by Morgan
“What happened, Kyle? Is it something specific?” Shaunna was trying hard to comprehend his announcement. She hadn’t noticed any signs of stress on Michelle’s part, even with Kyle’s ever-increasing ego. Despite Shaunna’s earlier suspicions and the gossip on-set, Michelle hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary or said anything to indicate that the marriage was officially on shaky ground.
“Did you know that she keeps a journal?” He didn’t wait for Shaunna to answer. “Stupid thing with buttons for flowers. And I check it every once in a while to see what she’s up to.”
Shaunna was immediately incensed at the invasion of Michelle’s privacy, but she held her emotions in check. She needed answers, and blowing up at Kyle would not deliver them to her.
“You don’t trust her?” Shaunna prodded gently.
“And with good reason!” he shouted. “She was thinking about leaving me!”
Shaunna couldn’t believe her ears. Was Kyle really throwing his marriage away over some thoughts jotted down in a diary? She shook her head with disbelief.
“I’m sure most marriages go through tests like this. But she loves you, Kyle. I know she does. She was probably just using the diary to vent her feelings. Have you talked to her about any of this?”
He stared back at Shaunna blankly, his eyes narrowing to slits.
She pressed on and decided to steer the conversation away from the personal and back to the business of serving her client. It was the tactic that usually persuaded Kyle to see reason.
“This isn’t great timing. You two have just started filming together, and the studio is banking on the fact you both will bring the movie positive press. You’ve committed to Michelle professionally for at least another year. The least you can do is give your marriage that much longer to work on your problems.”
Kyle crossed his arms and tilted his head marginally, smirking as he began to speak. “Yeah, you see, Shaunna, I’ve already considered all of this. But we can’t trust her. Not anymore. I need to control this. I need to leave her. If she leaves me first…she wins.”
“What are you talking about?”
“By filing first, I just told the press that she can’t even be lived with. They’re all going to feel bad for me. They may not know what she did, but they will assume she did something to deserve it.”
Shaunna shook her head emphatically. “You’re dumping her! She’ll get all the sympathy, Kyle.”
He slammed his hand down on the counter. “No, they won’t,” he insisted. “Not if you do your job!”
His mind was made up, and Shaunna saw there was little chance of convincing him otherwise. Still, there might be time to put the whole thing off. She wasn’t ready to accept what he was telling her.
“Well…let’s at least work on a strategy, then. We’ll map out the timing, and it will give you a while to think this over. Maybe you two can consider counseling, and if Michelle is all right with it, we can put the word out that you’re working on your marriage. This way, even if you do decide to go through with a divorce, you can both emerge from it relatively unscathed. It doesn’t have to be nasty, Kyle.”
Kyle laughed in frustration. “What are you doing, Shaunna? Why are you are trying to spin this in her favor? You don’t help her. You work for me. When I leave Michelle, you leave Michelle. Period.”
Shaunna was again stunned into silence. He leaned forward and dramatically pointed his index finger at her.
“You’re dropping her as a client. Today. She only—” Kyle began to elaborate, but Shaunna had found her voice and lost her temper.
“You ungrateful son of a bitch! She’s bent over backward for you!”
Kyle opened his mouth to silence her, but she stood up quickly and stuck her own finger in his face.
“She let amazing opportunities pass her by when she thought it might interfere with your rising star. She’s done nothing but think of your best interests!”
“You don’t know what she’s really like,” Kyle responded softly. He was going to milk the moment for all it was worth. “She’s so vicious to me when you aren’t around.” He took a shuddering breath. “I just can’t take it anymore.”
Shaunna turned her head away from Kyle and glared at the kitchen, her right leg beginning to bounce as anger flamed throughout her body. She was outraged, and not just because he was acting horribly. He was exhibiting a total lack of genuine concern for the end of his eight-year marriage, even though he had a wife who remained committed to him, despite her own misgivings. Shaunna knew their marriage wasn’t a fairytale, but she’d considered it solid and even envied the couple on occasion for possessing the one thing in life that eluded her.
Kyle went into the bathroom and started the shower, leaving the door open. He continued to undress and tested the water. “I’m having her served with papers as we speak, and obviously I can’t have you working for her anymore. I sent her out shopping so the bellman could move her to another hotel room before this evening, but I need you to prepare a statement.”
Shaunna snapped back into business mode, realizing she now had a real and immediate issue on her hands. “Wait. You’ve already filed for divorce? In court?”
“Yes. It’s being done in LA right now. That’s why I really needed you here.”
“Holy shit, Kyle! Why would you do that without talking to me? You know entertainment reporters are assigned to watch those filings as soon as they hit the public record. They’re liable to break the story before Michelle can be served or before I can issue a press release!”
“I don’t give a fuck when or how Michelle finds out. The sooner, the better. And she’s not your problem anymore. Stop thinking about her and start planning a strategy that works for me!”
Kyle stepped into the water’s flow and dropped back into the casual dismantling of his union with Michelle. “I’m just glad I got my favorite things out of the Malibu house in time. I’ve been sneaking my shit out piece by piece since August. In fact, you took two suitcases full of shoes through LAX for me. Thanks.” She could hear him chuckling at his little joke.
