We worked hard at practice and I felt like we were ready for the taping of the show tonight. As we skated off the ice, I looked up to see Jorge standing there at the gate. I almost rolled my eyes, he gave me a little wave as I approached him.
“I love the program darling, it’s so damn cute!” he cried, hugging me as I stepped off the ice. I half heartedly returned his hug. Ron’s eyes were narrowed and he was staring Jorge down like a jealous lover, I turned and gave him a bug eyed glare. Ron gave Jorge an arrogant nod of his head, then he snapped his skate guards on and headed toward the changing room.
“How is everything going?” asked Jorge.
“Fine,” I told him, dismissively. I was worried, something was up. Why else would Jorge just randomly show up at our practice? He was a busy man, he didn’t have time to hang around the rink.
“The program looks fine, how are things with Brannon?” asked Jorge, eyeing me haughtily.
My heart was surging with guilt, surely he couldn’t know about my tiny indiscretion yesterday. Could he?
“I had to reprimand him today, he and Elena have been practicing without me. I’m afraid he’ll overdo himself and not be able to skate at all,” I said, tracing my finger over a patch of chipped paint on the gate. I couldn’t look Jorge in the eye, I felt incredibly guilty.
“Have the two of you discussed his wife’s indiscretions?” asked Jorge.
“I wouldn’t say we discussed it, of course he told me, he apologized for missing practice,” I told him, staring him down indignantly.
“I was just worried, that’s all. Now he’s been wronged, you have also been wronged. Misery loves company, I just thought that he might use that as an excuse to have you hop into bed with him,” said Jorge. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
“He’s perfectly gorgeous, why would I even need an excuse to hop into bed with him?” I asked, nonchalantly. I looked over at Jorge, who was standing there staring at me with his mouth gaping open, he was completely speechless.
“I’m kidding Jorge, I was messing with you,” I told him with a giggle.
“God, sometimes you can be such a heartless bitch, you scared the hell out of me,” he told me, indignantly.
“Sorry,” I told him with a wry smile, even though personally, I thought he deserved it.
That night my team was scheduled to be the second to the last performance of the evening. Seeing all the other teams in their poodle skirts and letter sweaters made me all that much happier that I hadn’t chosen a sock hop song. The other performances all looked blandly similar. I thought our quirky, yet sophisticated program would stand out from all the others.
As we sat there in the cast seats and watched all the other teams performing, I was happy to realize that my team was not the only one struggling with the pairs spin, besides that, several of the other teams could barely get by with their lifts and the footwork.
Finally, Ron and Elena skated out to the center of the ice. The lights dimmed and the spotlights shined on them.
“Ladies and Gentleman, skating to the song That’s Amore’ Elena Denkova and Ron Brannon, choreography by Lane Jensen.
As the music started, things were looking good. The choreography was well suited to the music and Ron and Elena had to play out a couple that was falling in love. I smiled as I watched them performing, they had really gotten into the music. I was so proud of them, they were performing as if they had been doing this their entire lives, they had almost convinced me that they were lovers, even though I knew that the two of them barely tolerated each other.
The cartwheel lift was a bit shaky, but good. The crowd oohed and aahed, when Elena did her spin sequence.
They had one step sequence under their belt, all they had to do was nail the pairs spin and the last step sequence that led into their finale, and they had it!
I held my breath as they went into the pairs spin, on the second rotation, the toe pick of Ron’s skate nicked Elena’s blade, making a loud metallic squeak. It shouldn’t have been enough to ruin the spin, but Elena was jumpy, she was so scared that Ron was going to fall on her and crush her, she stumbled out of the spin early.
This was more than enough to throw both her and Ron off. As result, Ron ended up starting his footwork on the wrong foot, so they ended up being out of synch for the rest of the dance. I sighed in disappointment. I didn’t think they had been bad enough to be eliminated, but I was quite certain, we would not be the top team tonight.
Ron and Elena skated back to me dejectedly, I hugged them both, then we sat in the “kiss and cry” area to wait for the judges to comment on our performance and then reveal our scores.
The judges comments were mostly positive. It was hard for them to pick apart our pairs spin, since no other team had mastered it either. Hal Luther smiled and claimed to be “totally in love” with the entire program, he thought that Ron and Elena were both still a bit stiff, he urged them to loosen up a bit.
Finally, our scores were held up, eight, eight and eight. Not too bad, but not what I had anticipated for the night. The last team skated, then all the teams were brought to the ice for the announcement of the elimination.
I was finally able to breathe, when they announced that it was team Maricelle that would be going home tonight. We had ended up third in the standings, behind team Muramsatsu and team Evans.
I was happy enough, we were still near the top of the pack. I was almost glad we hadn’t taken first place, if we took the top spot every time, we would have nothing to work toward and of course, every other team would be out to get us!
