Laying Low In Hollywood

by Stanberry, Jean

  “I already know all the music, I just can’t see them...”

  “Listen to the music Lane, you have to feel it. Then you will get an idea of what your team can skate to.” he said, standing to leave.

  Jorge bent over and gave me a peck on the cheek, then he walked back into the house. I sighed, I still wasn’t inspired, my brain was completely overloaded. I stared distractedly at the pool in front of me, as the surface of the water was illuminated by constantly changing colors of the fiber optic lights. The shimmering light danced across the glass-like surface of the water that was barely ruffled by the filter jets. The light kept changing from blue to green to yellow, then pink.

  I put my ear buds in and got to work listening to clips, but soon I was bored. This was impossible, none of these songs would have the effect I wanted them to have. I wanted the audience to remember my team, therefore, I needed them to stand out. Elena and Ron seemed to do best when they had actual characters to portray, and they both enjoyed acting a little bit silly. Suddenly I had a fabulous idea!

  I began paging down my huge list of songs until I finally found what I was looking for. I played the clip and smiled serenely as I listened to it. This song was exactly what I had been looking for. In moments I was almost bursting with excitement. I could see the costumes, and the program in my mind, almost as if I had already completely pulled it together. I was going to make Ron into a English gentleman, and Elena would be Eliza Doolittle.

  CHAPTER 17

  I showed up at the ice arena the next morning, accompanied by Jorge, of course. It wasn’t often that the producer would show up for a mere practice, but these were special circumstances and Jorge was determined to play it all out! I was getting the uneasy feeling that Jorge was going to become a permanent fixture at all of our practices, if for no other reason than to convince everyone that he and I were a couple.

  I thought that portraying the idea that Jorge and I were lovers was completely ridiculous, at first, I thought no one would buy it. I guess just had no idea how strong the power of suggestion could be. I had never expected that people would actually believe that Jorge and I were truly a couple.

  I had known almost from the first moment I met him, that Jorge was obviously gay. He wasn’t really one of those guys that you silently wondered about, he was kind of flaming! Now that Jorge and I were “dating”, apparently, everyone thought he was straight, but a bit odd. That’s the power of suggestion.

  I was excited about our new program. I had told Jorge about it and he thought the idea was fabulous, though Jorge seemed to think everything I did was fabulous!

  My excitement faded quickly that morning at practice as I realized that Ron was not himself. He was more than a little distant, it was obvious he had been stewing all night about something. I wasn’t sure if he was mad at me, or what? I couldn’t imagine what I could have done to hack him off.

  I played the music for them and explained my ideas. Elena clapped excitedly, but Ron shrugged half heartedly.

  “If that’s what you want,” he said, the tone of his voice confirmed it, Ron was angry about something.

  “You don’t like it?” I asked.

  “What difference does it make. I’m the puppet, you’re the puppet master, just pull my strings, I’ll do whatever you want!” he snapped, in a strange, fake voice.

  “Did I do something to hack you off?” I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm. He was being a child, and now I was getting hacked off as well.

  “Don’t worry about me, I thought that the two of us were friends, but you’re just as fake as everyone else in Hollywood,” he snapped, rolling his eyes miserably.

  I gave him a stunned look, I couldn’t believe he had just said that. “How about you stop blaming me for all your problems and you focus on what you were brought here to do, which is skate,” I told him, I forced my voice to sound as cold as possible.

  I’d been stupid, I slipped up. I should have never let my feelings for Ron jeopardize the show. We needed to separate our private lives from our work. I sighed miserably. Jorge was smart to forbid me to get involved with Ron for the time being, he was riding an emotional roller coaster right now!

  “Fine, like I said, you’re the puppet master,” snapped Ron.

  I gave him a haughty glare and skated away from him. I wanted to clear my head, so I did a couple of laps around the ice while Ron and Elena stood there staring at me, slightly confused.

  I felt discouraged, it seemed like it was impossible to make it through an entire practice without someone acting like a child. I had originally thought that my six figure salary was ridiculously excessive, now I was beginning to see that working with “stars” was harder than I had anticipated.

  I returned to Ron and Elena feeling energized, I ignored Ron’s attitude and began working on teaching them the new routine. The newest required element was side by side spins. It had been my least favorite element back when I had skated, it was a timing thing, the spins were supposed to look identical, a very hard task. Fortunately, the network had made things relatively easy for us. The pair could do any spin, even the most basic of spins, and they only had to complete two revolutions, a piece of cake, as far as I was concerned.

  At least, now I would have a bit more to work with for our programs. We would have a lift, a pair spin and a side by side spin, maybe even the death spiral, if I wanted to throw that in. We had a good practice and Ron even seemed to be enjoying himself. At some point during our practice Jorge had wandered off to the wardrobe department to get them started on my costume designs.

  When practice was over, I skated over to the edge of the ice and picked up my water bottle. Elena waved goodbye as she slipped her skate guards on. Ron skated up to me and eyed me arrogantly as I gulped down my water.