Shaunna sat on his suede trailer couch, bewildered. Out of every shock she was processing, the slap in the face was Kyle’s assumption that she would blindly tie her allegiance to him, despite the fact that he’d been using her as a shoe mule.
She knew the next few minutes would change her life. To her credit, she only hesitated for a few seconds.
Kyle kept talking, completely unaware that she’d exited the trailer with his Commander uniform and returned again. He was in the middle of explaining how he wanted to feign a mourning period before jumping back into the dating scene. He also made it clear that if Shaunna had any hot friends who were looking for a good time to be sure and send them his way.
For the first time since they’d met, Shaunna tuned Kyle out as she plucked his clothes off the floor, taking care to remove his wallet and cell phone. She was furious, but not stupid. The phone especially had sensitive material stored within it that could inconvenience many other people in the Hollywood industry, including her most important client: Michelle Cooper.
Everything else, she took, including his scuffed shoes and his prissy watch.
Kyle had already written down his plan of attack, an outline of all the ways he wanted to take Michelle down. He planned to give it to Shaunna soon, but he liked carrying on a conversation with the little prude while he was naked in the shower. He’d never been stupid enough to make a move on her in the past, but he’d always wanted to. He settled for undressing in front of her and having conversations with steam in the room. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked her to meet him in his trailer after a shoot, and there was always the hope that one day, Shaunna would come to her senses and begin the affair he knew she really wanted.
Maybe telling her that he was leaving Michelle was all the motivation she would need. Kyle half expected to turn and see her stepping naked into the shower to take advantage of his newly liberated state.
(Shaunna had come in, but just long enough to remove his only towel from the bathroom and toss his cell phone into the toilet. On a whim, she knocked his toothbrush in as well.)
Kyle sensed her presence in the small space and remained silent. He wanted her to make the first move. Even after she left, he waited and took a moment to imagine a wet and slippery Shaunna pressed up against him. He stopped short of satisfying himself because he needed to get back to work and her skills were the key to staying ahead of the press.
Kyle needed to ensure that the media would sympathize with him, at all costs.
He washed his hair, and when he got soap in his eyes, he reached for his towel. His fingers found only the empty rack.
“Shaunna? Is my towel out there? Shaunna! Ow. Shit!”
Kyle turned off the water and listened. The only noise in the trailer seemed to be coming from the dripping shower head.
“Shaunna!”
He stumbled out of the bathroom blindly and, as he passed the open trailer door, heard the cameras and commotion. He’d completely forgotten about the media day.
Kyle opened his eyes wide, and the soap instantly stung with ferocity. His eyes quickly shut, but not before he saw flashes going off from far enough away to guarantee that every picture taken of him would look extremely unflattering.
He saw something else before he slammed the door and screamed in rage. He saw several fans wrestling madly over the remnants of his clothes.
This meant war. He was already prepared to screw Michelle royally, but now he was determined to fuck Shaunna over as well.
Chapter Six
SHAUNNA CALLED MICHELLE from her car. She answered the phone crying.
“Where are you?” Shaunna asked.
“I’m at the Four Seasons…room two oh two.” Michelle’s voice was flat, but still awash in settling grief.
“I just left the set. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“He’s leaving me, Shaunna…” Michelle uttered the words mostly to see if she could admit it out loud. But saying them was not as difficult as hearing them, and as soon as the words came back to her, complete with phone compression, her world became blurry with fresh tears.
“I know. He just told me and I quit.”
“You…You’re leaving him?”
“Left him,” Shaunna corrected. “In grand style, too. But he deserved to be left by somebody today.”
Michelle was silent for a while. “I’ll make it up to you.”
Shaunna spent her last minute on the phone telling Michelle she would do no such thing and that the two of them would be more than fine without a slimy peckerwood like Kyle Petersen.
Michelle’s cheeks were dry but red when she opened the door to her new, much smaller room. She had a large envelope in her hands with the name of an LA divorce attorney stamped on the return address.
“Was it someone else?” Michelle asked. “Please tell me if you know, Shaunna. I just need to understand why.”
Shaunna walked in and embraced her friend. “I was completely surprised too. He wanted it that way. He told me so.”
Michelle sat down on the bed. It was still a very nice room and more her style. “What did he say?”
Shaunna sat next to her. “He read your diary.”
Michelle pursed her lips and nodded. “So, he’s hitting first.”
“It’s true, then?” Shaunna was surprised, but proud of her. “You were going to go through with it?”
Michelle nodded her head slowly. “I suppose it was inevitable. Yes, I was headed there.”
“Good.” Shaunna folded her arms, the one-word response hanging in the air for a moment.
“I’m sorry for how he treated you, Shaunna.”
“Please. I don’t want to hear you apologize for him ever again.”
Michelle swallowed and rubbed her temple.
Shaunna did what she did best. “I’m going to use your Wi-Fi to put out your statement right now. Even if someone spotted the court filing, you’re going to have the first word.”