As the show ended later that evening, everyone was congregating there beside the ice. Everyone was coming over and telling me how well my team had done, including Emi Muramsatsu. When the crowd began dying down, I wasn’t surprised to see that Ron had found his way to my side.
“You want to stop by my place for a drink?” he whispered into my ear.
“Is Elena coming?” I asked, turning around and giving him a sly smile.
“Hell no, that bitch hates me,” said Ron, giving me a look.
“You know I can’t,” I told him. He was rolling his eyes disgustedly, I turned and saw that Jorge was pushing his way determinedly through the crowd toward me. I sighed miserably.
“Lane darling, splendid job tonight,” he said hugging me, then kissing me on the cheek. “A fine effort tonight Mr. Brannon, with a little work, you might actually end up in the finals.” Jorge held out his hand and Ron shook it hesitantly.
“Thank you,” said Ron, his face was expressionless. I was almost holding my breath as the two men stared each other down for a moment or two.
“Sweetheart, the crowd is finally dying down, are you ready to go home?” asked Jorge, staring at me expectantly.
“Yes dear,” I told him obediently. I gave Ron a haughty nod, then I let Jorge pull me away.
Jorge had taken me by the hand and was pulling me through the crowd in the lobby. He was almost giddy with excitement as he waved and blew kisses to the remaining people he knew that were still hanging around. Then he hauled me unceremoniously out the front entrance, he dragged me out to his limo, like a child who had misbehaved in the grocery store.
“Get in!” he demanded curtly. I looked up at him in shock as I slid into the limo, as I’d been commanded to do.
“Why are you being such an ass?” I cried, as Jorge slid into the seat next to me.
“If I was not such an ass I would have never got this far in life. I already told you, I am simply protecting my show. I saw you with Brannon,” he told me, staring me down determinedly.
“I wasn’t going to go with him,” I told him, indignantly.
“Good for you. I was not going to give you the opportunity. You are coming home with me. I have decided I cannot have you hanging out at the condo anymore. Whatever will we do if he shows up there?”
“Jorge, don’t be ridiculous...”
“Lane please, I know that he was there last night, and I also know that th
e two of you shared a very passionate kiss. At this point, I think I may be lucky that’s all the two of you did,” snapped Jorge, staring me down arrogantly.
“You were spying on me!” I cried indignantly. As stunned as I was, I was almost wondering why I hadn’t anticipated this.
“I didn’t instigate the spying, but I did get the full scoop, and video, of course. In Hollywood you have to be careful, you never know who’s watching. It cost me a pretty penny to keep that video out of the wrong hands. Do you not understand the consequences of your actions?” snapped Jorge, angrily.
“Who did this?” I breathed. I was so completely stunned, I couldn’t say another word.
“It makes no difference who did it, the point is, you are a celebrity now, you probably have a whole host of stalkers,” he told me with a sly smile.
“But how?” I was panicking, worrying that maybe someone had planted secret cameras in my condo. I’m sure stranger things have happened.
I am sorry darling, but it was you, who forgot to close your drapes,” said Jorge, giving me a nonchalant shrug.
I sighed brokenly, I kept forgetting, I wasn’t in Colorado Springs anymore. When you were in the public eye, everyone always wanted to know what you were up to. There was obviously no such thing as a secret rendezvous, at least not in this day and age. All this modern technology was like a double edged sword, for the stalkers it made life easier, for the stalked, it was a nightmare, the average person could shoot video from their cell phone!
“Tomorrow we will move all your things into my house. That is where you will be staying until the conclusion of the show,” snapped Jorge.
“What about Jean Luc?” I asked.
“Jean Luc has decided to take a little holiday in Nice, until the show is over,” said Jorge.
I was shaking my head miserably, my entire life was a fiasco. I could see where Jorge was coming from, he needed to protect his show from negative publicity. Ron didn’t seem to care, but the media would tear him up if they thought that the two of us were having an affair. I had been afraid that he might show up at my condo again tonight, Jorge had taken care of that little problem.
“Am I under house arrest?” I asked, flashing him a sly smile.
“Essentially. You know we wouldn’t have this problem if it wasn’t for those big blue eyes and that smile of yours, you even have me completely charmed, and I like men!” cried Jorge.
I rolled my eyes. “Jorge...”
“I’m serious, and I’m not the only one. You’re such a flirt Lane, all the guys have been totally eating it up. I doubt you’ll be single long.”
“My mother was a shameless flirt, I guess I learned it from her,” I told him, with a little shrug.
“Your mother...don’t even get me started on your mother!” cried Jorge.
Jorge didn’t know my mother personally, but he knew of her, of course, lots of people in Hollywood did. My mother was Lydia Gray, back in the day, my mother had been a very a famous dancer. She had been in a lot of movies in the 50’s and 60’s, even now, years later, she was still kind of notorious. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been my mother’s dancing that had made her so memorable in Hollywood, it was her hot temper and her numerous male conquests that had made my mother a Hollywood legend.