  “Where were you last night?” he asked.

  “What do you mean, where was I last night?” I asked.

  “I called you a bunch of times, then I finally stopped by your condo, but you weren’t there,” he said, I could hear the hurt in his voice.

  “The condo is officially no longer my home,” I told him nonchalantly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, Jorge is so worried about “us” he’s moved me into his house, he’s very serious about this,” I told him.

  “He can’t do that!” cried Ron.

  “Ron, Jorge knows what happened the other night. Someone videotaped you at the condo with me, Jorge saw everything, and he’s pretty hot about it,” I whispered.

  “You’re kidding me right?” cried Ron, completely shocked that our seemingly private moment had been stolen from us.

  “I’m not kidding. Listen Ron, this is all for the best. You have so much going on in your life right now, you’re upset about your wife, now is not the time...”

  “I am not upset about my wife. Jenae uses men, I can finally see that, she used me until I no longer suited her purposes, now she’s found another man to manipulate!” he cried.

  “That is why I think it would be best if we kept our relationship professional, at least until we’re done with the show,” I told him.

  “Is that what you really want, or is that what Jorge told you to say?” he asked, his voice was laced with sarcasm.

  “Don’t act like a child Ron, Jorge does not tell me what to say,” I told him, rolling my eyes miserably.

  “Fine, you are my boss and I will obey you, just like you obey Jorge,” he said, his tone was mocking.

  “Fine,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him. He shook his head miserably before he slipped his skate guards on and walked away.

  I sighed as I watched him walk away. I felt bad that I had to be so hard on him, but I couldn’t lead him on, that wouldn’t be fair.

  I snapped my skate guards on, and in moments Jorge had appeared there at my side.

  “Trouble in paradise?” asked Jorge, his tone was slightly sarcastic.

  “No trouble,” I snapped.

  “Listen Lane, I’m sorry,
but Ron Brannon will be free and clear soon. I am quite certain his wife will divorce him for the more lucrative Roman Fleming and then two of you can hook up, after the show is done!”

  I gave him a rueful smile. I didn’t really know what to say to him, suddenly I felt like crying. I was an emotional mess!

  “Personally, I think Mrs. Brannon may be shooting herself in the foot. Ron is quite a personality, you seem to bring it out in him. I think he may have quite a future in Hollywood,” said Jorge, giving me a sly smile.

  “Hmmm, then count me out. When I’m done with this show I’m going back to Colorado Springs,” I told him.

  “Why would you possibly do that? You can’t fool me Lane, Hollywood is in your blood, this is where you belong,” said Jorge.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I told him, shaking my head.

  “Oh come on Lane, what’s in Colorado Springs that you feel the need to go back to. You have nothing to go back to but an empty house. Baylee is closer to you here, at Stanford, Ramsey is at school far away in Boston,” said Jorge.

  “I don’t really need to be reminded how much my life sucks, “ I told him ruefully.

  “Nonsense, your life doesn’t have to suck. You’re finally getting your chance to be somebody. Don’t let it pass you by,” said Jorge.

  “You’re right, I have a real future as the fake girlfriend of a gay Hollywood producer,” I told him, rolling my eyes miserably.

  “Ouch! You don’t have to be so harsh about it,” cried Jorge, giving me a hurt look.

  “Look Jorge, I’m playing the game. I totally get it. But when this is all over, I’m done. I’m going home, I’ll be happy to leave Hollywood behind me.”

  “Okay, we’ll see,” said Jorge taking my hand and giving me a dubious smile.

  CHAPTER 18

  The rest of the week went by, essentially without incident. I was pretty excited about our program, it was truly turning into something spectacular. Ron and Elena had both thrown themselves into the music and were playing out the characters like a couple of professionals!

  Our lift, side by side spins, and even our pairs spin were all coming along nicely and I was excited. Before I knew it, it was Wednesday once again and we were back at the rink to tape, yet another episode.

  My team was performing third in the line up tonight and the song they were skating to was “The Rain in Spain”, from the musical My Fair Lady. Wardrobe had pulled all the stops out and made Ron a navy blue, crushed velvet smoking jacket, complete with an ascot. Elena was dressed in a prim and proper high necked dress, with her hair piled elegantly on top of her head.

  The original song had been approximately two minutes and twenty six seconds, so it had been cut a bit to make it fit into the two minute routine, but the sound guy had done a fabulous job. It still had exactly the drama I wanted.

  I watched the first two performances of the night from the edge of the ice. The first two teams did a fine job, they made a few mistakes that were barely noticeable, but their programs were hardly memorable, they had no personality. I was nearly bursting with excitement as the stage crew hauled the props for our number, out onto the darkened ice.

  True to the movie, Ron was going to begin the number seated in a high backed, leather desk chair, with his feet up on a big wooden desk. Elena would start out perched in a smaller chair. The furniture was placed at the far corner of the rink. I had designed the routine to stay far from the furniture after the opening, to avoid any accidents.

