by Rowe, Brian
“Is this your house?” Nathan asked.
“No. My son and I are staying at a friend’s.”
“What about your husband?”
“Yeah, that didn’t really work out.”
Nathan nodded, awkwardly. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I’m not.”
She took him by the hand and led him to her guest bedroom. She turned around one last time to make sure nobody in the house had seen the two of them come in. She closed the door behind her.
Nathan, his hands once again in his pockets, started looking around the room. “This is nice.”
“Yeah. Beats paying a fortune at a hotel.”
Vivien sat down on her bed and patted the mattress with her right hand, motioning for him to come over. He did, eventually.
“Care for a drink?” she asked.
“I’m OK.”
“You sure? I keep some hard liquor at my bedside. You know, for nights when I’m in the mood to have some fun, if you know what I mean.”
She pulled from her stash a mini-bottle of whiskey. She chugged half of it and handed it to Nathan. He shook his head, and she put it away.
Vivien was getting bored. It’s time.
“Nathan?”
“Yes?”
“I have a question.”
“OK.”
“I want you to answer me honestly.”
He responded with a nod.
“Do you find me attractive?”
She started rubbing his right leg. This gorgeous young man, twenty years her junior, with the look of a movie star sans that awful scar, sat completely still. He wouldn’t respond.
“Nathan? I asked you a question.”
He finally darted his eyes toward hers. He looked uncomfortable, but Vivien felt confident she could mediate his fears. “I do, Ms. Slate.”
“I told you. Call me Vivien.”
She kissed him. It was an awkward kiss at first, one that a straight girl might’ve planted on her gay male friend. She brought him down toward the bed. She could tell he didn’t want to be doing this, but she pressed on, anyway. She moved away from his lips and started kissing his neck.
“You are so beautiful,” she said, immediately regretting the corny line a second after saying it.
She unbuttoned the top of his collared shirt to reveal a tight white tank top underneath. She pressed down on it, feeling his rock-hard abs with her delicate fingers.
When she pushed her palm up against his crotch, Nathan sat up. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“What?”
“You’re very pretty, Ms. Slate.”
“Vivien. Please.”
“I just…” Nathan paused and put his hands at his side. “I just don’t know.”
She put both of her hands on his cheeks and pulled him close. She tilted her head up and sensuously licked his scar. “You want to be a part of this movie, right?”
He took a noticeably deep breath, as if her lick of his chin was the first mode of foreplay that actually turned him on. “You know I do.”
“Good. Then let’s play.”
She could feel him start relaxing. She straddled him and started kissing him all over. His tank top came off quickly, and she marveled at his chest. For nearly two decades she had to look at the chest of a man who thought exercise was going out front every morning to grab the newspaper. She enjoyed this change of pace.
She caressed Nathan’s body from end to end with her fingernails. He didn’t seem to mind. Then she started unbuttoning his pants. The slacks fell to the floor with ease.
Underneath, he was wearing what she had hoped he’d be wearing. The tighty whities fit Nathan’s penis like a glove.
Nathan started breathing heavily, and he didn’t seem to want to stop her. His cock was large and impressive. She imagined it was eight inches, maybe nine. It was fully erect and pointing diagonally.
She wrapped her mouth around it. The penis tasted salty.
She hadn’t gone down on her husband since her thirties, and now she remembered why. She didn’t particularly like giving blowjobs, even to heartthrobs.
Vivien jerked him off for a couple of minutes, and then stood up and pulled off her dress. She tried to let her body insecurities fall to the wayside. She knew she would get what she wanted from this young man tonight, one way or another.
She lay down on the bed, her feet dangling off the side. “Come here.”
Nathan crawled to her on his knees and looked down at her face.
“Kiss me,” she said.
The servant obeyed and kissed her on the lips.
“Now,” Vivien ordered, “kiss me down there.”
She pointed toward her legs. His eyes darted down in that general area. He looked naïve, as if he had never seen a vagina before. She liked that.
“Go slowly,” she said.
He gently pulled her black underwear off and dropped them to the side of the bed.
“I’m ready,” she said, as if she were the one getting devirginized.
“OK,” he said in a quiet tone.
He started to kiss her thighs. He brought his right hand down, spreading her legs apart. He moved his mouth closer to her special place, a shark moving in on his victim.
Vivien was already turned on, even though he was barely touching her.
“Oh my God…” she said. “Oh God, oh my God…”
His finger brushed through her pubic hair as he opened his mouth wide and started to touch his tongue against her flesh.
“Oh my God… Nathan…” She ran her hands through his hair and started biting down on her bottom lip. “Oh my God oh my God oh my—”
“I can’t.”
Nathan stood up, grabbed his underwear off the floor, and started crying. He managed to put on all of his clothes before she could even try to get a word in.
She sat up in the bed. Her disappointment turned to guilt as she watched the tears violently streaming down his face.
Vivien turned to the wall, not bearing to look him in the eye. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. “Do you need me to give you a ride to your car?”
