Lara and the City of Angels (7 page)

Sean sighed in a tired and disconcerted manner. “Thanks for doing this, Sorcha. I wanted her to be around family and not in some strange place with people she doesn’t know. Lara was just fooling herself to believe she would have time for her while she is on location. I have been on enough film shoots and if you aren’t doing scenes, you’re hanging out with people you have bonded with on the set. It is hardly a place for children; I don’t think that changes just because she is filming a few lousy episodes of a television show and I regularly do movies.”

His sister pulled out two bottles of Carlsberg and sat next to him. “Lara is a great woman, Sean. She’s independent and perfect for you. I’m not going to lie to you: Dad, Mom and I were really worried about you. We thought you were just going to ruin your career by coming out of the closet or you would end up with some pneumatic blonde straight out of
Uptown Girl
who would dump a few kids for you and then try to sue you for half your wealth.”

“Excuse me? What closet was I suppose to emerge from?” he inquired in a distasteful voice.

“You know
exactly
what I mean. You were effeminate as a child and Mom was just happy you didn’t turn out a cross-dressing transsexual. They can get over the whole ‘gay’ issue but they would have felt like they failed you if you started growing your hair long, started taking hormones and changed your name to Shawna. Hell, you know I am as liberal as they come but I can’t help thinking people who want to change up their sex…well, they are dealing with issues that go much farther than their sex. There is something they don’t like about themselves and they believe that self-hatred will disappear once they change bodies but you can’t escape yourself even with surgery. Hell, you can’t rid yourself of your own personal demons no matter how you desecrate your body.”

“How the hell did we get on this subject?” Sean wondered out loud. “I was never gonna be a transsexual and there is a huge difference between being gay, a cross-dresser and a transsexual. They are not all one in the same—”

“Yeah, Sean, I am aware of that. I’m just rambling is all. As I said before, we were all surprised when you ended up with Lara and it’s obvious she isn’t very happy to the most casual observer. Is that why you let her do this show? Were you scared she would file for divorce?”

“She still might.” He took a long swig from his Carlsberg. “Yeah, I fucked up our marriage big time and I have no one to blame but myself.”

“Hey, it takes two to tango. I’m not going to allow you to put everything that has gone wrong with your marriage on you. Lara isn’t perfect either so you are both at fault for what is going on.” His sister played with the cap from her lager. “Could any of this have to do with the whole ‘swinger lifestyle’? I always thought Lara was a bit too proper for that.”

Sean’s crystal blue eyes glared at Sorcha. “It might but she said she understood…”

“Perhaps she said that because she was willing to do what ever it took to get you. It’s something you really need to think about. Didn’t you say her parents’ were swingers too? It might have
seemed
like something she could handle but at the end of the day, she might just be a one-man kind of woman, Sean.”

They were quiet for several stolen moments before he finished his lager. “Well, I suppose I have a lot to think about while she’s gone. I like the lifestyle but not enough to lose my wife behind it.”

“Well, don’t spend too much time thinking…I get a lot of the news about
One Last Bite
as Tim is one of the main writers and did you know they were planning on hooking up her character and the one played by Kristian Stenfeldt?”

“Wait a minute…was it you who told her about that role and how they were looking for another actress?”

Sorcha rolled her sky blue eyes. “Well, duh—I thought you would have put two and two together. How else would she have known what is going on had I not told her? You’re a movie star, not a television star.”

“Did you do this on purpose?”

“What are you talking about? Do what on purpose? I told her about the role and she auditioned like anyone else would have had to. It just so happened she was chosen but I don’t have that kind of influence over Tim and he has
nothing
to do with casting.”

Sean stood and realized the Carlsberg had gone straight to his head but not enough he couldn’t drive. “Listen, I need to be on my own for a few hours. I’ll be back a little later.”

“Drive carefully,” Sorcha responded before she watched him leave.

Chapter Seven

L
ara hated to admit she hadn’t had this much fun in her adult life since before she married Sean.

The past few days she’d spent in Louisiana were a revelation and she loved being there with its gothic splendor. The core cast of
One Last Bite
was very close-knit and it was a great situation. Kristian quickly became a close friend as they found out they had much in common, including international backgrounds and living experiences.

They sat next to one another at a café. It was a mid-day lunch break while they shot the shit. Each had evening shooting to complete so their quick lunch had turned from a couple hours to them spending most of the day together. They sipped on cups of French roast coffee as he quickly filled Lara in on who was dating who.

“The lead actress who plays Charity, Karin Wainwright, is engaged to Philippe Cardet. He likes to overly emphasize his Frenchness but don’t let him get away with it. Yes, his family is originally from Nice but he grew up in a Montreal suburb in Canada. I know more about France than he does.”

“Ouch,” Lara responded. “Well, that kind of shit wouldn’t work on me anyway as my mother is French.”

“Seriously, I would have never known that with you being a MacIntyre and all,” Kristian replied in a tone loaded with snark.

“Yep. My grandfather is Alsatian and my grandmother is the product of a father from Lorraine and a mother from Guadeloupe. Suffice to say, all the areas mentioned are part of France proper so I consider myself half-French and half-Scottish.”

