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‘Listen to me, I have to ask: are you in financial trouble? Because if you are, obviously I have to go elsewhere with this project.’
‘Good morning to you too, Greene,’ he said calmly.
‘Well?’ she demanded.
‘Say good morning and I’ll answer you,’ he said calmly. ‘Manners are free, remember?’
Zoe shook her head in frustration and gritted her teeth. The man was the worst game player she had ever met.
‘Okay, okay. Good morning, Jeff. Now, stop fucking me about. Are you in financial trouble?’
‘Me? Personally? Not at all.’
‘What about the studio?’ She asked. It was always best to be straight up with people, she had realized over the years, even if they found it confrontational.
Jeff took a moment to answer, and during those seconds Zoe felt herself fly backwards in time and space and she was outside, hearing the chickens roosting for the night, cold, alone and hungry. The emotional memory of her body always betrayed her, she thought, as she tried to remain present.
‘Greene?’ Jeff’s voice jerked her out of the chicken coop and back onto the side of the highway. ‘Did you hear what I said?’
Zoe blinked and breathed away the anxiety in her chest.
‘No, I didn’t, can you repeat it please?’ she asked, trying to keep the edge out of her voice.
‘I said, there isn’t a problem, as long as we keep costs down,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you come in now and we can go through them together? I have your contracts here too.’
‘Really? That was quick, even for you,’ she said, thinking aloud.
‘I know a good thing when it’s offered to me,’ said Jeff, sounding as though he didn’t have a care in the world. ‘I had my lawyers draw them up last night.’
They must have loved that, thought Zoe. The night of the Oscars and they had to work? By all accounts, Jeff was a punishing man to work for, exacting and relentless, but there was no doubt he was brilliant and to learn from him was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
And she didn’t know if one of the larger studios would give her a producer title if she asked. Time was running out. If they didn’t move now, then the momentum of the book would be lost.
‘I’m on my way,’ she said.
Before she pulled out into the morning traffic again and headed back to Hollywood, Zoe dialled another number.
‘Zo.’ Maggie’s voice was groggy. ‘What’s up?’
‘I need your help,’ said Zoe as she did a U-turn. ‘But it’s a secret so you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone.’
There was a silence on the end of the phone and then Maggie’s voice came through clearer this time.
‘When have I ever let a secret of yours out into the world?’
Maggie’s voice was terse, but this deal meant everything to Zoe at this moment. She needed someone she could trust and who was nearby in Malibu.
‘I know, but listen this is a big one,’ she said.
‘Has it got something to do with casting The Art of Love?’ said Maggie.
Zoe gasped. ‘How the hell did you know that?’
‘Will told me,’ Maggie answered crossly.
Damn you, Will, thought Zoe. He used any chance he got to needle his ex-wife, even privileged information like the initial casting discussions for The Art of Love.
‘He really shouldn’t have done that.’
‘It was actually Arden Walker who spilled first. She claims she’ll be playing Simone opposite Will,’ Maggie said in a tight voice.
‘What? She isn’t Simone. The movie hasn’t been cast yet. Hell, we don’t even have a studio on board!’ said Zoe, exasperated.
‘But the unofficial casting has begun?’ Maggie demanded.
Zoe made a face at the road ahead. The book was her baby and she wanted to bring it to life, the last thing she needed was Maggie and Arden fighting over a role, and causing drama.
‘No. I only asked Will because Hugh mentioned he liked him as an actor, but nothing more than that. Arden’s kidding herself if she thinks she’s right for this role.’
‘Arden thinks she’s right for every role,’ said Maggie wryly and Zoe laughed.
‘This isn’t funny, Zoe. I’m really hurt you didn’t tell me. You hadn’t even heard of that book before I gave it to you! ‘
Zoe sighed. ‘I didn’t tell anyone, I promise. It wasn’t personal, it was business.’
‘But you told Will,’ Maggie argued.
‘Yes, I admit that, but I had to see if he was interested before I went to the studios, so I could take a big name with me. I was going to talk to you about it, but I had to do the deal first,’ Zoe tried to defend herself.
‘I’m a big name,’ said Maggie, her voice sounding small. ‘You could have taken me.’