She turned back. The bedroom door was open. He was already gone.
-33-
“How young are they gonna be?” Lila asked.
“Young enough.”
“I need an exact age. I need to know that I might have a shot with some of these guys.”
“But you have Walter,” Vivien said.
“How many times do I need to tell you that Walter and I have an open relationship?”
Vivien did a double take. “Wait, really?”
Lila laughed and pointed her finger at Vivien. “I got you. I got you so bad. No, I’m only kidding. I mean, I’m partly kidding.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Gavin asked from the back seat of the car.
“Nothing, honey,” Vivien said. “Just girl talk.”
“Oh,” he said, promptly putting his headphones back on and switching over to some hardcore rap music Vivien could hear from the front of the car.
Vivien’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. She had a rough, tougher look today, with her hair curlier than usual, and dark red lipstick smothered over her lips. She looked like the younger, hipper sister of Vivien Slate who didn’t exist in the real world.
She pulled the car up to Gavin’s school. She turned to see her son not paying attention, his eyes closed, listening to his music. Lila was similarly in her own little world, applying make-up for the fortieth time this morning to her frightened cheeks.
“Gavin? We’re here.”
He didn’t respond.
“Gavin!”
She finally got his attention. He smiled at her, instantly warming Vivien’s heart and making her forget the harsh denial she had received from Mr. LeMille less than forty-eight hours ago.
Vivien stepped out of the car and grabbed Gavin’s backpack. He slammed his door and gave his mother the b
iggest hug of the year.
“Happy birthday, Mom.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
“Are we doing anything tonight?”
“Lila’s putting together a little party for me,” she said. “I think she’s gonna have some people over. You can bring Kendyll if you want.”
“Nah, that’s OK,” he said. “She broke up with me.”
Vivien’s calmness quickly shifted into madness. “WHAT!”
“Yeah, yesterday. She said she didn’t want to be tied down with just one guy.”
“That bitch!”
“No, Mom, it’s fine.”
“What’s her first class of the day? I’m gonna have a little chat with that girl…” Vivien started marching toward the school.
“MOM! STOP!”
Gavin grabbed her by the arm and held her back as if he were the parent in this scenario.
Vivien got down on her knees and held her son close to her. “Forget about her, sweetie,” she said. “You can do so much better. So much better it’s ridiculous.”
“Thanks. Have a good day, Mom.”
“You too, sweetheart.”
Vivien watched her son walk inside the school doors, and she wondered if she had ever felt more love for another person than she did in this moment.
She got back in the car to find Lila applying more eye make-up.
“That was cute,” Lila said. “So how old are you today, again?”
“Don’t you fucking say a word.”
“It’s the sad truth of life, Viv. You get older. You get uglier. You die. And you’re forgotten. Unless you’re me, of course.”
Lila turned to Vivien and flashed an ingratiating smile. Vivien wanted to punch her teeth with her fist.
---
Per the usual, more than a dozen hunks were sitting in the waiting room. As the two women stepped inside, Vivien carrying three heavy bags and Lila carrying none, the young men all turned to Vivien and started clapping.
“What’s going on?” Vivien asked.
She turned around to see Brandon holding a birthday cake, complete with forty-five lit candles, with Alyson walking next to him clapping her heart out.
“Happy birthday to you,” they all started singing, and Vivien found herself trapped from every side, unable to run away.
She glared at Brandon as he and the others finished the annoying birthday song and placed the chocolate cake on the desk that held the day’s sign-in sheet.
“Thank you, everyone,” Vivien said, trying her best to smile. “I won’t dare tell any of you how old I turn today, but thank you so much for thinking of me.”
Brandon gave Vivien a long, wet kiss on the cheek. “No need to guess, V. It says so on the cake!”
She took a step forward and looked down. Above the candles was the number forty-five written in red frosting.
“You little shit,” she said, menacingly. “You fucking little piece of shit. I’m gonna kill you!”
“What’d I do?” Brandon asked, walking backward to avoid her wrath.
Vivien could hardly catch her breath, she was so furious. Lila tried to calm her down. “Who’s gonna help Vivien blow out the candles?” Nobody offered.
Vivien stopped herself from stabbing Brandon with the cutting knife by marching up to the cake, blowing out the candles, and storming over to her private office.
“Happy birthday to me,” she said and closed the door behind her.
Brandon motioned for everyone to clap, but he only got Lila and Alyson to make any noise.
He followed Vivien into her office. She already had her laptop open, checking e-mails, going about her daily routines.
“How many actors are confirmed today?” she asked.
“I didn’t confirm too many,” Brandon said, trying to be nice to her. “I mean, I don’t want you working too hard on your birthday.”
She turned around and crossed her legs, looking as if she were going to take one of them and strike Brandon across the forehead. “What the hell were you thinking putting my real age on the birthday cake? I mean, really, what the fuck, Brandon?”
“What?”