Maybe that was why I didn’t feel all that comfortable in Hollywood. When Jorge first met me, he had been fascinated with the fact that Lydia Gray was my mother. He told me I should feel like Hollywood was my family, not many people could trace their lineage directly back to Hollywood’s golden era.
Since my mother was so notorious, Jorge found it to be quite intriguing that I could possibly be the bastard child of some old Hollywood icon. It was a thought I had considered, but never pursued. Since I was a small child, I had my doubts about my lineage, of course, I had heard all the whispered rumors. When I looked in the mirror, it only confirmed all the rumors, I had my mother’s eyes, but I didn’t look like my dad at all. My nose, my hair, my freckles, they all seemed to come from somewhere else, they were things I didn’t share with my parents or either of my siblings.
Of course, my own father claimed me, but even he, had heard the rumors, I imagine. It was not something my family had ever spoke about, but I had heard the whispers when I was just a child. My parents were both so busy, my grandparents had essentially raised me, they tried to shelter me from all the speculation, but people are cruel. The gossiping eventually filtered down from the adults to my classmates. I pretended not to care, when the kids made fun of me and my family.
Who knows what had been speculation and what had been true? I did know that my mother had a series of affairs, she had apparently not been very discrete about them. Apparently my mother had set her sights on Hollywood idol, Troy Donahue, and that is who our neighbors seemed to believe I had been fathered by. Of course, I did have blonde hair and blue eyes, while my own father had green eyes and stunning auburn hair.
Jorge had also pointed out to me that I had Troy Donahue’s nose, I had shrugged that off, at this point I didn’t even care. I certainly didn’t have my mother’s or my father’s nose. It didn’t really matter anyway, I was still not comfortable in Hollywood!
I yawned as the limo cruised through the streets of Hollywood, I knew I was resigned to stay at Jorge’s home in the Hollywood Hills until this media circus was over.
“What about my car? Are we going to stop off and get my car?” I asked, suddenly wondering how I would get to the rink in the morning.
“You’ll ride with me,” snapped Jorge.
“Holy shit, I really am under house arrest, aren’t I?” I asked, staring at him in shock.
“Yes darling, and it is for your own good,” he replied as he watched the streets of Hollywood slip by in the night.
CHAPTER 16
When I arrived at the house that night, Jorge set me up in his guest room, then he sent his assistant Ed over to the condo to get some of my things. I didn’t really feel comfortable staying at Jorge’s house, but I was sure it was for the best.
When Ed arrived later that evening with my laptop, I took it out by the pool so that I could do a little research. Our next music choice had to be from a Broadway musical. Once again, I wanted something different. I had guessed that everyone would be using music from “Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats” and all the more recent, popular musicals. I wanted something different, something quirky, that Elena and Ron could make into a memorable routine that would stand out from all the others.
Ron was essentially still a beginner, so of course, he didn’t know a lot of moves. On the up side, Ron had quite a personality, and he knew how to project that out on the ice, so I had to make that work for us, as much as possible. If I could play up his showmanship and personality, maybe it would deflect criticism from his basic skating skills.
“Can I get you anything to drink? A glass of wine, perhaps?” asked Ed, as he approached me on the patio later that evening.
I was stunned. “Um sure, a glass of wine would be nice,” I told him.
“Red or white?”
“White please,” I told him. I smiled as he walked away. Maybe I could get used to this, living the life of the rich and famous.
I began searching through the thousands of songs I had loaded on my i-tunes library. Greg and I had well over 500 cd’s that we’d loaded onto i-tunes, not to mention all the other music we’d bought.
I’d pretty much grown up in the theater so I already knew most of the music from all the Broadway shows. I clicked down my list, listening to clips as I went along. After a while, I was beginning to get overwhelmed, there was just too much to choose from. Besides, I still wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I was waiting for a fun, quirky, song to just jump out at me.
Jorge walked out on the patio and gave me a wry smile.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“Terrible, I’m completely overwhelmed. I have no idea what Ron and Elena will be skating to next week,” I told him, sighing heavil
y.
“This week should be easy for you, it’s Broadway week, you should be right at home. I can only guess that you grew up listening to all that music,” said Jorge.
“I know it should be easy, I’m just overwhelmed, there are just too many choices,” I told him.
“What is your favorite musical?” he asked, sitting down next to me.
“That’s just it, I could never pick just one. I have tons of favorites,” I told him with a shrug.
“What are they?”
“I don’t know, I like West Side Story, Gypsy, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, there’s so many.
“Why don’t you just listen to some of the music from those shows and see which ones strike you as something that will work,” said Jorge.
Laying Low In Hollywood Page 14