Zoe could have used Maggie as bait for the studios, but Will was an even bigger star at the box office, and she knew Maggie was too old to play Simone even if Maggie didn’t realize it yet.
They needed someone new, younger and without any expectations from the public. Someone audiences could easily fall in love with and identify as Simone. They needed to create a star.
‘Mags, I know you hate me right now, but I need your help, I’m going to tell you something no one knows, not my assistant, not even Jeff. Can you help me or not?’
Maggie was silent while she weighed it up. She loved to be included in anything, a legacy of having so often been left out and overlooked as a child, she would regularly remind Zoe.
‘Okay, I guess I’ll help,’ she said eventually. ‘But believe me, I’m still pissed at you.’
‘I know, hate me later, but help me now. I promise I’ll make it up to you,’ Zoe pleaded.
‘Go on then.’
‘Okay, so the thing is, Hugh Cavell is in LA,’ said Zoe. ‘He’s been here for about six months.’ Zoe paused. ‘He’s, ah… he’s been drying out.’
Maggie didn’t say anything, so Zoe continued.
‘He just did four months in Promises and he’s trying to stay on track. But he’s pretty self-destructive, Mags. I don’t like to leave him alone for long periods of time.’
‘Jesus,’ breathed Maggie, ‘that’s awful. I had no idea he was such a mess.’
‘If your wife died of brain cancer and you became a millionaire from the story of your grief, wouldn’t you feel kind of bad?’
‘I guess,’ said Maggie quietly.
‘You guess?’ Zoe started to laugh and Maggie joined in.
‘I don’t know, I suppose so,’ said Maggie. ‘What do you need me to do? Author-sit for you? Just so you know, I’m expensive.’
‘I do know, I write your contracts, remember?’
Zoe had checked in on Hugh every day via phone or email, and usually Hugh was fine, but he had sounded odd yesterday when she’d called. She didn’t want him to fall off the wagon when they were so close to what she wanted.
‘Where is he and what does he need?’ Maggie sighed.
Zoe gave Maggie the address in Malibu. ‘But don’t talk to him about the book,’ she warned.
‘What? How can I not? You know I love that book,’ cried Maggie.
‘I know, but he doesn’t.’
Hugh would roll his eyes whenever the book was mentioned. He said he felt uncomfortable about the hype around his wife’s death, that his readers were the ravens on the carcass of his marriage. He said he wished he had never written the book but then he took the film deal, which Zoe never quite understood. She had tried to understand it at first, but eventually she gave up trying to prise open Hugh’s armour.
She saw it was a façade of self-protection covering enormous grief. She understood grief, she had wanted to tell him, but she didn’t. She never told anyone about her own loss. Managing other people’s lives had suited her to a point, that way she didn’t have to focus on her own life, until now. It was now or never with the film and if it worked, then she really would be able to say she had made something of herself in Hollywood.
Maggie’s voice broke through her thoughts. ‘Okay, so what do I do? Sit and read him stories until you return?’
‘Whatever it takes, babe,’ said Zoe as she drove through Hollywood.
It was a rare grey day in LA and everything looked tired, even the palm trees, or was she just her projecting her own sudden weariness.
‘You know I want to play Simone,’ Maggie said.
Zoe paused. ‘I understand that. But you should know that Hugh has final casting approval, along with Jeff,’ she said carefully.
‘But you can help me make it happen, right? I want this, even if I have to play opposite Will,’ said Maggie firmly.
‘I’ll call you when I’ve finished with Jeff and see how things are going with Hugh,’ said Zoe, avoiding the topic.
One problem at a time, she thought, as she pulled up in front of Palladium Pictures. First Jeff, then Hugh and then Maggie.
She could handle it all, she thought as she locked her car. She had been solving other people’s problems for years, why couldn’t she handle a few of her own?
Chapter 5 (#ue3922b53-1c39-52b3-a21e-b444c5ff5ebd)
Maggie hung up from Zoe and rolled over in her king-sized bed, groaning. It was too early to be up, she thought crossly, especially the day after the Oscars.
Her feet ached and so did her head, but her best friend had just asked her for help and Maggie had never let Zoe down.