The women crafted a simple but sincere press release acknowledging Michelle’s sadness that this chapter in her life was closing, but confirming her belief that it was the best course of action. The implied “good riddance” was about as subtle as train graffiti, and Shaunna made sure every celebrity blogger got it via a mass e-mail that would make a presidential campaign manager jealous.
The rags would have Michelle’s announcement that same day, and the respectable entertainment magazines would work it into their earliest weekly runs.
Michelle’s phone began vibrating every few seconds, and she told Shaunna to go back to her hotel to get some rest.
“I will never forget what you’ve done for me.”
“Yeah.” Shaunna laughed. “Neither will he.”
“Did you leave him anything at all?” Michelle giggled. Shaunna had shared the whole story with her, and they’d even found an online video of the publicist flinging designer garments toward the camera. She knew her actions might be difficult to explain to her other clients, but she decided to remain focused on putting out one fire at a time.
“Actually, he could’ve used any number of things in the trailer, like the bed sheets, or the shower curtain, but I doubt he’s intelligent enough to consider anything that isn’t already shaped like pants.”
“He is a dimwit!” Michelle exclaimed as if she’d just struck gold. “He’s so dense that light bends around him!”
Shaunna appreciated the joke on multiple levels.
She went back to her hotel, but not before she asked Michelle one last time to stay with the rest of the crew at the Radisson. Michelle shook her head vigorously and told her friend that she wasn’t going to give Kyle the satisfaction of chasing her out of the building. She knew it was what he wanted. He would wish to avoid confrontation from here on out if his pattern of cowardice was any indication.
“God help that pickled wiener if I get him alone in the elevator!” Michelle declared. “And I’ll only need enough time to get to my new room on the second floor!”
Shaunna was proud of Michelle, but still felt the need to insist that calm heads prevail for the sake of the success of the blockbuster summer film. Michelle didn’t make any promises, but told Shaunna that she would call Nathan herself and give him the respect of being in the loop. Both women knew where the power was on-set, and it was about four inches taller and ten years younger than Kyle.
Shaunna sat in her room for all of six minutes before deciding to take a swim. After the day she’d had, it seemed like the perfect way to unwind.
Many hotel pools had too much lighting, creating a harsh and unwelcoming environment. Therefore, Shaunna was delighted to find a Tiki Room feel to the area. She even felt a little homesick for Disneyland.
The pool was lit from beneath, but the area was otherwise dark except for the faux ground torches. She was little more than a smooth silhouette as she sailed through the warm water.
Shaunna wore a bikini because to do otherwise would only make her appear outdated and old-fashioned, thereby attracting even more attention. She had the body for the delicate white material, even if she didn’t think so.
The water felt wonderful, especially on her scalp. She let it sift through her hair as her ears dipped below the surface and the world became muffled and forgotten. She wasn’t buoyant enough to stay afloat on her back without swimming, so she got a nice workout as she alternated from her back to her stomach.
She swam like a frog for a while too, with her bottom up in the air and her legs spreading and closing. That was when she heard soft footsteps.
“Oh, hello, Shaunna. Nice night for a swim?”
David was standing at the deep end of the pool and smiling down at her. His tousled boyish hair was already wet, as he’d obediently taken the suggested pre-swim shower.
She immediately noticed that he was wearing different shorts. Tighter shorts. Wetter shorts. And she noticed with a tinge of envy that there was a to
wel wrapped around his shoulders.
He was going to get in with her.
“Actually,” she said with someone else’s voice and, very likely someone else’s brain, “it’s one of the nicest swims I’ve ever had.”
David strolled to one of many empty lounge chairs and set his towel down. In doing so, he revealed the previously covered portions of his torso, and Shaunna watched his tight back muscles stretch harmoniously. When he turned around, she made certain she wasn’t obviously staring at him, but she also wasn’t about to miss the big reveal.
She wasn’t disappointed.
David was toned, but not muscle-bound. He possessed a California tan which the Texas sun had only encouraged, and his tiny belly button was situated between the bottom two bulges that made up the six-pack of his abdomen.
He didn’t strut around like other guys who had bodies like his, and she didn’t think she would catch him looking down at his own biceps. He just looked healthy and happy. She liked happy.
A sign warned swimmers against diving, so David gracefully jumped in, being careful not to splash his pool mate in the process. When he came back up and broke the water’s surface, his wet bangs ended below his eyes. He was forced to spread them apart with his hands like the sheep dog in the Looney Tunes cartoons.
David swam closer and stood with her in the five-foot section. They both wished the water was a little lower.
“I’m glad we got a chance to meet like this,” David admitted. He was making a very concerted effort not to stare at her perky and barely covered breasts.
Shaunna wanted to tell him that she’d been hoping for exactly the same thing, but instead, she laughed nervously. To find herself alone with him in low-lit water, standing so closely so quickly, was enough to make her quiver, despite the warm temperature.
“As opposed to how we met earlier today?” she finally said, adjusting a bikini strap that didn’t need adjusting.