“The point of all this is to find a younger guy to like me, someone who finds me attractive. Nobody’s gonna want to have sex with me if they know I’m forty-five!”
“WILL YOU STOP YOUR WHINING!” Brandon took a step forward and towered over her. “So you just turned forty-five… big fucking deal! You’re stunning, V. Absolutely stunning. Any one of those guys out there would be lucky to have you. I know things didn’t go well with that Nathan kid the other night. I say, to hell with him. You have an opportunity today to meet the guy of your dreams. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and go make something happen!”
She didn’t take her eyes off him. She smiled. “You’ve been preparing that speech all morning, haven’t you?”
He grinned and shook his head. “Here.”
He handed her a birthday card, along with a plate of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.
“Aww, thank you, honey.” She didn’t call Brandon ‘honey’ often, but saccharine moments like these called for it. “Now I can be a middle-aged fat pig. These guys are gonna be clamoring over me now, especially when I’m a hundred pounds overweight, shoving all these cookies into my enormous mouth.”
Brandon ignored her comment and pulled from his side a framed poster. Vivien could only see it from the back.
“What’s this?”
“This is your last gift, I promise.”
“Brandon… my God, you didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted to,” he said. “You’ve been so good to me these last couple of years. I wanted to show you a little love today to say thanks… you know… for everything.”
She smiled at him. This time, it was genuine. “What is it? Turn it over.”
Brandon turned the poster around to reveal the image of Vivien’s favorite movie star, who also happened to be the only famous actress with her name, same spelling and all. The image was from the actress’s Academy-Award winning turn in A Streetcar Named Desire.
“It’s beautiful, Brandon. Just beautiful. I’ve never seen this picture of her before.”
Brandon got down on his knees. “I know last year I got you the poster with that famous image of her smiling in Gone With the Wind, so this year I wanted to get you an image of her from Streetcar. This is rare and hard to find. There were a lot of posters on the Internet of the movie itself, but very few with just her and her alone.”
The poster was luminous. Vivien Leigh was standing with her back against a wall, her left hand holding a cigarette, and her right hand pressed against her heart.
“Thank you, Brandon. It’s wonderful.” She stood up and gave Brandon a big hug. “You’re a good kid. I’ll be sad the day I see you go.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere for a while.”
---
Session number three was set to begin. Alyson was frantically printing out the last of the headshots, and Brandon was rewinding the mini DV tapes.
The time it took from setting up actors to having them arrive for a session had rarely been this quick. Vivien would typically have Brandon set up actors at least three days in advance, but yesterday, she had given Brandon just one whole day to set up actors and get confirmations. This crazy fast turnaround was similar in structure to television casting, which Vivien had never participated in, only having heard from casting friends that it was a job from Hell.
She looked at Brandon, who appeared to be in a tranquil state, despite the sweat dripping from his forehead and underarms. “Are we ready?”
“Yes,” he said. “Just two seconds.”
Vivien sat back in her chair and flipped through the session sheet to see that there were ninety actors confirmed to audition today, fewer than the last session. According to Brandon, it was her birthday, so therefore she shouldn’t have to work too hard. In reality Vivien wanted to do nothing but
work today to forget about the fact that she was one year closer to the inevitable end.
She turned to Lila, who was looking over the scene. “How are you doing over there?”
“What can I say,” Lila said. “I’m excited to read with all these little stud muffins. I’m particularly happy that I get to play a girl in her twenties today. I get to play how I feel.”
The scenes for the first two sessions had been monologues; therefore, a reader hadn’t been required. Today’s scene took place between the twenty-nine-year-old Phil and his fiancée Erin. Vivien had needed a reader, and she knew under the questionable circumstances surrounding the project that Lila was the perfect person to go to. She had tried to avoid the elephant in the room, but she did ultimately tell Lila the nature of the movie. Lila didn’t question her morals one bit. “I’m just mad I didn’t think of such a thing years ago,” was pretty much all she had to say about it.
“OK,” Brandon said. “We ready for the first one?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Lila said.
“I was actually taking to Vivien.”
Lila gave the kid a death glare. She turned to Vivien and put her arms out in the air. “Am I allowed to slap your assistants? Is that legal?”
“I’m her associate,” Brandon corrected her.
“More like ass-ociate,” Lila chuckled.
Nobody laughed.
The first few hours of the session went by smoothly. Lila had already managed to touch the ass of five of the young actors, including one who seemed to delight in her butt grabbing.
A few minutes after two o’clock, the man she had been waiting for finally arrived. He was running late, and he asked for a moment in the hallway to prepare. Normally Vivien didn’t allow these kinds of shenanigans, but today, she would’ve allowed him to run five laps around the building if it’d help him with his audition.
Plus his sweat stains would give me a better look at his chest, she thought.
Jonathan Korlajarean appeared wearing a tight, black collared shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. His hair was slicked back, and his face looked even more chiseled than before.
He nodded to Vivien. “Hello again.”