She got up and padded to the window, opening the blinds to look out over the beach. A grey sky, to match her grey mood, she thought as went into the bathroom and stood under the fifteen jets of water in her polished stone shower.
Maggie’s modernist home had been showcased in Architectural Digest and was revered for its classic beauty and clean lines. These were also qualities Maggie was known for, and when she’d commissioned the house, they were what she had specified in the brief.
She bought everything that was expected of a woman of her taste and money. She had the right artists, the right clothes, she was on Vanity Fair’s best-dressed list six years in a row, and when she’d married Will her wedding dress had been considered a classic, along with the lace modesty of Grace Kelly’s gown and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s A-line shift.
She did whatever it took to rid herself of the stains from her past, wrapping herself in a bright, white, perfect world. She never missed a hair appointment or a session with her trainer, and her nails were always done. She was impeccable on the outside, but always felt she could improve on the inside, if only she knew what her heart and mind truly wanted.
A lifetime of being valued for her looks above all else ate away at her, particularly now she was getting older. She found herself wondering what more she had to offer.
And right now she was faced with the pressure of what to wear to meet the man who had shown her what true love really was. Just about everything she had learned about love was from movies, but Hugh Cavell’s book had taught her more than any script.
Meeting the author of the book that had changed her life and helped her leave her marriage was something she had wished for. Though she hadn’t factored in that the author was a drunk and didn’t want to discuss his own marriage, let alone Maggie’s failed union.
It wasn’t warm outside, she gathered from the empty beach and the choppy waves. A lone, scrappy-looking dog ran along the water’s edge, as though waiting for its ship to come. Hell, who wasn’t waiting for something somewhere? she thought as she pulled together an outfit. Stella McCartney white jeans, a white silk tank top, an oversized pale-pink Rag & Bone light cashmere knit that hung off one shoulder, and white ballet flats by Chloé, she decided. Elegant and refined, but relaxed. Without false modesty, she knew she looked good in white, and perhaps it would help to lift her grey mood.
Choosing outfits was Maggie’s second favourite thing to do. Her first was doing her own make-up.
After years of sitting in the make-up chair being worked on by professionals, Maggie could do her make-up almost as well as the best in the business. Working through her beauty routine, she carefully applied her products. When she was finished, she spritzed herself with Eau des Merveilles by Hermès, picked up her bag and a bottle of water, and headed out to her Mercedes SUV.
The address Zoe had given her was nearby, but Maggie would never dream of walking anywhere, unless it was on the beach and even then it was under duress.
Some people loved the beach, but Maggie had chosen to live in Malibu because it was expensive and elegant. She also liked the village feel of the shops there and the comparative lack of tourists. Privacy was something she valued above all else.
Growing up in the homes of strangers will do that to you.
A short drive later she found herself at a large nondescript house, with a white wall and green security gate. She pressed the button, and waited, but no one answered.
She tried again. Still no answer. When she tried the handle, the gate swung open.
He was certainly no native, she thought as she closed the gate behind her. No one in Los Angeles left a gate—or anything else, for that matter—open.
She knocked on the front door and a male voice with a British accent called out, ‘It’s open, Zoe.’
‘It’s not Zoe,’ she said as she walked down the hallway and into a large open living space.
Standing unsteadily near the big windows overlooking the water was the author she had been so desperate to meet. He was wearing grey boxers and nothing else and was holding what looked to be a whiskey bottle. He was thin, too thin, she thought, which was saying something in Los Angeles. He had the pallor of a man who spent too long indoors, with the curtains closed, wallowing in his own grief and swill.
‘You’re drunk,’ she stated aloud, the words sounding more accusatory than she’d intended. ‘I thought you would be more together than this.’
‘And you’re Maggie Hall,’ he answered, peering at her. ‘You look older than I thought you would.’
Maggie flinched and felt her jaw drop open. ‘And you look more pathetic than Zoe said you would,’ she snapped.
‘I’m a sad widower, didn’t you hear?’ he countered, dropping on to an oversized sofa and placing the bottle on the glass table in front of him.
She picked up the bottle and went into the open-plan kitchen, pouring the whiskey down the sink.