“Well, you know all about my father being first cousins to Igor so obviously that side of my family is Swedish but my mother is from a well to do suburb outside of Copenhagen. When my parents divorced, my dad moved here to the States and quickly acquired a pneumatic trophy wife who makes him look ridiculous. He believes the fact she’s Brazilian makes him a little less desperate since she’s exotic and not a blonde with fake boobs but believe me, to see a sixty year old man married to a woman young enough to be my little sister doesn’t make the situation any better.

“I spent time between L.A. and Denmark where I attended school. As soon as I finished the Scandinavian equivalent of high school, I came here, attended Stanford University but found it a bit too ‘foreign’ for my taste. I hated Palo Alto too. I transferred to Pepperdine and believe me that caught me a bunch of slack. I was at an Ivy League university and I transferred to Surfer U—but I adored Pepperdine. It’s where I met Julie and although we are no longer together, I still respect her.”

“That would be Julie Kennedy, your co-worker?”

“Yep. Can you believe this fucking show is what ended our relationship? We were always in each other’s faces and after I had to ‘turn’ her into a vampire, we spent so much time together both on the set and off of it, we both felt stifled.”

“That can happen to the most promising relationships,” Lara replied in a vague tone before she finished her coffee. She feared she might have revealed too much and quickly changed the subject. “So, what’s it like playing an English vampire and having to dye your blond hair darker than what it naturally is?”

“Well, I would have rather kept my fair hair but they thought my character would look too much like Eric Northman on
True Blood
. It’s so stupid because we are the two highest rated paranormal shows on cable television and they still have us going head to head. Regardless both of the series’ are based upon novels, both authors are Southern and their writing skills are limited at best…we are constantly compared to one another.”

Kristian laughed. “You know they had a cast comparison in
This Week in Entertainment
. They had Anna Paquin against Karin Wainwright, Stephen Moyer against Philippe Cardet, Alexander Skarsgård against me, Rutina Wesley against Julie, et cetera. It was just plain stupid. I suppose it doesn’t help both shows take place in Louisiana so we have to be carbon copies of one another despite our show has been on television for a full season before
True Blood
started.”

“Well, can I let you in on a little secret? I watch both shows and enjoy them for what they are but when I was offered this part on
One
Last Bite
, it was no contest. To me, comparing
True Blood
with this show would be like comparing it to
The Vampire Diaries
. The only subject they have in common are blood suckers but the storylines are completely different,” Lara explained.

“Suffice to say, both my parents and my family in general think I am squandering my education by acting on a low-rent cable show. They tell me I should be doing something worthwhile like becoming an executive at Introspect. I would rather chew my own arm off than have to deal with Dominic all day every day. He’s a twat and a generally very unlikable human being though he has always been popular with the ladies. We won’t mention the illegitimate children or the fact he can’t seem to keep his dick in his pants.”

Lara looked past Kristian, not sure what to say. She was hardly the model for perfect marital behavior.

“You know what he told me?” Kristian continued, “He said he’d convinced his wife, Brenda, to join an elite swinger’s club. She said ‘yes’, just like that. Apparently, there are a lot of high profile couples involved but he wasn’t saying who. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall at one of those parties. Have you heard anything about that?”

She could feel a blush suffice her face. “No, I haven’t heard anything. Were any names bandied about?”

“No, I told you he wouldn’t tell. He said they were all blockbuster actors and it is very hush-hush but there aren’t that many successful actors. I bet we could write a list and narrow it down by personality type who is in this swinger’s club and who isn’t.”

“I’d rather not,” Lara responded before she laughed. “It just seems so sordid. Perhaps it isn’t a swinger’s club the way you are thinking.”

“What do you mean? Is there another kind I don’t know about?”

“I wouldn’t know that. Besides, I don’t know you well enough to talk about the intimate lives of people who might be friends of mine.”

The silence between them deafened Lara but she could scarcely afford for Kristian to know the truth. It would not only end her fledgling career but destroy her husband’s as well; despite her problems with Sean, she still loved him and she wouldn’t allow anything or anyone to end what he’d worked so hard to achieve.

“You should drive me home,” she finally said. “I have to go over my lines and we both have evening shoots so it’s best if we’re prepared.”

“Agreed,” Kristian replied before they both stood up.

Lara breathed a sigh of relief and couldn’t wait to get back to her temporary home.

***

T
he moment Lara stepped inside the house, her cell phone began to ring. She pulled her Google Android phone out of her black Hermès Kelly handbag and answered it immediately.

“Hey, Sean, what’s up?”

“Nothing much though I did find out some interesting news,” he began in a voice she’d come to hate. His tone was condescending and she knew what ever he told her, he would practically treat her like a disobedient child.

“What kind of news?” she stalled as she walked through the hallway and headed to the comfortable living room.

“Sorcha told me she helped you get the part on
One Last Bite
. Is that true?”

Although she’d spent the afternoon devouring coffee, her throat was suddenly parched. “I’m not sure what you mean. Her boyfriend told me about the part that came up open after another actress dropped out but I had to audition. I wasn’t given any special treatment if that is what you mean.”