  When the music started, the magic began. Ron and Elena played out their characters like true professionals. From the opening they went straight into my footwork sequence. They gave a stunning performance, every element was executed cleanly, including my ambitious set of two side by side spins. I was ecstatic! At the end of the program they both skated over to me and I hugged them both excitedly. Then we went to the “kiss and cry” area to wait for our scores.

  The comments from the judges were all positive, even Hal Luther, who was known for his nit picking, could barely find anything in their performance to pick apart. Moments later, when the scores were revealed we’d received two nines and a ten!

  I could barely contain myself I was so excited! I tried to calm myself and watch the rest of the performances, but I could barely sit still. I can’t say I could remember any details of any of the performances that followed ours.

  At the end of the show, the couples were all brought out to the ice for the announcement of who was going home. Not only were we not going home, we were the top scoring team of the week once again!

  Elena and Ron were elated. When they skated back to me Elena hugged me hard, then Ron picked me up and spun me around. I was laughing joyfully, so I was almost caught off guard when Ron tried to plant a kiss on my mouth. As much as I wanted to kiss him, I couldn’t let him ruin, what I had worked so hard to create. We were top contenders now, I couldn’t let all that come crashing down. I turned my head just in time and he ended up kissing me on the cheek, then I pulled myself out of his arms uncomfortably.

  I sighed guiltily and looked away, whatever feelings I felt for Ron, had to wait, that’s just how it had to be. No matter how much I wanted him to kiss me, I knew that the cameras were always watching, one small slip up, could be magnified to look like a torrid affair. I just couldn’t let Ron do that to himself, he was married, even if that marriage was slowly falling apart.

  Ron was giving me a hurt look as I made the rounds on the now crowed ice, hugging everyone who wanted to congratulate me. In moments, Jorge had pushed his way through the crowd to me and had his arm possessively around my shoulder. It was a struggle to keep from rolling my eyes. I wasn’t a complete idiot and I didn’t need a babysitter.

  I left on Jorge’s arm once again that night, and our little scam dragged on. I wondered what Elena thought of all this. Did she truly believe that Jorge and I were a couple? Did she ever notice the barely disguised sexual tension between Ron and I? Elena never said a word about any of it, so I wondered if she was completely oblivious, or if she just didn’t care.

  Later that night I was already busy working on our next week’s routine. The problem with having a wonderful program like the one we’d done tonight meant that I always felt the need to top it with something even more spectacular. It wasn’t going to be easy, my team had their limits, and I was afraid we would be reaching those limits soon.

  Ron’s body was designed for football, not figure skating, and as the show progressed, the producers were adding more technical difficulty each week. It was really only a matter of time before we were in over our head.

  I was frustrated in my search for music this week, but not because I was overwhelmed by choices as I had been last week, but rather because I felt limited to bad choices by the week’s awful theme. This next week the teams were to skate to TV show theme music. I was cringing when I heard that announcement. How could I ever make a decent program out of TV theme music?

  Of course, I didn’t have any TV theme music loaded on my computer, so I had to surf the internet for ideas. As I sifted through the hundreds of titles I found, I sighed miserably. This was going to be impossible! I was out by the pool, completely stressing out as I tried, without success, to find a song that I thought I could actually work with. Jorge ambled out on the patio with his glass of wine and sat down next to me.

  “How’s it going, love?” he asked, flashing me a bit of a smile.

  “I hope that TV theme night wasn’t your idea, because it’s a horrible idea. There is absolutely not one TV theme song out there that I care to make into a skating program,” I told him, whining miserably.

  “Oh come on Lane, have fun with it. You’re creative, you can think outside the box and make this work. I think it’s going to be a blast!” said Jorge, flashing me a sly smile.

  “It’s going to be completely hideous,” I told him with a frown. “What is the next week going to be, TV commercial jingles?”

  “A very amusing thought, though if anyone co
uld pull it off, I trust it would be you,” said Jorge.

  “Please Jorge, save your bogus compliments for when we are in public,” I told him rolling my eyes.

  “Are you implying that my admiration of you is not genuine? Lane, you cut me to the quick, I truly believe that you are my best choreographer by far. If your team doesn’t win, it will be by no fault of yours,” he cried, giving me a hurt look.

  “Thank you for that sincere vote of confidence, and a completely hideous repertory of music to choose from,” I sighed.

  I paced restlessly back and forth across the pool deck. A cool breeze was rippling the pool water, and the lights of Hollywood twinkled in the valley below me. I was anxious and I couldn’t sit still, but I needed to focus and concentrate on finding music for our next program. My team couldn’t very well start working on a new program tomorrow, if I hadn’t picked out the music yet. I sighed miserably, I wanted something fun and upbeat, like my team. None of the music I was finding online was doing anything for me.