“Look, Nina, it's hard for me to ask this, but I have to. You see, Rolf's hit a—a bad patch, financially, that is. He's thoroughly in over his head, what with this film he's producing. And now he owes money to some people. Some
really bad
people. I've got to do something, you know? I just hate the thought of losing the house, but if we don't come up with some money fast—”

Despite Susannah's desertion, Nina couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She knew that Susannah's stately Brentwood mansion was her pride and joy. “Look, uh, Susannah, I'll give you my dispatcher's number, but I have to warn you, she's not putting on anyone new right now. Truth is, she's having to close up shop for a while, over this whole O thing.”

Susannah said nothing, but Nina could hear her sniffling on the other end of the line.

“Susannah, I'm really sorry. I wish that there was something I could do!”

“I know, Nina. You're a sweetie. You always were. Well, I guess I'll just have to call around to some of the other services. Or go back to…to what I did before.”

“Modeling? That pays fairly well, right?”

Susannah snorted. “Oh yeah, right. I forgot that's what I've been telling all the other mommies. Well, since I know your dirty little secret, I'll let you in on mine: I never modeled. I did porn.”

Nina was stunned. Having anticipated that reaction, Susannah laughed harshly. “Yeah, yeah, I can just imagine what you're thinking: that I'm a two-faced bitch.” A sob caught in
her throat. “Hey look, I've got nothing to apologize for what I did. It got us out of the Valley and into Brentwood, right? And trust me, honey, SOA's PTA is full of ladies who've gone down on their knees—literally—to stay in their beloved Blahniks and Botox.”

“But, Susannah, there's got to be another way than doing that again!”

What a scandal that would be if it got out around SOA! Heck, Nina's activities would be considered child's play in comparison. “Even if you earn enough to pay off Rolf's debt, how will you explain to him where all that money came from?”

“What,
are you kidding me?
” Susannah was laughing so hard that Nina thought she was having a nervous breakdown. “Honey, he produced my last three porn films!”

Then, bitterly, she added, “If only he hadn't been so adamant about going legit, we wouldn't be in this mess now…Oh, shit! Little Rolfy's tennis coach is here, and I don't know what the kid did with his racket. Sorry, sweetheart, gotta run!”

 

Nina hadn't heard the door open because Jake's sugar high had finally crashed and she had been putting him to bed.

But as she walked back out into the living room, she saw him there, silhouetted in the streetlight filtering through the closed window blinds, looking as handsome as he had when she last saw him.

Nathan
.

He had on a hooded sweatshirt. He'd come in through the back door, not chancing that some of the stalkarazzi out front would even assume that a star of his caliber would shimmy up a three-story fire escape, then hike himself over the lattice
screen that divided their apartment's back terrace from their next door neighbor's patio.

He stood there for the longest time, not saying anything. She, too, was afraid to speak, as if doing so would break the spell that had him standing there before her.

Besides, if he was real, then maybe the past two months had just been a bad dream.

She knew that wasn't the case when he turned to her, stone-faced, and growled in a low, hoarse whisper, “
How could you?
”

She couldn't believe her ears.
He
was blaming
her?

Without realizing it, she'd come up beside him. Although she kept her hands clenched at her side, she really wanted to hit him, to hurt him somehow,
some way
, so that he could feel at least a little of the pain she'd been feeling these past few weeks.

“You've got some nerve!” Heartache seethed from every word she uttered. “It wasn't me who was screwing around, remember?
I'm
not the one who left to live with that—that woman!”

“How do I know you weren't seeing Sam all this time?” Nathan leaned in, as if daring her to slap him. “It seems awfully funny how he wanted to stay close to you, even after we separated. And now I know why. Hell, the whole world knows it!”

“That's what's really got you upset, isn't it, the thought that others will think that I was running around on you first? My God, Nathan, how selfish can you be?”

The way he flinched told her she'd hit her mark.

Realizing this only made her madder. All of a sudden the
memories—of all the hard work, the financial struggles, the emotional and professional sacrifices she'd made over the past six years,
for him!
—flooded her consciousness, suffocating her in a tidal wave of pain.

“Just when was I supposed to be carrying on this so-called affair? While I was on my feet all day, at Tommaso's? Or was it happening when I was home with Jake, while you were spending nights with that bitch?”

“Oh, you weren't that lonely, Nina.” He smiled cruelly. “Don't forget your evening job, sitting there flirting with all those guys, fluffing them up, hearing them while they…while they—”

She slapped him.
Hard
.

That shut him up.

Oddly, though, he seemed to like pain. She could tell by the way he smiled down seductively at her, his eyes half closed but alert with passion, assessing her anger against the desire so apparent in her face.

“Tell me the truth: Did
he
ever call O?”

From the beginning she had made it a point never to discuss her many gentleman callers with Nathan—and he never once asked. He knew that the only reason she had done it in the first place was to support him while he'd struggled for bit acting gigs. Besides, he was jealous whenever another man merely glanced her way! Then again, Nina didn't have to tell him that Sam had called O. He knew by the look on her face.

“That son of a bitch! I'll—I'll
kill
him!”

“You've got it all wrong! We didn't meet that way at all! We met at the store, when I gave him your audition reel—”

“My—reel? What?…When?”

“Remember that night you met him? It happened then, that same day!”

This stopped Nathan cold—for a moment. “Then why didn't you tell me about it?”

“Because—because you were so excited about having made the contact on your own that—that I thought I'd let you take the credit.”

“Well, that certainly played right into his hands.”

“If you're saying that Sam planned all this, you're crazy!”

Nathan grabbed her by the arm. “Nina, just think about it for a moment: The only reason Sam took the reel from you in the first place was because he was trying to get into your pants. Yeah, okay, he takes a few minutes with my reel so that the next time he sees you he'll be able to say he did it, and that he'll keep me in mind—particularly if
you
play ball with him.”

Of course, he was right. Sam had even admitted to Nina that he had agreed to look at Nathan's tape only because he was infatuated with her.

Nathan continued: “But then Kat walks in while he's watching it, and she insists that I audition for Hugo. She told me so herself, told me that was when she fell in love with me.”

Nina frowned. Well, that little revelation of Kat's certainly scored major points with Nathan.

“Sam only sent me up for it because Kat asked him to. She also said that Sam put me down to her, that he insisted I was too green for the role. Yeah, sure, he's
really
looking out for my best interests!” Nathan grimaced. “But Kat insisted he set it up anyway. In fact, she told him that was the only way she'd do the film.”